CatofRiddles
2020-10-06, 03:48 AM
I've been working with a character concept for a Dragonborn that thinks he's an actual dragon. I’m presenting this build in hopes of gaining constructive criticism to further improve upon it. This is not an optimized build, as my main priority was to flavor him as close to a dragon as I could while dealing a reasonable amount of damage.
Unfortunately, this build is not Adventurers League Legal. Although this build assumes your DM interprets the Rules As Intended/Written a certain way, and uses an Unearthed Arcana Feat, these are the only exceptions I’m giving myself in order to avoid confrontation between the Player and DM.
So, why not just build a Dragonborn Sorcerer? You could achieve a similar result with the Draconic Bloodline Origin taking less feats and pure character progression. While Draconic Ancestry has a lot of traits that would be good for a tanky character, but Sorcerer doesn't seem like it has a lot of options for the frontline. I wanted a character that was more in-your-face, with the full fury of a Dragon (or at least close to it) in melee combat.
In addition to the Player’s Handbook, the sources i drew from are: Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, the Unearthed Arcana: Feats for Races and the Monster Manual.
Please note that I made this before Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything was released, so I am currently unaware of any features that it contains.
So without further ado, I present my “Not-sure-if-Dragon” Dragonborn Monk Build.
I modeled my build off of the stats of the Brass Dragon Wyrmling from the Monster Manual. These stats and abilities seemed like ones I would most likely be able to mimic. I have made the numbers close to it as well, with the exception of Dexterity and Wisdom. I should also mention that this character is meant to be unarmed and unarmored, so i have no suggestions as to weapons or equipment.
I used the Standard Point Array, so Point Buy or rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest could grant you better stats.
Race: Brass Dragonborn (Draconblood)
Class: Monk
STR: 14 or 10
DEX: 15
CON: 12
INT: 8 (+2)= 10
WIS: 13
CHA: 10 (+1)=11 or 14 (+1)=15
This is the point where I’m expecting to hear the most protesting. The Draconblood’s stat bonuses (Int +2, Cha+1) are where a Monk least needs them. Choosing the Ravenite Subrace (or a standard Dragonborn) would probably give you better stats, but you’d lose Darkvision or Forceful Presence, and your lore-friendly tail unless your DM is kind and grants it to you. The main trade off for the subraces’ new abilities is the loss of damage resistance to your Draconic Ancestor’s element. You still get your Breath Weapon though.
Charisma is only low because Wisdom and Dexterity are needed more for the class, but if you choose, you could probably also swap Strength and Charisma to improve your social skills. I stick with Strength as the higher one, relying on Forceful Presence to make up for his lack of social ability.
Needed Feats
I’ll get to the Monk Class and Discipline in a bit, but it would explain a lot of things if I explain my first two feat choices first.
Dragon Hide (XGtE)
This feat is what inspired my build. You can increase Strength, Constitution or Charisma by 1. (I chose Charisma, but your choice may differ depending on your preferences) Your AC becomes 13 + Dex, which, unless you rolled really good on BOTH Dexterity and Wisdom, should start out higher than your Monk’s Unarmored Defense.(AC= 10+Dex+Wis). Dragon Hide also allows you to carry a shield if you choose, which you can then ditch if you get to the point where it is outclassed by Unarmored Defense.
Also, you get retractable Dragon Claws as unarmed weapons. This is where things might get a little fuzzy in terms of what your DM allows.
The ruling that I favor would simply mean that you can choose between Bludgeoning and Slashing for your Unarmed Strikes, using the Monk’s Martial Arts to increase the hit die and replace the STR modifier with DEX.
The other ruling (and, unfortunately, what seems to happen in character creators because of file setup) is that in addition to your Monk’s Unarmed Strike (1d4+STR, Bludgeoning) that benefits from Martial Arts and all your Monk features, you get an additional “Dragon Hide” Unarmed Strike (1d4+STR, Slashing) that does not.
Work it out with your DM, and choose your stats accordingly.
