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Not done yet.

Here is some Fluff I worked on though. What do you think ??

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DRAGON RIDER OCC aka The Riders of Wright

The Dragon Riders of date back to before the Elven - Dwarven War. Few records exist of their origins. To a few well read scholars the truth is known. The Dragon Riders were created by the ancient and some say original version of the Cult of Dragonwright. Not by the Cult itself, but by the Gods of the Dragonwright. Even today, while a Dragon Rider is extremely rare, it requires the Gods of the Dragonwright to give permission, which results in a special Tattoo of a Dragon on their backs.
Today there are two types of Dragon Riders. The First are just Humans, Dwaven, and Elven who train to rider a Dragon in combat like learning to ride a horse. Then there is the original Dragon Riders, who through the training, draw the attention of the Gods of Dragonwright themselves. The Rider does not have to be a member of their Cult. The Dragon Gods gift the individual with the abilities of the Dragon Riders. All Dragons after that point instinctively know they are a True Dragon Rider blessed by the Dragon Gods. The Dragon Riders enjoy access to abilities of their chosen dragon and magic. A Dragon Rider can form a Permanent Link to a single dragon gaining greater abilities (as does the dragon), but at a price. The Two are always in Telepathic communication, they feel each other emotions, and pain without a range limit. The Rider gains the Lifespan of the dragon also. But when One dies so to do the Other. Only the Gods of Dragonwright can sever the link to save the other, but even when they have, the survivor of the link feels alone and misses their “loved one”. Why the Dragon Gods do this only sometimes is unknown. It seems more like a punishment to the survivor . Even though years later in the few recorded cases, the the Ex-Rider performed a great deed of some kind. Only Half of the Dragon Riders ever wished to establish the Permanent Link to just a single Dragon. Those who did did great things for good or bad, but great things.
Only One Dragon Rider is know to exist within the Cult of Dragonwright today. She is said to have Zandragal’s ear in matters related to the Cult. If this is true, none can say for sure.
Oddly, most Dragons consider the act of allowing someone to ride them as an insult. They also feel forming the Dragon Rider bond as a foolish act. The few who seem to be looking for Dragon Rider however act like they are looking for something “more”, a missing piece of themselves. A Dragon seem to just know if someone is meant to become their personal Dragon Rider (Permanent Link). Dragons have even gone out of their way to teach someone how to be a Dragon Rider just for this reason. This may be the only reason the Dragon Rider still exist anywhere.

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Sounds awesome. It's good how you mentioned their rarity as a Dragon bonding itself to a mortal and allowing him to ride it does sound like it would be a pretty rare occurance.

Eh.
This isn't Pern.
Or Eregon.
Or any of the other settings where dragonriders have already been done to death.

Now that I think about it a little more, your idea is starting to sound horridly munchkin.
You are pretty much suggesting a class that gets a Dragon as a familiar which seems to be a huge step up from the garden variety animals we are used to.

No. The Dragon should be its own Character run by another Player or NPC run by the GM.

Also the Dragon used should be Hatchlings only.
So for RIFTS this is far from muchkin. In Palladium Fantasy, I can see this being a very powerful OCC.

I was going to add, over Half of the Dragon Riders ride the Thunder Lizard Dragons. So over half of the Dragon-Riders never "Fly". They Ride...

It is not anymore muchkin as a Robot Vehicle / Power Armor Pilot to be honest.
Without the Dragon, the Dragon Rider himself as I have in my head so far as a very weak Mystic like occ. His/her main strength comes from being teamed up with a Dragon.

Giant2005 wrote:Now that I think about it a little more, your idea is starting to sound horridly munchkin.
You are pretty much suggesting a class that gets a Dragon as a familiar which seems to be a huge step up from the garden variety animals we are used to.

I think if done right it could be far from munchkin, though still powerful. Of course done wrong it could be scary munchkin.

I think a good power level to shoot for by the writer is the Cosmo Knight, Kreggor (sp?) Imperial Guardsmen, and Godling area.

I've played in a campaign where another player had something similar to this, but the PC was the dragon hatchling. Not the rider. There wasn't anything super-special about the link, since the G.M. used a slight variation on 'Familiar Link'.

Killer Cyborg wrote:Eh.
This isn't Pern.
Or Eregon.
Or any of the other settings where dragonriders have already been done to death.

AMEN TO THAT What the smart guy said!

Eh.

The dragons don't listen to the Dragon-gods anyway. They they are worshiped by mortals, not other dragons. They would just ignore them if they asked them to let a mortal ride on their backs.

Not to mention the other ones who train to?

Palladium dragons arn't nice and friendly. They're mean, arrogant predators. No number of dragons would agree to let mortals ride them in significant enough numbers.


But, sinse you'll undoubtably counter with a "each GM does things different" or "hey, it's possible a few will", I'll bite.


WHAT on earth did anyone ever do to deserve such an honor.

WHY did the dragons agree to let humans ride them in return instead of some other reward.

and SINSE WHEN did the dragons listen to the Dragon-gods? they're not called so because they rule over dragons, they're called so because they are dragons who are gods and who are worshiped by mortals. You'll have to do some hefty retconning of the entire dragon race to get that to fly.



EDIT: Not trying to be mean or inherently slam the concept. I'm challanging you to flesh this out within the context of palladium dragons as written.

A good idea, but tread carefully, KC right. It's been reeally done in. Perhaps some sort Dragon like creature. like a Griffin type dragon or something should work well.

This would be my take on the idea, considering that Dragons are vastly superior to the riders that would bond with them.

