D&D 5E The curious case of the double-dragon sorcerer

[Joe Liker]

Dragonborn are an obvious choice for the sorcerer class, and an even more obvious choice for the Draconic Bloodline path. They have a Charisms bonus as well as, well, a draconic bloodline.

However, a strange thing occurs if you choose the options that seem to make the most sense: If you choose a dragonborn Draconic Ancestry and a sorcerer Draconic Ancestry of the same color, you are technically (RAW) penalized by having a redundant 6th-level sorcerer class feature -- the ability to gain resistance to the corresponding damage type, when that is already a permanent feature of the dragonborn race.

It seems very odd to me that such an obvious natural pairing wasn't mentioned at all by the design team. It really is a special case that deserves special consideration, even if just a couple of lines explaining how to deal with matching/conflicting bloodlines in a fluff sense as well as the crunch of the level 6 feature.

So is it better allow/force players to select two different bloodlines, or should there be an alternate class feature for those who want everything to match? An obvious solution would be to bump the sorcerer feature from resistance up to immunity for an hour. Seems powerful, but it's also very situational, so I think I'd be OK with it.

Has this come up for anyone? How did you deal with it?

 

[Drudenfusz]

I think making it an immunity would be too strong, I think one should become a damage reduction, so that having both would still be useful, since damage reduction and resistance do work together.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

I would point out that doing this means they save sorcery points.

 

[trentonjoe]

An obvious solution would be to bump the sorcerer feature from resistance up to immunity for an hour. Seems powerful, but it's also very situational, so I think I'd be OK with it.

I would make the immunity a reaction that lasted for one round and then have it recharge after a short rest.

 

[green_destiny]

I think converting to elemental immunity is a bit powerful trait that you get by simply pairing a Race and a Class.

If your group sticks to what is DnD 'official' then its a lot better to choose two Draconic Ancestor lineage (two colors). It's a lot better, giving you resistance from two elemental types. Else you deal with the redundancy, but you save sorcerer points and you get the resistance trait immediately at level-1.

For the double dragon sorcerer combo, if your DM will allow it, how about a player can choose between two damage/elemental types as breathe weapon? But breathe weapon/limitations still apply, you can just choose what damage type for your attack.

 

[Fralex]

It seems consistent with the way bonuses stack; only the highest one has an effect. So if you have two ways to get cold resistance, the better one should just override the worse one, right? It's like you get a number of additional sorcery points equal to the number of times you are dealt cold damage each day. Considering how valuable sorcery points are, having a racial feature that does a sorcery point function for free is not bad at all.

 

[miniaturehoarder]

Dragons in my campaign are not very pure blooded, so while dragonborn have to echo the ancient archtypes, it's feasable an old bloodline in the dragon's lineage might reawaken. A copper dragonborn mixing blood with an Ebony Copper dragon, still might wind up with a Copper Dragonborn child that has a old echo of Silver bloodline nobody expected.

 

[Joe Liker]

I would point out that doing this means they save sorcery points.

It seems consistent with the way bonuses stack; only the highest one has an effect. So if you have two ways to get cold resistance, the better one should just override the worse one, right? It's like you get a number of additional sorcery points equal to the number of times you are dealt cold damage each day. Considering how valuable sorcery points are, having a racial feature that does a sorcery point function for free is not bad at all.

The racial resistance was ostensibly balanced against other sorcerers' racial traits. Giving one sorcerer fewer ways to spend Sorcery Points than other sorcerers is not a savings. It's a penalty.

The end result is an incentive not to double-dragon, which is the opposite of what should happen.

I do like the idea of converting the sorcery resistance into damage reduction. That would result in practical immunity when the damage is low, but it wouldn't be as overpowered as full immunity for high-damage attacks such as (ironically) dragon breath.

I think I'll go with that. One point of DR per sorcerer level seems about right. Thanks!

 

[Riley37]

Perhaps there's a human male with some Red Dragon ancestry, and a human female with some Blue Dragon ancestry, and their child gets draconic genes from both sides, and becomes a Purple Dragonborn Sorceror.

But do dragons only mix their genes with humans? What about Dragon-Elf (they both take the long view), Dragon-Dwarf (gold-loving mountaineers), Dragon-Orc (carnivore to the core)?

 

[Riley37]

By the way, Double Dragon is clearly a pair of human monks:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106761/

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7619