#dragonclass
I’m still working on my dragon class, for those of you who care, and I’ve decided to scrap a lot of my previous ideas. They were too setting specific, and that would be kind of detrimental to the general usefulness of the class I think.
This setting didn’t feature the classical dragons we know, so I decided to remove a lot of stuff. I’ve now decided that the class will be about a young dragon who has yet to find its place in the world. You know, like any other adventurer 😉
To take a D&D’ish vibe, I decided to link the dragon to an element, one you must choose when making your class. Each element will affect your breath weapon in some way, which is perhaps the biggest mechanical effect. The other effects are not yet completely decided, but I have some ideas. One of them is that it should affect your lair as well, by type and location.
For example, Green Dragons (no, I will not color code them, I’m referring to D&D here) has acid breath and lives in forests. I’m going to do something similar. Maybe.
I have already decided a bit about what moves I want in the class. One move is related to your lair, a sanctuary of sort to hoard treasure (which will trigger the lair move), and one about Draconic Physiology. As a separate move, I have the breath attack. Instead of ammo, I use “breath”, which you have 3 of after you make camp, if you get a few hours of sleep. Otherwise, it functions mostly like volley, except the “weapon” itself is inbuilt and have differing effects depending on your element.
I have a lot of ideas for advanced moves, but I won’t dig too deep into this before some play-testing.
James Hawthorne You seem to have taken an interest in this. Thus the tag 😉
I feel like elements could work as alignments too.
Fire is furious and hot headed.
Earth/Soil is stoic.
Lightning is curious and has problems concentrating etc.
I’ve already decided to give them the “Good”, “Neutral” and “Evil” alignments. I don’t want to enforce role-playing choices on elements. Sometimes you just want to spray acid and not have a corrosive personality 😉
Seams to be a sour point.
God we are lame…
Interested!
This is sounding great, particularly the Breath attacks. I’m guessing something like reach with options for flaming, acidic etc?
Thanks for tagging me, definitely interested!
Nope, breath is a near attack 😉 In general, since the dragon will be about as big as a horse, it will have both the reach and close range of melee attacks.
Another concept that I’m looking for in the dragon is self-sufficiency. It shouldn’t need anything or anyone. It should just want a lot of things it can’t get immediately on its own. Draconic Arrogance and shit
That sounds pretty badass, but are you building in downsides for the GM to show off? Perhaps such self-sufficience inbuilds greed? Is that what you mean by Draconic Arrogance?
A horse-sized claw-armed monster with a near breath of acid is pretty damn cool though! Might need titanic allies so it doesn’t steal the show (and Titan World, where you play demigods, was my second choice for a DW supplement behind writing about Pirates. Still got a ton of content, might end up making it depending on how PW goes!)
Well, it’s not going to be “better” than the other classes. I considered making your draconic body a pseudo-signature weapon, where you get X advantages from a list, but I felt it just stole the fighters thunder…
The breath weapon is roll+CON. Tougher dragons spew more elemental death than weedy ones.
This also makes them formidable defenders, even though their close combat attacks aren’t based on CON, but STR, like everyone else. Besides, being big doesn’t do anything. Not mechanically. It doesn’t have a higher Strength, it isn’t forceful, and it doesn’t have messy teeth.
The fighter will probably outdo it in a normal hack & slash, and he will probably have the same amount of health.
I’m not sure what the damage die should be yet, but I’m leaning towards a d8 with +10 health, because its so big.
I mean, it’s dangerous, sure, but every PC adventurer is pretty dangerous, and the dragon shouldn’t have the raw fighting skill of a paladin, fighter nor barbarian.
That’s such a good point. It’s so easy to look at a dragon charater and think “they’ll be way more powerful!”, but I’d been forgetting that all the core DW classes are unique badasses already. Really excited about this class!
Also, the d8 damage/10HP is exactly the same thought process I went for with The Brute. Might be potential for some crossover moes there, let me know if you need a copy.
Well, I can post the “Elemental Maw” move here, if you like?
