90% of the dragon races in dnd seem like the writers “wanted” a dragonesque race, but didn’t want the players to actually be a dragon. So they kept shifting that line drawn in the sand with each consecutive race until they basked in the consequences of their actions and ultimately threw their hands in the air like “screw it, this is all canon now. I’m gonna stop myself before I dig the hole any deeper”
My favorite part is when they just gave up and said "FINE! YOU WANT TO PLAY AS A DRAGON? HERE'S THE FUCKING DRACONOMICON. YOU GET A DOZEN PRESTIGE CLASSES JUST FOR DRAGONS! Just leave me alone. please."
@Seria Mau well, back in 3e (from my knowledge) you could play a half-dragon, but you took like, a 13 level penalty to do it because half-dragons are super powerful, dragonborn exist to fill that niche without the power imbalance. also Draconian's existed before any of them because Dragonlance is very old.
Dragonborn "cautious" way they are drawn: Covered in scales, shown to be hulking in comparison to humans, have claws, can breathe...stuff, no clue how they...came to be Tiefling "fear and persecution" way they are drawn: hot cosplay dommy mommies and daddies with horns, a phobia of clothes and crayola style skill color. Oh they too have horns. And tails. It's the tails. Everyone fears their OP balance bonus.
Are you trying to imply there is some dissonance here becuase i cannot see the contradiction Edit: wait nevermind i watched the video i get what you mean
Dragonborns were created by dragons, but not of dragons, because the dragons wanted humanoid slaves... So they made humanoid dragon looking things to serve them. And the humanoid dragon looking things didn't like being slaves. Whereas Kobolds were created from drops of dragon's blood hitting the ground, so they literally are "of dragon-kind". And since dragons treated these little blood droplet beings as children, the blood droplet beings love their dragon parents. Also, one of their kind did become a god, too.
@@DragonaxFilms I want to gainsay but you are right. if its not gods, then progenitor races, empires, dragons or other wanting a workforce and or a specific task done but not willing to do it themselves.
I have been following both channels for year, kinda since the 2 beholder episodes from mr rhexx. I Just now realized how much RU-vid Is putting the videos from Rhexx with Runesmith. I mean, I have alredy watched the Tiamat 45 minutes video 2 times, and RU-vid still puts It in recomanded when I check new video from Runesmith, same applies with the goblin tactics video when I watch Mr Rhexx. Wow, I'm slow at noticing patterns.
In case you didn't understood Dragonborn: "i was not born from a dragon. I was born from another dragonborn" Draconians: "i was born from a true metallic dragon, but they corrupted my egg and now i am a dragonborn because players can't have nice things" Kobold: "i was born from another kobold, but if you trace my linneage to the very beginning we were, in fact, born from true dragons" Urd: "i was born from a kobold, but i have more draconic blood so i have wings and my strenght is not negative, AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN!" Dragonspawn: "i think i am just a kobold, no?" Half dragon: "my mother was a dragon, but my father was a bard" Draconic sorcerers: "yeah, the same as the Half dragon guy, but... I'm closer to my father Dragonkin: ( ಠ_ಥ) "what the hell am i?"
Dragonkin: A unique and interesting race inspired by the Skeksis of The Dark Crystal, cursed by the Elder God Jas to guard her Stone while creating dragons in an attempt to make up for their infertility and create Dragonkin-like beings unaffected by the curse. …wait, wrong game’s Dragonkin
My first dnd character was going to be a Zekyl, but I started watching critcrab, which saved me from the "stares at you with doll like eyes" kind of player
@@siriusb2045 yeah I know the episode you're talking about lol. Still, don't refrain too much from playing an edgy character. As long as you do it well and you aren't obnoxious it's really fun, an DMs like that too in the end.
I appreciate the UA version having literally ANY thought into what makes being a dragon person cool, especially with the breath weapon attack interchangeability!
I used to think that Dragonborn were weird, but MrRhexx’s video about them sold me on them completely. The reason that Dragonborn as we know them are loyalist and live in tightly-knit communities is because they’re technically inter-dimensional refugees. Dragonborn were a race created to be subjugated by dragons in a parallel planet where dragons are the apex species. They eventually rebelled and were able to form their own Dragonborn Haiti, but when the goddess of magic was killed, this opened some sort of rift in space time and caused Dragonborn Haiti to be transported to the Forgotten Realms. They hate dragons because they were enslaved by them, they hate the gods because the gods didn’t answer their prayers, they’re self-sufficient because they overcame their oppressors without the help of gods, and they’re distrustful of all other people because they’re strangers in a strange land.
I give Dragonborn the "Powerful Build" ability. The size matches every other race with Powerful Build, but that feature came out after the PHB, so they never got it. I also increase the Breath Weapon to be used "proficiency bonus" times per long rest.
I like the way the DnD show "The Prince Division" do dragonborne and draconic sorcerers. Essentially when Female Dragons do it with a male humanoid they give birth to Half Dragons. When A female humanoid does it up with a male dragon it's a draconic sorcerer. Dragons are more common because they way they work is different and dragons work more with society.
This is a really good concept, but I think we can elaborate further. the more humanlike DB sorcerer shown in the PH and the Dragonborn in the PH should still be variants of the same race with the standard dragonborn given the physical strength and features of dragons ie. claws, scales, breath weapon, a tail, strength bonus, and even wings. While the more human variant is given bonus CHA, a 1st level spell slot from the sorcerer spell list that can be recovered after a long rest and gaining more spell slots at higher levels using CHA as the cast mod, along with being able to add 1D4+CHA or STR mod elemental damage to melee attacks based on their parent's color (damage dice increases at higher levels). It does not matter which parent is a dragon for the sake of character lore.
In 3.5 Dragonborn were basically people blessed by the Platinum Daddy to do his will. I think that makes more sense, especially considering the original stats for them screamed "Paladin." You can even take it a step further: Dragonborn were people blessed by Dragon Gods to do their will, and the race is just the result of the divine champions having whoopee or something
As far as I researched, in 3.5 you had mostly Half-Dragons that were the result of a mortal going through a ritual process of acceptance into Bahamut's service. They would be Elves, Humans, Dwarfs, etc... and would bathe in the purified blood of a Silver Dragon, becoming Half Dragons. As far as I know of Dragonborn, they are a race from Abeir that was brought into Abeir-Toril during the merging of the two sister worlds, and "left-behind" when Abeir-Toril was split again, and thus most of the confusion.
