In European myth, dragons are almost universally regarded as evil - rapacious monsters that lay waste to the countryside, have to be slain by heroic knights and, in many cases, essentially breathe hellfire. They are, sometimes literally, diabolic creatures. The same is not necessarily true in other cultures, such as that of China, where dragons may not necessarily be easy to parlay with or recruit as allies, but aren't fundamentally hostile, either.In D&D, the good counterparts to the evil chromatic dragons are, of course, the metallic ones. Indeed, they are among a relatively small number of 'good monsters' to make it consistently through into the core books of later editions. Up until 5E, they are portrayed as rarer, but individually more powerful than, the chromatic dragons. They are perhaps even rarer in games than they are usually described as being in the universe (in two campaigns of Critical Role, the PCs have so far encountered at least seven chromatic dragons, and only one metallic). Doubtless, this is because they are less useful in a typical game if you're not going to fight them - and they're too powerful to be regular allies.
Perhaps the key feature of the metallic dragons in D&D, beyond not being evil, is that they all have two breath weapons. In most cases, one of these mimics the deadly breath weapon of one of the chromatic species, and the other is a non-lethal attack of some kind.
Brass Dragons
As originally depicted in 1E, brass dragons are physically equivalent to black dragons, the second-weakest of the chromatic species. They are however, significantly more intelligent and slightly better armoured - probably due to their brassy scales rather than natural agility. The difference weakens in 3E, largely because the black dragon improves a little, but by 5E, the brass dragon is physically inferior even to the white dragon, making it the weakest dragon overall and, while its intelligence hasn't changed, it's no longer superior to that of most chromatic dragons.
Their most distinctive feature in 1E is that, in common with most other metallic dragons, they have only four limbs, not six. The wings are instead formed from a membrane stretched between a series of rays projecting from the creature's flanks and running from the shoulders to the hips. Other distinctive features include a flaring double ridge of bone at the back of the skull, barbels on the chin and a series of triangular plates along the spine, which are replaced by a dorsal fin on the tail.
The brass dragon's appearance changes significantly in 3E, most obviously in that it now has the full set of six limbs. The wing limbs, which arise from just behind the shoulders (implying two pectoral girdles) have a 'hand' with just two digits - a vestigial claw and a much longer digit that forms the leading edge of the wing. The remainder of the wing is similar in structure, although not shape, to that in the first two editions, but runs all the way to the tip of the tail. The dragon also acquires a dorsal crest on the neck, loses the spines and tail-fin further back, and has a single V-shaped armoured frill on the head, rather than the double one it had previously. In 5E, the shape of the wings changes again, with there now being three alar digits and a greatly elongated spur arising from the elbow.
How are the wings attached to the rest of the skeleton? The look is probably inspired by that of the so-called "flying dragon" in our world. This is a gliding lizard, with the gliding membranes being supported by a series of struts projecting from the animals' flanks. These are, in fact, free ribs, with the more anchored ribcage being very small and short and pushed up to the animal's front. But, being ribs, these project sideways from the spine, which doesn't seem to be the case for brass dragons, except along the tail. (Where they could be transverse processes of some kind, since even snake tails don't have ribs as such).
Instead, they must be novel skeletal structures, perhaps articulated with the upper lateral surface of the ribs. Since there are only four pairs before the start of the tail, it also seems likely that only a few pairs of ribs - say one every three or four - connect to them. In light of which, it's worth noting that early synapsids, like living reptiles, tended to have ribs running right the way down to the pelvis, which living mammals do not.
In 1E, as the weakest metallic dragon, the brass is unusual in lacking a deadly breath weapon and having two non-lethal ones instead. In 2E, one of these becomes redundant, since it mirrors an ability that all dragons now have to some extent, and is replaced with a blast of superheated air. In 3E, this becomes a narrow jet of fire, perhaps with the animal spitting some liquid that spontaneously ignites on contact with air.
