Hey guys.  Had an idea of homebrewing a purple dragonborn to play as.  I've got some ideas for a build; he's a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer, although I might multiclass similar to my last build in the future.  Just wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations or ideas.  

Only one question; been looking at the description for the "normal" purple dragon's breath; it says that it takes the form of "energy."  Is that supposed to be lightning?  Just curious.  

As I recall, purple dragons had necrotic breath. An alternative purple dragon is psychic energy breath. But, considering we don't have a purple dragon in 5e at this time, you can kinda pick and choose between the two.

My understanding was that Purple Dragons were (likely) somewhere between a Blue and Red dragon, and their breath weapon was somewhere between Lightning and Fire.

I was also of the understanding that Dragonborn colors can be anything at all, and do not necessarily correlate with the breath weapon they posses.  So your Dragonborn could be purple, but have a Blue Dragon heritage, which you double down on for the Draconic Bloodline.

Purple dragons did Plasma damage in 2nd Edition (which was fire for the purposes of creatures with vulnerability to that damage type or regeneration that was negated by it, but ignored resistance or immunity to fire damage) and Force damage in 3rd Edition.

I think I'll just run with either the plasma breath or psychic breath; bit different from the normal elements.  Does anybody have an idea for a build for those elements?  DB Sorcerer is fun, but I was thinking about mixing things up a bit, and it's not meant to be a super serious character, so feel free to go wild and post anything if you want.  

Also, drag0n_77, where did it say you could be whatever combination of scales and element you wanted?  I never saw that in any of the books or online, and I'm legitimately curious if that's true.  

You've also got the old Deep Dragons that live in the underdark, they had scales that ran from purple to black if if recall correctly, their breath weapon was flesh corrive gas so you could go for acid.

Quote from Flugdrekkar >>

Also, drag0n_77, where did it say you could be whatever combination of scales and element you wanted?  I never saw that in any of the books or online, and I'm legitimately curious if that's true.  

 It's under the Appearance section of the Dragonborn description in the PHB- "They originally had vibrant scales to match the dragons, but centuries of interbreeding have left them with a more uniform coloration."

So you can have a purple-colored Dragonborn without having to have them be related to purple dragons.

So, if I'm reading this right, I can mix whatever colors with whatever breath I want, like a blue dragon with fire breath, or a gold dragon with acid?  If that's true, I've got some builds I really want to try out. 

If it's not, then I'm just being a dumb idiot again, and I apologize. 

Someone did mention the PHB Appearance tab in an earlier post I made, but he said that dragonborn could either be their "classic" color, i.e., red fire dragon, blue lightning dragon, or an alternate, more uniform orange-copper tone for any breath; he didn't say anything about any color for any element.  

Also, thanks for bringing up the Deep Dragons, Rob76; kinda forgot about those.  

Quote from Flugdrekkar >>

So, if I'm reading this right, I can mix whatever colors with whatever breath I want, like a blue dragon with fire breath, or a gold dragon with acid?  If that's true, I've got some builds I really want to try out. 

If it's not, then I'm just being a dumb idiot again, and I apologize. 

Someone did mention the PHB Appearance tab in an earlier post I made, but he said that dragonborn could either be their "classic" color, i.e., red fire dragon, blue lightning dragon, or an alternate, more uniform orange-copper tone for any breath; he didn't say anything about any color for any element.  

Also, thanks for bringing up the Deep Dragons, Rob76; kinda forgot about those.  

You must choose from the table provided for the purposes of your Draconic Ancestry trait, but that is for mechanical reasons.  For the color of your character's scales, feel free to go nuts.  The race description about their appearance tells us that only certain clans have correlation to that heritage.

This is D&frickin’D! You can shoot lightning from your codpiece in this game if you build the right character. I could build a straight Human and say that their 1/32 Tiefling which gives no statistical benefit whatsoever but it makes my PC “kinda skybluepink” if I want. (That color doesn’t even exist btw. 😉) As far as I’m concerned you can be any color you want. If your DM says you can’t make a purple Dragonborn who can breath whatever you want off that list I’d be shocked.

Alright, definitely keeping all this in mind; the color options just gave me a ton of ideas for both heroes and antagonists.  Thanks for your help.  

I'll leave the topic open, in case anyone wants to add anything.  

A purple dragon’s breath weapon would be half lightning half fire. So maybe like an electrical fire?

Quote from PenelopeTheWeaver >>

A purple dragon’s breath weapon would be half lightning half fire. So maybe like an electrical fire?

 That was what they used to call Plasma Damage in editions of the past.

Off topic for a moment, but, Christ, would that be a bad way to go; you get set on fire and electrocuted at the same time.  Yeesh...

Quote from Flugdrekkar >>

Off topic for a moment, but, Christ, would that be a bad way to go; you get set on fire and electrocuted at the same time.  Yeesh...

 Totally!!!

Anyway, so I guess the official breath weapon of a purple dragon is Plasma, but if I were the DM, I would let you have purple skin and whatever breath weapon you wanted. Even Feign Death (the Steel Dragon’s breath weapon from Forgotten Realms).

Alright, I'll keep these suggestions in mind; thanks.  

I'm leaving the topic open, if anyone else wants to comment.  

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Purple dragons did Plasma damage in 2nd Edition (which was fire for the purposes of creatures with vulnerability to that damage type or regeneration that was negated by it, but ignored resistance or immunity to fire damage) and Force damage in 3rd Edition.

 Using the 2nd Edition version, you could add a "ignores resistance and immunity to fire damage" clause to a fire breath weapon

Quote from Margaret22 >>

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Purple dragons did Plasma damage in 2nd Edition (which was fire for the purposes of creatures with vulnerability to that damage type or regeneration that was negated by it, but ignored resistance or immunity to fire damage) and Force damage in 3rd Edition.

 Using the 2nd Edition version, you could add a "ignores resistance and immunity to fire damage" clause to a fire breath weapon

 You could.

They also had three forms of breath weapon- a wide cone, a concentrated beam that only hit a single target and did much greater damage (and IIRC also was harder to recover the damage from), and a beam sword that they could use for multiple rounds and replaced their bite attack.

You could say something like:

Your breath weapon counts as both lightning damage and fire damage for the purpose of overcoming damage resistance and immunity. If a target has resistance or immunity to either one of those damage types, your breath weapon counts as the other against that creature.

What happens with a black pudding in that situation?