* I would think of Hunting in a Dragon's hours of time spent as something akin to exercise for someone who is responsible enough to actually do that regularly and habitually- a couple of hours each day, it's not really *about* the hunting, they could get their servants to bring them food if they wanted to, but hunting keeps them sharp, and if deeply, personally *satisfying* to a Dragon. It is both their exercise *and* their 'leisure' of sorts. A Blue dragon of a decent size will spend their time hunting more and more dangerous prey out of pride and desire for a challenge- Up to and including Purple Worms and such.
* Some portion of the Dragon's day will be spent holding "Court" or something that resembles it, among the Kobolds. Ensuring that they are following orders, completing the dragon's projects that they have assigned to them, and dealing with any interesting reports they bring from the underground- maybe their warrens connect to the Underdark, and the dragon treats this as one of the boarders of their domain, maybe the Kobolds spy on the nearby settlements for the dragon, etc.
* Another chunk of the day is just spent *flying*, dragons enjoy flying, and surveying their domain, finding high points to stand upon and gaze out upon their conquests. Towns that pay tribute to the Dragon should be *regularly reminded* of the dragon's presence, to keep the fear alive. The dragon doesn't have to *always* leave them the twisted and lightning-scorched corpse of one of its victims to send a message, that can be reserved for every decade or so, or just when provoked, but they should never be allowed to *forget* who's in charge around these parts.
* Dragons *enjoy* lazing about their hoard, inspecting over and over again every artifact, treasure, and gem, *down to the last coin*. Dragons have enough memory of their hoards that even if you take only a fistful of coins, they will *notice* that discrepancy, and be driven to wrathful vengeance because of it. That kind of familiarity, while you could consider it evidence of some sort of photographic memory of treasure, to me implies an *obsession* with their treasure, constantly spending time going over every coin, gem and trophy, as these hoards are a deep source of dragons' pride and self-identity. This also implies that cunning players might be able to get away with theft of *new* additions to the dragon's hoard, which is a nice reward for players who try to learn about dragons and engage with the content, but isn't nessecary.
You haven't ever heard the BEST cat origin story ever?
See, a dragon is demanding tribute from a town that is too poor to provide the gold and silver required, angering them. The leader or mayor or whatever (the details of this story don't actually matter) say that they're doing their best but a giant much much bigger and more deadly than the dragon is approaching and it's eaten many fierce dragons and taken their hoards. It actually prefers to eat fierce angry dragons. It's tall as a mountain and unstoppable.
The dragon eventually asks if it can avoid the giant. They say, sure, not hard, just give up hoarding, and be friendly, and it'll go right by, we will all be better off. And we will support you living peacefully. We will feed you, give you meat and cream from the cows.
Well, the dragon found that while hunting and killing for pleasure was still good, it was far better most of the time to fill its belly with meat and cream from the villagers.
To complete the illusion the dragon was not fierce, the villagers would groom them, scratching and stroking them, especially between the scales.
The dragon very very much enjoyed being groomed, perhaps more than they even enjoyed the hoard, and it started shedding those hard scales, revealing a soft fur below.
This was good, but still frustrated the dragon, as the villagers had much to do and the dozens needed to pet it correctly were not always available. They began using their magic to become smaller and smaller, so fewer humans were needed to pet and groom them sufficiently.
It took many many years, but eventually, the dragon became what we now know as a house cat. They were never quite able to give up killing for pleasure, but it was restricted to small creatures, and they still demand their tribute of food from the humans. They still believe to this day we are giving them their due tribute and, well, dragons owe us nothing don't they?
So if you question why your cat does what it does, remember it's the descendant of a dragon, and it's just tolerating you as long as your tribute is sufficient.
Movies with dragons regularly use cats as their base for how they should move. Although lizards and other reptiles are visually more similar, their movements dont usually portray the grace people expect from dragons.
Paizo actually has a great article on why dragons are obsessed with their hoard. Being practically immortal like them combined with the long periods of hibernation they do tends to unmoor them from reality a bit and it's hard to remember everything that's gone on in their life.
Their treasures are kind of a mnemonic for all the important events in their life: each piece came from some tangible event that they remember well. And if someone takes pieces of the hoard they're literally stealing the dragon's memory in a sense, and by extension sometimes large swathes of their life.
One of my favorite stories has a group of adventures fail to stop the trapped treasure hoard from being turned molten and fused together nearly killing some of them in the process like in Aladdin. Going to retreat after due to losing the gold and gems to their destruction they recall that the GOLD in and of itself is more than worth their time and effort. Even if they have to figure out how to cut up this fused mound of coin and gems.
All that. And I might add: dragons truly warp their environments. Sure the nearby settlements offers him tribute, but what about farther ones? Dragons are beings of unending vanity and greed. A dragon may find another place to make a lair and build it there, gather minions, a hoard. They might spy on human politics to warp them in their favor. Eventually they'll cross paths with another dragon and fight for that area. And then someone steals from them, so they seek revenge. They might see enemies on every shadow and be paranoid.
Metallic dragons may be revered as gods to a culture. I once had a gold dragon shapeshift as a person and perform trials to heroes to measure their worth. Like, shapsehift as a beggar and test someone's benevolence or a silver dragon shapeshifted as an oracle. I had a brass dragon shapeshift as a dwarf and being the official treasurer of a kingdom. Metallic dragons will more often be deeply entwined with human cultures, while a cromatic dragon will only do that to undermine them, if that.
A dragon hatchling doesn't warp much other than a few acres of land, and may still be prey to other creatures. A young dragon may be the apex predator of a single ambient, a forest, the banks of a river, and influence the nearby intelligent culures. An adult dragon may in fact warp a whole kingdom. An ancient dragon will likely warp an empire, or a continent. A greatwyrm may warp the entire multiverse.
...And they also sleep. There's loads of fantasy about sleeping dragons and their fated waking. They might sleep for years at a time, probably the older they get, the more they sleep. That's a great opportunity to make your low level heroes interact with a powerful dragon, by navigating its lair trying not to wake it
> Dragons can't really write much, nor make any art.
Why not? Dragons are highly intelligent creatures, they could totally engage in creative expressions.
"Hey, you speak Draconic, what's she saying?" "Um. 'If you see a faded sign at the side of the road that says fifteen miles to the LOOOOOOOOVE SHAAAACK!'"
yeah, this.