The non-lethal attack that brass dragons retain in 2E is a knock-out gas. These, of course, have the advantage of actually existing in the real world. However, they are generally less effective than portrayed in fiction, and side effects of some kind are almost impossible to avoid. Chloroform might seem an obvious choice for instance, since it probably isn't that difficult to synthesise organically... but in reality, it takes about five minutes for it to knock someone out. More fast-acting agents are known, but they are far from harmless. Famously, Russian security forces pumped a fentanyl-derived sleep gas into a theatre being held by Chechen separatists in 2002. It apparently worked, although probably not as instantly as the equivalent in D&D... but it also killed a number of the hostages, since overdoses are impossible to avoid, especially in enclosed spaces.
On the plus side, since the sleep gas would presumably have to be inhaled to work (rather than being absorbed through the skin) it's easier to see why the brass dragon doesn't knock itself out. It just has to hold its breath while it blows the stuff out.
Copper Dragons
The 1E copper dragon has the same physical power as a green dragon - the mid-point on the chromatic scale. Like the brass, it has one more point of armour than its counterpart, spends less of its time in its lair, and is more likely to know magic. Its average intelligence is the same as that of a brass dragon, which is still higher than any chromatic except the red.
It also has a similar physical form to the brass dragon, but with shorter triangular plates on the spine, and no frill on the tail. The skull seems similarly armoured, but has a pair of backwards-pointing (thus essentially useless) horns instead of the double flange and what appear to be whiskers on the cheek. 3E, however, sees a similar transformation to that of the brass dragon, along with much shorter, broader horns that have some sort of segmented plating. The wings are similar, but the alar thumb appears larger (although, as always, it's unclear what, if anything, it is there for) and there is a long spur arising from the elbow, accompanied by two further accessory bones branching off from the ulna. The 'whiskers' now appear to be cartilaginous or fleshy spurs with membranes between them, and might perhaps be used in visual displays.
It's harder to see what the wing structure is in 5E, but there appear to be three digits, rather than just two, and the wing membrane certainly doesn't extend past the hips, whereas previously it went most of the way down the tail. Copper dragons become steadily more intelligent in 3E and 5E, eventually equalling the greens, which are the smartest of the chromatics by this point. The drop in physical power of the metallic dragons in 5E also means that it's now similar to white dragons in this respect.
The non-lethal attack of the copper dragon once again skirts on the borders of plausibility. How it's generally described as working makes it seem obviously magical, but, in fact, the game mechanical effects fit reasonably well with a gas that makes the victim feel woozy or partially debilitated. Plenty of gases do that although, realistically, they would also lead to some disorientation or at least a drop in the ability to use skills that rely on fine coordination and reflexes, such as fighting or stringing a bow.
Bronze Dragons
The 1E bronze dragon has the physical prowess of the blue combined with the high intelligence and spellcasting ability of the red dragon (by far the smartest of the chromatics in this edition). It has the four-limbed body and fan-like wings of the brass and copper dragons, being distinguished by a lack of horns, the presence of mammal-like ears, and a dorsal crest that's especially high along the back. Unlike those two, however, it switches to bat-like wings in 2E; the thumb is reduced to a simple hook, but is accompanied by three additional claws that are either accessory digits or modified carpal bones.
The look changes radically in 3E. The bronze dragon now has horns, projecting from an armoured Triceratops-style frill, and that possibly increase in number as it grows. The fur seen around the head in earlier editions has gone, as have the visible ears, and the dorsal frill is now seen only on the neck and tail, not the back where it was previously highest. Suiting a semi-aquatic animal, there is webbing at the rear of the forelegs, although not apparently between the toes.
The wing has also changed again, becoming less bat-like. The thumb is elongated and, as usual free of membranes, but the main edge of the wing is formed from digit V (the "little finger") with the other three digits having much shorter webbing, and possibly functioning like a large alula. This has features in common with the wings of both bats and pterosaurs - in the latter, digit IV forms the leading edge and V is missing, but it's possible that digits I to III were webbed, if much shorter than in the fictional dragon. There is also a greatly elongated spur projecting from the elbow, allowing for a larger wing area than might otherwise be the case.
Unlike the brass and copper dragons, the bronze loses relatively little physical prowess in 3E and 5E, remaining broadly equivalent to a blue dragon with (in 3E) magical prowess equivalent to a red. Also in 3E, its intelligence goes off the top of the regular range, higher even than that of a green dragon, but it returns to its original (and still high) level in 5E... which is now also equivalent to that of a blue.
