Hey there my name is AJ Pickett and I make videos about roleplaying games, and lots of
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I have mentioned them a few times, and now it is finally time to talk about a draconic
race called the Spellscales.
First appearing in 3.5 edition's 'Races of the Dragon' published in 2006, this book contains
what I consider to be the genesis of the Dragonborn player character, as well as information that
greatly expanded on kobolds and Half dragons.
In a nutshell, Spellscales are draconic humanoids with artistic flair, intelligence, a talent
for sorcery and a great hunger for new experiences, they look quite distinct from Dragonborn and
Half Dragons and personally, I think they are a great addition to the lineup of draconic
humanoids that make a lot of sense.
Why do they make sense?
Well, they are the answer to the question about draconic blood and sorcerers.
For this video, since there really is only one main source of information about the spellscales,
I will be quoting directly from Races of the Dragon and this is what it has to say about
their parentage and legitimacy as a distinct race.
It has long been known that many sorcerers have dragon blood in their veins.
For the majority of these individuals, their spellcasting abilities are often the only
hint of their draconic heritage, but sometimes the evidence is clearer.
Occasionally, when two humanoid sorcerers produce a child or a particularly powerful
sorcerer has a child with a non-sorcerer, the infant displays decidedly draconic features
and physiology.
The child is, in fact, a spellscale rather than a member of either of the parents’
races.
Spellscales are, however, a distinct race.
They breed true among themselves and if one parent is a spellscale, their offspring will
always be a full blooded spellscale, regardless of the race of the other parent.
Comparisons between them and Dragonborn are inevitable, but where the dragonborn exhibit
more of the tooth and claw and elemental power of the dragon, the Spellscales embody their
ego, individuality and their role as creatures of magic.
Regardless of their parents race, all Spellscales stand between four foot seven and five foot
seven for the males and between 5 feet to 6 foot one for the females, bodyweight is
a bit leaner than humans, its rare for males to be heavier than 106 pounds and females
heavier than 116 pounds, but there is a couple of good reasons for this aside from their
shorter stature.
Spellscales tend to neglect their physical needs, skip meals and rely on magic rather
than muscle to achieve the same results, for this reason they commonly have a lower Constitution
score than a human, they also mature faster, starting out much smaller than a normal humanoid
infant and reaching adulthood by the age of 12, so they don't tend to put on a whole lot
of muscle and they don't have a metabolism that puts a lot of fat on their frame, this
is nice when it comes to eating as much rich food as they want, but it also means they
don't have those reserves of energy if they are faced with starvation, so a human will
live longer without food than a spellscale will, every time.
If you want a perfect example of the average build of a male spellscale adventurer, you
don't have to look any further than the late music icon Prince.
He was 5'2" and weighed about 120 pounds, he was also one hell of a flamboyant dresser,
and that is also a defining trait of the Spellscales, if you added a fine covering of lustrous and
intricately colored scales, distinctive draconic ears, some fine markings on the face and eyes
that tend to reflect torchlight a bit like a cat, prince essentially was a spellscale.
Oh, the eye thing is because of the Tapetum Lucidum, which means Bright tapestry coverlet
in latin.
Most animals that have a tapetum lucidum in their eyes are mammals, although some reptiles,
amphibians and invertebrates also have this reflective membrane.
In dark environments, light sources bouncing off this causes an eyeshine effect that can
appear orange, yellow, green or blue, depending on the animal and often, its age.
Some animals have eyes that glow more brightly at night than others.
However, there is a trade-off for improved night vision.
The animals that can produce the brightest eyeshine have fewer cone photoreceptor cells
in their eyes.
As a result, they have limited color vision or maybe completely color blind.
Such is not the case for humanoids with a tapetum lucidum in D&D, but, I thought you
might find that bit of biology interesting.
Spellscales have 60 ft darkvision... makes me wonder if my Deepgnome player character
should be color blind.
