What's up guys-
I have a pretty interesting PC who has decided she is a dragonborn bard. That plays the tuba.
Comic relief aside, I am wondering how to deal with the draconic character in the party, and dragon lore in general as the party goes through the Tyranny adventures. We are currently still in Hoarde of the Dragon Queen, and have not yet got to episode three, the dragon hatchery. I am under the assumption that the dragonborn would be wholly against the slaughter of the dragon eggs. Or, would she be vengeful towards "evil" dragons, and be all for it?
I am new to the dragonborn race, having jumped in to 5e from 1e. From what I gather, Tiamat is the mother/goddess of all chromatic dragons, and all chromatic dragons are evil. Our PC is a blue-type.
How should I handle this? Should I prompt for some background before letting them venture into episode three? Beyond this point, should the character be an automatic source for most of the dragon lore and hints that are bound to show up elsewhere in the modules?
Thanks in advance!
I briefly played a dragonborn paladin. He worshed Bahamut, and was lawful good. He would have viewed the destruction of evil dragon eggs as the right course of action. A bard should probably have a somewhat different view of things, or at least a lot more roleplay options to choose from. Dragonborn are there own separate species from dragons, so I would go off of individual dragonborn stories for how they play and respond.
A blue dragonborn might create a special attraction towards a blue dragon egg specifically which could lead to some interesting results if she decides to try ot keep and raise it...
I'd say you should work out with the player whether or not the character would know about dragons. If yes, give that player the job of reading out dragon lore: you provide the information, ask the player to read it out in character as if the character is remembering it. But keep more important dragon lore from the character and keep it as the purview of those with high intelligence, who may have deliberately delved into such learning.
Whether or not the dragon-born would want to destroy or save the eggs would be a personal choice. I'd mention to the player that contact with chromatic dragons is coming up, and ask if they've thought how the character would respond. If the player hasn't thought about it, talk to them and work it out. If it's not important to the player it won't need any more thought, but if it's something they'd like to take into account then you've helped them give their character depth in a way that hasn't spoiled anything for them.
I would work out a good backstory with your player.
Identify where the dragonborn race came from, what there society is like, and where the player fits into it.
I wouldn't worry about making it too serious.
Tell your player I love the Tuba Bard idea.
As described in 4e, dragonborn hate dragons with a passion, due to their racial history as servants of dragons. So the PC does not automatically have to act in the best interest of a dragon.
Look over the 4e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting to see what inspires you and your player.
There are several half-dragon enemies in HotDQ. To the average cultist, the visible differences between a Dragonborn and a Half-dragon might be hard to distinguish, potentially leading to humourous or interesting situations where cultists try to recruit the PC, or assume she's someone significant within the Cult of the Dragon.
You might also want to think about how the Half-dragons respond to a dragonborn. In particular, Cyanwrath, a blue half-dragon, might have some strong opinions on facing a blue dragonborn. Would he want to recruit her as a long-lost sister? Destroy her for opposing her draconic oppressor/creators? Pity her for having only a weakened portion of draconic inheritance rather than the greater share he has?
Sorin_777 wrote:
Excellent replies everyone, thanks for the input! Please forgive me if I don't block quote everyone in reply, I am working behind a terrible internet connection.
For one, my new to (recent) D&D lore has apparantly tripped me up, as I didn't realize that Dragonborn hate dragons, nor that they were different than the "Half Dragons" from the adventure. I thought the difference in terminology had something more to do with the modules being made during the play test era, so I have played them in-game as the same species.
So yes, that made for an interesting role play during first duel, yes the cult members trust my blue dragonborn player, and yes townsfolk are immediately scared of her!
The town people also don't like the Minotaur in the group. Yes, a minotaur... I took the MM listing down to one hit die, replaced his giant axe with a great sword, and reduced the gore damage slightly.
Oh, and since the Minotaur can only speak abyssal, I've decided that he has to translate everything through the paladin. Who is a Tiefling. Yes, I think I have a goofy bunch of players, but it's been great. The fourth player is "just an elf", so is not so scary...
Back on point. I don't think I want so much to control the player, as much as give the player the right in game flavor she is "supposed" to have. That and the whole dragon lore thing. For example, during the episode one, they captured and successfully interrogated a cultist, who gave them the info that they were gathering treasure to usher in the reign of the dragon queen. My players IRL haven't made the connection between the "dragon queen" and Tiamat. I think that will be a great reveal, something that they discover in episode 2. I intend on playing it like that, because I think it will make for a great surprise, even though I think the dragonborn should already just know the connection.
I'm glad I ran into this thread.I am having a similar situation. To the Original Poster how have things progressed since?
Also what should be the relationship between the cultists and the dragonborn? I know my dragonborn paladin would at least sense
the evil through "divine sense", but should the cultists have an inital reverance to him??
"Cousin, I'm glad to see some more scales around here. You're still a miserable puke, but not as much as the rest of these miserable pukes, and that's saying something." Cyanwrath, to a dragonborn PC during our session of HotDQ Ep.2.
It's really up to the DM to determine how NPCs are going to react to dragonborn characters. The DM at this table decided Cyanwrath wasn't especially fond of his numerous human underlings, and was glad to have someone in camp that shared some draconic blood, even if, as a half-dragon, he considered the dragonborn an inferior species. The player was then able to use his clout to get more information and move more freely around camp. YMMV
sushisweats wrote:
Our group has a dragonborn monk acolyte of bahamut. He had no problem destroying the dragon eggs. They were evil dragons and a part of the machination of Tiamat. Our dragonborn monk respects the worship of all gods accept Tiamat. He opposes the Cult of Dragons because they now worship Tiamat.
In our campaign dragonborn are a new race to Faerun. As such there is a lot of prejudice toward dragonborn. In this kind of enviroment, many young dragonborn would be attracted to this new cult of the dragon. To this end the berserkers with Langdrossa Cyanwraith were dragonborn in our HotDQ campaign.
In our campaign all dragonborn have the same color scales, generally a copper like hue. But they may show their dragon ancestry through feathers. Yep our dragonborn have feathers instead of dread lock tentacles like growth. Half dragon are directly descented from a dragon, therefore have the same color scale of thier parent as well as other features, Rezmir has two horns from the crown and black scales, Langdrossa has a single horn on the snout with blue scales.
It was a straight forward decision for our dragonborn monk acolyte of Bahamut. a dragonborn bard may have different opinions and values concerning the eggs.
I'm more interested in how the dragonborn plays the tuba. All brass instruments require soft fleshy lips in order to play them - in fact it is the vibration of the lips as you force air through them that makes sound come out.
I kid. I have a Dragonborn Warlock in a group I DM for - Entertainer background - he plays the jazz flute.
The 3.5e era Dragons of Faerun mentions the beginnings of dragonborn in FR - very anti-Tiamat persons taking a blessing off Bahamut (who was not a Big Thing in the pantheon at that time) and coming out looking a bit like him. I did not find any racial stats or description. The book is set approximately the year after The Year of Dragons' Rage (DR 1370?). My next project is to find a 3.0 Draconomicon in my Public Library's storage section, and see if it has any cool and on-this-point material.
4e pretty much starts from scratch: Dragonborn showed up in large numbers along with the nation of Tymanther. The 4e Draconomicon lore was rather blah and uninspired (the book was a place to put all the dragons' combat stats).
As always, use whatever background "facts" provide more fun for your table.
- Just in case you like Realmslore.
Well, my campaign had both a Dragonborn and a Kobold PC, using a race I found on here, and while Episode 3 hasn't been a problem, the gigantic uprising they caused in Episode 2 from the Kobolds certainly was. Mondath did not enjoy her tent being on fire.