Half-Dragons Expanded (Comments or Requests welcome)

[Ralasha]

In this thread I will be posting half-dragon templates according to dragon type, styled after the original template found in the MM.

Basic MM Dragons will come first, followed by the gem dragons in a separate post. Followed by the other dragon Types, in yet another post. This will include physical traits and descriptions, Natural weapons, breath weapons, immunities, and other extraordinary or supernatural abilities. Rather than being LA: +2 (+3 minimum) They will be built to stand at a sturdy LA +2, with +3 variants.

Each will have its own statistical bonuses, unique features, and such described in so much detail as I can manage at the time of their writing. If anyone has a request to see a specific type of half-dragon I will do those first.

I will not be posting now for a bit, as I attempt to write up the basics, then flesh them out.

Description, and physical traits based on Dragon Type:

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Adamantine

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Half-Dragons of this type tend to be more muscular than many other forms of dragon, and far more brutish. Though they have no truly distinguishing features aside from their metallic black scales. These dragons cannot fly, but are capable of leaps greater that most others. Their wings, while unable to lift them aloft can still be used to improve the height they attain with each formidable leap.
A half-adamantine dragons wings grant it a +20 to all jump checks, as opposed to the standard +10 from wing span. In addition it enjoys benefits equivalent to those granted by Powerful Build. Though more due to sheer physical weight than any true difference in size. This racial ability stacks with powerful build, and spells, effects, or abilities with similar functions.
Racial Abilities:
+10 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +4 Constitution
+20 to Jump Checks.
Natural Adamantine Weapons: Natural attacks ignore Damage Reduction vs Adamantine and Mithril.
Bulky: This race acts in all ways as though it had the Powerful Build Racial Trait. Though this ability stacks with Powerful build.

Amethyst

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Half-Dragons of this type have a translucent, almost see through coat of dragon scales appropriate to their size. Their wings likewise are translucent. They are not normally built as powerfully as most other half-dragon types.
Racial Abilities:
+6 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +4 Charisma
+1 to all Psionic Manifester Levels

Battle

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Half Dragons of this type do not typically enjoy the same fluency with magic as its brethren, in ways similar to the Adamantine Dragon, though less thug like. They prefer honourable contests of wit and brawn to contests of arcane potency. Their scales are generally larger, taking up more surface room, and are normally placed similarly to those of a suit of articulated plate.
Racial Abilities:
+8 Strength, +4 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
Heavy Scales: Additional +4 to Natural armor, their natural armor is equivalent to Full Plate, but allows far more flexibility.
Bulky: This race acts in all ways as though it had the Powerful Build Racial Trait. Though this ability stacks with Powerful build.

Black:

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Half Black Dragons usually have near skeletal faces, as the scales around their horns and faces deteriorate at a faster rate than on their full-blooded kin. Their black scales are thin, small, and glossy at birth, gradually loosing their sheen until at the age of 50 when they appear dull. They are not as sociable as many of their cousins, but are by far stealthier. Their scales tend to act as a natural camouflage, especially at night.
Racial Abilities:
+4 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, +2 Intelligence
Small Scales: Half-Black Dragons scales are less hardy, and do not deflect attacks as easily as others. They gain only a +2 Natural Armor Bonus, but also gain a +4 to hide.
Horns: Any Half-Black Dragon that successfully manages to strike with at least two of its four natural attacks may attempt a grapple check for free. If the grapple is successful, the Half-Black Dragon may then attempt to rend, or gore its opponent. This is one of their favorite tactics, as they will often attempt to sneak up on their enemies, in order to ambush them.

