Eeek! Good find.
I think I will go with an ad hoc mitigating factor. How about a cosmic confluence of The Messenger comet passing Athas? I think it happens once every 45 years.
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Sounds good. Honestly, a few more things like that throughout the next few stages could help set them apart, since the rules donāt allow for 2e style āambiguous aidā from powerful, never described outsiders or elemental lords
Edit to add: the outsider/elemental lord thing from the high end 2e transformations always confused me. Isnāt a 27th level dragon already just about the strongest thing around, given how decayed the elemental planes of athas are? (source, earth air fire water 2e elemental cleric book)
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I donāt doubt there are powerful beings on the elemental planes, I just doubt they know anything about metamorphosis. That saidā¦ I COULD work it into the metamorphosis at stage 8. A mitigating factor, the fluff and effect that goes something like this:
You gain the assistance of a powerful elemental lord who provides you with the pure essence of his plane to assist you in your transformation. In exchange, you must commit to this pact by becoming part of the elemental plane yourself. You gain the corresponding elemental subtype (earth, air, fire or water). Furthermore, elemental creatures of this subtype view you as one of their own kind. Initial NPC attitude is one degree better than it would be normally (for example, if an NPC of the same elemental subtype would normally have an initial attitude of indifferent, it is considered friendly instead).
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Yeah, iām certain there are āsomeā fairly powerful beings, but considering that defiling magic literally ruined both athas AND the elemental planes, and how few elemental lord style beings there are, Iāve always wondered how the freaking heck an aspiring dragon was supposed to get the aid of NINE such beings, three from each of three planes.
Itās true 2e style, āfigure it out yourself because we sure as heck donāt knowā like the avangions atrocious requirement of gaining hundreds of thousands of EXP in 2E during their 24, 25, and 26 level transformations, without having contact with a single soul. Itās āpossibleā in roughly the same way rolling 20 20ās on a D20 in a row is possible.
As good of a way as any, and better than most. I say go for it.
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I have fixed VII. Have a look.
Perfection. Canāt wait for the rest.
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Defiler Metamorphosis VIII
Transmutation (psionic enchantment)
Spellcraft DC: 90 DC
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 minute
Target, effect or area: Personal
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: N/A
Spell Resistance: No
To develop: 810,000 Cp, 17 days, 32,400 XP. Seed: metamorphosis (28 DC). Factors: Factors: Natural Armor bonus +4 (+120 DC). Size alteration increase by one size category (+95 DC). Grant Feat that increases effectiveness in combat: Hover (+50). Fast healing 5 (+90 DC). +2 Dex (+90 DC). Mitigating factors: psionic enchantment via expenditure of epic power slot (-19 DC). Change range to personal (-2 DC). Sacrifice 2000 HD of living creatures (-100 DC). 80d6 backlash damage (-80DC). Assistance of an Elemental Lord (-120 DC ad hoc). Burn 6200XP (-62 DC).
The almost unbearable pain and agony seem to be second only to your fury and hatred as another stage of the metamorphosis is completed. You are now bigger than ever before.
This spell may only be cast after the defiler metamorphosis VII spell has been cast, and you must be of dragon type. Additionally, this spell must be cast as a psionic enchantment, meaning an epic psionic power slot must be expended in the casting.
At this, the seventh stage of your metamorphosis, a focus structure is detrimental your continuing metamorphosis, and you are so powerful you have no need of a focus structure anyway. Instead of a focus structure, you enlist the aid of a powerful Elemental Lord. The Elemental Lord provides you with the pure essence of his plane to assist you in your metamorphosis. In return for this assistance, the Elemental Lord asks nothing of you but that you become one of his kind by taking his elemental subtype. An advanced being anchored in the Material Plane allows the flow mystical energies to the devastated elemental plane of the corresponding subtype, healing some damage to the elemental plane. Additionally, you can some of the benefits on the elemental subtype as follows:
ā¢ A creature with the fire subtype has immunity to fire. It has vulnerability to cold, which means it takes half again as much (+50%) damage as normal from cold, regardless of whether a saving throw is allowed, or if the save is a success or failure.
ā¢ Creatures with the water subtype always have swim speeds and can move in water without making Swim checks. A water creature can breathe underwater and usually can breathe air as well. Additionally, you can vocalize for casting spells underwater (you can cast spell underwater)
ā¢ Earth creatures can burrow through solid rock. Now so can you.
ā¢ Air creatures always have fly speeds and usually have perfect maneuverability. You do not have perfectly maneuverability, but your maneuverability, usually capped at Good for dragons, is now uncapped and may be boosted to Perfect if you choose that path in your metamorphosis.
