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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 7900790" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/3peyehj.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Book 2: Children of the Dragon Chapter 1: Base DraconiansAs warforged are to Eberron, as thri-kreen are to Dark Sun, the draconians are to Dragonlance. They are popular outside their setting fandom and hold a lot of appeal even though they did not get status as a PC race until 3rd Edition,* and even then only the baaz and kapak subraces. But Dragons of Krynn seeks to make all five subraces, as well as their Noble draconian counterparts, playable for the first time...using the underpowered Savage Species style monster class rules. This chapter heartily recommends readers to check out the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doom_Brigade" target="_blank">Kang’s Regiment book series</a> for further reading. From what I heard the series is quite good: it details how the draconian remnants of the Dragonarmies eventually discovered the female eggs of their species and found a nation of their own in a post-Takhisis world.*to my knowledge, any readers can feel free to correct me.The term “base draconian” is a bit of a neologism, used by noble draconians to describe the original draconians created by the Dragonarmies as a sort of alchemy term for “base metals.” Said original draconians regard this as a slur, so in the interest of political correctness I’m going to say “original draconians” instead where differences are important. We get a brief history on not just draconians, but also prior attempts in Ansalon’s history of creating human-dragon hybrids or artificial dragons. Said creations never amounted to much beyond unpredictable monstrosities, and it was only during the rise of Takhisis’ Dragon Empire that the draconians as a race came into being. Initially brainwashed soldiers who knew of no other life than warfare, human officers kept their numbers low via only using male dragon eggs for the ritual. The dissolution of the Empire, combined with the recovery of the female eggs by a regiment of draconian troops, has allowed draconians to become a “true race” rather than expendable shock troopers.Draconians are still finding their place in the world: although they have a city-state of their own by the name of Teyr complete with civilian occupations, old habits die hard and many still found themselves fighting under various forces such as the Dark Knights or the Dragon Overlords. Their martial ancestry still exhibits itself, and many draconians often used rank and regiment labels as surnames. In the case of civilians in Teyr, the name of their profession is used. Personal names are drawn from Nerakese, the human tongue of central Ansalon which saw the rise of the Dragon Empire. Their death throes, which cause deadly side effects upon their enemies should they die, has resulted in a rather curious outlook on mortality. Many draconians are taught to not throw their lives away lightly, or without forethought. The destruction their bodies can do make them mindful of collateral damage, and in lieu of traditional burials most draconians gather the combusted remnants of the fallen into jars. In the event of mass deaths and war, draconians gather as much of the substance as possible and bury it under a large marble block with a memorial listing the names of the fallen. In the event that no physical remnants can be recovered, the deceased draconians’ friends and family take their prized possession or something representing their life and bury it in a small casket. Older generations of draconians who are proud of their time in the Dragonarmies are sometimes known to wear their old uniforms and armor as a reminder of their service, more as ceremonial than protection given the age and wear of said uniforms.Every draconian, even ones born after Takhisis’ death, experience dreams which manifest of an alternate life. Of how things would be if they were born as a true dragon instead. Draconians interpret these dreams as differently as humans would in regards to prophetic visions: some take it as an ideal or life path to guide them, others an unpleasant reminder of their ‘warped’ origin. Like true dragons they possess a draconis fundamentum which supplies innate supernatural abilities and violently ruptures as they die, resulting in their iconic death throes. Their relationship to true dragons and noble draconians is complicated: in the case of chromatics they served under many of them during the War of the Lance, although with Takhisis’ death and the Dragon Empire’s deception of their origins many draconians feel like they were taken for fools by their creators. They view noble draconians as arrogant and there’s still bad blood between the races due to the inevitable fallout when the noble ones rebelled against the Dragonarmies. They  feel some measure of sympathy for dragonspawn given that both have similar origins of artificial creation. They overall do not like their metallic forebears: original draconians view the Oath of Neutrality as a betrayal or abandonment rather than grieving parents not wanting their children to be killed. The fact that many metallic dragons consider killing draconians an act of mercy is viewed as rank hypocrisy.Aurak Draconians are derived from gold dragon stock and are born with innate sorcerous powers. They tend to be quite arrogant and lonesome, as they were often deployed as special forces during the War of the Lance. They were the first among the subraces to discover that Takhisis was hiding aspects of their heritage, and although prized for their talents were the most likely of subraces to desert. In modern times they are the least likely to adapt to a regimented military subculture, but many auraks found the concept of a draconian nation appealing and moved to Teyr en masse. Female auraks are more likely to be of good alignmen, as unlike many of their older male counterparts they were not raised in the environments of the Dragonarmies.Baaz Draconians are the least powerful and most numerous of the draconian subraces. Derived from brass dragon stock, they are rowdy and reckless and are often prone to alcoholism, although the women are likelier to end up as qualified leaders.