Half-Dragon PCs and Breath Weapon

[Neo2151]

Creating a Half-Dragon wrote:

Special Abilities: A half-dragon retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains a breath weapon usable once per day based on the dragon variety (see below). The breath weapon deals 1d6 hit points of damage per racial HD possessed by the half-dragon (Reflex half; DC 10 + 1/2 creature's racial HD + creature's Con modifier).

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/halfDragon.html#half-dragon

Bolded emphases mine.

Is the inclusion of "racial" a typo, or does a PC that becomes a half-dragon have no breath weapon (by lieu of having only class HD and no racial HD - 0d6 damage?)

[wraithstrike]

IIRC it was using racial HD in 3.5 also, and templates are not meant for players so I don't think it was a typo. If a GM wishes to give his player the template he is free to houserule that into HD instead of racial HD.

[Mauril]

James Jacobs, early on in a post I can't find, confirmed that the use of racial hit dice was intentional. The half-celestial template, for example, does not use racial hit dice, just total hit dice. I think JJ's words were also something to the effect of "player races not having breath weapons is not really a problem."

[Neo2151]

That's why I asked actually. Most templates that base something off of HD don't specify that they be racial HD, but this one does.

[npaulagain]

The way I can see it allowing someone to have the breath weapon is if the campaign is at least level 3. Basically The DM allows the character to use the template in exchange for 2 class levels. Giving him 2 racial hit die instead. So it would always be a 2d6 breath weapon with a DC of 11. Meaning, good early on, but not so much later. At least that is how I would do it. Or just use the racial creation rules to wing up the dragon version of an Aasimar or Teifling.

[DreamGoddessLindsey]

That rule is just...

...dumb.

I have a villain that is a half-dragon kobold who basically only has class levels. The CR adjustment says +2, but even at Level 20 he would have no breath weapon. The rest of the stuff a half-dragon gets is most certainly not worth CR +2 by itself. The breath weapon is only usable once per day for crying out loud! Hardly game-breaking, even if a player had it.

I guess I'm house ruling it to be total HD. That actually makes some sense. I guess even James Jacobs isn't perfect in rulings.

[Old Gumphrey]

And then the Race Guide came out, and you can buy a terrible, terrible breath weapon for only a single RP! :/