After being a DM for a few years, I've on more than one occasion messed around with Dragonmarks as a tool to propel the story forward and to further customize and guide player characters. If you're unfamiliar, they're an interesting set of Feats that give access to spells following a specific theme, and are granted at levels 0, 1, 5, and 9. They're an old concept carried over from D&D 3.5 edition, and added to 5e through the Unearthed Arcana Ebberon PDF.
I've found them to be especially fun for campaigns where my players didn't know what their Dragonmarks did, and the DM (me) surprised them with a magical spell effect during stressful situations (revealed like a mutant power). This encouraged my players to experiment based on what they saw, and eventually led to them adding the spell per the Dragonmark Feat rules (1 cantrip and a spell at 1st/5th/9th, 1x use per day for free, and access to the spell if they had spell slots/points for that level).
With all that said, I was wondering if any of you have created Dragonmarks for your players and what spells they granted access to?
In Eberron they are tied to specific family lineages and so adding new ones would be an aberrant mark that is likely to get you ostracized/attacked. It's an interesting idea to try to bring them to other worlds, but since I prefer to play in Eberron, I've never felt the need.
What Unruly_Cow said. The Dragonmarked Houses have the marks listed in the Eberron UA. Aberrant dragonmarked are either result from the illegal mixing (marriages or bastard children) of two dragonmarked houses or a possible result of dragonmarked prophecy. 3.5ed Eberron had players use a feat similar to Magic Initiate for the aberrant marked.
For example: A fire related Aberrant dragonmark might be
I kind of love that idea of illegal Aberrant dragonmark character builds. Certainly would roll nicely into a related background of someone from a foreign land.
So, I made this mark for my fiance who wanted to be a good healer and yet try out a more offensive class to benefit the party. It is meant to be a severely modified version of the paladins skill of a healing pool of 5×Level. What do y'all think?
Lv.1-7
Player with this Dragon Mark has a pool of healing energy equal to 6 × double current level that the player can use on self or a target of their choice. Lv.8-14 Greater Dragon Mark of Hope Player with this mark can use 10 points of health from their healing pool to cure diseases inflicting one target. Lv.15-20 Grand Dragon Mark of Hope Player can use 60 points from healing pool to Resurrect a fallen target of the players choice as if casting the resurrection spell.
So, I made this mark for my fiance who wanted to be a good healer and yet try out a more offensive class to benefit the party. It is meant to be a severely modified version of the paladins skill of a healing pool of 5×Level. What do y'all think?
Lv.1-7
Player with this Dragon Mark has a pool of healing energy equal to 6 × double current level that the player can use on self or a target of their choice. Lv.8-14 Greater Dragon Mark of Hope Player with this mark can use 10 points of health from their healing pool to cure diseases inflicting one target. Lv.15-20 Grand Dragon Mark of Hope Player can use 60 points from healing pool to Resurrect a fallen target of the players choice as if casting the resurrection spell.
I really like this concept. My 4x new-player party is built heavy on offensive and very little healing. I’ve been generous with magic items and having cleric NPCs nearby at the early stages, but as they head deeper into the meat of the campaign, I was hoping to build a mechanic that could give them their own healing without forcing an NPC or companion on them.
I’ve been toying with them stumbling on a wild-energy dragonshard that bursts near them and grants each a dragonmark power (% roll to see how strong of a gift). Having this healing pool that advances seems great.
@Wheelerclub I also plan to give non-spell options (skills or features) for those of my group that prefer to not manage spell slots or rules. Borrowing from 5e Eberron system, I think adding a d4 to desired ability to then perhaps level up to a complete ability score increase would be good. Alternatively, looking at advantage components or building on damage resistances.
These are just a few thoughts of my mine as I’m in the early stages of homebrewing dragonmarks for my campaign and will rely heavily on player input to design them. I like the ideas I’ve gained from this post - thanks!
After being a DM for a few years, I've on more than one occasion messed around with Dragonmarks as a tool to propel the story forward and to further customize and guide player characters. If you're unfamiliar, they're an interesting set of Feats that give access to spells following a specific theme, and are granted at levels 0, 1, 5, and 9. They're an old concept carried over from D&D 3.5 edition, and added to 5e through the Unearthed Arcana Ebberon PDF.
I've found them to be especially fun for campaigns where my players didn't know what their Dragonmarks did, and the DM (me) surprised them with a magical spell effect during stressful situations (revealed like a mutant power). This encouraged my players to experiment based on what they saw, and eventually led to them adding the spell per the Dragonmark Feat rules (1 cantrip and a spell at 1st/5th/9th, 1x use per day for free, and access to the spell if they had spell slots/points for that level).
With all that said, I was wondering if any of you have created Dragonmarks for your players and what spells they granted access to?
Here's a few I've been working on, or have given out in the past:
Dragonmark of Blades
Dragonmark of the Warden
Dragonmark of Flame
Awe bummer. I guess nobody cares about this type of customization.
In Eberron they are tied to specific family lineages and so adding new ones would be an aberrant mark that is likely to get you ostracized/attacked. It's an interesting idea to try to bring them to other worlds, but since I prefer to play in Eberron, I've never felt the need.
What Unruly_Cow said. The Dragonmarked Houses have the marks listed in the Eberron UA. Aberrant dragonmarked are either result from the illegal mixing (marriages or bastard children) of two dragonmarked houses or a possible result of dragonmarked prophecy. 3.5ed Eberron had players use a feat similar to Magic Initiate for the aberrant marked.
For example: A fire related Aberrant dragonmark might be
(cantrip) Firebolt
(cantrip) Control Flames
(lvl 1) Burning Hands
I kind of love that idea of illegal Aberrant dragonmark character builds. Certainly would roll nicely into a related background of someone from a foreign land.
So, I made this mark for my fiance who wanted to be a good healer and yet try out a more offensive class to benefit the party. It is meant to be a severely modified version of the paladins skill of a healing pool of 5×Level. What do y'all think?
Lv.1-7
Player with this Dragon Mark has a pool of healing energy equal to 6 × double current level that the player can use on self or a target of their choice.
Lv.8-14
Greater Dragon Mark of Hope
Player with this mark can use 10 points of health from their healing pool to cure diseases inflicting one target.
Lv.15-20
Grand Dragon Mark of Hope
Player can use 60 points from healing pool to Resurrect a fallen target of the players choice as if casting the resurrection spell.
I really like this concept. My 4x new-player party is built heavy on offensive and very little healing. I’ve been generous with magic items and having cleric NPCs nearby at the early stages, but as they head deeper into the meat of the campaign, I was hoping to build a mechanic that could give them their own healing without forcing an NPC or companion on them.
I’ve been toying with them stumbling on a wild-energy dragonshard that bursts near them and grants each a dragonmark power (% roll to see how strong of a gift). Having this healing pool that advances seems great.
@Wheelerclub I also plan to give non-spell options (skills or features) for those of my group that prefer to not manage spell slots or rules. Borrowing from 5e Eberron system, I think adding a d4 to desired ability to then perhaps level up to a complete ability score increase would be good. Alternatively, looking at advantage components or building on damage resistances.
These are just a few thoughts of my mine as I’m in the early stages of homebrewing dragonmarks for my campaign and will rely heavily on player input to design them. I like the ideas I’ve gained from this post - thanks!