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

[Horwath]

they should have wings.

those wings need to have limitations.


IE:

you need minimum 15ft of wide space to fly/hover.

you can only lift off with 1/3rd of you carry capacity, that is 5×STR score,
up to 10×STR score with half speed, cannot fly over it.

you can fly only prof bonus×minutes per day.

8+ level feat.
Strong wings,
+1 ASI
your flying now has no limit and carry capacity is now normal.
you are still limited with space for your wings.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

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.

That's a good point. Now it sounds pretty cool to have four arms. The upper two can be wielding two-handed ax but the lower two could be wielding a one-handed sword and a shield. That way you can choose each round what your attack will be and whether you have plus two bonus from your shield or not. Sounds cool.

 

[Corinnguard]

Thinking about it, I don't even know what the standard dnd lore is on the origin of dragonborn.

It depends on which edition of D&D you're looking at with regards to their origin.

Back in 3e D&D, they started out as humans, elves, etc., who had heard Bahamut's call and willingly had themselves transformed via a Ritual of Rebirth into his draconic soldiers during the Dragonfall War. They basically were a template race who resembled Platinum Half-Dragons (of various sizes) and gained a set of powers depending on which path they took (Path of the Heart-Breath Weapon, Path of the Mind- Enhanced Senses and Path of the Wing-Winged Flight) after their rebirth.

The Dragonborn became their own race during 4e. In that edition, there were two origin myths involving them and the True Dragons. Both of which involved the dragon god, Io. In the first myth, Io summoned lesser and greater spirits and infused them with the power of the elements. The lesser spirits became the first Dragonborn while the greater spirits became the dragons. In the second myth, which took place during the Dawn War, Io was killed by a Primordial. His physical remains became the dragon gods of Bahamut and Tiamat while his scattered blood became dragons and Dragonborn. The latter would go on to form the empire of Arkhosia and become enemies of the Tiefling empire of Bael Turath. These Dragonborn didn't bear a strong resemblance to the dragons.

5e also had the Dragonborn being their own race. In this edition, the Dragonborn came from Toril's long lost sister planet of Abeir (where they originally were slaves of the dragons). They also bore a stronger anthropomorphic resemblance to the dragons (Chromatic, Metallic and Gem). They were brought to Toril during 4e's Spellplague Event and founded the Dragonborn nation of Tymanther.

Btw, it wasn't until 5.5e that Dragonborn officially began to sport tails. They were tailless from 3e to 5e because WoTC didn't want us players to confuse the Dragonborn with the Half-Dragons (who were also anthropomorphic dragons).

 

[CreamCloud0]

they should have wings.

those wings need to have limitations.


IE:

you need minimum 15ft of wide space to fly/hover.

you can only lift off with 1/3rd of you carry capacity, that is 5×STR score,
up to 10×STR score with half speed, cannot fly over it.

you can fly only prof bonus×minutes per day.

8+ level feat.
Strong wings,
+1 ASI
your flying now has no limit and carry capacity is now normal.
you are still limited with space for your wings.

personally i can't say i love the limited daily flight time, it's one of the things i disliked about the energy wings, if a creature has the capability to fly under it's own steam then i don't think that's something they would only be able to do once a day, something i've written up previously was the the following:

Dragon Wings: you have a large pair of wings, as a reaction while in the air you can use them to slow your decent as well as glide a horizontal distance triple the height that you started at, at 5th level you gain a fly speed equal to your walkspeed, you must maintain concentration to remain airborne between turns else you safely decend to the nearest available location to land, if your concentration is forcibly broken you fall to the ground, your flyspeed is halved if you are wearing heavy armour.

though i think if i were rewriting this i might make a few tweaks, i'd change it from after where it mentions walkspeed: ...you must use a bonus action to trigger your flyspeed, it lasts a number of turns equal to your PB including the turn it was activated, at the end of the final turn if still airborne you safely descend to the nearest available location to land, if you take damage while airborne you must either make a concentration saving throw or give up half your movespeed to avoid falling to the ground, your flyspeed is halved if you are wearing heavy armour, your ability to activate your flyspeed recharges on the turn after the turn you start while on the ground.

and fifth level is when casters get access to Fly anyway so it wouldn't be giving them any capabilities that other characters couldn't also have at that point.

 

[Tonguez]

Four arms mean to can use a shield, a single-hand weapon and a two-handed weapon. It may break the power balance in the lowest levels.

