The Complete Guide to Greatwyrm Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons, they are in the title of the game, so it makes sense Dragons evolved as the game has, the latest addition is no exception. So, let's talk about Great Wyrms and how you can include the most mighty members of Dragonkind in your campaign setting, through the lens of the Forgotten Realms, as a great example of them in action. D&D is set in a world where magic is real, it's part of the ecosystem and dragons are creatures of magic, that is, biology and physics can only get you so far in describing their ecology before things just get weird and mystical, because they are supernatural, they exist within and are an integral part of a super version of nature. If you remove all the dragons, the world becomes less magical and more mundane and all the creatures of magic, magic itself, suffer from that catastrophic loss and disruption, like cutting down all the rainforests or bleaching all the coral reefs, there's long term and serious consequences. Dragons are different from other biological life in that age doesn't diminish them, they only grow stronger and up to a certain age category, it's less clear why that is, but there are signs, their elemental breath weapon being a big, bold clue. They are creatures of magic, they grow stronger because magic becomes more and more the sustaining factor in their biology. While they are infamous for sleeping for long periods of time, those long stretches of inactivity are not only resting and conserving physical energy, they are a long, slow transformation into beings who sustain themselves through a vast reservoir of magical energy. In the Forgotten Realms, this energy is represented by the weave. It includes all sorts of natural and supernatural forces and requires a lifetime of study to ever truly comprehend, covering geological, climactic, biological, divine and conceptual forces and flows in a delicately balanced, incredibly vital and intricate system that mystics and observant geniuses have codified into the art of magical arcana, the various schools of magic and of course, the many faiths and deities present and active in the world setting. In a nutshell, greatworms are what happens when dragons reach the stage after many centuries, when they finally transform into living conduits and anchors for the weave itself, they become incredibly powerful creatures akin to demigods. Their influence shapes the weave around them, like mountains shape the weather, like moons shape the tide. Settle back, grab yourself a tasty beverage, its time to get deeply nerdy. With the latest addition of the game, the greatworms are now split into three types, which are found in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. I think they are worthy of at least a sidebar in a core monster manual, so let's get into it. Central to the transformation from ancient dragons into greatworms is the existence of many worlds and alternate and conceptual planes of existence. This is tied into magic much deeper than just jumping through magic planet portals and summoning otherworldly creatures in magical ritual circles. When a mage casts a spell, they commonly require a physical component, specific words and gestures or movements are also part of it. In early D&D, even creating a magic item likely required materials from other planes of existence, other worlds and realms with different variations on laws of physics. Magic items needed to be weird, they needed to bypass the limitations of the world they were on, and that is how they did it. Components may seem a bit humorous, but the theory underlying them is called sympathetic magic, something equivalent, in a similar form or vibration to what is being invoked, like a voodoo doll, or tuning a guitar exactly the same as another, you push a pin in one, the other feels it, you strum the strings on one, the other vibrates and makes a sound as well. It is essentially how radios work, the antenna is tuned to the right length to catch the vibration of the radio wave, its frequency. For dragons, other planes have other dragons who are so similar to themselves, due to their innate attunement to magic, that they can form these connections. But the three different types of greatworms not only represent the three main types of true dragons found on the continent of Faerun, the gem, metallic and chromatic dragons, they also represent three different methods of exploiting these attunements across many worlds, to become beings of incredible magical power. There are many types of true dragons found on the world of Toril, though, and I will be talking about them later on in the video, so stick around if you want some ideas for fairy dragon greatworms, greatworm dragon turtles, lung dragons, linorms, to name a few. Oh yeah, we're going there man, you know me, I don't mess around, I know what you're here for. This video was sponsored by a supporter on 4thwall and I aim to exceed all their expectations because I seriously appreciate them. Starting with the oldest true dragons represented in Fizban's, the chromatics, the best way to look at their attitude towards this metamorphosis by way of a metaphor is Jet Li starring in the movie called The One. The film, which deals with the concept of multiverse and interdimensional travel, follows a rogue agent who travels to parallel realities in order to kill other versions of himself to become a mythical super-being known as The One, essentially taking their power until it is all concentrated within himself. That's exactly what chromatic ancient dragons will be occupying themselves with, they don't have a choice in the matter, because across all the