Draconians

[Raunalyn]

Ok, since I'm getting prepped to run a new Dragonlance campaign in the near future, I thought I'd post my 5e conversions for Draconians and get input and critiques from you fine folks. Here's my first attempt at converting for 5e. Please let me know what you think, and let me know what adjustments can be made.

Draconian, Baaz
Medium Humanoid (Dragon), Lawful Evil
Armor Class 16 (Natural, Studded Leather)
Hit Points 13 (2d8 + 4)
Speed 20 ft., Fly (Glide) 45 ft
Str 12 (+1) Dex 12 (+1) Con 14 (+2) Int 10(+0) Wis 10 (+0) Cha 8 (-1)
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages Common, Dragon
Challenge ½ (100 XP)
Death Throes: When a Baaz draconian is killed, it immediately turns into stone. The attacker must make a DC 13 Dexterity Saving Throw if he is using a slashing or piercing weapon. If the attacker fails, his weapon becomes trapped in the draconian’s body for 2 rounds, when the body crumbles into dust.

Magic Resistance: Baaz Draconians have advantage on saving throws against magical effects.
ACTIONS
Multiattack: If the draconian is not using weapons, he can attack twice in the same round with his claws.
Melee Attack—Longsword: +5 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 5 (1d8+1) slashing damage.
Melee Attack – Claw: +5 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 3 (1d4+1) slashing damage.
Ranged Attack—Shortbow: +5 to hit (range 80 ft./320 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 4 (1d6+1) piercing damage.

 

[Morrus]

Awesome! I love me some Draconians!

I'd be inclined to use Dragonborn and just replace the breath weapon with the various death throes.

 

[Raunalyn]

Awesome! I love me some Draconians!

I'd be inclined to use Dragonborn and just replace the breath weapon with the various death throes.

I can certainly see the benefit to that if you want to play it as a character race. However, since I don't see an monster entry for the Dragonborn (only the playtest race), I thought I'd go ahead and get started with an entry

 

[Raunalyn]

Draconian, Kapak
Medium Humanoid (Dragon), Neutral Evil
Armor Class 17 (Natural, Leather)
Hit Points 21 (3d8 + 6)
Speed 20 ft., Fly (Glide) 60 ft
Str 12 (+1) Dex 16 (+3) Con 14 (+2) Int 12 (+1) Wis 10 (0) Cha 10 (0)
Skills Stealth +5
Senses darkvision 60 ft. passive Perception 10
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
Languages Common, Dragon
Death Throes: When a Kapak draconian is killed, it immediately dissolves into a 10’ wide pool of acid. Everyone in the pool of acid takes 4 (1d8) points of damage per turn. The acid evaporates after 3 (1d6) rounds, and all equipment that the Kapak carried is rendered useless.
Magic Resistance: Kapak Draconians have advantage on saving throws against magical effects.
Sneak Attack: Once per turn, if the Kapak attacks and hits a creature that has another creature hostile to it within 5 feet of it, the hit deals 1d6 extra damage. The Kapak also deals this extra damage if the Kapak has advantage on the attack roll.
ACTIONS
Multiattack: If the draconian is not using weapons, he can attack twice in the same round with his claws and make a bite attack. If he is wielding a weapon, he can attack once with the weapon and make a bite attack.
Melee Attack—Short Sword: +6 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 6 (1d6+3) slashing damage.

Melee Attack – Claw: +6 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).

Hit: 5 (1d4+3) slashing damage.

Melee Attack—Bite: +6 to hit (reach 5 ft; one creature).

Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage. The target must make a DC 14 Constitution Saving Throw or be paralyzed for one minute. At the end of each turn, the target can make an additional Constitution Saving Throw to end the paralysis. The Kapak can also lick his blade, but this slightly weakens the effect of the poison. The target will instead need to make a DC 12 Constitution Saving Throw to resist paralysis.

 

[Raunalyn]

And, the last one I have for now, but also one of my favorites:

Draconian, Bozak
Medium Humanoid (Dragon), Lawful Evil
Armor Class 17 (Natural, Leather)
Hit Points 26 (4d8 + 8)
Speed 20 ft., Fly 45 ft
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Str 14 (+2) Dex 12 (+1) Con 14 (+2) Int 16 (+3) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 12 (+1)
Skills Arcana +7
Languages Common, Dragon
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Death Throes: When a Bozak draconian is killed, it immediately begins to shrivel and crumble, then explodes. Any creature within 10 feet of the Bozak when it dies must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or suffer 7 (2d6) damage.
Magic Resistance: Bozak Draconians have advantage on saving throws against magical effects.
Spellcasting: The Bozak is a 4th-level spellcaster that uses Intelligence as its magic ability (spell save DC 13). It has the following spells prepared:
1^st Level (2/day) — Magic Missile, Color Spray
2^nd Level (2/day) — Mirror Image, Web
ACTIONS
Multiattack: If the draconian is not using weapons, he can attack twice in the same round with his claws and make a tail attack. If he is wielding a weapon, he can attack once with the weapon and make a tail attack.
Melee Attack—Long Sword: +6 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 6 (1d8+2) slashing damage.
Melee Attack – Claw: +6 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 4 (1d4+2) slashing damage.
Melee Attack—Tail: +6 to hit (reach 5 ft; one creature).
Hit: 7 (2d4+2) bludgeoning damage.

 

[Raunalyn]

To continue the discussion on 5e Dragonlance, here's my idea on how to do Moon Magic:

When your moon is in high sanction, your spellcasting level is one level higher. This grants you more spells, but does not allow you to gain spells that are higher level than you can cast. For example, a 4^th level wizard whose moon is in high sanction casts spells as a 5^th level wizard, but would not gain access to 3rd level spells like Fireball. However, they could cast their memorized spells in a higher level slot (like casting Burning Hands as a 3^rd level spell). In low sanction, you effectively lose a caster level (which means you could possibly lose access to your highest level spell slots).

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do the Knights of Solamnia. It was mentioned that there would be a sub-rule regarding factions, but I don't know enough about that to effectively house rule. Any ideas?

 

[the Jester]

Here's a thought.

In 5e (as in 4e), you can decide when you strike the blow that reduces a creature to 0 whether you are killing or merely knocking your foe out. How does the draconian Death Throes ability interact with this rule? Very poorly, I'm afraid.

You could change Death Throes so that it triggers when a draconian drops to 0 hit points, to ensure the pcs don't go around sparing all the draconians they meet so as not to deal with their Death Throes. OTOH it's risky to leave bad guys like that alive, so maybe the option to knock them out is a feature, not a bug. I dunno. But I felt it was definitely worth pointing out.

 

[Boarstorm]

I don't think the knock-em-unconscious thing is a flaw. It's even kind-of evocative of the novels, where the flat of the blade became a preferred method of dealing with them.

 

[Raunalyn]

I don't think the knock-em-unconscious thing is a flaw. It's even kind-of evocative of the novels, where the flat of the blade became a preferred method of dealing with them.

Precisely! In fact, in many of my previous Dragonlance campaigns, the players learned to knock them unconscious if they could, then kill them after the combat (arrows, daggers from a distance, etc.)

 

[GMMichael]

In 5e (as in 4e), you can decide when you strike the blow that reduces a creature to 0 whether you are killing or merely knocking your foe out.

Evidently James Bond and Star Trek have left an impression on 5E; contrary to those sources, it's not easy to knock someone out without risking his life.

What IS easy is deciding to use bludgeoning damage instead of slashing or piercing damage.

But Raunalyn, you have my full backing in getting the draconians off the ground, because every time a D&D person says "dragonborn," this guy gets angry.