Dragons that assume other forms...

[oldkat]

Do you treat this as innate, or acquired (as in, Polymorph Self)?

The M&T book, p.12, states (under Gold Dragon):

They will often appear as human, or in some other guise.

GH, p.36 states (for Bronze dragons):

,and those able to talk and use magic can make themselves appear in animal guise.

GH, p.36 (for Silver dragons) states:

If they are able to use magic they are also able to appear in human guise, usually taking the form of an old man or a fair damsel.

Analyzing the above, one could interpret that the Bronze needs to know the Polymorph Self spell in order to do so, while it seems to imply that the gold and silver can either do this, or do this as long as they can use magic, period.

While all, if able to use magic, could access level 4 spells, it seems a stretch that all magic using bronze, gold and silver dragons would have the P-S spell.

What's your interpretation of this?

[CivilianZero]

As with all monsters, I'd say their abilities are not equated to or restricted by rules that pertain to players and their characters. It says they can do it, they just do it. More often than not the actual statistical effect of such a transformation would be irrelevant (except for when it was) so there doesn't need to be any specific bookkeeping on the how and why.

That's my opinion anyway.

[oldkat]

While I've always thought the power innate, it is nice hearing from one of the authors (Rob K.-- over at Murkhillboards) on the matter. His confirmation of this should help any neophyte game Referees that may have wondered about the issue.