Draconic scions are creatures with a connection to dragons, in a similar way to planar scions’ connection to beings from other planes. Possessed of great power, draconic scions blend the power and abilities of dragonkind along with the unique advantages of their own ancestry. Brimming with the barely disguised might of a dragon and yet neither dragon nor mortal, a draconic scion must find their own place between those worlds. Fortunately though, with the talents and skills they possess, this isn’t a difficult task, and others tend to be more likely to avoid draconic scions out of awe than any intentional bigotry. If you want to play a character who isn’t a dragon but who possesses many draconic qualities, you should play a draconic scion.

You Might...

• Have a contradictory dual nature, which causes you to have complex motivations and unexpected dichotomies.
• Experience urges related to your draconic lineage.
• Seek knowledge about dragons in general, and the type of dragon to which you’re connected in particular.

Others Probably...

• Are in awe of you and consider you powerful, glorious, and dangerous.
• Assume one of your parents is a dragon, even though that probably isn’t the case.
• Mistake you for a dragon using an imperfect disguise.

Physical Description

Draconic scions look like powerful, imposing members of their ancestry with features matching their draconic lineage, ranging from minor to extremely noticeable depending on the strength of their draconic scion heritage.

Patches of scales matching the scale coloration of their draconic lineage are common, as are manifestations of power such as glowing energy within the draconic scion’s eyes and mouth, but draconic scions might also possess horns, claws, a draconic snout and jaws, or even a tail or wings. These features shift and change as the draconic scion grows in power and chooses to accept more draconic abilities, granting them more and more draconic features. A truly powerful draconic scion might look more like a bipedal humanoid dragon than they do their initial ancestry.

Society

When it comes to the potential backstories for a draconic scion, humans, whose minds are perpetually fixated on such things, default to considering unusual romances between dragons in alternate forms and other ancestries. While it’s not impossible for such a pairing to result in a draconic scion child, matching the ancestry of the other parent and the disguised dragon, it is among the least common of the many rare circumstances that lend draconic essence to another creature. In cases of a draconic ancestor, the inherited draconic scion might also occur as an atavism, multiple generations removed from the original dragon. As a result, those who inherit their status as dragon scion from their parents typically are the children of two other dragon scions, who produce dragon scion offspring with relatively high probability, or perhaps a dragon scion and someone with thinner draconic blood, like a draconic bloodline sorcerer, or even two draconic bloodline sorcerers. As the generations pass and more and more inherited draconic scions arise from the interactions of other dragon-blooded ancestries, inherited draconic scions become more likely to possess a mixture of features from several dragon heritages, including scales of different colors, heterochromatic eyes, and other such variegated features. Nonetheless, when it comes to the power of the magic within them, there’s always one draconic heritage that finds the most resonance, no matter how mixed a draconic scion’s background. Inherited draconic scions are more likely to be associated with heritages of dragons who like to live among other ancestries and form attachments to them.

Tutelage and training can, on rare occasions, transform a truly dedicated disciple of draconic arts into a draconic scion, or render them with enough draconic power that their offspring might become draconic scions. This most traditionally applies for a creature who works extremely closely with one or more dragons, learning to emulate dragons, and such a student often takes the dragon disciple archetype as part of their path towards draconic enlightenment. The transcendence into a draconic scion could be gradual over time and many stages of understanding one’s self, or it might happen all at once in a sudden unexpected outpouring of draconic potential. A draconic scion forged in this fashion might gain their heritage later in life, retraining over time or all at once into new draconic abilities and learning how their life will be forever changed by their transformation. Enlightened draconic scions often learn at the feet of dragons who enjoy teaching and uplifting others, such as gold dragons, sovereign dragons, and even occasionally sky dragons who find someone worthy of sharing their hidden aeries.

Similar to enlightened draconic scions, transfigured draconic scions began their life as some other heritage and only later gained their draconic powers. The main difference between them is that enlightened draconic scions studied and trained to become draconic scions voluntarily through hard work, but transfigured draconic scions triggered the transformation through a deep exposure to draconic power, often accidentally or involuntarily. Transfigured draconic scions might come from a vestige hunter (Battlezoo Bestiary 158) who’s absorbed one too many draconic vestiges, a character with a powerful soul seed (Pathfinder Secrets of Magic) imbuing increasingly powerful dragon gifts directly into their soul, or someone with a similar tale who was given, stole, or accidentally inherited a piece of a dragon’s life force or soul within their own mortal shell. Transfigured draconic scions are equally likely to come from almost any draconic heritage, but they almost always have a triggering moment or crucial point in their backstory connected to a specific dragon. Perhaps a dying dragon gifted the last of their power to the new draconic scion and asked a special quest or prohibition in return, to carry out the dragon’s final wishes. On the other hand, the transformation could have come about due to research and experimentation, whether the eventual dragon scion was a willing participant or not, killing dragons in attempts to use magic, technology, or both to siphon their powerful energies into a non-draconic test subject.