The initial description of the bronze dragon's non-lethal attack is a cloud, and then a cone, of a gas that magically compels anyone in it to walk away. In 5E the gas is replaced by magical energy. This seems to have much the same effect as a short blast of powerful wind would, except that spells that would protect against wind don't work against it. This resembles the science-fiction concept of a "pressor beam" and couldn't really work as described in the real world. Here, we're clearly in the realm of magic.
Silver Dragons
In 1E, the silver dragon is similar in physical, mental, and magical prowess to the red dragon, the most powerful of the chromatics. Aside from the breath weapon(s) and alignment, the differences between the two are relatively minor, such as the silver dragon spending marginally less time asleep - a mere three-and-a-half hours a day. In terms of its appearance, it's the only metallic dragon in 1E to have six limbs; it is otherwise distinguished by a high dorsal crest on the neck and backward-pointing horns as well, of course, being the only metallic dragon to have a silvery rather than a coppery to gold hue.
Perhaps as a result of this, the look of the silver dragon changes less in 3E than the other metallic dragons do. The detailed tructure of the wings changes in each of the first three editions, with the unusual feature in 3E being that digit II (the "index finger") is free from patagium and comparatively elongated and flexible, suggesting that this part of the wing might be usable as a crude grasping hand. The silver dragon also has a broad and ribbed membranous frill on either side of the head, possibly to focus sound to the ears, but possibly as some sort of display structure (and the two are not mutually exclusive). There are also barbels on the chin, which might be sensory, but are more likely signals of fitness or age.
In 3E and 5E, the silver dragon is somewhere between a red and a blue dragon in physical power, being closer to the red by 5E. In 3E, its intelligence goes off the scale, but it drops back to its original level by 5E, thus placing it slightly lower than the wiley genius greens, although still notable by human standards. The non-lethal breath weapon of a silver dragon is consistently described as a paralysing gas. In the real world, that's essentially a description of nerve gases, such as sarin. Since there's no way to stop them affecting the muscles of breathing, these are obviously much more lethal than the imaginary gas produced by silver dragons, and they also tend to hang around in the environment for quite a bit longer. (Indeed, most 'nerve gases' used in 20th century warfare are hundreds of times more deadly than mere chlorine...)
Gold Dragons
Gold dragons are easily the most distinctive of the dragons in 1E. They have an incredibly long sinuous body, which would be almost snake-like if it weren't for the widely spaced legs. The head is long and narrow, with horns ending in curious blunt knobs and barbels on the cheeks and both upper and lower jaws. A ridge of what appears to be bristly hair runs down the middle of the back in place of a frill. Most dramatically, of course, not only are they four-limbed like most other metallic dragons, they have no wings at all. Draconic flight is aerodynamically impossible for all species, of course, but here it's explicitly magic, especially since they fly faster than most other dragons do. In 2E, it turns out that they do have wings, but can make them magically disappear when they get in the way - which is apparently most of the time when they aren't flying.
In 3E, they gain a more typically draconic form. The tail is still remarkably long, but the body is more typically proportioned and they do have six permanent limbs, with the wings having a similar structure to those of brass dragons, but wider and more dramatic towards the tip of the tail. The neck has a double crest instead of the usual dorsal frill; the spines that run along it cannot here be projections of the vertebrae and must either be projections of short cervical ribs or anchored in the skin. Far from being elongated, the face is unusually short, and the barbels are longer and more prominent. In 5E it also appears to have two sets of horns.
The 1E gold dragon is the most powerful of all dragons, one step up from the reds and silvers in every respect - placing their average intelligence at around the human maximum. They can almost all use magic, whereas the silver is the only other species where even half of dragons can do so.
The power gap between golds and reds is less dramatic in 3E, partly because the numbers are high enough by this edition that one extra step doesn't make much difference. They have the same strength as red dragons, combined with the same superhuman intelligence as silver dragons. In 5E, their physical and mental abilities drop a little, until they are virtually identical to those of red dragons; the two are now essentially tied for the title of "most powerful dragon", although the gold does get a few extra skills and a choice of breath weapon.
In all editions, the gold dragon is the only metallic dragon not to have a non-lethal breath attack.
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