Dragonborn and Tiefling

[Markn]

Our group is looking to expand the races for our D&D Next sessions. I have two players, one interested in trying a Dragonborn, another a Tiefling. Since 4e is the only source for those races (as playable races), what racial abilities would you give them? Where would you put the stat bonus?

Looking for thoughts and suggestions. Thanks.

Some ideas we have tossed around:

Dragonborn have a breath weapon 2x a day similar to Burning Hands.
Dragonborn get an additional HD above their level for self-healing each day.

Tielfing keeps the Infernal Wrath power which grants combat advantage against an enemy that hits you and does a bit of bonus damage on whatever attack you use 2x a day.

As for stats, since its only a playtest, I was thinking of letting the player choose to add a +1 to either of the two stats that they got their bonus in for 4th.

Also, they keep any other senses (such as low light) if the race had them.

These ideas have been extrapolated from the existing characters while attempting to keep the power level the same.

 

[Jester David]

Kinda tricky since we have no ideas what racial abilities the other races provide. And, as a playtest, it is important to test what is given before house ruling things, otherwise it gets hard to tell what's broken due to house rules and what's broken due to house rules.

I say just reflavour the races into a tieflings and dragonborn and role play the difference. Make the wizard a dragonborn and instead of burning hands shout "dragonbreath!"

 

[Markn]

It's not so much a playtest at this point. Our group is kind of caught between editions right now. We've given up on 4e for various reasons, and don't really want to go back an edition since the playtest is out.

We've tried a few other systems and want to get back to D&D.

We have played through the playtest, and provided feedback to WotC in their surveys.

Now we are going to start a new campaign, knowing full well that characters will be undergoing changes as the playtest advances. At most we will likely only get a few levels in (I hope) before the actual first relase of these races comes out.

So this isn't so much as a play test at this point, its more of a first look at a new campaign.

I know that the current information is sparse, but I have read every blog, analyzed every bit of D&D Next info I have seen, and based on the characters release, I believe we can generate our own races using them as a guideline. Will it be correct? No, but it will be fun to explore some options until something a bit more official appears.

Hopefully, that explains my motivation behind the request.

Edit: Additinally, its really no different than all the other spitballing that goes on with other parts of the system. Instead of discussing the 15 minute work day forex, I'm discussing races....

 

[Starbuck_II]

Our group is looking to expand the races for our D&D Next sessions. I have two players, one interested in trying a Dragonborn, another a Tiefling. Since 4e is the only source for those races (as playable races), what racial abilities would you give them? Where would you put the stat bonus?

False premise.
Dragonborn were playavle at level 1 in 3.5 (Races of the Dragon sourcebook)
Teiflings were in Monster Manual in 3.5.

 

[Markn]

Thanks for pointing that out. Care to take a stab at the point of the thread? Coming from a 3.5 point of view, it would be nice to hear some of your ideas...

 

[thomkt]

False premise.
Dragonborn were playavle at level 1 in 3.5 (Races of the Dragon sourcebook)
Teiflings were in Monster Manual in 3.5.

Pretty sure Teiflings were available in the original Planescape boxed set - 2nd Ed

 

[Shemeska]

Pretty sure Teiflings were available in the original Planescape boxed set - 2nd Ed

Tieflings were a player race in 2e PS, and while they were initially presented in the MM in 3.x, they appeared in several places as PC races (the first place being the FRCS, which is unfortunate because it caused lots of folks to think that they were exclusive to FR).