Dragonborn in D&D - Analysis, Critique, and My Remake 

I love how my little campaign helped to inspire a draconic rant. Good job fleshing them out fully and providing the feats to really spread your wings and soar with the mighty dragons.

Just adding, 5e misses some of the most important stuff from previos editions: actual damage resistances. Now everything is "resists damage except from magical weapons", and everyone has magical weapons, so effectively it's nonexistent. It was way more interesting if, say, skeletons had a permanent 10 dr against slashing and piercing, regardless. I'd give the scales a 1 or 2 dmg resistance to slashing and piercing damage, probably

I think one major improvement they could be granted is more variety in types. But, then again, that criticism could apply to dragonkind in its near-entirety considering 5E basically nuked every other non-established dragon type out of existence to avoid putting effort into properly bringing back old ones. Yes, I'm still bitter about that. They did steel and purple dragons dirty.

With this and the new WoW expansion announcement this feels like a very Dragon themed week.

I just finished playing a dragonborn (the player's handbook version) in the last 5e campaign that I played and I had a blast. Granted, I played him for lore reasons specific to my DM's homebrew setting and he gave me an item (I can't for the life of me remember if it was homebrewed or not) about halfway through the campaign which upped the damage of my breath weapon and let use it multiple times per short rest. I usually focus my character builds entirely around a specific backstory I have in mind for them before the campaign and what kind of story I want them to have during the campaign. To be honest, all of the races in the players handbook feel bland to me, but the dragonborn is definitely the blandest of the bunch. I really like your version of the race; it would have led to some pretty cool character moments for my dragonborn paladin beyond just the story beats from the choices my group and I were making.

Matt colville recently ran a 4E campaign and has a dragonborn in there. It's really quite interesting how that stuff works. I recommend watching a couple episodes if you get a chance. It's the Dusk campaign. Thanks!

Something I like about the Fizban breath weapon is that because it's part of an extra attack you can grapple a target and then breathe in their face in the same turn.

I love your stories about our favourite game. Thanks for making these videos, we really appreciate you!

If anyone's nervious about the +1 to AC, a race I worked on was centered on having stone-like skin. For balance reasons, I specified that they had a +1 to AC that stopped applying if the character's AC went above 18. It was kind of a soft-cap that made it easier to create tanky characters but not untouchable characters. I've never had the chance to playtest the idea, but I like it.

Oh, I remember a couple months ago, I was doing some planning and prepping for running, hopefully not in vain, and decided to both reorganize the dragonborn into subraces based on their elemental affinity (with different scale colors with the same elemental type being 'sub-subrace' with fluff/rp flavor differences) Oh, and also rename them dragonkin, since they are the kin of dragons, not actually born from dragons, not for generations removed at least. And I decided to give each subrace's breath weapon a secondary effect, acid and fire dealing another d6, or maybe d6+prof. bonus damage on the start of the dragonkin's next turn against all that failed their save, and didn't take an action to douse themselves off or dip in water. Frost would, possibly independent of a failed save cause another, Str save to see if you loose an action getting unstuck to the ground that turn, else need an action to pull your feet off the ground. Poison would have a second save to make if you failed the first, or suffer the poisoned condition. Naturally. Lighting, perhaps can chain to some others, or maybe just does and extra d6 + prof. bonus damage up front, I wasn't sure about that one. Actually, I was also thinking about splitting dark-vision into a seperate lowlight vision and darkvision. And give dragonborn dark-vision but not low-light vision, so they don't fare better than humans in dim light, but can see in darkness enough to get around and get by. (Whereas surface elves see well in dimlight with lowlight vision, but like humans need a light source to see in darkness, not having darkvision anymore)

Truly, Thank You @EsperTheBard for creating & sharing this video with us all. I love all of Your Dragonborn ideas here; very well done. Looking forward to your next videos friend.

Congrats on cracking 100k subs!

Race-specific feats that bring more fantasy to your species are a great idea.

