Improving Dragonborn just a little

[Luccan]

So, to make Dragonborn a more appealing choice, I decided to give them some extra passive abilities that I felt kept with the themes of their elemental damage. I gave Brass, Gold, and Red dragons advantage vs extreme heat, White and Silver advantage vs extreme cold, and Green advantage vs poison (the actual condition and poisons themselves) and disease. But I can't figure out what to do with Acid or Lightning damage. Any ideas for a similar ability for those two?

Edit: Apparently I need to finish reading things. Cold and Fire dragonborn are already immune to those things, so I guess it's back to the drawing board on those as well.

[Zhorn]

For the lightning damage types... Magnetoreception? Advantage on navigation checks as they innately detect the magnetic fields of the planet to find true north? Like a pigeon :smallbiggrin:

[Aussiehams]

Do you mean advantage on saves against those damage types? You already take half damage from the element type associated with your heritage.

[Luccan]

Do you mean advantage on saves against those damage types? You already take half damage from the element type associated with your heritage.

No I mean advantage on saves vs extreme heat or cold (page 110 of the DMG) and advantage on saves against poisons (some have non damaging effects and the poisoned condition is different than poison damage) and disease. Perhaps I phrased it poorly, but I feel advantage on saves vs just damage would be redundant.

[NatureKing]

If you resist fire/cold you already are immune to the effects of those respective environmental effects.

[Luccan]

If you resist fire/cold you already are immune to the effects of those respective environmental effects.

Huh, so you are. Well nevermind then.

[BarneyBent]

Just give them Darkvision. Or take away Darkvision from some other races. Or make their breath weapon a bonus action attack so it’s actually worth using occasionally.

[Wizard_Lizard]

Dragonborn are my favourite.

[No brains]

To fit the theme that fire and cold dragons sort of established by surviving better in some places, maybe acid dragonborn can get hold breath and lightning dragonborn can be acclimated to high altitudes.

It would even enhance their lore a little: Dragons made dragonborn servants to serve them in their inhospitable lairs, so it makes sense they could live in volcanoes, icebergs, and what have you. After the dragons left for whatever reason, the dragonborn used the remains of the horde to establish colonies in places that baffle the hell out of other races. Why would you live there? Because no one can stop us.:smalltongue:

[Trustypeaches]

Just bake in the Dragon Hide feat (without the stat boost) and make their breath weapon a bonus action. Done.

[Luccan]

For the record, I do have an improvement to the breath weapon that I use. I didn't want to just give them Darkvision because that's a very common ability and I thought more unique abilities would be fun

[TGMohle]

It looks like you're trying to come up with "color-specific" abilities to help each Dragonborn feel more unique (which is awesome btw, never thought to try that). While I don't have any ideas on that front, this is my homebrew Dragonborn that I've been using for a while.

Ability Score Increase: +2 to Strength and +1 to Charisma.
Draconic Ancestry: You have draconic ancestry. Choose one type of dragon from the Draconic Ancestry table. Your breath weapon and damage resistance are determined by the dragon type.
Breath Weapon: You can use your bonus action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic ancestry determines the size, shape, damage type, and saving throw of the breath weapon. When using your breath weapon, each creature within its area of effect must make a saving throw equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. On a failure, creatures take 2d6 damage or half damage if they succeed on the saving throw. The damage increases to 4d6 at 6th level, 6d6 at 11th level, and 8d6 at 16th level. After you use your breath weapon, you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Menacing: You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.
Dragon Hide: You gain +1 to your AC as a result of your scaly hide.

These changes aren't color-specific, but just an overall improvement in my mind. Breath Weapon hardly ever gets used (especially as a martial class once you get multiple attacks) so I made it a bonus action and it scaled pretty badly as well so I upped it. To me the +1 to AC makes sense, and I know this breaks from the "13 + Dexterity modifier without armor" trend. However it's never made sense to me that their scaly hide wouldn't still provide more protection even through armor. As for Menacing... Dragonborn are scarier than Half-Orc's, and they get it, so why not Dragonborn?

[Luccan]

It looks like you're trying to come up with "color-specific" abilities to help each Dragonborn feel more unique (which is awesome btw, never thought to try that). While I don't have any ideas on that front, this is my homebrew Dragonborn that I've been using for a while.

Ability Score Increase: +2 to Strength and +1 to Charisma.
Draconic Ancestry: You have draconic ancestry. Choose one type of dragon from the Draconic Ancestry table. Your breath weapon and damage resistance are determined by the dragon type.
Breath Weapon: You can use your bonus action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic ancestry determines the size, shape, damage type, and saving throw of the breath weapon. When using your breath weapon, each creature within its area of effect must make a saving throw equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. On a failure, creatures take 2d6 damage or half damage if they succeed on the saving throw. The damage increases to 4d6 at 6th level, 6d6 at 11th level, and 8d6 at 16th level. After you use your breath weapon, you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Menacing: You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.
Dragon Hide: You gain +1 to your AC as a result of your scaly hide.

