I'm about to DM a oneshot with an all dragonborn party. I wanted to incorporate a purple dragonborn in the group, because one of the players really loves purple and I've seen some people online homebrew purple dragonborns with psychic damage and resistance, which is pretty cool
...But BOY was this harder than I thought! I thought it'd be easy to just pick a normal dragonborn and change the resistance and breathweapon to "psychic" (as well as rename it), but I can not for the life of me figure out how to do it. I've conceived 4 different horrible homebrew dragonborn babies and none of them turns out the way I think they will.
I have no clue at this point how to proceed. I have been making gogoly eyes at the already exisiting Purple Dragonborns in the homebrew, but they are all a little too "extra" with flying speed and what not.
I just want a super normal dragonborn. :( ...that is purple.
I think this is what you are looking for. There was a new unearthed arcana (test content) supplement for dragonborn and kobolds. The supplements includes the addition of subraces. This means your dragonborn party can consist of chromatic, metallic and gem. You will probably have more luck, there than in homebrew. Hope this helps!
Thank you! I seem however to stumble here as well...
I'm not sure whether to use "Create Race" or "Create Subreace", but the recurring problem is that no matter which one I pick I can't figure out how to pick the exact same template and information of a regular dragonborn and just tweak the breath weapon into psychic damage. I can't seem to find the option for it. It seems like you have to more or less create it from scratch, but it sometimes doesn't save my progress, and I feel like I'm doing the same thing over and over again but without actually getting anywhere.
If there is a good newbie-friendly video tutorial of how to creat homebrew races or subraces, please send it my way! 🙏
I think a good idea would be making a copy of the race. The original Dragonborn race doesn't include sub races. Instead you pick out the damage from a list. If you wanted to add that option to a player, the smoothest way of doing it would likely be just adding another section. The damage will remain the same.
As for learning to homebrew, just check out the pinned threads in this forum! They should show you how to go about doing things like adding tooltips, scaling bonuses, etc. Even if you know how the system works, it can be very difficult to make things right. Don't stress yourself.
Own the PHB on DDB. If you don’t own the book here, or at least that race from the book, then you cannot use it as a template.
The Dragonborn is a Race. You cannot “create subrace” nor “create variant race.” You must “create race,” then you can use the Dragonborn as a template and designate it as a Variant afterwords.
You won’t be able to just “tweak the breath weapon a little.” You would need to build an entirely new set of interconnected options.
Honestly, it would be much simpler to use the new UA Dragonborn instead. They are all superior to the standard Dragonborn by design. The Dragonborn are generally recognized as having been published underpowered. The new UA versions are a way to rectify that mistake.
In short, don’t try to Homebrew something that you don’t need to Homebrew. What you want already exists. If your players enable “playtest content” for their characters then they can use the UA Dragonborn instead of the standard ones. (They are already built in the system.) If your player selects a Gem Dragonborn (I believe “Emerald” is the one that does psychic damage) then you can just pretend it’s “purple” instead of emerald and your problem is solved.
If all you are trying to do is change the damage selection to psychic, you should be able to just make a copy of the Dragonborn race and change one of the options to psychic.
Collections->Create a Race, Select Dragonborn.
Then in each feature, pick one to replace, for example White.
And replace everywhere where you find Cold with Psychic.
Note that the description field is empty sometimes so you will need to fill it in a few times.
Or if you want to use the Unearthed Arcana instead (which does pretty much the same thing).
On the character, make sure Playtest Content is enabled on the HOME tab in the character builder
Select "Draconic Races" and then "Gem Draconic Races" as your race
Well... I don't really have a problem with the official Dragonborn (except for their lack of purple ones, hah...), so I'm afraid the UA versions doesn't really help me that much in my query...? And I know that it's the easiest thing in the world to just simply pretend that a Green dragonborn is purple and does psychic damage instead of poison and all those nice things. If I wanna give up on this and accept that homebrewing is a craft way too complex for my feeble understanding... then that's probably how it's gonna be in the end. And I will humbly accept that.
But first I want to see if there is something I CAN do. In case I've missed something super obvious or if there perhaps is a guide for this exact problem.
I know it's not important, but since some of the players haven't really used DnDBeyond before, it would be so nice and easy to have Purple Dragonborn as a viable option instead of a pretend situation. Hence why Homebrew seemed like such a nifty solution (if I can figure out how to do it).
Thank you for trying to help though! I do have the PHB so I'm gonna keep trying until I hopefully get it right or succumb to my inadequacy!
OMG I THINK I FINALLY DID IT...? It still says White when I pick Ancestry in the character builder as well as on the character sheet, but maybe it takes some time to properly settle...? When I try to edit it again, it clearly says Purple and Psychic in all the appropriate places, so I believe it should work.
But oh boy... I made it FAR more complicated than I thought it was. Getting lost in the various levels of options didn't help either... 😅 But this simplification did! Thank you so much!!
