Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

You probably should take "Mitigator, Alternate Form, -80%" on Appearance (Monstrous) or Social Stigma (Monstrous). Or at least that's what some Inhuman templates for MH does.

Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

Only if you're not using shapeshifting. Shapeshift just gives you a new template. If you're using powers that switch on and off, I think it's more correct to use Nuisance Effect (Reaction Penalty).

Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

And a dragon template could be easily designed without NFM, but that one has it, and without it the template suddenly balloons in cost by 82 points.

Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

If I were doing this with a more modest budget I'd use the dragon offspring from the IRONWOOD comic book. They had the surname Dragavon when they weren't hiding.

The dragons in that universe were all male and all shapeshifters and liked to transform into other species (including human ones) to mate. Their offspring looked like ordinary members of the mother's kind except that they were invulnerable to normal harm and couldn't be killed except by something as dangerous as a dragon's flame.

The adult dragons had an interest in killing them off before they matured and could take dragon form.

The issue that contained them was called: "The Sex Life of Dragons or Why Our Cities Are Burning."

So a carefree, randy chancer who looks like a mature human male but claims he won't be capable of siring offspring for decades yet. One day he will start to develop draconic traits. Perhaps he'll be grateful to his old comrades when he becomes the Real Thing.

Or possibly not. For now he can be sent ahead of the party into deadly danger if you can convince him it's in his interest to do so.

Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

I'm having a little trouble reconciling the two bits I bolded...

Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

Invulnerable to normal harm would be Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction /10; Cosmic, Round damage down, +50%) [225].

Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

I believe you're right, the Morphology Inducer is AF (Cosmetic) so even while using it the character would keep all its traits, except appearance, so it explains why it should take a mitigator.

OP categorizes the dragon from the template as "very young" based on its SM and Forgotten Realms lore but if we look instead at the dragon templates from Banestorm, the template is very close to that of an adolescent dragon, around a century old and likely with an established lair, and I believe that's the template they used as a base to build the one on Pyramid.
A younger dragon is said to be "around 20 years old", "survived the hatchling phase" and "probably establishing a lair", which seems perfect for a DF character. The template is cheaper as well so you could remove the NFM and still be within the point budget (181 points without any other change).
Alternatively, if all you're looking for is the ability to open doors and similar trivial daily task, the GM might allow taking a perk similar to Akimbo. As far as I'm aware the main reason for the attribute discount of NFM is the inability to use tools, especially muscle-powered weapons. With not!Akimbo the character would be able to open doors, hold cups and give dogs ear scritches but not wield a sword or write down a poem.

I was also going to suggest magical telekinesis but now I'm not sure if that would be legal. On one hand it takes constant concentration to use, so it's much more inconvenient than real hands and fighting with it is no trivial (not to say raising it to levels high enough to deal nice damage would be quite expensive), on the other hand it would allow the character to do most tasks requiring fine manipulators outside of combat. If it ever came up in my table I'd allow it, but I could see why another GM would not.


DR 7 (Can't Wear Armor) [21] would make the dragon essentially immune to spear thrusts from ordinary soldiers (ST10-12, max damage 8)... Unfortunately a dragon in DF campaign should expect enemies to hit way harder!

Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

A DF character is capable of dealing something on the order 3d+10 cutting damage with halberd. For example, a character with ST 17 [70], Mr. Smash 4 [20], Weapon Master (Halberd) [20], and Polearm (A) DX+6 [8] would only cost 118 CP and would pretty much end a character with only DR 7 with one hit (a torso hit would deal an average of 20 points of damage after the multiplier, which is a major wound for almost anyone).

Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

I'm perfectly aware. It was a tongue in cheek comment, I even wrote by the end that DR7 is nothing in the context.

Re: [DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer
 

If I was going to pay a dragon, I would have it be a disadvantageous form of Alternative Form (Horror, p. 18). For example, if your Dragon Form was triggered by the character being targeted by hostile magic, it would be worth -20 CP, as that would be a common occurrence. If your friends are smart, they run away when you start transforming.