Ten Reasons you will love Dragonspawn

[Cam Banks]

The first time a Draconian turned to stone and captured a weapon was kinda cool.
But… it makes no sense (what did those come from? Bronze dragon eggs) and it’s not even a proper theme. They aren’t stone dragons, they have no other stone powers…
And the other powers… exploding?
Turning into acid?
There are onely five of them and their powers only come into play when they die….

I wrote the "Ecology of the Draconian" article in the recent Campaign Classics issue of Dragon magazine to explain all of this, actually. Even tied it into the dragon physiology described in the Draconomicon.

Dragonlance is still going strong!

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Agent Oracle]

1. People loved freaking Draconians (weird monsters with little going for them as foes in DnD) it’s the same thing with better art.

i DESPISED draconians! My first AD&D campaign was SET in dragonlance, and the only things we ever fought was... draconians! Draconians that turned to stone, draconians that turned into copies of the people that killed them, draconians that dissolved into pools of acid, draconians that exploded, draconians that turned into green fireballs and chased us around...

Okay, actually I liked those, because the DM had us backed up to the top of a tower when we killed several of the kind that turns into a persuing green fireball... and I (being young and stupid) pointed it out at the end of the combat. The DM looked at the map, and realized that in our current condition, if those fireballs were to rise up, we'd ALL be dead. First time I ever had a DM change his story to avoid a TPK.

Once... ONCE we fought a Bulete. Only because we were complaining about fighting so gosh-darned many draconians!

 

[Nifft]

The world does not need more one-trick humanoids.
(By "the world", I mean "my world".)

-- N

 

[Mercule]

10. They’re tiered coming in a lot of CRs.

So what? Flip open the MMI. The book is filled with a variety of critters of different CRs. I have no interest in having Spawn featured at every turn in my game. They aren't and cannot be iconic enough to warrant the number of entries they have.

9. Easy to ‘mod’ into other races (tainted lizardmen, ancient monsters from another dimension, etc)

True. WotC has kindly provided alternate Lizardfolk in the same book, though.

8. They’re humanoids, so its easier for people to anthropomorphize them.

A pox on thee! This is on my list of reasons to hate them.

7. They’re featured in an adventure (red hand of doom) that people seem to like.

Oddly, one of my reactions to them was, "This sounds like something that would be good for the appendix of a module, but not a MM book."

[/quote]6. Simple evocative powers and abilities make them manageable for the DM.
5. Simple evocative powers and abilities make them memorable.[/quote]

Simple, I'll give you from the previews. But "evocative", not so much.[/quote]

4. Variety of powers. Unlike most other theme monsters, which are tied to an element (like cold) or a set of abilities (i.e. evil spellcasters) they have all different kinds of abilities for all different kinds of niches.

If you say so. I haven't seen enough to agree or disagree, but I expect you're right.

3. Common origin. They’re a lot of monsters in one package. Someone was complaining that adding lots of new monsters was irritating but only if they don’t have a common origin. These do… lots of random monsters is irritating but a bunch with a common origin is a plot.

Fair enough. I just hate the origin.

2. You like dragons, but they’re supposed to be rare, you can’t make them the enemies all the time. But Dragonspawn… dozens of them can appear in a single cave!

But dragonspawn carry with them none of the coolness of dragons. Where is the inhuman-ness? Where's the breath weapon? Where are the spells? Where are the wings? Where is the breath-taking enormity? Where is the near godly might?

1. People loved freaking Draconians (weird monsters with little going for them as foes in DnD) it’s the same thing with better art.

I don't know who you've been talking to. I've met one person who loved draconians. Even the Dragonlance fanboys I've met (which has been many) didn't seem to care much for draconians. Besides, if I liked draconians, I'd freaking use DRACONIANS.

 

[Pants]

Besides, if I liked draconians, I'd freaking use DRACONIANS.

Wow, chill out, it's just a f**king game.

 

[Mercule]

Wow, chill out, it's just a f**king game.

Sorry, man. Exaggerated emphasis. I'm really not particularly worked up about it. I just thought point #1 was a pretty silly argument.

