#drakkin

[original drawing date: 1st Aug 2019]

Image by Sam Wood, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Monsters of Faerun Art Gallery here

[Monsters of Faerun was a weird book, not quite being fish or fowl. It came out before the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 3.0 did, and only about 2/3rds of the monsters in it were really from that campaign setting. Some good generic monsters, like firenewts, leucrotta and bullywugs, ended up in that book, and I half suspect that they were cut from the core Monster Manual for space purposes.

Anyway, Monsters of Faerun was a major influence on my prehistoric campaign setting I wrote in high school, as there were lots of amphibian and reptilian humanoids to populate the various niches of the planet. The dragonkin didn’t have an empire of their own, but were wandering mercenaries.

Edit: I’m going through and updating my index, and I’ve decided to change the name to avoid confusion with PFRPG’s Pern-inspired dragonkin]

Drakkin CR 5 CE Dragon This giant, muscular humanoid has the wings and scales of a dragon, and a broad, reptilian face. Fleshy tendrils grow from their head and chin in a mockery of hair. Their scales are a mix of browns and greens, marked with darker patterns and tending to lighter shades along the wings. They wear armor and clutch a finely made weapon.

The drakkin are an artificial race, created long ago by a wicked dragon as their minions and go-betweens with humanoid races. That dragon is long dead, but their drakkin remain a scourge on the world. Drakkin are greedy, venal and rapacious, killing for sport and spreading violence wherever they go. The only creatures they respect are dragons, and some evil dragons hold a tribe of drakkins in thrall. If not serving a draconic master, drakkin are nomadic, wandering the landscape in search of new prey and plunder.

A drakkin trains its entire life with arms and armor, and bands of drakkins will frequently differentiate themselves through their equipment as much as any other personality trait. They commonly have names associated with favored weapons or preferred acts of violence, and many drakkin change their names several times over their lives to reflect accomplishments. Drakkina can see magic inherently, and they are covetous of magic items. Disposable items are frequently stashed away, being seen as too valuable to use except in case of emergency (and useless to many drakkins anyway, as few of them can cast spells). Magic weapons and armor, however, are used. Although drakkins are too motley in bloodline to have inherent energy immunity or breath weapons, they can tap into their latent draconic heritage to access these powers briefly.

Drakkin advance by character class, and most of them advance in martial classes such as fighter and barbarian. Although few become spellcasters, those that do frequently rise to power by making magic items and distributing them as bribes to favored lackeys. A spellcasting drakkin often commands the loyalty of several squads, and can be a threat to large regions.