@@GunarBastos Those followers of Bahamut were Dragonborn, not half-Dragons, they were literally called Dragonborn and had their own stats. And the Dragonborn of Abeir are said to be "related" to the Dragonborn of Bahamut by Ed Greenwood himself.
I personally encourage my players to go crazy with the scale coloration, and to treat it like an exotic bird in terms of coloration because I personally thing that is awesome when it comes to role playing because then you can get cool naming schemes based on a dragonborn's unique coloration for example I had a character called Lucious WhiteNose who was a dragon born rogue with all black scales except for a patch of large white scales covering his snout.
god hopefully fizbans fixes dragonborn and makes them worth playing from the UA already I prefer how the breath weapon works and their unique abilities
Agreed, I can't wait for that book to come out and I wonder if they're going to try and revamp/fix anything else like warlock subclass balance or *ALL OF RANGER*
yeah I'm glad the subclasses we got were for monk and ranger they definitely needed some love from the UA ascendant dragon is great maybe a little OP and drakewarden is a little flavorful but tbh not as good as post tashas beastmaster
The dragonborn lore on Abeir was pretty rad, think it was from 4e. Basically enslaved by the dragons on Abeir, who ruled as tyrants, their one free capital was ripped off the planet and plopped in the middle of Toril. Gods had no influence in Abeir, so prayers always went unanswered--so you had this race that had a history of thinking gods either don't exist or have shunned them, and despite all appearances, are predisposed to despise dragons of any color as they view them as slavers. And they have to grapple with being in a world where dragons are as diverse as they are, and the gods do exist. It's a neat ol' lore setup that I wish they kept instead of waffling around like they did. It'd at least be way more consistent than what we have now.
Don't prayers usually go unanswered unless you're a cleric? Seems like cope lore ngl lmao RU-vid is glitching my comments into other people's threads I do hope this goes into the correct thread
3.5e Dragonborn were pretty cool. It wasn't a race, it was a ritual transformation where you pledge your life to Bahamut, build yourself an egg and then metamorph into a dragon person. They could have wings, a breath attack or dragon senses(Yes, choose one) but were their old race in every other statistic.
No, not really no. To be honest, never paid any attention to them but my first exposure to them was Dragonlance and I've always seen them and used them as a type of Draconian. But they are just so rare as a choice here that I've seen more gnomes, no kidding.
@@TheBayzent for me it was my first race and I played it on 4 characters and another player made characters that were relatives of mine, but we knew they sucked so I just asked my dm if I could play half dragon since it's that much better, and he saw the problems in dragon borns.
RU-vidrs have a tendency to think they're smarter than everyone else and are the first to think of the blindingly obvious. Ego comes with having a big enough platform
Me: "I wanna play dragonborn" WOTC: "Have fun with no tail, no wings, and once a rest breathweapon" Me: "That isn't fun, Imma reflavor eldritch blast as a breath weapon" WOTC: "Fine, we'll fix the dragonborn in Fizbans treasury of dragons."
I basically let any of my dragonborn players shoot any spell effect through their mouth, sort of like a spell focus, fireball? BOOM, Prismatic spray?, RAINBOW BREATH, Disintegrate? LAZER BEAM. It doesnt affect any game mechanic so it makes everything alot cooler. Same with literally any other spell, Firebolt? sure make it purple if you want.
Did you all know fizban is a dragonlance character? Pretty interesting they just settled in court with the creators of dragonlance in time for this book huh?
i wish it wasnt just the gemstone Dragonborn tho, my friends and I have been changing the other Dragonborn to have wings too and something that represents the species of Dragonborn their ancestry would entail. Been playtesting between a breath weapon that is 4 times per day. Also, we just made them half-dragons in lore. Boom fixed dragon born.
WOTC: "We're ruining the kobold too though." me: "You COULD. You COULD--ruin the kobold, you COULD do that. But why? Why would you do that, why would you do any of that?"
Me: "Dragonborn lore is stupid. I'm scrapping it entirely. Instead, we'll have normal members of the parent race with some draconic features, that can with focus (like taking some homebrew feats) into a true hybrid or possibly full dragon form." My Players: *two are playing dragonborn now*
Even with bad dragonborns I used to play them alot, but I realized they suck and asked to play a half dragon as they live longer, look cooler, and are just straight up better. In my homebrew world I had lizardfolk surround a kingdoms swampland and the kingdom had half dragons and dragon borns everywhere, the place was run by dragons themselves. I wanted dragonborns to be much more magestical and lively in my world, it pulls off a realy good vibe compared to there base lore. I totally get what you mean by their base lore being stupid.
This is why in my world I completely redid Dragonborn lore, stealing a few things I liked from other sources, then making it make sense. In short, when the Gods were stuffing the Material Plane with mortals, Bahamut and Tiamat decided to stow their shit for a minute and get in on the action. They created the Dragonborn together as a rare gesture of solidarity, honoring their past as the ancient god Io. But the Dragonborn culture turned out to favor Bahamut, so Tiamat, being goddess of envy, created Kobolds as a kind of "f-you" to Bahamut. Then I just simplify the creatures like Dragonspawn, Dragonkin, Half-Dragons, etc., to being the reckless creations/offspring of the True Dragons. P.S. in my world the True Dragons were created by Bahamut and Tiamat's first clash on the Material Plane.
Epic and I love it. Makes sense that, you know, gods of races actually made those races. Except for the tarrasque. That's a mutated falx beast that's angry and really powerful due to millennia of eating Abeirian minerals instead of it's native diet and got mutated by wizards, making it godzilla.
Fun fact: Dragonborn DO have tails now, according to one of the artists working on the new DnD MtG set, who was told they do by WOTC themselves(art from Tasha's and newer also leans into this). Also why the fuck does a race of draconic ancestry not have darkvision?
People whine about them not having tails a lot, and I don't see the big deal. In fact, nobody plays the ACTUAL official subrace with tails, the Draconblood.