Re: Never laugh at live dragons Only laugh at dead dragons when you're certain that they can't be brought back

You always have the best advice and tips! Dragonborn were always a bit too out there for me :) At least in how they're portrayed, like other humanoids. They dress, eat and drink like humans, even wearing armor designed for humans, despite having many draconic features. I wish they were more fantastical, an extreme exception and oddity in any humanoid society. So that when you have a Dragonborn in your party, it is a spectacle. Like having a nymph member, or any other magical creature. 14:35 Fully agreed. The savagery and might in their looks should've been much pronounced in their abilities. 16:30 Perfect. So simple, yet changes everything about the race for the better. 21:12 Indeed, their AC should only improve. Personally I wish Dragonborns had to use specially designed armors, to fit their shape. Since such a thing would cost a lot, they could "improvise". And that's were the quote about Smaug could come into play: Let them close the gaps in their scales with stones, thus fitting themselves with a natural armor. It wouldn't make too much sense... The only reason Smaug kept all those gems stuck was due to the slimy bellies of Tolkien's dragons. But I would love a Dragonborn who walks around naked, yet fully covered, spending zero coins of "fancy human armor".

An idea I had for a while (but never got the chance to apply) : racial ability score increases could be a bonus to the max value instead of a flat points boost. That would involve increasing the base amount of stat points to apply when creating a character, since they are no longer automatically applied. Dragonborns can reach 20 str if they train hard, whereas Kobolds can only ever go up to 16 no matter how buff they are...

Love those feats at the end. Not sure I would add flight as well to that last one.

Hi Esper! Love your perspective on the breath weapon and AC boost. I think your version makes complete sense and appreciate what you are trying to do here. Also love that breath weapon feat, seems good. The only adjustment I'd make to your proposal here is changing the ASI to be full choice by the player as opposed to being a +2 STR and +1 to any stat. I've already adapted this into my games and haven't once looked back: 1 score +2 and another score +1 OR 3 scores each get +1. Cheers!

I will definitely be playing an esperian dragonborn

As per the charts in PHB/Volo’s, the smallest Dragonborn is larger than the smallest Orc and there are a +2 Strength race. It has always confused me why they don’t get Powerful Build.

Finally bro. I love Dragonborn and have always wanted to play one but was disappointed in the race features. I'm going to show this to my dm and see if he'll allow it. If so a gold dragon born Paladin with ur two new feats will %100 be my next character. Praise be to the platinum dragon

Congrats on 100k

I took the the Fizban Dragonborn as a base and added a bit to it. Chromatic Dragonborn get Thaumaturgy as a cantrip. Metallic get Prestidigitation as a cantrip All Dragonborn get an additional skill known: Intimidation for Chromatic, Persuasion for Metallic, and Insight for Gem All Dragonborn get a +1 to their armor class I did this for a few reasons. Gem got an extra ability in Telepathy, so I felt it was fair to give both Metallic and Chromatic something just as useful, so they got Thaumaturgy and Prestidigitation. On their own, they are just fluff, but just like Telepathy, a smart and creative player can really use them to great effect. The extra skill increase helps them do something out of combat, something Dragonborn (and other races) really struggle with. And getting a plus 1 to AC for their strong scales. This really helps push Dragonborn to really be an A tier race. Nothing I presented is really all that strong, but together give different playstyles something to do. Oh, and I greatly encourage everyone who plays a Dragonborn to use their Dragon Roar feat. As it is written, it works the way Fizban Dragonborn's Breath Weapon. Meaning you can use the roar multiple times per fight if you wanted to.

Really enjoyed this video. I’d love to see more in depth reviews and reworks. As I was listening to the video I came up with the the same idea of increasing the damage by 1d6 everyone other level.

I have played my silver dragonborn bardadin a few times and I've got to say the fizbans remake of them helped a lot bringing them up to where they should be. I like your changes with the natural weapons and such. I think a middle ground of keeping the fizbans breath weapon, your natural weapons addon, and maybe a 12 natural AC and still having the +1 for casters with an AC bonus for those dragon sorcerer and such. Makes it so melee have a reason to play them with being able to do multiple breaths and casters for the AC.

