D&D General What if we gave dragonborn four arms?

[CleverNickName]

Were the cultists upset by their new appearance and abilities or did they accept it as a close second to what they wanted?

They hated it, they considered their new forms to be a twisted, weak, and cruel mockery of dragonkind. Too humanlike to fit in among dragons, and too dragonlike to fit in among humans, they were hunted and forced into hiding. Those that managed to escape into unsettled parts of the world would thrive, and eventually form their own cultures over the millennia.

That's one story, anyway. The metallic dragonborn tell a similar origin myth, except it was a blessing from Bahamut instead of a curse from Tiamat, and they are proud to have been made in his image.

But that's my homebrew campaign setting...it's hardly cannon.

 

[aco175]

 

[jayoungr]

Western dragons that dnd dragons derive from are hexapod dragonborn

Where do you get this idea? I'm not aware of any agreed standard number of legs for a western dragon.

 

[Corinnguard]

Wizards needs to figure out to balance physical wings and not this energy-wing nonsense.

Plus, WoTC already had a spell back in 3e that was quite capable of giving them wings (sans a Potion of Red Bull). All they needed to do was update it for 5e/5.5e and make it a spell-like ability for all Dragonborn.

 

[cbwjm]

They hated it, they considered their new forms to be a twisted, weak, and cruel mockery of dragonkind. Too humanlike to fit in among dragons, and too dragonlike to fit in among humans, they were hunted and forced into hiding. Those that managed to escape into unsettled parts of the world would thrive, and eventually form their own cultures over the millennia.

That's one story, anyway. The metallic dragonborn tell a similar origin story, except it was a blessing from Bahamut instead of a curse from Tiamat, and they are proud to have been made in his image.

But that's my homebrew campaign setting...it's hardly cannon.

Nice, I like hearing about homebrew settings and how they mess with standard dnd lore. Thinking about it, I don't even know what the standard dnd lore is on the origin of dragonborn.

Dragonborn in my setting might be a little boring by comparison, they were created from the eggs of dragons (idea stolen from dragonlance) by the dragon elders to swell their armies so that they could stand against the armies of the elementals and titans, who created their own small troops of genasi and giant-kin.

 

[ART!]

I don't have any problem with giving them four arms and actual wings, as long as there are limitations on what they can do with the extra arms and with the wings. Maybe that scales with level, which isn't something that Wizards does, but it's something I like.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

My fellow Player's Character was transformed into a narloth once. But his extra arms just hung by his sides uselessly.

 

[James Gasik]

Yeah you'd need a special trait to attack with extra limbs beyond the first, like Multiattack. So it really comes down to being able to carry/equip more things than normal. That's still problematic with a shield giving +2 AC at times when it shouldn't, like wielding a bow, but you're not going to get 3 extra attacks for wielding 4 weapons or anything.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Then we would call them dragontharks.