Excerpts: Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons: Draconians

[Mouseferatu]

I would like to use Draconians, although I don't like the 'corrupted metallic dragon eggs'. For multiple reasons I just don't fancy that.

Next time I run a game (which may be a while ), I'm tempted to use draconians as a race of "dragonborn boogeymen." Just as goblins, bugbears, trolls, ogres, and many kinds of fey are, physically, warped/nightmarish humans--or at least, fairy tales paint them as such, and it was partly those tales that inspired the monsters in D&D--I think draconians could serve the same purpose in dragonborn culture. You could ditch the corrupted egg aspect, and just make them evil, Feywild reflections of the dragonborn--or else, if you don't want to go the fey route, just a naturally occurring evil race with some innate magic that happens to resemble dragonborn, as goblins resemble twisted humans.

Or they could be the result of tiefling experimentation on captives during the war between Bael Turath and Arkhosia.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

Or they could be the result of tiefling experimentation on captives during the war between Bael Turath and Arkhosia.

I dig the whole "corrupted metallic dragon eggs" story, but I like this idea, too.

 

[Jack99]

I would like to use Draconians, although I don't like the 'corrupted metallic dragon eggs'. For multiple reasons I just don't fancy that.

What one could do is use them instead of the Dragonspawn.

I was just about to say that the corrupted eggs is a classic and quite cool actually. I still remember the look on my players' face when they found out for the first time, during play.

Or they could be the result of tiefling experimentation on captives during the war between Bael Turath and Arkhosia.

But this is even better - definitely yoinked.

 

[Derren]

I still don't see why it is so hard to understand that the sivak's death throes is magically inspired horror which causes mental trauma. Death throes were a magical attack imbued in draconians by their creators. They were always displayed as twisted creatures created by foul magic. So what is wrong with doing an attack against the mind any more than doing acid damage?

Actually, they weren't (Doom Brigade).
Also Sivaks don't display any other kind of psychic power as do Silver Dragons which they were created from.

Like I also said, it has been a long standing problem that sivak draconians didn't do damage upon their deaths like other draconians did, because it made what should have been the second most powerful draconian less threatening than lesser ones. What does attitudes towards 4e have to do with anything?

Thats only a problem if you see D&D only as combat game.
The original Sivaks death thores are very dangerous as they can easily sow confusion and disrupt the chain of command in larger armies. Adding damage which simply does not fit and makes no sense was only done because "it needs a in combat effect", not because flavour demanded it.

For a pure combat game this change makes sense. For an RPG it does not.
So my real problem is not that the death thores were changed, but the reason why it was done.

 

[On Puget Sound]

So "mental anguish" is enough to kill pretty much any normal human (minion) when he manages to kill a Sivak?

Our party bard seems to get more than his share of killing blows using Vicious Mockery. We've had to decide that the victim isn't really dead, just too embarrassed to continue fighting.

 

[The Little Raven]

There are real life cases of people suffering heart attacks and strokes from excessive fright or excitement. If a person can die from a heart attack in real life because of fright, I have little trouble believing a magical creature can induce the same effect in a fantasy game.

 

[Rechan]

Next time I run a game (which may be a while ), I'm tempted to use draconians as a race of "dragonborn boogeymen."

Hmm. I could definitely play with this. In one campaign where Shifters were natives, I had Bugbears being what happened when a Shifter gave into their predatory animal nature - they basically became a Hunter of Men (the fantasy equivalent of the movie "Predator").

So the Draconians could be Dragonborn that allowed themselves to be changed. Or, they could be Tiamat worshipers, given favor and endowed with these new powers.

Also, Goodman Games put out their "Dragonborn" racial book. In that, they presented Chromatic-themed dragonborn that are basically genetic throwbacks - evil Dragonborn that pop up every x thousand births, taking after chromatic dragons. The Draconians could be used that way.

Or they could be the result of tiefling experimentation on captives during the war between Bael Turath and Arkhosia.

That does have potential. Would be inappropriate for my current campaign, but putting that in the backburner works.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I dig the whole "corrupted metallic dragon eggs" story, but I like this idea, too.

Glad people seem to like this.

After I went to bed, I had another, related idea--yes, I think about D&D everywhere --which is that you could, instead, cast draconians as experiments that the dragonborn attempted. Fiction is full of "attempted supersoldiers gone wrong and turned evil" storylines. This could be Arkhosia's version.

And now I don't know which version I want to use, but I'm quite certain that draconians will be in my next campaign in some form.

 

[Shroomy]

Glad people seem to like this.

After I went to bed, I had another, related idea--yes, I think about D&D everywhere --which is that you could, instead, cast draconians as experiments that the dragonborn attempted. Fiction is full of "attempted supersoldiers gone wrong and turned evil" storylines. This could be Arkhosia's version.

And now I don't know which version I want to use, but I'm quite certain that draconians will be in my next campaign in some form.

Have you considered pitching an "Ecology of the Draconians" article? You could split it between DL elements and PoL elements, like what they did for the "Ecology of the Sharn" article.

 

[Dire Bare]

Glad people seem to like this.

After I went to bed, I had another, related idea--yes, I think about D&D everywhere --which is that you could, instead, cast draconians as experiments that the dragonborn attempted. Fiction is full of "attempted supersoldiers gone wrong and turned evil" storylines. This could be Arkhosia's version.

And now I don't know which version I want to use, but I'm quite certain that draconians will be in my next campaign in some form.

Better yet, the dragonborn of Arkhosia experimented with metallic dragon eggs to create their supersoldiers gone wrong! Perhaps without the knowledge of the dragon allies . . . or perhaps with . . .