4e Dragonwrought Kobold Theme [WIP]

[SalmonOfDoubt]

This is my first time homebrewing anything bigger than a simple patch. Please do not hesitate to point out any glaring mistakes I might have made.

Flavor text will come later. As will the level five and ten features. I'm just concerned with balancing the power right now.

Dragonwrought

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Building a Dragonwrought
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Class Prerequisite: None.
Race Prerequisite: Kobold.

Starting Feature
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Benefit: Choose a type of dragon from the list below. This represents you draconic heritage, the type of dragon from which you are descended. Your choice determines the damage type of your dragonwrought breath power and the features you gain at first, fifth, and tenth levels. You gain the first level feature for your heritage. You also gain the dragon keyword and are considered to be a dragon.
You also gain the dragonwrought breath power. This power counts as the dragonborn's dragon breath racial power for the purposes of meeting prerequisites, and you count as a dragonborn for the purpose of meeting the prerequisites for any feat that alters dragon breath. Any bonuses or modifications applied by these feats applies to your dragonwrought breath instead. If you should somehow gain the dragon breath power, talk to your DM. I don't want to deal with that corner case here.
Available Draconic Heritages: Adamantine, Black, Blue, Brass, Bronze, Brown, Cobalt, Copper, Gold, Gray, Green, Iron, Mercury, Mithral, Orium, Purple, Red, Silver, Steel, White

Dragonwrought Breath
The power of your draconic kin rips forth from your jaws to consume your foes.
Encounter ♦ Varies
Standard Action – Close blast 3
Target: Each creature in the blast
Attack: Highest ability modifier + 3 vs. Reflex
level 11: Highest ability modifier + 6
level 21: Highest ability modifier + 9
Hit: 1d6 + highest ability modifier damage.
level 11: 2d6 + highest ability modifier damage.
level 21: 3d6 + highest ability modifier damage.
Special: This power's damage type is determined by your draconic heritage. It is also modified in other ways by your choice of draconic heritage. See the entry on your heritage for details.

Level 5 Feature
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Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to Diplomacy and Insight while dealing with dragons, and a +2 bonus to knowledge checks related to dragons. You also gain the fifth level feature for your draconic heritage.

Level 10 Feature
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Benefit: You gain the tenth level feature for your draconic heritage.

Draconic Heritage Options
Adamantine
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Associated damage type: Thunder
Level 1: Your dragonwrought breath power deals +1d6 damage per tier. In addition, it targets Fortitude instead of Reflex.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Black
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Associated damage type: Acid
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power takes a -4 penalty to AC until the end of your next turn.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Blue
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Associated damage type: Lightning
Level 1: Your dragonwrought breath power's range changes to Ranged 10 and it's target changes to “three creatures within range.” You make the attack as normal against these three creatures. This attack does not provoke opportunity attacks.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Brass
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Associated damage type: Fire
Level 1: Your dragonwrought breath power pushes each target 1 square per tier on a hit.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Bronze
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Associated damage type: Lightning
Level 1: If your dragonwrought breath power hits at least one creature, you can make the following secondary attack against a creature within 5 squares per tier that was not the target of the primary attack.
Secondary attack: Highest ability modifier + 3 vs. Reflex
level 11: Highest ability modifier + 6 vs. Reflex
level 21: Highest ability modifier + 9 vs. Reflex
Hit: Highest ability modifier lightning damage.
level 11: Highest ability modifier + 3 lightning damage.
level 21: Highest ability modifier + 6 lightning damage.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Brown
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Associated damage type: Untyped
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power is blinded until the end of your next turn. Change the damage die of the power from a d6 to a d8. In addition, the power targets Fortitude instead of Reflex.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Cobalt
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Associated damage type: Cold
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power is immobilized until the end of your next turn. In addition, the power targets Fortitude instead of Reflex.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Copper
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Associated damage type: Acid
Level 1: Increase the damage die for your dragonwrought breath power from a d6 to a d8. Each target hit by this power is slowed until the end of your next turn.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Gold
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Associated damage type: Fire
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power is weakened until the end of your next turn.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Gray
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Associated damage type: Acid
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power is pushed 1 square per tier. In addition, the power targets Fortitude instead of Reflex.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Green
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Associated damage type: Poison
Level 1: Increase the damage die for your dragonwrought breath power from a d6 to a d8. Each target hit by this power is slowed until the end of your next turn.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Iron
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Associated damage type: Lightning
Level 1: Your dragonwrought breath power pulls each target 1 square per tier on a hit.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Mercury
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Associated damage type: Poison
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power treats you as having superior concealment until the end of your next turn. In addition, each target hit by this power takes poison damage equal to your highest ability score modifier at the start of their next turn.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Mithral
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Associated damage type: Radiant
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power is blinded until the end of your next turn.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Orium
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Associated damage type: Acid
Level 1: (Summons a acid serpent. What should I do?)
Level 5:
Level 10:

Purple
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Associated damage type: Psychic
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power is dazed until the end of your next turn. In addition, the power targets Fortitude instead of Reflex.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Red
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Associated damage type: Fire
Level 1: Your dragonwrought breath power is a close blast 5, rather than a close blast 3.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Silver
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Associated damage type: Cold
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power gains vulnerable 5 to all damage until the end of your next turn.
Level 5:
Level 10:

Steel
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Associated damage type: Force
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power is dazed until the end of your next turn. In addition, the power targets Fortitude instead of Reflex.
Level 5:
Level 10:

White
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Associated damage type: Cold
Level 1: Each target hit by your dragonwrought breath power is weakened until the end of your next turn.
Level 5:
Level 10:

[Mando Knight]

Don't make it qualify for Dragon Breath feats, IMO. The features it gets from the heritage already match the quality of the Paragon-level feats for Dragon Breath, and the powers from Themes are usually mild in nature, not something that you can usually shape a build around.

[SalmonOfDoubt]

That's the part I was least sure about out of everything I've done so far. I made it qualify for those feats before I started actually writing up the heritage benefits, thinking that it would be strictly worse than dragon breath otherwise. Then I edited the power a bit, added in more benefits, and never disqualified it from feats. So... Yeah. That's getting taken out.

[Mando Knight]

That's the part I was least sure about out of everything I've done so far. I made it qualify for those feats before I started actually writing up the heritage benefits, thinking that it would be strictly worse than dragon breath otherwise.
It has +3 accuracy over Dragon Breath, and doesn't need a feat to take it off of the physical stats. It's better.

[Surrealistik]

It has +3 accuracy over Dragon Breath, and doesn't need a feat to take it off of the physical stats. It's better.

I'm not sure why you're bringing this up as a counterpoint; Dragon Breath has outdated non-implement/weapon scaling. +3/6/9 is the new gold standard for racial scaling, and for good reason. Relatively speaking it's better, objectively speaking, +3/6/9 is where it _should_ be.

[Mando Knight]

I'm not sure why you're bringing this up as a counterpoint; Dragon Breath has outdated non-implement/weapon scaling. +3/6/9 is the new gold standard for racial scaling, and for good reason. Relatively speaking it's better, objectively speaking, +3/6/9 is where it _should_ be.

He said he was worried that it was strictly worse than Dragon Breath without the access to the feats before he added the Heritage bonuses. The only thing that made it worse were feats that had largely situational uses or high costs compared to their value, and the Standard Action. The increased accuracy balances most of those out, in my opinion.

[Surrealistik]

He said he was worried that it was strictly worse than Dragon Breath without the access to the feats before he added the Heritage bonuses. The only thing that made it worse were feats that had largely situational uses or high costs compared to their value, and the Standard Action. The increased accuracy balances most of those out, in my opinion.

That's probably because it is strictly worse. I would also completely disagree with you for a number of reasons:

There are quite a few Dragon Breath feats that are worth taking.

Requiring a Standard instead of a Minor is a _huge_ disadvantage.

Besides this, in general the Theme power as is is laughably weak compared to those of virtually every other good Theme, and the L5 and 10 features probably don't even begin to bridge the gap, unless their corresponding Heritage bonuses end up being very strong. Racial powers aren't and shouldn't be the benchmark for judging or measuring Theme powers anyways.

Also, for the OP, I'd recommend simplifying the Heritage bonuses to groups of similar dragons, rather than making a separate one for each.

[SalmonOfDoubt]

That's probably because it is strictly worse. I would also completely disagree with you for a number of reasons:

There are quite a few Dragon Breath feats that are worth taking.

Requiring a Standard instead of a Minor is a _huge_ disadvantage.

Besides this, in general the Theme power as is is laughably weak compared to those of virtually every other good Theme, and the L5 and 10 features probably don't even begin to bridge the gap, unless their corresponding Heritage bonuses end up being very strong. Racial powers aren't and shouldn't be the benchmark for judging or measuring Theme powers anyways.

Also, for the OP, I'd recommend simplifying the Heritage bonuses to groups of similar dragons, rather than making a separate one for each.Thank you for your input. The level 5 features I would expect to be relatively minor, maybe +2 to a skill and a slight additional boost to the power. The level 10 features were planned to be an energy resistance and either a swim/dig speed or some other feature of comparative power. I'm not sure that these would entire balance out the theme power, it's difficult to gauge how powerful it should be when the WoTC-published themes are all over the place in power level. How would you recommend I buff the power? I'd like to make it a minor action, but would that be overpowered at all? I was also considering having it replace shifty maneuver, and that might give me a little more wiggle room as far as strength is concerned.

Also, why would you recommend that I use groups of dragons over individual species? I realize that it's a lot of work, but I want to do it this way. I'll add more obscure dragons if my players want to use them.

Can anyone tell me if the first level benefits from the different heritages are balanced against each other? I would think so, but it's harder than I thought, balancing a daze to extra damage to weakened to that thing the blue dragon gets.