Fey Dragonborn Race (PEACH)

[Loyalty]

Hey, I'm looking for some advice and/or critcism on a homebrew race, the Fey Dragonborn. They are Inspired by the Faerie Dragon from the Monster Manual.


Dragonborn - Fey Ancestry (Fey Dragonborn)

Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Charisma score increases by 1


Age: Young fey dragonborn grow quickly, but live a lot longer than other dragonborn. They walk days after hatching, attain the size and development of a 10-year-old human child by the age of 6, and reach adulthood by 14. They live to be around 200.

Like Faerie Dragons they change their color as they age.
Red - 14 Years or less
Orange - 15 to 44 Years
Yellow - 45 to 74 Years
Green - 75 to 104 Years
Blue - 105 to 134 Years
Indigo - 135 to 164 Years
Violet - 165 Years or more




Alignment: Similar to normal dragonborn who side with Tiamat or Bahamut, fey ancestry dragonborn usually side with either Titania or the Queen of Air and Darkness.


Size: Fey Dragonborn are about the same size as halflings. (small)


Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet


Languages: You can speak and write Common, Sylvan and Draconic


Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.


Euphoria Breath: The dragon exhales a puff of
euphoria gas at one creature within 5 feet of it. The target must
succeed on a Wisdom saving throw, or for 1 minute, the
target can't take reactions and must roll a d6 at the start of
each of its turns to determine its behavior during the turn:
1-4. The target takes no action or bonus action and uses all
of its movement to move in a random direction.
5- 6. The target doesn't move, and the only thing it can do
on its turn is make a Wisdom saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.
The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus.
After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest.


Innate Spellcasting:
You know the minor illusion cantrip. When you reach 3rd level you can cast Invisibility once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast mirror image once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.


Now I'm quite sure that having both the breath attack and Innate Spellcasting might be a bit too much, though I would love to include both of these abilities of the Faerie Dragon in the race. Any suggestions on how to do that?
Would it be more balanced with the removal of fey ancestry?

[KoyukiTei13]

I adore this concept. Really flavorful, reminds me a bit of the faerie dragons in WoW.

Now using this for balance:

Dragonborn - Fey Ancestry (Fey Dragonborn)

Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Charisma score increases by 1
Age: Young fey dragonborn grow quickly, but live a lot longer than other dragonborn. They walk days after hatching, attain the size and development of a 10-year-old human child by the age of 6, and reach adulthood by 14. They live to be around 200.
Like Faerie Dragons they change their color as they age:
Red - 14 Years or less
Orange - 15 to 44 Years
Yellow - 45 to 74 Years
Green - 75 to 104 Years
Blue - 105 to 134 Years
Indigo - 135 to 164 Years
Violet - 165 Years or more
Alignment: Similar to normal dragonborn who side with Tiamat or Bahamut, fey ancestry dragonborn usually side with either Titania or the Queen of Air and Darkness.
Size: Fey Dragonborn are about the same size as halflings. (small)
Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet
Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
Euphoria Breath: The dragon exhales a puff of euphoria gas at one creature within 5 feet of it. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw, or for 1 minute, the target can't take reactions and must roll a d6 at the start of each of its turns to determine its behavior during the turn:

1-4. The target takes no action or bonus action and uses all of its movement to move in a random direction.
5- 6. The target doesn't move, and the only thing it can do on its turn is make a Wisdom saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.

The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Innate Spellcasting: The dragon's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus). It can innately cast a number of spells, requiring no material components. As the dragonborn becomes stronger, it gains additional spells as shown below.
Level 1: 1/day each: dancing lights, mage hand, minor illusion
Level 7: 1/day: mirror image or color spray
Level 13: 1/day: major image or hallucinatory terrain
Level 19: 1/day: polymorph or suggestion
Languages: You can speak and write Common and Sylvan or Draconic

ASI: sounds ok. +3 is fine

Age: nice fluff

Alignment: Maybe a blurb about Titania and the Queen of Air and Darkness in a societal context for these dragonborn?