* Their human pseudo-parents in the Dragon Empire would often pit them against the kapaks in competitions to keep the draconians divided from uniting against them. While there was quite a bit of racism between the two groups, such attitudes are now fading in the modern era save among the older generation. The majority of baaz are nonreligious, not eager to run into the arms of a deity after being manipulated by Takhisis. They’re more likely than other draconians to suffer discrimination from mainstream society on account that their subrace was responsible for the majority of violent deaths during the War of the Lance.*Exemplified by the males and females having Bluff or Diplomacy as respective class skills.Bozak Draconians are the second draconian subrace to have inborn sorcerous abilities and come from bronze dragon stock. The Dragon Empire taught them that their abilities were divine blessings from Takhisis, and their subrace’s natural charisma saw many of them put them in charge of baaz and kapak units as well as serving as priests among their subrace. They are quite social and even feign politeness and friendship, either for their own self-benefit or to preserve social niceties. They’re also the subrace most likely to become wandering adventurers, and also the most likely to convert to another god after Takhisis’ death. There are still some who still honor her memory in spite of her passing.Kapak Draconians are the second-most populous subrace after the baaz and have copper dragon ancestry. They are naturally adept at being stealthy and their glands can produce a special saliva. males produce paralyzing venom, and females a supernatural mucus with healing properties. They were often used as spies and assassins during the War of the Lance, and many in the modern era find their talents applicable to organized crime or hiring themselves out as mercenaries. They’re the most likely subrace to be anti-religious, and most of them cast off Takhisis as their patron goddess even before she died. Many of them feel that it should be draconians and draconians alone who determine their race’s destiny. Small groups often have a communal wealth pool to pay for things for the whole group, and those who leave often are given a share of what’s necessary to survive and can be used to buy their way into a new kapak band.Sivak Draconians are the largest of the metallic subraces and have obvious silver dragon origins. They served as an elite fighting force and infiltration units in the Dragonarmies, and as such find their talents in high demand. As a result they’re the subrace least likely to transition to civilian life. They enjoy gambling and games of chance and are loyal to fellow soldiers and adventuring companions, although they are not zealous in this regard and will not charge to their deaths unless there is no other option. When it comes to religious matters they’re more likely to follow the beliefs of a mortal authority figure or if a cleric or divine caster made a positive impression on them in regards to a keen tactical mind and martial expertise.Racial Traits and Classes: In this chapter we also have rules for draconians as a race: both their core abilities as a full-fledged member of a respective subrace, and traits given out piecemeal over the course of five draconian “monster classes.” They use Savage Species’ rules for combining Hit Dice and Level Adjustment to come up with an Effective Level, and as such most are not exactly friendly for low-level games. The Baaz and Kapaks are the most likely to be beginner-friendly as 3rd and 4th level classes, but Bozaks, Sivaks, and Auraks are 7, 10 and 12 levels respectively.When it comes to how balanced said monster classes are, it’s a bit mixed. Their Dragon Racial Hit Die gives them high skill points, hit points, good saving throws, and all subraces have level-scaling spell resistance and natural armor as defensive measures. Various minor nifty abilities include immunity to all diseases, the ability to glide in the air (save for the wingless auraks), natural weapons, and death throes which can inconvenience nearby enemies with what is usually a blast of damaging energy. They also usually get a smattering of free weapon and/or armor proficiencies reflecting their subrace’s specialties during service in the Dragonarmies, with only the Aurak having just Simple Weapons Proficiency and nothing else.There is one noticeable change from the 2003 Dragonlance Campaign Setting corebook: the wording for being “inspired by evil dragons” removes the ‘evil’ part, meaning that draconians can be inspired with a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and saving throws when within the presence