Dragon Adventurers

Inside this PDF you will find everything you need to play a dragon or DM for one in the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. This includes: three classes that each have at least two archetypes, several feats, a race with 15 subraces, three unique backgrounds for dragon characters, adapted rules to accommodate dragon characters, advice for DMs running games for dragon characters, and insight into the ideas behind the design decisions I made.

I have been using and refining this content with the players at my table for over five years. My intent has always been to get the "feel" of playing a dragon right while limiting the power that doing so might imply and recreating the normal player character experience (leveling up, gaining features, tiers of play, etc.). I think I strike a good balance in that regard without coming up with any convoluted game mechanics.

Features, rules, feats, races; everything in this document has been written and presented in such a way that it closely adheres to the styles establish by the Dungeon Master's Guide and Player's Handbook. I am confident this is worth your money but won't charge you for something you don't think you'll use. :)

Ideally, I'll expand this document to include a third archetype for the presented class (Done!), up to two additional classes with two to three archetypes of their own, indepth explorations of specific subraces, briefs on the draconic deities presented in the Draconomicon, special down time rules for dragon characters, special background options for dragon characters, and a few magic items specifically for dragons that I've homebrewed.

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Chages as of 2/24/2022

• Dragons
  • Extensive changes to the lore section before dragon traits.
    
