I've felt like Dragonborn were, rather like 3rd Edition half-orcs, a sub-par character race and I want to add something to buff them a little. I was looking for feedback.
My idea was to add one of the following:
Draconic Fortitude: The blood of dragons flows in your veins, making you more resilient than most others. Your maximum HP improves by 1, and each time you gain a level you gain 1 additional HP.
Darkvision: (Not sure about this one, because everything else in the PHB besides humans and halflings already has the ability)
A skill proficiency- would like ideas on what, though.
Any thoughts?
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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.
Darkvision is over-proliferated as it is, and skill proficiencies are bad for species. That should be a background thing, lingering racial skill proficiencies throw off species balance pretty hard. Fortitude matches with the images and general idea of dragonborn as being these big, sturdy dragon-blooded brutes. Of your given options, that's what I'd go with for a dragonborn bonus.
Alternatively, consider allowing dragonborn players their choice of access to either of the dragonborn racial feats from Xanathar's. Neither is super-overpowered, but each allows a player to be more enticingly draconic in whichever way they favor.
You clearly do not value dragon breath or resistance. Dragonborn have +2 Strength, +1 Cha, making them good fighters and likely Draconic sorcerors that already get the Fortitude.
Fighters often need a ranged attack, so the breath is powerful. Sorcerers already get Fortitude so now we need to talk about getting it twice. Does it stack?
I could see offering Draconian Fortitude and Darkvision in place of them, if you expressly state that Fortitude does not stack with Draconian Sorcerer.
The breath weapon is good at low levels, but it's a single trick and the damage dice increases really don't scale effectively. Also, it's tied to Constitution which unless the character is a Barbarian is not a stat that's likely to get pumped up hard, so the save DC isn't going to be particularly impressive most of the time.
As far as Draconic Fortitude goes, I don't see any more reason it shouldn't stack with a Dragonblood sorcerer's Draconic Resilience than the Tough feat or the Hill Dwarf's Dwarven Toughness, and they both do.
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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.
I'd definitely like to see darkvision stripped away form a good number of races. Far too many have it imo, it should be among reasons you CHOOSE a race, not among reasons you eliminate races from consideration.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I'd definitely like to see darkvision stripped away form a good number of races. Far too many have it imo, it should be among reasons you CHOOSE a race, not among reasons you eliminate races from consideration.
I'd definitely like to see darkvision stripped away form a good number of races. Far too many have it imo, it should be among reasons you CHOOSE a race, not among reasons you eliminate races from consideration.
I agree.
Me too.
I was considering making the breath weapon recharge on a Short Rest at an undetermined level (9-15ish?) however for various reasons I haven’t gotten to test it yet.
Because of the location where I chose to start the campaign has a religious/political/cultural animosity toward races that look in any way “bestial” (Tabaxi, Dragonborn, etc) that makes it exceedingly ”unhealthy” for them, so they... don’t live there. Like, at all. Ergo they not available as PCs (and NPCs) in that location. Because of CV19, the campaign still hasn’t progressed enough to where the party hasn’t had any chance for foreign travel. That travel would have “unlocked” those races for new/replacement characters and NPCs.
I've felt like Dragonborn were, rather like 3rd Edition half-orcs, a sub-par character race and I want to add something to buff them a little. I was looking for feedback.
My idea was to add one of the following:
Any thoughts?
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.
Fortitude.
Darkvision is over-proliferated as it is, and skill proficiencies are bad for species. That should be a background thing, lingering racial skill proficiencies throw off species balance pretty hard. Fortitude matches with the images and general idea of dragonborn as being these big, sturdy dragon-blooded brutes. Of your given options, that's what I'd go with for a dragonborn bonus.
Alternatively, consider allowing dragonborn players their choice of access to either of the dragonborn racial feats from Xanathar's. Neither is super-overpowered, but each allows a player to be more enticingly draconic in whichever way they favor.
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You clearly do not value dragon breath or resistance. Dragonborn have +2 Strength, +1 Cha, making them good fighters and likely Draconic sorcerors that already get the Fortitude.
Fighters often need a ranged attack, so the breath is powerful. Sorcerers already get Fortitude so now we need to talk about getting it twice. Does it stack?
I could see offering Draconian Fortitude and Darkvision in place of them, if you expressly state that Fortitude does not stack with Draconian Sorcerer.
The breath weapon is good at low levels, but it's a single trick and the damage dice increases really don't scale effectively. Also, it's tied to Constitution which unless the character is a Barbarian is not a stat that's likely to get pumped up hard, so the save DC isn't going to be particularly impressive most of the time.
As far as Draconic Fortitude goes, I don't see any more reason it shouldn't stack with a Dragonblood sorcerer's Draconic Resilience than the Tough feat or the Hill Dwarf's Dwarven Toughness, and they both do.
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.
In my games Breath Weapon is a bonus action and does d8s instead of d6s.
I really like the the breath weapon as a bonus action and raising the damage dice. That's a really good idea!
Personally I would just adjust the breath weapon till I saw the race as balanced. But out of the Darkvision and Fortitude I'd go Fortitude.
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I'd definitely like to see darkvision stripped away form a good number of races. Far too many have it imo, it should be among reasons you CHOOSE a race, not among reasons you eliminate races from consideration.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I agree.
I like this idea.
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.
What my group does, is we have the dragonborn player get darkvision, with dragon hide feat, but without the asi.
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Me too.
I was considering making the breath weapon recharge on a Short Rest at an undetermined level (9-15ish?) however for various reasons I haven’t gotten to test it yet.
Because of the location where I chose to start the campaign has a religious/political/cultural animosity toward races that look in any way “bestial” (Tabaxi, Dragonborn, etc) that makes it exceedingly ”unhealthy” for them, so they... don’t live there. Like, at all. Ergo they not available as PCs (and NPCs) in that location. Because of CV19, the campaign still hasn’t progressed enough to where the party hasn’t had any chance for foreign travel. That travel would have “unlocked” those races for new/replacement characters and NPCs.
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Breath Weapon recharging on a short rest I don’t think that would be an issue. Maybe either short rest recharge or die increase but not both.
So, bonus action d6s recharging on a short rest. I like that a lot.