Dragonkin as a Player Character

[MGX]

How would I go about making a Dragonkin a PC?

[sanwah68]

I would start by looking at the Nagaji. I feel they are Paizo's take on dragonkin.

[Almonihah]

Depends on what exactly you want. If you want to play a straight dragonkin... use the "Monsters as PC's" rules. I wouldn't really recommend this route without some modifications, though... those rules can give some really crazy results if followed blindly.

What I'd recommend instead is using the Race Builder rules from the Advanced Race Guide, instead. While far from perfectly balanced, you at least won't have to deal with racial hit dice this way. You could probably take the Wyvaran race from the example races, lose the slapping tail, add claws and a bite, make them Large, and add a breath weapon, and that would give you a pretty decent approximation of a dragonkin. It would definitely be more powerful than a standard PC race, but as long as you didn't give them too many stat boosts, they wouldn't be too much more powerful.

[Dwarftr]

Paizo has a dragonkin playable race in the midgard setting

[Dwarftr]

Dragonkin are considered a race of great presence and ability, but driven by greed and arrogance. Such a young race should be more humble, or at least less demanding. And yet, the dragonkin have fought and won so many battles that their arrogance is justified. Their penchant for battle and their success at seizing plunder make many wonder whether they are especially favored by the gods.

Dragonkin are powerful scaled humanoids, clawed and fearsome in size and strength. As might be expected, the resilience and arrogance of humans fused with the scaly magic and toughness of dragons is a powerful combination. Most dragonkin have gray, brown, tan, gold, silver, or black scales; rarely, some display red-orange, green-yellow, or star-like blue-and-black scales.

The dragonkin divide themselves into four elemental types, supposedly purebred lineages of dragonkin, though there is a great deal of mixing among them as well and hybrids are not uncommon. The flame or fire dragonkin (who bear yellow, golden, or orange scales, with red crests) are the most common, followed by wind or storm dragonkin (blue, white, silver, or gray scales, with black crests). The stone or cave dragonkin are relatively uncommon (brown, gray, black, or rarely white scales, with purple or white crests). Rarest of all are the wave or tide dragonkin breeds, gold, blue, or green-scaled with bright green or yellow crests. More common than the purebreds and outside the traditional elemental divisions are the soldier dragonkin, who sport brassy or tan scales with black or rust-colored crests.

Dragonkin males and females are distinct. All have clawed hands and feet, their faces are dominated by short snouts, and their eyes are deep and golden or black. Beyond that, though, male dragonkin are larger, horned or crested, and considerably heavier. Their tails are short and often spiked. Female dragonkin are faster, smaller, and wiry, with longer lashing tails. They sometimes have a frill or collar of contrasting color.

Dragonkin wear armor normally, since their own scales are only slightly more protective than human or dwarven skin. All dragonkin are heavy and slow for their size, but they also exude a commanding presence, a sense of destiny that scalykind and non-scaly races alike find compelling.

Elemental Forces

The greater dragons and draconic gods are tied to elemental forces, and so it comes as no surprise that dragonkin wizards, sorcerers, and other arcanists make outstanding elementalists. Their proficiency with the elements is more natural and comes at an earlier age than it does for humans or even elves. As a result, all dragonkin arcanists and divine casters gain the ability to cast one extra cantrip with an elemental type (air, earth, fire, or water).

Standard Racial Traits

All dragonkin have the following racial traits.

Ability Score Racial Traits: +2 Strength, −2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma: Dragonkin are strong and exude presence, but they are not quick.
Type:
Base Speed: Slow; Dragonkin have a base speed of 20 feet, and their speed is never modified by encumbrance or armor.
Languages: Dragonkin begin play speaking Common and Draconic. Dragonkin who have high Intelligence scores scores can choose from the following: Dwarvish, Elemental, Elvish, Infernal, Kobold, Minotaur, and Ghoulish/Undercommon. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
Senses Racial Traits

Darkvision: Dragonkin have darkvision, allowing them to see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
Defense Racial Traits

Energy Resistance: Dragonkin must choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or sonic energy at 1st level. They have energy resistance 2 against that energy type.
Metallic Form Dragonkin have a +1 natural armor bonus.
Dragonhide: Dragonkin gain a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate and Diplomacy checks. Fly is always a class skill for dragonkin.

[Almonihah]

Technically that's a Kobold Press race, not a Paizo race. ;) Paizo's dragonkin are rather different from the Midgard version. Of course, for all I know the OP wanted something like Midgard dragonkin.

[Haladir]

Here's a link to Kobold Press' Dragonkin race.

Or is the OP talking about the Dragonborn race from D&D 5e?

If so, their GM will need to convert it to PFRPG.

[Saethori]

I'm surprised there has been so little mention of Wyvarans so far. They have specific rules that allow them to be player characters, and Legacy of Dragons even included a bunch of favored class bonuses and alternate racial traits for them.

[MGX]

Haladir wrote:

Here's a link to Kobold Press' Dragonkin race.

Or is the OP talking about the Dragonborn race from D&D 5e?

If so, their GM will need to convert it to PFRPG.

Nope, I'm talking about Dragonkin. Like General Malesinder in Reign of Winter. Those Large sized suckers. Converting them over to a PC.

[Almonihah]

Almonihah wrote:

Depends on what exactly you want. If you want to play a straight dragonkin... use the "Monsters as PC's" rules. I wouldn't really recommend this route without some modifications, though... those rules can give some really crazy results if followed blindly.

What I'd recommend instead is using the Race Builder rules from the Advanced Race Guide, instead. While far from perfectly balanced, you at least won't have to deal with racial hit dice this way. You could probably take the Wyvaran race from the example races, lose the slapping tail, add claws and a bite, make them Large, and add a breath weapon, and that would give you a pretty decent approximation of a dragonkin. It would definitely be more powerful than a standard PC race, but as long as you didn't give them too many stat boosts, they wouldn't be too much more powerful.

Then this is the sort of thing you'd want. We actually had Shatha join our party as a cohort, so we had to deal with this some. Since we were taking an actual dragonkin and having her join up with us, we went with the first option of using the Monsters as PC's rules, though we kind of fudged the levels a bit to keep her as a cohort.

For a PC, I'd say the Race Builder rules would be preferable. They're not perfectly balanced, but they don't have nearly the variance the Monsters as PC's rules can have.

[master_marshmallow]

The Dragon Soul half elf is the closest we have to an equivalent.

Legacy of Dragons.

[MGX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEHWyRwDBYQ

That YouTube video from GM Facepalm was a huge help to me in creating a Dragonkin!