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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Wyrmling Player Race First Draft



Davrix
2018-03-23, 08:28 PM
Playing as a dragon in 5th ed

The goal here is to offer a player the option to play a dragon in a upcomming game of mine. I’ve tried to capture the feeeel of playing a young Wyrmling in an adventuring party, hopefully without making it to powerful over other race options. I am aware that this is a bit more powerful than the base races but I feel this is a key part of the fantasy of playing a dragon. I have tried to keep this within reason but if you run at a table where players like to feel balanced against each other than this might not be a good fit for your table. That being said this is an early first draft and are just my general thoughts. Everything is in need of tweaking right now.

Step one Choosing your birth parents

Dragons generally tend to mate only with other dragons of their own flight but it is not unheard of for dragons of the same flight to intermingle with their own kind. They never mate with the opposite flight, such a pairings is usually caused by a forced mating.

Use the following tables to generate your dragon. Your GM may instead allow you to choose your parents if he or she wishes.

Choosing your Parents flight

Roll Percentile
1-40 = Same color Chromatic flight
41-80 = Same color Metallic flight
81-90 = Mixed parents from chromatic flight
91-98 = Mixed parents from metallic flight
99-100 = Mixed parents from different flights

• If you rolled 1-80 on the table above, roll once on the appropriate table for the flight you were given on the tables below and both parents are of the same color.
• If you rolled 81-98 on the table above, roll twice on the appropiate flight table given, the first roll designating father and the second the mother.
• If you rolled 99-100, roll once on each flight table the first roll designates the father and the second the mother.

Metallic Parents

Roll Percentile
Gold 81-100
Silver 61-80
Copper 41-60
Brass 21-40
Bronze 1-20

Chromatic Parents

Roll Percentile
Red 81-100
Blue 60-80
Black 41-60
Green 21-40
White 1-20

• If you have parents of multiple scale colors from the same flight. Roll a d20, the result dictating your dominate parent gene and the scale color you inherit. Even you inherit your fathers scale color, odd you inherit your mothers scale color and the benefits associated with it.
• If you rolled mixed parents from both flights you will be considered an outcast from both flights. You inherit both fathers and mothers scale color. See below for special rules regarding mixed flight benefits.

Mixed Flight Special rules.

You gain both heritage benefits of your parents. See below tables for additional info.

Such pairings are rare, so rare in fact most are forgotten about to the pages of history. This is due to the fact most crossbreeds such as this are killed shortly after birth by one of the parents or the flight as it is seen as an impurity to the world. It is recommended the player find a unique way to express your mixed heritage in both how you look and act. Such examples could be shown through mismatched hides of both parents scale colors or oddities in the dragons breath weapon or conflicting emotions of how to act. Such as a dragon born of a white and gold dragon mating might have a gold hide with patches of white scales and its breath weapon counts a both fire and flame as it damage type. The dragon might also might be conflicted between being shy and secretive at times but prone to the smallest slights and fits of feral rage over any infraction. This can lead to mental instability in some and outright insanity in othersStep 2 choosing heritage benefits.

Elemental resistance

Select the following benefits based on your scale color. If you have mixed parents from the same flight your resistance is determined by the dominate parent. If you rolled from mixed flights you inherit both traits. If the resistance is of the same type you gain immunity to that type of damage instead.

You gain one resistance to the corresponding type of damage

Red and Gold Brass – Fire
White and Silver - Cold
Blue and Bronze - Lighting
Copper And Black - Acid
Green – Poison

Choosing a breath weapon

You gain a breath weapon based on your dominate parent. If you have mixed parents from both flights the damage type counts as both and you can choose whether its a line or cone designated from the list below and whether it uses a Dex or Con save.

Black – Acid - 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Blue – Lighting - 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Brass – Fire - 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Bronze – Lighting - 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Copper – Acid - 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Gold – Fire - 15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
Green – Poison - 15 ft. cone (Con. save)
Red – Fire - 15 ft. - cone (Dex. save)
Silver – Cold - 15 ft. cone (Con. save)
White – Cold - 15 ft. cone (Con. Save)

• All breath weapons require an action and recharge on a short or long rest. The damage is 3D6 save vs half. The damage is increased by 2D6 every three levels you gain in a class. The breath weapon’s range is increased by 5 ft at levels 6, 11, 16.
• The save for your breath is 8+Proficiency+Con or DexAll wrymlings gain the following benefits

You gain +2 in Str and +1 in one stat based on your scale color. If you have mixed parents from the same flight you may choose which color you draw your bonus from. If you have parents of two different flights you may gain the +1 in both stats if they are different or gain a +2 if they are the same.