different realms and planes in the multiverse, other versions of themselves will be trying to do it and they have to defend themselves at least, if not actively try to do it to them as well. It is, as you would expect, with dragons of chaos and evil, a brutal, messy and disorderly process of violent elimination until only one remains, the greatworm. Chromatic greatworms should always be quite different from each other in the details and method they achieve this by, and that is reflected in the few examples we have with known chromatic greatworms in the lore, however, Fizban's identifies a number of the dragon gods as being greatworms, so, for the true dragons, this is their path to immortality and godhood. Chromatic dragons focus on the primordial power of the elements and raw arcane destructive energy. They are churning with the energy of their breath weapon and can release a 60 foot flare of elemental energy if pushed to their physical limits and forced to seemingly regenerate themselves instantly, channeling a huge amount of elemental power to restore their body. This awesome power is called a chromatic awakening, in effect, even if you do get them down to zero hit points, they just pop a senzu bean and instantly restore themselves to full hit points, recharge their breath weapon and reset all of the uses of their legendary resistance, oh, and unlock their special mythic actions for the next hour. Its Gygaxian levels of brutal unfairness and will absolutely murder any unprepared and unaware would-be dragon slayers. As the massive monster they are about to celebrate murdering suddenly springs back up and blasts them with a 300 foot cone of destructive breath energy that does between 12 and 144 points of damage with a dexterity save difficulty of 26. That was the warm-up and now the fight gets serious. Best of luck. Chromatic greatworms have spent centuries hunting rivals through the realms, they are highly perceptive, very stealthy and extremely intimidating, oh, they can also create four spears of magical force, much like magic missiles that strike multiple targets or all four can be concentrated on one spot, automatically striking and damaging their target. With a 120 foot true sight and, coincidentally, a 120 foot range on their arcane spears, good luck running for cover or relying on magic to keep you hidden. Although the stat block says they can make one bite and two claw attacks, their claw attacks automatically grapple the target of less than huge size and restrain it, so of course they are going to pin victims like a gargantuan cat pins its prey before they casually chomp them in half. The extra force damage is just that, brutally crushing jaw power. Talking of concentration on one spot, Fizban's Treasure of Dragons says this about the chromatic greatworm, they no longer need to eat or drink, as their vast hordes magically sustain them. In chapter 4 he says, Hordes are extensions of dragons' inherently magical nature, resonators that focus their magic and link them to the magic of the material plane. Also, you can add regional effects and even lair actions to young dragons, particularly for dragons who have acquired an unusually large horde. Further, as dragons age and amass larger hordes, they tend to establish multiple lairs, this serves partially to mitigate risk, there is less chance of a dragon losing an entire horde in a single burglary if that horde is spread across multiple locations, and partly to extend the dragon's magical influence across a growing territory. The treasure cache stored in each lair anchors the dragon's power there even when the dragon isn't present, extending the reach of regional effects. Finally, a dragon dividing a horde often apportions one or more pieces from a linked set of objects to each treasure cache. The implications of this, from an ecological world pointing point of view, are astounding. It implies very strongly that dragons will seek out sets of magic items, potent ones, if they can find them, and spreading them out, linked through their magic, is pretty much like spreading out wifi routers to boost their signal, allowing them much greater awareness and control in their territory, but effectively expands their deep connection to the magical flow of the weave over a much wider range. The regional effects manifesting over a large area around the dragon's lair is just the tip of the iceberg, what the dragons are doing is shaping and directing the flow of magic, filtering it, changing it and in some cases, enhancing and restoring it. If you kill the dragon, you could cause a dramatic, perhaps even catastrophic shockwave of disruption to all magic across the entire territory, stretching out for miles, depending on the size of their hordes and the number of additional lairs, wherever they may be located. Because the horde changes the flow of magic, it can leave lingering local effects even after it is removed, as the weave doesn't instantly shift, it's not a river being redirected by a dam, after all. Alongside lingering effects such as unusual weather and outrageous plant growth, there may also be new dead magic zones and wide-scale death of plants and animals. Let's not forget, creatures of magic now suddenly migrating and looking for new homes, there's a good reason the local folklore and customs so strongly urge people to leave dragons alone if at all possible. It's also clearly an excellent tactic for crippling a dragon's legendary abilities, by plundering a small lair, drawing the dragon out to protect its vital asset, you can raid the larger lair, dispersing the horde and making an inevitable violent confrontation, slightly less lethal for yourselves, maybe. This