Fantastic! Great to see a dragonborn modification that gets it right

FINALLY. LONG HAVE I WAITED FOR THE GREAT BARD TO USE VICIOUS MOCKERY ON THE DRAGONBORN.

Great stuff man!!

I like the +1AC for scales more than the 13-14 + DEX rule; I think it makes you feel more special regardless of what you wear, and plays to all class choices. Alternatively, I also like the idea of +1AC, or +2AC if you are wearing no armor. This would allow it to interact with things like a Draconic Sorcerer rule easily, and incentivizes it to be taken more by barbarians and monks that thematically work well for dragonborns. Thoughts?

I wish the dragon born were more draconic

Since they further enhanced the natural weapon attacks of the races in Monsters of the Multiverse, you could safely use 1d6 + your Strength modifier slashing damage (see Tabaxi, Shifter, Tortle) as Claw attack (and 1d6 + your Strength modifier piercing damage for Bite attack).

This vid drops the same day the new Dragonflight WoW expansion announcement drops...What a day!

What a coincidence, i just start watching your dragon rancing video

Really good looking rework of Dragonborn, well done. Also, thanks for making such great content

I think I would be satisfied with a +1 to your hit points every level like the hill dwarf. Rather than +1 to ac or the natural armor thing.

At one of the tables I play, all races other than Human and Half-Elf have a "must" ability score and a "can't" ability score (Halflings "must" Dex, "can't" Str, Elves "must" Dex, "can't" Con). You _must_ put one of your increases (usually either a +1 or a +2, but you can pick either) into your "must," and you can put the other into anything except your "can't." Humans have no restrictions, Half-Elves "must" Cha, but don't have a "can't."

I play dragonborn the most but then again i am still pretty new and soon i will be DMing for the first time and i appreciate the remake on my favourite race

Very Nice! I need to put out more of my subclass reworks, but maybe we can collab on a remake one of these days. - Hector

Race is always been a secondary concern to me to class. So long as they had the right bonuses to ability scores like intelligence, wisdom, or charisma for the respective spell-casting classes I usually take, I was usually pretty satisfied. That's pretty much the only reason why I generally ended up taking a human, elf, or half elf over a Dragonborn, but now that ability scores have seemed to become a bit more flexible in how they are applied; I'm now opting for that Dragonborn Druid that I always wanted to play and relishing it!

Thanks.

Agree with your revision. But as of now 5e is under Creative Commons so you could smack in the Gem dragon ancestries too. Same for the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer, smack in the Gem dragon ancestries there too! Not to forget the Rangers Drake Warden drake aspects, sure you can make it look like what dragon like you want but as for the above, they forgot/ didnt have time ( rumors were they didnt have space ) in the VERY same Fizban book that introduces Gem dragonborns, to make updates for them to include Gem dragon ancestries 😂 Regarding Darkvision I feel its a must. And regarding natural weapons: Up them to 1d6 for bite/ and 1d6 each for left & right hands. Could add left/ right kicks for 1d6. Or: Bite 1d4, left/ right hands/ feet 1d6 each

I couldn't recommend Mr. Rhexx's video on them more. He gives them SO much depth and manages to make them so interesting.

The Dragonborn are my favorite race to play for one reason, breath attack. It may not be all that useful but I use it for roleplay and narrative moments. It allows for fun interactions.

one idea I had was just to fuse Dragonborn & Lizardfolk, trading the Hungry Jaws trait to the original Breath Weapon, but my players didn't like the idea, so I have a Lizfolk PC, but no Dragonborns.

This is a question of Race (Traits) before Class (Function/Job) and vice-versa: Dragonborn are proud and defiant/handworkers with loyal bonds to (a) family (which could be the party/group), they naturally fit the Warrior/Pally mold. In my mind, Dragonborn are the "Dad" archetype of the group, and my go-to, since I'm a dad :D Flame-spells cannot penetrate my Scales! Although, they roast my cape often...

Well done.

In my campaign I have two dragonborns, one yuan-ti, one half elf and one human. I had to add a NPC yorkshire terrier inventor that speaks multiple languages including draconic.