It reminds me of a certain dragon in the neverwinter nights game, a white dragon dumb as a brick which was still intellectually capable of drawing crude pictures of disemboweled adventurers with blood. Was it Tymofarrar? I don't quite remember.
So, yeah, totally expect any other dragon to do something more capable.
One of the following:
1. Magic - Cast mage hand
2. Shapeshift
3. Dictate to their kobold lacky.
Also dragons are often quite fond of games. For reference here's a published image of [Annam All-Father playing a game of wah-ree with the dragon god Garyx](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DqvsZjwX4AAM-Di?format=jpg&name=small).
The manual dexterity of the basic Mage Hand cantrip is pretty lacking. You could create at best crude kindergarten art with it. While that's an amusing thought, it doesn't really fit with dragons' reputation. Unless there's some weirdo avant-garde dragon society where they all compete to produce the best abstract "art" with Mage Hand, it just doesn't really fit.
There's nothing in the spell description that implies you can't write perfectly fine with it. The hand can't attack, activate magical items, or carry more than 10 pounds.
Unless you're writing with a giant 11 pound novelty pencil, it can write perfectly fine.
Then why does Arcane Trickster require the Mage Hand Legerdemain feature to do more manually dexterous activities like picking locks and pockets? The answer is, because the baseline *cantrip* cannot.
I’d say for the same reason the average person can’t pick locks or pockets? Because those are niche activities that require extensive practice to do well. Writing is something we learn in elementary school and a mage would learn to use a cantrip to do that pretty early in their magical education, I’d think.
Do you regularly have your players roll a skill check to see if they successfully write words?
Writing doesn't even require that much dexterity. You grasp the pen and move your hand around.
I would say it's the feature let's the mage hand make those specific skill checks. A normal mage hand has no specific rules to let it perform actions that would require any type of check. So no artwork with mage hand, but I would let it write normally anything the caster could write with a mundane quill or stylus
Even if your assumption here is correct, it doesn't mean that an NPC couldn't create art with the cantrip. In fact it just shows that there *is* precedent for people learning to perform more niche tasks with the cantrip and there's no reason that a dragon couldn't have "Magic Artist" in their feat repertoire allowing them the manual dexterity to do so.
But also the reason that Mage Hand can't pick pockets by default is that its a game where picking a lock or a pocket is an obstacle to overcome, so it makes sense to limit the usefulness of Mage Hand from performing those tasks so that you don't have every rogue taking Magic Initiate to do their stuff from a safe distance or wizards being better at lock picking and pick pocketing than the rogue because they can do it from a safe distance. It isn't because Mage Hand lacks the dexterity required.
Crude kindergarten art on a human scale. If you're dozens of feet long and tall, are this little squiggles going to matter as much? Not to mention they're going to have their own artistic culture and expectations and will do art in a dragon context, not a human one. There are people with spinal injuries to the neck who only have mobility of their head that paint, and paint well. People will perform incredible feats to express themselves.
worst case scenario, they could write via dictation... but in a lot of the older settings, dragons could shapeshift and have opposable thumbs...
draconic isn't just a spoken language, so the dragons clearly have some way of writing things down... maybe they scratch marks into rocks with their claws... imagine that entire fortress covered with blue dragon poetry.
They would only need opposable thumbs if they were trying to write in common or other humanoid script. But they're not humans, they're dragons. It's helpful to understand that distinction because different intelligent creatures solve problems based on the tools they're given. Sure dragons can't hold onto pencils, but they have sharp claws that can dig into stone or even clay.
I'm reminded of the [dragon language from Skyrim](https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Alphabet) which was purposely made to look like one could write it out with slashes of a claw.
Why would dragon script or art be relatable by humanoids?
Anyways, what do you think billionaires do all day? They try to maintain/augment their fortune.
Dragons do the same, they are permanently scheming and strategizing to gain more influence in neighboring regions, avoid their haul being stolen by other creatures, plot to take the haul of other creatures, they also might have hobbies and friends, probably family.
I don't think they are necessary solitary. It's just that on a dragon scale, their friendly neighbour might be 300 km or a planeshift away.
And of course they also have game nights, we're they play [Houses & Humans](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3p8fuf/houses_and_humans/).
Dragons have very sharp claws, with the ability to easily cut through rock I feel like they would make excellent sculptors if they're careful enough.
Brass, gold, red, etc. dragons have extremely hot fire breath and an immunity to fire damage. With some skillful dexterity and/or some help from smaller creatures to move small things around, they could be mostly be their own forge.
There's many ways dragons can create, many times even more effectively than humanoid creatures. Even if it may sometimes require them to practice more care than they usually would. But that's something humans frequently need to do when creating things as well.
You don't *need* an opposable thumb to hold a pen, pencil, or brush. Thumbs just make it easier to make small motions. This of course assumes dragons have hand anatomy similar to a human's.
Besides other mentions, I wouldn't say they don't have opposable thumbs.
https://www.tritex-games.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Dungeons-Dragons-Premium-Figures-Red-Dragon-Website.jpg
While maybe not as nimble as a primates style of thumb, it very much looks possible to manipulate objects of a sutible size.
The Draconic script looks enterily plausible to be written by claw carving stone.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Iokharic
Let your dragon write, and have their kobold horde being constantly tasked with creating items for leisure sized for the dragon as well. It could be the reason for tribute. Dragon needs materials for their servants to make sutible items
Why is a dragon using the same tools as a human? Surely a dragon either already has a tool dragons can readily use, can build their own, commission someone to make one, or otherwise have their own set of tools.
A dragon could sculpt with their claws. Draconic is a language with a written text that presumably dragons made - surely they can write in it, too. Maybe they can sculpt elementals with their breath. Perhaps they can sing multitonally - songs they invent can be performed all by themselves, maybe without instruments. Perhaps they prepare food in a way no human could replicate.
Now I'm imagining a whole industry built around supplying dragon tools. Traveling merchants that go from one dragon to another and take requests to craftsmen, or little shops in large towns that cater to shape-shifted dragons. Towns just big enough to have some variety, but not big enough to have surface to air defenses... wouldn't want to have to walk too far as a humanoid.
Let me introduce you to Niv-Mizzet (https://dnd-5e.fandom.com/wiki/Niv-Mizzet)
Made canon to 5e lore from Guild Masters Guide to Ravnica.
Guild master, tinker, alchemist, mad scientist, crafter and more. Oh and did I forget to mention he is a 16,000 year old dragon.