  • Breath Weapon. Decreased the maximum damage by 1d6 at 17th level (10d6). This resulted in a reduction at 13th and 9th levels by 1d6 as well (to 9d6 and 8d6 respectively).
• Nomad
  • Satisfied Defense. Clarified when you have to take the reaction. You now burn satisfaction only if you’re hit by the attack after you take this reaction. The intent is that using this reaction early in a combat, before you figure out a monster’s attack bonus, is riskier. Now a 2nd level feature.
  • Momentum. Now a 1st level feature, its scaling remains the same.
  • Stride. You now get a number of uses equal to 1 + your proficiency bonus.
  • Nomadic Archetypes. Chosen at level 3. You obtain features at 3, 7, 11, 17.
  • Endless Cravings. Now a 5th level feature.
  • Rite of Power
    • Supernatural fortitude No longer increases hit points. Instead, it allows you to burn satisfaction to stay at 1 hit point when you would go to 0. You can use it once/long rest but can burn additional satisfaction to keep using it (it essentially costs 2 satisfaction each time you use it beyond the first).
    • Rite of Strength. You now must be striding to gain the bonus to your melee attack and damage rolls.
    • Rite of Intellect. You can now change the skill proficiency to another skill proficiency whenever you finish a long rest.
    • Rite of Alacrity. Instead of adding your full satisfaction bonus to melee attack and damage rolls, you reroll any 1 on melee attacks and use the new roll.
  • Words of Power
    • Korep (attract) reduced the number of times this can be used consecutively but you can burn satisfaction to use it multiple times before a short/long rest.
    • Ukris (talk) added more language about what objects know. Increased the duration to 5 minutes. Specified how far an object can hear while it’s sentient and how far it can telepathically communicate. Specified that if it communicates telepathically, it only communicates with you.
  • Phrases of Power
    • Dout arcaniss jaseveic wux (Your magic abandons you). Changed the restriction to prevent a caster from casting spell of 5th level or higher and clarified the loss of spells so that only a spellcaster with spell slots loses spells. Creatures with innate spellcasting don’t lose spells.
• Seer
  • Second Self. When you use your action to create your second self, if you’re concentrating on a spell you can transfer your concentration on that spell to it, allowing you to concentrate on a different spell. If you take the echo of the greatwyrm archetype, your second self should retain the benefit(s) you chose with the 6th level feature.
  • Echo of the Greatwyrm
    • Awesome Presence. Greatly reduced the number of times this feature can be used. You can burn 3rd level+ spell slots to use it more often. This is a straight up nerf to a feature that was too powerful.
    • Conduit of the Greatwyrm. Reworked the duration extension portion of the feature. This is essentially a nerf but I feel this version of the feature is much more balanced.
  • Incarnation of the First World
    • Dreams of the First World. You can now replace a number of spells equal to your wisdom modifier + half your seer level rounded down.
    • Cosmic Sundering. Changed the way this feature functions to be a one-use feature that affects a number of creatures equal to your wisdom mod. You regain the use at the end of a short or long rest but can burn 3rd level+ slots to use it again.
    • Inheritor of the First World. The levels of the spells you can cast are now: 4th + 3rd or 2nd + 1st or cantrip.
  • Spell List
    • Added: Demiplane, Ruby’s Dragon Dance
  • Spells
    • Cosmic Ray. The rays you fire at higher levels must target different creatures. This change is made in consideration of the fact that a creature could be teleported out of range of the spell and become an invalid target.
    • Banish to the Void. Reduced the damage to 1d12 per turn (dealing an average of 65 damage after 10 rounds).
    • Solar Flare. Reduced the initial damage to 3d10 + 3d10, and per round damage to 1d10.
    • Fragment of the First World. When the moon is destroyed or the spell ends, the ash it disintegrates into floats out to space (preventing a potentially extinction-level cloud of ash from entering the atmosphere). Changed the rules regarding how to destroy the moon or wish it out of existence. Changed the lunar missile power’s damage and radius and gave it a range of 1 mile from you.
• Feats
  • Changed the level requirement of various feats introduced in the last update to 8th level.
  • Recharging Exhalation. Beginning with the turn you use your breath weapon, you must end three turns before you can use it again.
  • Heavy Attacks. Tweaked the attack penalty to -3
  • Gem Inheritance. Crystal dragons gain temporary hit points equal to half their level, rounded up.
  • Gem Psionics. Reworded the core of the feat to clearly state the ways in which you can cast the spells. Topaz dragons had the 1st-level spell create or destroy water, which has been replaced with the 2nd-level spell knock.
• Magic Items
  • Helm of the Fallen Talon. Shortened the dedication on this item to be less presumptuous about what people might have thought about the way Havarlan died (or how she herself thought about it). Made the helmet trigger conflicts less often, removing the trigger resulting from avoiding fights with undead. An example of what the Ptarian code might look like on your world is now included in Chapter 3 of the PDF. Reduced the stats (INT/WIS/CHA) of the helmet. I originally based the stats on an adult silver dragon’s stats, but those seemed too high considering the sentience within the helm was born from the collective memory of a heroic silver dragon.
  • Jharakkan’s Talon. Rearranged some of the text for this item, clarified other parts of it, reduced the number of skill proficiencies you can get from it. Increased the size of the cauldron required to break the curse to 32 gallons and altered some of the text regarding breaking the curse. The pints of blood to destroy the talon can come from dragons of any age, as tracking down 10 different species should be quite a challenge in and of itself.
  • Second Gut. Reworded some of this item without changing how it functions overall. Specified that junk exhalation expels 30 hard objects, which wasn’t clear before. Keep in mind that the 30 objects could simply be 30 copper coins. Hard objects are basically just anything you could throw with a sling (or bigger things) that would hypothetically deal damage. Increased the damage of junk exhalation to 6d8. Added the DC of the dex save (face palming over the lack of it). Reworked the ranged weapon attack property so that it’s clear you’re proficient with the attack and that it uses your Strength on the attack and damage rolls.
  • Dragonback Mega Cannon. This item’s weight has been set at 100 pounds. Significantly reduced the damage of both beams. Added the DC of the dex save (face palming over the lack of it). Removed the explosive drawback of the item.

Changes as of 2/12/2022

It’s with great pride that I introduce version 2.0 of Dragon Adventurers. This massive expansion doubles the size of the pdf, putting it at 57 pages (though I admit that a few pages are still placeholders for future content), and comes with a wealth of new content including 2 new class options for dragon characters, each with two archetypes to choose from. While these classes are untested, and therefore likely to change as time goes on, I feel that the majority of their features are sound and that their class identities are well defined. Since I feel like this is finally something I can be proud of, I've increased the PWYW suggestion to $10, up from $1, if for no other reason than to indicate how satisfied I am with my work.