of a true dragon whose alignment is no more than one step removed from their own.Generally speaking, the pay-off of the “monster levels” of a draconian as a worthy option depletes the more powerful the subrace. The Baaz and Kapak get a lot of things for their race in exchange for their dragon hit dice and low level adjustments, but a Bozak is clearly not as good as an equivalent 7th-level gish who is of a “core” race.Bozak and Aurak both have effective sorcerer levels of 4 and 8 respectively, and the aurak gets some sweeter abilities such as the ability to shoot energy rays out of their hands and short-range teleportation. Sivaks are Large size, can outright Fly, have a natural trip attack with their tails, and depending on their gender can either have chameleon-like camouflage and cast disguise self (if female) or convincingly shapeshift into the form of a humanoid they just killed (if male).<img src="https://i.imgur.com/cbTWS8n.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Book 2, Chapter 2: Noble DraconiansDuring the late War of the Lance, a group of brave heroes with the aid of the silver dragon D’argent managed to rescue the metallic dragon eggs being used to create draconians. Deprived of their primary fighting force, Emperor Ariakas instituted a plan to use chromatic dragon eggs. As said dragons would not willingly give up their eggs, he managed to take them by trickery or from those dragons who during the war disobeyed orders or committed crimes against the Empire. The new subraces were said by Ariakas to be “strong and noble” upon seeing the first clutch of lightning draconians, although it soon became clear that they'd be more of a hindrance than an aid. Whereas the original draconians can be of any alignment, the gods viewed this latest plan as a violation of the Balance and thus made the noble draconians innately good-aligned.* The Dragonarmies found this out quite early, and began slaughtering them en masse; the weaker frost draconians were enslaved, but many managed to escape.*In this chapter we get an explanation that true dragons have less free will than mortals in determining their moral outlook, thus explaining why true dragons are “Always [lawful/chaotic] [good/evil]” in their stat blocks.Noble draconians are far fewer in number than the traditional kind, and many people do not even realize that they exist. Most races on Ansalon view them as being monsters like their metallic kin, and the original draconians hate them as well in no small part due to many being killed by said noble draconians for those who served the Dragonarmies, Knights of Takhisis, and Dragon Overlords. As a result, many noble draconians are isolated, depressed individuals constantly on the move, possessed by strong drives to make the world a better place even if most of said world hates them. Additionally, no female chromatic eggs were used in the creation of their race, so unlike the original draconians they have no hope of propagating their numbers.Noble draconians have a lot of biological similarities to original draconians: they have a draconis fundamentum, wings, death throes, disease immunity, etc. However, when they dream of the chromatic dragons said dreams are often violent fantasies of them lording their power over others. The fact that noble draconians find these dreams subconsciously enjoyable is something which scares them all deeply.Flame Draconians are the most physically powerful of the noble draconians and are predictably of red dragon heritage. They are quite passionate, and can become obsessed with fighting evil to the exclusion of other ways of doing good. There aren’t many of them left, and as such are typically solitary travelers. They are also the least “good” of the innately good draconians; although willing to fight evil, systemic discrimination has made them untrusting of most people. They are likely to go out and kill evil people without regards to the future consequences or considering the possibilities of nonviolent resolution.Frost Draconians are the smallest, weakest, and most numerous of the noble draconians, although in the latter case that usually means they can be seen gathered in small bands at most. Like their white dragon ancestors they are not very bright, but are quite sociable. Many of them were forced to slave in the mines of the Dragon Empire, and when confronted with threats their first instinct is often to resist in light of never wanting to go through such suffering again. Unlike most of their brethren they’ve made peaceful contact with some settlements in southern Ansalon.Lightning Draconians were the first of the noble subraces to be created and seek to embody the compliment Emperor Ariakas gave them, albeit in ways he’d hate. They all share the same blue dragon mother, Cacophanax, who still lives in the modern era. It’s for this reason that they feel a greater need than usual to make up for her crimes. They alone among the noble draconians receive divine power from the Gods of Light, manifesting as paladin class features up to 6th level (and can stack with the class), which causes them to act very honorably and knightly. Some have been known to gain the trust of some Knights of Solamnia, and after Paladine’s fall many rededicated themselves to other good-aligned deities.Vapor Draconians are green dragon-descended draconians who prefer to make their homes in the wild reaches of Krynn. Oddly among the noble draconians, a few worship neutral-aligned deities yet still remain good-aligned as a race. Born with innate powers of mysticism* they often have a more spiritual outlook on life and have been known to earn acceptance as seers and herbalists in remote villages. They dedicate their evil-smiting by specializing in fighting the leftover spawn of Chaos. Some even made an unlikely alliance with <a href="http://lexicon.dragonlancenexus.com/index.php/B%C3%BCndesphar" target="_blank">Dark Knight elite scouts who hunting said spawn as well.