Dragon Child (5e Subrace)

This subrace allows the crossbreeding of races without the use of dedicated halfbreed races. A dragon child is the child of a dragon father and a humanoid mother or a child of two other dragon children. A dragon child always has the same race of its mother.

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A dragon child (found on tinypic.com)

Although, creating a dragon child isn’t without sacrifice. A dragon child only gets born if its father was in a dragon form while the conception took place. However, the sperm of a dragon is highly volatile, as it’s infused with elemental magic. It literally burns its way through the vagina into the womb of the mother. As you can expect, only the strongest of humanoids survive this. Every creature with draconic blood in them is immune to this effect, as they, too, are infused with this magic. This is also the reason why there are so few metallic dragon children, because metallic dragons will never harm a humanoid on purpose. Metallic dragons will only reproduce with humanoids if a humanoid specifically asks for it, knowing they may die by doing this. Conversely, a chromatic dragon may want to make a full race of dragon children to serve under him, and has no qualms about harming humanoids in doing so.

The sperm of a dragon also has another side-effect: Where the sperm came in contact with the flesh of the mother, scales will start to grow. Luckily, these scales will also grow in the womb, creating a safe space for the egg, as every dragon child gets born out of an egg. When the incubation period starts, the womb of the mother will start accommodating for this egg (following the incubation rules of the Draconomicon). The total incubation time is 300 days (+- 10 months). The egg will only be laid in the last month of the incubation. This incubation takes up so much power, that almost all non-draconic mothers die when the egg gets laid.

Most dragon children start to notice they are different around the age of 3. Around this age they start growing a tail (+- 4 feet) and a pair of claws. Additionally, they grow scales in the color of their dragon parent on their forearms and lower legs. The scales also grow around their neck and shoulders, going down along their spine until it connects with their tail. They also grow claws on their hands and feet, and also usually grow a pair of small horns. Some may also grow a pair of wings, though these wings are purely vestigial, as their wing muscles are not strong enough to allow for flight.

Some dragon children like eating the food a normal dragon eats, but most prefer the food of their humanoid nature. However, most dragon children will lean to the alignment of their father.

Dragon children of two other dragon children are a mix between the two types most of the time. They can be vulnerable to mood swings, as they may have two clashing alignments. The ones that do survive this heritage, however, are gorgeous.

New Subrace

The dragon child is a subrace that can be applied to any race which has subraces. For races that don't have subrace options, choosing the dragon child subrace means making changes to your character's base traits as follows. If a race isn't listed below, use your best judgment when adjusting racial statistics to accommodate this subrace.

Human dragon child. Modify the human’s Ability Score Increase trait to read as follows: "Two different ability scores of your choice each increase by 1."

Dragonborn dragon child. Modify the dragonborn’s Ability Score Increase trait to read as follows: "Your Strength and Charisma scores each increase by 1." Ignore the Draconic Resistance trait of the dragon child subrace below.

Half-Orc dragon child. Remove the Relentless Endurance and Savage Attacks traits of the base half-orc race. Modify the half-orc's Ability Score Increase trait to read as follows: "Your Strength score increases by 2."

Half-Elf dragon child. Remove the Skill Versatility trait of the base half-elf race. Modify the half-elf's Ability Score Increase trait to read as follows: "Your Charisma score increases by 2."

Orc[1] dragon child. Remove the Aggressive and Powerful Build traits of the base orc race. Modify the orc's Ability Score Increase trait to read as follows: "Your Strength score increases by 2."

Tiefling dragon child. Please reference the page Unearthed Arcana: That Old Black Magic.

Subrace Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your choice of your Strength, Constitution, or Charisma score increases by 1. You can't increase the same ability score that is increased by your base race.
Age. Dragon children live about twice as long as a member of their base race.
Darkvision. Your draconic ancestry has granted you superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Draconic Nature. Your creature type is considered to be both dragon and humanoid.
Draconic Empathy. Whenever you make a Charisma check when interacting with dragons, your proficiency bonus is doubled if it applies to the check. Additionally, if you know the find familiar spell, you can choose to have your familiar take the form of a pseudodragon instead of one of the normal forms.
Draconic Resistance. You have resistance to one type of damage, choosing from acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison (your choice). This usually corresponds to the damage type dealt by your draconic parent.
Dragon Claws. Your sharp claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. The damage die for your unarmed strike increases to a d4, and it can deal slashing damage instead of bludgeoning damage.
Extra Language. You can speak, read, and write Draconic.

Suggested Characteristics

When creating an Dragon Child character, you can use the following table of traits, ideals, bonds and flaws to help flesh out your character. Use this table in addition to or in place of your background's characteristics.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I didn’t grow up wearing clothes, and I still don’t like the feel of them on my body.
2	I am more comfortable around dragons than humanoids.
3	I find it more comfortable to sleep like a dragon, rather than in a normal bed.
4	I will sell anything to get a stash full of gold, gems and magical items.
5	I would rather live in a lair than in a city.
6	I don’t understand why most people are so hasty.
7	I try to cover as much of my dragon features as possible. I just want to fit in with society.
8	I like eating the same as a dragon.

d6	Ideal
1	Family. I will try anything to protect my parent. (Neutral)
2	Freedom. I never fit into society and I have found the only way to be content is to express myself without regard for rules. (Chaotic)
3	Draconic. I feel more like a dragon than a humanoid. I will do everything to come as close as possible to this desire. (Chaotic)
4	Harmony. I try my best to keep a healthy balance between my draconic origin and the humanoid world. (Good)
5	Dominance. I will enslave my race and rule over them, because I am genetically better than them. (Evil)
6	Greed. Material goods matter to me more than friendship. (Neutral)

d6	Bond
1	If somebody hurts my dragon family, they will pay for it.
2	I want to go back once in a while to see my dragon parent.
3	I feel a deep connection with every Metallic/Chromatic dragon wyrmling. If nobody else takes care of them, I will.
4	A humanoid understands how I feel. I will do everything for that person, even if my dragon master wouldn’t agree with it.
5	I feel a deep bond with every other Dragon Child.
6	I respect anyone that respects me, not because they’re scared, but because of who I am.

Every type of dragon has its own specific flaw(s), which you inherited.

Dragon	Flaw
Black	I love to make my enemies suffer before I kill them. Causing pain is a sheer joy.
Blue	I’m very vain and will react with rage to any insinuation that I’m weak or inferior.
Brass	I will serve anyone that is willing to pay well, even if it’s an evil being.
Bronze	I will make sure everyone governs the law and nobody will stop me!
Copper	My jokes are the best, so you should laugh with every joke I tell. If you don’t, you may be in for a bad time.
Gold	I will do anything for the greater goods, but those are, most of the time, not the needs of the “lesser creatures”. You could probably say I’m arrogant.
Green	I lie as easy as others speak and prefer to achieve my goals through guile and double-dealing.
Red	I will never forgive even the smallest things. Even if you “only” insulted me, there will be consequences.
Silver	Honor means everything and I will never break my word, even if this places me in opposition against creatures of my own alignment.
White	I’m remarkably bestial and rely more on instinct than intellect.

References

1. Volo's Guide to Monsters pp.120

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