In general, I like the premise. Chromatic and Metallic dragonborn should have been their own subraces, to begin with. But I'm disappointed with the added features they give them.
Having their Breath Weapon be usable as part of their Attack is a big improvement, as is the d8 damage dice. But I dislike the scaling. I'd keep it at recharging on a Short or Long Rest and have the dice scale upwards with its proficiency bonus.
Chromatic Warding is just underwhelming. I really like the first bullet of Gift of the Chromatic Dragon, and I think it would be a fantastic thing to give to the base Chromatic Dragonborn instead; just limit it to the same damage type of the Breath Weapon.
Metallic Breath Weapon should be more dragon-specific. Brass should be sleep, Bronze should be repulsion, Copper should be slowing, gold should be weakening, and silver should be paralyzing. But I understand this is a lot of text and might be difficult to articulate.
Gem Dragonborn are awesome!
Not sure how I feel about the kobold stuff. I kind of like them as they currently are.
Gift of the Chromatic Dragon should just give them a second color/element.
The +1d4 AC from Gift of the Metallic Dragon seems off. I'd prefer just Disadvantage.
The ability to replace an attack with a breath weapon is going to synergize interestingly with Bladesinging Extra Attack. The "Attack" action can consist solely of cantrips and AOEs (proficiency bonus times per long rest).
More draconic Kobolds were already a thing in previous editions. They were known as Dragonwrought kobold. They were a rarer subrace of Kobolds that were born from eggs that took on the color of the dragon the Kobold shared an ancestry with and were known to be larger, stronger, and longer lived then their smaller kin.
They should honestly just call these new Kobolds Dragonwrought Kobolds to separate them from normal Kobolds.
This.
I'll only accept this kobold as a Dragonwrought Variant. As a replacement of the one we already have? Hell no.
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Active Campaigns:
Raiketsu's Princes of the Apocalypse (DM: Raiketsu) - Shautha: Half-Orc, Level 3 Druid (Circle of Land: Mountain) ⟆ Monster Misfits Adventures (DM: ShadIn) - Vrakskan Onyxadyn: Dragonborn, Level 3 Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian) ⟆ Rime of the Frostmaiden (DM: Sarvaeth) - Rildayne Uln'hyrr: Drow Elf, Level 1 Warlock of the Archfey
(3) Psychic Lance is problematic. It allows you to bypass cover to target a named individual within 120, but doesn't consume the spell slot if the target isn't within range. This would let a player chant the name of a pursuer every few rounds and it would automatically hit the target as soon as they came into range. It allows for massive single-target damage through walls (through dungeons), without ever presenting a target. A Sorcerer could expend all of their Sorcery Points and spell slots harrying a BBEG from a ridiculous distance through a mountain.
Using Psychic Lance when the named target is not within range should carry some kind of drawback. Maybe minor psychic damage or exhaustion.
100% this. First thought was to spam cast the spell when I knew the target was in the general area (market, castle, battlefield) and move around until the spell fires off. Stand next the Lord of Londinium when you get word that Andrew the Accurate Assassin is coming for him. As soon as Andrew gets within 120', the Lance fires off, giving away his location.
The only downside to the spell is doing no damage / incapacitation if they save.
Flaming Stride is excellent. Extra movement, essentially reversing opportunity attacks, the damage has no save, and you can damage with your movement. It's like casting flaming sphere but you get to be the sphere and you don't necessarily stop moving when you "collide" with something.
I disagree that you can use this with any mount, but if a Paladin (or a bard because magical secrets) were to get access to this spell somehow then they could do a lot with Find Steed or Find Greater Steed.
That said if flaming stride is cast on a mount then when it moves it will cause 1d6 damage to its rider. "When you move within 5 feet of a creature" does not necessarily have to mean when you approach said creature but simply when you move while within 5 feet of them. A mount and rider are absolutely within 5 feet of each other.
If you operate under the interpretation that this damage occurs when a rider is moved by their mount (regardless of whether the spell is cast on it) the mount would take 1d6 damage, no saving throw. And if the spell is not cast on the mount then the mount's susceptibility to opportunity attacks would override the protection this spell affords its rider.
Actually, can you cast Flaming Stride on a mount? The target of the spell is 'self' and at no point in its phrasing does it state that you touch a creature to grant its benefits. Rather, it just says that fire appears under your feet
More draconic Kobolds were already a thing in previous editions. They were known as Dragonwrought kobold. They were a rarer subrace of Kobolds that were born from eggs that took on the color of the dragon the Kobold shared an ancestry with and were known to be larger, stronger, and longer lived then their smaller kin.