Blue:

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A Half-Dragon of this variety has scales varying in color from an iridescent azure, to a deep indigo, with a glossy appearance. Their scales are also thicker, and harder than those of most other typical dragons of other types, with obvious exceptions. Blues, like Black Dragons are not generally sociable creatures, their offspring tend to be similarly solitary in nature. Though they are not generally as well rounded as most other half-dragons, they are very strong survivors.
Racial Abilities:
+6 Strength, +6 Constitution, +4 Wisdom
Thick Scales: Half-Blue Dragons scales are stronger, and more durable than most. Instead of a Natural Armor bonus, they gain Damage Reduction 2/-, and a Deflection Bonus of 4 to AC. Attacks tend to be redirected by their thick and hardened scales.
Horn: Any Half-Blue Dragon that successfully manages to strike with a natural weapon may channel its breath weapon through said natural weapon. Dealing damage normally. The save versus this use of the breath weapon is a Fortitude Save instead of the standard Reflex Save.
Natural Weapons: A Half-Blue Dragon has 5 natural attacks.
Burrow: Half-Blue Dragons have a burrow speed equal to half of their base land speed.
Sound Imitation (Ex): A half-blue dragon can mimic any voice or sound it has heard, anytime it likes. Listeners must succeed on a Will save (DC equal to 10+character level) to detect the ruse.

Gold:

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Gold Dragons are perhaps the most noble of their kind. They value honor, justice and integrity above other personality types and traits. First to fight evil. The Paladins of Dragon Kind.
Racial Abilities:
Strength +8, Constitution +4,Wisdom +4, Charisma +4
Detect Evil: As the spell
Special Abilities: Alternate Form (As polymorph, 1/day, similar forms only.)

Radiant:

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Radiant half-dragons have a special glow about them, and their scales appear as though made of solid sunlight. Their natural affinity for positive energy makes them a natural enemy for undead and the practitioners of death magic.
Racial Abilities:
Strength +4, Constitution +4, Wisdom +4, Charisma +4
Detect Undead: As the spell, at will.
Turn Undead: Once per day as a cleric of a level equal to its hit dice, or one extra time per day.
Fast Healing: A Radiant Dragon's affinity has many benefits. A half-radiant dragon has fast healing equal to 1/3rd hit dice.
Immunities: Disease and Poison, natural as well as magical and supernatural.

The above is my work (as posted) so far.

Half-Dragon Basics:

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Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to dragon. Size is
unchanged. Do not recalculate base attack bonus or saves.
Hit Dice: Increase base creature’s HD by one die size, to a
maximum of d12. Include Class Hit Dice(Includes Paragon HD)
Speed: A half-dragon that is Large or larger has wings and can
fly at twice its base land speed (maximum 180 ft.) with average
maneuverability. A half-dragon that is Medium has a 50% chance to have wings. A half-dragon that is small has a 25% chance to have wings. A half-Dragon of tiny size or smaller has a 10% chance to have wings. (Otherwise, please explain a Fairy Dragon having wings, and no, I don't care about them being half-fairy. It explicitly says in the DMG that smaller than large do -not- have wings.)
Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +4.
Attack: A half-dragon has two claw attacks and a bite attack,
and the claws are the primary natural weapon. If the base creature
can use weapons, the half-dragon retains this ability. A halfdragon
fighting without weapons uses a claw when making an
attack action. When it has a weapon, it usually uses the weapon
instead.
Full Attack: A half-dragon fighting without weapons uses both
claws and its bite when making a full attack. If armed with a
weapon, it usually uses the weapon as its primary attack and its
bite as a natural secondary attack. If it has a hand free, it uses a
claw as an additional natural secondary attack.
Damage: Half-dragons have bite and claw attacks. If the base
creature does not have these attack forms, use the damage values
in the table below. Otherwise, use the values below or the base
creature’s damage values, whichever are greater.
{table]Size | Bite Damage | Claw Damage
Fine | 1 | —
Diminutive | 1d2 | 1
Tiny | 1d3 | 1d2
Small | 1d4 | 1d3
Medium | 1d6 | 1d4
Large | 1d8 | 1d6
Huge | 2d6 | 1d8
Gargantuan | 2d8 | 2d6
Colossal | 4d6 | 2d8[/table]
Special Attacks: A half-dragon retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains a breath weapon based on the dragon variety (see the table below), usable once per day. A half-dragon’s breath weapon deals damage based on Hit Dice. Damage is calculated according to the following: 1d8 per 2 Half-Dragons HD. A successful Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 half-dragon’s HD + half-dragon’s Con modifier) reduces damage by half. The range is equal to 5x(HD+Con Mod) in feet, or half that if a cone.

