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Post by joatmoniac on Mar 22, 2017 7:32:47 GMT
This is another one that is pretty straightforward, but with a fairly limitless set of options! I know that DM Ian and I kicked around the idea of more than just the "typical" dragons being allowed to be used as a dragonborn base. Linked here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#True_dragons is the list of all true dragons that wikipedia can offer, and when I say all I am pretty confident that is true, haha. Since players have a tendency to pick, or just come up with, some of the craziest ideas there are I figured we could try to head them off at the pass, and create some interesting alternate dragonborn options for players and DMs alike to see and maybe use in their own worlds. 1. Pick a type of dragon from the link, or one of your own. 2. Use that as the base for making an alternate Dragonborn race 3. Be as specific or general as you would like, a fully stated 5e race ready to go, or a story telling the tale of this new dragonborn, etc 4. Tell how that specific dragonborn type came into being, and/or continues to come into being 5. vote for how the chromatic and metallic dragonborn showed up in Dayeimbe Grab a dragon and have fun! |
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Post by dmgenisisect on Mar 22, 2017 7:55:40 GMT
I was torn between ancient/ lost civilisation and the aliens option and I realise why don't we have both!
What if Metalic Dragons and their dragonkin are native to the plane but the chromatics are from somewhere else... A plane where dragons have dominated the cosmology!
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Post by 00dlez on Mar 22, 2017 15:44:11 GMT
I wouldn't call it awesome, but I here is how I handled dragons in my homebrew setting:
(to make a short story long...)
In the timeless ebb and flow between Form and Chaos, the World Egg was created. Just as it was created by Form, it was consequently sundered by Chaos and split in two – creating the Material Plane and the Chaos Realm. Along with this two halves of the universe, so too were created ten Immortals – beings which embodied their respective forces of Form (known as the Primordials) and Chaos (known as the Chaos Lords). These two factions, diametrically opposed at the most fundamental level, thus began their cosmic war. In the fighting, the two halves of the World Egg became separated. While neither the Primordials nor the Chaos Lords were able to kill or destroy one another, the Chaos Lords did manage to gain the upper hand and captured the Primordials into Void Crystals. In an ironic punishment, they banished them, still trapped in the Crystals, to the Material Plane and set it adrift, separate from the Chaos Realm.
Through force of will, the Primordials were able to create Avatar’s so they could continue to interact with the Material Plane and in time built portals to the Chaos Realm to resume their war. However, these portals were discovered by the Chaos Lords in advance of the Primordials attack, and the Material Plane was preemptively invaded by the agents of the Chaos Lords, ripping at the fabric of existence itself. With literally the universe at stake, the Avatar’s subjugated the mortal races in order to resist the invasion. In the defense, and with the help of the mortal races, a great fortress was created from pure star metal, and thusly named the Star Metal Citadel. With the combined efforts of the mortals and Avatar’s fought the Chaos Lord’s agents to a virtual stalemate, and with a series of perfectly timed and executed attacks, were able to regain control of the Chaos Nodes, stabilize them, and seal them.
With the immediate threat nullified, the mortals expected to be released from their Avatar master’s bonds. However, fearing another sudden attack, the mortals were left in slavery to the Avatar’s to shore up the defenses of the material plane. Though their individual powers were limited, the mortals collectively had gained a great deal of knowledge about the Chaos Nodes during the war and used them to create a masters of their own choosing – The Celestial Gods.
The Avatar’s immediately retreated to the Star Metal Citadel and began to create new subjects to quell the mortal rebellion. Forged from pure elemental energies, the Dragons were born into the world and the war began in earnest. While very powerful, the Dragons were ultimately no match for the Celestial power that the mortals were able to bring into the world. Empowered by their Celestial masters, and constantly uncovering new and devastating weapons, the mortals found themselves able to defeat their Avatar overlords. One by one the Avatar’s were destroyed until only one Avatar remained. Besieged in the Star Metal Citadel, and seething with anger at the insolence of the mortals, a final, petty, and devastating act took place. In a great conflagration of pure evil, the Avatar destroyed itself – shattering the Star Metal Citadel into countless pieces.
Dozens of millennia have passed since then, and being powerful in their own right, the Dragon's, no longer servants to their now defunct Avatar masters, spread out and inhabited the Earth. Though typically reclusive and self serving, some Dragons have risen to prominence and power in the world since, but a terrible Dragon Plague (approximately 1,200 years prior to the setting "start" date) has all but seen them wiped from the planet... or has it...?
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Post by meribson on Mar 23, 2017 13:40:09 GMT
It isn't up on the blog yet, but my setting does have limited numbers of dragonborn. An important piece of background: each of the different "types" of dragon (chromatic, metallic, etc.) is a different species. Environmental factors during incubation determine if the specific egg hatches into a red or a white, a silver or a bronze. It is accepted that metallics and chromatics cannot successfully interbreed and the resulting eggs either don't hatch or produce something that isn't a dragon.
