Here’s the new joke in the world of 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons.  A group of adventurers walks into a town.  The town mayor greets the heroes and says, “Welcome, Adventurers!”  Someone in the party asks, “How did you know we were adventurers?”  To which the mayor replies: “Because no two of you are the same race.”

Now, the above situation is understandable.  Different races have different strengths and powers and different ability bonuses.  Rough experience seems to tell us that a balanced party with a range of powers and skills in more likely to succeed.  Different players have different ideas of what is cool, and there’s usually one or more players in the group who like to try something new and wacky when it comes out.

Today, however, we are going to imagine a world with a little more xenophobia.  Let’s make it fun to play a bunch of total racists.  The design challenge is simple — come up with a group of four PCs of one race who would actually make for a balanced group that would also be fun to play.

First up in this Xenophobia challenge we have – the Dragonborn.

Dragonborn get +2 to Str and Cha.  This actually gives the race some good flexibility about choosing classes, especially with the new Player’s Handbook 2 giving us the bard and the sorceror – two races where high Charisma is quite useful. 

Dragonborn get a boost to their healing surges for having a high constitution.  They also get a +1 to hit when they are themselves bloodied.  The real thing that makes them special, however, is their breath weapon attack, which is useable once per encounter as a minor action.  After just a couple of encounters, team dragonborn will so humiliate any minions that they come up against that your GM will never again bother to use minions in adventures that he designs.

Dragonborn get a racial bonus to history and intimidate checks.  This is actually weak as racial skill bonuses go.  Team dragonborn isn’t going to be the most fun group to work with during a skill challenge.

Now then, on to the team…

Defender – Dragonborn Paladin.  An obvious and iconic fit for this team.  Equip with plate mail and a heavy shield and a high AC.  A high strength and a high charisma are both very good fits here.  This PC will have an easy time locking down the enemy’s biggest hitter, and a high AC will save the party a lot of HP in the long run.  This character also acts as the party’s secondary healer.

Striker – Dragonborn Barbarian.  Either the rageblood or the thaneborn barbarian build is okay.  I like the thaneborn barbarian here, as “roar of triumph” seems like an appropriate ability for dragons.  Also, a number of powers keyed to the thaneborn build use charisma as a secondary power, which is good for this race.  If the paladin is focused on defense, this character is completely focused on dealing damage with a two handed weapon, such as a really large axe.  This character may take a feat early on to upgrade to a cheesy brutal weapon from the Adventurer’s Vault book, like the executioner’s axe.

Striker – Dragonborn Sorcerer.  Obviously, we’re taking the “dragon magic” spell source here.  There’s a very nice damage boost to all arcane powers based on your strength modifier, but you are using your charisma to hit your enemies.  The dragonborn sorcerer feels a bit like a “poly-chromatic” dragonborn as it will have powers that use a number of different energy types.

Leader – Dragonborn Bard.  Yes, it sounds funny to say “big tough dragon” and “bard” in the same sentence.  Again, however, the ability score bonuses match up nicely.  The valorous bard is all about Charisma and Constitution.  This character dishes out plenty of healing and lots of temporary hit points, which the barbarian, in particular, will really appreciate.

[classes that were considered but not chosen.. fighter works ok, but paladin has more synergy.  Two weapon melee ranger is ok, but not as good as the barbarian.  Warlock could work, either as feypact or infernal, but seems less thematic than the draconic sorcerer.)

So, let’s review the strengths of this team…

First of all, this team is soooo METAL.  These dragons are big, loud, and obnoxious.  It’s easy enough to imagine the sorcerer and the bard as female, but that’s not that important.  What is important is that when this team comes crashing through the door, the monsters are going to know that they are in for a world of hurt.  Stealth is NOT an option.  This team is all roaring and shouting and smashing.

Ranged combat options are okay with this team – the sorcerer does most of the ranged attacks, with the bard providing some ranged options as well.  The bard may end up taking the racial feat that allows these dragons to hurl their breath as a ranged attack, rather than use it as a close blast.

You will notice that there is no controller listed here (I went with two strikers instead).  The class fits were not as obvious.  Also, the controller’s minion-sweeping role is filled by having four breath weapon attacks in the party.  Also, the sorcerer deals damage at range, and the bard can take utility powers that shift people around. 

As I noted above, this party isn’t going to do super-awesomely at skill challenges.  However, diplomacy and intimidation are both going to work fairly well, given all the charisma in the party.  The bard and the paladin can do most of the talking.  Roguish things, like bluffing and sneaking into buildings, will be completely out of reach for this party, along with things keyed to dexterity and intelligence, or even wisdom (perception is not that great here).

Would this group be fun to play?  In a combat heavy game (fairly common in 4e) this team will do just fine.  The paladin may be the LEAST fun member of the team to work with – mostly the paladin just locks down the #1 enemy and tries not to get hit.  Over time, the person playing the paladin will be very jealous of the fact that the two strikers are the ones who are dishing out all of the real damage. 

What kinds of stories can we write for this team?  Maybe the players are four different types of dragonborn with four different breath weapons, brought together by some sort of draconic council to unravel the mystery of an ancient draconic prophecy.  Maybe it would be cool if the players were actually on a secret quest to “wake up” various ancient dragons to trigger a world changing apocalypse.

Imagine epic battles with a “dragons versus giants” theme.  On another story theme, imagine a team of four dragonborn fighting team battles in a gladiator arena.  What’s not to love?  Maybe it would be less fun over the course of a long campaign, but I have to imagine this would be totally awesome group for a short campaign or for a one-shot adventure.

Comments?  What race should be next in line to get this “xenophobia treatment”?