Half-Dragon

[brian c]

I'm re-doing all of the races for my homebrew setting, at least to some extent, and an important one for me is the Half-Dragon template. Dragons in the setting are very important, the source of all arcane magic (and all sorcerers). This is still kind of a rough draft, and I'm particularly trying to figure out what the level adjustment should be. Any comments or questions would be appreciated. Like I said, it's not quite "done" yet, so I might have missed some things, although the lack of a breath weapon is quite on purpose. I don't list the dragon types here but they're mostly the same, and it's not that important right now anyway.


Half-Dragon

Dragons sometimes crossbreed with humans and elves, but rarely with other races. A Chaotic dragon is more likely to crossbreed with a wild human or elf, while a Lawful dragon is more likely to crossbreed with a civilized human, but almost never with a dwarf. A Half-Dragon has the following abilities and qualities, in addition to the base Human or Elf qualities but not including a bonus feat or bonus skillpoints if human.


Type: A Half-Dragon has the types Dragon and Human or Elf (whatever the other parent was). It is considered both dragon and it's other half for any race-based abilities or feats.

Alignment: Usually the same as the dragon.

Abilities: +6 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +4 Charisma

Size: Half-Dragons are Large sized; they have -4 to Hide, -1 to attacks and AC, 5 ft reach and movement speed of 40 ft. Half-Dragons do not normally have wings, however they can use a feat at 1st level to select Dragon Wings (from Races of the Dragon)

Racial Bonuses: +3 natural armor, darkvision 60 ft, low-light vision, immunity to sleep, immunity to one type of elemental damage (depending on dragon type).

Spellcasting: Due to the natural magic of dragons, a Half-Dragon casts spells as a 1st level sorceror, with the same number of spells known and spellpoints. This racial spellcasting stacks with a character's spellcasting from sorceror levels. Half-Dragons do not gain any other class abilities that a sorcerer would have, except for Eschew Materials.

Languages: Same as base race, but add Draconic to automatic and Ignan to bonus.

Level Adjustment: +3


Edit: changed it a little bit, lowered the LA.
Edit2: adjusted abilities again

To get an idea of the ability adjustments, this is what you can do with a 32-point buy (after racial adjustments):

Str 8 (14)
Dex 16
Con 10 (12)
Int 10 (12)
Wis 10
Cha 18 (22)

[aaron_the_cow]

I think maby a bit to over powered.

[Khantalas]

At LA +4? Normal half-dragon has LA +3, more strength, better natural armor, claw and bite attacks, a breath weapon, wings, immunity to paralysis and isn't forced to spend one ECL on spellcasting as a sorcerer when it is more suited to become a fighter-type.

The only (possible) advantage? The dude is large. Yet he has less strength than a normal half-dragon half-human.

I don't really think this is overpowered. And seeing how LA is such an unattractive thing, it may even be underpowered.

Then again, I'm no balance expert.

[brian c]

At LA +4? Normal half-dragon has LA +3, more strength, better natural armor, claw and bite attacks, a breath weapon, wings, immunity to paralysis and isn't forced to spend one ECL on spellcasting as a sorcerer when it is more suited to become a fighter-type.

The only (possible) advantage? The dude is large. Yet he has less strength than a normal half-dragon half-human.

I don't really think this is overpowered. And seeing how LA is such an unattractive thing, it may even be underpowered.

Then again, I'm no balance expert.

I was thinking that it should be +3, and then effectively for sorcerers it's only +2. Also, I meant to put immunity to paralysis, I guess I forgot to. Basically the smaller Str bonus along with the sorcerer spellcasting means that Half-Dragons in this game are much more suited to be sorcerers than "fighter-types", and that was how I wanted it. I'm designing this with the assumption that most any Half-Dragon will be a sorcerer, in which case another +2 to Str and claw/bite attacks don't make much of a difference. The natural armor might get increased though. I purposely didn't give it 10ft reach, because I think that would be a bit much, especially a sorcerer delivering touch spells from 10' away.

[AmberVael]

The problem with assuming that most of your half-dragons will be sorcerers is that it breaks Commandentment One for spellcasting class.

Thou shalt not give up caster levels.
Seriously, playing a half-dragon sorcerer isn't a non-optimizing idea... it is a bad idea. Your physical skills will be wasted since you won't actually be any good at fighting (due to your poor BAB and HP, not to mention lack of good AC pumping), and you'll also lose spell power due to your ECL going up and class levels going down.

[brian c]

The problem with assuming that most of your half-dragons will be sorcerers is that it breaks Commandentment One for spellcasting class.

Seriously, playing a half-dragon sorcerer isn't a non-optimizing idea... it is a bad idea. Your physical skills will be wasted since you won't actually be any good at fighting (due to your poor BAB and HP, not to mention lack of good AC pumping), and you'll also lose spell power due to your ECL going up and class levels going down.

It's not all about optimization. RP-wise: dragons are the source of all arcane magic, and have natural talents with it. Half-Dragons who don't become sorcerers are accused by other dragonblooded of denying their heritage, and as such it is looked down upon.

You can't say that people will never do something just because it's mechanically suboptimal. And it's not a bad idea to play a half-dragon sorcerer; the bonus to Cha is there, your bonuses to Con and Str make up for normal spellcaster weaknesses, bonus to intelligence helps everyone. Natural Armor keeps you a little less vulnerable than the average spellcaster. Effectively, you're losing 2 caster levels for all those benefits.

I say 2 because I'm about to change the OP, including lowering the LA a little.

[Khantalas]

Make it +4 Str and +4 Cha, and then maybe, maybe, it will be viable. Not optimal, mind you. Viable. It is behind one spell level, possibly two. That is a loss I can't overlook.

Str and natural armor won't help another sorcerer, since if it does, the sorcerer is doing something wrong. And doing something he can't afford to have wrong wrong.

Keep in mind that I am a guy who plays THF fighters without Power Attack. But losing a part of the only thing you have going for you? That's not good, no matter how you look at it.

[AmberVael]

It's not all about optimization.
I'm well aware of that.
Which is why I specifically said- "it isn't a non-optimizing idea... it is a bad idea."
It isn't that you won't be as good as you can be, it is that you will get torn to shreds.

[brian c]

I'm well aware of that.
Which is why I specifically said- "it isn't a non-optimizing idea... it is a bad idea."
It isn't that you won't be as good as you can be, it is that you will get torn to shreds.


And it's not a bad idea to play a half-dragon sorcerer; the bonus to Cha is there, your bonuses to Con and Str make up for normal spellcaster weaknesses, bonus to intelligence helps everyone. Natural Armor keeps you a little less vulnerable than the average spellcaster. Effectively, you're losing 2 caster levels for all those benefits.

I stand by what I said. +4 Cha means more spells/day (I run on spellpoints actually, but same basic principle) to help make up for the lost caster levels in that way, and also adds +2 to save DCs. All you're missing out on is getting higher level spells as quickly; I admit that that's a problem, but you're getting more HP also because of the bonus to Con and more skillpoints from Int... I think it pretty much balances out.

[Khantalas]

Not really. You're getting less hit points, because you'll die before you can enjoy those extra hit points with the low ones you'll start with.