Gold dragon

Legacy canon content This article contains information of uncertain canon status due to changes made in Monster Core. Metallic dragons will not appear in Remastered canon works. Additional context might be available at Meta:Gold dragon.

Gold dragon

(Creature)

2E1E

Common

LG

Dragon

Fire

Level

Varies by age

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of gold dragons

Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 123–125

Type

Dragon
(fire)

CR

7–23 (by age category)

Environment

Warm plains

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of gold dragons

Source: Dragons Revisited, pg(s). 34–39

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

The gold dragon Parnoneryx fights alongside Iomedae.

Gold dragons are the pinnacle of metallic dragonkind and are almost worshiped by other good-aligned dragons. Other dragons, including even chromatic dragons often seek out a gold dragon for advice or aid.

Ecology

Gold dragons are often active in open surface lands such as grasslands and savannas, and lair either in the open in a barren, remote location or in secret or defensible caves or structures. There are few creatures who can challenge them in battle, and their good nature and considerate actions give others few reasons to fight them; gold and red dragons are nearly equal in power and are often bitter rivals, although remaining wise enough to temporarily ally with chromatic dragons against apocalyptic threats.

However, even gold dragons who lair in the open also prefer to keep hidden caverns close to their sleeping areas where they can establish sanctums and store their hoards, and will not settle in regions where suitable caves cannot be found. Gold dragons can generally detect the potential presence of useful caves and fissures even when these do not open onto the surface, and in such cases will expose them by digging until they reach them. If a gold dragon does not come across such a cavern after a few hundred feet, it gives up on that spot and tries somewhere else. As a result, some plains are pockmarked with numerous exploratory pits excavated by questing gold dragons, which afterward become homes for other creatures.

Gold dragons carefully and sustainably hunt roaming herd animals by thinning their herds of their weakest members. They also graze on grass and leaves, and enjoy well-seasoned foods—some going so far as to sponsor or purchase establishments that prepare food how they like it.

Although they often lairs in the open, they still prefer to sleep on beds of coins.

Society

As ready and capable advisers, many creatures seek the aid of gold dragons, including angels, good-aligned divine beings, and other good-aligned dragons. Gold dragons often seek the aid of other creatures, such as allied humanoids or blink dogs, to guard their lairs, as such beings are capable of exercising judgement and restraint that traps cannot. However, a minority of gold dragons committed to solitude do resort to using nonlethal traps and wards to protect their home.

In a less formal sense, gold dragons enjoy the company of all metallic dragons, though none more than their own kind. Gold dragons living within a few days of one another meet frequently to discuss philosophy, socialize, and drink wine. More rarely, typically once or twice a year, a gold dragon might host a gathering of other metallic dragons—chiefly silver and bronze dragons, but occasionally brass and copper dragons as well—to discuss the state of the world and what can be done to improve it.

Gold dragons sometimes mentor silver dragons to patiently keep them on the path of goodness, but never take more than one silver pupil at a time, as taking on too many charges simultaneously has typically proven to be trouble for all involved. A particularly prominent gold dragon might be responsible for calling a Convocation of Dragons once or twice a century.

Notably, gold dragons will also hear out and discuss matters with any creature who seeks their advice, including evil chromatic dragons. A gold dragon is more likely to hear out rulers and beings of high station and have successfully intermediated conflicts with sufficient success that even their late intervention has prevented wars.

Outside of the relationships with other dragons, gold dragons often form partnerships with hesperid queens, with whom they have a close affinity, and sometimes cooperate to guard important artifacts. Hesperides typically consider such items to be part of their ward while the dragons see them as part of their hoards, but these opposing viewpoints never present an issue to the involved parties, and these alliances can last for millennia.

Gold dragons have the closest connection to Apsu of all metallic dragons and are the most likely to directly communicate with their creator. This often leads young gold dragons to adopt superior and condescending attitudes towards other metallic dragons, a habit discouraged by their elders as Apsu does not appreciate such arrogance among his children.

Gold dragons who take on human form tend to blend into humanoid societies, with some even portraying several generations of a single "family". However, their neighbors often come to suspect that the undercover gold dragon is more than they seem when otherwise single people continue to suddenly produce adult children. While most such gold dragons live in cities where order and goodness are dominant, they are also rumored to live undercover in cities where there is greater need of powerful entities working to promote good.

A gold dragon's hoard typically consists of coins and precious metals, generally including large numbers of objects of limited artistic worth, such as gold or silver bars and rods, and broken statuary. They also collect large quantities of books, scrolls, tablets, and other written materials. Golds also collect artwork and magical items, but assign less value to these objects than to precious metals and their libraries. While gold dragons do not universally favor any single type of art or crafted objects, most individuals prefer specific types of works.

Abilities

Mengkare, gold dragon and ruler of Hermea.

Gold dragons are renowned for their intelligence, wisdom, advice, and considerate decision-making. Some spend days in isolation to deliberate on decisions.

Gold dragons can breathe fire or a physically debilitating gas, and can sense the presence of gemstones and evil. They also possess a supernatural degree of luck that can produce success from what should be a failed effort.

On Golarion

Gold dragons are rumored to live undercover in cities throughout Avistan and Garund, including Ardis, Egorian, Korvosa, Pangolais, and Sothis.

Notable gold dragons

See also: Category:Gold dragon/Inhabitants

The most famous gold dragon in Golarion is Mengkare, the founder and ruler of the island-nation of Hermea.

Peace through Vigilance is a young gold dragon who zealously worships the goddess Iomedae. The gold dragon Parnoneryx fought alongside a mortal Iomedae and briefly joined the Glorious Reclamation against Cheliax.

The gold dragon Kwislingyr is one of the few who have fully fallen into evil and corruption. He terrorized Taldor and its colonies for 150 years, defying the efforts of other golds to redeem him and of dragonslayers to hunt him down, before his months-dead body was accidentally discovered by a group of dwarves. By that point Kwislingyr's scales had tarnished and faded to such a degree that his discoverers thought that they had come across a hitherto-unknown "yellow dragon".

The mutated three-eyed gold dragon Trilochan was corrupted and tarnished by the venom of Kothogaz and is considered to now serve Rovagug.

References

Paizo ceased the use of metallic dragons with the publication of Monster Core, as part of the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project. When mentioned in Monster Core and subsequent publications, existing metallic dragons might be retroactively changed to new or equivalent types of non-metallic dragons.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.