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

[Aust Diamondew]

Half dragons as stated can exist for a variety a reasons, heres why they did a couple times in my game:

Half dragons are cool by me, once a sorcerer PC in my game became one (he advanced into it by breaking down it's abilities into 1 ECL chunks) by making a pact with a red dragon.

An BBEG dragon wanted to breed a small army of super soldiers. So he started breeding with his kobold worshipers. Several years later his half dragon kobolds reach maturity and he starts to use them to raid human towns. Here's where the PCs stepped in...

 

[Gez]

Unless it's the offspring of two different dragon types, such as a half-black red dragon, as was detailed in Savage Species.

I wouldn't use the Half-Dragon template for dragon crossbreeds... I don't see why a pink dragon (base creature: red dragon, with half-white dragon template) would be more powerful than a straight red, given that white dragons are the draconic equivalent of wimps.

 

[DragonLancer]

I wouldn't use the Half-Dragon template for dragon crossbreeds... I don't see why a pink dragon (base creature: red dragon, with half-white dragon template) would be more powerful than a straight red, given that white dragons are the draconic equivalent of wimps.

Swap it around then, and apply the template to the base white dragon to create a better breed of white. Easy done.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I wouldn't use the Half-Dragon template for dragon crossbreeds... I don't see why a pink dragon (base creature: red dragon, with half-white dragon template) would be more powerful than a straight red, given that white dragons are the draconic equivalent of wimps.

The mechanical fix for this (apply the template to the white dragon, not the red) was already presented.

But the more important issue is the potential humor of the creature!

The rare pink dragon, which although theoretically a more viable species that a dragon-ochre jelly crossbreed, has never been known to produce offspring. Sages are divided as to why this is the case.

 

[dead]

There's also Gary Gygax's dragon mixtures in his Slayer's Guide to Dragons.

I'm not sure if his treatment is better than adding a WotC half-dragon template to a true dragon.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Hey, just so you all know, I finally got around to using the half-dragon template (along with several others) to boost up a creature from "Feh!" to major menace. It went very well, in terms of how the characters viewed the creature. Unfortunately, it was also the advent of a little inter-party backstabbing (well, really spell-lobbing). What with the party infighting and the draconic menace....Total Party Kill.

I should probably mention that the creature had been sealed in the dungeon for centuries, and PCs came along and let it out....!

Luckily, one of them had an intelligent sword that could cast true resurrection upon its weilder, and they had enough gold to bring three more of the characters back from the dead.

So, now my campaign has jumped five years into the future, and the draconic creature has become a major player in the local campaign area.

RC

 

[Alzrius]

The idea that if the person you're having sex with isn't equal to you, there aren't any consequences (or at least, not as many), is one that seems to cross all boundaries, so why wouldn't dragons get it on with their humanoid servants?

 

[Sejs]

I've used the half-creature templates, and as stated above no they're not just representative of a "papa schtupped a base creature" situation. I've used NPCs that were half-ogres with the half-dragon (bronze) template, both of whose parents were likewise half bronze dragon half-ogres, and likewise back for as many generations as they could remember. I've used the half-fiend template (minus the wings) to represent the effects of someone being possessed by a very powerful demon. I've used the fiendish and half-earth elemental templates to represent the result of a badguy's chimerization experiments that he performed on his own nephew (in a blatant ripoff of Slayers.. *cough*). I've used the half-fiend template on an advanced night hag, to represent a particular outer planar entity - she never had any parents, at one point she just came into being just the way she was.

So on and so forth. Templates are just lego bricks. What you make out of them is totally up to the DM.

 

[RithTheAwakener]

I absolutely love half-dragons... i made a dragon disciple, fighter/sorc halforc dragon disciple, (quarter orc i guess then?) and he completely dominated everything, at level 15 i have somewhere around 40 str, and its really just disturbing how much damage he deals out

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Whereas I can appreciate the idea of half this and half that, the whole idea of some of these half things does strike me as power gaming (though I realize that this is not the case all the time).

I think the first time I ever heard the term 'half dragon' the thing that popped into my head was the plethora of jokes my group used to make about the people who would blather on about their 125th level characters who slayed all the gods, etc. Anyone remember the old April Fool's Dragons with the silly letters that came in?

I would really have to trust one of my players in order to let them create something like that. They would have to be someone who I knew was playing for the love of role playing as opposed to smashing things and grabbing treasure.