Happy New Year All, Dragon Lance! Time-stamps and Spoilers Below! 0:10 Intro, Subscribe, and Become a Member! 0:35 Sources 2:00 Personal Note and Making Sense of Lore 3:37 Draconian Overview and the First Deal with Takhisis 5:59 Corruption of the Eggs, The Abyss/Nine Hells 7:56 War of the Lance, Retreat of the Dragons 9:52 Draconian Version of History, Wizards, Traags and Seeks 12:19 Training, Female Draconians, and Good Draconians 13:45 Kang and Teyr 15:54 Description of Draconians 18:34 Procreation, Maturity, and Death 20:58 Languages and Subraces 22:10 Traag 24:27 Seek 25:55 Baaz 29:21 Kapak 31:41 Bozak 34:13 Sivak 36:24 Auraks 38:40 Adamaaz, Ferak 39:20 Kobaaz, Dragon Spawn 42:38 Noble Draconians 46:38 Flame, Frost, Lightning, Vapor, Venom Like, Share, Comment, Subscribe, hit the bell icon for more, and check out the Teespring for Merch! Haven't delved much into Dragonlance myself as a native 5e player, I cant wait to hear more about this setting and what sounds like a fairly rich history.
"We made this dark and corrupted ritual that turns metallic dragon eggs into creatures of pure evil! ...But we ran out of metallic eggs." "Why not just use chromatic dragon eggs instead? They are already super evil so surely they'll become abominations of pure malice and hate!" "We were wroooooong!"
The fact that noble draconians look just like the evil dragons makes me think they all act like superheroes, stalking the night, using their sorcery to exact justice on the thieves and killers of the humanoid towns they skulk in, all the while knowing they can never show their face or be punished for the origin they themselves hate. The skull faced Black Draconians are just born to be Batman. I wonder what it says about Krynn and its morality that the dragons born of good have the choice to be good or evil. But the dragons born of evil invariably chose to be good. It's like a commentary on those whose nurture is evil (some will be good, others will choose to stay bad,) and those whose nature is evil. (the chromatics are always good because they feel blessed with the choice to be.)
I am a long time Dragonlance fan, and I've always said Draconians are an example of why wizards aren't always the best people to research military R&D. I can imagine wizards under Dracart imagining the magical death throes of draconians making their troops unstoppable, slaying their enemies even in death. In reality however the baaz draconians turn to stone putting barriers in the way of their own advance; their bozak sergeants explode in the midst of their own men, and the auraks turn into berserk spellcasting terrors that slaughter everyone around them, friend or foe. Little wonder the field commanders of the dragonarmy used them to dig latrines and guard duty instead of in the field.
Dragonlance, notably the book series of Dragon Codices, is what started an interest in medieval fantasy when I was really young. I was really glad I found D&D.
Same here I found Dragons of Winter Night was my first Dragonlance book. I found it at a gas station on a rather boring car trip and I was hooked bought a ton of the books after that.
The first three 'Dragons of' books and the three book series about Caramon and Raistlin afterwords are generally a good place to start. They are easy reads; a good antidote to Tolkienesque meanderings.
Really a great setting and the books that got me into Fantasy and D&D to begin with (the Dragon’s of... Trilogy, some of the first novels I ever read as a kid).
By Reorx's Hammer, Anvil, and Beard I loves me some Dragonlance lore! 😁 Thx again, AJ. If you get into doing general lore from Dragonlance, I'd love to hear your take on things like the moons of Kryynn and their affects on arcane magic, ancient Istar/the Kingpriest/the Cataclysm, the Towers of High Sorcery, and of course Raistlin/Fistandantillis.
If we do end up with Draconians as races I hope that Kobolds will get Urds as a subclass. I watched this and the entire time all I thought about huffy kobolds looking up at this race of demigods from there perspective. Considering what Tashas did to applicable races for players I really don't see why not.
Female kapak saliva when applied to heal non Kapaks, will cause scarring and disfiguration to affected body parts. On other Draconians, it's a slight discoloration of their scales. Humans who get healed by Kapak saliva will become scarred with Kapak colored scales on the affected flesh. IT is very likely that any noble Draconian that is still surviving, is usually under the protection of a metallic dragon that has adopted them. It is the only safe place for them to go to and the best way for them to serve going against The Dark Queen.
