Age Of Dragons: Birthrights and Flaws
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Contents
Overview of Birthrights and Flaws
- Record Universal Birthrights and Flaws
- Record Breed Birthrights and Flaws
What are Birthrights and Flaws?
In game terms, a Birthright or Flaw is a special condition that may effect the rules in some way. Birthrights and Flaws are considered to be "always activated", as they are part of the inherent draconic condition.
Birthrights are advantages unique to the draconic race or to particular draconic breeds, which distinguish them from other living creatures.
Flaws are disadvantages and weaknesses that set aside dragons from other races in unique ways.
Technically, the list below of universal birthrights and flaws is far from exhaustive. You might note, for example, that all dragons are warm-blooded creatures, so have an advantage over cold-blooded creatures in terms of thermoregulation. You might also note that they reproduce through male-female pairings, or that they breathe oxygen, or that they are a lot larger than humans. It is assumed that players and GMs can work out a lot of these things for themselves, whether through examining the chapter on draconic biology, or by deciding for themselves!
The lists below instead help you note the ways in which dragons differ from humans and the other "lesser races."
Universal Birthrights
All dragons share these birthrights.
Flight
Dragons can fly. Though this flight itself is faciliated by magic (as physically it shouldn't be possible for a dragon's bulk to be lifted off the ground with their wingspan and mass), they still need their wings to do so - a dragon maimed or cursed with one or no wings will not be able to fly. Dragons learn to fly within a year or so of their birth, and from an early age will have considerable aerial agility - comparable to a bird of prey such as a falcon or eagle. They can take off from a standing jump, can fly to the altitude of the lowest clouds. Though they cannot truly "hover" like a helicopter, they can use updrafts and the wind to stay more or less stationary in the air if they need to.
Firebreathing
Dragons can exhale fire. This is not really an inherent ability, but rather a simple suspire, but it is one so straightforward to dragons that almost all will learn it in the first ten years of life. Firebreath can be used as a ranged weapon, with an area burst equal to a six or seven square metres and a range of a few dozen metres. It can be manifested as a jet of flame, as a loose fireball, or as an incandescent cloud. If in the sky, dragonfire tends to self extinguish after a second or two, but when there is something for it to set alight (as there often is at ground level) it will persist just as any ordinary fire does.
In game terms, firebreathing is an area burst ranged attack with a +10 damage bonus that deals fire damage.
Heat immunity
The scales and indeed the flesh of dragons cannot be burnt or harmed by heat or flame. This blessing is said to have come about because dragons existed in a time when the newly created world was alight, and the Mother Goddess wove a spell around them to protect them. One result of this birthright is that firebreathing is of no use as an injuring weapon against other dragons.
In game terms, any fire damage dealt to them is ignored, and they never suffer any detrimental effects from heat or fire.