You mentioned that dborns don’t bite or have scales to help, but other races. Lizardmen and tortles all have extra flavor and abilities. Idk why wotc could not add it at all…especially when they had the precident

I think I am going to just give the Dragonborn in my world the Dragon Hide feat at 1st level which allows them to use their clawed hands as weapons and gives them AC 13+Dexterity Mod. I could see adding a bite as well.

Great vid! Forgive me if I missed this, but is there a reason why you didn’t go over subrace options from Explorer’s Guide to Wildmount? I recall them being a rather popular alternative before Fizban, not sure if they still see play now though.

I think your version of dragonborn with the 2 feats it's probably too strong but it's ok, I played recently a red dragonborn warlock and it's kinda cool with fizzban's version but hey I probably try this new option in the future. Cool video as always man.

To give the breath weapon a little more mileage in higher tier games, I ruled that if you have multiple attacks through Extra Attack, you can use your breath weapon to replace one of those attacks.

I think that often Is ignored the face that the breath Is an area effect, so it deall more damage of used on more creature

I'd also add wings (flight speed equal to running speed) and tails, I did for my dragonborn

Are we going to get a ranger raking video soon Mr. Bard? 🥺

I don't understand why WotC think that natural weapons are so powerful. They are a ribon feature in my mind. Even a d6 natural weapon is weaker then a longsword which the player will likely have access to. Yes there is the possibility that you won't have access to weapons but honestly how often does that happen? One or twice in a whole campaign?

What I do is that instead of ability score improvement or feats. It’s a 1 point of ability score improvement and a feat. This way you don’t have ti feel like your taking the boring route just to remain middlingly powerful.

Maybe overkill but... +2 con +1 any +1 ac Usual resistance and your modified breath attacks. Gains 1 bonus sorcery point when using draconic sorcerer. Gains +1 damage per HD when using elemental magic aligned with its elemental type. Can use slashing or bludgeon when attacking bare handed (always proficient). When attacking in melee a successful critical hit can be followed up with a shamless bite attack (reaction) for extra D12+Con modifier of damage.

Draconic Form is an awesome feat, and I want it!

Great rework. I think it would be great for flavour and those changes are well deserved and needed even. My first and only 5e char is a dragonborn wizard and it was annoying to find out that the gnome sorcerer in the group was more tanky, because sorcerer. She fit into my character's hand. I definitely prefer how Pathfinder handles races and the way the scaling of the breath weapon was presented here sure felt like it. And do we ever need more feats. The options are there but it always comes with the gnawing knowledge of making the character mathematically worse in many cases. And while the 1D4 claws and teeth are nothing "useful" in combat, I wish they were a thing in the books, because flavour matters. Getting into a tavern argument/brawl is so much more satisfying if you can put a fierce claw on someone's chest and give the DM an excuse to let you roll indimidation with advantage.

I would love to see him cover the Genasi they have so much potential but they get lost in the mountain of races

I'd like to push the breath weapon to either bonus action or reaction (yes, reaction) With it still at 1 breath/short rest, this could be quite the improvement without going OP

I'm in the process of somehow homebrewing an eastern/asian version of the dragonborn and thought to give this video another spin for inspiration etc. Based on the differences - both in aspects of history/mythology and appearance - they will probably come along very different. Like a bonus for WIS instead of STR, maybe some luck or magic based traits etc. We'll see... I wonder why this hasn't been done in Fizban's...

Dragonborn are my favorite player race style wise but I have played one once and never again.