poses some very tricky questions for those who practice the arcane arts and those who, quite logically, would seek out dragons as literal sources of power, warlocks and cultists and supernatural beings of magic, but more on that later. One last note, specific to chromatic dragons, the goddess of them all is ostensibly Tiamat, who is restrained from leaving the Nine Hells by Asmodeus. On the plain of Avernus, where her mountain-sized lair is located, she is surrounded by and served by a huge number of Abishai. Tiamat had originally made the Abishai with the help of Perza, one of the Dark Eight pit fiends. Abishai look more like classic winged gargoyles, split up into the primary chromatic types and have a bit of a superiority complex where they respond to the scorn and bias against them from the other devils, by acting like they are actually superior to all other devils, even when Tiamat essentially sells them out like cannon fodder legions to other lords of the Nine Hells. Those turned from Spynagons into low-ranking Abishai were generally viewed as too lazy or incompetent to rise to a higher status among the rest of the devils, but it is possible for them to be promoted among the general population, ranks like the Barbarzoo, the Cochrachon, the Chiton or even the Erinyes, if they really distinguish themselves in the infernal hierarchy. Abishai are fanatically loyal to Tiamat while in the Nine Hells, but there is lore which informs us that when free of Tiamat's attention, they prefer to exist without the constant threat of her wrath. Many of the souls they are spawned from are former cultists of the Chromatic Dragon Goddess, however, they are still devils, so at any time Asmodeus can just Order 66 them, override any of Tiamat's orders and turn her most trusted minions against her, or use them for his own purposes. This is particularly important when it comes to ancient Chromatic Dragons who deal with any dragon cults or dragon spawn, as Abishais willingly cooperate with the dragon spawn of mortal planes, often taking positions of great influence among them. Since ancient dragons seek any access and advantage they can find in the game of dominating and consuming the power of their echoes across the planes and mortal realms, they inevitably become pawns in the machinations of Tiamat, the Nine Hells, Asmodeus, the Blood War and the mercenary influence of those planar manipulators, the Yugoloths. So, one of the creatures of magic who 100% should be more commonly found near or within the territory of ancient Chromatic Dragons or Great Worms are Night Hags. This, my friends, is how you connect the dots and build a logically cohesive world of magic, granted, it will tend to look a lot like a conspiracy wall with monster stat sheets connected by red string and your family may get worried about you. Next, we have the Metallic Great Worms. Unlike the Chromatics, they are often granted their status by the god Bahamut, but any of the dragon gods can help them along this path, providing guidance and access to top divine conduits through the astral plane. This is done by profound agreement with their echoes across the multiverse who merge their consciousness and magic together. Those sufficiently attuned to magic will transform purely into magic in this process and combine into a new, much more powerful form. To give you some idea, in earlier editions they were a bit more specific about the size of creatures and Great Worms are around 30 meters or more, that's 100 feet on the small end of the spectrum, with many much larger. Conflicts with Metallic Great Worms will resolve through use of epic powers of persuasion and negotiation rather than brute force. They are normally good, aligned beings, otherwise they wouldn't have merged in such a way willingly in the first place. It's only when they feel compelled to put a stop to truly evil and destructive creatures, such as Dracoliches, that they unleash their full and terrifying power. Otherwise, they form great domains of peaceful, calm, nurturing and sustaining magic-rich environments, locating themselves at the best positions to keep the worlds they choose as their homes safe, stable and interesting, as their awareness and intelligence is vast and always hungry for entertainment. Fizban discusses this. Almost every kind of dragon can develop their awareness of all their incarnations across many worlds of the Prime Material Plane. Once they come into possession of magic artifacts from or with components from other worlds, or with history tied to that of other worlds, they can access their incarnation there far more easily. This power to communicate and coordinate across worlds gives them a near godly status among members of younger races, and all young dragons aspire to this awesome ability. Their hunger for magic items, largely interpreted as mere avarice and greed by mortal beings, paints the particular interests of many dragons in the history and artifacts of humanoid races in a whole new light. Metallic Greatworms retain the ability to change their shape into that of another creature, though in the latest edition of D&D it says this is restricted to medium or small creatures. I can't for the life of me think why though, anyone would not immediately ignore that. So, now sustained through magic alone, the Greatworm is finally free to remain another form for as long as it wants, wandering a huge territory that directs power into them, aware of the environment, the movements of living creatures, the politics of cultures, the presence of other creatures of magic, the machinations of otherworldly factions, its no wonder that many of the dragon gods are greatworms, they are damn