Hello! Help! ❤
I'm about to DM a oneshot with an all dragonborn party. I wanted to incorporate a purple dragonborn in the group, because one of the players really loves purple and I've seen some people online homebrew purple dragonborns with psychic damage and resistance, which is pretty cool
...But BOY was this harder than I thought! I thought it'd be easy to just pick a normal dragonborn and change the resistance and breathweapon to "psychic" (as well as rename it), but I can not for the life of me figure out how to do it. I've conceived 4 different horrible homebrew dragonborn babies and none of them turns out the way I think they will.
I have no clue at this point how to proceed. I have been making gogoly eyes at the already exisiting Purple Dragonborns in the homebrew, but they are all a little too "extra" with flying speed and what not.
I just want a super normal dragonborn. :(
...that is purple.
I think this is what you are looking for. There was a new unearthed arcana (test content) supplement for dragonborn and kobolds. The supplements includes the addition of subraces. This means your dragonborn party can consist of chromatic, metallic and gem. You will probably have more luck, there than in homebrew. Hope this helps!
My only good homebrews: Races, Subclasses.
An aspiring DM and Homebrewer. Ask me if you need anything.
Thank you! I seem however to stumble here as well...
I'm not sure whether to use "Create Race" or "Create Subreace", but the recurring problem is that no matter which one I pick I can't figure out how to pick the exact same template and information of a regular dragonborn and just tweak the breath weapon into psychic damage. I can't seem to find the option for it. It seems like you have to more or less create it from scratch, but it sometimes doesn't save my progress, and I feel like I'm doing the same thing over and over again but without actually getting anywhere.
If there is a good newbie-friendly video tutorial of how to creat homebrew races or subraces, please send it my way! 🙏
I think a good idea would be making a copy of the race. The original Dragonborn race doesn't include sub races. Instead you pick out the damage from a list. If you wanted to add that option to a player, the smoothest way of doing it would likely be just adding another section. The damage will remain the same.
As for learning to homebrew, just check out the pinned threads in this forum! They should show you how to go about doing things like adding tooltips, scaling bonuses, etc. Even if you know how the system works, it can be very difficult to make things right. Don't stress yourself.
My only good homebrews: Races, Subclasses.
An aspiring DM and Homebrewer. Ask me if you need anything.
You have to:
Honestly, it would be much simpler to use the new UA Dragonborn instead. They are all superior to the standard Dragonborn by design. The Dragonborn are generally recognized as having been published underpowered. The new UA versions are a way to rectify that mistake.
In short, don’t try to Homebrew something that you don’t need to Homebrew. What you want already exists. If your players enable “playtest content” for their characters then they can use the UA Dragonborn instead of the standard ones. (They are already built in the system.) If your player selects a Gem Dragonborn (I believe “Emerald” is the one that does psychic damage) then you can just pretend it’s “purple” instead of emerald and your problem is solved.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
note: spoilers are the instructions.
If all you are trying to do is change the damage selection to psychic, you should be able to just make a copy of the Dragonborn race and change one of the options to psychic.
Collections->Create a Race, Select Dragonborn.
Then in each feature, pick one to replace, for example White.
And replace everywhere where you find Cold with Psychic.
Note that the description field is empty sometimes so you will need to fill it in a few times.
Or if you want to use the Unearthed Arcana instead (which does pretty much the same thing).
On the character, make sure Playtest Content is enabled on the HOME tab in the character builder
Select "Draconic Races" and then "Gem Draconic Races" as your race
Pick Emerald as the ancestry.
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Well... I don't really have a problem with the official Dragonborn (except for their lack of purple ones, hah...), so I'm afraid the UA versions doesn't really help me that much in my query...? And I know that it's the easiest thing in the world to just simply pretend that a Green dragonborn is purple and does psychic damage instead of poison and all those nice things. If I wanna give up on this and accept that homebrewing is a craft way too complex for my feeble understanding... then that's probably how it's gonna be in the end. And I will humbly accept that.
But first I want to see if there is something I CAN do. In case I've missed something super obvious or if there perhaps is a guide for this exact problem.
I know it's not important, but since some of the players haven't really used DnDBeyond before, it would be so nice and easy to have Purple Dragonborn as a viable option instead of a pretend situation. Hence why Homebrew seemed like such a nifty solution (if I can figure out how to do it).
Thank you for trying to help though! I do have the PHB so I'm gonna keep trying until I hopefully get it right or succumb to my inadequacy!
OMG I THINK I FINALLY DID IT...? It still says White when I pick Ancestry in the character builder as well as on the character sheet, but maybe it takes some time to properly settle...? When I try to edit it again, it clearly says Purple and Psychic in all the appropriate places, so I believe it should work.
But oh boy... I made it FAR more complicated than I thought it was. Getting lost in the various levels of options didn't help either... 😅
But this simplification did! Thank you so much!!