Anyway, although they are humanoid in every way, and their parents, if not spellscales,
were most likely members of other humanoid races, for the purpose of determining all
effects, particularly magical effects and such that rely on the type of a creature,
Spellscales count as dragons, thus an arrow of dragon-slaying is also deadly to them but,
they can also more easily pass through wards and circles that dragons creature to block
the passage of any but their own kind and creatures such as Kobolds will treat Spellscales
quite a lot differently to any other races.
Spellscales might be a bit confused when a human adventurer tells them of the evil nature
of the kobolds, from a spellscales point of view, they are lovely, industrious and helpful,
clever little creatures.
If a spellscale acts as the spokesperson for an adventuring party, kobolds will pose no
great threat, however, they would never go against the orders of an actual dragon who
has told them that the spellscale is their foe.
Their draconic blood is just as intensely magical as dragons, at the end of each long
rest a Spellscale will meditate on their blood and evoke an aspect of one of the draconic
gods, which one is entirely up to the player but it should reflect of the needs and most
importantly the emotions of the Spellscale character at that moment.
Each meditation is different, and someone who is very familiar with the Spellscale will
grow to learn which aspect is being invoked just by what the spellscale does shortly after
they rise from sleep.
Sometimes Spellscales will get others involved in these meditations as a kind of bonding
of friendship.
But only spellscales and I suppose other dragon blooded sorcerers can truly appreciate the
process.
The various aspects of the gods provide different benefits and each one is pretty simple to
include in the game.
But more on those in just a moment.
Spellscales dread the very idea of a Beholders anti-magic eye, for them, magic flows through
them and they are aware of it every waking moment of their days, they have a deep fascination
for it and spend many hours in self-reflection, honing their feelings, intuition and understanding
of their relationship with it and how they can shape it.
Their biological connection to magic shapes their entire culture and their individual
idiosyncrasies.
This innate feel for the flow and pull of magic and their need to be constantly adaptable
to it is part of what they call “following one’s blood.”
You will often hear this phrase among spellscales and it has some interesting flow-on effects
on their culture.
Of course, all cultures start with the family and spellscales have strong family ties, particularly
so since members of a family can at times have very conflicting world views and current
activities, but they will put these aside when it comes to family matters, every single
time.
We have all been teenagers and understand a parent's frustration as their kid is convinced
they are going to be a great violin player, so the parent spends a lot of money on a violin
and such, only to see it gathering dust on a shelf as their kid loses interest in that
in favour of their next great fascination.
This is exactly what Spellscales are like, for their entire life.
Although this seems a fickle and shallow existence, from the spellscales point of view, it is
anything but.
Their interests, philosophies and feelings may be more mercurial than other races, but
that doesn't make them less real or somehow disingenuous, if they want to be a famous
violin player and someone violently opposes their goal, they are just as liable to kill
for that goal as someone who has been working towards it their entire life, not just the
last three months.. spellscales can be intense people, as you can imagine, their love lives
can also be quite a roller coaster!
They tend to have a lot of diverse relationships in their life and a venerable spellscale at
the age of 140 is still quite likely to fall passionately in love and have a wild affair,
which is something that a Dwarf finds absolutely bizarre.
But more on relationships with other races in a moment.
Roleplaying a spellscale, there are a few traits that you can include that are commonplace
among them.
First, they don't apologize for anything, the best you will get is them telling you
they regret the misfortune of others, but they don't ever spontaneously apologize for
anything they do, they live in the now, they act with intention and if their actions have
regrettable consequences, so be it, they don't go around telling people they should have
done something differently... they didn't and they would have done the same thing given
the same chance, so why lie about it?
They also don't explain their actions to others after the fact..
things happened, the past is done, the present requires constant attention.
If pressed to explain themselves, they will either be brutally honest or lie outrageously
and mockingly.
They don't discipline or punish their children for their actions, such behaviour only results
in disaster, so they will simply offer insight, provide resources and urge their child to
be careful.
Children's games among the spellscales tend to revolve around games of make-believe and
roleplay, each child taking on different imaginary roles, they also have games of Leader for
the Day, where one is randomly picked to choose all activities for the day.