However, certain entities managed to breed a red/silver hybrid. The creature cannot cast spells like most true dragons, as the magic is all funneled inward to keep its body from tearing itself apart. Her eggs however, are not so fortunate. She has turned to alchemy to try to produce eggs that hatch into dragons like her. She has had...limited success. The closest that she has come are the wingless, humanoid offspring that lack the features of either reds or silvers.
At this point, the only dragonborn present in the setting are red or silver, but the possibility is open for others later on down the line.
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Post by galakan on Mar 24, 2017 3:18:26 GMT
I decided to choose ancient civ because I think that due to dragon's long life-spans, it would be cool if there was a time when they were more involved in the world of normal mortals that they grew out of. And it is during that time that the dragonborn were created.
Onward to the rest of the challenge!
1) I Choose Lung Dragons. I think it would be awesome to be a more oriental themed dragonborn. With the dragon mustache of course.
2) I think it would be pretty similar to how normal dragon colors work, to where each dragonborn are associated with a particular dragon. Perhaps, when they were young, the dragons decided to govern the realm of man. They formed 8 territories, one for each type of lung dragon, and would inhabit a human form during specific circumstances. At that time they conceived children whose mixed heritage caused their physical forms to display the strengths of both halves. On one day the dragons themselves departed from the world of man (for unknown reasons...a possible campaign eh!?) leaving the dragonborn to rule in their stead.
3) For stats-wise, I think it would be cool to actually use the various kinds of lung dragons to their advantage (See below). I think each lineage has, maybe as a breath weapon but it could be an elemental strike of a different kind, a way to utilize their specific environmental nature. For instance the Chiang Lung (River Dragon) can direct the FLOW of waters to do their bidding, such as clear a path or go all water bending and form a whip. And the Tun mi Lung (Typhoon Dragon) would only be able to utilize water in a more chaotic format like a blast.
1 Yu lung (Carp dragon)
2 Chiang lung (River dragon)
3 Li lung (Earth dragon)
4 Lung wang (Sea dragon)
5 Pan lung (Coiled dragon)
6 Shen lung (Spirit dragon)
7 T'ien lung (Celestial dragon)
8 Tun mi lung (Typhoon dragon)
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Post by 00dlez on Mar 24, 2017 16:40:47 GMT
I've mulled it over and added a little more distinction between chromatic and metallic dragons... While the chomatic dragons were forged from their respective energies by their Avatar masters, the mortal races (some time after, mind you) eventually learned to mimic this process, but only having their earthly materials, could bring forth the metallic dragons. Chromatic and Metallic, therefore, will often be in opposition of one another. |
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Post by tigrannosaurus on Mar 30, 2017 10:37:15 GMT
Hi, long time listener, first time caller.
part 5 first: I'd like to see them as endogenous to the world in their own form. Referring to themselves as 'Dragonborn' but not being directly related to them in any meaningful way.
Kind of a simultaneous evolution thing. Dragon dragons went with the few/large/longlived track, the dragonborn went with the small/many/shortlived track.
However - there is some remnants of the distant shared link inasmuch as they can be warped and changed as eggs, and are as such prized in that form by those who would do ill.
1. Pick a type of dragon from the link, or one of your own.
2. Use that as the base for making an alternate Dragonborn race
3. Be as specific or general as you would like, a fully stated 5e race ready to go, or a story telling the tale of this new dragonborn, etc
4. Tell how that specific dragonborn type came into being, and/or continues to come into being
The spirit dragonborn: when a good aligned true dragon polymorphs into humanoid form for love of a mortal but never changes back there is a chance that that, should they mate with their lover, a spirit dragonborn will be the result. born of egg if the dragon was the mother, born of the womb if the human was the mother. they will carry the characteristic drgaonborn form but with a tail. they are without exception a blue white colour, reminiscent of the first cloud whisps in a blue sky.
spirirt dragonborn are experts at divination and of air magic (fly, levitate etc). they are exceptionally long lived having a true dragons lifespan. many end up as contemplative monks, travelling sages and oracles.
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Post by joatmoniac on Mar 30, 2017 19:13:10 GMT
There are so many awesome ideas here! Going to have to take some time to work these out and process them all, haha.
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Post by dmcaleb on Apr 1, 2017 19:04:46 GMT
I like the idea of Dragonborn being the descendants of half dragons for simplicity.
Dragonborn of fairy dragon descent are often splotchy purple and green.
The breath weapon functions as a regular green dragon, but instead of poison damage, creatures that fail the con save start laughing heartily until the end of the dragon horns next turn. Laughing creatures are restrained, and the laughing creature can't use spells with somatic components or communicate effectively.
