JoeGKushner
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Hero’s Handbook: Dragonborn
Hero’s Handbook Dragonborn, is the first in a new series of products from Goodman Games that brings more details to the Dungeons and Dragons game. In this case, it’s the Dragonborn race. A 96 page, black and white soft cover book, Dragonborn is written by Jeff La Sala, Aeryn Rudel, and Harley Stroh. Interior artists include fan favorites like David Griffith, Doug Kovacs, Matt Morror and Grey Thornberry. There are several full page illustrations of the Dragonborn in various heroic stances and battles. My favorite is probably the one right at the front of the book on page 3 with the Dragonborn hero the center of the action against a dragon. The book includes a detailed table of contents, but no index.
For me, Dragonborn are one of the more interesting races in 4e. While not a traditional race in previous editions, the 4e version is something different than their previous incarnation in Races of the Dragon, a 3.5 tome. Here, the authors tie the Dragonborn solidly into the Known World, the Dungeon Crawl Classic setting. The book includes elements for players and Dungeon Masters.
The book starts with an introduction and moves into seven chapters to detail the Dragonborn. In this take, the Dragonborn are remnants of an old empire and are “a shadow of their former greatness… this generation’s heroes might well be the last to cast their shadow across the storied thrones of the Known World.” The themes of the Dragonborn come down to two elements. The first is that they are born warriors. Even those who don’t take up arms approach everything with a martial determination. The second and more referenced is the code of the dragon which consists of courage, loyalty and integrity. This code is used latter on with the different clans take on how those three elements fall within their own history and believes.
The Dragonborn of the Known World are broken up into Northland and Southland Clans. The prominent clans are provided several brief bits in the introduction which are latter fleshed out. The nice thing about these clans is the quick ‘catches’ they provide for both players and Dungeon Masters. More important to some though, they don’t paint all the Dragonborn into a corner as they have Minor Clans which the DM can then flesh out for his own brand of Dragonborn.
There are five different Northland Clans. Each one has a brief story, background, how the Code of the Dragon interacts with their clan, and different information depending on the clan. For example, Clan Karkonus has a section on leadership, home, war fare, and adventurers. Players more interested in options than background will enjoy the different feats and paragon paths that these sections bring to the table. These cover a wide range of options from the martial Dragonsword Adept from the Kengi sword saints to the dungeon crawling Deepseekers of the Kthonan clans.
In addition to clan specific feats, chapter four introduces feats for all the Dragonborn. The feats are broken up into the standard tiers; heroic, paragon and epic. Like many products, the number of feats per tier goes down the higher you go up the ladder. Heroic: 17, Paragon: 11, Epic: 5.
Some of the feats are simple in mechanical terms like the heroic level Thick Scales, providing a +1 permanent bonus to AC at 1st level, +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level. Others are breath weapon based like chocking breath that weakens creatures struck by the breath weapon.
Chapter five is for those who love background tables. It reminds me of the old book Heroes of Legend, from Central Casting, in that it provides a nice skeleton to frame your character on. Players gain bonuses and penalties depending on their initial clan. Players start with a roll on the Family Destiny table and depending on the results there, move onto other tables. For example, a roll of a 4 for the Diago family would be modified to 6. This shows one of your ancestors was a great duelist. Go to Table D, a d8 table. Getting a 3, the ancestor was a fiend slayer and those fiends are now after you. This leads to table H, Ancestral Foes, where a roll of a d8 and the almighty 1, shows that the fiends aim to destroy everything the character cherishes.
Dungeon Masters may be wondering, “Where’s the Beef?”. Chapter six provides new monsters starting with cultists of Apophis. This god of evil, darkness and poisons prefers reptilian servants and a whole host of evil dragon born are provided as sample enemies. Those looking for more ‘standard’ fare may want to read over the Dire Drakes, mounts and beasts of burden worthy of Golden Axe fame. DM’s that want to throw a dark mirror at the players of Dragonborn without going the cultists route have the Atavist, chromatic Dragonborn whose whole heritage is evil and whose strength is greater than a standard Dragonborn. These Atavists are listed by color so we have the Frostrager, a White, Foulblade, black, boltknight, blue, and many others. For those looking for quick NPCs to represent the different clans, the book provides several samples ranging from Mistral Knights of Durisshk to Blackspear Hoplites from Clan Karkonus.
The game material ends with a section of magic items with a Dragonborn history slant. Weapons range in level from a 2nd level Dragonfury weapon that can scale to 27th providing a bonus on damage rolls when the user is bloodied, to a 30th level Bloodfreezing Weapon that not only provides cold resistance while holding the weapon, but as a daily, gives the target vulnerability to cold. At the thirty level, it vulnerability 15. Not every item is a weapon though. There are also utility items like the Helm of the Subterrane, an 8th level item that provides a +2 item bonus to Dungeoneering and Perception Checks.
With the Dragonborn being so new to the game and having ancient ties to it, this product is well timed to become a definitive work. The background, while campaign specific, is so far back in the past that unless the campaign setting has just introduced the Dragonborn as a selling point like the Forgotten Realms, those background details are easy to customize. By leaving a spot open for any inventions of the GM through the Minor Clans options, the book leaves room for customization.
Game Masters looking to bring the Dragonborn to the forefront of a campaign or players looking to expand not only the background of their characters, but their game mechanics, will want this book.