Basic Half-Dragon Breath Weapons:

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{table]Dragon Variety | Breath Weapon | Immunity
Black | 60-foot line of acid | Acid
Blue | 60-foot ine of lightning | Electricity
Brass | 60-foot line of fire | Fire
Bronze | 60-foot line of lightning | Electricity
Copper | 60-foot line of acid | Acid
Green | 30-foot cone of corrosive (acid) gas | Acid
Gold | 30-foot cone of fire | Fire
Red | 30-foot cone of fire | Fire
Silver | 30-foot cone of cold | Cold
White | 30-foot cone of cold | Cold[/table]

Other Half-Dragon Types:

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{table] Dragon Variety | Breath weapon | Immunities | Special
Adamantine | Cone of Fire | Fire | Ignore Damage Reduction
Amethyst | Line of force | Immunity to poison | -
Battle | Cone of sonic energy | Immunity to sonic | -
Brown | Line of acid | Immunity to acid | -
Chaos | Line of random energy (roll d%: 1–20 acid, 21–40 cold, 41–60 electricity, 61–80 fire, 81–100 sonic) | Immunity to confusion | -
Chiang lung | Ice Shards (Cold/slash/pierce | Cold | Water breathing
Crystal | Cone of light | Immunity to cold | -
Deep | Cone of Darkness (deals negative energy damage) | Immunity to charm effects | -
Emerald | Cone of sonic energy | Immunity to sonic | -
Ethereal | Cone of force | Force | -
Fang | Ability drain | Ability Drain | -
Force | Cone of force | Force | -
Gold | Cone of fire | Immunity to fire | -
Green | Cone of acid | Immunity to acid | -
Howling | Cone of sonic energy | Immunity to sonic | -
Iron | Cone of shrapnel (slashing bludgeoning and piercing) | - | DR ECL/Mithril
Li lung | Fear | Fear | Burrow
Lung wang | Cone of steam (deals fire damage) | Fire | Water breathing
Oceanus | Line of electricity | Immunity to electricity | Water Breathing
Pan lung | Water fire (Sticks to target) | Fire | Water breathing
Platinum | Chosen energy type (each time): Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire, or Sonic | none | Universal Energy Resistance (Equal to ECL)
Prismatic | Cone of Searing Light | Immunity to blindness | -
Pyroclastic | Cone of fire and sonic energy (half damage of each type) | Immunity to fire or sonic (player’s choice) | -
Radiant | Line of Light (Positive energy) | Ability/Level Drain | Daylight (constant, deals damage to undead; This ability may be suppressed or activated at will)
Rust | Rusting breath (As rust monster's touch) | none | Rusting touch
Sand | Cone of grit (no energy type) | Immunity to fire | Burrow
Sapphire | Cone of sonic energy | Immunity to electricity | Water Breathing
Shadow | Cone of energy drain (As vampiric touch) | Immunity to energy drain | Immune to Darkness
Shen lung | Water fire (sticks to target) | Immune to Fire | Water breathing
Song | Cone of charged gas (deals electricity damage) | Immunity to electricity | -
Steel | Cone of Shrapnel | Bludgeoning | DR Equal to ECL/Adamantine
Styx | Line of acid | Immunity to disease and poison
Tarterian | Line of force | Negative Energy | -
T’ien lung | Cone of fire | Water breathing | -
Topaz | Cone of dehydration (no damage type) | Immunity to cold | -
Tun mi lung | Gust of wind (as the spell) | Piercing | Water breathing
Yu lung | None | - | Water breathing, and Universal Damage Resistance (Equal to ECL)[/table]

Mithril and Adamantine to be added once sources have been found.

