D&D 5E Half-Dragons and Dragonborn: What's the difference?

[Hussar]

Back in 3e there was a race called "dragonblooded" that I was a lot happier with than half-dragons. They had less draconic blood in them, and much smaller stat boosts (and therefore made better PCs). I suspect the concept of playable dragon people in 4e came from there.

Also half-dragons could be half-anything, including some really ridiculous combos.

If in your world half-dragons only get small benefits, then I rather doubt there is any distinction.

My personal favourite is a half-dragon Gibbering Mouther. Nice sort of mini-Cthulu

 

[TwoSix]

Only one implies a very ugly backstory.

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0555.html

 

[Jester David]

Half-dragons are the cambions to the dragonborn's tieflings.

Dragonborn are altered eggs or the blood of Io or other such origins, while half-dragons are much more... mundane in origin.

 

[vecna00]

The Dragonborn of 3E were once of the normal races but undergone a ritual to become Dragonborn. They were also followers of Bahamut.

In 4E, they were changed into a race that breeds true.

Half-Dragons are just the offspring of a dragon and something else.

Thematically, one could consider a half-dragon/half-human to just be a man-sized, upright walking dragon. The features are much more pronounced than that of the dragonborn, hence the half-dragon that was brought up needing to hide in populated areas.

Races of the Dragon had a good write-up on both of these, as well as the Dragonborn's introduction.

 

[jimmyjimjam]

The answer to this one is setting-dependent. IIRC, in some they were deliberately created by Bahamut, in others they were more an accidental creation from the death of Io (i.e.: when Io was slain, dragonborn appeared from the drops of blood that touched the ground).

Did Bahamut create them in the realms?
What was his reason for creating them?

 

[Tovec]

Also half-dragons could be half-anything, including some really ridiculous combos.

I can't believe that I forgot this point. Yes. 100 percent this. Granted, I assumed the OP meant how to tell in general. Though yeah, a dwarf-sized half-dragon would be fairly obviously different than a dragonborn sized one.

Half-dragons are the cambions to the dragonborn's tieflings.

Surely half-dragons are to half-fiends (as dragonborn are to tieflings) rather than cambions. Although in this case, I'd say dragonborn might also be closer to cambions but I digress. Or maybe the original dragonborn of bahamut (3e) are more like cambions. I don't know, we have too many forms of the same thing in this game.

The Dragonborn of 3E were once of the normal races but undergone a ritual to become Dragonborn. They were also followers of Bahamut.

I assumed OP didn't really count the 3e dragonborn. Most people who enjoy 3e or play 3e don't usually count them and so I just assumed he was comparing half-dragons (I don't know of a 4e half-dragon) and 4e dragonborn only. You are otherwise correct, don't get me wrong.

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After all of this discussion, I was thinking that I don't recall (3e) half-dragons having tails, but always thought that (4e) dragonborn should (though knowing don't). Mind you, I know it was only large sized half-dragons that got wings (applied to all sizes in PF). Just an odd thought that occured to me when vecna00 said that he pictured person shaped-dragons, because I very much don't picture that at all. I picture dragonified-people, but definitely people (no tail).

 

[vecna00]

I assumed OP didn't really count the 3e dragonborn. Most people who enjoy 3e or play 3e don't usually count them and so I just assumed he was comparing half-dragons (I don't know of a 4e half-dragon) and 4e dragonborn only. You are otherwise correct, don't get me wrong.

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After all of this discussion, I was thinking that I don't recall (3e) half-dragons having tails, but always thought that (4e) dragonborn should (though knowing don't). Mind you, I know it was only large sized half-dragons that got wings (applied to all sizes in PF). Just an odd thought that occured to me when vecna00 said that he pictured person shaped-dragons, because I very much don't picture that at all. I picture dragonified-people, but definitely people (no tail).

To the first point, I mostly included it for context

To the second, I used to picture the half-dragons more along the lines of the 2E style until I ran across a particular Dungeon magazine that had a Half-white dragon/half-human on the cover that looked immensely badass. So that's where that mental picture came from, and I can't for the life of me remember which one it was

 

[Atomo]

Did Bahamut create them in the realms?
What was his reason for creating them?

In the Realms, dragonborn are native from Abeir and came to Toril when the worlds merged. Probably some stayed around when Ao separated the worlds again.

 

[Tovec]

To the first point, I mostly included it for context

Fair enough.

To the second, I used to picture the half-dragons more along the lines of the 2E style until I ran across a particular Dungeon magazine that had a Half-white dragon/half-human on the cover that looked immensely badass. So that's where that mental picture came from, and I can't for the life of me remember which one it was

When googling and trying to find the picture I always think of from the 3.5 Monster Manual - I realize that "person shaped dragon" is basically what comes up most often for half-dragons. It is possibly just me that has my view of half-dragons, since I never went looking for other pictures other than what was in the book - which I immediately fell in love with as a visual so much so that there has been at least one half-dragon in every campaign I've run.

I have no problem with alternatives in what they look like (nor being wrong if 3.5 was an outlier). Same goes for variants for elves - in my setting they can be either short or tall - depending on what I/the player wants at any given time - doesn't change the stats.

 

[Daern]

I used to picture the half-dragons more along the lines of the 2E style until I ran across a particular Dungeon magazine that had a Half-white dragon/half-human on the cover that looked immensely badass. So that's where that mental picture came from, and I can't for the life of me remember which one it was

I remember that one and think of it too. One of the early 3rd issues. I always wanted to run it but it was pretty high level.