Which dragonborn do you like better fluff wise and why?
Apples and oranges.
4.0 Dragonborn
>>44281156
4e. They had wings. That was cool.
Bumping with dragonborn.
>>44281156
4e.
>>44281209
But they didn't.
>>44281222
High level ones could have wings. So youre both correct in a way.
The vast majority didnt, but it was an achievable thing.Monster Manual entry over Dragonborns if interested
>>44281227
Without the tail, this would be perfect.
>>44281621
But a sizable percentage of dragonborn are born with tails.
>>44281156
Neither. Dragonborn are a mistake.
>>44281598
>>44281222
The wings were pretty shitty though. They onl had clumsy flight.
>>44281637
But they look stupid on something with human hips.
4e. Arkhosia eternal.
3.5 fluff was fucking retarded.
>>44281156
Do I prefer magical half-breeds, a concept as old as the franchise, or do I prefer LITERALLY furries who choose to change their race?
I see nothing redeemable about the 3.5 fluff, and I'm a furry.
>>44281156
Dragonborn were a strange addition in 3.5e, though I don't deny they were interesting and novel nonetheless.
But I much prefer 4e's approach of making them a more conventional race with their own history and culture, rather than a hybrid creation that volunteering people had to transform into. Haven't read too deeply into 5e, but my understanding is it more or less carries on with what 4e had already established.
>>44285281
Dragonborn 5e fluff is pretty much identical to 4e except it was the "Blessing of Bahamut" that transformed the original Dragonborn instead of an unspecified dragon-related magical disaster.
Also no Arkhosia since 5e does not into Points of Light.
>>44281156
The 3.x fluff was written by the same person who did the Book of Erotic Fantasy. Who on earth would pick that?
>>44281637
No they aren't.
That's why you can tell the difference between Dragonborn and Half-Dragons or Lizardmen from a distance.
>>44281756
My Draconigga.
Also Bael Turath for superior Tieflings.still inferior to Dragonborn
The idea of the 3.5 Dragonborn is neat, but just handled really fucking sloppily by a shitty writer. So from what we're given, probably the 4E style which 5E largely copy-pasted. But the idea of a caste of people that rule a dragon-worshiping country as a sort of magical nobility? That I can definitely get behind.
>>44287419
No Arkohosia, but 5e does technically into PoLand. The deities get a list as the Dawn War pantheon. So at least they still remember making it, even if they'd made Shitty Realms the new star.
>>44288159
Those entries in the DMG give me a little bit of hope, as well as the keeping Shadowfell/Feywild/Elemental Chaos integrated in the setting.
But until the names Arkhosia and Bael Turath get dropped in an actual published book PoL isn't out of the woods.
>>44281156
>Dragonborn
>5e
>Fluff
My copy must have shipped without that page.
>>44288303
Well, in that case, prepare for tears, because I can guarantee you it never will. PoLand won't even make the list of the AP's that they are making, and all 5E is at this point is window dressing for Adventure Paths. You won't get any supplement that isn't directly tied to the setting of the latest AP. You're basically in the same boat as Greyhawk.
>>44288479
Bare-bones 5e Dragonborn fluff is better than 3.5's "this is my fetish that I managed to sneak into the book" fluff.
>>44281756
Fuck yes! 4E Dragonborn best Dragonborn!
>>44288554
That's true. That whole fucking book was dumb.
I've been trying to find a spot for them in my 5e homebrew and I'm this close to just leaving them out.
You could always do the 4e, "scattered remnants of an ancient empire that fell in a long ago war" origin.
Thread.
So the consensus is that 3.5 was fetishy and 4e/5e is bland. Anyone have any good homebrew fluff for dragonborn?
>>44288691
5e's is bland, 4e's Dragonborn history is fantastic.
>>44288692
That's actually more or less what I'm doing for Tieflings, unfortunately.
>>44288718
Never really did 4e. What was their deal?
>>44288741
Io, the first Dragon God, got split it two by Erek-Hus. One side became Bahamut and the other Tiamat, and the drops of blood were the Dragonborn. Not sure where Dragons/Drakes/Etc fit in, but it is supposed to be a creation story...
Anyway, the Dragonborn form these clans which in turn formed a number of city-states which unified under powerful Dragon Kings. While not good, they were at least more honorable than their archrival, the Tiefling empire of Bael Turath. Massive wars were fought, thousands if not millions, died in the conflict. The resultant cataclysms wiped both empires from the map (save a number of haunt-filled ruins) and scattered them to the four winds. It's even stated in one book that Dragonborn were so feared for their martial prowess some nations limited them in the cities to a mere handful to keep them from trying to foment an uprising or some shit (basically 6 or 7 Dragonborn should be strong enough to take on a larger number of city guards and shit). A fair number of sites of old Arkhosia (the Dragonborn empire) are detailed, Dragonborn weapons and magical gear too.
