D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Draconic Options

The latest Unearthed Arcana from WotC is called Draconic Options. It includes three variant Dragonborn races and a new kobold race, as well as a handful of new spells and feats. Dragonlance fans might do a double-take when they see Fizban's platinum shield (two Forgotten Realms dragons are referenced in the spells, too -- Icingdeath and Raulothim -- as is the FR god of fey dragons, Nathair).

Harness the power of dragons in this installment of Unearthed Arcana! This playtest document presents race, feat, and spell options related to dragons in Dungeons & Dragons.

First is a trio of draconic race options presented as an alternative to the dragonborn race in the Player’s Handbook, as well as a fresh look at the kobold race. Then comes a handful of feat options that reflect a connection to draconic power. Finally, an assortment of spells—many of them bearing the names of famous or infamous dragons—offer a variety of approaches to manifesting dragon magic.

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[Weiley31]

Kobolds are "reptomammals", both, and at least a subrace may be "feytouched", because they lived for a lot of time in the Faywild as slaves by the fomorians, with the gnomes.

Sometimes I imagine kobolds with the faces from Capcom arcade, too close to Joe Dante's movie "Gremlins"

View attachment 135615

But other times I imagine them like serie B (subgenre of little monsters) horror movie Munchies:

The kobold from 5th Ed is right but that black dog nose. I would rather this. Here there are dreadful enemies and not ridiculous Wally Gator clones.

View attachment 135616

Maybe the planar dragons need a redesign, but by the right hands they could be very popular also, even that with the duck-peak from the Elysian planes (the kaiju version of Jar-Jar Bins). (Ridiculous? maybe, but it is the perfect bait if the PCs are evil and they want to kill pure-heart creatures).

Other idea I like is the potential conflict between dragons and "titantouched" or kyoda heroes (or villain titan-sifters), something like kaijus vs "the attacks of the titans". Then the dragons and titans would be natural enemies, hunting each other.

What if dragons (because they have been hired as mercenaries or to defend their minions) fight against giant werebeasts?

When it comes to Kobold looks, I do like the 3E/5e versions and Pathfinder 2's Kobold look.

 

[Maxperson]

Sounds better in the original Elvish, Parmarist.

A hit does 1 point of damage and imposes disadvantage on everything due to pain until a DC 16 Con save is made.

 

[Maxperson]

My party's halfling swashbuckler dual wields magical scimitars "Slice" (the Vorpal Sword) and "Dice" (the Flametongue). He knows the names are cheesy, but it fits a halfling.

In 3.5 I had a dual kukri wielding character. The names of the Kukri were Pain and Suffering. It was an evil campaign, so I got to have fun with the names.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Are kobolds inherently reptilian or mammalian? Who cares, as long as we're not talking about if they are inherently evil or not...

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

In 3.5 I had a dual kukri wielding character. The names of the Kukri were Pain and Suffering. It was an evil campaign, so I got to have fun with the names.

Yep. Evil weapon names are the most fun.

My Changeling Hexblade Pact of the Blade Warlock alternates between forms and weapons, due to their fluidity. My Warlock's name is Chance, and they just call their weapon "Random", because it can be whatever shape they want it to be.

 

[TwoSix]

Do you mean this one?
View attachment 135657

He's a semi-aquatic egg-laying dragon of action!

 

[RealAlHazred]

He's a semi-aquatic egg-laying dragon of action!

Er... I may have done a thing...

 

[Chaosmancer]

I mean, there's a definite lack of duck-like or porcupine-like races in D&D, so a kind of platypus or echidna kobold would be awesome.

Scaly skin ala pangolins with furry face, claws to dig those damned tunnels, ant-eater snout and spiky backs. I'm onboard with that.

Pangolin race would be fun, just because I see them so rarely

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Pangolin race would be fun, just because I see them so rarely

And they walk on two legs a lot of the time, so it wouldn't be hard to make a bigger, more humanoid pangolin race with 5e stats. It's almost definitely not going to happen, but that would be awesome.

 

[Charlaquin]

My party's halfling swashbuckler dual wields magical scimitars "Slice" (the Vorpal Sword) and "Dice" (the Flametongue). He knows the names are cheesy, but it fits a halfling.

One game I played in, our Halfling rogue, Shifty Sharpshank (there was a “Sharpshank Redemption” joke in there somewhere but I don’t remember what it was) had dual magic daggers named Death and Taxes.