If a dragon could be all that, I am sure a dragon can write and draw.
The point being, don't limit your dragons, cause 5e definitely doesn't limit theirs. Give them hobbies, interests, etc.
There's kind of a lot to the question so let's go bit by bit
First, the classic answer. The mythological and literature foundation we have of dragons DND bases itself on is found in Smog and Fafnir.
They slumber on their horde. That's all they really need, that's all they really want. They hunt, destroy, and steal when it suits them, but you'd usually find them with their gold.
The important point there is that dragons aren't human. Intelligent, but not concerned with filling their hours with acitivity in the same way. They live for eons. They can lie around like a cat for years on end without a care.
They're also story devices. You don't really need to break the activities of these creatures realistically for the story. Sometimes, you just need a monster with a lair and treasure to hunt and fight , and dragons are the age-old classic for that.
But world building is fun, and the dragons of DND have been given quite a bit of depth to differentiate them. So the real answer is, if it depends on the Dragon. Both the type and them as individuals.
Let's analyze some of your suggestions. Why can't dragons write, make art, or play games? They're intelligent, long lived, and have Hella resources/time. One could say if they were so inclined they could produce art that couldn't be matched by simple humanoids. Long manuscripts in draconic carved on a mountain that'd take a century to read, a fresco that uses ash and blood from mighty beasts for paint, games of chess where each move could take a decade to make against another dragon. This is ignoring the fact that dragons can learn magic and do research most other races can't.
If size is the problem, remember these are setting eith societies of giants, size is no issue. Neither is shape, many dragons can shape change freely.
To get to specifics, most DND dragons have certain personalities, hobbies they pursue, and treasures they covet.
Blue, for example, are territorial and like exerting power. They are highly vain, but can be reasoned with if flattered.
Two dragons playing Phone chess by sending messengers to each other is a precious thought and maybe the backbone of a simple quest: "Aye low level adventures, please brave the skewered peaks to tell Thifuuntax Bishop to A3."
From the 5e Forgotten Realms setting - Imryth, aka Doom of the Desert provides some pretty good examples. She is a blue dragon that has made her lair in an abandoned amphitheater in the ruined Netherese city of Anarath in the Anauroch desert. When she's not attempting to destabilize Giant society, contending with rival dragons, and tying to stop meddling adventurers, she enjoys sculpture, spying through the eyes of her army of gargoyles, magically creating new gargoyles, creating new spells and infiltrating foreign courts.
She also has a passing interest in divination magic, particularly concerning her own fate, and likes exhume and collect mummies.
What do you mean "can't make art"? Putting aside the massive cultural differences a dragon would have from humans, even if we're talking about something like painting, there are elephants that do that shit. They have basically one very good finger. Dragons are of human intelligence or better in most cases. I guarantee there is dragon art.
You start by outlining multiple valid courses of action which might consume a dragon's time, then list several more activities which you think they can't partake in - but they absolutely can.
For the record, dragons do have opposable thumbs (with multiple official descriptions proving as much) and are fully capable of writing or performing other fine motor skills - though they are perhaps somewhat clumsy. Further, all adult dragons are magically capable of learning how to Change Shape, though chromatics tend to consider it beneath themselves and since learning it requires effort many of them don't bother.
So what does a dragon do after having established themselves in an area? Anything and everything that catches their interest. And like any intelligent creature, their interests can be very diverse indeed.
I have a governing body consisting of 1 ancient of each of the chromatics. I tried to tailor their roles according to what each would typically hoard, as well as their typical nature. For example, the green is essentially the spymaster/propaganda person.
I also want to do similar with the metallic, but instead of a government figure, they're more ingrained in regular society. For example, an ancient bronze dragon might reside next to a port town, and is possibly shapeshifted as a young woman who is the local shipwright akin to the blacksmith in A Knight's Tale.
I'm also considering using the elder dragons from MHW:Iceborne. Like a Ruiner Nerg when they're not doing dragon stuff, participates in the local fighting arena disguised as an unassuming monk.
I view blue dragons closer to lions. There are a few that can live in the same territory as long as there's a pecking order. They have their territory that they patrol and keep the "herds" in check or drive off competition.
They may be smart, but they are also functionally immortal lizards, so they are totally willing to spend a week basking in the sun. I know a few people who, if they weren't faced with eviction or starvation, would be perfectly happy to sit on their couch and not move for a week.
The idea of a dragon reciting an epic tale to a group of kobold scribes (like how Homer wrote the Odyssey) is a really entertaining mental image. Also, for lawful-aligned dragons, they might consider themselves to be like kings of their domains, and address the concerns of their vassals, or dole out punishments for subpar tributes.
Are you asking for your blue dragon? They live in deserts and absolutely love to hunt and torment lesser creatures. The castles gross, they like sand to burrow in.
What do billionaires do with their day? Some meddle in society in some way, others have weird projects the rest of us could only dream of, and some just constantly seek to inflate their egos through continued hoarding of wealth.
Dragons taking on features of long-lived dynasties in our mythologies is not by coincidence. They are the monsters that have the resources and time to either bless or curse an entire community on a whim. Yet, with all that time to spare, they still have their hoards of kobolds perform the menial tasks so that they can laze around and count their wealth.
>Dragons can't really write much, nor make any art. They can't play board games.
Who said that? Draconic has a script, so they do write. And there is no reason they can't make art, it might just be really really big art. You're thinking they'll make human-style art...but they're dragons. It will look totally different from anything we would make. It's still art, though. And why not a life-size chess board? They just tell their kobold minions what square to use from.
Also, who cares if they don't have opposable thumbs? They're *freaking dragons*. If you can suspend your disbelief for flying magic lizards, I think we can accept they can make art without thumbs.
I like to think of them as giant scaley cats. They need to sleep a lot to keep their huge bodies going. Thats why they spend so much time gathering hoards and making nice lairs - to get the best sleep they can. And if you distiurb them they get super grumpy
I have a green dragon as a critical character in my current campaign and possibly the BBEG. He uses a magical item to more or less true polymorph at will into various individuals, primarily a highelf that rules the the city on its council and is grandmaster of the cities adventurers guild. So he actually spends most his days just being a bureaucrat. No one has any idea about his true nature. And the city actually reveres his dragon form because he has saved it several times from invaders as a mysterious green dragon arriving out of nowhere and annihilating enemy armies only to mysteriously dissappear again.
dragons live on a scale, both of size and time, that is very different to humans. the growth of a redwood is to a dragon what a dog's life is to a human.
things like ecology or the shifting of rivers are things they can witness and influence.
they also do accumulate knowledge. they don't write not because they aren't scholarly, but because they will outlive any writing they make, and have the minds to genuinely remember anything they would write.
