D&D 5E (2024) WotC Should Make 5.5E Specific Setting

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I don’t think there is any lore that states that all Dragonborn have breath weapons. Not all humans have an extra feat.
Kobold Press's Dragonborn equivalent, the Dragonkin, don't have breath weapons. Instead, each Dragonkin subspecies has a resistance to a particular damage type (Flame-Fire, Stone-Acid, Wind-Lightning, Wave-Cold, Soldier- Poison) and knows a cantrip.

That said, a Dragonborn's breath weapon is a signature trait for them.

Only the variant human in the 5e PHB has the bonus feat at 1st level, the regular baseline one doesn't have one. And I doubt that anyone plays the non-variant these days.
 


D&D has not fully escape humanocentrism.

It's not Gygaxian humanocentrism though. Humans don't dominate because of Human potential dominated the demihumans in decline.

It's straight up laziness or ignorance.

Running a dragonborn, elf, dwarf, or orc is easier. Not better. Just lower mental load.

Which is fine. Unless forced. Which is my issue.
Because not only is the setting not given, the variant rules to convert monsters aren't.

I had to go back and create a Damage/HP per CR chart.
A setting needs to have some sort of centerism, human or otherwise. There will always be a dominant species. If there are others, they exist in small numbers, and define themselves relative to the dominant species.
 

Kobold Press's Dragonborn equivalent, the Dragonkin, don't have breath weapons. Instead, each Dragonkin subspecies has a resistance to a particular damage type (Flame-Fire, Stone-Acid, Wind-Lightning, Wave-Cold, Soldier- Poison) and knows a cantrip.

That said, a Dragonborn's breath weapon is a signature trait for them.

Only the variant human in the 5e PHB has the bonus feat at 1st level, the regular baseline one doesn't have one. And I doubt that anyone plays the non-variant these days.
The "very small numbers" approach works better than removing breath weapons. But damage resistance makes for a good plot point. There are several Dragonborn in RotFM because they have cold resistance, and the climate suits them. If a character has fire resistance, they are likely to be drawn to hot climates, or work in a forge.
 

But damage resistance makes for a good plot point. There are several Dragonborn in RotFM because they have cold resistance, and the climate suits them. If a character has fire resistance, they are likely to be drawn to hot climates, or work in a forge.
A Dragonborn with a particular damage type resistance is also more likely to work in certain backgrounds. Those who are resistant to fire will work at the forges while those with acid resistance will be in professions that deal with acidic and alkaline substances such as a chemist. And so forth.
 



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