Also, they could TOSS THEIR BREATH, MAKE IT EXPLODE AND DEAL MULTIPLE TYPES OF DAMAGE TO ENEMIES WHILE HEALING/BUFFING ALLIES IN THE SAME AREA, GROW WINGS AND EVEN BECOME THE REBORN IO.
>>44288850
Huh. That's pretty cool. Better than 3.5 ("My creator is a dragon fanboy with an unbirthing fetish") and 5e (He a dagronman!) at least.
>>44288720
...the Dragonborn were the other side of the war.
>>44288931
Pretty much. Dragonborn Fighters/Paladins/Sorcerers are fucking awesome to play as in 4E since they are sturdy, have an encounter breath weapon, and could become, as stated, a reborn god.
>>44288691
No, that's not at all the consensus.
>3.5 is fetish
>4e is fucking fantastic
>5e is 4e with the more interested parts bleached out but the general gist maintained
>>44288991
They still have most of those things in 5e, except a racially justified path to godhood.
>>44289046
The breath weapon in 5e is basically useless past level 2 or 3. It does pathetic amounts of damage and can only be used once per long rest.
>>44288943
I also just kind of don't like them. Same with gnomes. I've just made them additional halfling subraces.
In my setting, the Dragonborn are the descendants of the dragons that are in-between the half-dragons and the dragon sorcerer.
Half-dragons sometime reproduce with humanoids, diluting the draconic influence, and a few generationsdown the line, it is weakened to the point of dragonborn. If dragonborns keep having kids with humanoids, the power of the dragon blood keep diminishing, until the results are humanoids with some draconic features, with some getting an access to the potent magic of their ancestors.
Of course, it is also possible that the half-dragon reproduces with dragons, too, resulting in dragon-like beings with possibly humanoid influence.
It makes fun family trees. For exemple, an emperor of my setting has several dragons as cousins.
>>44288850
Don't forget they're now basically hyper-honorable roving clans of /fit/ mercenaries.
Since people appear to have some interest, I'll toss out the info on 4E dragonborn from the PHB.
>>44289085
Well, that's also a shame because 4E's gnomes were also really the only time I actually have liked standard Gnomes as a race. Those crazy fucking VK motherfuckers whose lives are lived desperately trying to escape and hide from slave-taking ettins in the Feywild.
Anywhos, Dragonborn...
To a dragonborn, honor is more important than life itself. First and foremost, honor is tied to battlefield conduct. Adversaries should be treated with courtesy and respect, even if they are bitter enemies. Caution and discretion are key to a warrior’s survival, but fear is a disease and cowardice is a moral failing.
The drive to behave honorably extends into the rest of a dragonborn’s life: Breaking an oath is the height of dishonor, and attention to honesty extends to every word. A commitment made must be carried out. Ultimately, a dragonborn takes responsibility for his or her actions and their consequences.
A continual drive for self-improvement reveals an additional aspect of dragonborn honor. Dragonborn value skill and excellence in all endeavors. They hate to fail, and they push themselves to extreme efforts before they give up on something. A dragonborn holds mastery of a particular skill as a lifetime goal. Members of other races who share the same commitment find it easy to earn the respect of a dragonborn.
>>44289190
The dragonborn dedication to honor and excellence sometimes leads others to view dragonborn as arrogant and proud. Most dragonborn share a great pride in their race’s past and present accomplishments, but they are also quick to admire the accomplishments of others. Even though the tiefling empire of Bael Turath was the enemy of the ancient dragonborn empire of Arkhosia, dragonborn recognize tieflings as worthy companions or opponents, admiring their strength
and tenacity as friends or enemies.
Dragonborn seek adventure for the chance to prove their worth, win renown, and perhaps become champions about whom stories will be told for generations. To win everlasting glory through mighty deeds, daring exploits, and supreme skill—that is the dragonborn dream.
>Three sample Dragonborn
Bharash is a dragonborn warlord who leads a group of adventurers in search of riches and glory. Inspired by tales of the ancient heroes of Arkhosia, he seeks his destiny in battle. He dreams of someday leading a mighty army against an orc horde or a hobgoblin host, but he is content in the meantime to coordinate strikes against the lesser forces of evil he encounters in dungeons and ruins. He reveres Bahamut as the god of honor.
Harann is a fighter dedicated to the mastery of her chosen weapon, the bastard sword. She rises early every morning to practice combat maneuvers and constantly strives to master new techniques. Excellence with her weapon is symbolic to her; it represents excellence of character, the perfection of her spirit. When she has achieved perfect mastery of the bastard sword, she believes she will be perfect herself.
