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I have heard alot on converting dragonborn or trying to make it with the advanced race guide. I believe neither is the answer. When I see people try to convert from 4e the race ends up being to powerful or pretty and worthless. At the same time creating it with the advance race quide gives you a PC that is definetly unbalanced.
My solution would be to recreate the dragon born as lost children of apsu that escaped to another plane during the war of the dragons. something along the lines of a golden dragon finding a gateway to this plane in some ancient texts that were found with the direct guidance of Apsu.
everyone wants the breath weapon or wings and wants them to be useful immediatley. my personal take is to follow in pathfinders creaters footsteps and simplify the dragon born. the race doesnt need all kinds of draconic abilities right off the get go. a certain affinity for magic, yes. a tougher build with a little longer life, yes. darkvision and elemental resistance and such right off the bat, NO.
design the race as a draconic yes but in the eyes of the advanced race guide it would look more like a reptillian humanoid race with draconic heritage.
give the choice of draconic heritage with 3 tiers for each and some basic traits to choose from due to the variety of dragonborn due to possibly different clans that have formed since escaping to this other plane that they come from.
for those who would get the most dragon out of there dragonborn give alternative class builds. for example you could have a dragonborn druid that gives up his companion and domain to focus on his draconic heritage. or say a fighter who throughs his all into natural armor bonuses, draconic strength, and draconic rage or mighty presence to scare his foes. looking at this you see that as a druid you couldnt have plate armor and natural armor together and as a fighter the dragonborn would be forced to go a certain ability path for that build that wouldnt allow for powerful wings or natural attack. this would help combat power gamers and lack of balance.
thoughts and comments please