Even the UA still misses some things, though I'm greatful for the changes we have got. Why don't dragonborn get unarmored defense like the scaley lizardfolk? Why no Darkvision? Why don't get the claws they are always depicted with? Dragonborn are nonsensical. Hopefully the UA fixes stick and make them at least mechanically worth playing
@@jcdenton2187 tbf those things are in the Xnathar’e guide racial feats and the new UA gives them really good abilities anyway that can be stacked on with the UA feats
@@jcdenton2187 darkvision: no clue Unarmored defense: balance reasons maybe? As they are said to be good for sorcery playstyle, can't have that with unarmored... Claws: well, they aren't Tabaxi sharp claws, more stumped, digging/bracing claws. But WoTC probably just didn't want the race with "dragon" in it be overpowered, resulting in a very weak base race
@@TheHornedKing_27 It's a joke about how pretty much anything can be a half dragon because dragon seed is magic and can breed with pretty much anything. Gelatinous cube is obv a stretch, but you get the idea.
My fix for Dragonborn are a little bit diferent. Basically, they have a Human and chimp relationship with dragons, having a common ancestor but developing in a diferent way.
My setting had them be made as a successful creation of a Schizo dragon who’s convinced he’s the last of his kind. He’s successfully infused other stuff with draconic blood, except the Kobolds he considers them a failure. Just don’t ask what happened to the local halfing population and you’ll be fine.
That's a good idea another good way to work them is that they're the dragon gods second attempt to make a proper race because the actual dragons don't worship anybody so they looked at the other races and realized they need a proper humanoid race to be worshiped by
I actually like them not being the offspring of dragons. Reading the whole thing about how Dragonborns came from Abeir in the Spell plague was super interesting. Like imagine if one day just New York got obliterated by another city from a parallel earth appearing and just it was filled with like humanoid Cervidae. Think about the culture and world building that would bring!
@@harrysteel864 5e is super allergic to 4e lore because the mechanics were generally hated by fans. Luke the giant crevasses and puts all across Toril are from the spell plague but 5e doesn't explain that...
@@harrysteel864 generally, anything that isnt directly contradicted is kept, and anything that is defaults to the most recent edition. Eg, dragonborn havent changed, aasimar have
When you proclaimed that "this is hell" it reminded me that you forgot that there is also Abishai, who are dragon/devil hybrids that actually lives in hell.
@@magvel7250 No, they are the minions of Tiamat; the god of evil dragons and they carry her blood. Or essence. Or something. She created them and they serve her above the other powers in Hell. Even though she usually rent them out to the other lords and generals.
people (myself included at times) forget that tieflings are technically planetouched HUMANS only, because there's fey'ri for elves and tanarukk for orcs. I wish they got more development in 5e.
@@dhampir_days Play the 2nd edition of Pathfinder. They changed the halfbreed races (Elves, Orcs, Aasimar, Tiefling, Dhampir, Changeling, est) to heritages that can be applied to any of the playable ancestries now. Yes, that means you can play as an Elf with Orcish blood in their lineage, and vice versa. You can also be a Dhampir Kobold, an Aasimar Goblin, a Changeling Ratfolk, or any other halfbreed combination!
I prefer the original 4E Dragonborn lore: During the Dawn War (Think gods v. titans from Greek myth) Io (The original Dragon god) decided to solo the biggest, baddest primordial. For his trouble he got cut clean in half. The halves became Bahamut and Tiamat, and the spilled blood rose as the first Dragoborn. They could also have wings if you took a specific Paragon Path.
now THAT'S a good origin. although does 4e have gem dragonborn? cause if you applied that origin to them, maybe the blood seeped into different gemstones or geodes, which became eggs, which became gem dragonborn?
@@dhampir_days Gem dragons weren't a thing in 4E. Dragonborn didn't have colors associated, just breath-weapon types; you didn't pick blue draconic influence, you just picked lightning breath. "Gem dragonborn" wouldn't work in that framework; dragonborn with gem-style breath-weapons would.
easy fix: Every other level it gets 1d6 more damage applied. This prevents it getting outstripped by enemy HP and such, and if you don't increase the number of casts, you have a useful resource-tool for a player to think about
You nailed it! I have despised dragonborn since their inception! I feel like WOTC wanted to give players a dragon option but also make it where DM's didn't have to worry about a dragon PC. I personally run my dagons as a classist society with kobold at the bottom, then lizardmen, then dragonborn as a sort of magical lizardman, and then dragons all the way at the tippy top. It fixed the rarity/clan intersect, it gives them a more "elite" feel, and it adds a scalability to the story and makes entire dragon themed strongholds easily writable.
So you and i basically came up witht he same concept. mine was that Dragonborn are derrived from Lizardmen that the dragons tempered with to make a servant race and that kobolds are the ones that did not broke free in ages past. I also play Troglodytes as lizardfolk that migrated underground.
In my homebrew world the goddess of civilization (Erathis) thought dragons were awesome and wanted a humanoid version of them to build empires. So, she hit up Bahamut and Tiamat and had them both create their perfect humanoid dragon race, she took the two ideas and combined them, making dragonborns. Now dragonborns have massive clans and think they are much better than everyone else because while every other race is usually the bi-product of one god (maybe two) they are the bi-product of three.
@@lordpepper6932 I actually use winged tiefling reflavored for dragonborn for my red dragonborn character. Fire resistance, darkvision, tail, wings with fly speed while still being able to wear medium armor, it fits perfectly with the only thing missing being the breath weapon. Which I solve with fiend warlock (homebrew fixes to pact of the blade) I just have him casting firebolt, burning hands, fireball etc from his mouth to cover it. Here's the thing tiefling reflavored even works for lore consistency because he is descended from Tiamat who is in Avernus and used to be an archfiend.
If we have Yuan-Ti Purebloods/Tieflings being originally made by having a contract/magical ritual with Serpent Deities/Devils why Dragonborn couldn't be just humanoids mutated by magical ritual for Bahamut/Tiamat/Any draconian deity as well?
The great part about dnd is that you can completely ignore parts of its lore, make up your own lore, and still have fun playing as a strange not half-dragon looking thing. Man I love this game.
