Draconian

Version 0.13: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This article covers the player species. For the monster, see Draconian (monster). For a list of all monstrous draconians, see List of draconians.

Draconians are human-dragon hybrids: humanoid in form and approximately human-sized, with wings, tails and scaly skins. Draconians start out in an immature form with brown scales, but as they grow in power they take on a variety of colours. This happens at an early stage in their career, and the colour is determined by chromosomes, not by behaviour. Some types of Draconians have breath weapons or special resistances. Draconians cannot wear body armour and advance very slowly in levels, but are reasonably good at all skills other than missile weapons. Still, each colour has its own strengths and some have complementary weaknesses, which sometimes requires a bit of flexibility on the part of the player.

Innate Abilities

• Draconians have an auxiliary tail-slap attack.
• Draconians' wings and oddly-shaped heads prevent them from wearing helmets and any form of body armour.
• Draconian scales are tough and provide AC+4 at start, with an additional +1 AC every 3rd level.
• Draconians are cold-blooded, meaning certain cold-based attacks will slow them down.
• Dragon Form functions differently for draconians. They have better AC, and retain their innate resistances, color, and breath weapon.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Monk
• Zealots: Berserker, Abyssal Knight, Death Knight, Healer
• Warrior-mages: Skald, Transmuter
• Mages: Wizard, Conjurer, Summoner, Necromancer, Fire Elementalist, Ice Elementalist, Air Elementalist, Earth Elementalist, Venom Mage
• Adventurers: Artificer.

Level Bonuses

• Mature color is attained at level 7 (changing aptitudes and intrinsic characteristics). See below for more detail. Some colors get another bonus at Level 14.
• +1 to a random stat every 4th level.
• 10% more HP than average.
• Average MP.
• +3 magic resistance per level (+6 for purple Draconians).
• +1 AC every 3rd level as scales continue to harden.

Difficulty of Play

Draconians are a difficult race to play because of their slow leveling, average aptitudes, low overall attributes (especially dexterity), lack of specialization, and the randomness of the adult form. Breath attacks also quickly become obsolete in power. Even with their scales mutations and (eventual) high HP, their lack of body armour makes them much more fragile than one might expect. At the same time, the lack of body armour also strongly encourages hybrid-style gameplay; one can greatly increase their odds of survival by augmenting their defenses with magical buffs, and at high levels they wind up with far greater AC than the average lightly-armoured character. Also, since their equipment use is limited, scrolls of acquirement are somewhat more likely to give you what you want (in terms of armour, anyway).

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting		Armour		Spellcasting
		Dodging
Maces & Flails		Shields		Conjurations
Axes		Stealth		Hexes
Polearms				Summonings
Staves		Invocations		Necromancy
Unarmed Combat		Evocations		Translocations
Throwing		Shapeshifting		Alchemy
				Fire Magic
Short Blades				Ice Magic
Long Blades				Air Magic
Ranged Weapons		Experience		Earth Magic

Colors

Draconians start at an immature brown with no special abilities, and reach their mature color at level 7. They receive a breath attack, resistances, and an adjustment to their aptitudes which will retroactively adjust their skill levels.

Red

• Skills: +2 Fire Magic, -2 Ice Magic
• Resists: rF+
• Breath: A bolt of flame, which leaves a cloud of flame at the end of its range. (Can be aimed at the ground with [.])

Red Draconians feel at home in fiery surroundings. They are bad with ice magic but very proficient with fire. Their scorchingly hot breath will leave a lingering cloud of flame.

White

• Skills: +2 Ice Magic, -2 Fire Magic
• Resists: rC+ (negates effects of being cold-blooded)
• Breath: A bolt of frost, which ignores AC and knocks back flying monsters.

White Draconians stem from frost-bitten lands, and are naturally resistant to frost. Their breath is piercing cold. They are versed in ice magic, but bad at fire.

Green

• Skills: +2 Poison Magic
• Resists: rPois
• Breath: A bolt of noxious fumes, that leaves behind Mephitic Clouds on the affected tiles.
• Melee: Gains a venomous stinger at level 14.

Green Draconians are used to venomous surroundings and breathe clouds of mephitic vapours. They are especially good in the arts of poison and without deficiencies in other magic realms. Later on, they will develop a poisonous stinger.