They should honestly just call these new Kobolds Dragonwrought Kobolds to separate them from normal Kobolds.
This.
I'll only accept this kobold as a Dragonwrought Variant. As a replacement of the one we already have? Hell no.
Oh, I agree. I don’t want them to replace the current Kobolds. There is room for both versions in my opinion and I was just explaining how they can both exist simultaneously. Regular, Dragonwrought, and Urd Kobolds have existed in D&D since at least 3rd edition, possibly longer.
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Very cool I like a lot of the stuff from this UA. I agree with what was said previously, however isn't Raulothim’s Psychic Lance now the greatest assassination spell ever?
If you learn the person's name, just wait until they're asleep then begin casting the spell over and over again. If they fail it's 10d6 + incapacitated, and then you can just spam the spell until it stops using spell slots. Psychic damage so it's hard to trace back to you, and cause it homes through walls you don't need to actually enter the house or anything. Just get within 120 ft with a lot of spell slots and you're good to go.
Edit: They're unlikely to call for help cause incapacitated + asleep, and if they do your 120 ft away so they won't be able to tell what's going on. Six seconds is not a lot of time to gather their things and go figure out where you are before they eventually fail that saving throw.
UA content is generally made available the Monday following its release. A pattern which has been broken only once in the last couple of years, with the Class Feature Variants UA.
UA content is generally made available the Monday following its release. A pattern which has been broken only once in the last couple of years, with the Class Feature Variants UA.
To the people wondering why the new Kobold has a Draconic roar: it is literally a renamed version of Grovel, Cower, and Beg.
Everything else on the New Kobold is rebalancing. Pack Tactics was busted OP and purely balanced out by Sunlight Sensitivity, so they got rid of both, made Grovel and Beg a bonus action (and renamed it, thank goodness), and let players pick an extra tiny perk to go with it (a single sorc cantrip, OR 1d6 bludgeoning on unarmed strike, OR advantage against Frightened).
I agree that it should have a distinct name from Volo Kobolds, but it's just a rebalance, and one of the better rebalances WotC has ever done in my opinion. It keeps what made Volobolds mechanically interesting (conditional attack advantage) without making them so feast-or-famine (in a lot of modules you basically had advantage AND disadvantage on attack rolls at all times).
For the rest of the races:
Chromatic Dragonborn are awesome. I love, love, love the way they can access damage immunity - by making it require an action to activate, you need to either plan ahead to use it or pay an opportunity cost. It's also nice and straightforward that the Chromatic variant has line damage, whereas the other two have cone damage.
Metallic Dragonborn are pretty cool too - the alternate breath weapon truly feels like a special attack, and I can see it leading to some really interesting tactical turnabouts. I like that they made the main breath attack scale better with higher levels, but they kept the Metallic Breath Weapon at once-per-LR while allowing it to be situationally powerful all campaign long.
Gem Dragonborn are just generally interesting. Conditional flight, built-in telepathy, and they get all the weird damage types - while I can see people going Amethyst just for the Force breath/resistance, most of these feel like they'll be flavor picks more than strategic/minmaxing. It's just a grab bag of neat things that don't really synergize, but I'd be happy to have any of them at any given moment.
These races really feel like someone's taken time to design them for interesting gameplay, rather than just spitballing some vaguely thematic features to go with them (looking at you, Reborn Lineage) and I really hope to see more of this in the future.
Flaming Stride is excellent. Extra movement, essentially reversing opportunity attacks, the damage has no save, and you can damage with your movement. It's like casting flaming sphere but you get to be the sphere and you don't necessarily stop moving when you "collide" with something.
I disagree that you can use this with any mount, but if a Paladin (or a bard because magical secrets) were to get access to this spell somehow then they could do a lot with Find Steed or Find Greater Steed.
That said if flaming stride is cast on a mount then when it moves it will cause 1d6 damage to its rider. "When you move within 5 feet of a creature" does not necessarily have to mean when you approach said creature but simply when you move while within 5 feet of them. A mount and rider are absolutely within 5 feet of each other.
If you operate under the interpretation that this damage occurs when a rider is moved by their mount (regardless of whether the spell is cast on it) the mount would take 1d6 damage, no saving throw. And if the spell is not cast on the mount then the mount's susceptibility to opportunity attacks would override the protection this spell affords its rider.
In either case, if the mount provokes an opportunity attack while you’re on it, the attacker can target you or the mount.
Play a Beast Master as a Small character and ride it around as your mount.
Or don't and just use Share Spells from 15th-level on. I'm not sure it targets other creatures and objects. I feel like it's more like pass without trace in that regard.