This is why I'm excited for Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Not only for the Dragonlance inspiration and Gem Dragons, but they're supposed to be fixing the Dragonborn to be more like, well, dragons. Also, Explorer's Guide to Wildemount also pretty much invalidated the PHB Dragonborn with the Drakonblood and Ravenite Dragonborns.
My game that used D&D had half-dragons super rare, Kobolds, Lizardfolk, for things reptile-like. It also said that the Corbins a modified Kenku race all have a common ancestor with Kobolds and Lizardfolk. They could all interbreed. My half-dragons were more half Dragonborn half something else and changed a little depending on what it was mixed with to keep it on par with the other playable races. I had like 17 playable races so anyone whining there was not enough variety I would ignore. I had a reason for each existing and they had their own populations to maintain. I hate saying there are like only 5 of these creatures left even monsters I wanted to have some ecology. All other creatures except the three above had a common ancestor and were variants of each other so they also could interbreed and I had rules for that. I felt this explained the variety and the way that variety could be maintained by somewhat isolated populations. Some more than others. Dragon,Vampire,Lycanthrope,Devil,Angel aspects could blend into any base race and I had a few rules for all this as well. These I just waved as MAGICAL in nature and did not worry as much about the Genetics. TL:DR I wanted a stupid amount of playable races in my game and a reason for them to be there that felt like it could exist in a living breathing world.
Our game master is always asking before the start of the campaign about our characters & backstory so that he could implement them into the plot. So, he made an interesting surprise for our Dragonborn Barbarian. Basically, during the final climactic battle, our friend got mortally wounded (lost an Eye & Arm), but despite that he fought to the very end. Later he was dying and when he was brought to the temple, so that clerics could somehow help him, they started using some powerful restoration spells (the kind of spells you use to make the lost limb to grow back XD ). And what did you know, after he got cured he also had a Tail that he never had. Plot twist: He was not a Dragonborn. All this time he was a Half Dragon adopted and raised by Dragonborns. His parents "cutted off" his tail when he was young in fear that he will be rejected or killed.
I played a Blue Dragonborn Fighter-Samurai and coming up a backstory wasn’t exactly easy and had a hard time understanding all of the dragonborn lore and shit so I did the best I could. 08/28/2021 edit: to be fair I’m not an expert on writing dnd character backstories anyway and despite playing the table top for 3 years ago. I only played the video games before I played tabletop years ago and I still can’t call myself experienced player despite my DM says I am. Edit: 04/04/2023 Fizban version is way better to play.
I like how my DM does Dragonborn for his world, they’re humans who’s ancestors got their new form by literally hunting down dragons and eating their hearts
In my homebrew world I had dragons as the absolute rulers of the continent 1,800 years in the past. All types could shape change and during *encounters* female dragons would lay a ton of dragonborn eggs instead of regular dragon eggs. All the dragons ended up fleeing the continent due to them losing a battle with a near all powerful Lich and leaving the rest of the humanoids to fend for themselves. Spoiler the good guys one and now there's tons of dragonborn with no dragons. The "muddy" color scheme lore I actually never knew about I just stated that the dragonborn female's color scheme was more dominant and the male dragonborn's breath weapon tended to be more dominant so players can mix and match if they wanted. Fun video!
From what I remember from dragonborns first appearance as a race a dragon born was a Humanoid devotee of Bahamut who was chosen to ascend to the next level, they had to craft their own eggs, sleep inside them and seal them up and when they emerged they were a Dragonborn, and while there was sizeable population, dragonborn are sterile and could not mate they could only reproduce via this ritual also they were all platinum colored and some could eventually gain wings if they earned more favor or at the very least flying skills and spells. Dragonspawn were created by Tiamat to counter Dragonborn as well as other powerful races like demons and devils and angels, but a dragonspawn was created just using magic to alter a chromatic dragons egg clutch and came in the 5 primary colors but not, brown, grey or purple. Kobolds and Half Dragons are self explanitory, Urds are just ascended Kobolds Troglodytes and Lizard folk worship dragons but are just reptiles though dragon blood and magic or interbreeding produces half dragon variants Draconians were another attempt at Tiamat and the Chromatics to fuck over Bahamut and the Metallics, by cursing metallic dragon eggs to make these creatures which were always evil unlike their parents the humanoid form is just a side affect of the magic
In my friend's setting, if a humanoid bonks a dragon while they're shapeshifted, a dragonborn is the result. Half-dragons come from humanoids who aren't picky. :3
You know, we could write up such a wonderful geneology of all the various dragonish races, and base it entirely on boinking. Like, half dragons are born of a full dragon and some other nondragon related race boinking. And you could do that with ANY other race. Because magic. And bards. :p All other variants are those half dragons boinking various other races, diluting the power of their draconic heritage and adding in something new. And dragon blood sorcerers are people whose great great grandpappy might have been a dragon, but nothing since. So all they have is the slightest trace enough to activate their special skills and traits.
@@gubus2494 Oh god that just sent my muse into hyperdrive. A society built on dragons. All the people are descendants in some form or other from dragons, and their primary goal is to become important or powerful enough to attract the attention of the higher ranking "breeds" or even full dragons. The further your connection from a true dragon, the lower your social status is by default. But hey, do something impressive enough and you might land a mate with one of the higher level dragon kin and your kids would be better off. This could work so well as a caste system culture and provide all sorts of interesting dynamics for role playing and quest related things. The drive to be special, to do something amazing, would be a great motivation for adventurers of all classes to push as far as they can. The need to build reputation to gain access to the higher ups and the missions they might have for you would give a sense of progression.