But I would rather nagas with arms.

not really, or at least not in the same round.
Just need to clarify that a four armed creature can grip up to four weapons but the upper and lower arms cant wield weapons at the same time. (You get the cool image of the Naga with four swords but not extra wields)

You need two hands to wield a great sword - you can't also wield the shield
Dual weapon fighting still only gives you one attack and one bonus attack with light weapons

I also don't see too much problem with flight, especially with wings, which are restricted by low ceilings and narrow corridors, dense trees etc, though I would restrict them to gliding wings for early levels (tier 1). Maybe an exhaustion penalty if they fly too long or too often.

 

[Corinnguard]

Level Up had it where some of the Dragonborn heritage could pick up the Draconic Wings gift at 1st level.

Draconic Wings​

Some dragonborn are born with draconian wings. They tend to have slender frames and smooth scale patterns, along with a long rudder-like tail to help them fly with their stocky wings. They’re far too heavy and lack the strength to really soar like true dragons, but their wings still allow them to lift off and fly a considerable distance before tiring.

Flight. You have a fly speed of 30 feet. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor. Whenever you spend 3 full consecutive rounds airborne without landing, you gain a level of fatigue. Any fatigue gained in this way is removed upon finishing a short or long rest.

At 10th-level, a Dragonborn with the Draconic Wings gift gained Mighty Draconic Wings.

Mighty Draconic Wings​

Your fly speed increases to 40 feet and you can fly while wearing medium or heavy armor. When you would suffer fatigue from using your fly speed, you make a Constitution saving throw (DC 10 + 1 per previous save in the last minute). On a success, you do not suffer fatigue from flying that round.

 

[Corinnguard]

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.

Here's the spell I was referring to:

Flight of the Dragon (3e Spell Compendium, pages 95-96)

Level: Sorcerer/wizard 4
Components: V, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 10 minutes/level

The wing-claw vaporizes in a puff of acrid smoke, and you feel the muscles of your shoulders warm from the eldritch energies coursing within. Great draconian wings unfurl from your shoulders and reach toward the sky.

A powerful pair of wings sprout from your shoulders, granting a fly speed of 100 feet (average). You can't carry aloft more than a light load.

When flying long distances, you can fly at 15 miles per hour (or 24 miles per hour at a hustle).

Material Component: A dragon's wing claw
Special: Sorcerers cast this spell at +1 caster level.

For 5e, this spell ought to be renamed Dragonflight. It would still have a casting time of 1 Action and a Range of Self, but I think I would pull back its' duration to 1 minute and the fly speed down to 30 feet. Encumbrance would still play a factor on how much the character can carry while aloft. I am not sure what spellcasting level these changes would drop the spell to. But I still would like it to be something that can be cast by a Dragonborn (w/o the material component) when they reach 5th level.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Here's the spell I was referring to:

Flight of the Dragon (3e Spell Compendium, pages 95-96)

Level: Sorcerer/wizard 4
Components: V, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 10 minutes/level

The wing-claw vaporizes in a puff of acrid smoke, and you feel the muscles of your shoulders warm from the eldritch energies coursing within. Great draconian wings unfurl from your shoulders and reach toward the sky.

A powerful pair of wings sprout from your shoulders, granting a fly speed of 100 feet (average). You can't carry aloft more than a light load.

When flying long distances, you can fly at 15 miles per hour (or 24 miles per hour at a hustle).

Material Component: A dragon's wing claw
Special: Sorcerers cast this spell at +1 caster level.

For 5e, this spell ought to be renamed Dragonflight. It would still have a casting time of 1 Action and a Range of Self, but I think I would pull back its' duration to 1 minute and the fly speed down to 30 feet. Encumbrance would still play a factor on how much the character can carry while aloft. I am not sure what spellcasting level these changes would drop the spell to. But I still would like it to be something that can be cast by a Dragonborn (w/o the material component) when they reach 5th level.

So...it's worse in every possible way than the existing spell fly? Assuming you're dropping the spell level to 3rd, I mean, because otherwise then it would be a worse spell in every possible way and a level higher to boot.

Because the existing 5.5e fly spell has a duration of "concentration, up to 10 minutes", grants twice the fly speed (60' rather than 30'), encumbrance has no particular effect on it, it's a range of Touch rather than Self so it can be cast on other people, and it can be upcast to affect additional targets.

A spell with 1/10th the duration, half the effect, extra limitations, and self-only seems like a pretty damned harsh limitation. (Though, ultimately, what this shows is both that spells are too potent and the wrong place to center an effect like this....but that's just another arrow in the "Don't Make Every Feature A Spell" quiver.)