This spell transforms you into the eighth stage of the Athasian dragon species. Your size increases by 1 category, gaining all the inherent features thereof. If your size increases from Huge to Gargantuan for instance, you would gain +8 Str, +4 Con, +4 Natural Armor, and -2 on attack/AC. In additional to the Natural Armor increase from your size, your skin and scales become denser, giving you an additional +4 Natural Armor bonus. Your infusion of pure elemental energy to fuel your metamorphosis gives you the elemental subtype (earth, air, fire or water) that corresponds with the assisting Elemental Lord. Furthermore, elemental creatures of this subtype view you as one of their own kind. Initial NPC attitude is one degree better than it would be normally (for example, if an NPC of the same elemental subtype would normally have an initial attitude of indifferent, it is considered friendly instead). Your wounds now heal almost as fast as you get them. You now have an additional +5 Fast Healing. Your ability to fly improves ā you can hover in the air, per the Hover feat. You gain a slight improvement in your Dexterity (+2 Dex), mitigating somewhat your clumsiness from increasing size.
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I have the final ad hoc mitigating factor already thought out. Any suggestions for 9?
Iād actually make a suggestion on the elemental infusion/interaction. Swap it for paraelemental*. As has been noted above (and in numerous 2E and 3E products), the Elemental Planes have had their butts whipped by defiling. Why would they help a supreme defiler? Surely the Paraelemental Planes would be a better fit for defilers? Itās a change from the established pattern but I think it fits thematically.
*If Iāve misunderstood Elemental to only refer to the 4 classic elements then my apologies in advance.
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It could be done - partially! Hereās the thing. Weāve got earth, air, fire, water and COLD. The classic D&D dragons (in 3.5E) have one of these subtypes. What subtype is Rain? Magma? Silt? Sun?
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
The paraelements of silt, sun, magma, and rain are hybrids of two other elements. Silt comes from earth and water, sun from fire and air, magma from fire and earth, and rain from air and water. The ethereal creatures that emerge from these unions are not simply hybrid versions of their parental elements; rather, the paraelementals are independent of them, having taken on the attributes of both. They have entirely different views about the nature of things, and what pleases or displeases them lies in their own natures, for their own reasons.
From this we know that they are mixtures of other elements, but also their own new elements - that do not correspond to any subtype. It doesnāt mean it canāt happen though - if you care to create new subtypes or just handwave the subtype away and just say that paraelementals have their initial attiude adjusted.
The way I see it, the Elemental Lords of the four main elemental planes are desperate. The process by which an elemental plane might benefit from a pact with an advanced being is unknown, save that it involves some mystical transference.
As for the why of it, youād have to ask TSR. They didnāt even try to explain it.
Perhaps needing to utilize the pristine tower? Though I really feel that would make a good capstone requirement, involving life shaping and all that good stuff to finalize the transformation. Hmm. Maybe some kind of lunar/solar cycle then, like the LOA shadow shifter spells?
Love the eighth spell, BTW.
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Cold/Fire/Earth/Fire respectively Iād say.
Iām not saying Elemental Lords would refuse to support the ascending dragonā¦I think their asking price would be pretty hefty though (and no, I have no ideas on what that would involve as examples).
Hah! I wouldnāt waste my or their time to be honest. Dragon Kings was written around the same time as the initial CS box. So many things werenāt thought through, or properly developed, or made clear in later supplements. As evidenced by the comment about the Astral Plane when later material introduced the Gray as a barrier to the Astral. 
The Tower should be a Stage X element IMHO. For IX, maybe a magically/psionically enhanced location. Perhaps Rajaatās Pyramid in the swamp at the base of the Jagged Cliffs? Or the Palace of Sielba in Yaramuke? Or the Crimson Monolith? It would require controlling/shaping the ambient energies of those sites before attempting to control the Towerās power.
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Normally, Iād agree, early installment weirdness and all. But these transformations were updated, and even slightly modified (compare rampage state as described in the two sources), in Defilerās and Preserverās post box set 2, which actually defined how the gray impeded travel. It is therefore incredibly frustrating, knowing that somebody later looked at the spells, knowing how incorrect and improbable the requirements were, and apparently said āeh, fuck itā and did nothing to fix them or clarify how they were supposed to be fulfilled.
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I agree with this idea.
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No pristine tower. For one, you are too big to enter the steeple of crystals. The theme for 7, 8, 9 is something cosmic/mystical.
Stage 10 will conform roughly to Stage 10 in 2E.
As of Stage 7 we are done with large focus structures. Besides - there is a DIFFERENT ritual in my rules that the take place in the Pristine Tower. One is to gain the ability to draw energy from the sun - sun casting. That must be cast in the steeple of crystals. The other is fashioning an elemental vortice. This requires the dark lens to be positioned at the head of the steeple.
Nay - Stage 10 will the greatest of all. Stage 9 is for what I need a mitigating factor.
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All right, what about my moons/sun/eclipse/whatever suggestion then?
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Stage 7 had an astrological theme in The Messenger comet. Iāll reuse an astrological theme only if we canāt come up with something else.
I mean, given its history with psionic and magical/planar interactions, you could actually require the next stage to be cast on the astral plane (with all the difficulties that implies). Other than that, I got little/nothing, except maybe involving the gray or the black in the same way.
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I need to review the 2E Dark Sun material. Then Iāll come up with something.