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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[FitzTheRuke]

Kobolds on my world (which was created in early 2e days) were dog-faced, horned, rat-tailed smaller goblinoids. I didn't intend to make anything up with that, it's what we got from the game. We always read the "scaly" bit as the rat-tails, which people have always described as looking scaly.

I had never thought of anything draconic about them until 3e came out. While I don't mind the draconic connection, I personally don't like them looking too much like little lizard-folk, or you just have the same problem as them being just little-goblins (they're just a smaller version of an extant creature).

That's my two bits, for whatever little it's worth.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Wonder what the kobold's roar looks like in the game world? Like, why do other heroes get advantage?

Is it covering them in magical glitter like Faerie Fire? Is it making the creature being shouted at afraid of the kobold? And if so, why would in affect mindless creatures or ones immune to fear?

Really feels like Wizards fumbling to make Pack Tactics into something biological rather than cultural. They're inventing something rather than going back to the forty years of kobold legacy and giving them sorcerer spells or wings.

Frightful Presence also won't affect an iron golem. But a kobold a third of its size screeching at it like a scaly Post Malone will.

It’s not a fear effect. The two have nothing to do with eachother.
It’s a sound that is very difficult to ignore, the specifics being up to player and DM, that distracts enemies.

 

[Parmandur]

I got into D&D in the early-mid Aughts, so Kobolds have always been draconic, just as we have always been at war with Oceania.

 

[see]

Yup, the most common response I remember when 3e explicitly linked Kobolds and dragons

This is the other part of the persistent urban legend.

In the actual 3e Monster Manual entry for kobolds, the only reference of any kind to dragons is that they speak Draconic. Which is the same language the other reptilian humanoids -- lizard folk, troglodytes, and yuan-ti -- spoke. The same is true in the 3.5 Monster Manual entry. Kobolds at this point are no more linked to dragons than lizard folk are. (Oh, yes, the sorcerer class writeup in the 3/3.5 PHB says kobold sorcerers are proponents of the theory that sorcerers get their power from the blood of dragons. This does not imply kobolds as a race are any more closely linked to dragons than dwarves as a race, given the existence of dwarven sorcerers.)

The first canonical linking of kobolds and dragons in D&D I know of was in the 3.5 supplement Races of the Dragon, in January 2006. The first Monster Manual to link kobolds to dragons was 4th edition's. Dragon-kobolds have been in D&D just as long as dragonborn, no longer.

Is it weird I want people to have the history straight? Fine, I'm weird. The history is that D&D kobolds were written as reptiles, but not draconic, from 1977-2005. There was all sorts of table variation, yes, but the books still say what they say.

 

[Parmandur]

This is the other part of the persistent urban legend.

In the actual 3e Monster Manual entry for kobolds, the only reference of any kind to dragons is that they speak Draconic. Which is the same language the other reptilian humanoids -- lizard folk, troglodytes, and yuan-ti -- spoke. The same is true in the 3.5 Monster Manual entry. Kobolds at this point are no more linked to dragons than lizard folk are. (Oh, yes, the sorcerer class writeup in the 3/3.5 PHB says kobold sorcerers are proponents of the theory that sorcerers get their power from the blood of dragons. This does not imply kobolds as a race are any more closely linked to dragons than dwarves as a race, given the existence of dwarven sorcerers.)

The first canonical linking of kobolds and dragons in D&D I know of was in the 3.5 supplement Races of the Dragon, in January 2006. The first Monster Manual to link kobolds to dragons was 4th edition's. Dragon-kobolds have been in D&D just as long as dragonborn, no longer.

Is it weird I want people to have the history straight? Fine, I'm weird. The history is that D&D kobolds were written as reptiles, but not draconic, from 1977-2005. There was all sorts of table variation, yes, but the books still say what they say.

The main linkage is probably "The Sunless Citadel", actually, one of the best selling 3E books.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

It’s not a fear effect. The two have nothing to do with eachother.
It’s a sound that is very difficult to ignore, the specifics being up to player and DM, that distracts enemies.

Which just leads to weirdness when it overlaps with monsters that aren't easily distracted. Like the iron golem I referenced before. Or a zombie. Or a gelatinous cube. Is the cube affected? Can it even hear the kobold? It is immune to being deafened after all
It's weird because creatures need to hear it to be affected but there's no creatures without hearing in the book. Deafness is solely a negative status effect applied to creatures

I like that the description is up to the players to a point. But you just know it'll get silly, as someone describes their koblold's "roar" as sounding like a randy turtle. Which would be distracting

Making it a fear effect limits the creatures it affects to ones with minds, and at least ties the kobolds' power to dragon fear.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Which just leads to weirdness when it overlaps with monsters that aren't easily distracted. Like the iron golem I referenced before. Or a zombie. Or a gelatinous cube. Is the cube affected? Can it even hear the kobold? It is immune to being deafened after all
It's weird because creatures need to hear it to be affected but there's no creatures without hearing in the book. Deafness is solely a negative status effect applied to creatures

I like that the description is up to the players to a point. But you just know it'll get silly, as someone describes their koblold's "roar" as sounding like a randy turtle. Which would be distracting

Making it a fear effect limits the creatures it affects to ones with minds, and at least ties the kobolds' power to dragon fear.

Sneak attack works on those creatures, too. The game abstracts, and we change what we can’t walk past in terms of abstraction.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Sneak attack works on those creatures, too. The game abstracts, and we change what we can’t walk past in terms of abstraction.

But Charm Monster and Dominate Monster don't. Because the game saddles the line between sim and abstract
The flavour of this feature is that you're doing something that mentally affects the monster. It feels like an oversight that it can mentally affect an ooze

Which is the whole dang point of these play tests. For people to point out weird stuff they may have missed or that don't feel right
If you're just gonna shrug and say "it's an abstraction" and making excuses then why are they bothering?

 

[SkidAce]

For information consideration...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

But Charm Monster and Dominate Monster don't. Because the game saddles the line between sim and abstract
The flavour of this feature is that you're doing something that mentally affects the monster. It feels like an oversight that it can mentally affect an ooze

Which is the whole dang point of these play tests. For people to point out weird stuff they may have missed or that don't feel right
If you're just gonna shrug and say "it's an abstraction" and making excuses then why are they bothering?

It’s a discussion. I disagree with you. I’m not sure what you’re even objecting to here.