Mario16
2018-06-06, 12:52 PM
Heya.
A while back I GMed a group of players and offered them the chance to play as dragons. It was fun, lasted a while and I felt, it should not go to waste what homebrewed rules we used. I will post it in several different parts, starting with the setup.
The premise went like this: The player's dragons hatch in a nest overseen by a Guardian dragon. They are told, they need to survive to show their worthiness of being dragons. The Guardian then leaves them to fend for themselves, but can be summoned for a small fee if the young dragons have more questions or need help.
Their surrounding is not very save, the land even has reknown dragonslayer NPCs should the hatchlings draw to much attention towards themselves.
The world itself is ruled by the dragons, who have set aside a small-ish continent (think Australia) as a testing ground for new dragons. While the rest is reigned surpreme by the older dragons, the continent itself is not ruled and the natural selection can be hostile for new born dragons.
Dragons as Playercharacters
Basics
The basic setup is, that each dragon, starts with the same profil, independent of their kind.
Every Dragon has
Strength 14
Dexerity 10
Constitution 14
Wisdom 12
Intelligence 12
Charisma 12
They have 7 HD and a natural armor bonus of +7. Each hit die gives 7 HP.
Designers remark: Note, no max HP for 1st HD, which will be compensated by slightly higher average. Of course rolling each HD is easily doable as well
The first choice is what kind of dragon the player wants to play: metallic or chromatic.
Chromatic dragons get a bonus of +2 for Strength and Constitution;
metalic dragons get a bonus of +2 Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma
In addition, every dragon gets another bonus to one attribute depending of the more specific kind:
+2 Strength: Red/Copper
+2 Constitution: White/Brass
+2 Wisdom: Blue/Silver
+2 Intelligence: Green/Gold
+2 Charisma: Black/Bronze
Designers remark: The game was set to be played in a world with only the basic 10 dragonkinds being present. Of course one player cried about playing a overpowered shadow dragon and after having learned long enough not to discuss ages with players I relented; however he did not get the bonus for to attributes for "true" dragons and another alteration I will mention later. Also, he was constantly mocked as not being a real dragon by the other players.
Designers remark 2: The boni to attributes where set by me after my taste, but could easily be changed inbetween the kinds, as long as each attribute has one, and only one, chromatic and one metalic dragon the bonus is applied to.
Every 4 HD a dragon will get a +1 to one attribute of his choice, including dexteritiy if the player so chooses.
EDIT: The hatchlings are medium-size at birth
Additional Basics
All dragons have the inherent ability from the start to change shape into humanoid; picking 3 different kinds at birth (start of play). They can remain in a humanoid form for as long as they like. More rules on combat abilites follow later on.
Basic movement for all dragons is 50ft (dragon form and humanoid). Their flight speed 150ft with poor maneuverability. They retain their natural other kinds of movement inherent for each kind (e.g. Icewalk, swim, burrow etc.). Other kind of movements have a speed of 40ft. Dragons with a swimspeed can also breathe under water as per waterbreathing ability. All other movements (flight, icewalk etc.) can only be used as dragon, while waterbreathing is universal, swimspeed is not, however.
Breathweapon
All dragons do 2d6 damage per age category. The kind of breath weapon is the same as per monster manual, starting with either a 30ft cone or 60ft line. A dragon has 3 charges per day and must wait 1d6+1 rounds between uses of his breath attack. After he uses his breath, the dragon makes a recharge check against a roll of 11+ on a d20 to see if he retains are charge or whether it is spent for the day. By paying a fixed charge for that day without testing for recharge, a dragon can use his breath attack in a combat instead of a bite attack as part of a full-round-attack.
Metalic dragons lose! their second, more harmless breath attack, leaving them with the primary damaging attack of their kind.
Designers remark: The shadowdragon player had his breath weapon changed into a 2d6 damaging breath attack, same as everybody else. His damage was set to negative energy, still good but not as annoying as pukeing negative levels on everyone.
