Half-Dragons. Do you used them? (And WotC's half-breed fetish)

[dead]

WotC seems obsessed with creating half-breed templates or plane-touched breeds. Now, I haven't got too much of a problem with this except for the half-dragon.

Perhaps it's because I think that the concept somehow sullies the "majesty" of dragons. I don't know. (I hear Dragonlance doesn't use half-dragons. Why is this?)

So I'm not sure why but I've been hesitant to introduce these to my campaign. Nevertheless, my campaign is about as *generic-D&D* as you can get. This means 99% of the stuff WotC comes up with I can use . . . but I still haven't used the half-dragon.

Now, however, one of my players wants to play a half-gold dragon/half-dwarf Ranger so I have to decide. Would a gold dragon make love to a dwarf?

Anyway, if you use half-dragons, tell me why you love them so much.

Thankyou.

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WotC seems to have a half-breed fetish at the moment. I'm not sure if they've gone too far. In the Fiend Folio there's a Half-Troll template; apparently they can mate with almost anything. Does this mean that anything can mate with anything in the D&D multiverse?

 

[Bigwilly]

Do Dragon Disciples count?

I had my PCs run into a blue dragon with a bunch of dragon disciple and sorcerer followers. Didn't go into a lot of background detail but when dealing with 'lesser' beings, I could see that evil (and even good) dragons might see a lot of benefits from interbreed with the lesser races if only to improve the quality of their servants. Good dragons, might also fall in love with a devoted follower and chaotic dragons might do it just for the hell of it.

So no problems with half-dragons for me - although I might have a problem if one of my PCs wanted to be one!

Bigwilly

 

[redmetal]

I've never been much of a fan for all the half-breeds, they just seems like an odd thing to include. I think when wizards realized how cool of an idea templates were they went a bit insane with them. Why would dragons change into a human form to contaminate a lower species with their seed? Doesn't make sense to me, not very dragon like, as they've always seemed like elitists of the sort.

I've never allowed half-breeds or planar variatns or whatever the bastard races are, they just seem dumb to me.

 

[Gnarlo]

I think the entire half-this/half-that/half-the other thing is very overdone as well, and have said so in a long ago thread. However, other folks convinced me in the thread that using templates to create new monsters was a good thing. Now I can throw together a kobold, slab on the characteristics of an outsider- /half dragon- /ooze- on it, change the look of it to "a shetland pony with an owl's head and two long tentacles where its tail should be", rename it the Argleflump, and voila, new monster to throw at my players.

 

[Whisper72]

Eggsactly.... templates for new monster creation is cool. I despise half-whatever templates when in use by PC's as usually it is simply the desire to powergame that drives the players to want such a template.

I absolutely love the various templates as a DM tool to create strange and unique enemies however. This is actually also a reason not to want them as PC races, as then it is less 'exotic' to meet this humanoid being that suddenly breathes fire onto its enemies, folds out wings and takes flight.... I use templates to 'explain' why certain enemies have special powers...

 

[Akrasia]

I hate half-dragons. Judging from their prevalence in WotC products, dragons have got to be the biggest bunch of sl... er, promiscious individuals around. It is ridiculous! And I would definitely never let a player use one for a PC -- give me a break!

As for using templates to create entirely new creatures -- whatever. Seems like too much work IMO.

 

[MerricB]

The most successful of the templates for me have been the planar templates - creating such things as Shadow Wolf, Fiendish Dire Rat and the like. They allow the creation of an ecology for the planes without resorting to designing flumph-like creatures.

However, the half-breed templates serve their purpose, in those campaign worlds where such things occur. (After all, D&D has long had the half-elf and the half-orc, so why not other combinations?)

The plethora of such options really means that the DM must pay attention to how they want their campaign world to work - it can be a "kitchen sink" game, or it may be more structured.

If you do play in a more structured game, then the half-templates give great options for parallel worlds... in this world, dragons can mate with humans, and so on.

Cheers!

 

[Gez]

You see, dragons are vain. Very vain. They see themselves the equals of gods. Especially of these Olympian gods.

IMC, the PCs have met one half dragon. A half brass dragon dragonne. They also have recently met father, but the dragon was disguised as a sphinx.

 

[Deadguy]

I have Hong to thank for making me sit down and think about the role of Templates in a D&D game. The important thing to remember is that this is a magical - a fantastical - world. As such, the weird and the wonderful do crop up. And we don't have to apply our real-world genetics to account for it. A half-dragon needn't be the literal first generation offspring of a dragon and a humanoid. It might represent the sudden strengthening of an ancient heritage. it might represent the imbuing of the essence of a dragon from a magical artifact. Heck, it can even just be one of those genuine magical mysteries, with no obvious explanation!

Remember that at its root, a Template is just a mechanical tool for transforming a normal creature into something abnormal or atypical of the standard. A half-dragon needn't even represent draconic heritage, but rather something with qualities best represented by the dragon. There can be entire nations of half-whatevers that have never seen the 'whatever' - they are just a way for the DM to convey a certain nature. I've used the fiendish template to transform a tribe of orcs into something 'other' - a truly corrupt and wicked people.

At the last, it is only the DM who knows that "Half-X" label is written on his record sheet. All the players get is a description - and that's open to your interpretation as DM. Embrace the "halfism" with the though that you are producing either exceptional representatives of a race, or perhaps representatives of something that is quite, quite different and not encountered before.

I will add, though, that it can be frustrating to have players try and use-and-abuse the system to produce customised races for a specific end. Unless I specifically put the half-races into general play, race is a matter for the DM to adjudicate. If any specific example is too jarring then disallow: as normal.

 

[dead]

Maybe WotC should make the Half-Human template, the Half-Orc template, the Half-Elf template, the Half-Dwarf template, etc., etc.

Then you could have a Half-Elf/Half-Dwarf PC. That'd be an interesting combination that would not be too powerful.