D&D General Dragonmarks in other settings

[JPL]

I just really like the notion that some folks have a little bit of natural magic, or learn enough to help them do their job, or have potential for some specific little niche of spellcraft. These new dragonmark feats really fit that bill nicely, don’t they?

And they all pair nicely with sorcerer —- limited number of spells known, no spell book, etc.

 

[aco175]

It would help if you listed where they are from and gave an example.

I initially thought from the title and the first part of the post that you were talking about power creep and wanting to give more stuff to the sorcerer to make them more on the power level of another class.

 

[SkidAce]

I stole dragonmarks and turned them into astral symbols/horoscope/zodiac for my world a long time ago.

Only a few folks have them (no guilds) and only special "star children" have more than one.

Mix in some custom astrological spells and Bob's your uncle.

 

[cbwjm]

I think they'd fit in well in the 4e forgotten realms setting as the spellscar abilities.

 

[Blue]

I have strong feelings about this, and the warforged are a great example.

In Eberron, being a warforged means a great deal, it's immensely tied to the lore. You were created as a living weapon, not a sentient being, by House Cannith. Veterans (which is many, many people) may feel horror at seeing you, or perhaps you're like their favorite tank, or that you can't actually have real emotions because that would mean that what they did during the Last War would haunt them. You very likely sold to one of the five nations and used in the Last War. The Treaty of Thronehold which ended the Last War also closed down all the Creation Forges, a slow genocide against your people. You have no culture of your own, just the adopted soldier culture of the nation you were a piece of military materiel for.

Being a warforged in Eberron means something.

Being a warforged in kitchen sink settings: Oh look, I'm a living construct. Woo!

The Dragonmarks have vast lore tie ins. Building them into the lore of your setting, making them important, making having one a Big Deal -- then I'm fine for them in other settings. But washing away everything interesting about them except their mechanical effects just to import them I am dreadfully against.

 

[eclair~]

I'd never allow 2024 Dragonmarks in any other setting.

The 2014 version of them was reasonable enough to include as options in other settings, but the 2024 Dragonmark feats exist to make characters who choose them much more powerful than any other characters. I'd have no intentions of being unfair to players who don't pick balance-breaking options to let another player get significant expansions to their spell list, or feats that are stronger than everyone else's origin feats, or even get extra casts of much more powerful spells than anyone else can acquire via feats.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

In the Diamond Throne / Arcana Evolved setting by Monte Cook, there were "Runechildren". People would manifest mysterious runes that would grant them some magical abilities.
Dragons claim they created them, but while possible, there is nothing to suggest they have any control over it. There are also groups or cults involved with the Runechildren. (Even though the first Runechild was not a human, a human group is claiming it's a human only thing).
Seems to me that if you were creating a 5E-fied version of this, you would just outright use the Dragonmark feats.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I have strong feelings about this, and the warforged are a great example.

In Eberron, being a warforged means a great deal, it's immensely tied to the lore. You were created as a living weapon, not a sentient being, by House Cannith. Veterans (which is many, many people) may feel horror at seeing you, or perhaps you're like their favorite tank, or that you can't actually have real emotions because that would mean that what they did during the Last War would haunt them. You very likely sold to one of the five nations and used in the Last War. The Treaty of Thronehold which ended the Last War also closed down all the Creation Forges, a slow genocide against your people. You have no culture of your own, just the adopted soldier culture of the nation you were a piece of military materiel for.

Being a warforged in Eberron means something.

Being a warforged in kitchen sink settings: Oh look, I'm a living construct. Woo!

Though that doesn't mean the only way to introduce Warforged is like this.

I like the idea of them being a Dwarven creation. In one variant, Warforged are a way for couples that can't have children (maybe due to a disease that lowers fertility, homosexual pairings or multi-racial pairings ) to create something like a child. Two souls merge and create a new soul, just like in biological procreation, but the result isn't a dwarf, it's a construct. This would be very different than Eberron Warforged - these Warforged might have loving parents actually, and grew up in the Dwarven culture, maybe the culture still treates you different from normal children (and children treat you differently).

 

[Alzrius]

I can't help but compare them to the cutie marks brands of destiny that pony characters have in Ponyfinder.

 

[JPL]

I have strong feelings about this, and the warforged are a great example.

In Eberron, being a warforged means a great deal, it's immensely tied to the lore. You were created as a living weapon, not a sentient being, by House Cannith. Veterans (which is many, many people) may feel horror at seeing you, or perhaps you're like their favorite tank, or that you can't actually have real emotions because that would mean that what they did during the Last War would haunt them. You very likely sold to one of the five nations and used in the Last War. The Treaty of Thronehold which ended the Last War also closed down all the Creation Forges, a slow genocide against your people. You have no culture of your own, just the adopted soldier culture of the nation you were a piece of military materiel for.

Being a warforged in Eberron means something.

Being a warforged in kitchen sink settings: Oh look, I'm a living construct. Woo!

The Dragonmarks have vast lore tie ins. Building them into the lore of your setting, making them important, making having one a Big Deal -- then I'm fine for them in other settings. But washing away everything interesting about them except their mechanical effects just to import them I am dreadfully against.

I see your point, but to me, it is still a mechanically interesting option to model some of the scenarios described in my initial post, even when you remove it from this original lore.