D&D General D&D Archetypes that spread out to other settings and media

[Dire Bare]

Dragonborn are not draconians. Like, not even a little.

Ehhh . . .

I agree with this, at least in terms of concept space. I know that 5e lore makes them the same, but that's a retcon. Draconians are orcs wearing dragon-suits to make Dragonlance look like less of a Tolkien rip-off. Dragonborn are evolved from the playable dragons in Council of Wyrms.

Draconians and dragonborn are not the same, not exactly the same, but they both exist in the continuum of dragon-people in D&D.

Draconians have gone through the "Klingon Effect" . . . where they started as irredeemable villains and evolved into more three-dimensional beings capable of the full range of human sapient behavior (alignment). Right around the same time we got protagonist draconians, we got half-dragons in the Council of Wyrms setting. 3E's dragonborn were an evolution of the draconians and half-dragons.

Sadly (IMO) in 5E, draconians have NOT been retconned into being the same as dragonborn, the opposite rather! The only 5E Dragonlance book, "Shadow of the Dragon Queen" tries to differentiate draconians from dragonborn by making them MORE monstrous.

 

[Dire Bare]

As for Tiamat and Takhisis, very ancient and very powerful dragons had numerous versions of themselves scattered across the multiverse. Some draconic deities are the result of one of these ancient wyrms assimilating their multiversal counterparts. Takhisis is merely an aspect of Tiamat, just as Paladine is an aspect of Bahamut.

The argument over the relationship between Takhisis/Tiamat and Paladine/Bahamut has been argued back and forth in the fandom and in canon for decades. The Dragonlance deities being aspects of the core dragon gods is one take, but not the only take.

 

[Seramus]

The argument over the relationship between Takhisis/Tiamat and Paladine/Bahamut has been argued back and forth in the fandom and in canon for decades. The Dragonlance deities being aspects of the core dragon gods is one take, but not the only take.

Yep. 1992 Tales of the Lance states that Takhisis was called Tii'Mhut (p117) and Paladine was called Bah'mut (p113) by the people of Istar. That would be firmly 2E territory.

So, at least 34 years!

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Sadly (IMO) in 5E, draconians have NOT been retconned into being the same as dragonborn, the opposite rather! The only 5E Dragonlance book, "Shadow of the Dragon Queen" tries to differentiate draconians from dragonborn by making them MORE monstrous.

They were retconned into being draconians and then retconned back out into separate creatures.

The 2014 PHB says the following:

In the Dragonlance setting, the followers of the evil goddess Takhisis learned a dark ritual that let them corrupt the eggs of metallic dragons, producing evil dragonborn called draconians. Five types of draconians, corresponding to the five types of metallic dragons, fought for Takhisis in the War of the Lance-auraks (gold), baaz (brass), bozak (bronze), kapak (copper), and sivak (silver). In place of their draconic breath weapons they have unique magical abilities.

Then SotDQ, pubbed in 2022, says the following:

Peoples who aren't native to the world still might find their way to Krynn. It's possible to find individual members—or even small enclaves—of folk like dragonborn, halflings, tieflings, or any other race in Ansalon. Perhaps such individuals stepped through a portal and found themselves on Krynn, or traded with one of Krynn's great empires before the Cataclysm. Use such possibilities to play characters of any race you please in your adventures across Krynn.

2024 rules do not mention a connection between dragonborn and draconians, so the SotDQ status-quo is canon, but it's only been in place for less than four years.

 

[tetrasodium]

It's not specifically an archetype, but it's very much a d&dism & many of them depend on having differing flows of time for combat vrs everything else for in combat abilities. Turn based combat is also pretty fundamental to wuxia/xianxia/cultivation fiction.one moment a combatant might be charging across a battlefield unseen and striking an opponent in the moment of reduced awareness that came from a simple eye blink and in the next they might be engaged in drawn out table talk type conversation between allies or screaming kaaammmeeehhhaaammmeeehhhaaa while everyone else just stands around {im)patiently gawking.

Edit here is a genre cross story that puts a lot into spotlighting it with the MC finding themselves as their paladin PC who finds themselves in a xianxia style world.

 

[aco175]

What about the term NPC for non-player character? I know it is thrown around today in video games and even in TV shows and likely movies. Instead of calling people extras like in shows and movies, the term NPC developed with RPGs. I'm not sure.

There is also gaming terms I need to learn to bring to my games. I do not play video games, but there are many things thrown around on this site and at gaming tables with other players I have/had no idea what it was. Things such as nerf or pot (potion). I guess these could have been around at tables before the internet and just spread online as well.

 

[Mecheon]

Yea, I doubt it was specifically D&D. Martial arts related media had a major boom in the '70s, and there were plenty of manga, anime, and live action films for creators to draw from. I would guess the FF1 Monk/Black Belt took more from Fist of the North Star than D&D.

Having played FF1, the FF1 Monk takes nothing at all from Fist of the North Star. Its just a flat out puncher. You can give it nunchucks but, they're useless once you hit level 8, and its a class with no magic or special abilities to do any Fist of the North Star esque techniques. Given the other D&Disms in Final Fantasy like just flat out having Beholders and Mind Flayers, I'd be saying that's 100% a D&Dism

Anyway, one that surprisingly hasn't come up: Bahamut being a dragon, and Tiamat being a 5 headed dragon specifically. Those are uniquely D&D versions of them.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

And Warcraft has a Tinker class. Which predated D&D's Artificer class.

The Ultima series had a tinker player character class back in the early 80s

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Yep. 1992 Tales of the Lance states that Takhisis was called Tii'Mhut (p117) and Paladine was called Bah'mut (p113) by the people of Istar. That would be firmly 2E territory.

So, at least 34 years!

Except when we see stories set in Istar (including the original Legends trilogy) the Istarians do not call them that at all.

 

[Reynard]

The Ultima series had a tinker player character class back in the early 80s

Right but that was an actual tinker, not a steampunk engineer.