I am starting DMing for the first (official) time, and one of my players is making a character which is a half sun elf monk, and they want to be the unknowing reincarnation of an ancient gold dragon, who was worshipped by the holy order of the golden dragon where they grew up. Nobody knows they are the reincarnation of this dragon, not even them.

That's what they're after, but I am concerned with the idea of a player character actually being a golden dragon! It seems a bit of a big destiny to throw out in front of a level 2 character in my first foray into DMing. My biggest concern is that this is railroading what is going to happen to the character, and my second biggest concern is that the player will expect a big power reward if this ever culminates in the future!

As nothing has been set in stone (we haven't even session 0'd yet), I'm thinking of ways to redesign this principle to make the plot more interesting and less of a given.

If you're the monk player and are reading this, please stop here, to avoid ruining any potential awesome moments in the campaign!

So, my thoughts are that the Holy Order of the Golden Dragon is actually a clever ploy by the Golden Dragon to achieve immortality. Here's the plan for the history:

In the ancient times, there was a great group of heroes who made their way around the land, slaying dragons and generally doing hero stuff. This actually led to a decline of ancient dragons - the dragons themselves had led purges on the younger dragons to prevent them from becoming old and powerful enough to be ancient dragons and challenge them, so they ruled among dragons & "men" (here meaning all bipedal sentient critters) for a seriously long time. Then these heroes came through, from a different land where dragons didn't rule, and so sought to slay the dragons. The dragons had grown lazy in their rule, and so one by one they fell to the heroes, and the Golden Dragon, seeking to survive these heroes, formed the Holy Order of the Golden Dragon to worship him.

The Heroes came, and the Golden Dragon fell, but the Heroes didn't realise that the Golden Dragon had, using ancient magic, bound its soul into the Holy Order itself - preventing it from ever truly being destroyed as long as there were members of the holy order worshipping it. The Heroes took the Golden Dragons body and destroyed it, but the Holy Order persevered - and so too did the Golden Dragon's soul.

Now, some thousands of years later, the Holy Order is still present. Their shrine in the mountains is well defended, being carved from the Golden Dragon's lair. The seers of the Golden Dragon receive visions of the whereabouts of the gold & trinkets in the Dragons horde, stolen by the heroes, and they have been steadily reclaiming it, bringing it back to their shrine and using it to build a gigantic construct of the Golden Dragon from its own Horde.

The Golden Dragon's soul waits for one who possesses his bloodline, however faint, to come into contact with this construct that towers within the shrine like a glinting sculpture. That person is our Monk - not the reincarnation of the Golden Dragon, but the key to it. If the monk goes to the shrine and touches the effigy of the Golden Dragon, made from the Golden Dragons horde, now reclaimed, the Effigy will be imbued with the Dragons soul, and the dragon will be born anew of the gold that it guarded in life.

From there the Dragon will seek to rebuild its kingdom, which will see the Holy Order of the Golden Dragon become the ruling class of a new kingdom. This won't be a tyrannical kingdom, it will probably be one of prosperity and goodness.

As a future twist, the Dragon might find that it has a continued appetite for gems and such, as it did in life, despite not needing to eat any more. The dragon might grow in size and power as it adds more gold & jewels to its bulk, and may become obsessed with the power it can gain, hoarding all the treasure in the kingdom to make itself more powerful. But that's a possible plotline for after these events, so I can work it out closer to the time!

So, for our monk, this means they are descended from the Golden Dragon, distantly, and therefore they have some destiny about them but less so than actually being the golden dragon itself. I will intend to give them some very minor effects which will hint at their origins without giving them effects which matter much;

• at low level (thus low power), any jewels or gems the Monk holds are going to appear extra sparkly - not emitting light, but just looking a little more glinty.
• as they become more powerful, they will find themselves able to sense, in some way, when evil is near. I won't be telling them what they are sensing - It'll be just a "you have a bad feeling", they won't know it's because of evil. I might make it more of a vision, like a misty figure.
• When they become much more powerful, I will let them cast Dream once per long rest, with a limited range (6 miles).

