In HotDQ, half-dragons start showing up mid-way. Other than their stat blocks in the Appendix, I have found nothing about what they are, where they come from and how they are different from Dragonborn. Anyone have any insights about this?
Seems likely a human with a polymorph spell hung out with a dragon and kids resulted. Seems like something casters in the Cult of the Dragon would do.
In 3E it was the other way around. Dragons polymorphed into humans. Not sure if dragons can polymorph any more though.
They have a section in the new Monster Manual, but I don't see any other background information. It looks like they're one of the few new monsters for this book.
It is the difference between a half-fiend and a tiefling, or a half-celestial and an aasimar. The true half breed is much more powerful. The race is likely descended from the half breed, but dilluted over time and weaker. And they're not new: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/halfDragon.htm
Here's some more info: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Half-dragon
it's not much but it's more than nothing.
ArkPanda wrote:
Cathartes wrote:
Sometimes, when a mommy dragon and daddy human - who love each other very much - get together with a case of whiskey and a tub of KY...
Some folks shared a bunch of the GenCon preview Monster Manual pages over at Enworld. Here's the Half-Dragon's page. 
Marandahir wrote:
When we say half-dragons usually people thinks about chromatic and metalic dragons... but ... what if I want a no-core half-dragon? For example half-lungs for a oriental setting where lungs (oriental dragons) are the warlords, or half- planar dragons for a gothic horror setting. My suggestion is all books with dragons ought to have a block with stats for half-dragon template.
Other matter, to mixture half-dragon template with combos like dragonborn race or classes like sorcerer, dragon shaman or dragonfire adept.
Will we see a new version of "Council of Wyrns"?
Luis_Carlos wrote:
That's the first template I've seen from 5th edition. I love it! It doesn't give the creature insane stat bonuses or anything, but it still makes them unique and interesting. I can't wait to see what they do with the vampire, lich, and lycanthrope.
Marandahir wrote:
Looks awesome.