Are Dragonborn a broken race?

[craig234]

Their one benefit IIRC seems pretty limited. Or maybe it's great for some builds?

The game goes a long way to reduce but keep some racial benefits, but that one?

[zero]

dragonborn are middling even in the pen and paper version, don't think that can be considered broken though, just kinda 'meh'

pick em for flavor, is the idea

[DeMasked]

The really only good thing Dragonborn offers is the resistance which for BG3 you'd want Poison or Fire.

The Breath Weapon is only 1 time per Long Rest which sucks. Early on it might be situational in it's use and technically if you go Rogue you could use it as the Main Action and use Sneak Attack with the Bonus Action via Dual Wielding.

I feel like they need something more with the Racial Features or for the Dragon Breath Weapon to scale better with damage and perhaps more uses at later levels. Really big let down otherwise.

[Toaster Maximus]

Mehborn are for flavor even on pen and paper

[Hobocop]

They're there for fashion and some of the interesting Dragonborn specific dialogues. I never used the breath weapon a single time in my super evil DUrge playthrough because cantrips and spells were better and had better synergies.

Even on TT with the Fizban's updates, you're probably better off picking something else if you have access to it.

[Hellsteeth30]

They've never been great, though they were better in 4E.

[DeMasked]

Lizards in Divinity Original Sin 2 are better then Dragonborn imo.

Dragon Blaze is pretty much a bonus action that isn't a one time use + can be combo'd into other spells.

Ugh... so annoying how Larian made some changes to races but clearly didn't really balance them out better.

[Wokelander]

I mean they're kinda lame mechanically, not sure what 'broken' means here

[DeMasked]

Originally posted by Wokelander:

I mean they're kinda lame mechanically, not sure what 'broken' means here

Not broken but very underwhelming compared to what other races get imo.
At least modding exists...

[fulf]

they're a race you mainly pick for roleplay/visual coolness, +2 STR +1 CHA is useful for some classes in tabletop (Paladin) but even that isn't a consideration in this game
bg3 doesn't have much race-specific roleplay for them, either

[jonnin]

bg3 specifically has a distinct split between good and poor races, with caveats for the classes you will pick for that character.

Free armor (any) is great for {monk, wiz, sorc, etc}
free armor (med) is great for (bard, non-sneaky rogue play, + above)

free weapons are rarely useful. Ok, you cleric elf can use a longbow, but could already use an xbow just as good, or your drow could give your wizard an offhand crossbow shot, but mostly these are severe niche uses or, more likely, useless.

other goodies, like lucky, advantage on most saves, adv on stealth, cantrips, etc that vary from extremely good to situationally good.

small race movement is a negative that requires a LOT of the above to justify. A few of them do justify it.

------------------------
Now, what do you NOT see above?
the only thing a dragonborn has of value is elemental resistance. That is almost as good as a tiefling, which has fire resist, and not even close to some dwarves, who have poison resist + much more (dark dwarf esp has a lot). The problem is that resists can be had from gear, equipment, or other ways (rangers, etc). Its just not that good a perk, and its the only one the race has.
That puts it at seriously low on the tier list for any kind of powergaming or max/min.
However, you can RP a DB and have fun, its fine, and notably lazel likes them, esp red ones.

[igor140]

Yeah, I was kind of hoping they would use the revised Dragonborn stats (from Fizban's?)... but I'm a) not sure that was even released when this game was too far into development to change, and b) Dragonborn is still stronger as a race in this game than Human or Dwarf.

On the plus side, I'm sure there's a mod to address this, if you're willing to go that route.

[Gorem]

They are incredibly weak in the base game. I had to download a mod that gives them a few more racials and makes the breath attack better/per turn/a bonus action

Outside of modding the race, Playing a Dragonborn is essentially gimping yourself. Its very easy to get resistance to elements (I mean there's a bow that does two of them and you never need to use it ever just having it equipped is enough)

And the base Dragon Breath is too weak for what its worth. Especially as an action. It used to not scale too. But its only useful if its an element you want that you wouldn't normally have access to, as an example mine was frost so I'd use it to freeze water for enemies to trip over.

Compared to most races, you would only play them for their looks.

[Gorem]

Originally posted by igor140:

Yeah, I was kind of hoping they would use the revised Dragonborn stats (from Fizban's?)... but I'm a) not sure that was even released when this game was too far into development to change, and b) Dragonborn is still stronger as a race in this game than Human or Dwarf.

On the plus side, I'm sure there's a mod to address this, if you're willing to go that route.

Yup there is, make the breath a Bonus action/per turn and up its damage a little while increasing the range of its aoe ;D

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

The cold/lightning breath is pretty good because of the Wet condition, but that's about it.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by Gorem:

They are incredibly weak in the base game. I had to download a mod that gives them a few more racials and makes the breath attack better/per turn/a bonus action

Outside of modding the race, Playing a Dragonborn is essentially gimping yourself. Its very easy to get resistance to elements (I mean there's a bow that does two of them and you never need to use it ever just having it equipped is enough)

And the base Dragon Breath is too weak for what its worth. Especially as an action. It used to not scale too. But its only useful if its an element you want that you wouldn't normally have access to, as an example mine was frost so I'd use it to freeze water for enemies to trip over.

Compared to most races, you would only play them for their looks.

the ability to freeze blood cannot be overestimated for its utility. But ray of frost isn't hard to come by in any group... if nothing else, the staff that has it can be equipped on someone.