@@chrishubbard64 Yep, thats kinda what I'm working with except the dragons don't really give a fuck about that kingdom. Basically, a long time ago, there lived a chieftain of a powerful tribe. He was the first to meet with dragons, ones of chromatic descent, and got on well with them since he was powerhungry and so on. At the same time, some of the lesser tribes under the chief met with metalic dragons, and as everybody knows, metalics are chill. This led to everyone thinking of dragons as allies- the chief and his warriors adopted worship of Tiamat, while the outlying tribes of this dominion adopted Bahamut. Note: neither kind of dragon was aware that the other one was sticking his claws in the same hoard. When they found out, the result was the most teeth- clenched team work ever, as in the eyes of the populace, the dragons that snapped first would likely be deemed the enemy with no time for explaining. Obviously, it didn't last long. A big ass war erupted over night, with the humans still unable to tell the diference between metalic and chromatic. The end result was the new empire falling out of favour with both kinds of dragons, and Bahamut and Tiamat knocking each other the fuck out. Now, hundreds of years later, the feudal society which arose from the ashes emulates dragons. To them, to be a dragon is to be powerful and wealthy, not winged and scaled. The ruling class is mostly comprised of descendants of dragons, but not entirely. Bahamut and Tiamat are worshipped alongside each other, and due to both the gods sleeping, they grant their favour subconciously. The Empire is a military powerhouse, with eldritch knights and sorcerers abundant. Over the course of the campaign, the dragon gods would rouse from their slumber, and another conflict would start. Thats all i got, fucking hell this is an essay
I thought I heard the story that dragonborn were humanoids created by dragons to do humany things for the dragons, but then they killed all the dragons, but then the world got shuffled and some groups found themselves stuck in the main world... Dragonborn Paladin of Vengeance against Dragons...
The way I handle dragon-x races in my campaign is that Dragons are very closely tied with the magic of Change/Chaos (the others magics being Creation, Destruction, and Time/Order). Because of this, when dragons breed, they often create things that aren't true dragons (which is one of the main reasons why the world isn't full of dragons despite the fact that they've been around for millennia and have no real natural predators). Wyverns, Landwyrms, pseudodragons, etc. When they breed with mortals, they create various quasi-draconic creatures like Dragonborn. Such creatures are fairly rare though. The two main dragon-esque races are sort of an accident. The Akki (basically Dragonborn. They used to be lizardfolk, but my lore has shifted over the years) studied magic under the dragons' tutelage in the early days of their civilization and exposure to that magic (the magic of Change) caused them to mutate into the dragon-esque creatures they are now. But they don't really deal with arcane magic these days, so the only way to get a new Akki is when other Akki fuck. Kobolds are a crossbreed of Akki and a Goblin (Goblins being of the two "primary" races that can breed with other species, the other being Humans). Kobolds happen when either a Goblin and an Akki have a child, or when two Kobolds have a child. No other way.
“The best of both” but they lack darkvison, blindsight, flight, a rechargeable breath weapon, skill proficiencies or traits from any humanoid race that the dragonborn might’ve been before becoming draconic. I call bs
Honestly, MrRhexx has a great video on the (actually cool) lore and culture behind dragonborn over on his channel. If you go in expecting dragonborn to be a warrior-clan society of dragon-ish humanoids, they're cool. The problem is that 5e first makes you think they're half-dragons, which are even cooler, then you realize they're not that, then it doesn't explain why dragonborn are actually worth your time well, so you are left with the disappointment. If you want to reskin them as half-dragons, go ahead, the stats work for it, but they've also got a very fleshed-out society (featured in a number of novels as well) if you want to learn about it.
Yeah, I went in not expecting half-dragons so much as dragon-ish humanoid warrior clans and decided to play a Silver Dragonborn Lore Bard as my first character. I got exactly one game with that character before the campaign imploded, though, and I can honestly say if I ever remake that character I’m going to use the UA version because getting to use breath weapon more than once in a way that scales is cool
I think I would keep that two dragonborn can have dragonborn children but in the same way that there are small tiefling communities yet every player character is personally the child of Asmodeus. Rather than that mudding their color though I would just have second gen dragonborn either have a vibrant combination or copy a color of a parent or, rarely, have a completely different unique color.
@@TheStormybob They keep their breathweapon you lose only the resistance. The new abilities and the breathweapon do not interact. Basically the designers thought (which makes sense) they should give another thing if you don't get access to the resistance. I would not have given darkvision but they didn't want to think of something new.
So in my homebrew, I've decoupled dragon colouration from their alignment so that each individual dragon may be good or evil (e.g. in my homebrew you could encounter an evil metallic dragon and a good chromatic one). The main difference is that "good" dragons in my setting understand the inherent danger of their awesome power and thus keep to themselves in isolation for the most part, while "evil" dragons will flex on the other mortal races any chance they get. There aren't any gods specifically associated with dragons in my homebrew, but some very ancient and ambitious dragons have at times come close to attaining power equivalent to godhood. Dragons instead either came into being spontaneously near the beginning of time or may be the last surviving race of the preceding universe (still to make up my mind on that). Kobolds and Dragonborn have similar origins in my setting, both being the products of demi-god dragons. Kobolds are far older, and served as willing servants to the dragons in the ways we all expect kobolds to do. Dragonborn are younger (only being created around 25,000 years ago) and were the brainchild of a particularly powerful dragon that sought to subjugate the other mortal races and found kobolds to be insufficient. He created the dragonborn to be soldiers where kobolds were of more use as builders or spies. Unfortunately, this dragon had a viciously cruel streak and mistreated his creations pretty much right off the bat. Again like with dragon colouration and alignment, I don't like the idea of inherently good or evil races in my settings, rather people are shaped by their environmental pressures such as religion and culture but still have the free will to potentially defy their conditions and forge their own path. So the dragonborn, though the creations of this dragon, had the freedom and intelligence to reflect on their treatment and on the plight of their master's foes. Almost inevitably dragonborn military units began to defy orders and rebel against their creator (though it did take more than a century for this to reach a critical mass). Eventually, enough dragonborn had rebelled against their master and his vassal dragons to unite with the other mortal races in a climactic battle. The power of the dragons was broken (never again has any dragon reached such a degree of power) and the dragonborn were free. Most remained with their military units (these became the basis of the clans). Their leaders, knowing the damage that their kind had caused to the other races would not be forgotten, led their followers into a self-imposed exile, establishing communities in isolated regions. Ever since then the dragonborn clans have mostly kept to themselves, rarely becoming involved in the affairs of others. The one exception to this non-interference is when dragons show up. Their history with dragons has resulted in dragonborn culture cultivating a near-pathological hatred of dragons. They tame wyverns as mounts as a deliberate insult to true dragons (a display of dominance over dragons' more bestial cousins). As a result I have also replaced kobolds' rivalry with gnomes with a rivalry against dragonborn. Kobolds were comparatively well treated by their dragon masters and the collapse of draconic power was very much a material detriment to kobolds' fortunes. When tunneling kobolds find their way into a dragonborn village, they often infiltrate nurseries to smash dragonborn eggs.