 

[Graf]

I wrote the "Ecology of the Draconian" article in the recent Campaign Classics issue of Dragon magazine to explain all of this, actually. Even tied it into the dragon physiology described in the Draconomicon.

Dragonlance is still going strong!

Cool!
This wasn’t meant to be a slam on DL or people who like it. I had good times there.

I do think that the “you kill me but with my dying breath I kill you” power set works better with novels that in Rpgs.

You really mean that?

Draconians

Dragonspawn

With the statement that tastes are subjective (and I don't claim otherwise).
Yeah... elmore's a great artist but even he couldn't make them look any better than winged kobolds (or stumpy lizardmen). To my mind the stars of that image is really the background. The Draconians are little brown men in the middle providing contrast.

At least the much maligned BGS is interesting to look at.

So what? Flip open the MMI. The book is filled with a variety of critters of different CRs. I have no interest in having Spawn featured at every turn in my game. They aren't and cannot be iconic enough to warrant the number of entries they have.

I needed a #10, so sue me.
But lots of CRs with one common origin so…
Ok so this is basically #3...

True. WotC has kindly provided alternate Lizardfolk in the same book, though.

I might argue that this is –more- alternatives. Whether 3 is enough or you want 12…..

Simple, I'll give you from the previews. But "evocative", not so much.

Evocative in the sense that it “evokes” an image.
DM “You see several red scaled lizard-folk on a nearby hill”
Player “It’s those damn fireball chuckers. Lets get out of sight now!”

(OK. So its more like they’re color coded but its still easier to remember).

Fair enough. I just hate the origin.

Yeah. I’m considering making them mutated Q’barran Lizardfolk from an Eberron game.
But there are lots of cool Tiamat pictures by WAR so they could have done worse for origins.

Where is the breath-taking enormity? Where is the near godly might?

You can’t have a god show up every game.
Sometimes the PCs have to fight peons (or at least people who play with me have traditionally liked to break up their battles with beings of godly power with a few sessions of peon-thrashing).

I don't know who you've been talking to. I've met one person who loved draconians. Even the Dragonlance fanboys I've met (which has been many) didn't seem to care much for draconians. [/b].

I have no factual evidence to dispute your claim….
I do think that all these dragon-men (from the Draconomicon, Races of the Dragon, Dragonspawn, Dragon centaurs, Some-adjative Drakes) are coming out for a reason….
And I suspect the reason is that WotC market research has identified people wanting a lot of ways to incorporate more draconic stuff in their games. (something about a year of the dragon…)

At one point on Dungeon’s (very short list) of banned topics half-dragons joined staples like “kidnapped children”.
(I’m stretching I freely admit but seems relivant).

 

[Mercule]

You can’t have a god show up every game.
Sometimes the PCs have to fight peons (or at least people who play with me have traditionally liked to break up their battles with beings of godly power with a few sessions of peon-thrashing).

True. I just don't know that creating peon dragons is the way to go about it. What makes dragons cool is the majesty.

Oh, for the record, I'm not trying to nail you to the wall or anything. I do have some serious issues with the Spawn, but I'm more being (argumentatively) playful with the responses than mean-spirited (text doesn't always come off that way).

 

[Hussar]

I gotta admit, I've always wanted to run a dragon hunting campaign. Feature nothing but dragon safaris.

Dragon peons would work nice for this.

A thought occurs. There's been lots of ideas floated around for dragons enslaving this or that bunch of useful workers to dig, make traps, whatever their lairs.

Well, why enslave when you can breed? Giving dragons draconic troops sounds like a cool idea. I have no idea if its well done or not, but the background idea sounds groovy.

Check out the WOTC board for their latest Vicious Venues. Uses a greenspawn sneak. Kinda cool I suppose.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

With the statement that tastes are subjective (and I don't claim otherwise).
Yeah... elmore's a great artist but even he couldn't make them look any better than winged kobolds (or stumpy lizardmen). To my mind the stars of that image is really the background. The Draconians are little brown men in the middle providing contrast.

That is a piece by Keith Parkinson (RIP).