I like the idea of a chaotic race that hates the social constructs created by the chromatic and metallic. Being CN, some swing more good seeking to bring all dragonborn togeather as one people, and the more evil ones are pillars of anarchy and love using their society to breed chaos.
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dmvanburen
Squire
Posts: 26 
Favorite D&D Class: Rogue
Favorite D&D Race: Tiefling
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Post by dmvanburen on Apr 8, 2017 13:31:30 GMT
So in my little dm idea booklet thing, under a dragon born centric idea I had this. In the world, there isn't any dragon born or dragons, at all. They are myth, they are legend, they are extinct. One day, the party is approached by some figure of authority to hire them to scout out some territory they have lost contact with. Prying more out of the quest giver, you find out that you are not the first group to go out there. None have returned. So they head out and on approach, are ambushed by dragon born. So scouting a fortress, they can learn what happened. You find out that due to the greed and ferocity of the dragons, all the races banded together to eradicate the dragons and dragon born. They very nearly succeeded if it had not been for the careful plans laid by more forward thinking dragon born. They buried and magically hid a gigantic chamber that contained an army, placed in magical stasis only to be woke after the world had forgotten them. So now there are fully armed and ancient dragon born and dragons released with the atrocities that no one else living remembers, reclaiming territories long forgotten. Now, this could go two ways, (brevity wise) with negotiating with severely hostile forces which can be done to have some treaty to reintroduce them to the world, or the moral quandary of having no choice but to essentially beat them back like your ancestors. Now what I though could do the make them non traditional, would be to make them linked to Stars, not sure yet how I might explain how they would know of the different types, but keeping the simple color theme for powers. For example; red would be modeled after a red giant star, big flame attacks and the like, being slightly larger then others. White dwarf stars for smaller size white dragon born that deal radiant perhaps. Maybe yellow for tactician purposes because of the stability of and staying power of a sun like ours. And even black hole types that use gravity manipulation to pull and move your PC's around in battle. Thanks guys, keep up the good work. Hope you like it.
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mjrollins
Commoner
Posts: 15
Favorite D&D Class: Bard?
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Post by mjrollins on Oct 19, 2017 21:51:35 GMT
#ranDoMNastics
1. Pick a type of dragon from the link, or one of your own.
Tungsten Dragon; Dragon Turtle; Desert Tortoise
2. Use that as the base for making an alternate Dragonborn race
Sand Dragonborn
3. Be as specific or general as you would like, a fully stated 5e race ready to go, or a story telling the tale of this new dragonborn, etc
Racial Variant Traits:
+2 CON
+1 CHA
Breath Weapon:
Heat Wave Type: Fire 15 ft. cone (Con. Save)
4. Tell how that specific dragonborn type came into being, and/or continues to come into being
Many believe Sand Dragonborn to be an evolutionary offshoot of Tungsten Dragons, though many argue that their shells suggest some hereditary connection to Dragon Turtles. Some have posited Sand Dragonborn to have evolved from a Tungsten Dragon/Turtle Dragon Hybrid, though the suggestion of such a hybrid is skeptical. To many, it would seem that the Sand Dragonborns’ shells are an evolutionary trait independent of any Dragon Turtle lineage.
Wherever they came from, Sand Dragonborn are here.
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Post by letterlost on Nov 16, 2022 10:09:22 GMT
4. Tell how that specific dragonborn type came into being, and/or continues to come into being
In game: only once in game have I had a player choose to be a dragon born, in their (much more elaborate then I will go into) back story they said that their father was a dragon and mother was a human sorcerer. So they said and so it was.
Personally: when first introduced to dragonborn by the 3rd ed. phb I got the impression (perhaps incorrectly) that dragon born were half dragon/ half anything else. Despite official sources suggesting otherwise, I still like my initial conclusion better.
1. Pick a type of dragon from the link, or one of your own.
Lung dragons: the lung wang (sea dragon)
2. Use that as the base for making an alternate Dragonborn race
Lung Wang dragonborn, aka Lungton as they are usually but not always Lung Wang + Triton. These have heads akin dragonborn, body type matching triton though finely scaled, and a finned fully mobile tail matching their height.
3. Be as specific or general as you would like, a fully stated 5e race ready to go, or a story telling the tale of this new dragonborn, etc
Swim speed twice walking speed
Dark vision
amphibious
Disadvantage to smell outside of water, advantage in water
Disease resistance
Breath weapon: out of water same as thunder wave, in water a twice as powerful thunderwave of water.
1/day: sonic blast: sphere 30 ft radius causing disorientation and damage as thunderwave.
3/day: may cast slow fall on self during which they can “swim through the air”
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