near unbeatable, because the fight is not over before it begins, they just navigate around it, cut it off before it begins or negotiate a non-violent outcome, they are extremely intelligent, they are very unlikely to ever be caught completely unprepared or unaware of anything the players are going to try and throw at them, they are always a few steps ahead, not just because they run at a sprint, but because they have many more legs than you do, metaphorically speaking. Humanoid intelligence is childlike to them, often entertaining in a sort of cute and tragic way, not a very challenging or threatening way. Metallic Greatworms have two breath weapons, the Chromatic Greatworms can unleash a massive cone-shaped blast of elemental energy specific to what breed they once were, or they can create a knockout gas over the same range which can render a living being unconscious for up to a minute. When they do their special ha ha you thought I was dead trick, they get really angry and can unleash a shattering roar which suffers the issue of designers wedging descriptive text into a game mechanic copy pasted over three versions of the same monster, in this case they swapped the burst of energy part of the awakening regeneration and put that where the arcane spares bit is for the metallic greatworm because they gave the dragon two breath weapon types which I guess they didn't understand doesn't really matter because it doesn't use them at the same time. This is what playtesting and experience at the game table is for. So, as a result, Shattering Roar has a 120ft range but does a lot more damage and in a blindingly stupid line says each creature in a 120ft radius sphere centered on the greatworm must succeed in a DC 26 constitution saving throw or take 3-36 points of thunder damage and be incapacitated until the end of its next turn. This makes no sense at all, it's the same effect as the shatter spell, obviously. They could have saved a lot of space just saying this is a 6 level shatter spell with a radius of 120ft and a save DC of 26, any target that fails the save is also incapacitated until the start of the next turn. Easy, correct, simple and it damages non-magical objects not being worn and it does half as much damage on a failed save and constructs save with disadvantage, which is logical, the shattering roar is written in fizzbands, not logical and should be adjusted. Next we have the gem greatworms, and I'll just quote fizzbands here. More so even than their chromatic and metallic kin. Gem dragons are fascinated with cultivating their dragon sight and fusing the awareness of their echoes across the material plane. Some of them believe that by doing so they are taking steps towards reuniting the shattered consciousness of Sardior the ruby dragon, their liege. They pursue this awakening as an act of near-religious devotion. Others seek to exploit their knowledge of the many worlds of the material plane as a source of power, and indeed, a gem dragon who becomes a greatworm has access to almost unimaginable power. Gem greatworms ascension transforms their bodies to appear as crystal, their scales sparkling like diamonds, their breath weapons become powerful waves of crushing force that can stop almost any creature in its tracks, but the greatworms most powerful ability is telekinesis on an unparalleled scale. A gem greatworm can telekinetically seize an entire crowd and then carry those helpless folk off to the dragon's lair. Why it would do that, I don't know, but in theory it could. The gem greatworms also have psychic powers which they list as spellcasting, this is a sad fact in the current edition that psionics is just treated the same way as arcane spells, resulting in gem greatworms having spellcasting included when in reality, ancient dragons with innate magical power and astonishing intelligence should all have spellcasting included, again, game designers being stupid, please correct this at your gaming table. The new magic action type in 2024 edition is a good mechanic though, that works quite well, if a spell has a casting time of 1 minute or more, yet is enlisted in a spellcasting action, the monster doesn't cast the spell in just one action unless the action's description states otherwise. The monster must make the magic action on each of its turns and maintain concentration to cast the spell. Simple, good way of handling it, bit wordy, bit good. Gem dragons not only have the same ability as the metallics to shape change, they can also teleport 60 feet using their psychic power, they are basically living crack-to-beam emitters who exhale a 300 foot cone of crushing force. Additionally, 90 foot long and 10 foot wide beams of brain-scrambling psychic energy when really angry, and they can target any number of creatures or objects not being carried or worn, each under 2 tons in weight, within their true sight range of 120 feet, and restrain them with telekinesis. Then, at the end of the great worm's turn, it can move any telekinetically grabbed creature or object up to 60 feet, that's sprinting speed for a human, in any direction, as long as it's not beyond 120 feet of the dragon. It can also crush, choose to crush, with force damage while doing so, and their only hope is making a DC 26 strength saving throw, how they do this in media against telekinesis, your guess is as good as mine, and to save time, I suggest that damage also represents the creature or object being slammed into the ground, or creatures who did manage to make that saving throw, so the gem dragon can beat a small army of soldiers to death with their fellow soldiers, or just pick up a ridiculous number of 2 ton boulders and pulverize anything