These are all reflections of the effects on the area around a golden dragons lair; gems sparkle, a mist warns of evil, and the dragon can enter your dreams and talk to you.

What do you all think?

I think you might be slightly overthinking it. Reincarnation doesn't necessarily need to be OP. Like yes, in a past life you were a dragon, but you're a mortal now with all the limitations, bells, and whistles. You can talk to the player about maybe how much they remember from their past life, but considering you don't want the character to be impossibly wise and impossibly powerful, obviously they wouldn't remember everything (after all, how much do you remember from your past life? /sarcasm/).

And as far as any expected huge power reward, again, they're mortal now with mortal limitations. Maybe the vestiges of their draconic power manifest in their subclass (if they're going with the Draconic Monk then this would be a great explanation for where their abilities come from, but you could say the same for 4elements, sun soul, mercy, Astral self, basically any monk subclass that comes with supernatural abilities). As time goes by and their connection to their past life deepens, so does their power (which conveniently increases as you level up). If you want maybe you also throw a dragon-themed magic item or two their way as the game progresses, but I wouldn't expect you need any more than that. 

And if the character's ultimate goal is to regain their dragon status, you can make that the character end goal, and have a conversation with the player so they understand that you can't just let them play an ancient golden dragon for balance reasons, so that would have to be the end end for that character as a PC, and maybe they'd become an NPC after their ascension to dragonity and then the player can roll a new character. 

I don't think there's any reason you need to "fix" the player's initial concept here, you just need to talk to them about what it means to you and what they want it to mean. 

@Thoruk, I think this sounds like a really cool compromise! IMO, "half sun elf reincarnated dragon" just screams "I'm a special snowflake protagonist" to me, and the fact that "not even they" know that they're a reincarnated dragon sounds less like a cool backstory and more like "I want to write the plot." This player's not necessarily a problem, but they definitely have the potential to be.

That said, Charles is also right: you could just have this be a cool backstory note for the character, not tie it in very much, and have them dragonize at the end of the game when it doesn't matter anymore. Though I think they should know they were once a dragon, because that creates good roleplay fodder and takes the onus off you to incorporate it into the story. That's probably what I'd do.

Quote from NaivaraArnuanna >>

That said, Charles is also right: you could just have this be a cool backstory note for the character, not tie it in very much, and have them dragonize at the end of the game when it doesn't matter anymore. Though I think they should know they were once a dragon, because that creates good roleplay fodder and takes the onus off you to incorporate it into the story. That's probably what I'd do.

 Oh yeah they should definitely have an idea of their past life, maybe even retaining some memories, just not millenia-worth of them, as that would be OP. A cool thing you might be able to do is have their draconic memories Awaken within them at various points in the story as they reclaim more of their former life, kind of unlocking themselves as they grow in power. Maybe the character can start off in their backstory knowing nothing about their true identity but when the memories start to awaken, that's the thing that takes them from common monk to player character, and they are on a personal quest to discover what the memories mean. 

That way you can even still do the thing where the dragon will try to reestablish their kingdom once they remember fully who they were and how things came to end, and how to reverse whatever fate caused things to fall apart. I think there's a lot you could do with that kind of adventure structure.

Yeah, I wouldn’t give them any special powers or benefits. Just make it story related. Though you could have another dragon remember them. Dragons live a long, long time. Maybe they run into a different gold dragon who is their child. Could be some fun rp for this little elf to get all protective of an ancient dragon. The dragon would not have the same feeling of obligation to its parent (they died centuries ago) more just a curiosity of how it had happened. 

So disregarding the reincarnation spell, which I think you're wisely doing anyway, there's a lot of tales and actual beliefs in reincarnation as a sort of path to ascend, but also possibly backslide on.  Going to be sloppy with the terminology for simplicity's sake, some traditions that believe in reincarnation think a soul goes through a number of lives, trying to improve itself in each incarnation until it is truly enlightened or reaches nirvana.  Sometimes, soul's make mistakes and need to descend the chain of being to repair the wrongs committed by the prior incarnation.

