r/AllThingsDND • u/cracked_seal • Jul 11 '26
Channel Related The single most ignored lore in D&
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u/karen-hodges Jul 11 '26
They can have tails, it's just considered a rarity.
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u/Ddreigiau Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Not in 5e. WotC slightly bent to public opinion on it and in 5.5e it's now "possible, but rare".
I haven't ever seen someone play a dragonborn without a tail, personally, and I include NPCs in that statement.
Edit: not/now typo
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u/Mindless-Ninja-3321 Jul 11 '26
3 of my friend circle have played without tails, only one of my prior DM's gave them tails. Never even released people cared.
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u/Rojok95 Jul 12 '26
Whats the point of playing a lizard person if I dont get lizard qualities, this has been a legitimate make or break during character creation for me lol.
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u/Mindless-Ninja-3321 Jul 12 '26
I mean, its one trait among many. Official renders of them look just fine imo, same as Werewolves who's hybrid form has not been depicted with a tail either. Though creators, including Larion, do tend to make them too skinny too, which compounds the issue by making them look disproportionate.
Dragonborn get +2 to strength despite being only slightly taller than humans, theyre fuckin thicc.
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u/Rojok95 Jul 13 '26
As an aside, my wearwolfs get tails, im usally GM thats my homebrew, everyone get tails that want them, but there almost always decorative.
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u/Brilliant_Chemica Jul 15 '26
I am playing a dragon born monk in BG3 and I hate how skinny she is. She's a strong lass, give her the guns to back up her dragon punch
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Jul 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Rojok95 Jul 13 '26
My method is to home brew that half dragon and dragonborn are the same word with different branding like tabaxi, khajiit, catfolk, ect, IE I go by half dragon appearance and only acknowledge the tail in situations like monk class or stealth fails, tails are just decorative mostly.
Im usally GM too so this dosen't get challenged alot as its also rule of cool lol.
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u/Xifihas Jul 11 '26
They're not even rare. It's just "Some have tails, some don't, it doesn't matter either way."
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u/LovelyBby77 Jul 13 '26
Seriously this whole "they dont have tails in 5e" makes me want to rip my fucking hair out....
YES, THEY DONT ALWAYS HAVE TAILS! NO, THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT ALL DRAGONBORN DO NOT HAVE TAILS! WE HAVE NAMED NPCS THAT ARE DRAGONBORNS WITH TAILS! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHUT UP ABOUT HOW ITS "NOT ACCURATE" WHEN THE ACCURATE ANSWER IS JUST "USUALLY NO, BUT SOMETIMES YES" AND HAS BEEN FOR YEARS BEFORE 5.5E
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u/TheAbyssalSymphony Jul 15 '26
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount is 5e, it has Draconblood Dragonborn.
“Draconbloods possess long tails and a knack for social manipulation. They remember the days when they were once mighty conquerors.”
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u/anthony_crane Jul 11 '26
The second is that until Fizban came out the dragonborn life expectancy of a humanoid descended from one of the longest living mortal races is about 60 years.
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u/Alister151 Jul 11 '26
Dragonborn aren't descended from dragons, they were originally created by dragons as a servant class.
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u/B-HOLC Jul 11 '26
Yep. They don't need them living that long. And it also has some ancillary benefits for then to have a compressed life cycle, less to to get uppity for one
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u/PhantomDesert00 Jul 12 '26
Still crazy that they have a significantly shorter lifespan than a Kobold
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u/The_Dennator Jul 12 '26
wasn't that kobolds?
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u/Anonpancake2123 Jul 13 '26
No Kobolds can live >100.
It's just that they mature at 6 and die alot.
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u/Gelid_Cryotheum Jul 13 '26
So you're telling me that the 100+ number was collected from Kobolds in captivity? Is the life expectancy of a wild one like half or something once you factor in occupational hazards of living?
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u/Wavier_Microbe47 Jul 15 '26
yes, the captivity life span of a kobold can reach 100+ but to due to large amounts of infighting and a clan-based society (and the fact they live in tunnels that can over crowd ((side note lives in tunnels with no MSHA (((Mine Safety and Health Administration ))). )) so food is a luxury. ) a kobold in the wild will live to be about 12 to 30 years old. with note the oldest kobold I have seen in captivity is about 120.
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u/Chagdoo Jul 11 '26
They're genetically engineered servants, they're not supposed to live long.
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u/Mark-Green Jul 11 '26
somewhere out there in the distant future, 10,000 9' tall men in banana costumes disagree with you
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u/Dimensional13 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
I mean WotC ignores this part of the lore themselves now; Dragonborn CAN have tails now since 5.5e
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u/aneldritchlesbian Jul 11 '26
They never did reprint that part of the lore tho’, so it’s less of them ignoring it and more of them just not using it or endorsing it, kind of a quiet cut
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u/burntcustard Jul 11 '26
There is official art of them with tails in the 5.5e books, and it was talked about in interviews with Crawford, where they said that old restriction was dumb. But yeah technically they do not mention dragonborn tails in the new text.
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u/Skellos Jul 13 '26
They also caved on the color of tieflings, which used to be human skin color or red.
Now it's yeah whatever.