The changes to Dragon Adventurers are detailed below. In the many hours I’ve spent working on my project for the past two months, I may have forgotten to make note of some changes, so please read carefully.

• Changed the entire font of the PDF to “Lato.” This should fix the problem of things not being able to be copied from the PDF format. I held off on this for a long time because reformatting things was a real pain and figuring out which fonts would work was a lot of trial and error.
• Chapter 2
  • Editing pass. 
  • Added information about multi-classing to the chapter (right now it’s not supported). 
  • Expanded the Increased Consumption section. 
  • Reworked the draconic lifestyles section.
  • In the future, I intend to add a draconic downtime activities section that will provide the following downtime options:
    • Create/Expand Lair, Patrol Territory
• Chapter 3
  • Editing pass.
  • Expanded and reworked the “Medium Dragons” sidebar. Now named “Adjusting this Racial Template,” it provides more concrete rules and guidance for DM’s to use.
  • Dragon Racial Template
    • The Ability Score Increase trait now allows a dragon character to substitute two of their +1 increases to take the alternate form feat instead. 
    • Big Appetite
      • Added this racial trait. This is already stated in chapter 2 but I wanted to ensure it’s clearly intended that dragons eat more than what the DMG says large creatures need. These numbers are based on what lions in zoos are fed, which is probably still not enough for a dragon that isn’t living in captivity.
    • Cut a lot of text from the size trait. I have plans to introduce specific proportions based on subrace in a later version of this PDF.
    • Blindsight
      • The new rules from Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons that concretely define how blindsight works have been incorporated into this sense’s description. I feel that this is much stronger than the version originally described in the Monster Manual and PHB, so I’ve introduced rules for a new blindsense trait option based on the rogue’s 14th level feature (found in the Adjusting this Racial Template sidebar). I’ve adjusted the trait to give 10-foot blindsight at 1st level, increasing to 30-foot blindsight at 17th level. However, I strongly suggest DMs swap this trait with blindsense (or just cut it) if they feel blindsight is too strong or annoying.
  • Subraces
    • Cut descriptive text from many traits in subraces in preparation to add descriptive text for each race and subrace.
    • Reorganized this section to separate chromatic, gem, and metallic.
    • Previous Racial Traits (Chromatic and Metallic)
      • Many racial traits have been changed to eliminate superfluous abilities that I felt lacked impact or appeal. Examples include the Blue Dragon’s Desert Predator trait and the Bronze Dragon’s Storm Seer trait. These traits have been replaced to provide skill proficiency options. I made these changes because as I designed the Gem Dragons, I realized their psionic abilities are an integral part of them, and I felt that the version of the trait I’m using, though limited, is stronger than the traits I’m replacing. The full extent of the changes are listed in each subrace's section of this update list.
  • Chromatic Dragons
    • Black Dragon
      • Historian is now Archeologist’s Instincts and offers two skill options: History and Arcana.
    • Blue Dragon
      • Desert Predator has been replaced with Desert Baron’s Instincts and offers a choice of two skills: Persuasion or Stealth.
    • Green Dragon
      • Skill trait renamed Orator’s Instincts and now offers a choice between Persuasion and Deception.
      • Green dragons incorrectly had a 20-foot cone for their elemental affinity trait. This has been corrected.
    • Red Dragon
      • Chosen of the Chromatic replaced with Fiery Reputation. Grants proficiency in Intimidation.
    • White Dragon
      • Tundra Predator has been replaced with Predatory Instincts and offers a choice between Stealth and Survival.
  • Gem Dragons
    • Introduced as a playable subrace.
  • Metallic Dragons
    • Brass Dragon
      • Linguist now offers two languages of your choice, in addition to Dwarvish and Elvish.
    • Bronze Dragon
      • Storm Seer has been replaced with Sea Farer’s Instincts, which offers proficiency in Athletics or Survival.
    • Copper Dragon
      • Comedian now also grants proficiency in an instrument. Dragons shouldn’t be able to use wind instruments that use finger holes, like a flute, nor ones that need lips, like a harmonica. Stringed instruments and percussion instruments seem reasonable.
    • Gold Dragon
      • Favor of the Metallic replaced with Judge’s Instincts, which provides proficiency in the Insight skill.
    • Silver Dragon