Looking at Dragon Riders as a concept from a Palladium Dragon's point of view, human or mortal riders would not be able to stroll up to a dragon and say 'I pick you'. The Dragon as the superior life form would be the deciding or controlling factor in any such relationship. Using the Familiar Bond as an analogy, where a mortal wizard selects a lesser creature or animal as a familiar, so too would the Dragon select a lesser creature, in this case a human, elf, atlantean or whatever to bond with, in the same way a wizard bonds with a cat, or a raven. The raven certainly doesn't select the wizard.

In that regard, Dragons may see their riders as pets or extensions of themselves in the same way a wizard sees his familiar as a pet or extension. Just as the wizard allows the raven to perch on his shoulder, so too does the Dragon allow his 'pet' to ride along wherever the dragon goes.

If a wizard's familiar dies, the wizard doesn't die with it. The wizard may weakened, and find it difficult to bond a new familiar for a length of time. Similarly, the death of a rider may be unpleasant for the dragon, but certainly not fatal.

On the topic of Dragon Riders being derivative of Eragon or Pern, the concept is not unique to those settings either. When I first saw Eragon, I thought the movie was a serviceable fantasy tale about coming of age, but at the same time it seemed derivative of another source - specifically an old PC game: Drakan: Order of the Flame.

Another possibility, if the Dragon chooses to bond with an elf or atlantean or other long-lived or powerful race, the dragon and the rider might see the relationship more as a partnership, similar to the Blood Riders & Blood Lizards of South America.

I was going to have the Human does not pick the dragon, the dragon does not pick the human. They both just know...they feel something.

I never was into Pern or Earagon. Never read either.

Myself, I got the idea from AD&D's Council of Wyrms and alittle bit of Dragonlance. I like the idea of mortals given the honor to ride a mighty dragon.

I actually like the concept better than Flying Power Armor, etc...

Besides, not all dragons are 100% Selfish or evil...

If a good number was raised from time of Hatching to believe this they just might...They may even see the slight benefit of a rider. Someone to watch your back...

its a good concept, just needs to have some of the quirks ironed out.

try not to let the nay sayers squash the nugget you got started here.

best of luck with the full write out then.

Well i got my orginal Idea for this from SPLICERS...

Outrider OCC using a Dracos War Mount.

I thought about it and thought it would be cool to take that concept and spin it to a more RIFTS/Fantasy style.

As to the Dragon itself, I was never going to detail it, because any Dragon could be used (Players/GM choice). As I said before most of the Riders I was going to use Thunder Dragons (can not fly).
They are a true Team however. One does not give "orders" to the other.

If someone fears having a Dragon Hatchling (In RIFTS) as being too Powerful well that is the GM's limited vision problem, not mine.

As for the "This is not Pern/Eragon" or "Its been done to death" comments...Well who the hell cares if someone else did it in their setting already. We have Mecha in other settings, We have magic, knights, rangers, magic swords, etc..in other settings...Guess what...Who gives a rats ass, not me. To me, it shows a narrow mind to just reject a cool concept like a Dragon Rider, just because another setting already has something kinda-like it.
If RIFTS (the setting) cared about that, then there would be no RIFTS setting at all.

Personally i think it would be cool to see in RIFTS...
It is not more powerful than many other OCCs/RCCs already in the books.

Stats and Bonuses I'm thinking of using the Outrider OCC from Splicers for when the Rider and Dragon work as a Team.

TechnoGothic wrote:Well i got my orginal Idea for this from SPLICERS...

Outrider OCC using a Dracos War Mount.

I thought about it and thought it would be cool to take that concept and spin it to a more RIFTS/Fantasy style.

As to the Dragon itself, I was never going to detail it, because any Dragon could be used (Players/GM choice). As I said before most of the Riders I was going to use Thunder Dragons (can not fly).
They are a true Team however. One does not give "orders" to the other.

If someone fears having a Dragon Hatchling (In RIFTS) as being too Powerful well that is the GM's limited vision problem, not mine.

As for the "This is not Pern/Eragon" or "Its been done to death" comments...Well who the hell cares if someone else did it in their setting already. We have Mecha in other settings, We have magic, knights, rangers, magic swords, etc..in other settings...Guess what...Who gives a rats ass, not me. To me, it shows a narrow mind to just reject a cool concept like a Dragon Rider, just because another setting already has something kinda-like it.
If RIFTS (the setting) cared about that, then there would be no RIFTS setting at all.

Personally i think it would be cool to see in RIFTS...
It is not more powerful than many other OCCs/RCCs already in the books.

Stats and Bonuses I'm thinking of using the Outrider OCC from Splicers for when the Rider and Dragon work as a Team.

All of which is Fine. But I would still like answers to the questions I posed. They were not facitious, I really am curious how you intend to flesh this out.

why do need a OCC for this?
just have a charater who is a dragon that lets people
ride him

Prince Cherico wrote:why do need a OCC for this?
just have a charater who is a dragon that lets people
ride him

An excellent point.

It just rubs me the wrong way for somebody to come up with a character class that specializes in riding another character class.

Zerebus wrote:

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Prince Cherico wrote:why do need a OCC for this?
just have a charater who is a dragon that lets people
ride him

An excellent point.

It just rubs me the wrong way for somebody to come up with a character class that specializes in riding another character class.

Wasn't that what the Blood Lizard Riders were in Rifts South America (1 or 2, don't remember)?

IIRC, the Blood Lizards weren't a character class.

(And, either way, I never really liked the Blood Lizard Riders)