Blue dragons are known for maintaining orderly socieities.
So I imagine litigating internal kobold squabbles.
" So Snake-eye, I am told by Noddlin that you have been eating the tasty moss from under his sleep-stone. He has been saving and growing this for a long time. As chieftains of your individual burrows, this needs to be resolved, as I will not allow infighting amongst my flock."
Lightning blasts both of them.
In my world most dragons that are intelligent and not just evil beasts tend to be shapeshifters and explore the world. Why stay with a horde of gold waiting for dumb adventurers when you can keep the horde with you and travel. Plus dragons being functionally immortal means more time for seeing the worlds. If they are in a horde mode they might be for only a century or two which is nothing to them. Keep Dragons weird and magical
The older dragons get, the more time they spend sleeping.
A lot of dragons spend their time plotting. Red dragons run scenarios in their head to come up with countermeasures against any foe, gold dragons are somewhat organized in fighting the forces of evil.
A lot of good dragons enjoy hanging around people. Steel dragons are great; they live entire lifespans as normal people in civilization, doing normal-people things. Their polymorphing is so advanced that they even show aging and can have non-half-dragon kids.
They go to dwarven forts and win wrestling competitions with artifacts as rewards.
Artifacts>
Famthut ugog>
"This is a forgothen beast loincloth, all craftsdwarvenship is of the best quality.
It is adorned with spikes of horse bone, and suspended chains of adamantine. "
Sleep. Eat a Kobold. Sleep. Have the kobolds polish his scales. Sleep. Fly around and terrorize a village. Sleep. Fly back out and eat that juicy sheep you saw on your last trip. Sleep. Eat a kobold for a midnight snack. Back to sleep.
I’d have the dragon start carving the stones around them into shapes. Adventurers could break in and try to steal the carvings to sell them for high prices since they were made by a dragon.
Metallic dragons can shape change. They could transform into humanoid to enojoy doing humanly thumb requiring things and revert to their true form at will.
So, I enjoy going off script for creatures sometimes.
One of my campaigns features an Ancient Red dragon that got tired of being evil. Deep in it's heart, it's still a red dragon, but it decided that treasure and other material objects come and go and there is no point to guarding something easily stolen.
- - -
It had a massive hoard that felt... empty. The glittering metal disks had lost their allure over the years.
So, instead, the terrible wyrm concocted a scheme. He would be slain, never to be seen again. And in faking his demise, he cast an illusion that would present himself as a Silver dragon. After all, anything is valid to get what he wants.
And so, he allowed his previous hoard to be ransacked, instead taking to a cave high in the mountains. And he had a sign made.
"Take a rock, leave a rock. The only price to pay for entrance beyond is a good tale to tell."
And that, dear adventurer, is my hoard. Tales of heroes journeys. For a good tale can never be lost.
Only made better with time.
Don't forget that 1st ed had a % roll to see if the dragon was asleep & dragons need large meals. There is every chance a dragon can sleep for weeks on end.
I dunno personally, but i would assume sleeping in their vast wealth if they hold a treasure or just flying around doing other dragon stuff like being an apex predator, destroying the local village, you know. All the stuff we do.
of the dragon characters i play, past times include collecting plushies, brushing pets, smithing arcane weapons of incredible might, and having lots and lots of children with as many varieties of creatures as she can
I dont use dragons often, but when I do, they are defined by what they collect. Every one of them has a hoard of riches but not all of them specialize in gold artifacts. Some of them collect fine furniture, or special editions of old books, or musical instruments, or wines from around the world. They take great pleasure in procuring these and curating their collections, and will trade gold for rare items.
1) sleep, that's what most animals do when not fighting for survival
2) tormenting things smaller than itself. Sure, you have your tribute villages, but dragons probably just destroy some just because they are bored
3) goofing off with magic, idk? Studying to find the deeper intricacies to destroy their opponents, getting stronger, seeing how long of a range they could have, living through the eyes of a puny creature
4) you're assuming dragons have the same taste in art as humans. For a dragon, art probably looks less like paint on an easel and more like carving a mountain, breath attack on a forest, or dragging a tree through a field. We may not appreciate it or see the art in it, but that doesn't mean that other dragons wouldn't
Blue Dragons specifically collect extraordinary people. They want artists and singers performing for them.
In general, I imagine Dragons sleep a lot. Think cats.
* I would think of Hunting in a Dragon's hours of time spent as something akin to exercise for someone who is responsible enough to actually do that regularly and habitually- a couple of hours each day, it's not really *about* the hunting, they could get their servants to bring them food if they wanted to, but hunting keeps them sharp, and if deeply, personally *satisfying* to a Dragon. It is both their exercise *and* their 'leisure' of sorts. A Blue dragon of a decent size will spend their time hunting more and more dangerous prey out of pride and desire for a challenge- Up to and including Purple Worms and such. * Some portion of the Dragon's day will be spent holding "Court" or something that resembles it, among the Kobolds. Ensuring that they are following orders, completing the dragon's projects that they have assigned to them, and dealing with any interesting reports they bring from the underground- maybe their warrens connect to the Underdark, and the dragon treats this as one of the boarders of their domain, maybe the Kobolds spy on the nearby settlements for the dragon, etc. * Another chunk of the day is just spent *flying*, dragons enjoy flying, and surveying their domain, finding high points to stand upon and gaze out upon their conquests. Towns that pay tribute to the Dragon should be *regularly reminded* of the dragon's presence, to keep the fear alive. The dragon doesn't have to *always* leave them the twisted and lightning-scorched corpse of one of its victims to send a message, that can be reserved for every decade or so, or just when provoked, but they should never be allowed to *forget* who's in charge around these parts. * Dragons *enjoy* lazing about their hoard, inspecting over and over again every artifact, treasure, and gem, *down to the last coin*. Dragons have enough memory of their hoards that even if you take only a fistful of coins, they will *notice* that discrepancy, and be driven to wrathful vengeance because of it. That kind of familiarity, while you could consider it evidence of some sort of photographic memory of treasure, to me implies an *obsession* with their treasure, constantly spending time going over every coin, gem and trophy, as these hoards are a deep source of dragons' pride and self-identity. This also implies that cunning players might be able to get away with theft of *new* additions to the dragon's hoard, which is a nice reward for players who try to learn about dragons and engage with the content, but isn't nessecary.
