Dragonborn, 5e Variant

Note: These are minor tweaks to the PHB Dragonborn. Now with tails, and 50% more scales!

General Features

 * Age: Young dragonborn grow quickly, but live for a long time due to their draconic heritage. They walk hours after hatching, attain the size and development of a 10-year-old human child by the age of 3, and reach adulthood by 15. They live to be around 200.


 * Alignment: Dragonborn tend towards extremes, making a conscious choice for one side or the other between Good and Evil (represented by Bahamut and Tiamat, respectively). More side with Bahamut than Tiamat (whose non-dragon followers are mostly kobolds), but villainous dragonborn can be quite terrible indeed. Some rare few choose to devote themselves to lesser dragon deities, such as Chronepsis (Neutral), and fewer still choose to worship Io, the Ninefold Dragon, who is all alignments at once.


 * Size: Dragonborn are taller and heavier than humans, standing well over 6 feet tall and averaging almost 250 pounds. Your size is Medium.


 * Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.


 * Languages: You can read, speak, and write Common and Draconic.

Dragonborn Traits

 * Multi-faceted: You are proficient in the History skill, and one tool of your choice.
 * Draconic Ancestry: You have draconic ancestry. Choose one type of dragon from the Draconic Ancestry table. Your breath weapon and damage resistance are determined by the dragon type, as shown in the table.


 * Breath Weapon: You can use your action to exhale destructive energy based on your draconic ancestry. Each creature in the chosen area of the exhalation (5ft x 30ft line or 15ft cone) must make a saving throw, based on your your Draconic ancestry. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your Proficiency Bonus. A creature takes 2d8 of the respective element based on your Draconic Ancestry, or half as much on a successful save. The damage increases to 3d8 at 5th level, 4d8 at 11th level, and 5d8 at 17th level. Your breath weapon gains bonus charges based on your Constitution modifier (minimum 0). Charges are restored on a short or long rest.

Standard Dragonborn Variant

 * Ability Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
 * Damage Resistance: You have resistance to the damage type associated with your ancestry.
 * Deep Breath: You gain an additional charge to your Breath Weapon attack.

Stoic Dragonborn

 * Ability Score Increase: Your Strength, Constitution, and Charisma scores increase by 1.
 * Damage Resistance: You have resistance to the damage type associated with your ancestry.
 * Draconic Perseverance: Your unwavering determination allows you push yourself past your limits before giving up. Once a day, you can add double your proficiency to a failed attack, skill, or saving throw.

Additional Subraces

 * Additional subraces can be used with this variant rule given that they follow the baseline traits.