There would only be two races available-humans and dragons (humans who metamorphosed into a dragon-like appearance after enduring severe emotional trauma). Magic takes the form of Dragon Arts, which humans can learn to use through rituals, but only dragons can use through conventional spellcasting. Dragons suffer through a personal dilemma relevant to the trauma that caused them to transform.
I'm ready to answer whatever questions you guys are left with, but any ideas on how to make this world work mechanically would be greatly appreciated.
Could you clarify what you mean by "how to make this world work mechanically"? Do you mean what rules-crunch would have to be in place to reflect the human-dragon spellcasting you've described?
Could you clarify what you mean by "how to make this world work mechanically"? Do you mean what rules-crunch would have to be in place to reflect the human-dragon spellcasting you've described?
Sorry, I meant any content to add or special rules to implement for this world
I am an extremely lazy DM, so I try to minimize special rules. I will occasionally cut things out of core (in my current setting, I got rid of all full casters) to massage the rules a bit.
If I were looking to reflect your current set up, it might be something like:
Humans are Humans. Maybe restrict their +2 bonus to physical attributes only to reflect their lack of magical talent.
"Half-dragons" are Elves (int), Dwarves (wis), and/or Gnomes (cha) to reflect their natural spellcasting. Re-skinning things is relatively simple, and you can use some of the alternate abilities if you don't like stonecunning (for example).
Depending on how you envision the "rituals" humans use, maybe impose a small penalty, like all their spells have a casting time of 1 round?
Anyway, just spitballing here. Take a look at a few basic ideas of casting (time it takes, the different classes, spell levels, casting attributes) and change maybe 1 or 2 things to reflect the vision that you have. Again, this is coming from a DM who spends the majority of my time making world fluff, not rules - I stick with pathfinder for the rules (with a minor bit of tweaking here and there)
Kinda reminds me of the Dragon Race from Rave Master.
Things that strike me in terms of content:
--Why would anyone want to be a human when spells are so powerful and dragons are good at it?
--Are there any sub races within humans and half-dragons? What makes this strong restriction interesting for players?
--Are there actual "dragons" in addition to the transformed "dragon-like" creatures? What is their relationship?
--And most of all, what does this world look like? Who is in charge? What kind of kingdoms? Technology? Magic? Danger? Architecture?
1.)Because at the beginning of the campaign, Dragons (and the magic they bring) is only just coming to the public eye, and most humans view Dragons as a strange new monster. Also, Dragons have a vice or other emotional weakness that can be exploited to bring them to heel easily.
2.)Humans might have sub-races, but they would be mostly career grooming. Dragons would fall into Eastern (resembling Imperial dragons) and Western (resembling Chromatic dragons) camps, and can come in any color, element, and alignment combination, even weird colors like purple and orange.
3.)A Dragon that overcomes their vices and emotional shortcomings becomes a "Dragon Ascendant" (much like true dragons). It's more like the Japanese legend about the Koi that transformed into a dragon.
4.)Humans were able to imitate up to 2nd level magic through technology, most kingdoms are about the size of Idaho and are democracies, but have many criminal organizations as well. Most buildings are built with masonry, with only about 10 buildings employing steel.
Is there a map? How many countries? How many continents? Who is at war? What alliances? How many countries have access to "2nd level" tech? How wide spread is this tech? How has it affected life, warfare, etc?
I haven't drawn up a map yet, but there will be two continents separated by an ocean, with 15 countries on the Western continent and 5 on the Eastern one, and an island used for international discussions. War is sporadic, and there are few, if any, alliances. Only 10 countries on the Western continent has access to 2nd level tech (the rest only have 1st level tech), and all tech are restricted to places they would be commonly used (healing spells in hospitals, for example).
Sounds like you're well on your way! Sorry I wasn't much help with thinking up any special rules, but honestly a lot of it sounds more like RP opportunities (the emotional trauma and weaknesses of the dragons) for the most part, and you can decide how magic "looks" for each race simply by deciding which parts they each have access to (dragons get all the way up to 9th level spells, maybe humans with rituals only get up to 6th) Lots of ways to differentiate the races without worrying about brand-new rules (unless of course you enjoy doing that)
So I should use Insanity and Addiction rules for Dragon weaknesses and decrease human spellcasters by a progression (human wizards use magus progression, bards use bloodrager, and paladins lose all spellcasting ability). I want to build Eastern and Western Dragon races, though.
I haven't looked too closely at those rules systems - they always struck me as both a little too complicated and not very well thought out.
The rudimentary understanding I have of your world made this pop into my head: when presented with an object or situation that a dragon intensely desires or intensely fears, they are hit with either a domination effect or a panicked effect. Rather than making it save-based, it could just be a straight-up 50% (or even higher) chance of taking place.
This is a really strong drawback, but it has to be for how much worse humans are (if you want them both to be viable options, that is. you could just force everyone to be human, but that's an even stronger restriction)
I'll go with 75% chance. As for building the Dragon race, how's +2 to one physical and one mental score, chosen at character creation, +1 natural armor, resistance 5 to one element, bite (and claws? Maybe), gliding wings (Western get the normal version, but Eastern get supernatural version), and then another trait that's dependant on wether they're Western or Eastern?
That's quite a bit of stuff, especially (if I understood you correctly) they get +2 to any physical and +2 to any mental, which is double what humans get (+2 to any one stat). I've never made a race and the Race Point system seems pretty flawed from what I've heard. I know for sure I would give up a Human's feat for +2 to a mental stat, resistance 5, +1 nat armor, bite, and claws.
In terms of flavor, those are appropriate abilities. In terms of balance, I can't say - especially since the dragon race already has (in essence) a "Strong Magic" trait (that is, they are full powered wizards, magi, etc)
This is why I don't make my own races or make new rules - there's just too much to consider (for me).
Keep in mind that Dragons have a 75% chance of becoming useless or even detrimental to their party if they are confronted with their weakness, so I think it's fair.
True enough! Hope it turns out to be interesting and fun.
I'm thinking about making a class that works kinda like the Kineticist, but make the blasts do either fire, cold, electric, acid, or cold damage and allowing anyone to pick any utility wild talent they are of level to take.