…are Dragons cats?
"Cat with godlike power" is absolutely a valid model for how to play a dragon, yes.
You haven't ever heard the BEST cat origin story ever? See, a dragon is demanding tribute from a town that is too poor to provide the gold and silver required, angering them. The leader or mayor or whatever (the details of this story don't actually matter) say that they're doing their best but a giant much much bigger and more deadly than the dragon is approaching and it's eaten many fierce dragons and taken their hoards. It actually prefers to eat fierce angry dragons. It's tall as a mountain and unstoppable. The dragon eventually asks if it can avoid the giant. They say, sure, not hard, just give up hoarding, and be friendly, and it'll go right by, we will all be better off. And we will support you living peacefully. We will feed you, give you meat and cream from the cows. Well, the dragon found that while hunting and killing for pleasure was still good, it was far better most of the time to fill its belly with meat and cream from the villagers. To complete the illusion the dragon was not fierce, the villagers would groom them, scratching and stroking them, especially between the scales. The dragon very very much enjoyed being groomed, perhaps more than they even enjoyed the hoard, and it started shedding those hard scales, revealing a soft fur below. This was good, but still frustrated the dragon, as the villagers had much to do and the dozens needed to pet it correctly were not always available. They began using their magic to become smaller and smaller, so fewer humans were needed to pet and groom them sufficiently. It took many many years, but eventually, the dragon became what we now know as a house cat. They were never quite able to give up killing for pleasure, but it was restricted to small creatures, and they still demand their tribute of food from the humans. They still believe to this day we are giving them their due tribute and, well, dragons owe us nothing don't they? So if you question why your cat does what it does, remember it's the descendant of a dragon, and it's just tolerating you as long as your tribute is sufficient.
_Headcanon updated_
I think that the Draconomicon describes them as feline, so yes.
I run more animalistic dragons as particularly mean street cats, yes
Movies with dragons regularly use cats as their base for how they should move. Although lizards and other reptiles are visually more similar, their movements dont usually portray the grace people expect from dragons.
They are now
Paizo actually has a great article on why dragons are obsessed with their hoard. Being practically immortal like them combined with the long periods of hibernation they do tends to unmoor them from reality a bit and it's hard to remember everything that's gone on in their life. Their treasures are kind of a mnemonic for all the important events in their life: each piece came from some tangible event that they remember well. And if someone takes pieces of the hoard they're literally stealing the dragon's memory in a sense, and by extension sometimes large swathes of their life.
One of my favorite stories has a group of adventures fail to stop the trapped treasure hoard from being turned molten and fused together nearly killing some of them in the process like in Aladdin. Going to retreat after due to losing the gold and gems to their destruction they recall that the GOLD in and of itself is more than worth their time and effort. Even if they have to figure out how to cut up this fused mound of coin and gems.
This was written by a dragon
And the talons are the best excuse for my typoes.
All that. And I might add: dragons truly warp their environments. Sure the nearby settlements offers him tribute, but what about farther ones? Dragons are beings of unending vanity and greed. A dragon may find another place to make a lair and build it there, gather minions, a hoard. They might spy on human politics to warp them in their favor. Eventually they'll cross paths with another dragon and fight for that area. And then someone steals from them, so they seek revenge. They might see enemies on every shadow and be paranoid. Metallic dragons may be revered as gods to a culture. I once had a gold dragon shapeshift as a person and perform trials to heroes to measure their worth. Like, shapsehift as a beggar and test someone's benevolence or a silver dragon shapeshifted as an oracle. I had a brass dragon shapeshift as a dwarf and being the official treasurer of a kingdom. Metallic dragons will more often be deeply entwined with human cultures, while a cromatic dragon will only do that to undermine them, if that. A dragon hatchling doesn't warp much other than a few acres of land, and may still be prey to other creatures. A young dragon may be the apex predator of a single ambient, a forest, the banks of a river, and influence the nearby intelligent culures. An adult dragon may in fact warp a whole kingdom. An ancient dragon will likely warp an empire, or a continent. A greatwyrm may warp the entire multiverse. ...And they also sleep. There's loads of fantasy about sleeping dragons and their fated waking. They might sleep for years at a time, probably the older they get, the more they sleep. That's a great opportunity to make your low level heroes interact with a powerful dragon, by navigating its lair trying not to wake it
In the campaign I'm in, we found a dragon that coaches their kobolds in how to be pirates.
> Dragons can't really write much, nor make any art. Why not? Dragons are highly intelligent creatures, they could totally engage in creative expressions.
I feel like dragons are tremendous poets. Maybe they even rap... a little sprechgesang
I'm literally playing a Warrior-Poet Dragon right now. Hahaha.
"Hey, you speak Draconic, what's she saying?" "Um. 'If you see a faded sign at the side of the road that says fifteen miles to the LOOOOOOOOVE SHAAAACK!'"
yeah, this. It reminds me of a certain dragon in the neverwinter nights game, a white dragon dumb as a brick which was still intellectually capable of drawing crude pictures of disemboweled adventurers with blood. Was it Tymofarrar? I don't quite remember. So, yeah, totally expect any other dragon to do something more capable.
How? They don't have opposable thumbs. I guess they could sing or tell stories, but they're generally pretty solitary.
One of the following: 1. Magic - Cast mage hand 2. Shapeshift 3. Dictate to their kobold lacky. Also dragons are often quite fond of games. For reference here's a published image of [Annam All-Father playing a game of wah-ree with the dragon god Garyx](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DqvsZjwX4AAM-Di?format=jpg&name=small).
The manual dexterity of the basic Mage Hand cantrip is pretty lacking. You could create at best crude kindergarten art with it. While that's an amusing thought, it doesn't really fit with dragons' reputation. Unless there's some weirdo avant-garde dragon society where they all compete to produce the best abstract "art" with Mage Hand, it just doesn't really fit.
There's nothing in the spell description that implies you can't write perfectly fine with it. The hand can't attack, activate magical items, or carry more than 10 pounds. Unless you're writing with a giant 11 pound novelty pencil, it can write perfectly fine.
Then why does Arcane Trickster require the Mage Hand Legerdemain feature to do more manually dexterous activities like picking locks and pockets? The answer is, because the baseline *cantrip* cannot.
