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The Wyrmling: Playable DragonsClick to magnify

The Wyrmling: Playable Dragons

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"My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Although playing as Smaug would be wonderfully fun for the player, it might lead to a bit of a lack in game balance for the rest of the party. It is just not practical to let your player be a fully grown dragon who can destroy entire towns, but why not let them play as a cute little wyrmling?

This document lists a race, class, and background (as well as one optional feat) all intended to be used together to create a wyrmling dragon PC or if the party happens to adopt a dragon along the way. The abilities and balance are pulled largely from the monster manual stat blocks, with a little bit of deviation for balance and to give the dragon spellcasting. The intent is to create something closely related to the monster manual dragons.

As the dragon levels, it grows from a newly hatched dragon into a young dragon, from small to large. If a campaign takes place over a short period of time, it may make sense to introduce a magical means of growth or some other explanation for accelerated growth.

I have been working and tweaking this document for about two years now. I origionally started it as I struggled to find a playable dragon that was faithful to the monster manual stat blocks. It has since seen a small amount of playtesting and tweaking; however, more tweeks may come out in the future based on feedback.

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Discussions (7)
Customer avatar
Matt B September 29, 2021 5:51 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi, I was wondering if Version 2 was available to download, it is still listed as V1.0.
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tim C August 18, 2019 8:02 am UTC
PURCHASER
how much playtesting has this had? i'm wondering, because my character will likely die and a wyrmling would be fun to rp as a new one, and i want to talk to my dm about this.
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Dylan R August 18, 2019 4:08 pm UTC
CREATOR
It has had a decent amount of play testing, but is definitely still not fine tuned. It is definitely leaning a bit on the powerful side in the current iteration, so your GM May want to nerf it a bit. One thing to note is that if you play it, you will need to be mindful of not letting the fact you are a dragon dominate RP. I would highly recommend leaning heavily into the dragons relationships with other players and invest in their backstories. Definitely avoid an evil, man-eating, treasure hoarding, haughty dragon, as I have not seen that work out well once.
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tim C September 03, 2019 11:48 pm UTC
PURCHASER
yea, I'm going for a silver that has a bit of greed as a flaw but is chaotic good overall. thanks for the answer
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Dylan R July 19, 2019 11:57 pm UTC
CREATOR
Version 2.0 is now available, thank you guys for your comments! I tried to implement them as best as I could.
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Philip W June 07, 2019 10:22 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I love this homebrew, going to play one in my next campaign.
Btw, may I suggest a new feat?

"Hoard Bond
Prerequisite: Being a dragon,half-dragon, dragonborn, kobold, or draconic bloodline sorcerer as well as having the ability to cast at least one spell.

Your draconic blood allows you to form a unique bond with your hoard. Once per day, you can take 8 hours to attune to a magical or mundane item to form a bond. While the item is within 5 feet of yourself, the effect of the enchantment is applied to you. In the case of magic weapons, you can temprarily transfer its effect to one of your natural weapons, but no more than one effect at a time. For enchanted armor or clothes, the effect is transferred to your scales.

In addition, while within 30 feet of hoarded items, you can sense their position as if they were a part of your body, and once per long rest you have the ability to cast Locate Object targeting a hoarded item. If the item is destroyed, you feel...See more
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Dylan R June 13, 2019 5:24 pm UTC
CREATOR
I've been trying to figure out a good way to allow dragons to utilize magic items, and this seems like a good way to do that. I will definitely add that in!
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Philip W June 13, 2019 7:14 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The other option would probably be to allow magic items that have been specifically crafted for your body, and whose enchantment needs to be transferred to a larger version when you outgrow it. Very expensive
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Jeshurun B May 18, 2019 3:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The language for the natural weapons and armor section is a smidge unclear. Is it assumed that the strength modifier is added to the b ite and claw dice damage like any other unarmed or armed weapon? (E.g.- monk fist would be 1d4 + Dex Mod)
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Jeshurun B May 18, 2019 4:07 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Also, should a creature make its saving throw against the breath weapon, is it assumed that they take half damage like with a burning hands spell?
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Philip W June 12, 2019 8:51 am UTC
PURCHASER
I'd say yes to both, as that appears to be the intention - especially with the breath weapon, which is supposed to work like that of other dragons.
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Dylan R June 13, 2019 4:57 pm UTC
CREATOR
I am currently working on an update, and this is something that will be made more clear. The attacks are strength based, and yes you still take half damage on a successful save against the breath attack.
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Tom F November 16, 2018 1:53 am UTC
PURCHASER
Just a quick question...
In the spellcasting section, it first says that constitution is the spellcasting ability, though it says charisma after that. Which is it?
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Dylan R November 16, 2018 7:40 pm UTC
CREATOR
Sorry that should say charisma in both locations.
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Joseph E November 13, 2018 3:29 am UTC
PURCHASER
Very interesting work here. Well done.

A few notes:

Why bother with a size change? First off, it doesn't match the fiction (unless your campaign spans decades or hundreds of years) and when a creature reaches large size it creates some logistic issues (fitting in doors and dungeons) and balance issues (grappling, etc). There's no reason a dragon couldn't stay small, but just become skilled as it adventures. This could match the fiction since most dragons are generally lazy, so their skills/powers grow slowly over time.

Second, level 20 looks way unbalanced, and legendary actions really are a feature to make enemies tougher since they effectively get more actions. I recommend retooling this.

You don't specify if you can use "Human Form" more than once.

The hit die change seems super strange. no other class works like this, and it strikes me as a possible balance issue. Hit points often hide as a balance issue since having a few extra hit...See more
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Joseph E November 13, 2018 3:45 am UTC
PURCHASER
another aspect this class is missing is the joy of acquiring items.

A dragon would have the ability to use a very minimal set of magic items in D&D. The role of magic items has been a bit reduced in this version compared to previous versions (i.e. only up to +3 isntead of +5) but this will be missing from this class. What about adding a "hoard" feature (i'm sure this has been done in different homebrews of dragon class) where just "having" magic items increases the power of the dragon somehow. And define which items could reasonably be used by this class. Necklace? probably. Wand/weapon? no. staff, no. cloak, probably? etc.

Also, adding something about the natural greed of dragons would be cool to see.
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Dylan R November 13, 2018 4:25 am UTC
CREATOR
I do completely understand a lot of your concerns with the class. I originally started without the growth, but as most dragons hit young by roughly 6-10 years old the growth period is pretty short for them to hit large. The human form is something you can go in and out of at will with a time limit per long rest. The legendary actions are powerful yes, but Level 20 is such a rare occurancd I figured it is fine. Also some of the more powerful aspects are partly balanced out by the DMs ability to limit what magic items the dragon can actually use.
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File Last Updated:
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This title was added to our catalog on November 12, 2018.