This is also exactly how spellscale communities govern themselves, a black box is filled with
silver beads representing each adult in the population and one golden bead, once per year
they all draw a bead and whoever gets the gold one is the leader for the rest of the
year, whatever they say goes until the next election, the only rules being, they must
have an election each year and any spellscale is free to leave the community if they happen
to not like the current leadership, otherwise, you never really know what sort of situation
you are walking into when dealing with the spellscales living in their little quarter
of a town or city, there may be next to no governance at all, or the current leader may
be something of a tyrant, for the spellscales, they think this method is perfect.
Even in places where city leaders keep strict control on citizens, the spellscales will
always have their own leadership, either openly or in secret.
Such common rituals seem to be islands of stability in a sea of transience for the spellscales
and individuals similarly have little rituals they maintain, so, for example, a spellscale
may always eat their food a very specific way or only eat food created by magic, they
might visit a certain location each year, they may only answer a question with another
question or include some aspect of chance and gambling in everything they do, but again,
these personal rituals can change, will change, throughout the spellscales life.
For a roleplayer and their spellscale character, this doesn't conflict with the goals of an
adventuring group, or, that is not the intention of this aspect of the race, their mercurial
nature, living without apology for their actions and shifting fascinations take place gradually,
a spellscale is just as capable of sticking to a plan and making personal compromises
for the team as any other player character, it is not an excuse to be a disruptive player
at the table, its supposed to be fun quirks that make spellscales interesting and quirky
characters to play and to play alongside of.
OK, lets take a look at those dragon blood quickening meditations and the effects they
have for the purposes of game mechanics.
The meditations don't need to take very long at all, only a minute or so, though the spellscale
may wrap this in a bit of extended ritual, each dragon god has different benefits, and,
although we are talking about dragon gods here, this is not really a prayer or a granted
power, it has nothing to do with the dragon gods themselves, it is just a way that the
spellscale focuses on and enhances aspects of their draconic heritage, so, if your spellscale
happens to be a cleric devoted to a deity, there is no conflict of faith here.
For more information on the dragon gods, I have a video about them, link is on the screen
for you now.
Obviously, some of the draconic gods have a very different alignment than a particular
spellscale, but the spellscale will try to include all of the gods each least once each
per year, some will be clear favourites of theirs, others will only rarely be evoked,
all of them and their effects within the spellscale have their uses.
Meditating on Bahamut, the king of good dragons, enhances the spellscales ability to oppose
evil creatures.
three times between the end of the meditation and their next long rest, the spellscale can
enhance a single target or area of effect damaging spell to do an additional 2d6 damage
to any evil being affected by that spell.
Meditating on Tiamat, queen of evil dragons, has the same effect as that of Bahamut except
it does an extra 2d6 damage to good creatures.
Meditating on Garyx the All-Destroyer enhances the use of the empowered spell metamagic option,
getting two free uses of it until the spellscales next long rest.
As per usual, the spell can be empowered even if another metamagic enhancement has already
been used with it.
Meditating on Falazure the Night Dragon, also known as the Reaver allows the spellscale
to use the Quickened or Twinned spell metamagics at only half the usual sorcery point cost
until the spellscales next long rest.
Meditating on Chronepsis the silent, also known as the Guardian of the Lost allows the
spellscale advantage on all perception checks for listening for sounds and unlimited use
of the Subtle spell metamagic before their next long rest
Meditating on Astilabor the Hoardmistress gives the spellscale advantage on all checks
when appraising the value of any item and allows them to cast spells without need of
any material components until their next long rest.. this is a fairly popular meditation
I imagine.
Meditating on Hlal the chaotic good dragon goddess of humour, inventiveness, and pleasure
enhances the spellscales natural charisma, giving them advantage on all charisma based
skill checks and allows three free uses of the Quickened spell metamagic before their
next long rest.
Meditating on Io the eternal, god of creation gives the spellscale one free use of the Heightened
spell metamagic and unlimited free use of the Extended spell metamagic before their
next long rest.
Meditating on Tamara the Merciful allows unlimited use of the Careful spell metamagic until the
spellscale takes their next long rest.