Dragon Wings (UA:Feats for Races)
I chose this feat mainly for flavor, but it has benefits too. Dragon Wings give you the Dragon look, plus you can fly without magic. You don’t really need armor due to Dragon Hide (or Unarmored Defense) and your only other limit is your carrying capacity. Unfortunately, the only other way to get non-magical wings like this (without having to settle for Angelic, Demonic or Fey wings) is to take FOURTEEN levels in Sorcerer. I mean, you could choose a different feat or Ability Score Improvement, but then your draconic influence would be limited to the ground.
Ability Score Improvement: Round off your Dexterity and Wisdom.
Monk Class (PHB)
Melee is the point of this build, and while Dragons do use magic, they usually use melee. (at least in my experience)
The Martial Arts Feature you gain at Level 1, which I already referenced, depends on your DM’s ruling on Dragon Hide’s Unarmed Strike. Even if your DM chooses not to let you use it with Martial arts, the Monk’s unarmed strike is still pretty cool. The best of which grants you the ability to make an additional unarmed strike as a bonus action when you attack.
Unarmored Defense is what you’ll be using until you get Dragon Hide, but you could get it back once you get both your Wisdom and Defense high enough to outclass it.
The Ki Feature you gain at level 2 is the reason I kept the Wisdom Score pretty high. While Dragon Hide overshadows Unarmored Defense for a while, you still have to use Wisdom for your Ki Save DC.
The rest of these features aren’t changed by your dragon traits, and only add to your draconic majesty. To keep this post a reasonable length, i’ll skip explaining why the rest of the Monk Skills fit and reference you to the Player’s Handbook.
You’re free to choose whichever Monk subclass suits the type of dragon you plan on playing, but I chose the Way of the Four Elements to gain more fire attacks.
Background and Skills
Hoard of the Dragon Queen offers an optional background feature called “Dragon Scholar”. If your DM allows, replace your Background Feature with it to give your dragonborn a bit of dragon knowledge to back up your story.
I took the Sailor Background, so i could attempt some sort of Stowaway or Dragon Egg story.
From the Sailor Background, took:
Athletics
Perception
And from Monk, I took
Insight
Stealth
At Level 12, You should have Stats and bonuses similar if not better than a Brass Dragon Wyrmling. The only features I was not able to include are:
Elemental Damage Resistance/Immunity
Truesight
Burrowing Speed
Sleep Breath
If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this build, I’d love to hear them.
Unfortunately, this build is not Adventurers League Legal. Although this build assumes your DM interprets the Rules As Intended/Written a certain way, and uses an Unearthed Arcana Feat, these are the only exceptions I’m giving myself in order to avoid confrontation between the Player and DM.
So, why not just build a Dragonborn Sorcerer? You could achieve a similar result with the Draconic Bloodline Origin taking less feats and pure character progression. While Draconic Ancestry has a lot of traits that would be good for a tanky character, but Sorcerer doesn't seem like it has a lot of options for the frontline. I wanted a character that was more in-your-face, with the full fury of a Dragon (or at least close to it) in melee combat.
In addition to the Player’s Handbook, the sources i drew from are: Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, the Unearthed Arcana: Feats for Races and the Monster Manual.
Please note that I made this before Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything was released, so I am currently unaware of any features that it contains.
So without further ado, I present my “Not-sure-if-Dragon” Dragonborn Monk Build.
I modeled my build off of the stats of the Brass Dragon Wyrmling from the Monster Manual. These stats and abilities seemed like ones I would most likely be able to mimic. I have made the numbers close to it as well, with the exception of Dexterity and Wisdom. I should also mention that this character is meant to be unarmed and unarmored, so i have no suggestions as to weapons or equipment.
I used the Standard Point Array, so Point Buy or rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest could grant you better stats.
Race: Brass Dragonborn (Draconblood)
Class: Monk
STR: 14 or 10
DEX: 15
CON: 12
INT: 8 (+2)= 10
WIS: 13
CHA: 10 (+1)=11 or 14 (+1)=15
This is the point where I’m expecting to hear the most protesting. The Draconblood’s stat bonuses (Int +2, Cha+1) are where a Monk least needs them. Choosing the Ravenite Subrace (or a standard Dragonborn) would probably give you better stats, but you’d lose Darkvision or Forceful Presence, and your lore-friendly tail unless your DM is kind and grants it to you. The main trade off for the subraces’ new abilities is the loss of damage resistance to your Draconic Ancestor’s element. You still get your Breath Weapon though.