</a>*Mystics are to clerics what sorcerers are to wizards, innately divine spellcasters.Venom Draconians are like kapaks in that they’re the clear “sneaky rogue” subrace. They are more self-hating than other noble draconians, viewing their black dragon heritage as a reminder of their corruptive ancestry. They honor the gods of light every once in a while due to a belief that they’re unworthy of their grace. Venom draconians are better able to hide their physical features* which allows them to operate better in larger population centers, and they have a complicated relationship with the Legion of Steel. These draconians have been known to share information with the knightly cells, but they typically aren’t recruited outright.*not in an innate or supernatural way, the text merely claims this.Racial Traits and Classes: As mentioned before, noble draconians share much of the universal base abilities as the original draconians, although there are some differences. One, it’s strongly implied that they’re biologically good-aligned and as such cannot become evil. Secondly, their starting languages are different: they begin play knowing Nerakese and must learn Common as a bonus language. For normal draconians it’s the other way around: Common as base, Nerakese as a bonus language. Although the Speak Language skill costs a mere 2 skill points (not a class skill for any of them), this can be a heavy cost for the dumber ones such as flame and frost draconians who have -2 Intelligence.Flame Draconians are an 11-level class. They’re Large and in charge, have an innate fire breath weapon, and can cast Fireball as a spell-like ability as part of their more notable class features. Frost Draconians are a 3-level subclass whose only truly unique feature is Cold Resistance which tops out at 10. Lightning Draconians are the other 11th-level Large martially-inclined class, have a natural trip attack, and the abilities of 6th-level paladins. Vapor Draconians are a 7th-level class who has a single divine domain and the spellcasting capabilities of a 4th-level Mystic as their unique class features. Finally, the Venom Draconian is a 4th-level class who has the ability to produce a natural Dexterity-damaging poison like kapak draconians and a 1d6 Sneak Attack as their unique abilities.Said noble draconians’ death throes are rather predictable and involve exploding into gouts of flame, acidic vapor, or similar energy. But Lightning Draconians are special in that their death throes are arcing electricity and identical to the Chain Lightning spell.Much like the normal draconians, the pay-off for noble draconian PCs diminishes the higher their “monster class” is in levels.For these two chapters (and indeed all of Book 2) we have only 2 scholarly sidebars. The first is a Red Robe Wizard compiling interviews of one of Kang’s more innovative battles where they used a fake flying dragon laden with explosives and magical illusions to trick and kill a goblin army. This is in fact a scene from the Kang’s Regiment series. The second is written by Ed Greenwood and has nothing to do with the book: in fact, it’s a short tale which takes place in the modern real world, and details the narrator reflecting back on how his aunt disagreed with her evangelical Christian pastor’s view of the afterlife and explaining her view of things to him.That last one really sticks out when you’re in the middle of reading game mechanics for Noble Draconian PCs.Thoughts So Far: It’s safe to say that I like what Dragonlance did with draconians. Although initially the setting’s stand-in for orcs, the writers more or less deconstructed the “innately evil” aspect and has a more realistic examination of how their cultures evolved once the Evil Empire falls apart. The examination of the difficulties in casting off old habits and the rocky transition to civilian life are nice touches as well. Some still cling to the past, others realize that they were exploited by Takhisis, and some seek to carve out a homeland for their own with Teyr. While their influences were definitely Nerakan in origin, they took existing traditions such as burial rites and surnames and made them their own.The noble draconians rub me the wrong way. Their innate goodness to “preserve the Balance” is strange when the original draconians’ alignment tendencies are explicitly spelled out as cultural rather than biological. We don’t have as many differences among the subraces, either: almost every noble draconian without exception is ashamed of their heritage, loners too few in number to create a larger society of their own, and are faithful to the good-aligned gods. Most of their racial classes feel uninspired and unoriginal, either aping the original draconians such as Venom, or the bulk of their features coming from existing classes like with Lightning and Vapor.Join us next time as we cover the rest of Book 2, where we discuss the twisted origins of the Dragonspawn as well as the new draconian nation of Teyr!</blockquote>

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