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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9698028" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JtXiJFu.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 460px" />Edition Note: This book was designed for the 2014 5e and pre-Remaster Pathfinder 2e rulesets.<a href="https://battlezoo.com/products/battlezoo-ancestries-dragons-hardcover" target="_blank">Roll For Combat Storefront (PDF & Hardcover, both systems)</a><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/400480/battlezoo-ancestries-dragons-for-5th-edition" target="_blank">Drive-Thru RPG Storefront (D&D 5th Edition)</a><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/481446/battlezoo-ancestries-dragons-for-pathfinder" target="_blank">Drive-Thru RPG Storefront (Pathfinder 2nd Edition)</a>As has been evidenced in this very thread, the idea of turning traditionally antagonistic creatures into protagonists is a popular sentiment among publishers. It was only a matter of time before people sought to make PC-friendly versions of the only monster whose very name premieres in the title of Dungeons & Dragons. In broader media, dragons played roles of companions to heroes, if not being the heroes themselves, such as the Eragon book series, while among the furry fandom dragons are one of the most common fursonas. On the D&D/Pathfinder front, metallic dragons’ well-known reputation for moral goodness makes them easier to slot into protagonist roles than most other monsters who are traditionally evil-aligned.And yet, dragons have been quite hard to balance as playable characters in D&D and its inspired systems for a multitude of reasons. The first is that they get multiple features which are highly potent: flight, large size and strength, natural defenses, an AoE breath attack, and spellcasting are consistent elements in both D&D and Pathfinder, and even having just one of these would be a powerful choice for a base race/species trait. Additionally, dragons increase in power with age, and a lot of attempts at playable dragons* often restricted them to beginning or remaining as children, sometimes being as effectively young as toddlers. Furthermore, the mental image many players have of a dragon was often deemed too powerful to replicate by existing rulesets, such as Savage Species’ Level Adjustment making it so that even wyrmling dragons were effectively mid-level PCs. This often meant that even at high levels, playable dragons were almost never adults, or if they advanced in level often created weird cases like a child dragon effectively becoming an “adult” over the course of a campaign that only lasted months or years.*or PCs with dragon mounts and companions.One of the first books published by Roll For Combat was Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons. Unlike the later books in the Ancestries line, which focused on multiple playable monsters, Dragons was all about the most iconic monster of the world’s oldest roleplaying game. Instead of trying to cram all of the most iconic traits into a single race or limited set of options, this product has a more holistic “build your own dragon” by splitting up features between race, class/subclass/archetypes, and feats/gifts to allow one to fine-tune one’s dragon character. Beyond just the most stereotypical big, bruising marauder, the options within seek to emulate the many roles and powers evidenced by the many different draconic families seen in D&D and Pathfinder.In the Pathfinder fandom, Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons is one of the more well-regarded and discussed third party sourcebook. Part of it is that Mark Seifter is one of its writers, a man who co-designed Pathfinder 2nd Edition. Another part is that it takes aim at many of the above design concerns of playable dragons and finds ways to rectify them that many people have said turned out to be surprisingly balanced. With both a D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e version existing, I will be reviewing both.An important element of Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons is the Lux Aeterna, a powerful yet controversial ritual among dragonkind that allows one to bypass the typically-slow method of attaining power via age. Dragons who undertake the ritual are known as aeternal dragons, with typical members of their species known as “traditionalist” by comparison. The magical foundations of an aeternal dragon’s body undergo major, permanent transformations that allow them to “jumpstart” traditional methods of growth, such as growing to the size of an elder wyrm in a matter of years rather than millennia, or unlocking spells and supernatural powers not typically possessed by their traditionalist brethren. Undergoing intense training and stress further accelerates the magical pathways of an aeternal dragon, so this leads many of them to take a more active role in the world. Like going on adventures!The Lux Aeterna ritual makes use of a variety of magical disciplines, ranging from ley lines and spiritualism to transmutation. Its tradeoff is that the end result reduces the existing dragon’s power, where a once-mighty adult becomes the size of a wyrmling and effectively “forgets” much of the powers and abilities