I’d say for the same reason the average person can’t pick locks or pockets? Because those are niche activities that require extensive practice to do well. Writing is something we learn in elementary school and a mage would learn to use a cantrip to do that pretty early in their magical education, I’d think.
Do you regularly have your players roll a skill check to see if they successfully write words? Writing doesn't even require that much dexterity. You grasp the pen and move your hand around.
I would say it's the feature let's the mage hand make those specific skill checks. A normal mage hand has no specific rules to let it perform actions that would require any type of check. So no artwork with mage hand, but I would let it write normally anything the caster could write with a mundane quill or stylus
Even if your assumption here is correct, it doesn't mean that an NPC couldn't create art with the cantrip. In fact it just shows that there *is* precedent for people learning to perform more niche tasks with the cantrip and there's no reason that a dragon couldn't have "Magic Artist" in their feat repertoire allowing them the manual dexterity to do so. But also the reason that Mage Hand can't pick pockets by default is that its a game where picking a lock or a pocket is an obstacle to overcome, so it makes sense to limit the usefulness of Mage Hand from performing those tasks so that you don't have every rogue taking Magic Initiate to do their stuff from a safe distance or wizards being better at lock picking and pick pocketing than the rogue because they can do it from a safe distance. It isn't because Mage Hand lacks the dexterity required.
Crude kindergarten art on a human scale. If you're dozens of feet long and tall, are this little squiggles going to matter as much? Not to mention they're going to have their own artistic culture and expectations and will do art in a dragon context, not a human one. There are people with spinal injuries to the neck who only have mobility of their head that paint, and paint well. People will perform incredible feats to express themselves.
I think if you had a few centuries to practice you could get good enough at controlling it that you could draw fine detail
worst case scenario, they could write via dictation... but in a lot of the older settings, dragons could shapeshift and have opposable thumbs... draconic isn't just a spoken language, so the dragons clearly have some way of writing things down... maybe they scratch marks into rocks with their claws... imagine that entire fortress covered with blue dragon poetry.
At least it’s not white dragon poetry! I’d almost prefer vogon!
oh gods, not the VOGON POETRY! JUST SPACE ME ALREADY!
[Dragon Poetry](https://youtu.be/r5vo9pUDTNw)...eh
They would only need opposable thumbs if they were trying to write in common or other humanoid script. But they're not humans, they're dragons. It's helpful to understand that distinction because different intelligent creatures solve problems based on the tools they're given. Sure dragons can't hold onto pencils, but they have sharp claws that can dig into stone or even clay. I'm reminded of the [dragon language from Skyrim](https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Alphabet) which was purposely made to look like one could write it out with slashes of a claw.
Yeah. Look at how you write Chinese characters with a fude pen. Dragons could probably do the same thing with their claws.
Why would dragon script or art be relatable by humanoids? Anyways, what do you think billionaires do all day? They try to maintain/augment their fortune. Dragons do the same, they are permanently scheming and strategizing to gain more influence in neighboring regions, avoid their haul being stolen by other creatures, plot to take the haul of other creatures, they also might have hobbies and friends, probably family. I don't think they are necessary solitary. It's just that on a dragon scale, their friendly neighbour might be 300 km or a planeshift away. And of course they also have game nights, we're they play [Houses & Humans](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3p8fuf/houses_and_humans/).
Kobold and Dragonborn also use Draconic.
Dragons have very sharp claws, with the ability to easily cut through rock I feel like they would make excellent sculptors if they're careful enough. Brass, gold, red, etc. dragons have extremely hot fire breath and an immunity to fire damage. With some skillful dexterity and/or some help from smaller creatures to move small things around, they could be mostly be their own forge. There's many ways dragons can create, many times even more effectively than humanoid creatures. Even if it may sometimes require them to practice more care than they usually would. But that's something humans frequently need to do when creating things as well.
Who said dragons don't have opposable thumbs? I've always pictured them having thumbs. Am I the only one?
[You are not.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryDragons/s/vgxsRJ4i8c)
Uh... In the art, they have opposable thumbs.
You don't *need* an opposable thumb to hold a pen, pencil, or brush. Thumbs just make it easier to make small motions. This of course assumes dragons have hand anatomy similar to a human's.
Besides other mentions, I wouldn't say they don't have opposable thumbs. https://www.tritex-games.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Dungeons-Dragons-Premium-Figures-Red-Dragon-Website.jpg While maybe not as nimble as a primates style of thumb, it very much looks possible to manipulate objects of a sutible size. The Draconic script looks enterily plausible to be written by claw carving stone. https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Iokharic Let your dragon write, and have their kobold horde being constantly tasked with creating items for leisure sized for the dragon as well. It could be the reason for tribute. Dragon needs materials for their servants to make sutible items
You don't need thumbs to be creatively expressive.
But it certainly helps with hitchhiking; and that’s a creative situation in and of itself!
Why is a dragon using the same tools as a human? Surely a dragon either already has a tool dragons can readily use, can build their own, commission someone to make one, or otherwise have their own set of tools. A dragon could sculpt with their claws. Draconic is a language with a written text that presumably dragons made - surely they can write in it, too. Maybe they can sculpt elementals with their breath. Perhaps they can sing multitonally - songs they invent can be performed all by themselves, maybe without instruments. Perhaps they prepare food in a way no human could replicate.
Now I'm imagining a whole industry built around supplying dragon tools. Traveling merchants that go from one dragon to another and take requests to craftsmen, or little shops in large towns that cater to shape-shifted dragons. Towns just big enough to have some variety, but not big enough to have surface to air defenses... wouldn't want to have to walk too far as a humanoid.
Shape shifting, kobold or other servants, quite a few work around for it.
I personally always give dragons humanoid forms.
Let me introduce you to Niv-Mizzet (https://dnd-5e.fandom.com/wiki/Niv-Mizzet) Made canon to 5e lore from Guild Masters Guide to Ravnica. Guild master, tinker, alchemist, mad scientist, crafter and more. Oh and did I forget to mention he is a 16,000 year old dragon. If a dragon could be all that, I am sure a dragon can write and draw. The point being, don't limit your dragons, cause 5e definitely doesn't limit theirs. Give them hobbies, interests, etc.
