My player wants to be a full blooded Dragon

[chevyboys]

So my player wants to play a white dragon hatchling in d&d 5e... I'm not great with balancing and have a short time to figure this out. Where might I find a dragon race for 5e? if balanced ones aren't available, what would I change about a dragon born to make a playable hatchling?

[Sam113097]

So my player wants to play a white dragon hatchling in d&d 5e... I'm not great with balancing and have a short time to figure this out. Where might I find a dragon race for 5e? if balanced ones aren't available, what would I change about a dragon born to make a playable hatchling?

Yeah.... I've had a similar player; have you asked why they want to play as a dragon? Do they want dragon abilities, or is it for the roleplay aspect?

Having a dragon when the rest of the party is normal in comparison puts the focus on the dragon. Usually, I'd recommend just telling them that a white dragonborn is their best option if they want dragon-based abilities, and they can always play as a white draconic sorcerer for the powers they want (and wings!). If your player is dead set on playing as a dragon for RP purposes, I think the best approach would be having the player be a dragon that has been Balefully Polymorphed as punishment or as a curse, perhaps by an enemy dragon. The spell can only be reversed by whatever criteria you set forth, so their quest could be returning to their dragon form.

[LibraryOgre]

Ok, let's look at a white dragon wyrmling, and figure out what they'd look like

+4 strength
+4 Con
-6 Intelligence

Immune to cold. Blindsight 10', 60' Darkvision. AC 16. They have a bite and a breath weapon, but no claw or tail attack. Burrow, Fly, and Swim speeds. He's pretty stout out the gate, if you want to allow that.

Personally, if he REALLY wants to play a dragon, I'd have him go with a Dragonborn Monk or Barbarian, and work up a Path or Way that will let him pretend to be a real dragon. I might let him get really into it and declare he gets disadvantage on checks to use tools (he doesn't have proper hands), but give him something else on the other side... like a fly speed.

[Zhorn]

Alternative just give them a white dragon wyrmling statblock, and that's it.

No class levels
No leveling up
No features not already part of the dragon statblock in the monster manual
When they reach the age of 6 in game years (assuming they are starting at ago 0 or 1) then you let them swap out for the young white dragon statblock

While I usually like to rule on the side of player's fun; I also take issue when a player takes the "I want to do X" route but leaves all the work up to the GM.
Wanting to play as a dragon wyrmling would be a completely different scenario if they went out and found a reasonable homebrew and brought it to you for approval/adjustments.

Then there's the case of what this player is fishing for with this request:
What benefit are they aiming for
How are they planning to play the character
How are they expecting the world around them to react to them

Part of me would be in all seriousness inclined to let this play out, but for all intents and purposes they are perceived as and treated as a dragon by all towns and npcs, with all the baggage that entails within the game setting.

[Dienekes]

Hmm, personally this is how I'd do it.

Str +2, Con +1
Breath Weapon:Action, deals 2d6 cold damage in a cone Con save DC 8+Prof+Con for half. Increases by +1d6 at levels 3, 6, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19. After being used once at the start of every turn roll a d6. On a 6 you can use the ability again.
Resistance: Cold damage
Natural Attacks: Bite 1d10+Str
Natural Armor: 11+Dexterity
Winged Propulsion: Advantage on Athletics checks to Jump
Non-Humanoid: Cannot hold weapons, Disadvantage on all checks that require tools, cannot wear armor except barding, cannot wear clothes.
Natural Greed: Requires an equivalent share of gold and magic items even when they cannot use them.

At 3rd level your AC becomes 12+Dexterity

At 5th level you gain Wings and a Fly speed of 30 feet.

At 7th level your AC becomes 13+Dex. Your Bite attack is considered magic.

At 10th level you become Large size, your AC becomes 14+Dex. Your Reach increases by 5 feet. And your Bite deals an additional +1d8 Cold damage and gains a +2 bonus to melee attack rolls.



And that's about it. Could make a reasonably good Fighter or Barbarian. Ends up giving up all the utility a player can get from magic items in exchange for a specific list of benefits. Which honestly is probably actually a weak trade off, but meh, they're a dragon.

[Damon_Tor]

My son wanted the same thing, this has been my solution: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?610322-Racial-Classes-Dragonborn-Scion&p=24447573#post24447573

[Magicspook]

I don't think you should go out of your way to accomodate this player. They haven't done any suggestions for something that might work? I don't know the player in question but it sounds dangerous.

Before letting him do this, be very sure of their intentions. If this player has a history of 'snowflaking' or attention-grabbing, don't let em.

[Segev]

Is this for a long campaign or a one shot? What level is it starting at?

A white wyrmling is CR 2. A Moon Druid can turn temporarily into CR 2 beasts (losing their spell casting for the duration) at level 6.

Dragons at the low end are closer to monstrosities than beasts, but CR is CR for the most part. The lowest level I would let him bring a white wyrmling in as a PC would be level 5, matching his hit dice, and level 7 is closer to where I’d peg it (give him two more HD).

This is being a bit conservative; by level 5, it has unique abilities, but isn’t likely to be out versatile-ing the party. But it still is a fair number of abilities that are hard for others to replicate.