The Following Dragon types fly without wings, and do not have wings when larger than medium size:

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Chiang Lung, Li Lung, Lung Wang, Pan Lung, Shen Lung, T'ien Lung, Tun Mi Lung, and Yu Lung

[Ragingsystem]

I love Half Dragons so I think this is awesome! Great idea!

[Ralasha]

*beams* I am unaware of any sources for statistics and detailed appearances or descriptions for individual half-dragon types. So I thought I would attempt to create such.

[Ragingsystem]

They tell you a small amount of information on the chromatic and metal half dragons in one of the books (I don't remember which) but it's little more than what you have and then an Immunity and energy type for the breath weapon.

[Ralasha]

Done with non-specific additional dragon type details. (Breath Weapons, immunities and special qualities).
Have completed unique draconic type traits for a few dragon types, and posted them as a preview. Iw ill be posting them all in the first post in alphabetical order.

[TabletopNuke]

I'm glad someone is doing this. Races of the Dragon (pg 70) has a breakdown of the level progression of half-dragons as a racial class. I'd look into that if I were you.

I believe it is the 6d8 breath weapon that bumps the LA up to +3. This results in the debilitating early-level struggle that half-dragons suffer from. Something that's always bothered me about the half-dragon template is that the breath weapon's DC is based on racial HD, which makes it very ineffective for most PCs at high levels.

Both these problems could be solved by using a scaling breath weapon like the one RotD's dragonborn race has. In case you don't have it, it's a line with a range of 5 ft/HD (max 100 ft), and does 1d8+1d8/3 HD damage. The DC is based on overal HD, not just racial HD.

Where did you find the adamantine dragon stats? I haven't seen them for 3.5.

[Ralasha]

Where did you find the adamantine dragon stats? I haven't seen them for 3.5.

Converted from 3rd party.

Black Half-Dragons will have a Gore attack.

[Bhu]

*Hugs*

[Ralasha]

O_O Kitty! *snuggles*

[radmelon]

For the Amethyst dragon, it says it gives "+1 caster level". This requires some elaboration.

[Ralasha]

They gain +1 Arcane Caster Level. I will check to make certain it reads as such. Done.

[Halae]

Ralasha, you are a wonderful, wonderful individual. I Love Half-dragons!

[Ralasha]

Me too. which is why I'm also attempting to create alternative Dragon Disciple PrCs. Red, oh, I have such a wonderful variety of choices... Red... red... red... Hey look, I can be half-red dragon! ... wait... that's not that wonderful.

[Zaydos]

They gain +1 Arcane Caster Level. I will check to make certain it reads as such. Done.

As a rampant dragon fanatic I must say this is awesome, but I must ask one question. Why do amethyst half-dragons gain a bonus to CL? They're gem (or psionic) dragons, so it would make more sense to me if they upped psionic manifester levels.

[Ralasha]

Then might I suggest, you switch it out if using this to make a character? >.> Never mind, I did it for you.

Black Dragon done. Next: Blue

[radmelon]

You may want to add a clause that says it only applies to one manifesting/casting class.

[Ralasha]

That is not the intended meaning. All Manifester Levels.

[Sir_Chivalry]

Then might I suggest, you switch it out if using this to make a character? >.> Never mind, I did it for you.

Black Dragon done. Next: Blue

Might I suggest, if Black gets a gore attack, then blue, having a honking great horn in the middle of its skull should too?

[radmelon]

That is not the intended meaning. All Manifester Levels.

...

That is dangerously close to breakable. Be wary.

[Ralasha]

Might I suggest, if Black gets a gore attack, then blue, having a honking great horn in the middle of its skull should too?