Here's how I would change the Dragonborn in 5e.... TLDR: gave them an ASI similar to Half-Elves, added Moonstone and Deep as options, increased their age by a factor of 10, gave them darkvision, adjusted their breath weapon to be in line with the young version of their respective counterpart, bumped the damage of their breath weapon to a d8 instead of a d6 but kept the scaling, gave them both racial feats from Xanathar's as base options and combined draconic fear with the Draconblood ability from CR, and made the Fizban's Chromatic immunity a base feature. Dragonborn Traits: Your draconic heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other dragonborn. Ability Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by 2, and two other ability scores of your choice increases by 1. Age: Young dragonborn grow quickly. They walk hours after hatching, attain the size and development of a 10-year-old human child by the age of 3. They reach adulthood by the time they reach 150, and usually live to be around 800 or so. Size: Dragonborn are taller and heavier than humans, standing well over 6 feet tall and averaging almost 250 pounds. Your size is Medium. Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. Draconic Ancestry: You have draconic ancestry. Choose one type of dragon from the Draconic Ancestry table. Your breath weapon and damage resistance are determined by the dragon type, as shown in the table. Draconic Ancestry Dragon Damage Type Breath Weapon Black Acid 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save) Blue Lightning 5 by 60 ft. line (Dex. save) Green Poison 30 ft. cone (Con. save) Red Fire 30 ft. cone (Dex. save) White Cold 30 ft. cone (Con. save) Amethyst Force 30 ft. cone (Str. save) Crystal Radiant 30 ft. cone (Con. save) Emerald Psychic 30 ft. cone (Int. save) Sapphire Thunder 30 ft. cone (Con. save) Topaz Necrotic 30 ft. cone (Con. save) Brass Fire 5 by 40 ft. line (Dex. save) Bronze Lightning 5 by 60 ft. line (Dex. save) Copper Acid 5 by 40 ft. line (Dex. save) Gold Fire 30 ft. cone (Dex. save) Silver Cold 30 ft. cone (Con. save) Deep Psychic 30 ft. cone (Wis. save) Moonstone Radiant 5 by 60 ft. line (Dex. save) Breath Weapon: You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic ancestry determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation. When you use your breath weapon, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw, the type of which is determined by your draconic ancestry. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 2d8 damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 3d8 at 6th level, 4d8 at 11th level, and 5d8 at 16th level. After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest. Damage Resistance: You have resistance to the damage type associated with your draconic ancestry. Elemental Warding: Starting at 5th level, as an action, you can channel your draconic energy to protect yourself. For 1 minute, you become immune to the damage type associated with your Draconic Ancestry. Once you use this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. Draconic Presence: You can use your draconic physique to guide a conversation in your favor. When you make a Charisma (Intimidation or Persuasion) check, you can do so with advantage. Additionally, starting at 5th level, you can expend a use of your Breath Weapon trait to roar, forcing each creature of your choice within 30 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier). A target automatically succeeds on the save if it can’t hear or see you. On a failed save, a target becomes frightened of you for 1 minute. If the frightened target takes any damage, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success. Once you use this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest. Draconic Body: Your scales and claws are as hard as iron. While you aren’t wearing armor, you can calculate your AC as 13 + your Dexterity modifier, you can use a shield and still gain this benefit, and you have retractable claws. Extending or retracting the claws requires no action, the claws are natural weapons which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the normal bludgeoning damage for an unarmed strike. Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. Draconic is thought to be one of the oldest languages and is often used in the study of magic. The language sounds harsh to most other creatures and includes numerous hard consonants and sibilants.

I played a amethyst dragonborn fighter and it's my favorite character tbh. but yes, I agree that they are super lack luster

One day I may have eggs with a lovely lady and then SURPRISE! One of these hatches from them instead of a dragon.

You could always pick a dragonborn for a barbarian way of the beast for the natural weapon aspect

How do you feel about the winged dragon born?

I exclusively play dragonborns, I've only ever played a non-dragonborn character (minotaur) once, in one session of a hardcore campaign that went nowhere.

But the fizban's breath weapons can be used more than once per short rest, equal to your prof bonus and technically if you have multiattack could exhale them multiple times in a single turn....

Will have some interesting options for half dragons once Mark Seifters dragon ancestry done for Roll for Combat comes out for 5e. It has a general dragon scion that is half dragons and many other heavily dragon flavored characters as a heritage(sub race). Feats for having your scales act like light armor, medium armor or heavy armor, claws, bite, wing and tail attacks. The breath weapon, like all ancestry aoe abilities in Pathfinder 2, is rather weak basically a D4 every odd level to a max of 10d4, same as baseline cantrips and those don't match up to martial damage in the system so hopefully will be much better in 5e. Though you could also just play the dragon PC's from that book, and get much better options, will have to see what people allow in their games, full dragons (even small/medium sized ones) might be too off putting for some people.

