Hellcow said:
A few things...
First, on the final fight in general, the thing I'll emphasize is how much fun I had with it. We were first level characters. The DM threw a horde of kobolds at us. We ended up dying. But in the process we had all sorts of interesting abilities to use and decisions to make. As I said, I had a chance to use every ability I possessed in that final fight (including two of my skills). I was channeling divinity, breathing lightning, laying on hands, calling on my daily and encounter powers...
AHA!! Dragonborn (can choose to get?) Breath weapons at level 1! Or perhaps that is their racial power....? Either way this is a great scoop, and as a player who struggled with LA in 3.5 because I had a great concept for a Half-Dragon PC, this warms my heart beyond belief.
Apparently based on prior posts a number of people won't be too happy about this, which I can somewhat understand the sentiment (Dragons should be unique and unprecedented within the setting ...making a core humanoid race of Dragon-people trivializes the True Dragons). But while I can understand that argument, I also must say that now that we have core Dragonborn, the opportunities this unlocks in terms of story-telling have multiplied abundantly.
Picture, if you will, a vast empire of Draconic creatures, ruled over by Dragon Lords whose bloodlines flowed through their houses of loyal Dragonborn and Kobold followers. Their skills in War and Politics knew no bounds, and every race once knelt before the glory of the Platinum Kingdom. Now picture the fall of this empire with the collapse of the power of the True Dragons, and consider a world of Ash and Waste, with the ruins of Arkhosia dotting the blasted landscape. The Dragonborn bloodline is failing, and these once proud creatures eke out an existence alongside the peoples they once subjugated. The average Dragonborn in this age is of a weak, rusty copper color, and the Animus of arcane energy that once dwelt in their hearts is no more. But rumor abounds of wandering tribes of the so-called "Trueborn," blooded descendants of the ancient Houses whose scales still shine resplendently in the Metallic and Chromatic colors of their descendants. They offer promises of a glorious return to the Age of Fire, and the disaffected Dragonborn youth of many settlements flock to their banners, seeking to prove their worth in battle in the eyes of the Trueborn. Is the prophesied re-birth of ancient Arkhosia an omen for good or ill, and how will the PC's interact with these developments? In my opinion, the inclusion of Dragonborn has vastly opened up RP oppurtunities to really make Dragons feel like an "alive" component of your setting, instead of just "that Black Dragon in the cave we killed and looted. Boy, was that a tough fight."
....without getting into specifics,, the way I see the power is this. The paladin calls out the creature and says "These people are under my protection, villain. Face me, or feel the warth of the Silver Flame!" If the opponent meets the challenge, that's fine; the paladin is a divine champion, and the powers that he possesses have been granted to him to fight this battle. If the creature scoffs at the paladin and refuses to face him, he is scoffing at the paladin's gods - and then you get that radiant damage. It's not the paladin blasting the creature, it's the force that empowers him; the gods themselves are backing up the paladin's challenge.
Great, love this interpretation of the Paladin's challenge. Hope something explaining it like that makes it into the books for the sake of all the "literalists" out there.
