I'm trying to homebrew two races for a campaign I'm currently writing


Homebrew and House Rules


Dragonborn

Born to fight, Dragonborn are a race of wandering mercenaries, soldiers, and adventurers. Long ago, their empire contended for worldwide dominion, but now only a few rootless clans of these honorable warriors remain to pass on their legends of ancient glory.

PERSONALITY

To a Dragonborn, honor is more important than life itself. First and foremost, honor is tied to battlefield conduct. Adversaries should be treated with courtesy and respect, even if they are bitter enemies. Caution and discretion are key to a warrior’s survival, but fear is a disease and cowardice is a moral failing. The drive to behave honorably extends into the rest of a Dragonborn’s life: Breaking an oath is the height of dishonor, and attention to honesty extends to every word. A commitment made must be carried out. Ultimately, a Dragonborn takes responsibility for his or her actions and their consequences. Very few Dragonborn who feel they've forever lost there honor and can never regain it go mad with remorse and become almost feral they lose acceptance from other Dragonborn and are forced out of there clans to become nomads or to join warlike tribes of barbarians

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Dragonborn resemble humanoid dragons. They’re covered in scaly hide, but they don’t have tails. They are tall and strongly built, often standing close to 6 1/2 feet in height and weighing 300 pounds or more -- females being of basically the same height and weight as males. Their hands and feet are strong, talonlike claws with four fingers and a thumb on each hand. A Dragonborn’s head can feature a blunt snout, a strong brow, and distinctive frills at the cheek and ear. Behind the brow, a crest of hornlike scales of various lengths resembles thick, ropy hair. Their eyes are shades of red or gold.A typical Dragonborn’s scales can be scarlet, gold, rust, ocher, bronze, or brown. Rarely do an individual’s scales match the hue of a chromatic or metallic dragon, and scale color gives no indication of the type of breath weapon a Dragonborn uses. Some Dragonborn whose scales do match the coloration's of a metallic dragon are sometimes mistaken for Draconians in societies where evil is more prominent. Most Dragonborn have very fine scales over most of their body, giving their skin a leathery texture, with regions of larger scales on the forearms, lower legs and feet, shoulders,and thighs.

Young Dragonborn grow at the same rate elven children do. They walk hours after hatching. They live about as long as elves do.

RELATIONS

Dragonborn don't favor races based on history, despite their deep immersion in conquests and stories of the past. Commonly, their relation-based decisions are dependent on the attitude of the person that they associate with. An honorable person would make good friends with a Dragonborn, while a dishonest person would most likely become an enemy. Dragonborn also have respect for those who adventure, be it as a spellcaster or swordsman.

ALIGNMENT

Tradition, the strongest of glues, holds Dragonborn societies together. Each group of Dragonborn may have its own traditions, as well as outlooks on life, but nearly all follow the ideologies of lawful society. Evil and good don't matter much to Dragonborn, however, and Lawful Good clans have been documented associating with Lawful Evil ones.

LANDS

Dragonborn lands are found everywhere, but not anywhere. Dragonborn can make a home out of ruins, plains, or mountains, but they tend to form clans and stick to them. Expansion does happen, but it's usually because a Dragonborn town is overpopulated or the clan needs to make a show of their control over their lands.

RELIGION

Dragonborn commonly revere the Dragon gods, Bahamut and Tiamat. Others may worship Boccob, the god of magic, and travelers could also pay tribute to Fharlangan, the god of roads. Sometimes Dragonborn don't even follow a religion, though they commonly cooperate with the traditions of their clan.

Male Names: Arjhan, Balasar, Bharash, Donaar, Ghesh, Heskan, Kriv, Medrash, Nadarr, Patrin, Rhogar, Shamash, Shedinn, Torinn

Female Names: Akra, Biri, Daar, Harann, Kava, Korinn, Mishann, Nala, Perra, Raiann, Sora, Surina, Thava

RACIAL TRAITS:

-2 Dexterity, +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, Built for combat, these warriors are hardy combatants, but not as agile as other races. However, Dragonborn are also respectful and relatively easy to get along with when they're not debating about their history.

Humanoid (Reptilian)

Medium-size: As medium-size creatures, Dragonborn have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Base land speed is 30 feet.

Low-Light Vision: A Dragonborn can see twice as far as a human in poor illumination. He or she retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

Dark vision: 60ft

Fierce Historian: +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Knowledge (History) checks: Dragonborn are skilled at making themselves fearsome, and are also deeply rooted in the glorious stories of days long past.

Dragon Breath (Su): choose 1 energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic) and 1 type of breath weapon (15 ft. cone or 30 ft. Line ) as your breath weapon. These selections cannot be changed after they have been chosen. Once every half hour, as a standard action, a Dragonborn can use their breath weapon to deal 1d6 damage to
all within the area of the breath (Reflex save for half: DC 10+1/2HD+Con). At 3th level the damage increases to 2d6, and increases by 1d6 every three levels thereafter.

