D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Draconic Options

The latest Unearthed Arcana from WotC is called Draconic Options. It includes three variant Dragonborn races and a new kobold race, as well as a handful of new spells and feats. Dragonlance fans might do a double-take when they see Fizban's platinum shield (two Forgotten Realms dragons are referenced in the spells, too -- Icingdeath and Raulothim -- as is the FR god of fey dragons, Nathair).

Harness the power of dragons in this installment of Unearthed Arcana! This playtest document presents race, feat, and spell options related to dragons in Dungeons & Dragons.

First is a trio of draconic race options presented as an alternative to the dragonborn race in the Player’s Handbook, as well as a fresh look at the kobold race. Then comes a handful of feat options that reflect a connection to draconic power. Finally, an assortment of spells—many of them bearing the names of famous or infamous dragons—offer a variety of approaches to manifesting dragon magic.

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[CM]

Salvatore I'm certain comes up with the cringiest names thinking "surely the editors are going to reject THIS one..."

Edit: supposed to be a quote of Rem from page 1 but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to do it and don't have time to learn at the moment.

 

[Aaron L]

I really like the spells. Raulothim's Psychic Lance is especially cool.

 

[Aaron L]

Salvatore I'm certain comes up with the cringiest names thinking "surely the editors are going to reject THIS one..."

Edit: supposed to be a quote of Rem from page 1 but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to do it and don't have time to learn at the moment.

Just hit the "Reply" button underneath the post you want to quote.

 

[Weiley31]

brb, making a bladesinger who wields Paper Cutter.

And it's a buddy cop style movie where they partnered up with a Scribe Wizard.

 

[Weiley31]

View attachment 135595
That's 2e. They have little whiskers, described as smelling like dogs and having rat-like tails. So while yes, they're reptilian and laid eggs, even then, it's not hard to see how they could be mistaken as mammalian.

I know I always did.

Lets not forget the biggest culprit is how the Platypus and Echidna blur that line too.


Hmm, now I have Platypus and Echidna Kobolds in my mind now.

 

[Weiley31]

This thread is beginning to remind me of the "if dragonborn are reptiles, why do they have mammary glands?" discussion.

Are kobolds mammalian or reptile?
Well, they have nipples, and you can milk anything with nipples
I have nipples Greg, can you milk me?

View attachment 135603

Jynxie the Tabaxi.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Hmm, now I have Platypus and Echidna Kobolds in my mind now.

I mean, there's a definite lack of duck-like or porcupine-like races in D&D, so a kind of platypus or echidna kobold would be awesome.

Scaly skin ala pangolins with furry face, claws to dig those damned tunnels, ant-eater snout and spiky backs. I'm onboard with that.

 

[Weiley31]

I mean, there's a definite lack of duck-like or porcupine-like races in D&D, so a kind of platypus or echidna kobold would be awesome.

Scaly skin ala pangolins with furry face, claws to dig those damned tunnels, ant-eater snout and spiky backs. I'm onboard with that.

True. And Platypus do have like claws. Which apparently can secret its own poison.

But Bahamut Damn do they look so gosh darn cute.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

True. And Platypus do have like claws. Which apparently can secret its own poison.

But Bahamut Damn do they look so gosh darn cute.

sigh....now I must add those 2 to the list of my dragons:
Echidna dragons and Platypus dragons...to go with my now-classic Peacock and Flamingo Dragons and Dragon-moles.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

It's good to see them doing something about Dragonborn, but uh...yeah I think this pretty clearly shows that the default Dragonborn is weaker than it should be. All the breath weapons are now d8 instead of d6, and every single one of them gets at least one new feature on top of what the Dragonborn already had (breath weapon and resistance). Personally, I'd prefer to see the Chromatic and Metallic ones get some kind of minor benefit to skills as well, since the Gem Dragon telepathy is really quite nice and specifically useful for social situations. I'd say either training in one skill--Intimidate, or maybe Deception, for Chromatic and Diplomacy for Metallic--or some other thing that kind of straddles the line between "ribbon" and "rock," to use the colloquial terms. Maybe Chromatics have treasure-sense (useful for finding secret treasure, but otherwise niche, just like outgoing-only telepathy) and Metallics have some kind of truthspeaker thing (useful for diplomacy, but still pretty ribbony).

I mean, there's a definite lack of duck-like or porcupine-like races in D&D, so a kind of platypus or echidna kobold would be awesome.

Scaly skin ala pangolins with furry face, claws to dig those damned tunnels, ant-eater snout and spiky backs. I'm onboard with that.

Pangolins as fey kobods? I'm on board. They can be best friends with the fey corgi.