I stumbled upon DragonLance when I was 14 and it quickly became an obsession for me... I've read very nearly the entire collection and own all of my favorites within that subset. It's a universe I hold very near to my heart as it was essentially my initiation to fantasy novels (barring the classics like Harry Potter and LotR). I wanna go back and read them again at some point (especially since I've read most of them translated in french since that was what was available to me as a teen) if I ever find the time. I'm knee-deep in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series right now and it'll probably take me at least until summer to finish that one :P
The town scene from the beginning is my new computer background. I haven't read that much Dragonlance but I did enjoy The Dragon's Son Trilogy, and the Amber and Ashes Trilogy
Dragonlance is by far the best of all the D&D universe. The lore and world are far less confusing than the forgotten realms and is frankly just more interesting.i have always loved the grittier aspect of krynn where heroics generally just get you killed.
Sweet Slaanesh, I haven’t read any dragonlance since high school when the world almost ended with the chaos invasion and they lost all their magic moons lol
With the present lawsuit it's unlikely we will see any official content forthe Dragonlance setting. So tyvm for not forgetting this gem. I humbly request if possible that you have a look into Birthrite as well.
This will be incredibly helpful for my ToD game, some players were wondering why some "dragonborn" were exploding into balls of fire or others acid. Still looking for some epic prophecy or spell that will free Tiamat ( when the wings of a red dragon that has known no hatred in it's heart sits on the thrown of dragons will the queen return, or something like that)
Thinking seriously about bringing Draconians to Toril. Just a small group, isolated, clan based that war with each other, which keeps the population under control. Something that would truly intrigue players that have never seen Dragonlance material.
When i was a very new player with a red mage, we wanted to play draconians. Never got to do it, but still lovem! If anyone remember the comic Storm, ygdrassil, there is a npc looking like one of them
This is so very good, Draconians are amazing and Dragonlance is one of my favorite is settings. I would love your take on Magic in Krynn and the three orders. So much I could say on Krynn but I wont rant on your page.
Oh how I miss the days of DragonLance. Believe it or not children back then authors set out to write engaging stories that sucked you in. Nowadays it seems like the authors are not even familiar with the lore on any given project and the result just sucks.
This is at least the second if not the third time I've watched this video; because it's been so long sense I've played D&D let alone Dragonlance. I have my books out and while I'm listening to the video I'm reading my D&D: DragonLance resource books.
I recently went back into a dragonlance deep dive and got to look back at all the great book series I have. The rise of solamnia, minotaur empire trilogy, mina trilogy,and the ogre titan are great of the newer ones. Good older ones where the ice wall series and the qualinesti and solinari elves trilogy.
When you are speaking of the Bozak's death throes, you said they melt into a puddle of acid. When did they change their death throes from them withering to a husk and then exploding in a 5-foot radius? Note such a death throe was mentioned in detail in one of the short stories set in the time they were being hunted by the goblin army between "The Doom Brigade" and "Draconian Measures." Slith even invented the Grenade in the story in the "Heroes And Fools" short story compilation. I noticed that Auraks behaved differently with their Death Throes between the games and the novel. Myrtani, and other Auraks, had to be killed twice with attacks, followed by a round or two before they finally exploded in "Champions Of Krynn", "Death Knights Of Krynn", and "Dark Queen Of Krynn" Commodore 64 / DOS games... yet, General Maranta in "Draconian Measures" simply melted into a puddle after being killed once. No second life, no explosion. Sivak Female Twins "Hanra" and "Shanra" demonstrated the Sivak's chameleonic abilities in the short stories as well as in "Draconian Measures", but there was something else added in with it that even their handler, Gloth, was unable to identify them even when being directly spoken to. As long as they had armor on, they were able to infiltrate the meetings of the males, and the dialogue at the end of the one instance in the short story itself had him asking, "What was the name of that soldier?" to one of the other males, who couldn't answer the question. It appeared again in Draconian Measures when they infiltrated the fort for information as well as to secretly train themselves for combat with stolen weapons. I would very much like to get my hands on any material dealing with the First Dragonarmy Engineers. They made a brief appearance in "Dragons Of Summer Flame" near the end of the book with Kang having the medallion of office and Slith being the commander. Any information on that company you mentioned that Weiss and/or Hickmann are running would be excellent, too.
Thank you for making this . was really disappointed wizards didn't add draconians to fizbans but they are hinting at dragon lance release. also wizards saying draconians can't be Pc's because they are made evil and explode when they die which by this video disproves that with their own material.
Had to google to know what you are talking about. Now you have my hopes up. You better be right, two months ago I had made my peace with not getting any Dragonlance material for 5e.