      • Incognito renamed to Pretender’s Instincts. Provides a choice between deception and persuasion.
• Chapter 4
  • Comrade
    • Changed and added some descriptive text within the class. The changes should have no impact on gameplay.
    • Starting wealth in gems reduced to 200gp.
    • Changed “adventuring approach” to “bond archetype.”
    • Reservoir Capacity
      • Reworked the pacing. Now, a level 1 comrade starts with 3 uses of their reservoir and gains 1 additional use every odd level until level 15, at which point they have 10 uses. This change was sorely needed but often forgotten as a result of not testing with dragon characters at low levels for a very long time.
    • Reservoir Die
      • The reservoir die now starts as a d6. The pacing of the increase of the die has been slightly altered. It now becomes a d8 at 7th, a d10 at 13th, and a d12 at 17th.
    • Wellspring
      • Renamed the 4th level feature formerly known as Vigor to Wellspring
    • Reservoir Mastery
      • Changed the increment of gaining new uses to every 4 levels.
    • Vigor
      • Introduced a new 11th level feature. Allows the Comrade to expend two uses of their reservoir, instead of one, when they use their empower or endure feature. Doing so allows them to roll 2 reservoir dice. If either dice is the maximum possible result, they regain one use of their reservoir. The synergy with reservoir mastery is intended.
    • Splendor
      • Reworded this feature. Its effect remains the same.
    • Enhanced bond
      • Instead of allowing you to cast spells this now allows you to have telepathy cast on your bonded allies at all times. 
        • The only difference from the spell is that I omitted the word “instantaneous” because I felt that implied the communication happens outside what’s described in the “Other Activity On Your Turn” section of the PHB (page 190).
    • Boundless Reserves
      • Renamed the 20th level feature formerly known as “invigoration.”
    • Bond Smith
      • Renamed to Empath
      • Refreshing Bond
        • Put a cap on the amount of healing this can cause.
      • Heroic Bond
        • Changed this to grant temporary hit points at the end of a short or long rest.
    • Adamant
      • Changed Draconic Superiority's name to Adamant Strikes.
        • The second option of the feature now pushes a target up to 20 feet.
    • Savant 
      • Seer of the Scale
        • Renamed to Visions of the Future. 
        • This 10th level feature has been totally reworked. The change comes after many years of playing the feature more or less as described in the new rules for it. I always felt that simply giving the savant commune once per day was lazy design, but feared writing the rules that were in my head would create an overly complex behemoth that gave people headaches to read. Well, that’s exactly what happened. Then I spent hours editing it. My hope is that this special form of divination magic, which draws inspiration from the cleric’s knowledge domain, is unique and useful, allowing the DM to get creative without being too difficult to arbitrate or too easy for the DM to make useless.
      • Temporal Shelter
        • Added language to this feature that describes the bounds and appearance of the demiplane.
  • Nomad
    • Introduced this class and its two archetypes. The class is more or less content complete but still untested and subject to change.
  • Seer
    • Introduced this class and its two archetypes. The class is more or less content complete but still untested and subject to change.
• Chapter 5: Backgrounds
  • Introduced this chapter
• Chapter 6: Feats
  • This is now a chapter
  • Introduced 4 new feats
  • Alternate form
    • You can now use this feat a number of times equal to 1 + your proficiency bonus. You regain expended uses at the end of a long rest. At level 19, you can use it unlimited times.
    • Also added further clarification regarding what features/proficiencies/attributes you retain by stating that “you retain your other game statistics” in the section regarding what racial traits and class features you lose.
  • Recharging exhalation
    • Changed so that a dragon character rolls a d4 and must wait that many turns before they can use their breath weapon again.
    • Changed to allow you to use this feat twice, instead of once, beginning at level 17. This should allow for a total of 5 breath weapons in a day of adventuring if both short rests are used.
• Chapter 7: Magic Items
  • Introduced this chapter

Changes as of 12/22/2021

To everyone that has used this supplement: I am so sorry for the long delay between updates. Sadly, the Nomad is not anywhere near ready to be published as I spent a great deal of time this year struggling with my health and finances. However, I am happy to say I am once again in a place where I can work on this content and will be doing so for the next few months.

