Dragonborn Info

[Gargazon]

Other than the discrepancy regarding the breath weapon, any other comments on my guesstimated writeup?

Since you asked so nicely

For the Draconic Heritage, my guesstimation (which is a page back and has been ignored ) was that they may apply their Charisma score instead of their Constitution score to their starting hit points, as that would overall be far more useful than substituting Constitution for Charisma for attacks. I think this would fit nicely with the 'Dragons are tough' idea, though it is perhaps a little overpowered (everyone would roll Dragonborn Warlock).

 

[jackston2]

Finally they're breaking the typecast of strong equals dumb brute.

The half-orc's social penalties just gave players an excuse to be jerks.

 

[Siran Dunmorgan]

Can anyone determine which program is being used to display the page image?

It doesn't look like Word, and it doesn't look like any of the Adobe Reader/Acrobat variations with which I am familiar, either.

Knowing which program it is will help somewhat in answering certain questions that have come up on the official boards regarding workflow at Wizards of the Coast.

—Siran Dunmorgan

 

[Goobermunch]

Y'know, we REALLY need to name this scoop not "Dragonborn Info" but "Kwalish Kid has 20/10 vision!!!"

This is phenomenal, and great detective work, to boot.

I'm betting Kwalish Kid has an HD TV and a DVR. The set designers for shows filmed in HD learned in the past few years that people so equipped are fond of pausing the show and reading computer screens, newspapers, and any other written word on the set. As a result, they've had to start putting in relevant information.

KK is probably one of those folks, who applied the skills he honed watching Law & Order to reading the newspaper.

--G

 

[Remathilis]

Can anyone determine which program is being used to display the page image?

It doesn't look like Word, and it doesn't look like any of the Adobe Reader/Acrobat variations with which I am familiar, either.

Knowing which program it is will help somewhat in answering certain questions that have come up on the official boards regarding workflow at Wizards of the Coast.

—Siran Dunmorgan

Not sure. Could be Adobe InDesign, or it could be MS Publisher. My money's on the latter though: publisher is much more for small publishers rather than corps. And Adobe has a virtual lock on most of that market.

 

[Remathilis]

Can anyone determine which program is being used to display the page image?

It doesn't look like Word, and it doesn't look like any of the Adobe Reader/Acrobat variations with which I am familiar, either.

Knowing which program it is will help somewhat in answering certain questions that have come up on the official boards regarding workflow at Wizards of the Coast.

—Siran Dunmorgan

Not sure. Could be Adobe InDesign, or it could be MS Publisher. My money's on the former though: publisher is much more for small publishers rather than corps. And Adobe has a virtual lock on most of that market.

 

[Bishmon]

Since you asked so nicely

For the Draconic Heritage, my guesstimation (which is a page back and has been ignored ) was that they may apply their Charisma score instead of their Constitution score to their starting hit points, as that would overall be far more useful than substituting Constitution for Charisma for attacks. I think this would fit nicely with the 'Dragons are tough' idea, though it is perhaps a little overpowered (everyone would roll Dragonborn Warlock).

I initially thought hit points, but I also thought that might be a bit overpowered. Thinking about it, though, I'm not so sure it'd be overpowered, considering constitution only affects hit points at first level.

My next guess was healing surges. That would give the average dragonborn an extra surge or two, which is nice, but not crazy.

What else does consitution affect? All I can think of, besides some powers, is the endurance skill and the fortitude defense. Surely charisma isn't going to affect the latter, because that would make the strength bonus somewhat redundant. As for the former, I don't know, I can't imagine a draconic heritage being tied to the endurance skill.

I'm thinking, though, that unless it's something completely unexpected, I would have rather them given a flat bump to whatever it is the draconic heritage affects, so that the feature would have been relevant to more than just high-Cha, low-Con characters. Again, depending on what exactly it affects, I might houserule that.

