Cashing in on the Dragonblood Subtype

[Zombulian]

Hey all, so we all know that Wings of Cover is a great spell, and that Entangling Exhalation and Dragonfire Inspiration are awesome feats. But I want to know if any of you have played Dragonblooded characters that weren’t Bards, Sorcerers, or DFA’s, and if you did, what are the best ways to take advantage of the Dragonblood subtype? Feats, spells, magic items. Anything helps :smallsmile:

[Cygnia]

I played a Favored Soul of Bahamut that was a Stonehunter Gnome -- she was fun to play. Took the Draconic Aura (Senses) & Initiate of Bahamut as two of my feats.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Dragonscale husk is pretty sweet if you stick with it. The AC is solid at early levels and the energy resistance is nice due to its breadth and thanks to A&EG you can still get access to critical armor buffs.

Edit: to clarify I am currently playing a cleric/prestige paladin using dragonscale husk. Combining it with luminous armor has propelled my AC to massive heights and allowed me to be a powerful tank in combat while DMM provides me with offensive prescence.

[Efrate]

Played a dragonblooded warforged totemist. Draconic soulmelds are pretty nice. I forget if there are psionic powers that need dragonblood.

[Troacctid]

You get extra benefits from the primal instinct line of spells, including +5 to any one Knowledge and blindsense 10 ft.

[Malphegor]

Dragon Wings, one of the dragonblooded feats is a pretty solid variant of flight at level 1 imo. Probably the lowest level way to glide without being a race that can glide. I’m honestly surprised I don’t see it more often. Fall damage is massively reduced and if you fall unconscious in the air you slowly descend in a corkscrew.

Improved dragon wings also feels like an elegant way to handle flight. Exhausting until you grow past a certain character level.

Honestly they’re not gamebreaking, but kinda... Nicely designed in a way that feels on par with other benefits at the earliest level you can get them but is still an advantage?

[LordBlades]

Dragon Wings, one of the dragonblooded feats is a pretty solid variant of flight at level 1 imo. Probably the lowest level way to glide without being a race that can glide. I’m honestly surprised I don’t see it more often. Fall damage is massively reduced and if you fall unconscious in the air you slowly descend in a corkscrew.

Improved dragon wings also feels like an elegant way to handle flight. Exhausting until you grow past a certain character level.

Honestly they’re not gamebreaking, but kinda... Nicely designed in a way that feels on par with other benefits at the earliest level you can get them but is still an advantage?

I guess you don't see it more often because Dragonborn exist. There aren't that many situations when you really want those wings but taking the feat is a better option than becoming a Dragonborn.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Practical Metamagic is pretty good for any spellcaster.

[Zombulian]

You get extra benefits from the primal instinct line of spells, including +5 to any one Knowledge and blindsense 10 ft.

There we go! I knew there were non-sorcerer-only spells that benefitted from the subtype. Nice.


Dragon Wings, one of the dragonblooded feats is a pretty solid variant of flight at level 1 imo. Probably the lowest level way to glide without being a race that can glide. I’m honestly surprised I don’t see it more often. Fall damage is massively reduced and if you fall unconscious in the air you slowly descend in a corkscrew.

Improved dragon wings also feels like an elegant way to handle flight. Exhausting until you grow past a certain character level.

Honestly they’re not gamebreaking, but kinda... Nicely designed in a way that feels on par with other benefits at the earliest level you can get them but is still an advantage?

Those feats are definitely nice. Non-magical all day flight is nothing to sneeze at. I do think that the feats are largely overshadowed by the Dragonborn template though, as was mentioned.


Practical Metamagic is pretty good for any spellcaster.

How could I forget! :smallredface:

[Zaq]

I've had fun with a couple of the draconic soulmelds. I especially like the dragon mantle (3×ess resistance to the Big Four energy types, explicitly stacking with other sources of resistance) and the claws of the wyrm (two claws with no bind required).

[Mr Adventurer]

The Dragonborn "template" isn't all that great - you lose all your pre-existing racial traits, basically.

I've got a Dragonblooded Dread Necromancer at the moment; the only way I'm currently looking at using the subtype is by taking the Draconic Aura (power) feat as an alternative to Spell Penetration, since the bonus is marginally higher and I can share it with my friends.

[LordBlades]

The Dragonborn "template" isn't all that great - you lose all your pre-existing racial traits, basically.



Except for stat adjustments, which is the main benefit of most races.
I

I mean yea, there are a few races, like humans, strongheart halfings, dwarves and warforged where you don't want Dragonborn, but for almost any humanoid race out there, Dragonborn is a straight upgrade.

[Celestia]

Except for stat adjustments, which is the main benefit of most races.
I

I mean yea, there are a few races, like humans, strongheart halfings, dwarves and warforged where you don't want Dragonborn, but for almost any humanoid race out there, Dragonborn is a straight upgrade.
You kidding? Warforged dragonborn is awesome! You keep the living construct type, and the only thing you lose is your slam attack. Natural attacks are nice, but all three dragonborn types are still strict improvements. Really, the only reason not to do it is if you don't want the Dex penalty, I guess. *shrug*

[LordBlades]

You kidding? Warforged dragonborn is awesome! You keep the living construct type, and the only thing you lose is your slam attack. Natural attacks are nice, but all three dragonborn types are still strict improvements. Really, the only reason not to do it is if you don't want the Dex penalty, I guess. *shrug*

Learn something new every day, lol :))

As I understood it until today, Dragonborn was a terrible deal for Warforged. Becoming Dragonborn causes you to lose all racial traits except Stats, Size and Speed. Most of the stuff a Warforged gets are listed under 'Racial Traits' and not the Living Construct subtype, so you'd be losing them when you become Dragonborn.

Your post has however inspired me to do some more digging and it looks like that, since MM3, most of the Warforged racial traits are actually part of the Living Construct subtype, which means Dragonborn Warforged are indeed awesome :D

[daremetoidareyo]

Learn something new every day, lol :))

As I understood it until today, Dragonborn was a terrible deal for Warforged. Becoming Dragonborn causes you to lose all racial traits except Stats, Size and Speed. Most of the stuff a Warforged gets are listed under 'Racial Traits' and not the Living Construct subtype, so you'd be losing them when you become Dragonborn.

Your post has however inspired me to do some more digging and it looks like that, since MM3, most of the Warforged racial traits are actually part of the Living Construct subtype, which means Dragonborn Warforged are indeed awesome :D

And you can still tack on that adamantine plating cuz you're still a warforged.

[The Viscount]

I'm partial to the Draconic Auras presented in Dragon Magic. Being dragonblooded means they scale with level.

[Malphegor]

Also being a dragonborn warforged does let you make references to the iron gargoyles from
Disney’s Gargoyles

[Zombulian]

I'm partial to the Draconic Auras presented in Dragon Magic. Being dragonblooded means they scale with level.

I like them too, in theory. But the auras tend to be kinda... bad. While any feat that scales by level is quite tasty, the major benefit of auras is usually in the early levels.

[Mr Adventurer]

I like them too, in theory. But the auras tend to be kinda... bad. While any feat that scales by level is quite tasty, the major benefit of auras is usually in the early levels.

Many of them are just bad, yeah. The Power one, from level 7 onward for a dragonblood character, is at least a straight-up improvement over Spell Penetration ("the most boring feat in the world")...

[ZamielVanWeber]

The Knowledge one is decent with Knowledge Devotion and an asset for just identifying monsters in general.