attained over their lifespan. The opinion of the Lux Aeterna’s usefulness and morality varies greatly among dragonkind, not just between subspecies and cultures but even among dragons of the same types and moral outlooks. Critics might look down on it as a risky gamble undertaken by power-hungry dragons, while those who embrace the aeternal mindset might justify it as a practical plan of short-term loss for longer-term power. In terms of physical and observant traits, aeternal dragons typically look similar to their traditionalist kin, with a few commonalities. As their physical size is reduced, many aeternal dragons can more effectively play at being relatively weak or inexperienced to fool less knowledgeable folk, and people who can sense magic and been around dragons long enough often notice that the magic flowing through an aeternal dragon’s body is different than that of typical dragons. Additionally, aeternal dragons are much more likely to make use of weapons and armor, and the use of such tools is often a dead giveaway of a dragon’s aeternal nature. Finally, the Lux Aeterna’s effects grants a greater degree of autonomy among dragons who are ordinarily locked into specific alignments, and they can find themselves adopting new and very different mortal outlooks over time.Basically, the Lux Aeterna ritual takes a Monster Manual dragon and changes them into a “starting-level/newborn dragon” in power, but allows them to gain the iconic features of older dragons by gaining experience levels. In terms of game mechanics, the D&D and Pathfinder books take slightly different approaches. A dragon is a race in both systems, with 45 unique subspecies known as Draconic Ancestries (or Draconic Heritages in Pathfinder). The subspecies are drawn from existing D&D/Pathfinder varieties, along with ones original to the Battlezoo line. But in D&D, a Dragon is also a class with two subclasses, representative of common draconic roles known as the Draconic Ravage and Dragon Mage. These subclasses exist in Pathfinder as two new archetype dedications.In 5th Edition, the dragon’s base racial features are +1 to a single ability score of choice, are either Small or Medium Size, a 30 foot movement speed, 60 feet darkvision, are the Dragon type rather than Humanoid, have a bite (1d6) and claw (1d4) attack as natural weapons, speak Draconic and Common, gain one Draconic Gift for free (whose rules are detailed later in the Dragon class), and their Draconic Ancestry/Heritage determines further additional traits such as damage resistances and breath weapons. In Pathfinder, they are Rare rarity as a species option, grant 8 Hit Points, have a 25 foot speed, are Small or Medium, grant one free ability score boost of choice plus either Strength or an alternative option dependent on their Ancestry, have the darkvision sense, and more or less have the same traits as D&D when it comes to natural weapons, languages, and being dragon type instead of humanoid.Thoughts: I like how the Lux Aeterna provides an in-universe reason for why PC dragons don’t function similarly to dragon as monsters. I also like how the ritual has a viable reason for why dragons would accept its otherwise depowering nature in bypassing the slow-yet-assured method of power by aging. While the base traits of a dragon race might initially appear ho-hum, the following subspecies, class/archetypes, and feats/Gifts help flesh out the draconic PC with more substantial and thematic options. I think the base race thus serves its purpose in covering the bare-bones yet broad traits people associated with dragons as a whole.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/xUqvkqj.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />With 45 options, there’s just too many Draconic Ancestries/Heritages to cover here. They more or less function as a subrace, signifying what family of dragons the character belongs to. They include the classic chromatic and metallic dragon families, plus ones associated with planes of existence and conceptual phenomena such as the space-dwelling Lunar Dragons and the morally righteous Paradise Dragons. In 5th Edition, an Ancestry grants +2 to the player’s choice of either Strength or another (typically mental) ability score, while in Pathfinder the secondary score serves as the non-free ancestry ability boost option. In Pathfinder, the Heritage also determines what school their innate spells belong to; for instance, a Blue Dragon’s innate spells are arcane, while an Infernal Dragon’s are divine.Ancestries/Heritages grant 2-3 other benefits, which range the gamut of function, from bonus skill training/proficiencies, resistance to a certain energy type, advantage on rolls/recovering faster from certain negative effects and conditions, a bonus language proficiency, and more specific powers such as a tail which can naturally produce an ink-like substance for writing simple text and glyphs (Edict Dragon), a swim speed and amphibiousness (various aquatic families of dragons), being trained/proficient in cooking and alchemy-related stuff depending on the ruleset (Toadstool Dragon), and the innate ability to cast the Light cantrip (Solar Dragons). I noticed that some subspecies abilities exist for a particular dragon type in one ruleset, but not another, or