Homebrew Chromatic Half-Dragon (Ritualistic) Species Details

The powers of the Dragons themselves, something many a mortal desired, but always found to be out of reach. Through dedicated study and understanding of Dragons, the dreams of mortals that can potentially live to rival even True Dragons was realized in the Half-Dragons. These Half-Dragons were born as a different race entirely, but at some point in their life, they willingly (or forcibly) went through the ritualistic change of race, becoming a Half-Dragon. The ritual itself is a dark art, created by cultists who believe Dragons should rule over other races, where the recipient is bathed in the given blood of a Dragon while the aids cast the necessary ingredients into the bath, reciting the draconic words to call forth the power of the mighty beasts.

Stranger in a Strange World

Half-Dragons created through ritualistic experimentation are often considered anomalies. They would look like a draconic abomination, a morph of different races with the ancient powers of proud, and very dangerous, Dragons. As this is a relatively new method of transformation, not much is known about this race, only that they are viewed as freaks of dark magic.

Self-Sufficient

A Half-Dragon loses all traces of their old lives, the ritual imbuing them with more traits of Dragons than just physical. Magic comes easy to a Half-Dragon, as the inherent magic of Dragons now runs through their blood, granting them some magical benefits. 

Seen as a dark magical concoction, Half-Dragons are often avoided unless its a business deal, and even then, they are more likely to be double-crossed as people tend to not trust a person magically altered to become like a majorly selfish and evil race as Dragons. As such Half-Dragons will mostly only rely on their own powers, and seek to become more powerful in order to achieve whatever goal they earn for.

Draconic Fury

Being transformed into a creatured that is part Dragon has its benefits, of course, but it is also very dangerous. There is a constant struggle with your own newfound instincts, causing you to become Chaotic if you're Lawful, and Neutral if you were Good before. In battle, the rage intensifies, and as battle drags on, you must make a DC12 Wisdom saving throw or be consumed by the primal fury of the Dragons, desiring to destroy enemies and allies alike. On a successful save, the next saving throw has a -1 to the difficulty, this bonus is cumulative as it becomes easier to resist the lust for destruction. If you fail the saving throw, you lose control of your character. You can repeat the saving throws every round, with increasing difficulty after each consecutive fail.

The increase in difficulty is +1 to the DC after each failure. Once you regain control over your mind, your body changes to look even more like a Dragon's. Created through rituals, Half-Dragons will initially look mostly humanoid, with some scales, horns and the slit eyes of dragons. But as they fail to stave off the fury of the Dragon race, the scales spread further and further, until they are undiscernable from Dragonborn.

The saving throw DC resets after a short or long rest. The changes you character's body goes through of failed saves, do not.

Half-Dragon Names

Half-Dragons created through rituals are given names according to their race of origin, be it elven, orcish, dwarvish, etc. They tend to adopt a title that in some form honors their new life, so for example, a black Half-Dragon could adopt the seafaring title of Tide Turner if in his new life, after going through his change, he became a pirate or sailor. Half-Dragons rarely have surnames, as they leave all pretenses of their old lives behind after becoming more like the powerful Dragons.

Chromatic Half-Dragon (Ritualistic) Traits

Your draconic heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other draconic races.

Ability Score Increase

When you transform into a Half-Dragon, your Constitution and Strength increase. Your Strength is increased by 2. Your Constitution is increased by 2.

Age

Half-Dragons phisically age as their original race would, but they stop aging when they reach a certain point in life, and can live as long as actual dragons.

Size

Half-Dragons start as many different races, be a Gnome, a Goliath, but through the ritualistic modification of your body, you gain a few inches. Your weight varies, but you are only slightly heavier than your original race, about 100 pounds heavier due to the draconic blood increasing your mass. Your size is either Small or Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet, regardless of size.

Darkvision

Due to the ritualistic transformation of your body, you gain the ability to see in darkness.

Draconic Fury

In battle, the rage intensifies, and as battle drags on, you must make a DC12 Wisdom saving throws or be consumed by the primal fury of the Dragons, desiring to destroy enemies and allies alike. On a successful save, the next saving throw has a -1 to the difficulty, this bonus is cumulative as it becomes easier to resist the lust for destruction.

If you fail the saving throw, you lose control of your character, entering a berserk state. Much like a barbarian, while in this state you are immune to the Frightened and Charmed conditions. You can repeat the saving throws every round, with increasing difficulty after each consecutive failure. The increase in difficulty is +1 to the DC after each failure, to a maximum DC of 22.

This saving throw's DC resets after a short or long rest.

Draconic Blood

You've been granted the power of Dragons. Choose one type of dragon from the Draconic Blood table. Your breath weapon and damage resistance are determined by the dragon type, as shown in the table.

Draconic Blood

Dragon	Damage Type	Breath Weapon
Black	Acid	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Blue	Lightning	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Green	Poison	15 ft. cone (Con. save)
Red	Fire	15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
White	Cold	15 ft. cone (Con. save)

Breath Weapon

You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic blood determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation. When you use your breath weapon, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw, the type of which is determined by your draconic ancestry. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 2d6 damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level. After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest.

Damage Resistance

You have resistance to the damage type associated with your draconic blood.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. Draconic is thought to be one of the oldest languages and is often used in the study of magic. The language sounds harsh to most other creatures and includes numerous hard consonants and sibilants.