Black – +1 Dex
Blue – +1 int
Brass – +1wis
Bronze – +1 Con
Copper – +1Dex
Gold – +1Char
Green – +1 Wis
Red – +1Char
Silver – +1Int
White – +1Con


You generally start at 1 or 2 years old.
You count as medium size
Darkvision 60ft
Speed 30ft ground flying 20ft
Your flight speed is increased by 10ft at lv 6, 11, 16
You gain one Hit die of 1D10+10 HP at birth
Your have a natural AC of 12+dex
You have a natural claw and bite attack. These natural weapons do not gain Benefits from any feats other than specific draconian feats that name them.
As an action you may make a claw attack 1D4+Str
As a bonus Action you can make a bite attack at 1D4+Str

There are no extra rules for increasing your dragons age or size. If your DM wishes he may allow you to age and increase your size, stats and damage as a dragon. This will greatly affect the dragon characters power vs normal player characters if you choose to do so. I've not included any rules for this as it would be impossible to balance.

Everything else should be slightly altered by the Dm to make the dragon character as easy to use during play. Part of the cost though of playing a dragon in a world of humanoids is that things will be difficult in coming to new areas. You might be feared or mistrusted. You could even be hunted for your hide and the magical proprieties of your internal organs.

The cost of equipping and feeding your dragon will also be much higher than normal characters. The cost of your dragon character is tripled for cost of living vs normal medium sized creatures.

You can use armor and weapons like any other normal character though you must find a smith or a caster that can help alter any gear you find or have crafted for you. Some example of this is layered plate to fit along your back and belly. Or crafting metal sheaths for your claws to increase their damage. Your DM might decide some weapons or armor cannot be modified for a dragon to use but this is up to you and your DM to decide what is creatively appropriate to allow.

The cost for any crafted armor or weapon is tripled for you based on the weapon and armor table in the PH

Any Magic gear you find will cost a set amount of gold to have it altered to fit your draconian form. The cost of altering such items is based on its rarity, you can find the cost on the following table. Or your DM may choose to use the rule that Magic items will conform to fit your body and their will be no cost for equipping them. Otherwise you are still bound by the 3 item atunment as any other character.

Commong – 50g
Uncommong – 250g
Rare – 2,500g
Very Rare – 25,000gp
Legendary 250,000gp

For the most part everything else should work as normal. Let the player take a class as any other would and the benefits offered by said classes. The only real problems I see as mentioned above is certain weapons not being usuable by dragons. This will be up to the player and Dm to either not use or come up with creative solutions. Maybe the dragon uses its tail to hold a shield. Or if a longbow cant be used a special crossbow is made that can be handled by claws. Wyrmlings are generally smaller and more agile than their older parents so handling delicate objects is more plausible for them. This whole idea has to be taken with a slight detachment for perfect simulation of real world logic and if this grates against your senbilty as a player or DM simply dont use it or edit these rules to better fit what you desire. The goal here was to outline a wyrmling dragon that could be playable, be it stronger than normal races but within the realm of reason.

Feat Options

Draconic Gifts
This feat can only be taken by a Dragon

You are an exceptional example of your species and have stronger natural gifts than others of your kind

• Increase your Str By 1
• Your unarmored AC becomes 16+Dex (max +2 Dex)
• Your Claw and Bite attack becomes 1D6+str

Affinty for Magic
This feat can only be taken by a dragon

From the moment you were born you felt the call of Magic in your bones

• Gain 1 Cantrips from any caster list
• Choose a level 1 spell. This spell counts as an at will spell for you that you can cast three times per day

Draconic Ferocity
This can only be taken by a dragon with 8 levels in class

You gain a multi attack option when you attack. This does not stack with the multi-attack feature

• As an action you can forgo the normal attack option and instead make two natural claw attacks and one bite against a single target.
• Your Bonus Attack Bite attack is replaced with a special Bonus attack tail whip attack

Tail Whip – 1D4+Str and the target must make a DC Dex save or be knocked prone.
The DC = 8+Prof+Str