Meditating on Aasterinian the trickster allows the spellscale advantage on all disguise checks
until their next long rest and they get to use Counterspell as well, though it still
has the same cost in spell slots as per usual.
Meditating on Lendys the Scales of Justice allows the spellscale to have advantage on
all concentration checks until their next long rest.
Now, these are all just my best approximate conversions of the effects from the earlier
edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and even in the source material there is nothing official
on another dragon god, Sardior, mainly because his status as a god is slightly murky, but
I think there is a legit place for him in a spellscales meditations, in which case,
given Sardior being god of the gem dragons and the portfolios of secrets, the night and
psychic power, perhaps some enhancement to stealth or free use of a low-level psychic
spell would work quite well, I leave that up to you.
Each blood quickening ritual is tailored to the theme of each god and its a good opportunity
to roleplay the spellscale's unique world view on the concepts that god encapsulates,
which can be weird, particularly when a lawful good spellscale is expressing some aspect
of Tiamat, a very evil dragon god.
As I read through the descriptions of spellscales, this is a whole race of beings who seem more
likely to have a pretty fuzzy alignment, with moments where they shift entirely according
to their current beliefs and the needs of the here and now, in fact there is a specific
anecdote about how a vital contract between some spellscales and two other populations
is broken with impunity by the spellscales in accordance with their own strange customs
and a suggestion that... yeah, spellscales are flakey, unreliable, inconsiderate and
do express that arrogance of dragons, they are narcissistic and may double-cross you
at any time without apology, but perhaps with some sense of regret for their own loss...
loss of trust, loss of friendship, loss of that bridge they just burned.
Their attitude to other races is fairly interesting, on the whole they consider dwarves to be slow
and predictable, the elves have an admirable grace and love of magic, but they are too
academic about it, the gnomes just don't seem to have a point, humans are deliciously adaptable
and diverse, half orcs are crude but fascinatingly capable and halflings are simply delightful.
Spellscales seem to enjoy the company of halflings and half elves the most, I imagine they also
find tieflings, warforged and such to be quite wonderful to watch and may occupy their down
time between adventures simply finding ways to involve themselves in helpful ways while
taking opportunities to get a closer look and ask personal questions... studying these
people, thinking about what life must be like from their point of view, moulding their own
attitudes and philosophies, even emulating them for a while, trying on their cultural
qualities and adopting some of their fashion sense.
This could be flattering, pesky or even kind of sinister, depends on the spellscale I suppose.
Spellscales exhibit all the best characteristics of dragons in a compact humanoid form.
They wear their wealth and tend to live a fairly lavish lifestyle, after all, as natural
born sorcerers with a very high proportion of arcanists in their population, they tend
to accumulate a lot of wealth, so ostentation, fashion quirks and eclectic styles are their
hallmark... no spellscale will leave on adventure with just one or two sets of clothes and they
have a habit of spending their money just as quickly as they acquire it.
They love games of all kinds, but games that mix chance and skill are their favourite,
particularly card games.
Finally, it is possible for a sorcerer whose powers stem from draconic blood to undergo
a permanent ritual transformation into a spellscale, there is no going back from this and from
that point on, their offspring will also be full-blooded spellscales.
The ritual is rare and its use is even rarer, but spellscales accept such individuals without
question.
As for actual dragons, spellscales admire and revere dragons, ever curious about them,
they feel no particular attraction for them.
A spellscale is naturally interested when presented with an opportunity to investigate
a dragon’s lair or converse with a friendly dragon, but while a spellscale will acknowledge
the link between themselves and dragons, they view themselves as something apart from dragons—and
possibly, in a small way, superior.
They view themselves as creatures of magic, for them, the day they cast their first spell
is more important than their actual birthday and they have some funny folklore about their
origins and reason for existing that, in a nutshell, says that magic is sentient and
created the spellscales as gifts to those sorcerers who honour magic.
I could go on about them all day, but I think that gives you a pretty good idea of who and
what the spellscales are, feel free to ask questions in the comments section down below
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