Good news for anyone who wants to make a young dragon in their area!
The MUD will shortly support different age categories for dragons which will be approriately reflected in their stats, available attacks, and damage. Each dragon race has twelve age categories that correspond to specific levels and any mob that falls on a level between two age categories defaults to the lower one. For instance then, a black dragon at level 5 is considered a 'Wyrmling' and a black dragon at level 9 is considered 'Very young', so a level 8 black dragon would default to wyrmling.
As a handy point of reference you can find a chart of dragon attacks and the stats, size, and damage resistance that each type of dragon has at its different stages by following this link: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTrue.htm. Although we've tried to match the information on that page as closely as possible HP has been a challenge and we've had to make a compromise; young dragons will have slightly more hp than they should and older dragons will have slightly less.
The size of the dragon is affected by its age category and is what specifically affects the damage and attack types available. Using the same level 8 black dragon wyrmling, if we look it up we can see that black dragon wyrmlings are 'tiny' (smallest size on the MUD and for dragons in general) and so they only get three attacks- two claw attacks that do 1d3 damage each and a bite attack that does 1d4. On the MUD, however, the wyrmling will only get *two* attacks. At the moment we're limited to a maximum of five attacks so the claws and wings are reduced to one each and the tail sweep isn't added at all. At their highest levels a colossal dragon will therefore be able to attack with:
1 bite
1 claw
1 wing buffet
1 tail slap
1 crush
This is, however, subject to possible change, and if there are any new developments I'll write an update here.
For convenience here's a list of all the dragon races we have available and at what levels their different age categories fall:
Gold Dragon ----------- Green Dragon ------Black Dragon
Wyrmling - 10 ----------- Wyrmling - 6 ------- Wyrmling - 5
Very Young - 13 --------- Very Young - 10 ---- Very Young - 9
Young - 17 --------------- Young - 14 --------- Young - 13
Juvenile -21 ------------- Juvenile - 17 ------- Juvenile - 16
Young Adult - 25 -------- Young Adult - 21 --- Young Adult - 20
Adult - 29 --------------- Adult - 25 ----------- Adult - 24
Mature Adult -32 ------- M. Adult - 28 ------- Mature Adult - 28
Old - 36 ----------------- Old - 32 -------------- Old - 31
Very Old - 40 ----------- Very Old - 36 -------- Very old - 35
Ancient - 43 ------------ Ancient - 40 --------- Ancient - 39
Wyrm - 47 -------------- Wyrm - 43 ----------- Wyrm - 42
Great Wyrm - 50 ------ Great Wyrm - 47 ---- Great Wyrm - 46
Blue Dragon ----------- Brass Dragon ------- Bronze Dragon
Wyrmling - 7----------- Wyrmling - 5 ------- Wyrmling - 7
Very Young - 11 --------- Very Young - 9 ---- Very Young - 11
Young - 15 --------------- Young - 13 --------- Young - 15
Juvenile - 19 ------------- Juvenile - 16 ------- Juvenile - 19
Young Adult - 23 -------- Young Adult - 20 --- Young Adult - 21
Adult - 26 --------------- Adult - 24 ----------- Adult - 26
Mature Adult - 30 ------- M. Adult - 28 ------- Mature Adult - 30
Old - 34 ----------------- Old - 31 -------------- Old - 34
Very Old - 37 ----------- Very Old - 35 -------- Very old - 37
Ancient - 41 ------------ Ancient - 39 --------- Ancient - 41
Wyrm - 45 -------------- Wyrm - 42 ----------- Wyrm - 45
Great Wyrm - 49 ------ Great Wyrm - 46 ---- Great Wyrm - 49
Brown Dragon ----------- Copper Dragon ---- Deep Dragon
Wyrmling - 7 ----------- Wyrmling - 6 ------- Wyrmling - 7
Very Young - 11 --------- Very Young - 10 ---- Very Young - 11
Young - 15 --------------- Young - 14 --------- Young - 15
Juvenile - 19 ------------- Juvenile - 17 ------- Juvenile - 19
Young Adult - 23 -------- Young Adult - 21 --- Young Adult - 23
Adult - 26 --------------- Adult - 25 ----------- Adult - 26
Mature Adult -30 ------- M. Adult - 28 ------- Mature Adult - 30
Old - 34 ----------------- Old - 32 -------------- Old - 34
Very Old - 37 ----------- Very Old - 36 -------- Very old - 37
Ancient - 41 ------------ Ancient - 40 --------- Ancient - 41
Wyrm - 45 -------------- Wyrm - 43 ----------- Wyrm - 45
Great Wyrm - 49 ------ Great Wyrm - 47 ---- Great Wyrm - 49
Red Dragon ------------ White Dragon ------ Silver Dragon
Wyrmling - 9 ----------- Wyrmling - 4 ------- Wyrmling - 9
Very Young - 13 --------- Very Young - 7 ---- Very Young - 13
Young - 16 --------------- Young - 11 --------- Young - 16
Juvenile - 20 ------------- Juvenile - 15 ------- Juvenile - 20
Young Adult - 24 -------- Young Adult - 18 --- Young Adult - 24
Adult - 28 --------------- Adult - 22 ----------- Adult - 28
Mature Adult - 31 ------- M. Adult - 26 ------- Mature Adult - 31
Old - 35 ----------------- Old - 30 -------------- Old - 35
Very Old - 39 ----------- Very Old - 34 -------- Very old - 39
Ancient - 42 ------------ Ancient - 37 --------- Ancient - 42
Wyrm - 46 -------------- Wyrm - 41 ----------- Wyrm - 46
Great Wyrm - 50 ------ Great Wyrm - 45 ---- Great Wyrm - 50