 

[Gargazon]

I initially thought hit points, but I also thought that might be a bit overpowered. Thinking about it, though, I'm not so sure it'd be overpowered, considering constitution only affects hit points at first level.

My next guess was healing surges. That would give the average dragonborn an extra surge or two, which is nice, but not crazy.

What else does consitution affect? All I can think of, besides some powers, is the endurance skill and the fortitude defense. Surely charisma isn't going to affect the latter, because that would make the strength bonus somewhat redundant. As for the former, I don't know, I can't imagine a draconic heritage being tied to the endurance skill.

I'm thinking, though, that unless it's something completely unexpected, I would have rather them given a flat bump to whatever it is the draconic heritage affects, so that the feature would have been relevant to more than just high-Cha, low-Con characters. Again, depending on what exactly it affects, I might houserule that.

Wow, healing surges was something I had not thought of, and seems like quite a good choice for any Dragonborn character of any class, especially Paladins with their Lay on Hands It's flavourful and not too overpowering.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

If the Draconic Heritage is like the existing feat, it might have to do with choice of breath weapon.

Existing feat:

Draconic Heritage (from Complete Arcane): Choose one dragon from the Draconic Heritage list (see Complete Arcane, page 78) and gain the indicated skill as a class skill. (Meepo has chosen white dragon, with Balance as a class skill.) This choice represents your draconic heritage, and it cannot be changed once you have taken the feat. A half-dragon must choose the same dragon kind as its dragon parent. In addition, you gain a bonus on saving throws against sleep and paralysis, as well as spells and abilities with the energy type matching your Draconic Heritage (cold, in Meepo's case). The magnitude of this bonus equals the number of draconic feats you have.

It might be that the 4E Draconic Heritage is where the dragonborn chooses the form of their breath weapon and he or she gets resistance to the appropriate damage type equal to their Constitution modifier. I'm not at home, so I can't actually look at the paper right now, but from the on-line version, I guess that there is not enough text in that entry to cover everything discussed in the 3E version.

And yes, I do have HDTV and a PVR and I do pause the TV for extra stuff. The vanity cards at the end of The Big Bang Theory are particularly rewarding as are, unsurprisingly, most episodes of Lost. I haven't looked at Law and Order yet, but I will.

 

[CleverNickName]

Superb job on the cyphering, Kwalish...I would never have been able to pull that off. We here at ENWorld owe you a debt that can only be repaid in beer. Or maybe beef jerky.

My critique:

- I like the bonuses. At first glance, +2 Str and +2 Cha sounds like the dream build for a paladin or warlock, but I will still need to see the other classes and races in order to back that statement up.

- Normal vision? I would have thought that this race would have a more "reptillian" sort of eyesight (something like darkvision maybe, or even the old-school infravision) but maybe that is just my previous experience showing through. Perhaps 4E is moving away from the "not human, therefore better eyeballs" trend.

- Skills...+2 History? Not sure why they are better at remembering dates and legends than the average Joe...perhaps they have longer lifespans, or tighter clan relations? +2 Intimidate is obvious, however.

- Dragon Breath is a "minor" action, even with an area blast of 3? Whiskey tango foxtrot, over? I would have thought something that iconic would be a little higher-ranking, but I'd need to see all of the other racial powers to get the right context. That being said, I could actually hear my players salivating at the prospect of an acid-breathing character. They use acid for EVERYTHING...not just trolls, but for padlocks and doors and whatever else that stands in their way.

- Does the female dragonborn have boobs? If so, why? Dear god, why?! Whyyyyyyyyyyy??!?!? If not, well, nevermind.

Anyway, I'm still dodgy on the dragonborn as a viable race, if only from a conceptual point of view. It sounds cool enough and all, and I like it a lot better than I like tieflings, but still...it feels a little bit too sci-fi for my tastes. I'm getting too much of an "Enemy Mine" vibe.

I will probably houserule it out when/if I start a 4E game.