Charisma is only low because Wisdom and Dexterity are needed more for the class, but if you choose, you could probably also swap Strength and Charisma to improve your social skills. I stick with Strength as the higher one, relying on Forceful Presence to make up for his lack of social ability.
Needed Feats
I’ll get to the Monk Class and Discipline in a bit, but it would explain a lot of things if I explain my first two feat choices first.
Dragon Hide (XGtE)
This feat is what inspired my build. You can increase Strength, Constitution or Charisma by 1. (I chose Charisma, but your choice may differ depending on your preferences) Your AC becomes 13 + Dex, which, unless you rolled really good on BOTH Dexterity and Wisdom, should start out higher than your Monk’s Unarmored Defense.(AC= 10+Dex+Wis). Dragon Hide also allows you to carry a shield if you choose, which you can then ditch if you get to the point where it is outclassed by Unarmored Defense.
Also, you get retractable Dragon Claws as unarmed weapons. This is where things might get a little fuzzy in terms of what your DM allows.
The ruling that I favor would simply mean that you can choose between Bludgeoning and Slashing for your Unarmed Strikes, using the Monk’s Martial Arts to increase the hit die and replace the STR modifier with DEX.
The other ruling (and, unfortunately, what seems to happen in character creators because of file setup) is that in addition to your Monk’s Unarmed Strike (1d4+STR, Bludgeoning) that benefits from Martial Arts and all your Monk features, you get an additional “Dragon Hide” Unarmed Strike (1d4+STR, Slashing) that does not.
Work it out with your DM, and choose your stats accordingly.
Dragon Wings (UA:Feats for Races)
I chose this feat mainly for flavor, but it has benefits too. Dragon Wings give you the Dragon look, plus you can fly without magic. You don’t really need armor due to Dragon Hide (or Unarmored Defense) and your only other limit is your carrying capacity. Unfortunately, the only other way to get non-magical wings like this (without having to settle for Angelic, Demonic or Fey wings) is to take FOURTEEN levels in Sorcerer. I mean, you could choose a different feat or Ability Score Improvement, but then your draconic influence would be limited to the ground.
Ability Score Improvement: Round off your Dexterity and Wisdom.
Monk Class (PHB)
Melee is the point of this build, and while Dragons do use magic, they usually use melee. (at least in my experience)
The Martial Arts Feature you gain at Level 1, which I already referenced, depends on your DM’s ruling on Dragon Hide’s Unarmed Strike. Even if your DM chooses not to let you use it with Martial arts, the Monk’s unarmed strike is still pretty cool. The best of which grants you the ability to make an additional unarmed strike as a bonus action when you attack.
Unarmored Defense is what you’ll be using until you get Dragon Hide, but you could get it back once you get both your Wisdom and Defense high enough to outclass it.
The Ki Feature you gain at level 2 is the reason I kept the Wisdom Score pretty high. While Dragon Hide overshadows Unarmored Defense for a while, you still have to use Wisdom for your Ki Save DC.
The rest of these features aren’t changed by your dragon traits, and only add to your draconic majesty. To keep this post a reasonable length, i’ll skip explaining why the rest of the Monk Skills fit and reference you to the Player’s Handbook.
You’re free to choose whichever Monk subclass suits the type of dragon you plan on playing, but I chose the Way of the Four Elements to gain more fire attacks.
Background and Skills
Hoard of the Dragon Queen offers an optional background feature called “Dragon Scholar”. If your DM allows, replace your Background Feature with it to give your dragonborn a bit of dragon knowledge to back up your story.
I took the Sailor Background, so i could attempt some sort of Stowaway or Dragon Egg story.
From the Sailor Background, took:
Athletics
Perception
And from Monk, I took
Insight
Stealth
At Level 12, You should have Stats and bonuses similar if not better than a Brass Dragon Wyrmling. The only features I was not able to include are:
Elemental Damage Resistance/Immunity
Truesight
Burrowing Speed
Sleep Breath
If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this build, I’d love to hear them.