I used to RP online, and I had a Silver Blood Dragoon, which was my version of a Dragonborn kinda thing. Basically, he was a member of a village that worshipped a number of dragons that lived on a nearby mountain. When a child is born, they're taken to the mountain top where the dragons live, and the child has their chest and heart cut open. If a dragon takes a liking to the child, they come down from the cave and pour some of the blood into the heart of the child, healing and empowering them. If not, the child is considered a failure and left to die. My particular character was empowered by a Silver Dragon, which granted hard, metal scales, silver wings, retractable claws and control over minor dragons. Basically, he was granted a strong, dragon like body, but none of the magical or elemental abilities.
"Then we have draconians, which I didn't even know existed..." wtf? They're a huge feature in the Dragonlance campaign setting, which included many of the best selling novels in D&D history. They feature in far more modules and novels than any of the others you listed, probably even more than the rest combined. Also, they aren't "corrupted" dragonborn. They are corrupted eggs of metallic dragons. The "dragonborn", if anything, are a knockoff of draconians, attempting to include a similar concept in other campaign settings, especially in the "kitchen sink" Forgotten Reals.
In one of my homebrew games, Dragonborn were actually created as a warrior race by the High Elves to expand their magical empire, and Kobolds were an early prototype that escaped and bred like crazy. Of course, the initial creation of them required the blood of actual dragons, so the High Elves ended up hunting the vast majority of them to extinction.
This video made me want to look into some of the dragon-race-stuff, and the lore for the dragonborn (Children of Bahamut) and the dragonspawn (Children of Tiamat) is hilariously vague. Apparently they come into existence when one of the two gods "blesses" an egg of a dragon...making it hatch into a defective, bipedal creature with the intelligence of a potato, no real dragon powers outside of an extremely weak mockery of dragon breath, and the lifespan of an orc. And apparently almost all of them were infertile, if not straight up genderless. And this was considered a *blessing* by dragons and dragon worshipers. This is a headache.
Might as well switch it over to a curse. About that, how about we change the 3rd level bestow curse spell to have one of the options be: “all your children from now on will be Dragonborn”?
The dragonborn of bahamut are created by a ritual in which the participant constructs a mock-up of a dragon egg using dragon scales, and spends 24 hours within it. When they emerge, they are mature adults that have either a breath weapon (1d6 + [1d6 × {hit die/3}]), immunity to paralysis and magical sleep with darkvision and eventually blindsense (up to 120 feet and 30 feet, respectively), or wings. Their natural lifespan expanded from about 400 to 600 years. They retained all of their bits, but they were indeed infertile. Bahamut didnt want to saddle any offspring with a responsibility to his cause
I personally tried to fix the whole draconic races dilemma in my home-brew world with a very simple concept: The dragons created the dragonborn in ancient times as a race of lesser draconic servants, who in turn did the same thing in creating the kobolds. They lived in a rigid hierarchy within their clans, each of which was ruled by and devoted to a dragon. These draconic clans were the first true empires in the Mortal Realm, lording over the other races, often violently. They were eventually overthrown, first by the elves, and later by the races of men. While some draconic clans still exist in the remote reaches of some continents, they are rare and usually left to themselves. Most dragonborn you see today are long separated from their clans and draconic overlords, and now look for new purpose in the lands that their kind once ruled millennia ago. Kobolds, lacking purpose and a place in the world even more-so than Dragonborn, are inherently desperate creatures that try to emulate their ancient masters through the hoarding of treasures, in the vain hopes of one day bringing back the draconic age. Half dragons and draconic blood line sorcerers are exactly that: half humanoid, half dragon, and as a result are extremely rare. Every other “draconic” race in D&D just doesn’t exist in my home-brew world.
for a second I was about to get upset at you for dunking on my favorite race, then I remembered they're only my favorite because I take so many creative liberties with my dragonborn characters and their canonical lore is a dumpster fire. I don't think anyone plays them as WotC intended.
...I do... but like I draw from the long history of the forgotten realms and 4e. 5e is just allergic to 4e lore which ACTUALLY EXPLAINS WHERE DRAGONBORN COME FROM!!!!
My original thought on how to fix dragonborn was to make them a Draconic Soul sorcerer (for the eventual wings) and pick Dragon's Breath as a spell, then use the [bleep] out of it.
In my personal setting, Dragonborn were space aliens. They lived on a planet ruled by dragons (who are like the oldest things in existence and have existed on earth and seemingly everywhere else forever, to the point its impossible to tell if they are native or came from space) with the dragonborn being created by them to act as a slave race Then their planet got invaded by Githyanki, who were looking to enslave more dragons, allowing the Dragonborn to flee the planet in all directions, with the variant found on earth being a single splinter that fled They are desperate to hide their shameful past, attempting to force all who know it even themselves forget all about it
There's so much potential with dragonborn, but there's so little in the actual game. At least good dms can do things. It feels like 5e has such a thing for creating unoriginal races that are just an animal person, without create unique abilities lore or culture. I'd rather one really well developed animalkin race, then seven races that are literally just a person with a beast head slapped on them.
Reminds me of how I made the more animalistic races of my setting (tabaxi, lizardmen, etc; do note that Dragonborn are exempt from this as they are the most favorite creation of a schizo chromatic who *understandably* believes he’s the last of dragonkind) have a built in language barrier. Meaning merchants who can’t afford a magic interpreter to ease commutation have a strange “pseudolanguage” of gesturing and pointing to stuff.
