# Dragonlance: Draconian Player Races



## ZetaStriker (Jun 12, 2008)

Not entirely sure how balanced these are, but I like the ideas and I felt they needed to keep their Death Throes. Input, however, is of course appreciated. First I'll discuss a few design goals, and then I'll go into the write-ups and the ideas behind them.

First off, as I said, I wanted to keep each Draconian's unique Death Throes. These, however, aren't always very useful, so in many cases, the Draconians may have two powers; one '(type) Throes' power, and a normal racial power. I also decided I wanted to keep their natural weapons, but give each type of draconian a different, unique version. A good number of Draconian racial feats, once I draft them, will relate to their unique weapon; it's why they all have the same base damage, so I can give a global Draconian feat for all types that affects their natural weapons.

First is the Baaz, the Brass Draconians. I decided to give them the 'Versatile' keyword to their claw weapon, giving them a damage boost if they use them on their own. I would assume it would also apply for two-weapon fighting requirements, giving them a unique advantage over other races in that they can get both damage bonuses at once. At the same time, there are better weapon... but it's an interesting option.

For the Baaz's Death Throes... I decided to do something different. They mimic, but don't incur, the Petrified condition when dropped to 0 hit points or below. They can still be healed after this, and revert to normal when this happens, but their encounter power is effectively a way to gain some measure of defense against the dreaded coup de grace. They also get a chance to immobilize their attacker if they were dropped by a melee attack, following tradition.



> Draconian(Baaz) –
> Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution
> Size: Medium
> Speed: 6 Squares
> ...




Because of the differences between male and female Kapaks, our Copper Draconians, I knew right off the bat that I needed two entries... but there's only one key difference, their encounter power, so I didn't bother copying from one write-up to the other.

Because of the flavor of their unique attacks, I ended up making the Bite the Kapak's natural attack. It has two bonuses; the obvious is that the Kapak can use it when his hands are full, but it can also be used to deliver the Kapak's poisonous Encounter power without the normal requisite Minor Action. Females, sadly, don't get this advantage, but having a healing racial encounter power is good enough to balance it out.

Kapaks were the 3 Draconian types I had to give two racial powers to. Their Death Throes just don't leave a loophole in the fluff for anything short of a 'upon death' ability... I mean their entire body dissolves!

Removing their Glide ability was a sore spot... but I didn't want to overload them with features. I'm considering putting it back in, however.



> Draconian(Kapak)(Male) –
> Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity
> Size: Medium
> Speed: 6 Squares
> ...




Bozaks felt like the hardest to design, honestly. I didn't want to steal the Baaz or Aurak's schtick, and the Bozak just sort of falls between the two. I decided to lean their stats towards the Warlord side of things, since they make perfect Warlords by their description, and give them a Half-Elf inspired 'poach an at-will' encounter power, but forcing it to come from a class with the Arcane power source.

I gave them a claw as a weapon too, since I didn't want to give out a 'horn' weapon. If any class' natural attack is to handle like a +3 Prof bonus blade, I thought it should be the Bozak's.



> Draconian(Bozak) –
> Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence
> Size: Medium
> Speed: 6 Squares
> ...




Like the Kapak, I didn't like removing Glide from the Sivak(because flight is just too much), but I felt I had to to balance the race. I may put it back in. Everything else turned out perfectly, however... although I do think they feel weak compared to other Draconians. Which is why I stole the Minotaur's Oversized feature in the first place, but I wonder if it might be better to let the Sivaks include their Trip attack?



> Draconian(Sivak) –
> Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution
> Size: Medium
> Speed: 6 Squares
> ...




Auraks have such a unique flavor, that I didn't want to lose any of their magical awesomeness. So I made their natural attack their magical ray attack(imagine a Aurak Ranger for a second... you can _taste_ the flavor), I kept their Breath Weapon as an encounter power, and they still have their Death Throes for good measure.



> Draconian(Aurak) –
> Ability Scores: +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma
> Size: Medium
> Speed: 6 Squares
> ...




I'm working on a whole suite of Dragonlance races at the moment, but these are my focus, as ever since reading the Kang's Regiment books I've been in love with Draconians. For the most part, the races are just PHB races, or PHB races with just one or two things changed. Gnomes(because they're nothing like MM Gnomes), Sea Elves, Gully Dwarves and the various Draconians are the only ones I've gotten to so far that have needed a full write-up. 

Irda, Ogres, Half-Ogres and Minotaurs are the only ones I haven't started looking at in depth yet, but I imagine Half-Ogres can be modeled after Orcs, and Minotaurs will be straight out of the MM. Irda will definitely need a full write-up, but I'm not sure if I can model Ogres after a MM race yet or not.

Anyway, input is very strongly encouraged and desired. Especially for the Aurak's Death Throes' name, as I'm too tired right now to come up with anything good. It's sleep time.


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## Melatuis (Jun 18, 2008)

I agree that they sould not have fly, but glide is a must, I think.

Great job other wise.  Keep up the good work.


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## Malachor (Jun 22, 2008)

Why not not just combine the two bites for the kapaks?
Something like:
When you bite an enemy you deal poison damage, when you bite an ally, they may spend a healing surge and add +1d6 points to the amount healed.
Because they are the only race (that I've seen) that has a male and female gender,  I think it will only complicate matters.
Can you imagine what the uproar would've been like if they had male and female gender difference in the PH? Because WOTC would've had to cut more stuff out.
But other than that, I really like your ideas.


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## Draconicarmagon (Oct 23, 2010)

Has this been worked on recently?


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## Reydragk (Oct 25, 2010)

Honestly, I think this would be better done by just creating dragonborn feats for each type of draconian's death throes, similar to how the various subspecies of elves were handled in Forgotten Realms.


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## Rampant (Oct 26, 2010)

I must disagree.

While I believe the races need to be re-written before they're playable, I do not believe that feats for the death throes would be sufficient.

Especially considering how most players don't generally want to lose their characters.

Furthermore most Draconians lack the breath weapon that comes standard on a d-born.

The basic traits of draconians ala 3e and from my limited readings of the d-lance series :

immune to most if not all diseases, reduced food and water requirements, work well with dragons, varying levels of gender based ability deviation, spell resistance, durability, natural armor, martial proficiencies, death throes, natural weapons, wings, and (with he exception of the aurak) wings

That's a little much to shoe horn onto the d-born.

Especially since a lot of it doesn't translate to 4e.

Now the op had a slick idea of using the Baaz tendency to statue up as a defensive reaction allowing a dying baaz to protect itself somewhat. The sivak and the aurak could implement similar work arounds to keep that death throw flavor without killing the character (at least not immediately). On the other hand a little overhauling could fix similar issues for the kapak and bozak. It's not like they'd be the first monstrous race to get a re-write with a new edition.


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## Reydragk (Oct 27, 2010)

You've got a point about the breath weapon.  Perhaps have each racial feat replace the breath weapon with a power unique to that type of draconian, and also give the death throes powers with the same feat.

I'd make the death throes encounter powers that can be triggered any time you take damage that puts you at or below 0 hp.  Those may not see much use in the heroic tier, but once you hit paragon and epic you'll be knocked to 0 and then healed fairly often, and it's a free extra attack that does some pretty cool stuff.  I find it easy to just hand-wave and say that the player's body isn't destroyed in the attack.

The rest of the stuff you listed as "basic traits" of the draconians, as you mentioned, doesn't really fit all that well into 4e.


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