If not for Raistlin's inspiration I would not have a house just for me at 28 and probably be living in a small apartment with a crazy wife and a couple of kids
I certainly will be using these over any other draconic humanoids as inhabitants of my world. Reclusive and rare, special with talents and flaws, a more origin orientated natural mindset that is conflicted by the nature of their spawning and upbringing while being overrided by the overgod to function in opposite to said origin. (Or by the ritual). They are a good box of chocolates for any would be Forest.
Perhaps, I keep wondering just what the Cult of the Dragon was actually up to with the dragon eggs they had in the early part of the Tyranny of Dragons plot set in the Forgotten Realms. In that adventure Tiamat was essentially replaying the strategy that she was also using as Takhisis in the War of the Lance in Krynn. If Tiamat had not been stopped and managed to open the portal in the Well of Dragons an army of Draconians would have been be handy to conquer Toril. It's worth reading the Fizban`s Treasury of Dragons sourcebook for some ideas about Draconians in worlds other than Krynn.
Yeah, Fizban’s offered 5e versions of Draconians which were . . . Kind of interesting but it’s really hard to divorce the Draconians from Krynn. I say that even though I’m sticking them in one of my many homebrew settings. What is wrong with me?
Well, no one knows for sure if there are such creatures as the Sea Dragon based Draconians, as they attempt to make draconians out of chromatic eggs and failed spectacularly. But then again, there are the Aquatic Dragons that came out of hibernation after the War of the Souls. Of course, there's no way to make Draconians, since Takhisis has been disabled.
Took me a bit to finally comment but you did a fabulous job on this, only a couple of minor errors that I noticed after listening 3 times. Loved how you melded in the old lore with the sovereign press lore, made it sound great. And yup never touched 4th edition so those draconians were completely new to me. Again excellent job and if you ever have DL questions don't hesitate to drop me a line.
I love Krynn and the DragonLance setting, but gotta admit - I'm one of those who avoided 4e like the plague, so much of this info was new to me. Thanks for putting it all together AJ!
Regarding the lore about draconians having abishai souls, I can see how it would make sense. The abishai were more or less reborn, with no memories or allegiances of their previous lives; they are just blank slate souls used to give life to the draconian. The good/evil tendencies of the draconian varieties was most likely a result of the ritual itself that could reverse the innate alignment of the particular dragon type they were created from, a side effect not known to the ones who created the spells and ritual. They would likely have assumed that either the abishai souls would retain the same proclivities, or that the training would imprint their tendencies upon them. This would also explain the violent death throes, as in earlier D&D editions, some devils and demons would have similar reactions upon death.
I've always wondered how to rp with death throes in D&D. Clearly no creature wants to be killed, even if it has the ability to take out many foes upon it's death. I would find it strange for a creature to fight to the death, or put itself in a situation where it clearly has no escape just so It could get the last laugh. If it was an undead I might understand it, or something that is summoned from another plane.
My recommendation is to look at the real world here. There are plenty of creatures that produce chemicals specifically designed to make them taste bad or if you look at the poison dart frogs of South America, their bright coloring makes them stand out and thus most creatures when they are young try to eat them. This results in several individua frogs dying as the predator learns that bright bouncy frogs are not to be eaten. Which then results in the predator leaving the rest of the population alone. The frogs do not want to die but for the species their death serves a greater purpose. Since the Draconian's are intelligent while they don't want to die themselves they may sacrifice themselves if they are backed into a corner (like most encounters with adventurers) in order to buy time for their comrades to escape, regroup, and retaliate or flee. They would not put themselves in a situation where there is no escape unless they are truly suicidal (like some of those first generation draconians who personally were tortured and beaten by the dragons) fun roleplay moment there.
@@brettonalwood4173 Agreed. It would have to be a scenario where there is no other option for escape. Draw in as many enemies as you can and go out with a bang!
been waiting for this video for awhile and was quite worth the wait sort of disappointing that they didn't make a orium,cobalt,mythral etc draconians despite those and other dragon types being mentioned in the 3e and 4e books like could see a orium draconian or spawn turning a lessor version of the breath weapon serpent of oriums when they die
@@AJPickett well ya though still find it a bit odd that they had draconians and dragon spawn in the same book as those 4e dragons but didn't think of making draconian and spawn from some of them
@@AJPickett yep been working on some orium spawn mainly made from kobolds and lizardfolk or similar races who a orium dragon character subjugated partly so can get them to safely mine orium or use orium items safely (given without the correct crafting methods its very toxic though what the toxin does had to homebrew given doesn't say in the book and their are some benefits to toxic orium compared to the non toxic stuff) as well as just simply giving them various buffs and such to make them into better servants also after watching the video decided to look up the dragonlance stats partly cause the noble draconians are only found in those books
@@dragonlord498 please post your efforts to the homebrew monster listings on D&D Beyond. I like to think the keyword "Dragonlance" occuring frequently there might sway the gombas at WotC to give us some more DL content.
