Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Dragonborn need better race features

The option to play as a Dragonborn was the deciding factor for me as to whether I was going to buy it. They look great, but their race perks are terrible.

Dragonbreath is completely useless starting as early as level 2, it does pitiful damage, doesn't even create elemental surface, and requires a full rest for every cast.
The defining trait for an entire playable race really shouldn't be a wasted slot, but in its current state it is literally useless and may as well not exist.

That leaves Dragonborn with a single unique trait that actually does something.. which is a bit if elemental resist... yay. Highly situational and not nearly as practical or impactful as the traits of other races. Picking a hulking dragonman should really not feel like a self imposed handicap, but it currently does.

Honestly dragonbreath is so bad that it feels like a mistake or oversight, but an appropriate buff would be an easy enough change to fit in a hotfix.

They should have a racial to coat their weapon with the breath element.

"Coating" your weapon in acid sounds a little sketchy to me. (And I hate how gamey dipping is in general.)

Their breath weapon needs to scale up in size and damage. At least damage. Higher level breath weapons could leave some kind of surface behind. The breath weapon needs to be competitive with Fighter basic attacks. Otherwise it's never worth using.

And they need a voice set that doesn't sound like a soft human voice. Applying some effect to the voice sets should be enough.

We could definitely use quite a few more voice options, DB are not alone with this problem.

Dragonborn were buffed in D&D. I am rather surprised Larian did not implement the buffed version.

All of this. Dragon breath becomes useless so freaking fast, and don't even get me started on how off-putting a human voice is for a DB. I think I would've ripped my hair out if the portag was fully voiced like the followers, and I had to listen to a dainty human-ish voice in a race that really should sound more... Reptilian? A deeper voice wouldn't really cut it either, they would have to add some kind of filter to it too. One of the very few times I'm actually thankful that the protagonist isn't fully voiced, due to the limited voice options.

As for Dragon breath, 1varangian really said everything that needed to be said on the matter if you ask me.

for some reason, even Wizards of the Coast tried to retcon the buffed and improved version away whne making one-D&D

At minimum they should get the armor bonus that a dragon blood sorcerer gets. It’s odd that a naked fighter Dragonborn has less AC than a naked human sorcerer.

Shield Dwarf and Dragonborn need to be buffed yes.

My default suggestion for Dragonborn would be make them start at 1d6, get to 2d6 at level 5, and 3d6 at level 11 (or 10, as thats what Larian uses for Cantrips). And they'd get 4d6 at level 17 (or 15??), if Larian ever implements that.

Gaining some AC like a Dragon Sorcerer might be a bit strong. Maybe a general +1 AC, culmulative with any other armor class bonus.