Pathfinder 1E half draons in golarion

[spigadang]

I know in the monster book there is half dragons in it. But how do the dragons of the world used in Pathfinder act in this world do they bread with lesser beings? And is there any info on the Half dragon in Pathifinder out side the Beastiarty? If you can reference books and or pages please. This is for a pc who wants to play one and i wanted cannon answers befor ei said no or yes.


"Help me enworld, your my only hope"
Me 5 seconds ago

 

[James Jacobs]

There actually aren't a lot of half-dragons in Golarion—those that exist are almost ALL half dragon, half something similar to a dragon. Like the sample half-dragon—it's half basilisk.

Call it fatigue from my time spent on Dungeon magazine, where it felt like every other adventure proposal was about half-dragons, or just a desire to skew Pathfinder's dragons away from the "horny half-dragon making machines" that they ended up feeling like they were in other campaign worlds, but in Golarion, half-dragons are actually pretty rare. And when most of them occur, it's not as a result of breeding but a result of some magical event. For example: a hive of giant ants that fed on the body and bones of a dead great wyrm might start producing half-dragon giant ants simply as a result of eating the body of such a powerful creature.

 

[Volaran]

I was reading 'Dragons Revisited' for Pathfinder today, specifically the blue dragon section, and it does mention that blue dragons produce more half-breeds than all the other dragon species combined. I have to assume if there is an exception to the "no horny half-dragon making machines" rule that James mentioned above, it would be the blues.

Then again, I've also noticed that a fair amount of the actual Pathfinder published encounters with various creatures often don't conform to the species behaviours presented in the _____ Revisited books, so James' statement could include Golarion's blues as well.

 

[spigadang]

thanks so much

 

[pawsplay]

I was reading 'Dragons Revisited' for Pathfinder today, specifically the blue dragon section, and it does mention that blue dragons produce more half-breeds than all the other dragon species combined. I have to assume if there is an exception to the "no horny half-dragon making machines" rule that James mentioned above, it would be the blues.

Then again, I've also noticed that a fair amount of the actual Pathfinder published encounters with various creatures often don't conform to the species behaviours presented in the _____ Revisited books, so James' statement could include Golarion's blues as well.

It may just be that non-blue half-dragons are vanishingly rare. It also makes a sort of sense that unusual characters are more likely to be involved in "adventures."

 

[Volaran]

Certainly true. I don't mind there being a certain amount of variance. For example (spoilers for Kingmaker 2)

Spoiler

in the second Kingmaker adventure, there is a village of lizardfolk that adheres very closely to what is presented in the Classic Monsters Revisited book. It was very handy, because I had a lot of information I could give to the PCs with appropriate knowledge skills and high enough checks.

Soon, they will be encountering a gang of trolls who are very different from the norm presented for Golarion in the same book. In CMR, groupings of trolls tend to be females and young, while male trolls are generally encountered by themselves unless they are following a female group with the intent of mating. Usually, the males are solitary, and very protective of their hunting ground.

In the adventure, there are a group of male trolls of various types organized into a gang. Certainly trolls are intelligent creatures, so they can overcome normal racial practices, but any PC knowledge about trolls will only tell them that these ones are acting very unusually. Not necessarily a bad thing, as that may lead them to investigate why.

 

[Banshee16]

There actually aren't a lot of half-dragons in Golarion—those that exist are almost ALL half dragon, half something similar to a dragon. Like the sample half-dragon—it's half basilisk.

Call it fatigue from my time spent on Dungeon magazine, where it felt like every other adventure proposal was about half-dragons, or just a desire to skew Pathfinder's dragons away from the "horny half-dragon making machines" that they ended up feeling like they were in other campaign worlds, but in Golarion, half-dragons are actually pretty rare. And when most of them occur, it's not as a result of breeding but a result of some magical event. For example: a hive of giant ants that fed on the body and bones of a dead great wyrm might start producing half-dragon giant ants simply as a result of eating the body of such a powerful creature.

Not a bad approach. Of course, you could have your rare half-dragons who are PCs, and they're some of the only ones. They're a race I've always wanted to try, but never actually did in all of 3.0 or 3.5. I had *one* player run one back when they were first released on 2nd Ed.....that's it.

I *do* find the Pathfinder rules somewhat confusing with a few of the template races, when it comes to trying to figure out how characters end up statted up and leveled against their regular companions.

Specifically half-dragons and half-celestials, and, to a lesser degree, lycanthropes.

Banshee

 

[Shemeska]

Call it fatigue from my time spent on Dungeon magazine, where it felt like every other adventure proposal was about half-dragons, or just a desire to skew Pathfinder's dragons away from the "horny half-dragon making machines" that they ended up feeling like they were in other campaign worlds, but in Golarion, half-dragons are actually pretty rare. And when most of them occur, it's not as a result of breeding but a result of some magical event.

You are crushing my dreams of introducing a half-faerie dragon into Golarion.

Why must you crush my dreams? Why Jacobs why?!?!!!



(says the person currently playing a half-faerie dragon PC in their home campaign)

 

[James Jacobs]

I was reading 'Dragons Revisited' for Pathfinder today, specifically the blue dragon section, and it does mention that blue dragons produce more half-breeds than all the other dragon species combined. I have to assume if there is an exception to the "no horny half-dragon making machines" rule that James mentioned above, it would be the blues.

Then again, I've also noticed that a fair amount of the actual Pathfinder published encounters with various creatures often don't conform to the species behaviours presented in the _____ Revisited books, so James' statement could include Golarion's blues as well.

Dragons Revisited was one of the earliest books we did, and we were still learning what we did and didn't want in Golarion at the time. We certainly didn't yet have our own game system at the time and were still flying under the 3.5 D&D flag.

Since then, we've solidified the fact that dragons really don't do much mixing with humanoid races at all in Golarion. Not because humanoid/dragon romance/etc. a bad idea... but because it's a cool idea that was more or less covered already in Dragonlance and in the Forgotten Realms. As part of making Golarion its own setting, we've deliberately shied away from this concept in the setting. Which handily addresses my own personal feeling that half-dragon humanoids are an overdone concept, frankly!

Also, I am cruel and evil and enjoy crushing Shemeska's hopes and dreams. If that makes me evil, then SO BE IT! (Turns wrathful gaze of fire cancer toward the daemons...) MWA HA HA HA HA!!!

(Just kidding. I love daemons too much to give them fire cancer.)

 

[Volaran]

Fair enough, James. I've been enjoying reading some of the older material lately, so that example was fresh in my mind

I've seen you mention in other threads (specifically this one)that your knowledge of Golarion is not encyclopedic, and that published material would trump a forum post by the developers, or the creative director. In the example above, the contradiction referenced the Shoanti material from the Crimson Throne adventure path, which was also 3.5.

Knowing this, and remembering Dragons Revisited, I figured I would point out a published exception. It is still nice to know that future Golarion material probably won't reflect that aspect of the blue dragons anymore.

I'm also glad you're not giving the daemons fire cancer. Perhaps some of the daemons serving Pestilence should be able to inflict some form of fire cancer though