D&D 5E Dragonborn and Tieflings, post-Sundering.

[Thaumaturge]

I want Maztica back, Dragonborn can exist but they can be homeless like other races (Gnomes) or they can take someone else's stuff I suppose.

This is how I'm ruling it at my table. My one dragonborn PC in HotDQ is playing a character who was away from home on a mission during the Sundering, and lost his family. Dragonborn in my FR are a people without a land. A diaspora of dragonborn looking for their place in the world.

If we get a campaign guide, and there is a place, then I can integrate that with some quests and roleplaying. If we get the guide and the dragonborn don't exist, then I can easily add in the above without much upsetting the applecart.

Thaumaturge.

 

[DMZ2112]

Edit: as a clarification...the novels don't tell you much about the Sundering. I've seen some quotations from people at WOTC and the authors of the books that basically say that they wanted to keep the books as having the Sundering as a BACKDROP without really explaining or going into detail about the Sundering. Which means none of them actually explain what happens during the Sundering except in passing.

The Herald was the only Sundering novel I bothered with, and I loved it -- loved it to the point of irrational fanboying all over Ed at Gen Con -- and I'm now going back and reading all of the Elminster novels for the first time. But I spent the whole book (the last book in the series!) waiting for the Sundering.

Elminster grumbles a few times about what a drain it is on his time and concentration at a time when he can ill afford it, but the book is really about an unrelated threat (and methodically un-Cordelling the setting). Then on what is just about the last page, Elminster... well, frankly it is spectacularly amusing enough that I don't want to spoil it. You should read it. It's really good.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Hoard of the Dragon Queen strongly implies that there are no Dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms.

Can you elaborate on this? That seems a really odd track to take to me, and this is the first I'm hearing that this is the case.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Can you elaborate on this? That seems a really odd track to take to me, and this is the first I'm hearing that this is the case.

• Two of the villains are, visually and mechanically, almost identical to dragonborn, but are called "half-dragons."
  • Implying that this is the FR version of dragonborn.
• The first half-dragon is introduced thusly: "Although it is shaped roughly like a human, it is at least seven feet tall, its skin is covered in blue scales, its fingers bear wicked claws, and its face has the muzzle and reptilian eyes of a dragon....A character who makes a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana or Nature) check recognizes the creature as a half-dragon from descriptions." p.12
  • Implying that the PCs have never seen a dragonborn before.
• "Rezmir, being a half-dragon, can't travel openly in Baldur's Gate; she'd be attacked by a mob." p.31
  • Implying that common folk have never seen a dragonborn before, and would instantly identify one as an evil monster.

It's like the authors didn't know that dragonborn are in the PHB. I don't know if that's a thing in the new Realms, or just another example of poor communication/writing/editing in the adventure itself.

 

[GameDoc]

• Two of the villains are, visually and mechanically, almost identical to dragonborn, but are called "half-dragons."
  • Implying that this is the FR version of dragonborn.
• The first half-dragon is introduced thusly: "Although it is shaped roughly like a human, it is at least seven feet tall, its skin is covered in blue scales, its fingers bear wicked claws, and its face has the muzzle and reptilian eyes of a dragon....A character who makes a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana or Nature) check recognizes the creature as a half-dragon from descriptions." p.12
  • Implying that the PCs have never seen a dragonborn before.
• "Rezmir, being a half-dragon, can't travel openly in Baldur's Gate; she'd be attacked by a mob." p.31
  • Implying that common folk have never seen a dragonborn before, and would instantly identify one as an evil monster.

It's like the authors didn't know that dragonborn are in the PHB. I don't know if that's a thing in the new Realms, or just another example of poor communication/writing/editing in the adventure itself.

Those are very good points. Alternatively, you could say most people in Faerun know dragonborn well enough spot the differences and recognize a half-dragon as something different and monstrous. But I think it wouldn't be a very strong argument given the way they are depicted in the artwork.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

From the Monster Manual entries, I'm assuming Dragonborn are to Half-Dragons what Tieflings are to Cambions.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

It should be noted that in one of the D&D Expeditions adventures there is an NPC Dragonborn who is paranoid because she is white scaled so everyone thinks she is evil. It doesn't refer to her as a Half-Dragon at all.

 

[HobbitFan]

GX Sigma raises some good points. I haven't read Hoard of the Dragon Queen because I'm playing in it but my GM asked me in veiled terms some of those questions because he wanted an FR old hand's take.

My guess is some clarification may come with the Monster Manual release...and if and when WOTc decides to release some 5E Realms information.

Until those two things happen we are kinda guessing.

 

[Thaumaturge]

On a related note, I'm going to have any half-dragons that interact with the party call the party's dragonborn names.

What are good racial slurs for a half-dragon to call a dragonborn? (Should this be its own thread?)

I've already got: lizardborn, diluted, little lizard man.

Any other ideas?

Thaumaturge.

 

[KarinsDad]

On a related note, I'm going to have any half-dragons that interact with the party call the party's dragonborn names.

What are good racial slurs for a half-dragon to call a dragonborn? (Should this be its own thread?)

I've already got: lizardborn, diluted, little lizard man.

Does it matter? The half-dragon will be dead in 3 rounds...

PC Dragonborn: "These are the ears of the last half-dragon that called me runt. Guess I get to add yours to my necklace."


I'm thinking that Wyrmling would be a good one though. Or Gecko.