So what I"m saying, is that perhaps the gold dragon messed up.  This new "lower form" incarnation doesn't yet know what that mistake was but if it is to return to the ladder of ascension it must learn and atone.

In other words, no cool power set, just side quests of self discovery and reparative work.  If the player gripes, say at least they didn't come back as an ooze.

I think your idea is really cool!  It sounds like you’re finding good ways to add depth to the storyline, without giving the monk the spotlight all the time.  

That said, have you asked the player what they want from that backstory?  Are they trying to obtain benefits for themselves?  Are they trying to find ways to enrich the story?  Maybe even a little of both?  Have they considered that their story needs to be roughly balanced with the stories of the other PCs?  Are they just looking for ways to increase their power and glory through their ideas?

As a player who routinely creates extremely elaborate, in-depth backstories for my characters, I have had to learn to accept it when my DM says “no” to too much detail or asks me to scale it down, so I don’t steal the show from the other players.  It hasn’t been a fun lesson to learn, but it’s an important one.  Now, I give my DM an outline, with a few bullet points, instead of a ten-page short story.  I can always provide more detail if they ask for it.

As a DM, I love it when my players give me lots of material.  It’s like getting a whole bunch of free world building and story ideas!  I work very hard to balance things, though.  Every character gets a story arc, in roughly equal proportions.  How much backstory have the other players given you?  Are they more or less detailed than the monk’s?  

If you haven’t had a session zero yet, maybe you could ask your other players to come up with some ideas on how they might be involved in the world.  Make sure you don’t build the whole campaign around one story (although it’s pretty obvious that you’re actively avoiding doing so!).  Maybe make a whole mini-campaign that’s nothing but backstory resolution.  I don’t know; I’m just spouting ideas here.  I personally hate wasting ideas— and your outline of the golden-dragon-cult-resurrection-golden-golem-thing is absolutely awesome!  Maybe you could even give the other players roles in that story.

Of course, I don’t know what kind of game you want to run, or what your players want, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.  At the end of the day, you decide what’s reasonable in your world, and what isn’t.  Saying “no” to a player isn’t fun, but it can be an important step in their personal growth, to realize that they can’t always have everything they want.  Think about toddlers and teenagers: if parents indulge their children’s every whim, the child grows up to be a self-centered jackass.

Just so happens that I turned one of my players into an ancient dragon over time. It was a very fun backstory for the player. 

Eventually the character could shape shift into dragon form just like dragons could shift into humanoid figures. 

It was a lot of work with balancing and mistakes were made. Even had to create dragon sheets the player would use while in dragon form during battle and it had limits. Changing into dragon form required 6 long rests to recharge and change again. 

So have fun with it and be strict about any extra abilities and the like. Don't forget to keep the player in line with the others as far as powers and abilities. Let them grow over time as the character levels up.

Sounds like a tiny bit of flavor, less important than the character's hair color.  Unless they have some specific desire they have not expressed as yet, it is hard to judge and certainly not worth doing any planning around as a DM.

you don't

Thank you all for the feedback, I'm glad my story's going down well!

For what the player wants, I think his goal is to become an all-powerful golden dragon. I will have some discussions with him to let him know that this isn't going to be an option - I want him to be excited by the story I've made, not disappointed.

For comparison to other players backstories, thus far I have 2 other backstories put together - one is an Orc artificer who was exiled for being weak (but has 18 strength - go figure...) and is seeking power to go back to his tribe and prove that he is powerful. I have a loose idea for a storyline for this, which I hope to weave into the rest of the game seamlessly (they will need to go through the tribes lands for a different quest, will be captured, then will have to go through a gladiatorial arena to prove they are strong. They would have just been killed were it not for the artificer being from there - the chief will do it thinking it will put on a good show and kill the artificer). 

Funnily enough, reference the "at least he's not an ooze" comment - the other background I have is for an ooze character who met the Orc artificer and was adopted as sort of a pet. It lives in a bucket which hangs from the Orcs pack. It took a fair bit of discussion with the players for me to allow it - they have avoided the "it can't speak" issue using the Message cantrip, and I've looked over the homebrew for the Ooze and it seems less powerful than a normal PC so I said that if the player really wants to play an underpowered mute ooze, then they can. If it becomes an issue, I will arrange with them to retire or kill off the character and make a new one.