100k!!!!!!!!!

I think I would just take the Fizban version and give them the Dragon Hide feat for free.

What's your opinion on the 3.5 version of dragonborn, where noble examples of any race could, via the grace of bahamut, construct an eggshell for themselves and be reborn as a draconic form of their previous self? Dragonreborn rather than dragonborn, i suppose. It's in Races of the Dragon, a fun dragonny 3.5 book.

I absolutely love dragonborn and we play them a lot more if I had the opportunity. I'm okay with them being weaker, even though I want them to be showing her, because I love the flavor and role play so much. I just like dragons, so getting to play a draconic human makes a lot of sense and sounds really fun

As somebody who grew up in the 80s Dragonborn are forever linked to the evil Dragon Queen of Dragonlance - hence for me they are monsters and no people.

The problem is they where not dragon enough. Give them wing and tails age about same as elf and give them flight like winged tiefling and you got a good race.

I think the breath weapons should return to a bonus action and should start at 3 d6 and max out at 8 d8’s

It sounds good. However, I would offer an option to the ASI. Either strength or constitution would be a viable option in my opinion. For the breath weapon, I don't really like the "once per short/long rest rule. If we're all individuals, we should be able to show that in some way. If I give them a breath weapon equal to their Con modifier, all the dragonborn can have their breath weapon. Some just use it with more frequency. (My human is going to use "Alert" way more often than the dragonborn is going to use his breath weapon.)

I have occasionally seen some dragonborn, honestly probably most after dwarves and halflings. But it always tends to be people's first or second character, because after that you start to realise how they mostly play as if they are raceless with flavour and draconic. From what I could judge, the fizborne has done a lot to redeem the race, and has actually made the race viable for some builds. Even the special racial feats have become viable. The original class had 1 breath weapon that was sometimes viable in t1 play, resistance in that same damage type and acces to 1 language. The new class makes that breath weapon scale better, as well as adding some extra utility at level 5, at least making that part okay. The only thing it still needs in my opinion is a flavourful benefit. Give it advantage on checks related to dragons/dragonborn (pride), or give it proficiency in history. Make it a powerful build, or let it use a mesmerizing aura that gives advantage on persuasion checks whenever it's glowing from selfrighteousness. Just a little fluff that isn't a huge boost in terms of power level, but that gives the character that 'spice of life'.

Personally, I liked the Wildmount Dragonborn. Fizban’s are better though imo. I’m so glad we have Fizban’s because of all the awesome Dragon related content we got. 5E has sorely been lacking in the “Dragon” aspect of D&D these past few years.

Isn't it about making things balanced? Thematically I completely agree with the assessment you have given, however all of those traits would be a bit on the overpowered side. There would need to be something of a decent flaw/detriment to make them on the same page as any other PHB race, otherwise a level 1 party of 5 with a single dragonborn would be crushing every encounter.

Natural armor tends to interfere with being able to wear crafted armor. And why wear it when it's likely to encumber almost as much as it protects?

Having only played 5e, I find theres way to much simplicity in many of the mechanics. I think it woukd benifit a lot more by adding another defensive layer, which could really shine with some of the races. Giving Dragon Born a racial feat that works similar to Heavy Armor Mastery, where they can reduce non-magical physical damage by proficiency bonus (or half bonus rounded up.) as well as resistance to ancestry. Then the Tabaxi's trait where unarmed attacks are 1d4 slashing damage thanks to the claws. Another thing would be to use an action to "recharge" the Dragon Breath, but keep it at the lower damage. It may be more situational, but gives it a lot more use as they can have it up every combat. With the added benifit of being used outside of combat should the need arise. It may not benifit casters as much, but a martial class may opt to attack multiple targets. This, a +2 to choice ability, Draconic Language, and choice between learning a Sorcery Cantrip or choosing Powerful Build I think would make the race good. It needs to compete with other races like humans, and now custom lineage who can start with a feat, and have good asi options. Theres also Satyr, Yian-ti, Aaracrocra, and now the Owl who have solid racial feats.

