Roll the Dice: Player’s Handbook Races – Dragonborn

Of all the races presented in the original Player’s Handbook of the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, two races stood out as being new – dragonborn and tieflings. Both of these races had appeared in previous editions (dragonborn cropping up in the 3e book Races of the Dragon), but their 4th edition counterparts were significantly different, thematically at least. Bits of descriptive text dropped references to an ancient empire of Arkhosia, and the war with the tieflings that destroyed it, but the core flavor of the race was still not as defined as some would’ve liked. Dragon Magazine#365 tried to amend this with an article entitled ‘The Ecology of the Dragonborn,’ which has been expanded upon by the recent 32-page release, Player’s Handbook Races: Dragonborn. If you are playing a dragonborn character, wish to play one in the future, or are a DM who wants to know more about the core flavor of the race, this publication may be right up your alley…

The first thing to note about this booklet is its physical properties. It’s similar is page-count to an adventure module from previous editions of the game. That said, the cover and paper quality of the pages are very nice, so it should be about as durable as a regular source book so long as you don’t play rough with it. I personally really enjoyed all the new artwork that appears in this book, although a few of the illustrations are just reused from previous sources. This is kind of odd, as most of the reused artwork was tied to previous Paragon Paths, and they are now associated with the new Paragon Paths introduced here. Meh.

The booklet starts with an introduction by James Wyatt and a short story of a dragonborn paladin guiding his comrades through a ruin of Arkhosia. Next, the three creation myths behind the dragonborn are presented, as well as a sidebar describing the three types of temples found in dragonborn settlements (as well as secret temples to the evil goddess Tiamat). Religious movements surrounding Bahamut and Tiamat are pretty obvious, but one that espouses an intentionally neutral focus by worshipping both? Pretty cool. The Imperial Arkhosian temples are also interesting, combining worship of Ioun, Erathis, and Kord as a focus to rebuilding their lost empire. Also cool is ‘Choosing Sides,’ which shows how most dragonborn blatantly choose to fight for Good, Evil, or strict neutrality, different from most other races that just do what comes naturally to them.

A dragonborn cleric and fighter

Next, the history of Arkhosia and its fall is presented, plus a candid look at why dragonborn come off as such glory-hounds. The ‘scions of a fallen empire’ shtick is similar to that found in the Eberron campaign setting (the goblins used to rule there), and it still has the same appeal here. The sidebar in this section ‘Ruins of Grandeur’ is unusual, in that it’s written as if talking directly to the player. One would almost think the intent here is to plant descriptive ideas in the heads of players, so that when the party enters an Arkhosian ruin the player can chime in and help describe things. I’m okay with that, but some (overly serious) DMs might frown at someone else grabbing the reigns for a minute or two.

Then the booklet shifts gears, from ‘fluff’ to ‘crunch.’ Mr. Wyatt talks about the importance of a dragonborn’s clan, supplemented by four dragonborn-specific Backgrounds you could use, each describing a type of clan. These aren’t specific clans, however, so they’ve got broad utility. Also, there’s a sidebar talking about the four names a dragonborn has – two private, two public. A good swath of the following page-count is dedicated to the currently available power sources – Arcane, Divine, Martial, and Primal. These sections mesh descriptive text with gamespeak, basically telling you what classes dragonborn excel at and which ones they tend to avoid or embrace due to culture. Four new Backgrounds are presented for dragonborn of each power source, as well as a new dragonborn-specific Paragon Path for each. After reading this part of the booklet, I couldn’t help but wish that all the other races had a similar treatment – the racial Paragon Paths alone are nice, a pleasing mixture of power source and racial flavor.

No D&D book would be complete without feats, right? Right? Kidding aside, those presented here are all decent, almost all building on the dragonborn’s breath weapon. As per usual, none of them seem to be ‘must-have’ or too powerful. Ancient Soul seems pretty awesome (regain usage of your breath weapon after taking damage of a specific energy type), but I wonder just how often that will come up. Bolstering Breath is pretty sweet too – instead of damaging allies when breathing on them, they get a bonus on attack rolls. I also like Critical Breath, a Paragon feat that deals ongoing damage when you critically hit an enemy with your breath weapon.

An illustration of the Bolstering Breath feat

The next section details ‘Dragonborn Items,’ although that may be a misnomer – none of the five new magic weapons introduced are particularly ‘dragonborn-ish’ or even draconic-flavored, leaving me sort of disappointed. The “Silver Dragon Regalia,” a new item set leveled 12-16, cheered me up a little. It includes a rod implement, an axe / heavy blade, a head-slot item, a waist-slot item, and a battle standard. Since the Silver Dragon Regalia was worn by great generals of the Arkhosian empire, I could see someone playing a dragonborn focused on dredging up the past or re-establishing the empire desiring such a set.

The booklet continues with a very cool section of possible quests that a dragonborn character could use as his or her focus for adventuring. There are quests for all three tiers, including some mighty ones for epic level play; some could be useful as minor quests that the DM can support by dropping items along the path of adventure, and others could become the focus of an adventure or two for the entire party. Smashed into this section and ending the booklet is a single dragonborn-specific Epic Destiny, the Avatar of Io. I have little experience with the estimated power level of epic play in 4th edition, however this Destiny seems pretty fantastic – a fragment of Io’s power rests within, and you slowly awaken to its power, ending with you being a demigod that either BECOMES Io or his favored exarch upon bringing him back into existence. Finally, on the very last page, is a sidebar that describes the position of the dragonborn race as of the beginning of a typical D&D campaign. I’m not sure if this was just convenient placement or intentional, as if it’s the end of the diving board before jumping into a campaign with a new dragonborn character.

Is this book a must-have? No, not even if you are playing a dragonborn character or running a campaign heavy with the species. That said, I’m glad I’ve read it, and wish I could play a dragonborn right now. The price point is rough, though – about $10 for what some might call a glorified Dragon Magazine article. If you’ve got the spare dough, have an unfortunate DM who refuses to use any supplemental game pieces that aren’t in book form, are a collector of books, or are just obsessed with this new race, you should probably buy Player’s Handbook Races: Dragonborn. Everyone else can just find the mechanics (but not the flavor) on the D&D Compendium. Personally, I can’t wait until the tiefling book comes out!