it has not already pulverized. Oh, and unlike the other two great worm types, their gems can never be knocked prone, though their senzu bean instant recovery feature only lets them recover 400 hit points, so, I guess it's not as good? Gem great worms have an intelligence as high as intelligent gets in D&D, it's godlike, and unlike the metallic great worms, gems are far less interested in the petty goings on of mortal creatures and humanoids, adventurers are like insects to them, pests to be swept out of the way if it is venturing into areas infested with their little villages, towns and city hives. My advice for when you see a gem great worm is just to get out of the area immediately, they are way out of the league of mortals to deal with. Other kinds of true dragons exist, and although it's rare for them to become great worms, there's no reason why they can't, so, let's talk about them. You can find the main lore of the fairest dragons in Dragon Magazine issues 170 and 356, I can't discuss great worms without mentioning the ultimate ruler of the diverse and constantly feuding kind, the supreme dragon Groglothor, unique among the great worms and another fine example of how different they can be from each other. I'll quote directly from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons wiki page on this lore since it's got all the info on him. Groglothor is not a divine power, but he is effectively immortal as whenever he dies, an iron dragon is chosen to replace him. In a secretive ritual, the dragon hibernates for a year and emerges dramatically transformed into Groglothor. His full size, from snout to the tip of his tail is 325 feet, or about 99 meters long. He is vastly intelligent and uses his spells and abilities in preference to physical attacks. He has three forms of breath weapon, a sleep gas, similar to the metallic great worm, a cone of superheated sparks, or he can fire a bolt of solid stone, 30 feet long and 5 feet wide, out of his mouth. He has the ability to pass through solid stone, shape it and enough spell knowledge and capability to do pretty much anything else he chooses. Groglothor dwells in a cavern far below one of the highest peaks in the world, from there he rules over all of the ferrous dragons, settling all disputes that cannot be handled by other dragon leaders, dispensing justice to those who cannot obey clan laws, and mating with his concubines in order to produce his eventual successor. He likes to snack on iron ore and the flesh of red dragons, who he vehemently hates and has vowed to exterminate down to the last egg. The ferrous dragons all share similar abilities and appear in scale colours and patterns similar to the various ferrous metals. The vast majority of ferrous dragons used to be the main type of but a period known as the Iron Wars saw most of them wiped out and whole types of them were wiped out completely, leaving only the chromium, cobalt, iron, nickel and tungsten ferrous dragon types remaining. Quoting directly from the Forgotten Realms wiki, a very high majority of ferrous dragons were lawful and followed a hierarchy among their species created by Groglothor, where the most powerful dragon species had more importance and superiority than others below them, from highest to lowest they were iron, chromium, cobalt, tungsten and nickel. Ferrous dragons also had families, a few families could come together to join a clan led by the most powerful member, all of the clans of the ferrous dragon species were led by a greatworm, who reported directly to Groglothor. Given that they were forbidden from getting into direct physical confrontations with each other, I believe the great dragon game of Zorbenthal was developed within the ferrous dragon culture, but that is just my logic, its not directly written in any canon lore as far as I know. You can learn all about Zorbenthal in my comprehensive video on the topic, just follow the link that popped up. The ferrous dragons all view metallic dragons in different ways. The evil dragons saw metallics as abominations that they had to destroy, neutral ferrous dragons felt indifferent about metallic dragons and simply accepted their existence, good aligned ferrous dragons saw metallic dragons as the purest form of metal. Despite these views, all ferrous dragons reviled chromatic dragons. Gem dragons and ferrous dragons were generally good with each other and got along well, especially with amethyst and emerald dragons, so make of that what you will in your own games if you like, its a good framework for draconic politics and may be reflected in the cultural views of dragonborn. The situation on the world of Toril has drastically changed, but its sister world of Abir is a lot closer to what Toril once was when it was ruled by dragonkind tens of thousands of years ago. The catastrophic loss of ferrous dragon breeds occurred much earlier, before humanoids were around in such diversity and numbers. Fairy dragons are most interesting, they are closer in origin to pseudo-dragons, so the artwork in the monster manual has clearly had their arms amputated, but are intelligent and can speak. Their connection to the fey world can create, in rare circumstances, a fey echo that forms out of stories, folklore, legends and myths. This is due to their habit of helping those who are in danger or distress by leading others to rescue them. There could be a very good reason for that. As they gain a reputation, their own legends and stories grow. In the fey world, an echo of them becomes more and more real. They are connected and aware of this in much the same way dragonsight works for true dragons. In time, this may become powerful enough for the