You can just make it story related, or just have the character have a few levels in draconic bloodline sorcerer

Hmmm.

Even as an experienced DM, I'd be wary of a character trying to play an "ooze", especially one carried around in a bucket by one of the other characters. It might make for some comedic scenes early on but to be honest, I think the novelty would fade and the player might have some trouble connecting with roleplaying an "ooze".

The reincarnated golden dragon is a different issue. Reincarnation is not the same as resurrection. The soul has a different form and they are entirely limited by that form. I wouldn't mind giving a few small benefits - speak draconic, advantage on nature checks related to dragons, maybe advantage on charisma checks with good aligned dragons and disadvantage for evil aligned dragons ... but that would be it. I'd make it clear to the player that their character isn't a golden dragon and is unlikely to become one unless they reach level 17+ and find someone to cast true polymorph on them (which is an option available to almost any character but in this case could be the end of their personal quest line). Of course, at level 1 they are unaware of any of this and its hard to say whether the game will ever get that far.

Your suggestion for dealing with it also sounds pretty reasonable.

Quote from David42 >>

I wouldn't mind giving a few small benefits - speak draconic, advantage on nature checks related to dragons, maybe advantage on charisma checks with good aligned dragons and disadvantage for evil aligned dragons ... but that would be it.

 Actually, I think this is on the player to build around for the most part. Then again, if I were going "reincarnated dragon" as my character, I'd definitely be a dragon sorcerer, so the whole thing is a bit strange.

As for the ooze...good luck.

Or you can pull a sneaky on them:

Part 1: Fake rejecting their backstory. Say the player has no knowledge of being a reincarnated dragon, so it being there doesn't serve any point being in the backstory at all because that is a different person. This is the PC's backstory. Not their previous lives. Or just say that what you were in your previous life doesn't determine your strength or knowledge in your next life.

Part 2: If the player ever meets a fortune teller, The fortune teller tells them they used to be a gold dragon through vague language. That way, the PC can actually be reasonably surprised that their character used to be a dragon instead of knowing 100% beforehand. The fortune teller should also make it clear to the player that reincarnation doesn't determine worth. To tell the monk not to be proud of themselves in a past life, but to focus on realigning themselves in the now. Monks strive to center themselves. If the player becomes vain or begins seeking attention when they learn this news, other monks may tell them that they have lost their way. Make this not only a legacy, but a burden and journey. Let the story of their past life impact them only mentally. Don't give them extra powers.

Part 3: This is the one I would like to add on in the end. Near the last session, the player could learn that they are being affected by three spells: arcanist's magic aura, modify memory, and true polymorph. The player is walking around centuries after the golden dragon "died". A century or two is plenty of time to constantly cast modify memory and multiple auras to hide creature type and spells affecting the target if the creature is asleep in imprisonment. 

You do whatever you want. Just please read the bold.

From my experience: Don't use such a "chosen one" Scenario with the goal of acquiring some kind of ultimate power for one player. Been there and it went south pretty quick. It will reduce the other players roles to extras, who simply have the task of trudging along, helping the one player reach the finish line. Also it commits to powerplay from the one player it's revolving around because it's "their story". See the special snowflake comment by Naivara.

I would use something like this for flavor / role play only. If you are a half sun elf in this life that is what you are. The only possible benefit it might have is wth memories for which you could give a small boon at soom point (as they become aware of their previous life they remember the draconic language or they have advantage on history and nature checks pertaining to dragons).

In HotDQ there is a bond along similar lines that I have as a PC. It is a little different in that Bahamut decided to teach me a lesson and trap me in a human body with only dim memories of my former life until I prove my devotion to the cause for good. I have suggested to the Dm if we complete the campaign and I prove myself worthy I could revert to my dragon form but that is right at the end of the final session.   Being a dragon re-incarnated into a humanoid doesn't have that possibility,