In my homebrew, the Dragonborn existed before any of the other mortal races. They were maggots that ate up the blood-splatter of the goddess that gave birth to the first dragons, after she was killed by another god. They developed into the different sub-races/color variants based on where they lived in the world, and worshipped the dragons in those areas as gods. Eventually, the other mortal races showed up in the world, and the Dragonborn didn't' know what to do about them. So the eldest dragons, Tiamat and Bahamut, had their own ideas that some dragons did like and other dragons didn't like, and there was a world-wide civil war that basically almost made dragons extinct, and depleted the Dragonborn to a lot smaller numbers. The other mortal races saw all the new real estate and decided they wanted it. And they killed all the Dragonborns that were left there to get it (most notably the Dwarves, who raided all the lairs of the dead dragons and got super awesome loot). Eventually, the Dragonborns were pushed to an island called "Dragonfall," where they formed their clans around the surviving dragons, which then created a huge army that tried to take back the world. They enslaved just about everyone, before they got too excited about slavery and there was another civil war. This time, between Chromatic dragons, who liked slavery way too much, and the Metallic Dragons and all the slaves, because Bahamut was like "Ya know what? The slaves don't like being slaves, and I didn't realize how badly everyone was treating them." This war caused the Dragon Empire to collapse in on itself, and the dragons and Dragonborn all went back to Dragonfall. They have had MANY civil wars since, but there has been a ceasefire since Bahamut sacrificed himself to banish Tiamat from the material plane. During the ceasefire, the Metallic dragons and their dragonborn worshippers have been diverting funds to a really big PR campaign that says "we are trying really hard to like you" by outlawing slavery in their territory, and trading goods/technology/knowledge with the other races. The Chromatic dragons, on the other hand, really want their Empire and slaves back, but are also doing the really big PR campaign in order to lull everyone into a false sense of confidence and security. I'm sure you can see where this is going to go bad for everyone involved. But ya, that's the Dragonborn in my campaign.
The actual origin of Dragonborn: "Long ago a dragon was sick of his half-dragons becoming too powerful and trying to kill him, so he asked a wizard to change him so his potential children would suck"
How I attempted to clean everything up in regards of the dragons: - Tiamat is THE dragon, Dragon God, that stuff. - Beside Tiamat there are only 5 dragons dragons, her spawn, each representing a color and they are pretty much to the power level of demigods if they were dragons. They're immortal and despite this sounding like a setup for a boss or "collect the 5 stones to unlock the final boss" you don't want to confront with them both because you'd get mauled in an instant and because of other reasons, they're neutral by the way, just really don't like being bothered by small loud things; - Other dragons that appear in gold or silver aren't dragons, instead they're divine someones I haven't planned who yet that took the form of dragons as a "worship me instead" to remove the influence of Tiamat's spawn over man/whatever other civilisation. Because their aid caused each of those civilisations to thrive and they rarely ever broke character they're recognised as the 'good dragons'; - Other than dragons there are wyrms, drakes and salamanders which aren't related in any way to dragons, and salamanders aren't related to the amphibian salamander. They're a different draconic-looking species with not a drop of divine in them; - Dragonborns are NOT a thing and people who can assume a draconic form are just normal people that were gifted with power either by one of the 'dragons' or Tiamat's spawn. The power of dragons is hereditary but while accessing the power for the direct recipient is intuitive, their sons don't benefit such cheat and need either to be very smart and figure out themselves, or be tutored directly by one of the dragons/high rankers of one of the dragon-worshipping cults hope it's not the worshippers of Tiamat that find you first.
Explorer's Guide to Wildemount added some nice subraces for Dragonborn, the Ravenites and Draconblood, and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons is gonna go ham on overhauling the Dragonborn race as a whole, so I'd love to see an update after that book has been out for a while.
Here is how I would improve the Dragonborn race. Dragonborn Ability Bonuses: +2 Strength +1 Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma Size: Medium Speed: 30 Darkvision 60 Claw 1d4+Str Slashing Natural Armor- When not wearing armor you have an AC of 13+Con* (Optional) Draconic Presence : Dragonborn are proficient with Persuasion and Intimidation skills. Draconic Heritage Energy Resistance: Nothing to ad here I feel it's good enough, but at level 14 they'd become Immune to it. Breath Weapon: The original version of this Feature was very weak, being only ONCE PER REST, this needed some reworking. Damage- 2d6 Damage type varied depending on Scale Color, +1d6 at levels 6, 11, and 16 for total of 5d6 Range- 15ft Cone or 30ft line, what ever the Dragonborn wants when used Uses- Either Recharge 5-6 like other creatures with a Breath Weapon or a 1d4 Round Cool-down** Save- Metallic and Chromatic Dragonborn still have a Save DC=8+Con+Prof, Save depends on the Energy type. (Optional) Draconic Maturation Upon reaching level 7 a Dragonborn develops an additional physical characteristic of their draconic ancestry depending on the path they choose (either Sky, Land, or Sea). This process can be painful and to add additional roleplay value to them upon reaching level 7 their body is wracked with pain as the process starts, they must make a Constitution Save of 15 or pass out from the pain where they take a mandatory Long Rest (8 hours). If they pass the save they remain awake and they delay the development until the next time they take a Long Rest. These are more to add variety with the Dragonborn physically giving them more movement options. Sky: A pair of scaly dragon wings erupts from the Dragonborns back giving them a Fly speed of 30 feet (20 if wearing heavy armor), at level 14 Fly Speed increases to 50 (40 if wearing heavy armor). Land: The dragonborns forelimbs are strengthened and their Claw attacks increase to 1d6+Str Slashing damage, they also gain a Climb speed of 20 and the Powerful Build feature like Goliaths. At level 14 they gain a Burrow speed of 20 in soft earth such as soil or sand. Sea: The dragonborns hands and feet become webbed giving them a swim speed of 30 andyour tail also becomes more flexible to help with swimming but also gives you a Tail Slam attack with 1d8+Str Bludgeoning damage***. Then at level 14 they are able to hold their breath for 15 minutes at a time. Gem Dragonborn Thought I'd toss this out as well. In D&D 3.5 MM2 there are Gem Dragons who are the Neutral counterparts to Metallics Good and Chromatics Evil. Thought I'd introduce them as a new Dragonborn type. Breath Weapon - Gem Dragonborns Breath Weapon DC is Charisma based instead of Constitution based like the others, DC=8+Cha+Prof. Check MM2 of 3.5e, this is why I said Charisma instead of Constitution. Dragon - Energy Type Resist - Save - Breath Type Amethyst - Force - (Dex save) - Force Damage Crystal - Radiant - (Con save) - Radiant Damage Emerald - Thunder - (Con save) - Thunder Damage Sapphire - Lightning - (Dex save) - Lightning Damage Topaz - Cold - (Con save) - Cold Damage Obsidian - Fire - (Dex Save) - Fire Damage * I would have Natural Armor also help characters who wear armor cause their Dexterity is low by having it provide a +1 AC bonus while wearing armor like the Defense Fighting Style. I feel like this is how Natural Armor should work. When not wearing armor your scales/thick skin/ect acts as armor but when you are wearing armor it just gives a bonus due to being an extra layer to what you're wearing. Natural Armor also replaces the 10 in the Unarmored Defense Class Abilities, so a Dragonborn Barbarian or Monk would have an AC=13+Dex+Con/Wis. ** I prefer the 1d4 Round Cool-down for Breath Weapon cause it doesn't guarantee a 33.33-% chance you'll be able to use it again on your next turn. Instead you basically have to wait 12-30 seconds till you can use it again depending on what you roll on the d4. It also prevents spamming it so you'd have to use other tactics during the Cool-down period. *** This is something Lizardfolk should have as well.