adult fairy dragon to become larger, more intelligent and something of an anchor and protector of the other fey creatures they associate with, and perhaps even merge with their legendary echo in the fey world to become a fairy greatworm. If this inspires you to create this sort of thing in your campaign, great, it's just a concept, not canon. The cousins of fairy dragons, the pseudo-dragons, are, in my opinion, highly unlikely to have anything like a greatworm type, but that's just my table, if you come up with one, let me know in the comments. Dragon turtles are not actually true dragons either, they don't become greatworms. The Zaratan, those island sized turtles that got mangled into being earth elementals in 5th edition in 2014, are gargantuan turtle species specific to the waters off the continent of Zakara on the world of Toril and are totally unrelated to dragons or dragon turtles, and no, I don't think dragon turtles are the result of dragons breeding with giant turtles, I think it's safe to say it was either a god, the aboleth, or sarik, or even an elven wizard, probably a sea elf, maybe a storm giant, who knows, always blame gods and wizards, demons and devils, hags or the far realm, that's my advice. Other true dragons have their own routes to immortality and godlike status. Lenorms are treated as a distinct draconic family, ancient, wingless, usually venomous, always extremely nasty brutes. They have age categories and several write-ups, I'm inclined to think they just end up eventually in the outer heroic planes, the Beastlands, Isgard and the wilder side of Bytopia, they may even end up in Avernus, transported there for the training of the Legions of Hell, who are known to import titanic monsters for seriously dangerous wargames. They could be recruited by Tiamat for the creation of her dragon spawn, or even be transported to the other planes of conflict, showing up suddenly in the middle of a massive battle on one of the blood-soaked battlecubes of Archeron. If they survive, they do tend to survive, they can become unique planet dragons of epic proportions, like the Norse myths they were originally inspired from. Planet dragons come in a wide variety, there are the adamantine dragons of Bytopia, the arboreal dragons, the astral dragons, the axial dragons of Mechanus, the battle dragons of Isgard, the beast dragons, the blight dragons of the Shadowfell and other border regions of the negative energy plane, the chaos dragons of Limbo, ethereal dragons, the hellfire worms of the nine hells, the howling dragons of Pandemonium, the mirage dragons from 4th edition, which may or may not be real, the oceanus dragons roaming the upper planes, the Styx dragons roaming the lower planes, the pyroclastic dragons of Gehenna, the radiant dragons of Celestia, the rust dragons of Archeron and the Tartarian dragons of Karcerai. How common they are depends entirely on the nature of the environments they live in, for example, there may be millions of adamantine dragons in Bytopia because it seems to go on and on in every direction, while ethereal dragons may have infinite real estate, but precious little to sustain actual living things in the vast, misty nothingness. Do any of them spawn greatworms? Probably, there is nothing official written about it, so, draw from them for inspiration and have at it at your gaming table, nobody can stop you or your imagination. The dragons of Karatur have their own celestial roles and ascension for them largely would involve performing their roles in their respective elements and environments, gaining favour with the celestial court. I am no expert in celestial biocracy or Asian mythology and folklore, but there is a wealth of literature online to study for inspiration. In my personal experience, Asian folks don't get bent out of shape when people borrow from their mythology for the purpose of games and entertainment, they're good like that, if in doubt, have a conversation and learn something, that's my advice. Or, read some old books, they don't bite, not on this planet anyway. Before we start looking at how this impacts player characters and can inspire special adaptations of existing subclasses, let's go over the influence that greatworm dragons have on a magical fantasy world like the Forgotten Realms. A greatworm is no longer in an ecosystem, it is an ecosystem keystone, around which multiple biological, magical, planner and even narrative systems stabilise. They are key factors in the politics, movement and machinations of almost all true dragons and every creature of magic relies on them to keep the fantasy world sufficiently magical to sustain them. Remove the greatworm and you don't just get the region changes, you get trophic collapse, which devastates the entire connected web of the magical ecosystem. Wild magic cascades, planner leakage, monster speciation failure, weather derangement and horde anchored enchantments unraveling simultaneously. The greatworm's treasure horde is a mineral deposit, a magical battery, a cultural memory vault, planner nexus and a stupendous source of wealth. The lair and its horde is a unique adventure environment and even has its own ecosystem with creatures evolved and highly specialised to thrive in it. For the players at the table, taking out a greatworm, if they try and actually manage to do it, should be a big deal. Ley lines knot around greatworms because their bodies draw in and regulate arcane pressure, elemental boundaries soften because their presence buffers energy gradients, outer planner influence bleeds through because their mythic mass bends metaphysical membranes, this is why red dragons tend to create weak spots in deep