Hero’s Handbook Dragonborn, is the first in a new series of products from Goodman Games that brings more details to the Dungeons and Dragons game. In this case, it’s the Dragonborn race. A 96 page, black and white soft cover book, Dragonborn is written by Jeff La Sala, Aeryn Rudel, and Harley Stroh. Interior artists include fan favorites like David Griffith, Doug Kovacs, Matt Morror and Grey Thornberry. There are several full page illustrations of the Dragonborn in various heroic stances and battles. My favorite is probably the one right at the front of the book on page 3 with the Dragonborn hero the center of the action against a dragon. The book includes a detailed table of contents, but no index.
For me, Dragonborn are one of the more interesting races in 4e. While not a traditional race in previous editions, the 4e version is something different than their previous incarnation in Races of the Dragon, a 3.5 tome. Here, the authors tie the Dragonborn solidly into the Known World, the Dungeon Crawl Classic setting. The book includes elements for players and Dungeon Masters.
The book starts with an introduction and moves into seven chapters to detail the Dragonborn. In this take, the Dragonborn are remnants of an old empire and are “a shadow of their former greatness… this generation’s heroes might well be the last to cast their shadow across the storied thrones of the Known World.” The themes of the Dragonborn come down to two elements. The first is that they are born warriors. Even those who don’t take up arms approach everything with a martial determination. The second and more referenced is the code of the dragon which consists of courage, loyalty and integrity. This code is used latter on with the different clans take on how those three elements fall within their own history and believes.
The Dragonborn of the Known World are broken up into Northland and Southland Clans. The prominent clans are provided several brief bits in the introduction which are latter fleshed out. The nice thing about these clans is the quick ‘catches’ they provide for both players and Dungeon Masters. More important to some though, they don’t paint all the Dragonborn into a corner as they have Minor Clans which the DM can then flesh out for his own brand of Dragonborn.
There are five different Northland Clans. Each one has a brief story, background, how the Code of the Dragon interacts with their clan, and different information depending on the clan. For example, Clan Karkonus has a section on leadership, home, war fare, and adventurers. Players more interested in options than background will enjoy the different feats and paragon paths that these sections bring to the table. These cover a wide range of options from the martial Dragonsword Adept from the Kengi sword saints to the dungeon crawling Deepseekers of the Kthonan clans.
In addition to clan specific feats, chapter four introduces feats for all the Dragonborn. The feats are broken up into the standard tiers; heroic, paragon and epic. Like many products, the number of feats per tier goes down the higher you go up the ladder. Heroic: 17, Paragon: 11, Epic: 5.
Some of the feats are simple in mechanical terms like the heroic level Thick Scales, providing a +1 permanent bonus to AC at 1st level, +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level. Others are breath weapon based like chocking breath that weakens creatures struck by the breath weapon.
Chapter five is for those who love background tables. It reminds me of the old book Heroes of Legend, from Central Casting, in that it provides a nice skeleton to frame your character on. Players gain bonuses and penalties depending on their initial clan. Players start with a roll on the Family Destiny table and depending on the results there, move onto other tables. For example, a roll of a 4 for the Diago family would be modified to 6. This shows one of your ancestors was a great duelist. Go to Table D, a d8 table. Getting a 3, the ancestor was a fiend slayer and those fiends are now after you. This leads to table H, Ancestral Foes, where a roll of a d8 and the almighty 1, shows that the fiends aim to destroy everything the character cherishes.
Dungeon Masters may be wondering, “Where’s the Beef?”. Chapter six provides new monsters starting with cultists of Apophis. This god of evil, darkness and poisons prefers reptilian servants and a whole host of evil dragon born are provided as sample enemies. Those looking for more ‘standard’ fare may want to read over the Dire Drakes, mounts and beasts of burden worthy of Golden Axe fame. DM’s that want to throw a dark mirror at the players of Dragonborn without going the cultists route have the Atavist, chromatic Dragonborn whose whole heritage is evil and whose strength is greater than a standard Dragonborn. These Atavists are listed by color so we have the Frostrager, a White, Foulblade, black, boltknight, blue, and many others. For those looking for quick NPCs to represent the different clans, the book provides several samples ranging from Mistral Knights of Durisshk to Blackspear Hoplites from Clan Karkonus.
The game material ends with a section of magic items with a Dragonborn history slant. Weapons range in level from a 2nd level Dragonfury weapon that can scale to 27th providing a bonus on damage rolls when the user is bloodied, to a 30th level Bloodfreezing Weapon that not only provides cold resistance while holding the weapon, but as a daily, gives the target vulnerability to cold. At the thirty level, it vulnerability 15. Not every item is a weapon though. There are also utility items like the Helm of the Subterrane, an 8th level item that provides a +2 item bonus to Dungeoneering and Perception Checks.
With the Dragonborn being so new to the game and having ancient ties to it, this product is well timed to become a definitive work. The background, while campaign specific, is so far back in the past that unless the campaign setting has just introduced the Dragonborn as a selling point like the Forgotten Realms, those background details are easy to customize. By leaving a spot open for any inventions of the GM through the Minor Clans options, the book leaves room for customization.
Game Masters looking to bring the Dragonborn to the forefront of a campaign or players looking to expand not only the background of their characters, but their game mechanics, will want this book.
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