Dracon (3.5e Race)

Author: Darth Rabbitt (talk) Date Created: July 7, 2024 Status: Finished Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Dracon

Dragon-centaurs from the Spelljammer setting, dracons are an honorable race of travelers with a herd mentality.

Personality

Dracons have a very strong herding instinct, and as a result lone dracons are extremely rare. A herd is led by the eldest dracon (known as the kaba), and is governed by a variety of elaborate and formal rituals meant to maximize cooperation among them. Dracons that are not part of a herd grow sick, confused and eventually die if they stay alone for too long. A lone dracon usually tries to be adopted by another herd of dracons; if they cannot, they will form a herd of their own, made up of whatever creatures will join. Dracons in herds come off as stuffy and passive, more likely to retreat than fight despite their great strength. They do seem to adopt traits based off of those around them, since dracons that have joined up with other races seem to be more willing to fight.

Physical Description

Dracons combine a variety of features into one gray body: they have the heads of dragons, the arms and torso of a humanoid, and the lower body of a sauropod dinosaur. Sexual dimorphism is extremely low: both male and female dracons average about 7 feet tall, 11 feet long and weigh about 650 pounds. Their four feet are flat, like that of an elephant, and their tails are long and snake-like. Dracon hands have six digits (five fingers and one thumb) that are tipped with long claws. Dracons are good metalsmiths (comparable to elves but less advanced than dwarves) and will wear metal armor into battle, but otherwise do not wear clothing. They are obligate herbivores.

Relations

Dracons view any creature with less than six limbs as disadvantaged, and their word for "humanoid" approximately translates to "the deformed" in Draconic. They try to be both polite and friendly towards other races, but have trouble distinguishing humanoids from each other and often come off as condescending as a result. Reptilian humanoids are an exception, being viewed as distant (if misshapen) smaller relatives and dracons will often adopt them into herds. Dracons have a respect of most other races with a similar body plan to theirs (such as centaurs), considering them to be natural allies in much the way humans view elves. Dracons hate spider-like creatures in general (and neogi in particular) as dracon mythology has a spider-like Dark God. On the other hand, they revere dragons, seeing them as messengers of their gods. Finally, dracons consider beholders comical in appearance, as they remind them of balls they use in games on their home world (the dracon term for "beholder" translates to "kickball" in Draconic.)

Alignment

As mostly well intended creatures with a strong herd mentality, dracons are most often lawful good. Dracons outside of a herd (whether alone or with other races) are somewhat more likely to be different alignments.

Lands

Dracons come from another world, which they say is an arid planet composed of grasslands, deserts and large, shallow seas. The herbivorous dracons favor the grassland areas, where they travel constantly to avoid overgrazing. They have not developed agriculture on their homeworld, relying entirely on foraging. It is unclear at which point dracons started traveling to other worlds, but it has been a blessing for the population remaining on their homeworld since it frees up more space for grazing. The otherwise outgoing dracons seem to be reluctant to reveal the location of their homeworld to other races, most likely to avoid straining their limited resources.

Religion

Dracon clerics are called shalla and every herd has at least one; they serve as advisors to the kaba. Shalla worship the dracon pantheon, who the dracons believe travel in a herd much like they do. The Ub-Kalla ("chief leader" in Draconic) is the head of the deific herd: a lawful good god of wisdom and leadership who always knows the correct course of action. Clerics of the Ub-Kalla have access to the Community, Good, Healing, Knowledge, Law and Protection domains; their favored weapon is the halberd.

Language

Dracons speak Draconic, as well as a thickly accented form of Common. Especially intelligent ones learn the languages of other creatures. Regardless of language spoken they tend to speak in a very formal, stilted manner.

Names

Technically a dracon's full name is their genealogy (which they take pride in), and thus goes on as far back as they know their generation (the typical dracon knows their lineage 15 generations back. Knowing a newly met dracon's lineage without being told is a DC 25 Knowledge (nobility) check.) In practice, however, they just use their given name and herd name as a name when interacting with other races. Herd names are descriptive, while given names vary based off of gender. Male dracon names tend to end with x's or t's and female ones with n's; it is common for both male and female names to have apostrophes in them.

Sample dracon male given names: Drax, Vorvax, Yrrast'rix, Kh'ziast

Sample dracon female given names: Zirin, R'ruan, Khaz'zistahn, Eun

Sample dracon herd names: Distant Thunder, Sun Runners

Racial Traits

• +2 Strength, -2 Dexterity: Dracons' great size makes them strong but clumsy.
• Monstrous Humanoid (Dragonblooded, Reptilian, Xenoblooded): Dracons are reptilian dragon centaurs from another world. 
• Large (long): As a Large (long) creature, a dracon takes a -1 size penalty to Armor Class, a -1 size penalty on attack rolls, a +4 size bonus on special attack (bull rushes, grapples, overruns, and trips) checks, and a -4 size penalty on Hide, but it uses larger weapons than humans use, and its lifting and carrying limits are three times those of a Medium character. They have a space of 10 feet and a reach of 5 feet.
• Dracon base land speed is 50 feet.  
• Darkvision: A dracon can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and a dracon can function just fine with no light at all. 
• Body Slam (Ex): Dracons excel at using their size to break things down and thus get a +4 racial bonus on Strength checks made to break objects. 
• Natural Armor: A dracon has a +1 natural armor bonus. 
• Natural Weapons: A dracon has two primary claw attacks which deal 1d4 damage each. 
• Tauric (Ex): Dracon are always counted as mounted for the purposes of feats and abilities, and always count as having the Mounted Combat feat and maximum ranks in Ride (though they never require ride checks, it is purely for qualifying pre-requisites). They cannot use the Ride skill for evading attacks or any of its other normal functions (unless they are somehow riding another creature). Additionally, dracons are quadrupeds, granting them a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed, overran, or tripped, and benefit from the increased carrying capacity of being both a large creature and a quadruped. They require barding instead of normal armor (which at large size is x4 the cost of traditional armor). Finally, their humanoid halves are scaled for medium creatures, and thus they use weapons as if they were medium sized. 
• Weapon Proficiency: Dracons receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the halberd and rapier as bonus feats.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Draconic
• Bonus Languages: Any, except secret languages.
• Favored Class: Cleric or Fighter
• Level Adjustment: +0
• Effective Character Level: 1

Vital Statistics

Table: Dracon Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
20 years	+1d6	+2d6	+3d6

Table: Dracon Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
62 years	94 years	125 years	+3d20 years
At middle age, −1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At old age, −2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At venerable age, −3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

Table: Dracon Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	6' 0"	+2d10	600 lb.	× (2d4) lb.
Female	6' 0"	+2d10	600 lb.	× (2d4) lb.

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