Elemental Maw
When you breath forth your element to harm an enemy at near range roll+CON. On a 10+ you hit your target and deal damage. On a 7-9 you still hit your target, but choose 1 as well:
– You have to move to get a clear shot, placing you in danger,
– You bring an ally in danger from your element.
– Spend 1 Breath.
If you have no Breath left, you cannot breath forth your element.
Of course, the move is impacted by your elemental heritage.
That’s looking great! You could open up “You bring an ally in danger” to “you hit something unintended”, if you like? Changes the emphasis a bit, so totally understand if not. I use the second version for the Alchemist’s breath weapon 🙂
A big dragon with claw and teeth and tail has it easier to attack multiple enemies though…
Unless it’s fighting in a narrow passage 🙂
Maybe Have dragons eat treasure to recharge their breath move. Why do dragons need all that treasure? They eat gold and valuable gems to fuel their magical existence!
My giant had a third page that addressed how having such a large PC can affect the fiction, and what sort of threats and dangers complicate their life that don’t even occur for normal sized people.
Including a Giant in your game
A Giant is a big departure from many playbooks in that it can more apparently change a lot of the scale, scope, and themes of the game due to it’s size. While all playbooks do this to a degree, The Giant is far more obvious in this. this page includes some things for both the players and GM to consider, and some questions to ask to see how your giant fits into the world.
Giant Strength
For most classes, Strength describes pure muscle power or physical prowess. This may bring you to question why the Giant still has the same strength stat opportunities as everyone else. That’s because the stat describe how good you are at leveraging your strength conscientiously. Sure, a huge giant may be able to pick up a wagon, but without control of their strength, they’re likely to drop the unwieldy thing.
Fitting in, and just plain Fitting.
If you have a Giant in your game, that says something about what the player wants to be doing. They want places their giant will fit most of the time. When you intend to use cities, indoor locations, or caves keep this in mind. There should be times when the Giant’s size is a hindrance, (GM move: Show a downside to their class, race, or equipment) but still give them opportunity to move about without too much complication most of the time (GM Principle: Be a fan of the characters)
Combat Balance
The Giant’s moves, namely Larger Than Life are about describing how the Giant interacts with the world and others. So how does a group of Goblins challenge a Giant as much as it does the rest of the party? Consider that perhaps Goblins and other monsters have experience with fighting a Giant, and consider what anti-Giant weaponry they would carry. Javelins, bows, flaming arrows, Giant-poison, etc.
The Giant doesn’t have any more HP or armor than a Fighter, making it equally vulnerable. It still has the same spread of ability stats that the other classes do.
Here are some questions to ask your Giant player
Just how big are you anyway?
So Giants are big, but the exact size can vary greatly. This playbook is designed to work with most Giant sizes, but choosing your size will present it’s own advantages and challenges. Will you fit in the Town Hall or the Inn? how about the caves in the Dark Wood? Here are a few size suggestions:
Big: You are roughly twice as tall as a human. You can fit in human-sized abodes and settlements with little or rare difficulty.
Large: You are around 3 times taller than a human. You can fit in human-sized settlements but an average sized building is just too small.
Huge: You stand 4 times taller than a human. You may uncomfortably fit in some larger settlements, but most human-sized spaces and doorways are far too small.
How common are Giants?
This can determine how most people react to Giants, and how accomodating cities are to them. Your average village might not have a room for a Giant, but a larger city’s streets may accommodate larger folk, and there may even be an inn with a room for you.
What are Giants known for in Civilisation?
Are Giants respected members of society with a purpose? Or are they seen as terrifying monsters? Perhaps they are insular, rarely seen amongst the smallfolk. There may be many stories told about them that only hold a small kernel of truth.
Tell me more about your people’s Duty
The definitions of duty have been left somewhat vague and interpretable in the heritage section, and this is on purpose. This allows the player to leverage their Giant’s Duty in interesting and creative ways.
That said, it’s also a great chance to find out more about their Giant, and the Duty their people have been entrusted with. What is the philosophy of their Duty? Who has entrusted them with their Duty? How do their people act in the capacity of their Duty?