Crothian
First Post
Dragpnborn is the first book for 4e all about a single race. It is a nice full color thirty two page softbound book. It was nice that Wizards started the series with one of the lesser known races instead of giving gamers yet another book on elves. The book seems small but since it covers just one race once I completely reading it it felt about the right size. Arguably some of the information is not going to be useful even for people playing Dragonborn campaigns so including more information while entertaining to read would have just made it seem like there is less useful material. Wizards did send me this copy for review purposes.
Most of the book has information on their stories, history, and just who the Dragonborn are now. There is some mechanical information but it is not the focus of the book. I think most if not all of it is reprinted from other sources but I’m not taking the time to check that. The material in the book builds on what is presented in the PHB and in the Ecology of the Dragonborn article in Dragon 365.
The book starts with explaining that the Dragonborn are more likely to be aligned evil or good then other races due to siding with Bahamut or Tiamat. The only wrong answer according to them is not choosing at all. This offers some really good insight into Dragonborn NPCs as it is unlikely they will be just unaligned averages. The book also talks about Arkhosia, the last dragonborn empire. This is good information to show where the Dragonborn comes from and what they were like somewhat as a powerful nation. The information is not that complete but doesn’t need to be. It is an ancient long dead place that won’t matter to much in the present time. The information on Dragonborn families and clans I found to be much more useful. It offers good ways to have backgrounds for clans matter and some sample ones are provided.
The book then starts to get more mechanical with information on Dragonborns for the different power sources: Divine, Arcane, Martial, and Primal. Each has backgrounds associated with them as well as a paragon class. There are also many feats, items, possible quests, and lastly one epic destiny for Dragonborn. There is more pages devoted to mechanical bits then I first recalled as the strength of the book does not come from them.
Dragonborn is a good book for people that want to play Dragonborn. It has a good collection of mechanical options but obviously as more books come out with little bits here and there for Dragonborn this book becomes a little less useful for that. The background and social information though will always be up to date. The little sidebars like “Speaking like a Dragonborn” and “Dragonborn Names” will be very useful to people that get into their characters a little more than others.
Most of the book has information on their stories, history, and just who the Dragonborn are now. There is some mechanical information but it is not the focus of the book. I think most if not all of it is reprinted from other sources but I’m not taking the time to check that. The material in the book builds on what is presented in the PHB and in the Ecology of the Dragonborn article in Dragon 365.
The book starts with explaining that the Dragonborn are more likely to be aligned evil or good then other races due to siding with Bahamut or Tiamat. The only wrong answer according to them is not choosing at all. This offers some really good insight into Dragonborn NPCs as it is unlikely they will be just unaligned averages. The book also talks about Arkhosia, the last dragonborn empire. This is good information to show where the Dragonborn comes from and what they were like somewhat as a powerful nation. The information is not that complete but doesn’t need to be. It is an ancient long dead place that won’t matter to much in the present time. The information on Dragonborn families and clans I found to be much more useful. It offers good ways to have backgrounds for clans matter and some sample ones are provided.
The book then starts to get more mechanical with information on Dragonborns for the different power sources: Divine, Arcane, Martial, and Primal. Each has backgrounds associated with them as well as a paragon class. There are also many feats, items, possible quests, and lastly one epic destiny for Dragonborn. There is more pages devoted to mechanical bits then I first recalled as the strength of the book does not come from them.
Dragonborn is a good book for people that want to play Dragonborn. It has a good collection of mechanical options but obviously as more books come out with little bits here and there for Dragonborn this book becomes a little less useful for that. The background and social information though will always be up to date. The little sidebars like “Speaking like a Dragonborn” and “Dragonborn Names” will be very useful to people that get into their characters a little more than others.