ALTERNATE RACIAL TRAITS:

Dragon Wings (EX): some Dragonborn are born with wings similar to larger dragons, The Dragonborn gains a fly speed of 30 (poor maneuverability). at level 10 this becomes a fly speed of 60
(average maneuverability). this replaces Dragon Breath.

Large-size: some Dragonborn focus all there time on brute strength,the dragon born becomes a large creature at the cost of 1/3 all move speeds, a -5 on swim, climb, and fly checks, and a -2 on its intelligence score. this does not scale racial traits this replaces medium-size (and possibly Dragons Breath)

dishonored: Very few Dragonborn who feel they've forever lost there honor and can never regain it go mad with remorse and become almost feral. the Dragonborn gains three natural weapons two claw attacks that scale like a monks unarmed strike(this does not stack with the monks unarmed strike, an item that increases a monks unarmed strike does not affect this attack), and a bite attack that deals 1d10 at level 1, 2d6 at level 5, 2d8 at level 10, 2d10 at level 15, and 2d12 at level 20. this replaces Dragons Breath, Fierce Historian, and he suffers a -4 to his charisma (and he possibly loses proficiency with most weapons not sure what he'd keep)

Languages: Common and Draconic. Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Auran, Celestial, Goblin, Ignan, Orc.

Favored Class: Sorcerer or Paladin. Alternately a dishonored dragonborn gains warlike classes as favored classes (eg. barbarian,cleric of war,

Table: Dragonborn Random Height and Weight
Gender Base Height Height Modifier Base Weight Weight Modifier
Male 6' 0" +3d4 150 lb. × (4d4) lb.
Female 5' 9" +3d4 140 lb. × (4d4) lb.

This was altered from anther homebrew to remove a level adjustment, and better balance it


What is the other race?


From a mechanical balance perspective, compared to the core races, this is very strong. For a martial character, this is pretty much -the- strongest race to be. Compare to half-orc; they gain:
-2 dex, +2 con
low-light vision
Either large size, 3 incredibly powerful natural attacks at some charisma penalty, flying, or a breath weapon.

They lose:
+3 to.intimidate.

Thats an incredible trade. That said, if everyone is this race therell be far fewer issues, but realize how much long duration flying changes how a campaign plays out. It can make it very hard to keep the adventure in the direction you prefer without blatant railroading, at least if its gained at level one when they dont have anything invested in the currebt happenings yet.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
OmNomNid wrote:
What is the other race?

The Dragonborn ate the other one.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Also it should be noted that pathfinder doesn't restrict favored classes.


The other race was a form of construct based on the transformers(most series). I decided to just go with the 3.5 dragonborn.thank you for your input.


No large size alternative. Large gives you too many bonuses and breaks PF in twine.

The class itself is worth about 5 RP without the breath weapon (LLV 1 RP, Fierce Historian 4 RP). The scaling breath weapon is the biggest offender here as it is quite unbalanced.

Now, usually, it is not allowed for racial traits to grant spell-like effects that deal damage. Let's pretend that's not a thing.

Again, usually, it is not allowed for racial traits of non-advanced races to be higher than level 2 spells. Let's pretend, again, that that's not a thing.

Now you have the additional issue that spell-like abilities granted by traits are restricted to one use per day. Yours can be used 48 times.

You can see how it's faaaaaaaar from balanced.

I'd balance it by making it either:
- a 1d6 bite with elemental damage of choice that you can use as a primary natural attack on a single target (you can create a racial feat that gives it scaling like a monk's unarmed strike - it shouldn't scale with character level normally though).

- Dragon's Breath as a spell-like ability, once per day, but only scales at half your character level as caster level. (Add a feat to give it full scaling - still capped at 12d6 - and add another daily use; then another feat that increases the cap to 15d6 and adds another use yet.)


Quick Glance Thoughts:

  • Dump large size (other posters listed reasons).
  • Scale their flight in a similar fashion as the witch's flight hex; feats for improvement instead of automatic.
  • Dump the breath weapon in any form - if you MUST have it, grant it in the form of feats that gradually increase damage. I don't care if it's usable at will or a number of times per day equal to Con + 1, so long as the damage is kept in check.
  • Grant them immunity to sleep effects and a bonus to saves vs paralysis.
  • Dishonored is pretty sweet. Too sweet. If you're granting natural attacks, grant normal natural attacks. They'll be able to select improved natural attacks later on as a feat.

A lot of the material you want to put in can be done in the form of feats or a racial archetype of two.

My opinions. Hope they help.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Homebrew and House Rules / I'm trying to homebrew two races for a campaign I'm currently writing All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Homebrew and House Rules