>>44289207
Donaar is a paladin of Erathis, the god of cities and civilization. He believes that the dragonborn race is destined to rise from the ashes of its ancient empire and to form a new nation carved from the wilderness. And he intends to be instrumental in that process. As a reminder of his heritage, he keeps a piece of the shell from which he hatched in an amulet around his neck. Although he sometimes thinks that pillaging dungeons is a waste of his effort, he occasionally unearths a remnant of the long-lost dragonborn empire. He believes he can put such items to use one day in forging a new empire for his people.
Could also share Gnomes, if there's interest.
>>44288691
5e's race entries read like they're trying to be VERY light on fluff in the core rulebook. They go out of their way to mention that things are different in different worlds. I think they plan to release updated campaign settings and emphasize that, say, Dragonborn are like this in THAT world, but nothing has to be the "default".
>>44289236
Yes please do
4E PoL fluff best fluff
>>44289236
I am a fan of Fey gnomes.
>>44289268
Nope, it's mostly because currently Dungeons and Dragons is just six designers -- and that's including Seak K Reynolds and Kike Mearls -- working on the project. They simply don't have a staff that can really handle making a large amount of crunch content for consumption, other than Adventure Paths. So instead of having the various Power books like 4E or the Complete books like 3.5 or the Handbooks like Second Ed, you will just get a series of Adventure Paths and then a related Player's Companion for the AP and a mostly-useless Adventurer Guide if you get enough APs based out of a single region.
And shit, SCAG was a 159 page book that got into 'Crunch' at 121, and that includes Bards and Druids getting absolutely nothing what-so-ever, 9 pages of backgrounds where all but one just say 'use the charts from the PHB' for the real fun part of them, 3 pages of 'this is how you can tell your DM that you can play a Warlock in Dragonlance even when world doesn't support them,' and then 2 pages of index.
>>44289356
>>44289418
Dinner time unfortunately. I'll post when I get back.
>>44289442
>Sean K Reynolds works on D&D
Yeah no. Prove it. He isn't credited in the PHB.
>>44288681
You can't thread your own post.
>>44289519
WoTC brought him in after the core books were released. He's credited in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.
>>44289519
>>44289585
>>44289519
Sword Coast Adventurers Guide
CREDITS
This book was a collaboration between Wizards of the Coast and Green Ronin Publishing. Members of the Green Ronin creative Team are marked with an asterisk below.
Lead Designer: Steve Kenson*
Designers: Joseph Carriker,* Brian Cortijo,* Jeremy Crawford, Peter Lee, Jon Leitheusser,* Mike Mearls, jack Norris,* Sean K Reynolds, Matt Sernett, Rodney Thompson.
Wow. They don't even have enough people to do the crunch books on their own. The Adventure Paths have been outsourced too.
>>44289519
>>44289585
>>44289625
>>44289671
SKR does not work on the rules of D&D, though.
It'ss when dealing with rules that he is toxic.
>>44289585
No wonder the archetypes in that were junky
3.5. I fucking love the body horror Dragonborn.
>>44289190
>>44289207
God is this fucking stupid. Pseudo bushido Dragonborn. Fuck it all.
>>44289997
>>44289891
There is only one D&D team. It's made up of those six people you see there, without an asterisk. And they make the rules, except now the schedule is maybe one rules release per month.
Don't hold your hopes too up. SKR IS working on D&D. It might just take some time to notice.
>>44290565
The only person who really makes the rules if Crawford. He gets the executive veto.
>>44289891
On the PHB, no. But now, yes, SKR is one of the six designers of 5E. It's a really shame project, which is the only way that Hasbro is allowed it to keep going. Basically, in the wake of 4E and the fact that WizKids thought they could sell it as a primary line rather than a secondary line, they have since learned their lesson and axed the majority of all expenses and have made peace with their gods to sit in the corner and diddle themselves.
Anywho, gnomes! Gnomes tend to occupy a weird spot in DnD where they're just hobbits that talk to badgers and sometimes have dank weed magic. Really, a lot of times, there's not much that distinguishes them from being Halflings That Talk to Animals For Reasons. 4E's gnomes were basically just a step further away as they help to sort of rationalize who and what gnomes are and why they talk to badgers.
So, what we end up with as slight, sly tricksters native to the Feydark who excel in avoiding notice. So they're actually more similar to the eladrin than any other race as natives of the Feywild, and they get the Ghost Sound cantrip as an Encounter ability, the ability to make a reactive Stealth check if they have cover or concealment when they make an Initiative check, a bonus against illusions, and a Racial Power that lets them gain invisibility until they attack or until the end of their next turn.