So, I’d go with level 6 (starting him with 6 HD rather than 5), and maybe permit it at level 5 if I was feeling generous and the other players are both experienced and good at powergaming. At level 7, I would give one more hit die and the shape water cantrip, just for a feeling of progression. At level 8, I’d start letting him take class levels.

This is very much spitballing. It will depend on the campaign and the party. But this is the range of levels where I think it would be roughly able to contribute without overshadowing everyone else with its senses, flight, and breath weapon.

[LibraryOgre]

Hmm, personally this is how I'd do it.

...

And that's about it. Could make a reasonably good Fighter or Barbarian. Ends up giving up all the utility a player can get from magic items in exchange for a specific list of benefits. Which honestly is probably actually a weak trade off, but meh, they're a dragon.

This looks more like a class progression than a racial progression; it feels like you'd be stacking class on top of class, rather than the relatively stable bonuses of a race on top of the increasing bonuses of a class. Which is why I encourage making it a subclass option, not a pure race consideration.

[Dienekes]

This looks more like a class progression than a racial progression; it feels like you'd be stacking class on top of class, rather than the relatively stable bonuses of a race on top of the increasing bonuses of a class. Which is why I encourage making it a subclass option, not a pure race consideration.

Sort of, some of it is partially inspired by how Asimar work. I agree it’s not elegant, but I think it could work.

It could be a subclass, but I’d increase the power then. Not getting equipment and not getting other subclass features would mean the dragon I made would be ridiculously weak.

[Segev]

A thought: take the kobold from Volo’s guide, and substitute wings that give a 30 ft. flying speed for “Beg, Grovel, and Plead.” Technically an Urd, but color him white and go white dragon blooded sorcerer and he can fake it darned well.

Take the ray of frost cantrip and maybe allow an element swap on burning hands to make a first level spell “frost breath,” and fluff both coming from his mouth. Or just take ice knife.

That leaves three more cantrips and one more first level spell known. I suggest shape water as one of those cantrips, because freezing water to ice at will sounds in theme.

A unique cantrip, call it “dragon claws,” that grows dagger-like talons from his fingers, letting him do 1d4+dex mod damage on an unarmed strike, would probably be balanced. It’s weaker than shillelagh. Say it takes a bonus action to cast, somatic only, and lasts one minute.

Pick one more cantrip for utility or flavor.

Pick something cool and useful for the other 1st level spell.


That should capture much of the feel. Let him walk on all fours for flavor when he wants.

[clash]

They could also play a moon druid and you could give them access to dragon forms of the appropriate cr. I have done something similar and nothing was too broken.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I mean, refluffing a Dragonborn with the Dragon Hide feat covers most of your bases, I think-- scales, claws/fangs, and breath weapon. Add the Dragon Wings feat from Unearthed Arcana and you get wings, too.

You could also look for "dragon Warlock" homebrews; I've got one in my Guide to Greatness that swaps your Eldritch Blast out for an AoE breath weapon, gives you scales and (eventually) wings, and has invocations that let you do things like burn spell slots for more breath weapon damage.

[Breccia]

I have a two part answer.

1) "No".

2) Later in the campaign, have a dragon ally show up, and that player runs the dragon for a single encounter.

Simply put, dragons in pretty much every edition have been quite strong indeed, but also, they don't get XP so they don't level up...unless the party takes a 50-year break. So they either start overpowered, end underpowered, or worse, both. The math just doesn't work out.

I bet if you looked around really hard, you'd find a homebrew druid subclass that can shapechange into a dragon. It could be a backup plan.


They could also play a moon druid and you could give them access to dragon forms of the appropriate cr. I have done something similar and nothing was too broken.

Like this, for example, which I totally read before posting. Yeah.

[BerzerkerUnit]

Here’s a couple of monster subclasses. Basically your race and subclass choices are replaced by the features here. Dragon was first for my own homebrew setting.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VGKs9V2jLekvMReMTdP_yX7PuuOBecTNc8KTmQUtVCE

[MagneticKitty]

I recommend simic hybrid. Let the acid spit be whatever dragon element they want, maybe add a feat that lets them go back and choose another simic trait. For the feat, Maybe +1 con and plus one trait.
This race has choice of glide (dragon wings), a breath attack, a.c. that can be flavored as scales, a dragon tail (grappling appendage), climb speed, swim speed /water breathing.

They would still be humanoid though.. 5e isn't really designed for characters without thumbs, or pcs bigger than medium. I'd offer them dragonborn, kobold, lizardfolk, or reflavor existing race they think fits better

I'm using simic hybrid for a black half dragon character. Along with the new ua beast barbarian for getting unarmed abilities.

[Garfunion]

Here is something that maybe out of the ordinary. Dragonborn modified 4 elements monk.
Martial arts; now provides a claws(slash) and tail whip(bludgeoning) attacks as unarmed strikes.
Unarmored defense; becomes dragon scales which provides an AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier.
Use constitution instead of wisdom modifier for calculating saves DCs.

Then modify the four elements archetype to provide better spell selection that a dragon would have.