volcanic dungeon lairs where fiends can suddenly appear. A greatworm is the thing that makes a fantasy world's magical geography habitable. Kill one and you don't just loot a dragon and harvest magical components from its massive corpse, you trigger a mass extinction event for all the creatures of magic that relied on its presence with political, planner, biological and divine aftershocks that spread far and wide, altering the campaign world. Wild magic storms, new areas of dead magic, disruptions to the unique energy system in the Underdark, disastrous weather events, displaced species that feed on magic like the disenchanters, sudden open warfare as kobolds migrate and goblins loot magical artifacts, economies in turmoil as the massive wealth of treasure disrupts the balance of trade and even down to something as subtle as a player character not being able to find any skilled blacksmiths to fix their gear because they all move to a suddenly rich province which are now paying ridiculous sums to skilled armorers so they can upgrade their army for defense or invasion. New constructions of keeps, forts, towers, castles and cathedrals, it's all interconnected. Now that we've established what greatworms actually are in a functioning magical world, not just oversized stat blocks, but living keystones in the ecology of magic itself, you can finally start looking at what this means for player characters, because the moment greatworms are treated this way, they stop being monsters you eventually fight and become structural features of the setting that characters inevitably orbit, collide with, exploit, serve, regulate or are walked by. Sorcerers already have a subclass for that, so let's start with the most obvious and most abused connection in modern D&D, warlocks. If greatworms are living anchors of the weave, then a pact with one of them is not the same thing as a pact with a fiend, a fey noble or some distant, inscrutable thing from the beyond stars. A greatworm does not grant power, a greatworm delegates it. It allows a mortal creature to plug themselves directly into one of the regulating systems of the magical world. A warlock bound to a greatworm is not just being drip-fed spells, they are being used as a mobile valve, a roaming sensor, a territorial agent, a parasite, a symbiote, or an immune response. A chromatic greatworm patron can empower cultists, warlocks and dragonspawn because it needs vectors, it cannot be everywhere at once, even with echoes across worlds and so it needs pieces of its influence into creatures capable of moving through societies, ruins and political structures. Those warlocks are not servants in the traditional sense, they are extensions of its metabolism. They destabilize rival hordes, sabotage arcane infrastructure, retrieve resonant artifacts, assassinate dangerous spellcasters, disrupt temples, seed fear, provoke wars and generally keep the magical environment in a state that favours their patron's continued dominance. Their spells should feel less like incantations and more like pressure releases, forceful intrusions of draconic reality into spaces that never meant to contain it. Metallic greatworm warlocks are something else entirely. They are not cultists, they are wardens, negotiators, observers and corrective instruments. A metallic greatworm does not empower mortals because it wants worship, it empowers them because mortal societies are chaotic, inventive, dangerously fast. They build, breed, experiment, summon, dig and industrialize magic at a pace dragons simply do not. Metallic greatworm warlocks are the distributed nervous system of its territory, they are how it fuels distant disturbances, how it inserts subtle pressure into political conflicts, how it neutralizes arcane catastrophes before they mature, how it steers civilizations away from magical behaviours that would destabilize the region. They are not granted power because they are faithful, they are empowered because they are useful interfaces between draconic-scale systems and humanoid-scale problems. Gem greatworm warlocks are the most unsettling of the three because gem dragons are not interested in stewardship, conquest or even the petty affairs of mortals, they are interested in awareness and perception and the structure of reality itself. A pact with a gem greatworm is not a bargain, it is an experiment. These warlocks become sensory filaments, probability probes, cognition mirrors. Their magic leans towards telekinesis, perception, spatial distortion, psychic phenomena, dream intrusion and the manipulation of information rather than matter. They are not sent to conquer or protect, they are sent to observe, to destabilize assumptions, to harvest experiences, to locate anomalies in the structure of the world. If chromatic warlocks are blood cells and metallic warlocks are antibodies, gem warlocks are electrodes pushed into the nervous tissue of the multiverse. Druids sit in a very different relationship with greatworms. A druid encircled, tied to a greatworm does not worship them, bargain with them or seek to become them. Druids study what happens to nature when magic is not an external force but a stable ecological input. Greatworms are not outside the natural order in a magical world, they are what the natural order becomes once magic is abundant, persistent and biologically integrated. A greatworm centered druid is not a dragon druid, they are an ecologist of magical succession. These druids understand that forests around metallic greatworms do not merely grow larger, they grow differently, that volcanic regions dominated by chromatic greatworms do not simply become more dangerous, they develop entirely new