The cloud dragon is a traditional monster in both
fantasy fiction and role-playing games. The dragon in The
Neverending Story was very similar in appearance to a
cloud dragon.
Cloud dragons are usually one of the largest type of
dragons. They are often considered to be the most
intelligent type of dragon, but they do not consider anyone
who cannot fly naturally to be worthy of any attention or
respect. For that matter they really don't like being
bothered by anyone, and their environment keeps them
from running into humans very often. Some cloud dragons are
not winged, but most of them are. All of them are natural
fliers, even the ones that lack wings. All of them have the ability to become noncorporeal and assume the form of a cloud, they often use this ability to avoid combat.
Cloud dragons are hatched from eggs and they come out with
silver-white scales that are tinged with red at the tips.
These red coloring will spread and deepen as the dragon
ages with the oldest dragons having almost no silver
coloring at all. They have the ability to breathe an icy
blast of air that will blow most lesser creatures out of
the way and hurt them severely as well. This ability
becomes more and more powerful as the dragon ages. A
hatchling can barely blow a duck out of the way, while
ancient cloud dragons can blow other adult dragons right
out of the sky. As they age these dragons gain the ability
to exert more and more control over wind, water
and weather, the most ancient ones have full control over
their environment for miles and miles.
Cloud dragons almost always make their homes on magical floating islands that are hidden in the clouds. There are obviously never going to be enough of those to go around, so sometimes they have to settle for mountain peaks, but only the highest mountains will do. They often come into conflict with silver dragons because they both prefer to make their lairs in the same places, and cloud dragons have a nasty habit of taking over silver dragon lairs while the silver dragons are away on short (decade long) journeys.
Cloud dragons do not form mated pairs. The male of the species leaves the female as soon as they have mated, and the females with only incubate and raise one hatchling at a time. Hatchlings are usually left at home most of them time, and it is extremely rare to actually encounter one outside of the dragon's lair.
Most dragons can eat anything and cloud dragons are no exception to that rule. They prefer to eat hail and rainwater, although they find silver to be a real treat and eat any they can find. You will never find even a single silver coin in a cloud dragon lair, as the dragon will have eaten it long ago.
My monster nodes are usually based upon material in the
various AD&D rulebooks. But they are my own work, as I
often expand the information. In some cases I will
blatantly disagree with the source material. None of these
nodes are cut and paste. You are free to use my
descriptions in any material of your own (even commercial
material), as long as I am credited as the
source.