Drow nobles really aren't suitable for PCs in most campaigns, and likewise, I think your half-dragons are too powerful as well. However... Paizo built a bunch of racial "noble" feats that basically let a regular common drow grow into a drow noble. Perhaps you could strip your half-dragons down to their bare essence, then create a series of racial feats that let them grow into their full suite of half-dragon abilities?
By comparison with your half-dragons, Kobold Press's Midgard Campaign Setting has a dragonkin race, built like so:
+2 Strength, −2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma: Dragonkin are strong and exude presence, but they are not quick.
Slow Speed: Dragonkin have a base speed of 20 feet, and their speed is never modified by encumbrance or armor.
Darkvision: Dragonkin can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Energy Resistance: Dragonkin must choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or sonic energy at 1st level. They have DR 2 against that energy type.
Armor: Dragonkin have a +1 natural armor bonus.
Presence: Dragonkin gain a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate and Diplomacy checks. Fly is always a class skill for dragonkin.
Languages: All dragonkin begin with both the Trade Tongue and Draconic as known languages. Dragonkin who have high Intelligence scores can choose any of the following bonus languages: Dwarvish, Elemental, Elvish, Infernal, Kobold, Minotaur, Nurian, or Darakhul (Ghoulish/Undercommon).
That's a considerable power difference than your half-dragons. KQ's Advanced Races #4: Dragonkin supplement offers racial feats to allow them to grow in racial abilities.
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As is, a party of three core/below 15 RP races plus your half-dragon will take an experience penalty on encounters (per the ARG sidebar on pg. 219). If you still want to run your half-dragon as is, as a GM, I'd bump the other three PCs in the party up to 3rd level with your 1st level half-dragon, and probably not give the half-dragon the customary 2 starting traits.
@Jonah - at the end there you are comparing races to classes. That won't help much. Also, what if your half-dragon race is a barbarian or sorceror?
Personally I don't find the Draconic Rage particularly overpowered, but the stat array of bonuses to three abilities and one of those at +4 is an indication that this is a strong race.
The Dragonform feat - what do you mean by a medium dragon? A Medium dragon or a medium dragon. If you are changing into a dragon than that is also incredibly strong.
The reason you might find people are saying this is unbalanced is that the title of your thread is "needing homebrew race playtested", and you state you are too busy right now. Other people might be too busy also, but a quick glance at this shows folks that this is much more powerful than core races. How you might think it is underpowered, or underpowered in comparison to core races will raise some eyebrows.
Personally it just feels overpowered and unfortunately overused as a trope. If your group likes it and wants to use, give it a go, and then just pare it down as you go.
so im bringing this thread back to life after some heavy editing to the above race. you can find that here . in case anyone was wondering, i've gotten the racial points down to 29 and this is everything ive done.
Darast'Rek Racial Point Cost
Type: Humanoid 0 RP
Size: Medium 0 RP
Base Speed: Normal (30 ft.) 0 RP
Ability Score Modifier: Standard (+2 Strength, -2 Constitution, +2 Charisma) 0 RP
Advanced Strength 4 RP
Advance Constitution (x2) 5 RP
Languages: Linguist 1 RP
Defense: Natural Armor 2 RP
Improved Natural Armor 1 RP
Skill Bonus: Perception 2 RP
Movement: Flight 4 RP
Offense: Breath Weapon 1 RP
Extra Breath Weapon 1 RP
Powerful Breath Weapon 1 RP
Claws 2 RP
Sense: Low-light Vision 1 RP
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Total: (Advanced Monstrous) 29 RP
BUMP
It's still ridiculously overpowered. Insanely powerful ability scores. All the languages they want. +2 natural armor. Flight at 1st level.
It should be noted that the drow noble was not designed to be a player race. In fact, most of the example races are explicitly meant for world building and NPCs.
It's still ridiculously overpowered. Insanely powerful ability scores. All the languages they want. +2 natural armor. Flight at 1st level.
It should be noted that the drow noble was not designed to be a player race. In fact, most of the example races are explicitly meant for world building and NPCs.
That was stated before and i have excepted that. Linguist is a staple of most uncommon races and isn't that beneficial since you need a high enough Intelligence in order to make use of it. Did you even bother reading the actual document or are you just going off the racial point sheet because honestly i used the racial stats that were given as a base and tweeked them. Granted i did see a problem with flight lasting for an hour and fixed it but the fact is that it is still not the same flight that is in the original book. so for future commentors i ask only this:
READ THE DOCUMENT FIRST AND CRITQUE MECHANIC ISSUES FIRST AND THEN PERSONAL OPINIONS!!!
Honestly, +4 STR, +2 CON, +2 CHA alone is on the overpowered side. The Draconic Aspect feels like it's dipping too little of a toe into too many pools, with a list of feats to enhance it that seem like they'd take over the entire feat list of some characters, but still no way to get more rounds than con modifier per use.
What document? Did you post a link describing the fluff for your race? Or do you mean the Advanced Race Guide?
What document? Did you post a link describing the fluff for your race? Or do you mean the Advanced Race Guide?
What's the fluff of this race? That's the most important part of a race because it guides all your design decisions. I don't even know what they look like. I originally thought they look like a dragonborn, but they have the human subtype. Maybe this would be better off as a dragon heritage skinwalker?
It also concerns me you give them Linguist just because other races have it. They should have that trait because it's a major part of the race's cultural heritage, not because you saw other races having it.
I still stand by my earlier stance that the race is too powerful. Their ability scores are insanely good. Their abilities are really powerful, even if brief. Honestly, I don't think that's a good design. It's rather lame you can only use your race power for a couple of rounds per day. At later levels, it's still lame because you have to waste a swift action every few rounds to reactivate it. Draconic Aspect should just let you use it X rounds per day that don't need to be consecutive.
I also think some of their feats are too good, like the one that grants them DR and increases their claws to 1d8 when their claws are already really powerful. Flight should have been a trait you pick up as a feat much like the Angel Wings feat for aasimars.
The breath weapon also is not finished - there's no table for the dragon types. It only lists the damage and DC.
Overall, it feels like an overpowered mess. I honestly recommend writing out some description for the race and how it fits in a campaign world before moving onto the mechanics. It would also gives us much more to work with.