food webs, new mineral cycles, new species interactions. Territories shaped by gem greatworms produce lifeforms that respond to thought, emotion and perception as much as to climate and terrain. Their wild shapes do not need to trend towards dragons to be thematically coherent, it should trend towards the kind of organisms that only exist in greatworm territories, creatures that metabolize magic, that feed on enchantment, that reproduce in response to planet tides that migrate along layering currents and set of rivers. A greatworm circle druid is someone who manages imbalance, they intervene when a dragon's presence becomes too dominant or when its absence begins to unravel an entire region. They might be tasked with rewilding dead magic zones, escorting displaced magical species, cultivating new horde ecosystems or even overseeing the emergence of a successor organism when the greatworm is dying. To them, a dragon's death is not a triumph or a tragedy, it is a mass extinction event that must be managed. Rangers, by contrast, are not managers, they are field operatives. A ranger whose focus is greatworms is not a dragon hunter in the romantic sense, they are a catastrophe tracker. They study migration patterns of creatures that only exist in draconic territories, they learn to read shifts in magic the way other rangers read broken branches and disturbed soil, they recognize the signs of an emergent lair decades before a dragon even claims it, they know which valleys will become uninhabitable when a greatworm stirs, they know what kinds of monsters appear when hordes reach a critical mass, they know how planar bleed expresses itself in weather, animal behavior and dream patterns. Such rangers might spend their lives never seeing a greatworm directly, but constantly dealing with its consequences, clearing settlements out of zones that are about to become magically toxic, hunting creatures that have escaped from lair ecologies, escorting scholars into regions where the laws of nature are no longer stable, tracking down cult activity not because cults are evil, but because they are often the first visible symptom of a deepic draconic disturbance. Dragonslayers are where all of this comes to a head, if greatworms are ecosystem keystones, then a dragonslayer is not a hero, they are an extinction level weapon. Historically in the realms, organized dragonslaying orders don't arise because dragons are dangerous, they arise because dragons interfere with civilizations, divine plans or other large scale power structures. A serious dragonslayer tradition would not be built around martial prowess alone, it would require druids, wizards, clerics, engineers, economists and planar scholars, their real work is not killing the dragon, it would be preparing the world to survive the consequences. Alchemists and magical item hunters operate further down the food chain. If hordes are resonators, then every coin, crown, blade, idol and gemstone that has sat in a greatworm's lair for centuries is not merely enchanted, it is conditioned. It is absorbed ambient magic, narrative weight, elemental influence and planar harmonics. These objects become the raw materials of high arcana, dragon bone reagents, horde-soaked metals, crystallized lair growths, fossilized spells phenomena. An alchemist who understands greatworms is not looking for treasure, they are harvesting ecological samples and attunement to the outer planes that they may not have access to by going to other planes themselves. This is also where you get potions that only function in certain regions, blades that destabilize ley lines, armor that disrupts lair effects, components that can substitute for planar travel, substances that could seed artificial magical environments. Greatworm territories are not dangerous, they are the equivalent of radioactive zones, coral reefs, deep sea vents and old-growth forests all stacked on top of each other, and adventurers who plunder them without understanding what they are removing are not brave, they are reckless. Planar adventurers inevitably collide with greatworms because greatworms are where planes touch. They are not just native to environments, they deform them. The astral folds differently around them, elemental boundaries blur, the ethereal thickens, the outer planes find easier purchase. A planar traveller learns that the safest way to move between worlds is often to move through a draconic territory, because those regions are already structurally adapted to sustaining impossible energies. This also means planar politics and dragon politics are inseparable. Devils cultivate chromatic territories because they weaken planar membranes. Celestials favour metallic greatworms because they stabilize them. Yugoloths exploit hordes because they concentrate portable metaphysical value. Hags love greatworm regions because stories, souls, curses and memories all ferment faster there. Next up on the channel I will be talking about the challenge of explaining the intelligence attribute. How exactly do you represent an intelligence of 21 or 30 in the game? What is the difference between animal intelligence and sapience? What are the types of animal intellects and how do they behave if they become sapient? How does awakened intelligence work? All of this and more in a complete guide for your information and inspiration. Thank you so much for your attention and time, it would be so kind if you were to share this video with a friend, give it a little thumbs up and contribute your thoughts and anecdotes in the comments below, that would be lovely. My name is AJ Pickett, thanks for listening and as always, I will be back with more for you, very soon.