Half-Dragon: That’s Just a Dragonborn!

Have you ever wanted to make your players fight a dragonborn fighter without having to roll a character? Here you go!

Lore: When a Dragon Gets Horny

When a polymorphed dragon decides to mate, it may result in the birth of a half-dragon. Or a creature could be transformed into one by a wizard’s spell or a bath in dragons blood (cause that’s perfectly normal). Regardless of their origin, they’ll typically share in appearance and abilities.

Half-dragons are unable to have children of their own. If they want them, they’ll have to resort to magic. But in fairness, they have extended life spans, allowing them to live for well over a century and a half. They’ll also inherit traits from their draconic parent. From greed and paranoia to playful impishness, it depends on the color.

I guess you could do something with that. The options are limited, but they’re there. Maybe the party can help a half-dragon get a kid. Or they could help someone complete a blood ritual to become one. Hell, let someone in the party do the ritual themselves! Why not? Get crazy with it!

Design: You thought I was joking, weren’t you?

No, I’m not joking. This motherfucker really is just a non-player-character Dragonborn. For fuck’s sake, look at it!

What am I supposed to say here? It’s a humanoid dragon man wearing armor! Is that cool? By default, yes; dragons are always cool, no matter the context.

But simply sliding a dragon into a suit of armor? It’s not exactly creative or interesting. You could describe it with one sentence, maybe two if you’ve got some flare.

Overall, boring. Next.

Stats: Build-A-Beast Workshop

This is where things get interesting. Because this monster is meant to be personally built and customized by the DM. The stats given are just an example of what to do.

Any creature classified as a beast, humanoid, giant, or monstrosity can be made into a half-dragon. They keep all of their stats, including their challenge rating. To avoid having to recalculate it, a simple table is provided near the bottom of its page.

Like dragons and dragonborn, half-dragons come in a few flavors. Those that are black or copper can spit acid. Blue or bronze breaths lightning. Brass, gold, or red have fire. Green are poison. Silver or white have ice breath.

They also gain Blindsight, which has a radius of 10 feet, and Darkvision, with a radius of 60 feet. On top of that, they’re resistant to the element corresponding with its color, and it speaks Draconic on top of other languages it might now. To top it off, they have a breath attack, which goes as described in the paragraph above.

All you have to do is plug all of that into a pre-existing monster that fits in the four previously mentioned categories. Basically, you can upgrade any of those creatures into a slightly more powerful half-dragon variety.

I love the customization of this! You can make this encounter into practically anything you want! The party thought they were fighting regular bandits? Surprise, they’re half-dragon bandits! Now they’ve got to dodge fire and lightning while having a classic bandit showdown! The sky is the limit!

If only I could make a half-dragon Beholder…

Placement

This is an interesting monster. The lore is pretty decent and its design is boring. But the customization aspect is absolutely insane! That makes it the most interesting monster in terms of combat!

With all that in mind, let’s put the Half-Dragon on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Dragon Turtle
4. Green Dragons
5. Red Dragons
6. Blue Dragons
7. Black Dragons
8. White Dragons
9. Silver Dragons
10. Couatl
11. Behir
12. Aboleth
13. Sea Hag
14. Bronze Dragons
15. Brass Dragons
16. Copper Dragons
17. Gold Dragons
18. Chuul
19. Gibbering Mouther
20. Chimera
21. Death Knight
22. Fomorian
23. Bone Devil
24. Dracolich
25. Faerie Dragon
26. Night Hag
27. Green Hag
28. Ankheg
29. Storm Giant
30. Hill Giant
31. Empyrean
32. Efreeti
33. Grimlock
34. Dao
35. Cloud Giant
36. Drow (all four of ’em)
37. Shadow Demon
38. Marilith
39. Drider
40. Aarackockra
41. Azer
42. Demilich
43. Spectator
44. Marid
45. Half-Dragon <————–
46. Cambion
47. Fire Giant
48. Animated Armor
49. Banshee
50. Basilisk
51. Yochlol
52. Bulette
53. Cloaker
54. Darkmantle
55. Doppelganger
56. Ghoul and Ghast
57. Ettin
58. Pit Fiend
59. Erinyes
60. Chain Devil
61. Bearded Devil
62. Barbed Devil
63. Spined Devil
64. Ice Devil
65. Djinni
66. Nalfeshnee
67. Glabrezu
68. Chasme
69. Grell
70. Barlgura
71. Horned Devil
72. Balor
73. Shadow Dragon
74. Vrock
75. Dretch
76. Gnolls (all three)
77. Goristro
78. Hezrou
79. Manes
80. Frost Giant
81. Duergar
82. Quasit
83. Dryad
84. Flumph
85. Goblin
86. Githyanki
87. Planetar
88. Imp
89. Clay Golem
90. Flameskull
91. Displacer Beast
92. Carrion Crawler
93. Githzerai
94. Grick
95. Rug of Smothering
96. Bugbear Chief
97. Bugbear
98. Flesh Golem
99. Vine Blight
100. Twig Blight
101. Needle Blight
102. Bullywug
103. Ettercap
104. Gas Spore
105. Cockatrice
106. Lemure
107. Solar
108. Deva
109. Gorgon
110. Griffon
111. Cyclops
112. Centaur
113. Ghost
114. Fire Elemental
115. Water Elemental
116. Air Elemental
117. Stone Giant
118. Deep Gnome
119. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
120. Iron Golem
121. Stone Golem
122. Earth Elemental
123. Galeb Duhr
124. Flying Sword
125. Crawling Claw
126. Violet Fungus
127. Shrieker
128. Gargoyle