Actually, I have something else in mind for the blue, since it only has one. It'll be rather unique, but equivalent.

AND: Blue is done. ding.

[Cieyrin]

I'm a bit leery of Bulky stacking with Powerful Build, as that gets really silly really fast. Why not just make it Powerful Build and call it day?

I'm also curious about Adamantine half-dragons piercing all DR, as it seems to me that it should probably either just pierce DR/Adamantine or possibly reduce DR by 5. Either of those seems a bit more balanced to me.

Thick Scales is also hella powerful, as Deflection bonuses work on touch attacks and ranged touches from things like spells. If you want a Tarrasque effect, I guess that's fine but just be aware that converting natural armor to deflection is usually the effect of the Shimmer Scales spell.

[Zaydos]

I agree with the above. Bulky + Powerful Build = Medium creature treated as Huge for all beneficial effects and a really weird face as you wonder how it can be bigger than a large creature (while not quite huge sized) and yet smaller than one at the same time (as powerful build represents being in-between medium and large normally).

Also why would half-blue dragons get a deflection bonus and DR /- when blue dragons get neither, and don't have notably improved natural armor to begin with (they use the same formula as most other official dragons)?

[Ralasha]

All Dragons use the exact same basic statistics. I'm giving each a different flavor rather than just using vanilla extract for all of them. I might also point out Adamantine is supposed to be the hardest substance in existence. So, why would it not bypass mithril, or its self, what else would bypass it?

[Cieyrin]

All Dragons use the exact same basic statistics. I'm giving each a different flavor rather than just using vanilla extract for all of them. I might also point out Adamantine is supposed to be the hardest substance in existence. So, why would it not bypass mithril, or its self, what else would bypass it?

True enough but DR isn't all about hardness, most DRs are supernaturally defensive in nature and require materials and magics anathema to them to bypass. Like DR/silver, for example. Silver is softer than iron, yet needs a silver weapon to bypass.

[Ralasha]

Yep. It does, normally. I suppose I should tone it down however. Ding.

Both Blue and Adamantine are now less hardy. Enjoy, this is what you wanted? You realize of course, some dragons are far more powerful than other kinds of dragon, and that it would make more sense for their offspring to be similar? I would really rather avoid cookie cutter half-dragons.

[Cieyrin]

Yep. It does, normally. I suppose I should tone it down however. Ding.

Both Blue and Adamantine are now less hardy. Enjoy, this is what you wanted? You realize of course, some dragons are far more powerful than other kinds of dragon, and that it would make more sense for their offspring to be similar? I would really rather avoid cookie cutter half-dragons.

It's fine for Half-Dragons to be powerful, expected even. I also appreciate your expansion of half-dragons into variants based on from what kind of dragon they're descended from. My points, however, are what makes sense and what's balanced, at least in my opinion, and pointing them out. In the end, I'm just an observer and I'm making observations. What you do with those observations is up to you.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[Ralasha]

*deletes opening post due to too much hassle?* Nah. This is a lot of work. If you think you have a better idea for one of them, then make a few yourself. If I find them to my liking, I'll add them to the list.
Next two: Brass and Bronze.

[MageSparrowhawk]

I'd probably have to modify it to make it work for the changes you're instating, but I'd like to offer a Prestige Class I made a while ago. Maybe it'll give some ideas?

[Ralasha]

It's not ideas I'm having trouble with. It's the workload involved.

I have more dragon types to add, unique racial traits to parcel out to each individual race, descriptions, winged, or wingless, and all of this for almost 40 dragon types including Cave Dragons, Prismatic Dragons, Chromatic Dragons, Crystaline Dragons, Metallic Dragons, Oriental Dragons, Extra-Planar Dragons, etc.

[Silverscale]

if you're felling really adventurous you could try your hand at turning the 80-something Dragons that Zaydos has in his thread (look in his sig), into Half-Dragon variants.