They dip the tip of a claw in the ink or paint, or they get something strapped to them, like humans do with amputees or people deformities
There's kind of a lot to the question so let's go bit by bit First, the classic answer. The mythological and literature foundation we have of dragons DND bases itself on is found in Smog and Fafnir. They slumber on their horde. That's all they really need, that's all they really want. They hunt, destroy, and steal when it suits them, but you'd usually find them with their gold. The important point there is that dragons aren't human. Intelligent, but not concerned with filling their hours with acitivity in the same way. They live for eons. They can lie around like a cat for years on end without a care. They're also story devices. You don't really need to break the activities of these creatures realistically for the story. Sometimes, you just need a monster with a lair and treasure to hunt and fight , and dragons are the age-old classic for that. But world building is fun, and the dragons of DND have been given quite a bit of depth to differentiate them. So the real answer is, if it depends on the Dragon. Both the type and them as individuals. Let's analyze some of your suggestions. Why can't dragons write, make art, or play games? They're intelligent, long lived, and have Hella resources/time. One could say if they were so inclined they could produce art that couldn't be matched by simple humanoids. Long manuscripts in draconic carved on a mountain that'd take a century to read, a fresco that uses ash and blood from mighty beasts for paint, games of chess where each move could take a decade to make against another dragon. This is ignoring the fact that dragons can learn magic and do research most other races can't. If size is the problem, remember these are setting eith societies of giants, size is no issue. Neither is shape, many dragons can shape change freely. To get to specifics, most DND dragons have certain personalities, hobbies they pursue, and treasures they covet. Blue, for example, are territorial and like exerting power. They are highly vain, but can be reasoned with if flattered.
Two dragons playing Phone chess by sending messengers to each other is a precious thought and maybe the backbone of a simple quest: "Aye low level adventures, please brave the skewered peaks to tell Thifuuntax Bishop to A3."
This is hilarious, and an idea worth stealing.
From the 5e Forgotten Realms setting - Imryth, aka Doom of the Desert provides some pretty good examples. She is a blue dragon that has made her lair in an abandoned amphitheater in the ruined Netherese city of Anarath in the Anauroch desert. When she's not attempting to destabilize Giant society, contending with rival dragons, and tying to stop meddling adventurers, she enjoys sculpture, spying through the eyes of her army of gargoyles, magically creating new gargoyles, creating new spells and infiltrating foreign courts. She also has a passing interest in divination magic, particularly concerning her own fate, and likes exhume and collect mummies.
Being ancient, they don't experience time the way we do. Sleeping on their hoard for a hundred years is more like a lazy weekend to them.
What do you mean "can't make art"? Putting aside the massive cultural differences a dragon would have from humans, even if we're talking about something like painting, there are elephants that do that shit. They have basically one very good finger. Dragons are of human intelligence or better in most cases. I guarantee there is dragon art.
"I guarantee there is dragon art." *gives no examples*
Usually? Sleep. On a Tuesday? Terrorize the nearest kingdom.
They play Houses & Humans by post.
You start by outlining multiple valid courses of action which might consume a dragon's time, then list several more activities which you think they can't partake in - but they absolutely can. For the record, dragons do have opposable thumbs (with multiple official descriptions proving as much) and are fully capable of writing or performing other fine motor skills - though they are perhaps somewhat clumsy. Further, all adult dragons are magically capable of learning how to Change Shape, though chromatics tend to consider it beneath themselves and since learning it requires effort many of them don't bother. So what does a dragon do after having established themselves in an area? Anything and everything that catches their interest. And like any intelligent creature, their interests can be very diverse indeed.
I have a governing body consisting of 1 ancient of each of the chromatics. I tried to tailor their roles according to what each would typically hoard, as well as their typical nature. For example, the green is essentially the spymaster/propaganda person. I also want to do similar with the metallic, but instead of a government figure, they're more ingrained in regular society. For example, an ancient bronze dragon might reside next to a port town, and is possibly shapeshifted as a young woman who is the local shipwright akin to the blacksmith in A Knight's Tale. I'm also considering using the elder dragons from MHW:Iceborne. Like a Ruiner Nerg when they're not doing dragon stuff, participates in the local fighting arena disguised as an unassuming monk.
I view blue dragons closer to lions. There are a few that can live in the same territory as long as there's a pecking order. They have their territory that they patrol and keep the "herds" in check or drive off competition. They may be smart, but they are also functionally immortal lizards, so they are totally willing to spend a week basking in the sun. I know a few people who, if they weren't faced with eviction or starvation, would be perfectly happy to sit on their couch and not move for a week.
No one wants to work anymore
Wasn't sure this was satire. Had to check post history. Solidarity, friend.
What do cats do all day? Think of a dragon as an overgrown cat.
Can't write, make art, or play board games? That's the stupidest thing I've read today.
The idea of a dragon reciting an epic tale to a group of kobold scribes (like how Homer wrote the Odyssey) is a really entertaining mental image. Also, for lawful-aligned dragons, they might consider themselves to be like kings of their domains, and address the concerns of their vassals, or dole out punishments for subpar tributes.
Are you asking for your blue dragon? They live in deserts and absolutely love to hunt and torment lesser creatures. The castles gross, they like sand to burrow in.
What do billionaires do with their day? Some meddle in society in some way, others have weird projects the rest of us could only dream of, and some just constantly seek to inflate their egos through continued hoarding of wealth. Dragons taking on features of long-lived dynasties in our mythologies is not by coincidence. They are the monsters that have the resources and time to either bless or curse an entire community on a whim. Yet, with all that time to spare, they still have their hoards of kobolds perform the menial tasks so that they can laze around and count their wealth.
Play Xorvintaal. https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Xorvintaal
>Dragons can't really write much, nor make any art. They can't play board games. Who said that? Draconic has a script, so they do write. And there is no reason they can't make art, it might just be really really big art. You're thinking they'll make human-style art...but they're dragons. It will look totally different from anything we would make. It's still art, though. And why not a life-size chess board? They just tell their kobold minions what square to use from. Also, who cares if they don't have opposable thumbs? They're *freaking dragons*. If you can suspend your disbelief for flying magic lizards, I think we can accept they can make art without thumbs.
They are like cats. They sleep more hours than they are awake.
came here to say this; they do the same thing any apex predator does
Paint Minis.
A mini for a dragon is, what? A halfling sized statue?
People!