Well, I guess this confirms that we're getting a Draconomicon this year, as some of this would work for Dragonlance but gem dragons and kobolds aren't native to that setting, and some of the spell names reference characters and dragons from other settings.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Really like the new kobold, the redo and rolling of pack tactics into beg and buffing it is very good.
Pack tactics: You have advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.
beg: As an action on your turn, you can cower pathetically to distract nearby foes. Until the end of your next turn, your allies gain advantage on attack rolls against enemies within 10 feet of you that can see you. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest
Roar - As a bonus action, you let out a draconic roar at your enemies within 10 feet of you. Until the end of your next turn, you and your allies have advantage on attack rolls against any of those enemies who could hear the roar. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest
The big changes, first it's now a bonus action and not an action, 2nd it's usable proficiency bonus amount of times per long rest, third after you roar it doesn't matter what the enemies do, if they heard the roar your allies gain advantage. and 4th it's not reliant on team positioning, as long as you got within 10 feet your allies can be anywhere.
Sure I can see the argument for it being a roar being odd, but mechanically its a very strong power, playing something like a kobold martial, moving up roaring, attacking with advantage than the rest of your party maintains advantage on anything that was within 10 feet than getting that advantage again on your turn with NO prerequisites other than bonus action, and hearing is amazing in my eyes. I could see this being really strong in a group with a pair of kobolds, Kobold A roars, when it wears off Kobold B roars, I see it in a fighter, rogue pair.
So Dragonlance is being teased. Time to prepare the background of my Kender. I haven't given my DM's enough hart problems in a while.
Did Dragonlance have dragonborn outside of the evil Draconians who turned to stone when they died? I never made it all the way through those books.
Combined with the draconic ranger and monk subclasses though, this makes me think of more of a Draconomicon type of book. I wouldn't mind something like that that's more setting-neutral.
You're probably right, there where no dragonborn only Draconians. But the Fizban reference is a Dragonlance reference.
I know gem dragons are supposed to be psychic. But they're psychic dragons. A feat that gives you a generic reaction psyblast doesn't feel particularly draconic unless you go out of your way to make it so. Which is fine, means the feat can be used as a generic "Psy-Touched" thing, but I don't know if I'd bill it as a draconic feat in that case.
EDIT: Also, any time anyone plays a kender in an actual, for-real game of D&D, an entire litter of puppies spontaneously explodes in a little girl's bedroom somewhere and scars her for life.
Think of the little girls.
Think of the puppies.
And don't play goddamned kender.
Meh I'm a cat person. Something you could have figured out with my excitement about Kenders.
To the people wondering why the new Kobold has a Draconic roar: it is literally a renamed version of Grovel, Cower, and Beg.
Everything else on the New Kobold is rebalancing. Pack Tactics was busted OP and purely balanced out by Sunlight Sensitivity, so they got rid of both, made Grovel and Beg a bonus action (and renamed it, thank goodness), and let players pick an extra tiny perk to go with it (a single sorc cantrip, OR 1d6 bludgeoning on unarmed strike, OR advantage against Frightened).
Interesting on the Draconic Roar as this is the second time I'm aware they've done this. Renaming Grovel, Cower, and Beg to Draconic Road seems another iteration what they did with the Hobgoblin to Feywild Hobgoblin reflavoring of Saving Face to Fortune of the Many. I wonder if we're going to see more sort of disparaged or shame traits relabeled with nobility or boldness to them. Let them have a war cry instead of an irritating snivel.
While Fizban is a strong reference to Dragonlance, said to be the Avatar of Paladine or Paladine mortal disguise, the other three named spells reference dragons from the Forgotten Realms.
Icingdeath is the common name of Ingeloakastimizilian, a Great White Dragon that was slain by Drizzt Do'Urden and Wulfgar. He would then name the scimitar he found in the dragon's hoard after the slain dragon.
Raulothim, The Silent Shadow, was an immensely powerful Emerald Dragon from the Forgotten Realms that was so skilled in magic and psionics that he had over 400 hundred battle-related spells in his arsenal and fought with an array of animated Wands and Staves.
Nathair, full name Nathair Sgiathach, is one of the gods of the draconic pantheon in the Forgotten Realms. Specifically, he is the god of pseudodragons and faerie dragons, which explains the connection to fey magic in the spell named after him.
While Fizban is a strong reference to Dragonlance, said to be the Avatar of Paladine or Paladine mortal disguise, the other three named spells reference dragons from the Forgotten Realms.
