What does a Dragonborn look like from a child to a fully grown adult. Specifically, how does their appearance change as they grow and mature, What clothing do they wear? Are they custom fitted or do they wear clothing made for human children? and are there any images of a dragonborn child.
D&D General Dragonborn maturity
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
There is, to the best of my knowledge (which is extensive but not totally comprehensive), exactly one image of a non-adult dragonborn. Here it is:
The teacher is implicitly an older dragonborn, likely past middle age, which can be detected from subtle differences in the facial design--bags and crows' feet around the eyes, wrinkles at the corner of the mouth, long facial "hair," etc.
There's also another unofficial image floating around that is not official, but which I quite like, and shows a very young dragonborn. Here's a link to the original DeviantArt page. Entitled, "Rawr, I'm a warrior." by Igliang, in case the DA link ever dies. (I would show the image directly, but DA links are horrible link gore.) As you'll see below, this child is likely only 3-4 years old.
However, while we don't have much in the way of images, text from 4e actually tells us quite a bit about the way dragonborn develop! Here's a (relatively...) quick summary.
- Dragonborn lay eggs, but also suckle their young, similar to monotremes. It's not clear exactly how long dragonborn children gestate inside the egg, but it's not a short period, likely at least a couple months.
- Within hours of hatching, dragonborn children are able to walk. Their teeth require a few months to come in, during which time they nurse; the mother transitions her child(ren) slowly to soft food, then hard food. (This usually contains a higher proportion of meat than is typical of other humanoid races--implicitly, dragonborn need more protein to support their physiology and development.)
- By the end of their first year of life, a dragonborn child has reached the mental and physical development of a three-year-old human.
- They mature quickly. By roughly age 12, a dragoborn child "is a lanky version of his or her adult self." This means that dragonborn finish their growth spurt around the time humans start theirs. (Thus, the dragonborn youth shown in the official picture above is somewhere around 12-14.)
- It takes about three years from the end of their puberty for a dragonborn to reach full physical and mental maturity.
Edit: To answer some of your other questions, at least to the best of my ability (noting that much of this is speculative)...
How does their appearance change from hatching to adulthood?
The implication of the bit about how a dragonborn is "a lanky version of his or her adult self" (from Ecology of the Dragonborn and, IIRC, also Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn, both 4e materials) is that before that point, dragonborn children do look like children and not like small adults. Thus, we can assume that, other than essentially skipping the infancy stage, dragonborn children have loosely similar proportions to humans: more slender, slightly oversized head for the rest of the body, facial features more clustered near the "bottom" of the face (which will grow down and outward as the child ages), limbs that are short compared to torso/head and which elongate as the child grows, etc. However, given that dragonborn apparently need to eat more protein than humans, it's possible that even in childhood they are more muscular than a human of similar developmental age (meaning, accounting for stuff like "dragonborn at 1 year old are equivalent to a 3 year old human.")
What clothing to dragonborn children wear?
There is no special information, but if this were something physiologically distinct, one would think one of the works mentioned above would say something about it. Since they don't, it's perfectly reasonable to say that dragonborn do the same things humans would in any given setting. Most likely, affluent dragonborn would pay for their children to have truly tailored outfits, while poorer ones would use hand-me-downs and generic child-shaped clothing (or wear adult clothing with belts and the like.) Since they mature very quickly, however, it's possible that they put more of an emphasis on looser/flexible clothing that can be adapted to suit. That way, they don't have to buy clothing quite as often.
Hopefully that is helpful!
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aco175
Legend
Here is a young dragon vs an old dragon, might help with things like scales and such.
As a side note, I never liked how 4e had dragonborn weapons with bones tied together with straps of leather and such. It gave it a look, but I feel that they would have learned how to forge or even taken steel weapons from dwarves or something.
As a side note, I never liked how 4e had dragonborn weapons with bones tied together with straps of leather and such. It gave it a look, but I feel that they would have learned how to forge or even taken steel weapons from dwarves or something.
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
In general, I agree. I have always appreciated that the description of Arkhosia is as a martial, but civilized society; guided by Bahamut, and the three other deities of the imperial temple (Kord, Ioun, and Erathis), they at least tried to embody the best ideals of a civic, law-based (vs. honor-based), institutional society. They're described as producing engineering marvels no less than those of ancient Rome, so it always seemed silly to me that they were shown with such rough-hewn or even animal-derived weaponry.
Zeromaru X
Arkhosian scholar and coffee lover
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
you know, I've seen this image a zillion times and thought those were adults from a funny angle. But you're probably right--they're closer to the viewpoint but clearly shorter than the adult, so they're very likely in the 8-10 range, not quite adult height but still rather imposing. Thanks for pointing that out!
Moonmover
Explorer
That was then. Arkhosia has long-since fallen, and the splendors of dragonborn-craft went with it.
(That or whoever was in charge of the art thought clubs would look cool.)
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
That's fair. Would have been nice to see some of the "original" weapons as magic item art or the like though.
Zeromaru X
Arkhosian scholar and coffee lover
I assume Dythan's Legion soldiers use ancient Arkhosian crafting techniques and even a few relics from that empire. Legatus Dythan's armor and weapons seem to be pretty elaborate.
Here's also this dragonborn soldier fighting some tieflings, and it's supposed to be from the Arkhosian-Turathi Wars.
Here's also this dragonborn soldier fighting some tieflings, and it's supposed to be from the Arkhosian-Turathi Wars.
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