These changes aren't color-specific, but just an overall improvement in my mind. Breath Weapon hardly ever gets used (especially as a martial class once you get multiple attacks) so I made it a bonus action and it scaled pretty badly as well so I upped it. To me the +1 to AC makes sense, and I know this breaks from the "13 + Dexterity modifier without armor" trend. However it's never made sense to me that their scaly hide wouldn't still provide more protection even through armor. As for Menacing... Dragonborn are scarier than Half-Orc's, and they get it, so why not Dragonborn?

I'd considered offering a choice between Intimidation and Arcana as racial skills: some dragonborn are less scary than others, but have innate understanding of magic that comes from being so closely related to dragons. I see a few people are suggesting bonus action breath weapon, does anyone change the number of uses per rest?

[Kane0]

I give them darkvision and a version of stonecunning for valuables (gems, jewelry, art, etc).
Plus breath weapon improvements.

[TGMohle]

I'd considered offering a choice between Intimidation and Arcana as racial skills: some dragonborn are less scary than others, but have innate understanding of magic that comes from being so closely related to dragons. I see a few people are suggesting bonus action breath weapon, does anyone change the number of uses per rest?


Huh. I'd never really thought about doing something like that before (Arcana as a racial or changing the number of uses per rest for Breath Weapon). If I was going to change to amount of uses per rest I don't think it would be untill 11th level, in which case they would get a second use.

[NatureKing]

I'd considered offering a choice between Intimidation and Arcana as racial skills: some dragonborn are less scary than others, but have innate understanding of magic that comes from being so closely related to dragons. I see a few people are suggesting bonus action breath weapon, does anyone change the number of uses per rest?

It's Short Rest, so the easiest fix is 3/Long Rest. It is the same number of uses on a standard adventuring day, it just allows you to 'nuke' all of your breath attacks in one combat should that be a thing you need. Alternatively, you could give them 1/2 Prof Mod times a short rest, round down.

[Zetakya]

Increasing the number of uses per short rest would be better than increasing the damage on a single use, in my opinion.

[DarkKnightJin]

Just bake in the Dragon Hide feat (without the stat boost) and make their breath weapon a bonus action. Done.

Basically what I decided to do. Minus the Bonus Action Breath Weapon, but I haven't settled on that yet. Might shift it to a Bonus Action post 5th level, as a nice little bump for the Martials, so they don't have to pick between a niche racial thing or attacking more.
Perhaps at 11th+, I'll give them a recharge on a 6 of the d6.

[Segev]

I actually tried my hand (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?589186-Dragonborn-Boosting) at adding to the Dragonborn a couple weeks ago. My approach was to give them a secondary breath weapon that was Cantrip-like.

[Man_Over_Game]

So, to make Dragonborn a more appealing choice, I decided to give them some extra passive abilities that I felt kept with the themes of their elemental damage. I gave Brass, Gold, and Red dragons advantage vs extreme heat, White and Silver advantage vs extreme cold, and Green advantage vs poison (the actual condition and poisons themselves) and disease. But I can't figure out what to do with Acid or Lightning damage. Any ideas for a similar ability for those two?

Edit: Apparently I need to finish reading things. Cold and Fire dragonborn are already immune to those things, so I guess it's back to the drawing board on those as well.

Sorry your idea didn't pan out.

I'd actually just recommend changing how Dragonborn stats are. Like this:


Constitution + 2
If your dragon ancestry is of a Metallic dragon, you get +2 Charisma.
If your dragon ancestry is of a Chromatic dragon, you get +2 Strength.



That'd be enough for most people to take Dragonborn as an option, while also addressing several clichés associated with the Dragonborn. It also incentivizes a Dragonborn's identity a bit more.

[Teaguethebean]

Constitution + 2
If your dragon ancestry is of a Metallic dragon, you get +2 Charisma.
If your dragon ancestry is of a Chromatic dragon, you get +2 Strength.



That'd be enough for most people to take Dragonborn as an option, while also addressing several clichés associated with the Dragonborn. It also incentivizes a Dragonborn's identity a bit more.

This sounds good except for green dragonborn. I feel like if they are supposed to relate to the dragon they are the color of then green should give charisma.

[Man_Over_Game]

This sounds good except for green dragonborn. I feel like if they are supposed to relate to the dragon they are the color of then green should give charisma.

I mean, it's a houserule. You could also just update the color table to include a spot for +2 STR or +2 CHA depending on the color, so it becomes "In general, metallic dragons have charisma, and chromatic have strength", so you can include the fact that it makes sense for a red metallic dragon to use Strength, though.

[Teaguethebean]

I mean, it's a houserule. You could also just update the color table to include a spot for +2 STR or +2 CHA depending on the color.

That's true I was just poking fun at another one of your great ideas. BTW I am probably going to use this.

[Zetakya]

Logically, each of the colours is a subrace.

[Man_Over_Game]

That's true I was just poking fun at another one of your great ideas. BTW I am probably going to use this.

D'aww, thanks man! I've seen a lot of these kinds of "Dragonbronies suck!" threads, and this one is the one that stuck. You could play around with a dozen different fixes with the breath attack, but that's not even the biggest problem with DB's. Their biggest problem is that there's only 1 class in the game that can use their stat spread for an entire race. I haven't played with it yet, though, but I doubt it's anything gamechanging (just compare the updated DB with the Mountain Dwarf to see what I mean).