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Ziegander
2016-09-08, 02:52 PM
SPOILERS: The players start out in an anti-magic slave pen in manacles and chains. This stops all but one effective attack. The Dragonborn's racial breath weapon. Anyone have any experience with this at the table? If so, how did that play out?
NecroDancer
2016-09-08, 03:18 PM
It's not magic so I'd allow it
Telok
2016-09-08, 03:23 PM
As far as I can recall the Forgotten Realms adventures pretend that dragonborn don't exist. I didn't see any reference to them in four different adventures, including OotA. So you're firmly in 'rulings not rules' territory and have to make up your own solution.
Ziegander
2016-09-08, 04:07 PM
It's not magic so I'd allow it

How would you resolve it?


As far as I can recall the Forgotten Realms adventures pretend that dragonborn don't exist. I didn't see any reference to them in four different adventures, including OotA. So you're firmly in 'rulings not rules' territory and have to make up your own solution.

Really? No, that's not right, there's a prominent one in that first adventure, what was it called? *looks it up* Hoard of the Dragon Queen, isn't there? Guy with that magic sword?
Fishybugs
2016-09-08, 04:12 PM
Breath Weapon is only...what...once per long rest?

If the Dragonborn tries to use it, have the drow beat him within an inch of his life....crossbow bolts from outside the cage...whatever. It will teach him it's not a great choice until he's free.
Ziegander
2016-09-08, 04:15 PM
Breath Weapon is only...what...once per long rest?

If the Dragonborn tries to use it, have the drow beat him within an inch of his life....crossbow bolts from outside the cage...whatever. It will teach him it's not a great choice until he's free.

It's once per short rest and players can come up with more creative ways to use a line of acid, fire, or electricity than simply damaging a guard with it, I'm sure. I guess I would probably just have the drow have put a muzzle over their face that's chained to their manacles and be done with it. Still, a dragonborn with a cone of fire could just jump into the webs, light them on fire, and fall down to the cavern floor couldn't they? They'd make a hole big enough for the entire party to escape through. EDIT: 10d6 bludgeoning damage, lol, no, I guess not.
DracoKnight
2016-09-08, 04:30 PM
How would you resolve it?



Really? No, that's not right, there's a prominent one in that first adventure, what was it called? *looks it up* Hoard of the Dragon Queen, isn't there? Guy with that magic sword?

Rezmir was a half-dragon, not a dragonborn. There's a big difference.
Ziegander
2016-09-08, 04:34 PM
Rezmir was a half-dragon, not a dragonborn. There's a big difference.

Ahhh...

But, pfft, yes big difference. One is a dragon-descended, draconic humanoid with a breath weapon and the other is... oh. So Forgotten Realms has Half-Dragons but not Dragonborn? Interesting...
DracoKnight
2016-09-08, 04:37 PM
Ahhh...

But, pfft, yes big difference. One is a dragon-descended, draconic humanoid with a breath weapon and the other is... oh. So Forgotten Realms has Half-Dragons but not Dragonborn? Interesting...

And honestly, replacing the Dragonborn with the half-dragon by allowing players to use the template instead of a subrace from their chosen race works just fine.

EDIT: I forgot to make my text blue for "there's a big difference." There's some difference fluffwise, but mechanically the half-dragon solves my mechanical issues with the dragonborn.
PeteNutButter
2016-09-08, 05:06 PM
Breath weapon? Are you talking about that load sneeze they give people who want to look like dragon people that does like no damage?
TheProfessor85
2016-09-08, 05:22 PM
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dragonborn
TheProfessor85
2016-09-08, 05:23 PM
So yeah there are dragonborn in faerun. I'd go with muzzle as suggested above.
NecroDancer
2016-09-08, 05:29 PM
More importantly dragonborn are a rare surface race, would the Drow even know that he has a breath weapon?
JumboWheat01
2016-09-08, 05:59 PM
More importantly dragonborn are a rare surface race, would the Drow even know that he has a breath weapon?

As long as we don't take Neverwinter Online's "hero count" seriously, this is a very good question, and would be an interesting tool to use against the drow. They may not know that this draconic thing can breath <insert element here>, or even that it's limited in its uses.

Of course, this also depends on the material of the chains in question as well as the breath of the dragonborn. After all, a Green's breath is gonna do crap to metal, while a Black's or Copper's might be more effective than others. And a Blue's or Bronze's might be a silly idea, since the metal is attached to others.
Grubble
2016-09-08, 08:06 PM
I was briefly in a group where we ran the start of OotA, and one of the other players was a dragon born. He spent a couple days using his acid breath to weaken the cell's bars, so when it was time to escape we just pulled a few bars off and had an opening/clubs.

I thought it was a pretty clever idea.
DragonSorcererX
2016-09-08, 09:22 PM
SPOILERS: The players start out in an anti-magic slave pen in manacles and chains. This stops all but one effective attack. The Dragonborn's racial breath weapon. Anyone have any experience with this at the table? If so, how did that play out?

The Draconic Breath Weapons and Spells aren't magic, they are their own power source called awesomness, so it would work!

DRAGONBORN MASTER RACE!!!