Make it 3d6 and scaling. Done :D Or maybe even 3d6+con/dex dmg but only once per long rest

Dragonborn strong in the elements or strong breathe

I think a +1 to AC is probably too powerful. Another way to capture the flavor would be to make your base AC either 10+Dex or Con whichever is higher. Obviously not that powerful but it matches the fiction.

10:01 Esper what are you talking about charisma is part/ one of it's many forms is willpower and nothing in their lore suggests they can't be socially savi.

I dont feel like changing the racial features helps enough. Yours is definitely a nice one though. I instead made a half dragon class, that gives base features like dragons, as well as things you can do with claws and giant muscles. With a martial and a half caster sub class each. These add onto dragonborn features, boosting them and encouraging dragonborn to take the class. EDIT2: I do agree the races in 5e are silly. They all really should have had more features and be more profound.

i mean the Dragon hide feat from xanathars already exists, just give your players that

The mechanics are okay. Shouldn't be too competitive anyway. The lore is what's important. A Dragonborn which doesn't get its draconic nature through history and place in the world as something which sets it apart is basically just another lizardy whatsit... In a game where setting exploration has been replaced by generic 5e fantasy land or Faerun or something like that, or one which is inundated with "oh so random" bizarre species instead of any kind of mortal human (in a societal or civilizational sense) situation. The strength of playing a Db is in the bloodline, the history, the identity... a place and purpose in the world like Knights or Kings.

I'm not sure about giving the +1 AC, Resistance AND improved Breath Weapon As much as I agree with that being comparable to the variant Human, I can't see myself talking a DM into adopting anything more than your version of the Breath Weapon before complaints about munchkins and power creep start flying

I like it and I'd add Darkvision on top of it all. Not any more powerful than elf or dwarf in my opinion

I prefer the Neverwinter MMO DBs who had Dragonborn Fury, Basically it was an insane crit and damage boost.

Its my favorite lol...

The way you were talking about dragon breath, I thought you were gonna make it OP. Mechanically, using Dragon Breath as a bonus action was good, but it never made sense in 4e. And of course it was too weak in vanilla to sacrifice your action for, and punishing against non-martial characters in Fizban's. Yours is simpler, makes sense, and probably will feel good for a player to use. Half damage against successful saves increases its tactical use cases a bit. It might be too many dice at higher levels, though. Maybe start replacing D6s with D12s at level 11+, instead of adding more dice. It is less damage on average, but only marginally. Plus when you are rolling a lot of dice, things get less swingy, and more predictable. Or if you wanted to really get crazy, you could replace 2D6 with a D20 at level 15+. I like the extra AC rules in the same way you do. Because this is pretty strong, I might make make them take a -1 in one ability score of their choice. Might be a bit extreme, though. For the feats, I will point out that doubling the radius or a cone does a lot more than doubling the length of a line. So maybe the cone upgrades from 15' to 25'. And... I really like the idea of dragons spitting/lobbing breath attacks as a bonus action, so I would probably word is such that breath attacks now have charges, and you have two. You can use two for the lengthened dragon breath, or one for the shorter dragon breath, or one for lobbing a ball of breath within 45 feet as a bonus action (it explodes into a 5' radius circle, or if that is OP a 5' radius cone or 10' line, aimed outward from the user). I... overcomplicate things.

I play Dragonborn pretty much every time I play 5E. When I was running 5E lots of players played Dragonborn.

From what I remember with the handbook version, most of what the Dragonborn had was/is fine, but the breath weapon, while fine earlier in the campaign generally, was pointless later on. Which sucks because it’s kinda the main flavor of playing “as a dragon.”

I'm confused the Warforged race has a +1 AC and it didn't cause too much of a stir. Is it because your dragonborn race has the breath weapon with it?