Jokes on you I know all the Draconian types are as I've read all the books. Including the ones from Commander Kang's perspective. WHO DOES TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THE TYPES OF DRACONIANS THERE ARE. How does he know? Simple. He's a Bozak.
Fire Dragons are a unique breed of Dragon that only exist in Dragonlance in the 5th age. You should cover them as part of the Dragon lore. Chaos was a mighty and extremely dangerous God that was dangerous to all the other Gods of Krynn. The Father of All and Nothing created many abominations that cause curious entrophic effects on the denizens of Krynn. Besides Fire Dragons, there is also the Shadow and Ice Wights and Daemon Warriors, which have horrific effects on the Book of Gilean. Chaos also supposedly made the Irda extinct, but there are rumors of Irda that were saved, by being unable to rejoin the other Irda to their doom.
I just gave one of my friend’s my entire collection of Dragonlance comics for Christmas since we play D&D together and he’s just getting back into collecting comics after losing all of his in a flood, and I gotta say, the Dragonlance comics do certainly kick ass. They gave me a ton of inspiration for worldbuilding and DMing.
One of my favorite series and responsible for two of my favorite characters: Tasslehoff and Mina. Edit: I think Mina's story would be a cool idea for the channel. It's an excellent example of a epic story with crazy twists and all that.
In 1e Dragonlance D&D even the "lowly" baaz were 2hd creatures with some nasty powers. One would be not too bad against a level 1 say, fighter. Level 1 was supposed to be "somebody pretty good at it." Most people, even soldiers, were supposed to be zero. However, these things moved in groups. A group of 10 of them (they typically travelled in groups of 2-20 according to the entry, so, eleven, whatever. DM fiat.) could screw an early party up. They would take some serious creativity and guts to defeat and still be a big drain of resources. (Yes, that used to be a thing. It could take days or weeks just to heal back in those days, even if you "won." You couldn't reprint your body every 8 hours without some serious magic. How much rations you got? Time?) These were the lowest of the elites of the Dragonarmies. I think that you got that part wrong. Most of the Dragonarmy was human (mostly 0 level, about 1 hd) and goblin (less than 1hd) but, as I said, these were about twice as powerful. These were the shock troops. A low-level party isn't Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas running up a giant elephant and kicking all of the butts on day one, it's regular dudes until they earn more. Most of the human side would have been zero level as well.
@@AJPickett haha, Very professional giving the actual answer. I know how you feel about character revivals so I was expecting you to just respond, "No"🤣
it would depend on the the death throe but as long as you have part of their body remaining, ie: shards of scale or bone, you could use resurrection on them otherwise a Wish or similarly powerful magic but not a raise dead spell
I mean you can always ignore the idea that Dragon born don’t have wings and tails and if you want to you can give them a death burst. However that’s going to make a lot of bandits pretty apropos about not killing them and not wanting to take them to their camps personally I do mine as being absolutely massive as I do it as similar to dragons they don’t have a size limit they start at the size of a human toddler when they are born from an egg and they can grow as tall as 30 feet significantly slowing down and growth after that with it taking about 500 years for them to reach that age as well because I find the idea of elves and dragons having a limited lifespan dumb they’re all immortal dying only by violence
@@charlottewalnut3118 Nice. I, too, decided to have my Dragons, even my draconians/wyrmkin be ageless. Conversely, draconians in my setting are effectively the dwemer in the Elder Scrolls seeing as they are one of the more magic/technologically advanced races(the others would be the Gith, Gnomes and Illithids) and are so dangerous, the Gods begged Bahamut(Yep, Bahamut is their patron in my setting seeing as they replace the Dragonborn) to ensure they can't use necromancy on their dead, hence their death burst while doing everything in their power to try to get the draconians to infight.
The Noble Draconians can only find refuge in a metallic dragon's lair or sphere of influence. The rest of Krynn would be too dangerous for such creatures to exist.
Someone in my area put a box of Ral Partha Draconians up for sale. So tempted to grab them. The book Draconian Measures is still a favorite of mine. Already ran the book as a 1 shot, gave the players the choice of dwarves or draconians.