Dragonborn - will you ban them?

[rkanodia]

I once played a Saurial in someone else's game, so that pretty much precludes me from removing Dragonborn. I'd never hear the end of it! "Hey, rkanodia, do you remember that time you played a finhead? Finheads are SO COOL!"

To be honest, though, I actually LIKE Dragonborn, and I'm a little surprised at the hostility. The designers specifically mentioned in R&C that, when they went looking for candidates for core races, they found about two dozen variants of 'scaly dragon man', and said, "Huh, seems like this is a popular idea that just needs a little tightening up".

 

[kigmatzomat]

I run DragonLance

So "dragonborn" aren't particularly news to me.

If I continue to run my version of DL, I'll throw the clock forward a couple of centuries and the "Dragonborn" will be the resultant non-exploding/disintigrating/acidpool decendants of the draconians.

 

[Voss]

That doesn't mean everyone is going to like it. It just means the designers, over the years, haven't been very creative.

Having seen more of them with the R&C coverage.... I'm even more keen on not including them. They just don't fit my understanding of a points of light setting. Armed monsters showing up at the town gates get a face full of arrows, not integration into the community. Same with tieflings, evil, devil-tainted creatures that ruled an evil empire and physically can't pass for humans (going by the art) just aren't going to be accepted.

It seems weird to me that 2 of the 8 races in the PH don't fit very well in the implied or existing settings, but thats my take on them.

 

[Xethreau]

When I showed Dragonborn to my PC's, here is what they said:
"Awesome! That's so my first 4e character. Probably a fighter."
"That looks cool, I wish I could play one... I can play one?! SWEET!"
"Yeah... they look pretty F****** badass."

I dare say it would be as good as self-mutiny if I banned them! Besides, I think they are cool too!


The thing about it is, anything can and will fit if the DM says so. And as a DM, I say so

 

[JohnSnow]

That doesn't mean everyone is going to like it. It just means the designers, over the years, haven't been very creative.

Or that the designers, over the years, have been responding to a segment of the playing public that really wants this. I think it's more likely that players have been begging for it than that the designers just think it's cool and want to impose their will.

Hell, Ptolus has a dragonman race. How come people didn't go ballistic about that?

I intend to allow them as is. As usual, I'm coming up with a new campaign setting. So I'll just figure out how to incorporate them. I like them better than half-dragons, personally.

However, I may steal an idea from Michael Stackpole's Dragoncrown War involving the life cycle of dragons. They start as dumb beasts (like firedrakes), then go into a crysallis stage and emerge as humanoids. After a lifetime in that form, they go into a crysallis again and emerge as true dragons. So, the progression goes:

Dumb beast -> Draconic Humanoid -> True Dragon

Which might be an interesting way to integrate them. I'm not sure I'll do it, but I share it here for those who might want an idea.

 

[Voss]

No one besides Monte (and a handful of other people) had any assumptions about what Ptolus was in the past and should be in the future, thats why.
its also a very specific setting, and not the basic rulebook for an entire game.

Maybe people have been begging for it, I don't know. All I see is medium sized kobolds to kick around.

 

[Agamon]

The only problem I have with dragonborn is that the females have breasts. Half-dragons, sure, but a truly reptilian humanoids? Girl=boobies is silly adolescent thinking.

The race as a whole? I have no problem with it.

 

[Dausuul]

Special snowflake here. I plan to keep the stats but attach them to a completely different race.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

It seems weird to me that 2 of the 8 races in the PH don't fit very well in the implied or existing settings, but thats my take on them.

Fantasy settings typically have a broad assumption of what a "person" is. Clearly, it's intended that dragonborn and tieflings are regarded as people, not as monsters. Otherwise, why don't elves and dwarves get lynched on entry to a human town?

Also, the fluff from R&C indicates that Bael Turnath went down a long time ago. Attitudes can change in the meantime.

Brad

 

[Henry]

For me, it would depend on the campaign. If I am going for a more traditional D&D world, I'm banning them and Tieflings (But I'd put another race in their place - perhaps orc again.)

Then again, the first time my group ever tries out 4E in all its glory, assuming I'm DMing, I'll probably throw all the default doors open and see what we get. I'll also probably just use a generic setting with little to no plot, and just tear the system up like a muscle car with its pedal to the floor.