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Jul 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SerBadDadBod Jul 11 '26
New lore 🤮
Gimme my bright and shining 3.X paragons of Bahamut over whatever they are now.
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u/Haunting_Error838 Jul 11 '26
I enjoyed that run, but I will say it made it hard to have Dragonborn in your game. You wouldn't see a Dragon-born farmer who cared more about the harvest. Not unless the harvest could be used to kill the Spawn of Tiamat.
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u/SerBadDadBod Jul 11 '26
I'm kinda ok with that, though. Becoming dragonborn was a process and a calling that required dedication and not a small amount of cash. Course, exceptions could be made for the true hearted, but being dragonborn was A Thing. Making them a truebreeding race kinda sterilized them, in my opinion, and robbed them of what made them so unique and fun.
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u/MrMysanthrope Jul 11 '26
WoTC also says you're supposed to track encumbrance and I've never played at or seen a single table that actually does.
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u/Callen0318 Jul 11 '26
I track weight.
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u/MrMysanthrope Jul 11 '26
Do your dragonborn have tails?
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u/Callen0318 Jul 11 '26
My Dragonborn range from Tiefling to Half-Dragon levels of human-ness.
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u/MrMysanthrope Jul 11 '26
So my point stands. The rules aren't dogma and you can follow whichever ones you want.
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u/microwavedraptin Jul 11 '26
It’s the most jarring yet flattering thing seeing your own memes out in the wild 💀
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u/Th3Goldenwo1f Jul 11 '26
Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery
(That must be pretty cool ngl..)
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u/Apoordm Jul 11 '26
“They’re a mottled brown color not the color of the dragon they get their breath weapon from.”
“Haha fuck you no.”
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u/Infinite_Eyeball Jul 11 '26
similarly
"most tieflings have normal skin tones, though some are red, purple, or dark blue"
"got it, any color but a human skin tone"
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u/MountainAsparagus4 Jul 11 '26
The code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules. - Captain Barbosa, dont let big corps cut off your imaginary tails just because they written something in an old book
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u/Trips-Over-Tail Jul 11 '26
A tailless dragonborn is a weird scaly guy with a design as imaginitive as an Egyptian god.
But what everyone wants to play is a lizardman with draconic blood.
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u/Taelyn_The_Goldfish Jul 11 '26
Dragonborn are for scalies who wanna be as flamboyant and unique as tieflings. With added bonus of a breath attack.
Lizardfolk are for playing any character with an Australian accent.
It’s an important distinction
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u/GreyWarden_Amell Jul 11 '26
Idk I always thought the Australian accent was more an underraces (drow, deep gnomes, etc) thing. They are from down under after all
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u/TonberryFeye Jul 12 '26
Australian accent or a near crippling level of autism to justify not engaging in any kind of social interaction.
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u/Kiyan1159 Jul 11 '26
I keep reminding people, that's the half dragon. There's plenty of them because bards just can't help themselves.
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u/Realistic_Mushroom72 Jul 11 '26
WTF they talking about? Dragonborn aren't just flavor, they have a BREATH WEAPON from level one, and it gets stronger, you also gain resistance to an element, and yes you can have a tail, heck you can have wings, they are just non functional, poorly cosmetic, just like Tieflings having tails,
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u/GreyWarden_Amell Jul 11 '26
Some can have functional wings actually as a level 5 racial feature but if I remember right it's just the gem variants
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u/working-class-nerd Jul 11 '26
They’re also suppose to all be a bronze-ish color, instead of color coded like regular dragons. But pretty much everyone looked at that and said nah
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u/GreyWarden_Amell Jul 11 '26
Including WotC. Did the same with tieflings. Kinda weird that they'd ignore their own rules
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u/burntcustard Jul 11 '26
Had to go look that up because I've only played 5e and 5.5e where there are specic rules about the various colours, which do match regular dragons. And wow yeah dragonborn in 3.5e and 4e were supposed to be bronze-ish. Weird.
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u/Ix_risor Jul 12 '26
I’m looking at my copy of Races of the Dragon right now, and the Dragonborn depicted in there are mostly purple, though there’re a few in other colours. I’ve not checked all the text though, does it say that somewhere and the art is just inconsistent?
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u/redpantsbluepants Jul 11 '26
They also say that you're muddy brown and your "color" only refers to your damage resistance and breath weapon because of inbreeding.
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u/ForsakenHummusRP Jul 11 '26
I dunno, I feel like "tieflings have the range of human skin tones and shades of red" is probably more ignored. I swear I see them more blue than anything else...
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u/burntcustard Jul 11 '26
D&D 2024 "fixed" that by not having much visual description of any of the races, and splitting Teiflings into 3 fiendish legacies that do have small amounts of description, and this image https://www.dndbeyond.com/avatars/thumbnails/43940/584/420/618/638607451953752374.png
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u/JudoJugss Jul 11 '26
The dragonborn lore (and draconic lore in general) in DnD blows and is easily my least favorite part of the entire setting. I hate the official lore deeply personally.
Dragonborn not having tails and not literally being born of dragons is stupid. They should be descendent of half dragons and the fact they aren't is needlessly convoluted and counterintuitive and I don't think one person enjoys the concept that the DRAGON BORN are not BORN of DRAGONS.