Fizban is specifically the aspect of Paladine that kenders follow. Insomuch as they have the attention to follow anything that's not right in front of them with a "Danger: Do Not Touch Under Any Circumstances" sign on it.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
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In general, I like the premise. Chromatic and Metallic dragonborn should have been their own subraces, to begin with. But I'm disappointed with the added features they give them.
The ability to replace an attack with a breath weapon is going to synergize interestingly with Bladesinging Extra Attack. The "Attack" action can consist solely of cantrips and AOEs (proficiency bonus times per long rest).
This.
I'll only accept this kobold as a Dragonwrought Variant. As a replacement of the one we already have? Hell no.
Active Campaigns:
Raiketsu's Princes of the Apocalypse (DM: Raiketsu) - Shautha: Half-Orc, Level 3 Druid (Circle of Land: Mountain) ⟆ Monster Misfits Adventures (DM: ShadIn) - Vrakskan Onyxadyn: Dragonborn, Level 3 Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian) ⟆ Rime of the Frostmaiden (DM: Sarvaeth) - Rildayne Uln'hyrr: Drow Elf, Level 1 Warlock of the Archfey
RachelEvening's Tyranny of the Dragon Queen - DM
RachelEvening's Tomb of Annihilation - DM
100% this. First thought was to spam cast the spell when I knew the target was in the general area (market, castle, battlefield) and move around until the spell fires off. Stand next the Lord of Londinium when you get word that Andrew the Accurate Assassin is coming for him. As soon as Andrew gets within 120', the Lance fires off, giving away his location.
The only downside to the spell is doing no damage / incapacitation if they save.
Flaming Stride is excellent. Extra movement, essentially reversing opportunity attacks, the damage has no save, and you can damage with your movement. It's like casting flaming sphere but you get to be the sphere and you don't necessarily stop moving when you "collide" with something.
I disagree that you can use this with any mount, but if a Paladin (or a bard because magical secrets) were to get access to this spell somehow then they could do a lot with Find Steed or Find Greater Steed.
That said if flaming stride is cast on a mount then when it moves it will cause 1d6 damage to its rider. "When you move within 5 feet of a creature" does not necessarily have to mean when you approach said creature but simply when you move while within 5 feet of them. A mount and rider are absolutely within 5 feet of each other.
If you operate under the interpretation that this damage occurs when a rider is moved by their mount (regardless of whether the spell is cast on it) the mount would take 1d6 damage, no saving throw. And if the spell is not cast on the mount then the mount's susceptibility to opportunity attacks would override the protection this spell affords its rider.
Ref: Controlling A Mount
Actually, can you cast Flaming Stride on a mount? The target of the spell is 'self' and at no point in its phrasing does it state that you touch a creature to grant its benefits. Rather, it just says that fire appears under your feet
Oh, I agree. I don’t want them to replace the current Kobolds. There is room for both versions in my opinion and I was just explaining how they can both exist simultaneously. Regular, Dragonwrought, and Urd Kobolds have existed in D&D since at least 3rd edition, possibly longer.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
Very cool I like a lot of the stuff from this UA. I agree with what was said previously, however isn't Raulothim’s Psychic Lance now the greatest assassination spell ever?
If you learn the person's name, just wait until they're asleep then begin casting the spell over and over again. If they fail it's 10d6 + incapacitated, and then you can just spam the spell until it stops using spell slots. Psychic damage so it's hard to trace back to you, and cause it homes through walls you don't need to actually enter the house or anything. Just get within 120 ft with a lot of spell slots and you're good to go.
Edit: They're unlikely to call for help cause incapacitated + asleep, and if they do your 120 ft away so they won't be able to tell what's going on. Six seconds is not a lot of time to gather their things and go figure out where you are before they eventually fail that saving throw.
if I edit a message, most of the time it's because of grammar. The rest of the time I'll put "Edit:" at the bottom.
Any idea when this will become available in the character creator?
There's always one.
UA content is generally made available the Monday following its release. A pattern which has been broken only once in the last couple of years, with the Class Feature Variants UA.
Please do not contact or message me.
Typically by the following Monday after the UA is released. One of the DDB staff will set up a thread in the UA forum when it goes live.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
Now I know.
To the people wondering why the new Kobold has a Draconic roar: it is literally a renamed version of Grovel, Cower, and Beg.
Everything else on the New Kobold is rebalancing. Pack Tactics was busted OP and purely balanced out by Sunlight Sensitivity, so they got rid of both, made Grovel and Beg a bonus action (and renamed it, thank goodness), and let players pick an extra tiny perk to go with it (a single sorc cantrip, OR 1d6 bludgeoning on unarmed strike, OR advantage against Frightened).