are granted for free in D&D but have to be taken as a feat in Pathfinder. For instance, the Solar Dragon in D&D always knows how long it will take for the sun to rise or set, but doesn’t have this ability in Pathfinder. Or Dream Sight, which Dream and Nightmare Dragons get for free in D&D but is a 1st-level feat in Pathfinder, where they can see a creatures’ dreams as a hazy image above their heads, and thus can grant the observing dragon bonuses/advantage on social skill checks for 24 hours.In a few cases, abilities which are feats in Pathfinder but don’t exist in D&D are made into subspecies abilities in the latter RPG, such as the Harlequin Dragon gaining the Impressive Performance feat in Pathfinder, which in D&D becomes a racial ability allowing them to substitute a Charisma (Performance) check in place of Charisma (Persuasion) to improve someone’s attitude. Additionally, the Pathfinder subspecies grant additional unarmed weapon attacks for free beyond the jaws and claw such as horn or wing, but not so in D&D. Such attacks can still be gained, but via the Evolution option for Improved Natural Weapons of the Dragon class.A dragon’s Ancestry/Heritage also determines the damage type of their breath weapon once they get it, along with that damage type applying to similar offensive and defensive traits for relevant feats, class features, and the like. For example, a Blue Dragon has Lightning as an associated damage type, and their breath weapon takes the form of a line.Thoughts: I am impressed that this book manages to cover so many different dragon subspecies; even moreso given that the later chapters provide nearly 50 pages’ worth of fluff text about their cultures and typical approaches to the Lux Aeterna ritual. Of course, such variety means that a lot of subspecies traits can range the gamut in overall utility. For example, the Toadstool dragon is proficient with two tool types in D&D and has the Seasoned feat in Pathfinder, both of which are quite dependent on the campaign incorporating crafting rules as a regular feature. Compare this to a Crystal Dragon, who gains tremorsense in both systems which is more broadly useful for campaigns heavy with dungeon-crawling. Or an Indigo While some otherwise unimpressive initial abilities might be balanced out by later feats/Gifts, as those aren’t freebies I feel that many players will be looking at what they can get now vs what they must pay for in character building.But some of the more situational abilities can be useful with the right builds and campaigns. For example, Cloud and Sky Dragons can see normally in fog and mist, which can supplement real well with Fog Cloud/Obscuring Mist in order to blind enemies. The Crypt Dragon’s ability to more easily hurt incorporeal creatures with their natural weapons in both systems and add double their proficiency bonus to Religion checks when it comes to knowing about undead creatures will be great for horror-focused campaigns, which are the most popular kinds of adventure paths in both D&D and Pathfinder.But even so, there are some draconic families who just don’t have very impressive abilities. The Time Dragon merely gains training in lore regarding the Dimension of Time in Pathfinder, while in D&D they gain proficiency in History and know exactly how much time has passed since any event they personally experienced. In both systems they cannot die of old age. The White Dragon, besides gaining resistance to cold damage, gets no other unique things for free, save in D&D where their vision is unobscured by snow. A Havoc Dragon in both systems gains proficiency/training in Performance in both systems, gains proficiency with one musical instrument and advantage on saves vs the deafened condition in D&D, and in Pathfinder gains Virtuosic Performer as a bonus feat. While their breath weapon damage type is the rarely-resisted sonic/thunder, the Tumult Dragon can also gain this damage type (among acid, cold, electricity/lightning, fire, or sonic/thunder) and has more attractive features: one bonus skill/tool of choice in D&D, resistance to their chosen damage type, and can retrain their damage type every long rest/one month of downtime depending on system.Thoughts So Far: While it’s a bit hard to judge the initial chapters in isolation, I feel that they help build a good foundation for the meatier mechanical aspects of a dragon PC. My major complaint is that there’s a bit of mechanical inconsistency in what abilities the dragon subspecies get in certain editions. In some cases this can make sense, like an ability that would be too powerful to grant for free in Pathfinder being allowed as a feat instead, but otherwise this can appear unintuitive. The Sovereign Dragon is a good example of this: in D&D they get bonus proficiency in Deception, History, or Persuasion to reflect their knack for politics, but they don’t get any equivalent skill training in Pathfinder. As there are Pathfinder subspecies that can grant free skill training, this feels odd to me.Join us next time as we cover the D&D Dragon Class for D&D, the Draconic Ravager and Dragon Mage archetypes/subclasses, and the Draconic Diehard archetype and Draconic Scion Versatile Heritage for Pathfinder!</blockquote>

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