>In the Feywild,
The best way for a small creature to survive is to be overlooked. While suffering in servitude to the fomorian tyrants of the Feydark -- the Feywild's equivalent space to the Underdark -- gnomes learned to hide, to mislead, and to deflect -- and by these means, to survive. The same talents sustain them still, allowing them to prosper in a world filled with creatures much larger and far more dangerous than they are.
>>44291225
In quiet forests of the Feywild and remote woodlands in the world, gnomes live out of sight and mostly beneath the notice of larger races. Gnomes dwell in homes dug among the roots of trees, easily overlooked and cleverly concealed by camouflage and illusion. They are fond of the burrowing mammals that share their habitat, such as badgers, foxes, and rabbits, and have a sense of kinship with these small animals that share their forests.
Unobtrusiveness is a virtue among gnomes. They grow up on games of stealth and silence, in which the winner is the last to be discovered. An adult gnome who draws attention in a crowd is considered dangerously rude. Gnome folk heroes are not mighty warriors, but tricksters who slip out of captivity, play great pranks without being detected, or sneak past magical guardians. They deflect both aggression and attention with humor, and they guard their thoughts with friendly laughter.
Gnomes also value a quick mind and the ability to come up with a clever solution to any problem. They appreciate witty conversation, especially rapidfire repartee. They are inventive and resourceful, although they have little interest in or aptitude for the kind of technology found in human cities. They have an innate talent for magic and a love of illusion, music, poetry, and story.
Eager to see what the world has to offer and willing to be awed by its wonders, gnomes greet the world with open curiosity. Gnomes who are drawn to adventure are most often driven by curiosity and wanderlust above any desire for wealth or glory.
>>44291225
>>44291355
Never liked any gnome that isn't like a small earth elemental. Paracelsus had it right the first time.
>>44281156
My homebrew setting's fluff, of course!
Dragons were created to fight off Things invading the universe from Somewhere Else. After (mostly) finishing the job, the dragon god noticed the unpleasant side effects of a literal army of dragons on the surrounding countryside, and decided to start reincarnating them into smaller, less destructive packages. At this point in time, 95% of the dragon souls have been reincarnated as dragonborn.
>>44291355
Gnomes were once enslaved by the fomorian rulers of the Feydark, the subterranean caverns of the Feywild. They regard their former masters with more fear than hatred, and they feel some degree of sympathy for the fey that still toil under fomorian lashes—particularly the spriggans, which some say are corrupted gnomes. Gnomes are not fond of goblins or kobolds, but in typical gnome fashion, they avoid creatures they dislike rather than crusading against them. They are fond of eladrin and other friendly fey, and gnomes who travel the world have good relations with elves and halflings.
>Two sample gnomes
Kellen is a gnome bard with a grim sense of humor and a ready blade. He was thrust unwillingly into an adventuring career when cyclopses raided his village and took him captive. He labored as a slave to a fomorian king for a decade before finally making his escape and fleeing the Feywild entirely. Though he longs to return one day to free the members of his family he was forced to leave behind, fear of what awaits him in the Feywild keeps him in the world.
Orla has lived in the world her entire life. She was born in a forest among elves, but an encounter in the forest one evening changed her life. She found herself face to face with a fey spirit of such power that she was unable to move or speak and could only acquiesce to its unspoken demands. Her life belongs to that spirit now, she knows. She wields its power as a fey pact warlock, but she feels its desires and pursues its goals without fully understanding where they might lead her.
So yeah, basically illusion-focused that share their history of slavery with the dwarves. Though where the dwarves rose against their masters in war, the gnomes simply utilized mind-games and pranking to slip away from them and confrontation, and regard their former masters with terror rather than a desire for crusading. VK illusionists with atrocious trolls for folk heroes.
>>44291542
You just made the shit slapping list.
>>44288627
> I'm this close to just leaving them out.
Do it. I did, and I've never looked back.
Made a racial template for players to slap onto a human/elf/dorf if they really need to be able to have Fabulous Secret Powers, but that's all they get.
>>44281156
Offtopic, but what would you call a mage who uses sound?
Telepaths are Telekines, fire mages are pyrokines, what is a sound mage then?
>>44288991
dragonborn dragon sorcerers in 4e were so good that it's practically impossible to justify playing a dragon sorcerer of any other race
>>44297935
Sonokines or acoustokines.
>>44281156
I like the 5e dragonborn more because they are their own playable race instead of being a template or monstrous race that can only be played if your starting out at higher levels.
>>44297935
Sonomancer
>>44288627
ok now while i liked most of that book i will let most of the bad things people might say about it fly but you better not be insulting the kobold fluff sections.