I agree that it should have a distinct name from Volo Kobolds, but it's just a rebalance, and one of the better rebalances WotC has ever done in my opinion. It keeps what made Volobolds mechanically interesting (conditional attack advantage) without making them so feast-or-famine (in a lot of modules you basically had advantage AND disadvantage on attack rolls at all times).
For the rest of the races:
Chromatic Dragonborn are awesome. I love, love, love the way they can access damage immunity - by making it require an action to activate, you need to either plan ahead to use it or pay an opportunity cost. It's also nice and straightforward that the Chromatic variant has line damage, whereas the other two have cone damage.
Metallic Dragonborn are pretty cool too - the alternate breath weapon truly feels like a special attack, and I can see it leading to some really interesting tactical turnabouts. I like that they made the main breath attack scale better with higher levels, but they kept the Metallic Breath Weapon at once-per-LR while allowing it to be situationally powerful all campaign long.
Gem Dragonborn are just generally interesting. Conditional flight, built-in telepathy, and they get all the weird damage types - while I can see people going Amethyst just for the Force breath/resistance, most of these feel like they'll be flavor picks more than strategic/minmaxing. It's just a grab bag of neat things that don't really synergize, but I'd be happy to have any of them at any given moment.
These races really feel like someone's taken time to design them for interesting gameplay, rather than just spitballing some vaguely thematic features to go with them (looking at you, Reborn Lineage) and I really hope to see more of this in the future.
Play a Beast Master as a Small character and ride it around as your mount.
Or don't and just use Share Spells from 15th-level on. I'm not sure it targets other creatures and objects. I feel like it's more like pass without trace in that regard.
Well, I guess this confirms that we're getting a Draconomicon this year, as some of this would work for Dragonlance but gem dragons and kobolds aren't native to that setting, and some of the spell names reference characters and dragons from other settings.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Really like the new kobold, the redo and rolling of pack tactics into beg and buffing it is very good.
Pack tactics: You have advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.
beg: As an action on your turn, you can cower pathetically to distract nearby foes. Until the end of your next turn, your allies gain advantage on attack rolls against enemies within 10 feet of you that can see you. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest
Roar - As a bonus action, you let out a draconic roar at your enemies within 10 feet of you. Until the end of your next turn, you and your allies have advantage on attack rolls against any of those enemies who could hear the roar. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest
The big changes, first it's now a bonus action and not an action, 2nd it's usable proficiency bonus amount of times per long rest, third after you roar it doesn't matter what the enemies do, if they heard the roar your allies gain advantage. and 4th it's not reliant on team positioning, as long as you got within 10 feet your allies can be anywhere.
Sure I can see the argument for it being a roar being odd, but mechanically its a very strong power, playing something like a kobold martial, moving up roaring, attacking with advantage than the rest of your party maintains advantage on anything that was within 10 feet than getting that advantage again on your turn with NO prerequisites other than bonus action, and hearing is amazing in my eyes. I could see this being really strong in a group with a pair of kobolds, Kobold A roars, when it wears off Kobold B roars, I see it in a fighter, rogue pair.
You're probably right, there where no dragonborn only Draconians. But the Fizban reference is a Dragonlance reference.
Meh I'm a cat person. Something you could have figured out with my excitement about Kenders.
Interesting on the Draconic Roar as this is the second time I'm aware they've done this. Renaming Grovel, Cower, and Beg to Draconic Road seems another iteration what they did with the Hobgoblin to Feywild Hobgoblin reflavoring of Saving Face to Fortune of the Many. I wonder if we're going to see more sort of disparaged or shame traits relabeled with nobility or boldness to them. Let them have a war cry instead of an irritating snivel.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
While Fizban is a strong reference to Dragonlance, said to be the Avatar of Paladine or Paladine mortal disguise, the other three named spells reference dragons from the Forgotten Realms.
Icingdeath is the common name of Ingeloakastimizilian, a Great White Dragon that was slain by Drizzt Do'Urden and Wulfgar. He would then name the scimitar he found in the dragon's hoard after the slain dragon.
Raulothim, The Silent Shadow, was an immensely powerful Emerald Dragon from the Forgotten Realms that was so skilled in magic and psionics that he had over 400 hundred battle-related spells in his arsenal and fought with an array of animated Wands and Staves.
Nathair, full name Nathair Sgiathach, is one of the gods of the draconic pantheon in the Forgotten Realms. Specifically, he is the god of pseudodragons and faerie dragons, which explains the connection to fey magic in the spell named after him.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
Fizban is specifically the aspect of Paladine that kenders follow. Insomuch as they have the attention to follow anything that's not right in front of them with a "Danger: Do Not Touch Under Any Circumstances" sign on it.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.