Reincarnated draconic scions come about when a dragon’s soul is reincarnated into a new form, perhaps as the result of a reincarnate ritual, perhaps due to a magical experiment, or simply as part of the natural cycle of reincarnation. Depending on the source of the reincarnation, the new draconic might have all, some, or none of the memories of the original dragon. Most often they are able to access whatever memories they have as flashes in dreams, or when deeply drawing on their draconic powers. Reincarnated draconic scion is a good choice for a dragon character who was reincarnated into another ancestry during play, as it potentially allows the character to keep some of their dragon ancestry feats and establish continuity if those feats were important to how the character played. Dragon heritages more attached to the cycle of life and death, such as crypt dragons, are more likely to become reincarnated draconic scions.

Alignment and Religion

While their origins are diverse, draconic scions share a dual nature that often causes them to possess personality traits that are seemingly in contradiction: perhaps they are both generous and greedy, or both callous and caring. It’s not that the draconic scion vacillates between one and the other. They simultaneously embody both contradictory traits and are able to express them both at once through the same actions. Their alignments generally tend to be somewhere in between the usual alignments of their ancestry and the usual alignments of the dragon heritage associated with their draconic lineage. Enlightened draconic scions are especially likely to have an alignment close to the dragon who taught them, as they learned and accepted the worldview of their mentor in order to fully embody the teachings and power necessary to become a draconic scion. Similarly, reincarnated draconic scions are often, but not always, close to the same alignment as the dragon was before being reincarnated. Transfigured draconic scions are slightly more likely to be chaotic than other draconic scions, due to the unpredictable nature of their transformation, but this tendency isn’t as strong as the tendency towards the draconic lineage’s alignment.

Dragon scions are more likely than most members of other ancestries to worship dragon deities, but otherwise they worship all the same deities as other members of their own ancestry. A dragon scion might worship two patrons with extremely different, even contradictory worldviews, somehow finding a way in the scion’s own mind to satisfy the teachings of both deities. This sort of arrangement typically doesn’t work for dragon scion clerics, however, as in those cases, two conflicting sets of anathema may be impossible to avoid.

Names

Draconic scion names tend to vary based on their original ancestry and their origin. Enlightened and transfigured draconic scions have completely normal names for a member of their ancestry, unless they choose to discard their name after their ascension or transformation and take a new name. In those cases, they might pick a name in draconic or just a name they think sounds interesting. Reincarnated draconic scions’ names vary based on their identity. Depending on whether they have so many of the dragon’s original memories that they consider themselves to be the dragon, so few that they consider themselves to be entirely their new self, or something in between, they might either adopt one of the two names completely or else create a blend of the two. Finally, inherited draconic scions, born to their gifts, might receive names with more of a draconic flair from their parents. This also varies based on whether the parents included a dragon or draconic scion; two parents completely unaware of the possibility of a draconic avatism might be more confused by their child’s draconic features than anything, and potentially mistake them for something else entirely, leading to a mistaken identity as an aasimar, ganzi, geniekin, or tiefling and a name inaccurately attempting to channel those connections.

Sample Names

Blue Flame, Kallizandrex, Red Mask, Twin Hearts, Vorik, Whiteclaw

Draconic Scion Adventurers

Draconic scions are extremely likely to become adventurers, or to already be adventurers if they became draconic scions later in life. They tend to prefer the same sorts of classes as either their original ancestry, or as the dragon heritage that corresponds to their lineage (for more information about which classes are most common among dragons of a given heritage, check the lore entries starting on page 81). Draconic scion backgrounds depend on the source of their draconic power. Inherited and reincarnated draconic scions have been draconic scions their entire life, and so they might have had backgrounds related to the position of awe, respect, and fear others felt towards them, such as gladiator, guard, or noble. Reincarnated draconic scions with full memories of their dragon life might simply keep the background from their past life as a dragon. Meanwhile, enlightened draconic scions are likely to be acolytes, scholars, or other backgrounds involving learning or faith. Transfigured draconic scions could have come from any background, though those who had no choice but to be the test subject for experimental draconic imbuing might be a laborer, prisoner, servant, or even have the rare magical experiment background (Pathfinder Secrets of Magic).

Draconic Scion Settlements

Draconic scions tend to live in settlements alongside other creatures of their ancestry, or rarely, with dragons instead. Of the various origins, enlightened draconic scions are most likely to live among dragons.

However, extremely rarely, draconic scions form their own settlements, full of other draconic scions and strongly dragonblooded members of the same ancestry. Such confluences of draconic scions, rare though they might be, are by far the most likely sources of inherited draconic scions, since two draconic scions have a high chance to produce a draconic scion offspring together.

Aeternal dragon settlements tend to be especially accepting of draconic scions, and in areas where both an aeternal dragon settlement and a draconic scion settlement are possible, the two might combine citizenry to create a larger and more stable settlement together. For their part, aeternal dragons understand draconic scions in a way that few others do, aside from other draconic scions, and draconic scions understand and typically respect aeternal dragons as well. Due to both groups’ tendencies to produce adventurers, their shared settlements often wind up much higher level and wealthier than you might expect for their relative size. Woe betide any thief who thinks that the small town hidden deep in the jungle with buildings decorated in gold and jewels is ripe for the picking.