Gox, my kobold Barbarian, was turned into a dragon by Daldain the Bard, (played by Ellie). The overall result was extremely helpful to the party, who could now enter every battle with a dragon on their team. That said, there is a bit of a learning curve when your character suddenly becomes a dragon.
Long story short, Daldain used a True Polymorph spell to turn Gox into an adult gold dragon.
True Polymorph allows the spell caster to turn a creature into another creature. The target’s game statistics, including mental ability scores, are replaced by the new form. The original creature retains its alignment and personality.
The number of hit points the True Polymorphed character has becomes equal to that of its new form. Gox the kobold had 214 hit points (at level 19). As an adult gold dragon, he now had an extra 256 hit points.
The way to keep track of it to put the extra hit points onto the temporary hit points part of the character sheet. Don’t change anything else, just in case your character loses the True Polymorph and reverts to their original form. Make sure to have the adult gold dragon stats accessible when needed. Yes, this sort of feels like using two character sheets, but you will get used to it.
My big, dumb, kobold Barbarian started with a wisdom modifier of +0 and an intelligence modifier of -2. As an adult gold dragon, his Wisdom became 15 (+2 modifier) and his Intelligence became 16 (+3 modifier). This opened up a lot of possibilities that were not previously available. Gox loves bacon, so one of the first things he did was come up with a wide variety of recipes that featured bacon. He started recognizing his brother Sox’s familiar when it appeared.
He figured out that using a Wing Attack in battle might work to blow a cloud of poison back at an enemy. Gox used his Tail Attack to fling zombies against buildings. Being able to fly his friends away from a battle gone wrong was another advantage (and something he couldn’t do as a kobold).
Your experience may vary, especially if your character started out with a much higher intelligence and wisdom than Gox did. Perhaps your character was smart but weak, and they need to learn how to use their new strength.
To really learn how to dragon, a player needs to understand the size difference between their original form and their dragon form. For example, Gox learned why it wasn’t a good idea to turn into a dragon while inside a building.
Dragons get extra turns in battle, in between the turns of everyone else. The extra turns are called Legendary Actions and include Detect (wisdom perception check), Tail Attack, and Wing Attack (which costs 2 actions). Dragons also can use Legendary Resistance (three per day) to turn a failed saving throw into a success.
At first, I found it hard to remember all of Gox’s new dragon options in battle, and often forgot to take the extra turns. With some practice, I started getting the hang of it.