Close readers will note that I reworded a few sentences and phrases here and there as I nitpicked my language. In addition, I added a reference to a currently nonexistant Backgrounds section, which I will be working on over the course of the next few months (when I'm feeling burnt out on class design for the Nomad). I also intend to totally rework the Downtime section to bring those rules more in line with what is published in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. I've always felt this section was particularly weak and I want to make something robust and usable.

Changes to dragon subraces:

• Silver dragons have had their dynamism trait reworked. The previous incarnation, which allowed players to take a 10 on initiative, while not bad was also kind of underwhelming with its per short rest/long rest use. Now, players can take a 20 on their initiative (regardless of what they roll) but can only do so oncer per long rest.

Changes as of 7/23/2020

A major editing pass to the introduction section. Minor pass through all other sections of content.

Minor changes to art placement and layout. My goal is to pair art to content, rather than just having random pictures of dragons filling blank space.

Changes to the Comrade class:

• Cleaned up the wording of Bonds of Camaraderie and removed text about divination prevention and alternate planes. The DM now makes rulings on those areas to suit their view of magic and the game world.
• Beginning at 17th level, the Comrade's reservoir die becomes a d12, up from a d10. This change aims to ensure the class progresses in pace with other classes.
• The Reservoir Mastery feature has been changed to be more significant. Instead of a reroll, the Comrade can choose to have their reservoir die be treated as the maximum possible result. I still felt the feature was often forgotten and not as impactful as a 9th level feature should be. This change may be reverted if this version proves too powerful. 
  • Keep in mind that the wording of Reservoir Mastery prevents it from being used in conjunction with the Comrade Savant's shift perspective feature. This is because the comrade needs to be the one rolling the die to use reservoir mastery, while shift perspective allows a bonded ally to roll the die. This is an intentional limitation.
• Whorling Ebb has been changed to Enhanced Bonds. Whorling Ebb made me face palm every time I read it.
  • The feature now icnreases the number of bonds the comrade can sustain by 5, making 10 the maximum. 
  • The cost to cast telepathy has been reduced from 3 uses of the reservoir to 1. This cost may be subject to change in the future, depending on how powerful telepathy proves in play. Telepathy can now only target creatures with which the comrade has a bond of camaraderie. 
• The Adamant has had the following changes to its features, aiming to make the subclass a thematically complete package. I don't foresee any additional changes in the future:
  • Friends in High Places has been improved to apply a presistant attack redirection after the initial reaction takes place, lasting until the beginning of the Adamant Comrade's next turn.
  • The 15th level feature has been renamed to Relentless Protector and now allows an Adamant Comrade to make a bonus action attack so long as a bonded ally is within 5 feet of them.

Changes to feats:

• Recharging exhalation has been changed to allow the player to choose when they regain their breath weapon, rather than having it be random. My player felt the low chance of regaining the breath weapon and lack of control over when it occurs made the feat unappealing, and I agree with this assessment.

Changes as of 7/23/2019

Some editing/expansion to the first three chapters of the document.

Balance tweaks and conceptual changes to the existing class' identity.

• Breath weapon damage at higher levels has been reduced by 1d6, capping at 11d6 (level 17), before accounting for possible feats and class features.
• Breath weapon ranges/areas have been increased. From 40 feet to 60 feet for lines, and from 20 feet to 30 feet for cones.
• The extra text at the end of the Elemental Affinity racial trait, which granted dragons very minor cantrip powers, has been eliminated. It seemed unnecessary to concretely define this as an ability dragons have rather than let the player and DM make things like that up for themselves.