Size: Is there any reason they're small? They could be medium. Perhaps a description of their appearance to go along with 'they're about the size of the average halfling"?

Speed: 25 is good for small; do they get a flying speed? Do they have wings?

Fey Ancestry: Good trade off for being small. If you increase their size, this could go.

Euphoria Breath: I'd increase the number of effects for this to 4 or 6. 1-2 for the first, 3 & 4 have their own effects, and 5-6 would be the second effect. Maybe some Charming or Paralysis?

Innate Spellcasting: Firstly, limit the spells, there are way too many here. They all fit the flavor fine, but usually Innate Spellcasting is this:
Innate Magic. You know the _____ cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the _____ spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the _____ spell once per day. _______ is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

I'd say maybe use You know the faerie fire cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast color spray once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the polymorph spell once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting ability.

Languages: I'd say you could give them both Sylvan and Draconic, alongside Common.

[DracoKnight]

I'd say maybe use You know the faerie fire cantrip.

Fairie fire is a 1st-level spell.

[KoyukiTei13]

Ah yeah, oops. I was just throwing spells out XD

Perhaps Dancing Lights, Prestidigitation, or Thaumaturgy?
And cantrips are unlimited cast, even if they are racially given.

[Elodin]

Just so you know, the Queens name is Mab. Also, maybe you could make the Dragonborn a little more spikey, because right now it looks a little too much like a wizardly butterfly.

[Ninja_Prawn]

It needs to be done, the faerie dragon/dragonborn cross. I saw someone else try a while back, but they went a completely different direction, giving them flight etc. This version, assuming you change to conventional 1/3/5 casting, looks a lot more by-the-book. Depending on how you rate Euphoria Breath, it might even be underpowered...

Just so you know, the Queens name is Mab. Also, maybe you could make the Dragonborn a little more spikey, because right now it looks a little too much like a wizardly butterfly.

I don't know if Mab is part of current D&D canon. I did a fair amount of research when I wrote my fey stuff, and almost all of the material seemed to support 'Queen of Air and Darkness' being the true, official name of that archfey.

More 'spiky dragon' stuff probably is the way to go if the OP needs to add anything to this race, though.

[Loyalty]

Thanks for the feedback so far, I am going to change a few things.

Alignment: Maybe a blurb about Titania and the Queen of Air and Darkness in a societal context for these dragonborn?

I only wanted to get basic flavor down for now to work with, I will add this once the mechanics are done.

Speed: 25 is good for small; do they get a flying speed? Do they have wings?

No wings because normal Dragonborn dont have them either (so it just made sense to not give them wings)

Euphoria Breath: I'd increase the number of effects for this to 4 or 6. 1-2 for the first, 3 & 4 have their own effects, and 5-6 would be the second effect. Maybe some Charming or Paralysis?

Right now this is the exact same ability as Faerie Dragons have and I would like to keep it close to the original creature. I'm not particularly fond of this idea.

Innate Spellcasting: Firstly, limit the spells, there are way too many here. They all fit the flavor fine, but usually Innate Spellcasting is this:
Innate Magic. You know the _____ cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the _____ spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the _____ spell once per day. _______ is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Again, I wanted to keep as close as possible to the actual Faerie Dragon, but it's true that this race is probably not more magical than a Tiefling or Drow.
I'm going to change this to Minor Illusion, Invisibility (since faerie dragons can do this at will) and polymorph

Languages: I'd say you could give them both Sylvan and Draconic, alongside Common.

I wanted to stay with 2 languages for balancing, but it seems ok with the race rating system.

More 'spiky dragon' stuff probably is the way to go if the OP needs to add anything to this race, though.

Yeah, that probably is missing, though they are not large and strong like normal dragonborn. How about a flavor ability like this:
Teeth and Claws: Your unarmed attacks do 1d4 piercing damage. Additionally you can do a bite attack using either your dexterity or strength modifier. The damage dice of the bite attack is 1d4.

Just so you know, the Queens name is Mab.

Never heard of this, but from what I find with a quick search is that she is based on Mab from The Desden Files, but nowhere does it say that that is her actual name in d&d.

