AuldDragon's AD&D Blog

As with wizardly magic, many dragons naturally gain access to priestly spells as they age. These spells are not granted by the draconic gods and  require neither prayer nor memorization. As with the wizard magic, such spells are cast with a Casting Time of 1 and only a Vocal component, regardless of the spell’s description. Such spells are gained automatically and haphazardly; as such, they should be rolled for randomly. They should make some sense, however; Warp Wood is of little use to a desert-dwelling dragon, and such results should be rerolled.

Note that spells restricted to specific deities, even dragon priests, should not be gained by normal dragons unless they worship said deities; for example, a red dragon who worships Tiamat would have a chance of gaining spells restricted to Tiamat’s priests (as an aside, dragons need not worship their own gods; a gold dragon may gain the special spells of Torm if he is a devout follower of that deity). Because of this, some draconic magic is substantially more powerful than a humanoid spell of the same level; even should a humanoid become a priest of a draconic god without an established humanoid faith, they should not gain access to the spells that are listed for the deity. It would not be unreasonable to assume a dragon worships a deity who shares an alignment and/or temperament when creating a list upon which to roll. As an option, non-priest dragons who worship a specific deity may gain only spells from the spheres listed for that deity’s specialty priests.

For those dragons who choose to become priests and forgo their normal wizardly magic, as well as those dragons who gain no access to wizardly magic normally (such as radiant dragons), it is advised to introduce a handful of the draconic wizard spells as commonly available priest spells. Those spells are: Calm (Wiz2); Hand (Wiz2); and Sharptooth (Wiz3). All three spells can be found in either the Cult of the Dragon accessory or the Wizard’s Spell Compendium volumes. In addition, another common spell granted by the dragon gods to their priests follows:

Craft Draconic Holy Symbol (Pr 1; Alteration)
Sphere:   All
Range:   Touch
Components:   V, S, M
Duration:   Permanent
Casting Time:   1 hour
Area of Effect:   Special
Saving Throw:   None

This spell creates a draconic holy symbol from raw materials. In order to create the holy symbol, the dragon must have on-hand a volume equal to twice the material necessary for the final holy symbol, although the form does not matter. In order to perform the spell, the caster must hold the materials in its claws while chanting the spell; at the completion of the chant, the material has reformed into the appropriate holy symbol. Most dragon-priests can only create symbols for their own faiths; the exception being those of Io and Zorquan, who can create any holy symbol. Excess material is consumed by the magic of the spell; the spell does not require the use of a holy symbol to create a new one. Holy symbols created in this manner radiate minor magic, but this is a residue of their creation, and have no inherent magical power.