Yellow

• Resists: rCorr
• Breath: An acidic glob that corrodes equipment and can cause bleeding.
• Melee: Gains acidic saliva at level 14.

Yellow Draconians have a sulphurous breath full of corrosive acid, and later gain an acidic bite attack. They are acid resistant, too.

Grey

• Skills: +2 Earth Magic, -2 Air Magic
• Resists: Immediate +5 to AC; does not need to breathe, and is thus immune to drowning and noxious fumes and resistant to asphyxiation.
• Movement: Amphibious (Can enter deep water, but will incur the penalties from shallow water.)'

Grey Draconians have no breath weapon, but also no need to breathe in order to live, which helps them survive in deep water. They are proficient with earth magic but bad with air magic, and also have harder scales than other Draconians.

Black

• Skills: +2 Air Magic, -2 Earth Magic
• Resists: rElec
• Breath: Wild explosions of lightning, mixing lightning bolts and orbs (powerful but uncontrollable).
• Movement: Gains big wings at level 14. Unlike other draconians, they may also remain permanently airborne, much like powerful tengu.

Black Draconians can unleash huge electrical discharges, and are naturally insulated. They are good at air magic but feel cumbersome with earth magic. Their wings will eventually grow larger, which allows them to fly continuously when combined with their natural skill with air magic.

Purple

• Skills: +2 Spellcasting, +1 Hexes, +1 Charms, +1 Evocations
• Breath: A bolt of power, which deals irresistible damage and removes buffs (ex. Haste, Invisibility).

Purple Draconians are highly adapted to all spellcasting in general, and to hexes and charms in particular. They are a bit better at evoking things than most other Draconians. They can breathe dispelling energy which strips those it hits of their enchantments.

Mottled

• Skills: +1 Fire Magic
• Resists: Sticky Flame
• Breath: Sticky Flame against an adjacent monster (though it may splash onto more than one target).

Mottled Draconians are somewhat in touch with fire, yet are not weak with ice. They can spit globs of sticky flame a short distance.

Pale

• Skills: +1 Fire Magic, +1 Air Magic, +1 Evocations
• Resists: rSteam
• Breath: Steam clouds, which do little damage but block LOS.

Pale Draconians are better at air and fire magic, and have no deficiencies in other schools. They breathe steam and, like their Purple cousins, have a slight advantage at Evocations.

Mature player ghost draconians always have a negative energy breath weapon similar to a Bolt of Draining. In addition to the usual undead resistances, they will also retain whatever resistance their color gave them.

Strategy

As denoted above, one particularly versatile starting background for draconians is as a Conjurer. The vast majority of all draconian maturations are into forms which increase skill aptitude in a specific school of magic, all of which have access to some powerful Conjurations. Moreover, a full third of maturations are into forms which increase the particularly Conjurations-related Fire Magic aptitude. While the ‘purple’ maturation is an exception to this, purple draconians have an exceptional spellcasting versatility in their own right.

Another good starting background for draconians is Transmuters; while they have only average aptitudes for Transmutations and Unarmed Combat, their tails give them an auxiliary attack right from the get-go, and their lack of a body armor slot means they won't care as much about losing the ability to wear armor while transformed. They also have additional synergy with Dragon Form later on, as they retain their natural AC boost, resistances, and breath attacks.

If you wish to start with a background that has access to spells in one or more of the four main elements (or find an early spellbook), keep in mind that your maturation may land you with an undesirable aptitude for certain elemental magic, prompting the decision to either forge ahead with a -2 aptitude (which is still doable, if less than ideal) or switch to a different spell school and possibly deal with a period of antitraining. Of course, waiting until after you mature to decide which elemental spell school to use is a perfectly feasible option.

History

Prior to 0.7, grey draconians got better stats to make up for their lack of a breath attack.

Prior to 0.10, draconians had access to any body armour that could fit large species, but could not wear boots or gloves.

Prior to 0.11, grey draconians were elementally neutral, receiving bonuses to Stealth and Stabbing in place of the Earth Magic boost, and they did not gain the +5 bonus to AC. Yellow draconians only had rAcid (not rCorr).

As of 0.12, all draconians are considered cold-blooded.