Next part will be:
Growth/ageing, combat basics and Skills
A while back I GMed a group of players and offered them the chance to play as dragons. It was fun, lasted a while and I felt, it should not go to waste what homebrewed rules we used. I will post it in several different parts, starting with the setup.
The premise went like this: The player's dragons hatch in a nest overseen by a Guardian dragon. They are told, they need to survive to show their worthiness of being dragons. The Guardian then leaves them to fend for themselves, but can be summoned for a small fee if the young dragons have more questions or need help.
Their surrounding is not very save, the land even has reknown dragonslayer NPCs should the hatchlings draw to much attention towards themselves.
The world itself is ruled by the dragons, who have set aside a small-ish continent (think Australia) as a testing ground for new dragons. While the rest is reigned surpreme by the older dragons, the continent itself is not ruled and the natural selection can be hostile for new born dragons.
Dragons as Playercharacters
Basics
The basic setup is, that each dragon, starts with the same profil, independent of their kind.
Every Dragon has
Strength 14
Dexerity 10
Constitution 14
Wisdom 12
Intelligence 12
Charisma 12
They have 7 HD and a natural armor bonus of +7. Each hit die gives 7 HP.
Designers remark: Note, no max HP for 1st HD, which will be compensated by slightly higher average. Of course rolling each HD is easily doable as well
The first choice is what kind of dragon the player wants to play: metallic or chromatic.
Chromatic dragons get a bonus of +2 for Strength and Constitution;
metalic dragons get a bonus of +2 Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma
In addition, every dragon gets another bonus to one attribute depending of the more specific kind:
+2 Strength: Red/Copper
+2 Constitution: White/Brass
+2 Wisdom: Blue/Silver
+2 Intelligence: Green/Gold
+2 Charisma: Black/Bronze
Designers remark: The game was set to be played in a world with only the basic 10 dragonkinds being present. Of course one player cried about playing a overpowered shadow dragon and after having learned long enough not to discuss ages with players I relented; however he did not get the bonus for to attributes for "true" dragons and another alteration I will mention later. Also, he was constantly mocked as not being a real dragon by the other players.
Designers remark 2: The boni to attributes where set by me after my taste, but could easily be changed inbetween the kinds, as long as each attribute has one, and only one, chromatic and one metalic dragon the bonus is applied to.
Every 4 HD a dragon will get a +1 to one attribute of his choice, including dexteritiy if the player so chooses.
EDIT: The hatchlings are medium-size at birth
Additional Basics
All dragons have the inherent ability from the start to change shape into humanoid; picking 3 different kinds at birth (start of play). They can remain in a humanoid form for as long as they like. More rules on combat abilites follow later on.
Basic movement for all dragons is 50ft (dragon form and humanoid). Their flight speed 150ft with poor maneuverability. They retain their natural other kinds of movement inherent for each kind (e.g. Icewalk, swim, burrow etc.). Other kind of movements have a speed of 40ft. Dragons with a swimspeed can also breathe under water as per waterbreathing ability. All other movements (flight, icewalk etc.) can only be used as dragon, while waterbreathing is universal, swimspeed is not, however.
Breathweapon
All dragons do 2d6 damage per age category. The kind of breath weapon is the same as per monster manual, starting with either a 30ft cone or 60ft line. A dragon has 3 charges per day and must wait 1d6+1 rounds between uses of his breath attack. After he uses his breath, the dragon makes a recharge check against a roll of 11+ on a d20 to see if he retains are charge or whether it is spent for the day. By paying a fixed charge for that day without testing for recharge, a dragon can use his breath attack in a combat instead of a bite attack as part of a full-round-attack.
Metalic dragons lose! their second, more harmless breath attack, leaving them with the primary damaging attack of their kind.
Designers remark: The shadowdragon player had his breath weapon changed into a 2d6 damaging breath attack, same as everybody else. His damage was set to negative energy, still good but not as annoying as pukeing negative levels on everyone.
Next part will be:
Growth/ageing, combat basics and Skills