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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6689546" data-attributes="member: 6790260">*puts on Devil's Advocate's uniform, which is disturbingly comfortable*Often the explanation for the "used magic to reproduce with a human" answer contains two pretty essential caveats. The first is just that dragons are inherently magical beings--it's the only way they could fly--so weird, biology- and physics-defying magic is kind of a part of their very existence in a way that it just doesn't apply to Dragonborn. (Plus, y'know, dragons are nigh-immortal, and in 3e at least, they automatically gained caster levels as they aged.) The second: Polymorph. Dragons don't just employ "magic" in a generic sense. It's a thing for dragons that they polymorph themselves into bodies compatible with mortal races (read: humans, elves, and half-elves, mostly). Thus, a "half-dragon" may in fact be born to two parents who look very non-dragony; I imagine this would not go over very well with a non-dragon mother if it were revealed after the bun is already in the oven.*divests*Fortunately, in a certain sense, your answer is also perfectly legitimate: that is, it may be that humans and dragonborn are compatible, but require a small amount of magical assistance to ensure a healthy birth (or hatching, if appropriate--remembering that monotremes are mammals that lay eggs and suckle their young, as much as a creature without nipples can "suckle" its offspring.)It might be that, if such pregnancies are not uncommon, the ritual is not too difficult to acquire. On the other hand, if this is a first-time deal, or if such pregnancies have never succeeded before, it might be that the would-be parents need to locate or discover the appropriate ritual. It may also be that such pregnancies take a specific form depending on the sexes of the parents, much like how ligers and tigons have different sizes and favor the overall appearance of the father over the mother. So, for example, it might be that a male Dragonborn and a female Human produce human children with an affinity for magic or their father's breath weapon element (similar to a genasi or planetouched), while a female Dragonborn and a male Human produce dragonborn children with some other difference (perhaps this is where the +Con/+Cha variant comes from, rather than +Str/+Cha, which is 'more typical' or at least was the original stats for 4e).This could even have some interesting knock-on effects for other situations. For example, if it is widely believed that humans and dragonborn are not interfertile, then (as I mentioned in my previous post) it might be seen as a socially acceptable form of "fooling around" (read: affairs that don't "count" as infidelity) for high-status nobles to have a courtesan of the opposite species, especially in nations where both species are present in moderately high numbers. This allows for potential intrigues when a human noble finds out that his favorite courtesan is carrying his child, while he's trying to find a wife whose status will improve his own. Additionally, it allows for mixed-species families to be a real thing that actually happens--growing up as a human with a human father, a dragonborn step-mother, and a dragonborn half-sibling. And that's without considering even the slightest bit of phenotypic mixing! (Though I, personally, think it's a more interesting situation to have no mixing and just a sharp distinction despite the interfertility, because that's a thing that doesn't happen in real life.)Or, again, this could be a first-time deal--or something that has failed to work in the past, but the player is determined to see succeed...or something that just can't work, no matter how hard they try, and the only option is adoption.Pretty much now matter how you rule on this, there are some interesting stories you could tell. Some answers will (or could) have wide-ranging effects. Others won't.</blockquote>

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