Honestly this highlights a lot of my beefs w/ Dragonborns. They really should have more options, I feel like they should get a big retool, I'd love to see mechanics for Wings and a tail (both of which are already in place for other Player Races). I like the idea of clans as an *option* but I agree it definitely should not be the *only* option. I think DB Clans in D&D (if they exist at all) should be rare (ex: Metallic Dragons who still have some remnant sanctuaries comprising of a few dozens of individuals or raider clans of Chromatics, maybe have these clans be in service to a respective Dragon) but there should be lore to give players the options to have Dragonborn be mostly isolated individuals w/ their own goals, and unique character quirks. I'm cool with the distinction between Half-Dragons, Kobolds and Dragonborn but that should be it, adding Draconians, Dragonkin, Dragonspawn are kind of unnecessary (Fortunately, none are in 5e to my knowledge). I hope Fizban's will give Dragonborns a lot of new flavors and also retcon their mechanics and lore enough to allow for more diversity and versatility constructing them.
In my homebrew world dragonborns are not naturally born, but instead the result of a dragon allowing a worshipper who did great deeds for said dragon to consume his blood in a ritual and develope draconic characteristics.
In my campaign, I just made dragonborn the draconic equivalent of aasimars or tieflings: somewhere in your ancestry someone boned a dragon and that draconic blood filtered down to you. Basically, their the watered-down version of a half-dragon (like an aasimar is the watered-down version of a half-celestial, or a tiefling is the same for a half-fiend). They can breed true with other dragon born, but more often than not they are the offspring of otherwise typical examples of another humanoid race but the draconic blood just kinda asserted itself in this particular quasi-mystic genetic lottery.
When they wrote the mechanics of Dragonborn, it feels like they were like "Well this race is too cool looking, therefore we have to balance it out by making them suck" lol
I don't know about y'all, but I homebrew the crap out of my dragonborn, if only to give them basic parity with the other phb races. I add: 1: Breath weapon is a bonus action, the way Io intended. 2: The breath weapon is on a d6, 5-6 recharge like every other breath weapon in the game. Stupid 1/rest limitation...anyway, 3: Replace the d6s in the breath weapon with d8s and add an extra d8, right off the bat. That way your chief gimmick is _more powerful than a cantrip_ and balanced by the recharge instead of being at-will. 4: +2 to charisma because come on. 5: Legendary Resistance 1/long rest 6: Frightful Presence, wis save vs cha, 15 ft. In my setting, I've bound kobolds, dragonborn, wyvern, and dragons into a single species. Each race is different steps on a centuries-long life cycle. I tweak things a bit by giving wyvern int and cha in line with dragons, nixing that silly stinger, and replacing it with weirder breath weapons like sleep breath. Half dragons and the like are the products of either interbreeding or seriously taboo experimentation. Dragonblood Sorcerers of any race remain cool. Before the wyvern stage, wings and tails are either happy accidents or a mark from the gods, depending on who you ask. Either way, they are status symbols and your peers within your caste(?) defer to you.
I was recently-ish made aware of half-dragons being a template, which gave me the idea to make a half-dragon dragonborn draconic bloodline sorcerer--the ultimate dragon PC--and I intend to play this the next time I play a dragonborn character.
bro Wizards of the Coast should hire this guy and pay him to make content for their games. Even without the fancy advertisements, he's gotten plenty of sales. Just let him do his thing officially and watch the stacks roll in.
The way I do dragonborn, kobolds, dragonkin, and just dragons in general in my worlds, is I just make them the same damn things. Kobolds live for a while, then form weird scaly chrysalises, then hatch as dragonborn, then live for a while again, then form weird scaly chrysalises again, then hatch as drakes. Winged kobolds do the same thing, but hatch as winged dragonborn, and then end up metamorphising into full dragons.
My Dragonborn character idea is like a Gold Dragon version of Yoda who's obsessed with gold, thinks the rules as written are silly and spent his time pre-campaign giving wood swords to children to see what happens. It's dangerous to go alone.
I made Dragonborn have 4 variants. Type one are the ones you described, type 2 have tails, type 3 have wings (60ft fly), and type 4 have wings and tails
Meanwhile, in the homebrew I'm working on, dragonborn are actually born from dragons (or other dragonborn), and can have three of six draconic features • Scales (you get whatever that type's resistance is) • Tail (you get a tail) • Talons (1d4 slashing damage when you slap someone. If you also have a tail, the tail has spikes) • Magic (you get some spells. Like what tieflings or aasimar have) • Wings (you get wings) • Breath weapon (you have a breath weapon) Also, the lore is different Most of this is me trying to reconcile RAW dragonborn with similar part-dragon people from Slavic myths and legends
Imma make a cryola box dragonborn and if somebody asks why do I look like I walked out of a 5 year old drawing I'll just say: "I come from a long long long LONG line of dragonborn royalty..."
I explained the short life thing as the draconic blood trapped in a humanoid form causing them to burn through their life much faster, as their draconic souls are not "fit" for their bodies, but they soldier on and value the time they have. My new setting I've totally revamped them. Also, tail gang, cause who doesn't want a tail?
I felt your frustration on this race lol And like, I agree! Why so many different races for dragon humanoids? Just make them all dragonborns and allow them to have different characteristics, like tails and wings, if one of the parents have those
