So, I've been looking at the discussion around a Dragonborn's dragon breath and how the ability seems to scale really poorly considering it takes one action, can only be used once per long rest, and in general just underperforms in all ways, shapes and forms. So I was wondering, do you think that an Unearthed Arcana/new sourcebook retroactively buff or debuff some old racial abilities? Say introduce a Dragonborn subrace that doesn't have the resistance to a damage type, but an immense boost to the dragon's breath?
My thought was your uses of dragon's breath are equal to half of your character level rounded down with a minimum of 1 use per long rest, and let the damage scale as it does now. The damage is much weaker than most spells at its level, but if it has multiple no-spell slot uses.
To start... the breath resets on short rests too...
that said. No it doesn’t scale well.
but For what it is, the fact that it deals damage no matter if they save or not. Is nice, since cantrips, which scale better, and have a lot more uses do not have that same impact on a failed save.
i think it would make sense for the uses to scale up by 1 each time the damage die scales up.
I think breath weapon seems fine the way it is. Uses, especially ones without any other resource cost, rarely scale in 5e; and the exceptions that I can think of don’t scale both in damage(/healing) AND uses. Also, just about no other racial abilities scale with level. As close as you get is a racial feat.
I see why you might want a damaging effect to scale, but it comes with damage scaling — it starts better than a d6 cantrip (hell, it starts better than a d12 cantrip since you can’t get a 1) and gains a die around the levels that cantrips do.
I think breath weapon seems fine the way it is. Uses, especially ones without any other resource cost, rarely scale in 5e; and the exceptions that I can think of don’t scale both in damage(/healing) AND uses. Also, just about no other racial abilities scale with level. As close as you get is a racial feat.
I agree with this. For dragons, their breath is their signature ability. For PCs though, racisl abilities are supposed to be minor; the signature abilities come from class. And honestly, the dragonborn breath weapon is already the most powerful racial combat ability.
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So, I've been looking at the discussion around a Dragonborn's dragon breath and how the ability seems to scale really poorly considering it takes one action, can only be used once per long rest, and in general just underperforms in all ways, shapes and forms. So I was wondering, do you think that an Unearthed Arcana/new sourcebook retroactively buff or debuff some old racial abilities? Say introduce a Dragonborn subrace that doesn't have the resistance to a damage type, but an immense boost to the dragon's breath?
I think it should change. Like the Dragonborn, maybe it doesn't scale, ever, but you have unlimited uses of it.
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
My thought was your uses of dragon's breath are equal to half of your character level rounded down with a minimum of 1 use per long rest, and let the damage scale as it does now. The damage is much weaker than most spells at its level, but if it has multiple no-spell slot uses.
To start... the breath resets on short rests too...
that said. No it doesn’t scale well.
but For what it is, the fact that it deals damage no matter if they save or not. Is nice, since cantrips, which scale better, and have a lot more uses do not have that same impact on a failed save.
i think it would make sense for the uses to scale up by 1 each time the damage die scales up.
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ell like poison spray and acid splash still do damage on a failed save, though it is only like 1d6, but infinite uses.
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
Is that a house ruling you are playing with?
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I think breath weapon seems fine the way it is. Uses, especially ones without any other resource cost, rarely scale in 5e; and the exceptions that I can think of don’t scale both in damage(/healing) AND uses. Also, just about no other racial abilities scale with level. As close as you get is a racial feat.
I see why you might want a damaging effect to scale, but it comes with damage scaling — it starts better than a d6 cantrip (hell, it starts better than a d12 cantrip since you can’t get a 1) and gains a die around the levels that cantrips do.
Edit: formatting on mobile isn’t easy.
I agree with this. For dragons, their breath is their signature ability. For PCs though, racisl abilities are supposed to be minor; the signature abilities come from class. And honestly, the dragonborn breath weapon is already the most powerful racial combat ability.