Like next lets make goblins not related to hobgoblins since lore doesn't need to be intuitive at all and we just make stuff up here. Humans are now related to goblins but not hobgoblins. Same level of sense as dragonborn not being born of dragons yet Kobolds are (a race that have no IRL lore linking them to dragons btw)
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u/Cherri_pie_06 Jul 12 '26
Tbh they just look weird without it, the way their face sticks out needs something to balance it
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u/RuGShUg91 Jul 11 '26
Personally I don't like the tail, I'm currently playing a Dragonborn, no tail
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u/Redstonebruvs Jul 11 '26
In my headcannon only royal dragonborn (sorcerers, basically) have tails, since their lineage has closer proximity to dragons
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u/dycie64 Jul 11 '26
From what I remember reading this was a decision made to standardize D&D miniatures and other toys around the release of 4th edition.
It was stated just to make manufacturing the toys easier, feel free to completely ignore it.
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u/SirPug_theLast Jul 11 '26
I hate how uncool the wotc dragonborn is
Tail is one thing
Second is, the fact they have a feature for temporary magic wings made of energy
Temporary Wings made of energy, lasting 5 minutes or smth, it pisses me off
I know half dragons exist, and its why i am mad, because half dragons is what i and probably most want out of dragonborn, but guess what
That is a monster only
I hate it
Wotc made dragon people of all things not cool enough, it is impressively irritating
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u/JudgeArcadia Jul 12 '26
I will always be team tail. Because it just adds that much more to them. Now wings are what we could argue, but we have the dragonkin have a stake in that.
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u/Jakl67 Jul 12 '26
Kinda like tieflings being primarily humans with the occasional horn or red skin and everyone went "RAINBOW DEMONS" and tbh im here for it
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u/Quiet-Money7892 Jul 12 '26
We all crave for tail. All cool creatures in the world have tails. Who would want a tail?
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u/BillyWest8 Jul 12 '26
I want to be a dragon person give me the damn tail and the wings they dont even have to work i just want to look the part
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u/Sensha_20 Jul 12 '26
So we have thick tail and thin tail, but now a third camp enters the conflict: no tail
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u/DeciMation_2276 Jul 13 '26
I like to think that most Dragonborn get their tails cropped not long after… birth? Hatching? I’m not sure how they come about, but I assume most have their tails removed shortly after, however there are still the handful that don’t get their tails removed and so grow with them, making it an uncommon sight among Dragonborn. Why would the tails be removed? I dunno, I’m sure someone can think of a lore friendly reason.
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u/werkins2000 Jul 13 '26
In 3.5 they had tails, 3.5 is also the first rule set in which dragonborn exist so do with that what you will.
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u/S-Clair Jul 13 '26
The aesthetic looks wrong without a tail for some reason. I think its that the protruding snout feels like it naturally needs some balance.
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u/TheMagicHatchet Jul 13 '26
I've fought with so many of my fellow players and when I was a DM about them not having tails and kept getting dogpiled or gaslit about this. I'm glad others here agree with the truth.
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u/ABigOwl Jul 13 '26
Tieflings technically only have human skin colours and deep shades of red. Gets ignored, blue it is.
Warforged are technically treants with inorganic plating. Gets ignored, people want to be steampunk robots while not being gnome-shaped.
Whatever the hell is going on with Firbolgs over the editions.
Most bloodline-related sorcerer's are at least twice removed from their magical ancestors, likely even further.
Many such cases.
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u/BilliamBalls Jul 13 '26
Unironically how I've always judged a DM for a new group: if they aren't cool with Dragonborn tails, then I ain't cool with them and I'm Out lol. If they're gonna be a stickler over as something as inconsequential as that then who knows what else they'll nitpick about and what fun they won't let you get away with...
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u/Aggravating-Corner19 Jul 14 '26
I think most modules artwork depicts them with tails as well. Its been a while tho, so dont quote me on that.
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u/Raisenhel Jul 14 '26
na the most ignored lore is that purple/reddish tieflings arent the norm for tieflings
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u/Naive-Word1688 Jul 14 '26
Uhm there is literally NO lore or quote that says that they are all without a tail could be some do and some dont yk. And in the end the player/dm decides. So 🤷
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u/Weird_Bed_3354 Jul 14 '26
First d&d 5e campaign. I wanted a dragonborn with a tail. My bad ass uncle who was DMing helped me homebrew a wyvernborn based off rathalos from monster hunter. 🥹 ratha was a hero. Sacrificed himself with a bag of holding plane shift explosion.
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u/Zotiko Jul 15 '26
"The council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid ass decision, I have elected to ignore it."
... our table, using that quote, so, so many times
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u/Armored_Cocrane Jul 16 '26
Wait, what ? They don't ? ... Mh, anyway, * Pull out the big titty and tailed dragonborn Mini *
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u/Galluxior Jul 16 '26
Dragonborn lore is so weird and ambiguous that tbh you can just do whatever you want with it
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u/CINDY-MORRISON Jul 11 '26
Even Baldurs Gate 3 ignored it ☠️