Many changes to the class formerly known as the Dragon Adventurer:

• Changed the class' name to Comrade to facilitate new classes. As part of this change, some text that previously fell under the umbrella of the Dragon Adventuer concept has been eliminated while other text has been moved to appear before the Comrade, signifying that it speaks to the experience of all dragon adventurers.
• The following class features have been removed as part of the change from "Dragon Adventurer" to "Comrade"
  • Evaluating Eye has been removed entirely. This felt like an extra feature that didn't add anything to the class' identity and played awkwardly.
  • Alternate form is now a Feat, instead of a class feature.
    • My internal play testing indicated dissatisfaction and a conflict of identity within the class as a result of this and related features
    • Draconic Manifestations no longer exist, but feel free to offer them as feats if you so wish.
• The following class features have been added as part of the aforementioned change
  • Bonds of Camaraderie, at level 1
    • Some features were changed to tie the Bonds of Camaraderie feature to them
      • The Teamwork option of the Martial Study class feature
      • The Telepathy option of Whorling Ebb
      • The Frame of Reference feature of the Savant archetype
      • The Shift Perspective feature of the Savant archetype
• The following class features have been changed for balance/gameplay simplicity reasons
  • Reservoir Mastery is now obtained at level 9, and can only be used once, regaining spent uses at the end of a short or long rest. At 11th and 13th levels, the Comrade can use their Reservoir Mastery feature one additional time. The previous version was often forgotten and when it wasn't forgotten, was too good.
  • Frame of Reference no longer has an augury spell casting option. This was eliminated to make the feature more simple and to accomodate the extra power it provides as a result of being tied to Bonds of Camaraderie.
• The following feats have been changed
  • Recharging Exhalation has been simplified at the cost of a bit of power. If characters don't roll initiative a lot in your game, consider keeping the older version or some blend of the two.

Changes as of 6/13/18

Various changes to the format and layout of the PDF that will hopefully improve the overall visual presentation.
Minor editing pass; more to be done in the coming months.
Various balance tweaks.

• Heavy Attacks has had the attack penalty increased from -3 to -4.
• Concentrated Exhalation has been changed so that the dragon character only recovers one, instead of half, of the spent hit dice at the end of a short rest.
• Recharging Exhalation now only allows the dragon character to recover their breath weapon once, instead of twice.
• The Frame of Reference feature has been improved to allow the Savant to cast Augury as an action, rather than as a ritual. This change aims to ensure the feature feels sufficiently rewarding, especially considering the commune feature later in the subclass.
• Removed the stealth benefit from blue dragon's desert dweller feature. While thematically appropriate, unlike a white dragon, blue dragons don't hide well because of something innate to them (natural camouflague) but because they gain total cover by burying themselves in sand. This is already something the subrace grants with a burrowing speed.

Changes as of 11/14/17

Cleaned up several areas of text

Corrected the white dragon subrace; white dragons don't have a climbing speed.

Expanded upon the draconic proficiencies section in Chapter 2.

Changes as of 11/11/17

Dragon Adventurer changes: Clarified the function of the 11th level feature. Moved the "wings" portion of Draconic Manifestation from 14th level to 13th level; reintroduced a 14th level ability score improvement (which had been previously cut before release). Swapped Evaluating Eyes with Implacable Defense.

Feats: Reduced the attack penalty to Heavy Attacks from -5 to -3 and added a 1 Strength bonus to the feat.

Racial Changes: Removed the 5th level spell casting benefits from red and gold dragons. Gave the bronze dragon's storm seer ability an additional function akin to the blue dragon's desert dweller, improving Wisdom (Survival) checks in aquatic environments.

These were all changes I had been planning for a few weeks, but that I still wasn't sure about until I got some recent feedback. Please excuse my OCD.

Changes as of 11/10/17 

Spelling/grammar corrections

A small addition to the suggestions on how to accommodate flight.

Added a printer friendly version (no art, fewer pages, smaller text).

The last update (I think) until new content/feedback is incorporated. Please excuse my OCD.

Changes as of 11/9/17

Spelling corrections.

Changes to the wording of some features and feats that reference "making a melee weapon attack using a natural weapon," which could potentially cause confusion. Natural weapons aren't melee weapons, like a sword, but they are treated as melee weapons for the purposes of attacking with them.