Draconic cross-breeding in a low magic world

[Calimehter]

It is a staple of D&D that dragon blood has woven its way into a whole lot of other bloodlines. Half-dragons, Draconic creatures, dragon-blooded humanoids, etc. etc. etc.. The logistics of how it happens can be explained by the easy access that dragons have to spells like Polymorph and Draconic Polymorph as well as the limited number of dragons with Alternate Form "built in". You can let your imagination or the BoEF fill in the details after that, but the spells make it possible.

Suppose, however, that we are in a campaign world that is a bit different than is typical. In this world, there are no spells *or* SLAs that are higher than 4th level. Furthermore a few of the more 'broken' spells have been banned, including Polymorph. Further-furthermore, while most sourcebooks are allowed, the 'campaign-specific' ones from Eberron and FR and the like are banned, which knocks out that one Eberron bit about dragons being able to just 'buy' Alternate Form.

In such a situation how does dragon blood get into the general population?

A few dragons have it built it, but that would mean that the only half-dragons and other draconic forms would be limited to those few draconic bloodlines.

Specific-form spells (as opposed to open ended ones with a lot of possible forms) are still allowed, so the possibility of the dragon using its spells to turn into certain specific forms still exists. Displacer Beasts, Hellhounds, and Winter Wolves are available from perusing SpC, PHBII, and CM. While these are all allowed and usable, they are a touch limiting when it comes to getting dragon blood into other bloodlines. In particular, a dragon would need to find a willing human who *also* knew that spell in order to make the . . . uh. . . transference in order to get dragon blood into humanoid lines. There is another one that allows Troll form, which is at least a humanoid shape, but is still not an especially satisfactory solution given the limited interaction that trolls have with other humanoids.

If you want to get squicky about it, Amorphous Form (3rd level from SpC) can be interpreted as getting the job done. :smalleek: Still not the ideal solution. Also, my apologies for the mental image that might have conjured up.

Is there anything else I am missing? The above solutions make it at least *possible* to generate humanoids with draconic ancestry, but I'm hoping there is something more elegant out there.

[Draconium]

Alter Self into a half-dragon? It's a 2nd-level spell, and a large dragon could become medium-sized with it. Then again, that is considered a broken spell...

Anyways, may I ask why you are wanting to know possible ways? Perspective may change the answer. (For instance, you could always talk to your DM to try and get that single Alternate Form feat from DoE.)

[DrMotives]

You can also just rule that dragons are simply fertile with all these other things anyway. In older editions there was no half-dragon template, yet stats were out for things like the Dragonne (half-brass dragon lion) & the Dracolisk (half-black dragon basilisk). Dragons can simply, without even using polymorph type effects, breed with other things. This still does limit you to things close in size to an adult or older dragon, but a low-magic campaign is losing enough stuff that no half-dragon kobolds shouldn't upset things too much.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Create a "Humanoid form" single-type spell? It seems like the kind of thing that lots of non-humanoid mages would be interested in, if things like Polymorph and Alter Self didn't exist.

[Inevitability]

Having a draconic parent isn't the only way to become a half-dragon. There's all kinds of rituals that can give you the template. From there on, draconic blood will influence your offspring.

[Flickerdart]

There's always "transfuse a bucket of dragon blood into a hapless victim test subject and hope for the best" method. It's dragon blood, that stuff works miracles!

I can also see powerful sorcerers wanting to join bloodlines with a dragon as a symbol of their power, and using those limited-form spells to take upon a dragon form to do the nasty.

[Calimehter]

Thanks for the feedback so far!

- @Draconium - I forgot to mention that Alter Self is also banned. It is too open-ended, especially for non-humanoids

- @Grod/DrMotives - Yeah, it would be easy enough to homebrew a solution. If it comes to that, I would much prefer a transformative ritual (or spell) to a solution involving crossing species in their natural forms. I was just hoping that there was a published alternative somewhere that I had missed.

- @Dire_Stirge - what rituals are you referring to, and where do I find them?

- @Flickerdart - I like it! :) Even if I make the homebrew spell/ritual, I'm planning on working some of the "meeting in the middle" solutions with sorcerers into the background stories, for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

Unless someone else chimes in with some RAW or published solution we have missed, my current thought is to make the homebrew spell/ritual a piece of 'forgotten' lore no longer commonly known (i.e. to explain how and why the more populous but "thinner" blooded options have been circulating in the population for a long, long time) but have more modern-day spellcasters use the 'meeting in the middle' route.

[Necroticplague]

1. Size is only a minor impediment. Adults and Young adult are only Large, so a bit bigger than the average creature, but not enough to make the.....mechanics completely impossible. Adult dragons are only the size of a horse, make of that what you will. With Enlarge Person, this means that the few minutes needed to put them on the same scale is possible, even if it's not strictly needed.

2.Filtering down. If size is the impediment, there could be a 'filter' of Large races that have mated with dragons, then other creatures on larger side of Medium say then normal medium creatures.So something like troll->half giant->human->everything else. Of course, this would mean that the draconic bloodlines are a bit more concentrated in certain races

3.The troll-blooded feat gives Regeneration, which would make any relevant damage from the.....mechanics nonlethal, and any possible ruptures heal themselves. Certainly a possibility, if dark one.

[ksbsnowowl]

There's always "transfuse a bucket of dragon blood into a hapless victim test subject and hope for the best" method. It's dragon blood, that stuff works miracles!


This made me think of the Broodleech from Magic of Eberron. Though that it outside the list of sources the OP listed, it at least gives a template for doing something other than copulation to get the effect.



3.The troll-blooded feat gives Regeneration, which would make any relevant damage from the.....mechanics nonlethal, and any possible ruptures heal themselves. Certainly a possibility, if dark one.

One of my homebrew campaigns featured half-fiend trolls made from bound fiends, and trolls utilizing them to gain magical abilities for their tribes via the half-fiend offspring. Yes, regeneration helped them survive the horrifically brutal situation that resulted.

[Inevitability]

- @Dire_Stirge - what rituals are you referring to, and where do I find them?

Savage Species has the Ritual of Unlearning and the Ritual of Vitality. I believe those should work.