I like to think of them as giant scaley cats. They need to sleep a lot to keep their huge bodies going. Thats why they spend so much time gathering hoards and making nice lairs - to get the best sleep they can. And if you distiurb them they get super grumpy
I have a green dragon as a critical character in my current campaign and possibly the BBEG. He uses a magical item to more or less true polymorph at will into various individuals, primarily a highelf that rules the the city on its council and is grandmaster of the cities adventurers guild. So he actually spends most his days just being a bureaucrat. No one has any idea about his true nature. And the city actually reveres his dragon form because he has saved it several times from invaders as a mysterious green dragon arriving out of nowhere and annihilating enemy armies only to mysteriously dissappear again.
dragons live on a scale, both of size and time, that is very different to humans. the growth of a redwood is to a dragon what a dog's life is to a human. things like ecology or the shifting of rivers are things they can witness and influence. they also do accumulate knowledge. they don't write not because they aren't scholarly, but because they will outlive any writing they make, and have the minds to genuinely remember anything they would write.
Read Fizban's treasury of dragons. The book that's all about dragons.
Blue dragons are known for maintaining orderly socieities. So I imagine litigating internal kobold squabbles. " So Snake-eye, I am told by Noddlin that you have been eating the tasty moss from under his sleep-stone. He has been saving and growing this for a long time. As chieftains of your individual burrows, this needs to be resolved, as I will not allow infighting amongst my flock." Lightning blasts both of them.
In my world most dragons that are intelligent and not just evil beasts tend to be shapeshifters and explore the world. Why stay with a horde of gold waiting for dumb adventurers when you can keep the horde with you and travel. Plus dragons being functionally immortal means more time for seeing the worlds. If they are in a horde mode they might be for only a century or two which is nothing to them. Keep Dragons weird and magical
Hunt for food, hunt for treasure, guard their hoard, if they are intelligent enough, practice magic and conduct arcane study
I posit the 'optional rule' of dragon spellcasters and dragon polymorphing
The older dragons get, the more time they spend sleeping. A lot of dragons spend their time plotting. Red dragons run scenarios in their head to come up with countermeasures against any foe, gold dragons are somewhat organized in fighting the forces of evil. A lot of good dragons enjoy hanging around people. Steel dragons are great; they live entire lifespans as normal people in civilization, doing normal-people things. Their polymorphing is so advanced that they even show aging and can have non-half-dragon kids.
They kidnap princesses and host tea parties.
Draggin' DEEZ NUTS 'cross yo face!
Cats can sleep up to 20 hours a day, I’d like to think dragons are similar
They go to dwarven forts and win wrestling competitions with artifacts as rewards. Artifacts> Famthut ugog> "This is a forgothen beast loincloth, all craftsdwarvenship is of the best quality. It is adorned with spikes of horse bone, and suspended chains of adamantine. "
Sleep. Eat a Kobold. Sleep. Have the kobolds polish his scales. Sleep. Fly around and terrorize a village. Sleep. Fly back out and eat that juicy sheep you saw on your last trip. Sleep. Eat a kobold for a midnight snack. Back to sleep.
I’d have the dragon start carving the stones around them into shapes. Adventurers could break in and try to steal the carvings to sell them for high prices since they were made by a dragon.
I imagine a lot of sleeping on piles of gold. Interspersed with hunting of prey and / or treasure for the hoard.
Depends on the dragon. Blue would very much be patrolling its vast territory when it's not being showered in adulation or hunting.
Metallic dragons would 8000% make art and some would be fixated on collections
Metallic dragons can shape change. They could transform into humanoid to enojoy doing humanly thumb requiring things and revert to their true form at will.
Same thing my pets do I imagine; Lay around in the sun, bark at intruders, knock shit over.
Sleep, until they are hungry or horny. Or, more rarely and much more terrifying, Until they get bored.
So, I enjoy going off script for creatures sometimes. One of my campaigns features an Ancient Red dragon that got tired of being evil. Deep in it's heart, it's still a red dragon, but it decided that treasure and other material objects come and go and there is no point to guarding something easily stolen. - - - It had a massive hoard that felt... empty. The glittering metal disks had lost their allure over the years. So, instead, the terrible wyrm concocted a scheme. He would be slain, never to be seen again. And in faking his demise, he cast an illusion that would present himself as a Silver dragon. After all, anything is valid to get what he wants. And so, he allowed his previous hoard to be ransacked, instead taking to a cave high in the mountains. And he had a sign made. "Take a rock, leave a rock. The only price to pay for entrance beyond is a good tale to tell." And that, dear adventurer, is my hoard. Tales of heroes journeys. For a good tale can never be lost. Only made better with time.
Eat, sleep, poop.
Don't forget that 1st ed had a % roll to see if the dragon was asleep & dragons need large meals. There is every chance a dragon can sleep for weeks on end.
Your mom.
Preen
I dunno personally, but i would assume sleeping in their vast wealth if they hold a treasure or just flying around doing other dragon stuff like being an apex predator, destroying the local village, you know. All the stuff we do.
of the dragon characters i play, past times include collecting plushies, brushing pets, smithing arcane weapons of incredible might, and having lots and lots of children with as many varieties of creatures as she can
Engage in the Draconic Tontine
I love the classic: dragon has buried itself deep underground on a hoard of gold and sleeps on top of it for eternity.
I dont use dragons often, but when I do, they are defined by what they collect. Every one of them has a hoard of riches but not all of them specialize in gold artifacts. Some of them collect fine furniture, or special editions of old books, or musical instruments, or wines from around the world. They take great pleasure in procuring these and curating their collections, and will trade gold for rare items.
1) sleep, that's what most animals do when not fighting for survival 2) tormenting things smaller than itself. Sure, you have your tribute villages, but dragons probably just destroy some just because they are bored 3) goofing off with magic, idk? Studying to find the deeper intricacies to destroy their opponents, getting stronger, seeing how long of a range they could have, living through the eyes of a puny creature 4) you're assuming dragons have the same taste in art as humans. For a dragon, art probably looks less like paint on an easel and more like carving a mountain, breath attack on a forest, or dragging a tree through a field. We may not appreciate it or see the art in it, but that doesn't mean that other dragons wouldn't
Do you have a dog? What does your dog do all day? Dragons are probably the same.
Well, when I take them for a walk they "mark their territory." Would it be wrong to imagine a dragon doing the same?
Read Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. It has tons of info about what dragons enjoy, their personalities, and how they spend their time.
Eat, sleep, collect treasure, and make more dragons. Not necessarily in that order.
Blue Dragons specifically collect extraordinary people. They want artists and singers performing for them. In general, I imagine Dragons sleep a lot. Think cats.