[This be Richard]

Euphoria Breath: The dragon exhales a puff of
euphoria gas at one creature within 5 feet of it. The target must
succeed on a Wisdom saving throw, or for 1 minute, the
target can't take reactions and must roll a d6 at the start of
each of its turns to determine its behavior during the turn:
1-4. The target takes no action or bonus action and uses all
of its movement to move in a random direction.
5- 6. The target doesn't move, and the only thing it can do
on its turn is make a Wisdom saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.
The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus.
After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest.

The way this is written, it sounds like a result of 1-4 doesn't allow a saving throw. Is that intentional? It would be extremely powerful if so, stopping a creature from doing anything functional and only giving them a save one in three rounds.
Rather than saying they can't take actions, can't take bonus actions, and or "the only thing they can do" is save, you might want to just say that they're Incapacitated, either move randomly or don't move depending on the roll, and may make a saving throw at the end of each of their turns to end the effect.
Moving randomly when you can't take an action would actually be very powerful because it would have the potential to trigger opportunity attacks... but I'm not sure that's game-breaking.

Again, I wanted to keep as close as possible to the actual Faerie Dragon, but it's true that this race is probably not more magical than a Tiefling or Drow.
I'm going to change this to Minor Illusion, Invisibility (since faerie dragons can do this at will) and polymorph

Minor Illusion and Invisibility are fine, but Polymorph is a 4th level spell, and you generally want a 3rd level spell for when they reach 5th level.

Now I'm quite sure that having both the breath attack and Innate Spellcasting might be a bit too much, though I would love to include both of these abilities of the Faerie Dragon in the race. Any suggestions on how to do that?
Would it be more balanced with the removal of fey ancestry?

It's quite good with both... but I don't think the removal of fey ancestry makes sense, nor do I think it's necessary. So long as you don't add any additional features or empower the ones you have beyond the levels suggested above, I think it works.

[Rusty Killinger]

I don't know if Mab is part of current D&D canon.

I never thought of D&D as having a canon. It's just a big and beautiful pile of parts you can add to your world if you feel like it.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I never thought of D&D as having a canon. It's just a big and beautiful pile of parts you can add to your world if you feel like it.

I suppose that's true of D&D the game system, but I don't think I'm wrong to say that the campaign settings have a canon. My understanding is that the archfey and their courts are supposed to be common across all settings, since they mostly wander the Planes and visit all different worlds.

[Siirvos]

Spoiler: linky

Show

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ViqLSEN67mmd2Lo_OJ-H5YX0fccsfI97kFaqx7V1Dmw/edit#heading=h.6xo13z4g2su9

That seems like a good creation guide for races. I REALLY like the idea of a fey dragonborn, and i think having it small would be adorable!

[meanderingNeko]

Size: Fey Dragonborn are about the same size as halflings. (small)


Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet

I don't like how a dragonborn at >6' gets together with a fey and their child is automatically fey height. I'd be fine with something like 4'-5' but 2' or 3' just seems too unnatural for anything with dragonborn ancestry. I can see them being somewhat smaller or incorporating a larger range of smaller sizes but making them 2' tall seems too abrupt of a height change for a first generation fey/dragonborn mix.

[gloryblaze]

I don't like how a dragonborn at >6' gets together with a fey and their child is automatically fey height. I'd be fine with something like 4'-5' but 2' or 3' just seems too unnatural for anything with dragonborn ancestry. I can see them being somewhat smaller or incorporating a larger range of smaller sizes but making them 2' tall seems too abrupt of a height change for a first generation fey/dragonborn mix.

Not the OP so I can't say for sure, but I think you're looking at this wrong - as I read it, the fey dragonborn isn't a crossbreed of a fairy and a dragon. Rather, it is to faerie dragons what dragonborn are to true dragons. Since faerie dragons are "tiny" sized, the "small" fey dragonborn are actually a bit on the large side - after all, true dragonborn are "medium" while true dragons are much larger. So the fey dragonborn is actually upscaled in the same way true dragonborn are downscaled.