Path of the Dragon-Blooded

"Again Fafnir spoke: 'I have borne a helm of terror over all people since I lay on my brother's inheritance. And I blew poison in all directions around me, so that none dared come near me, and I feared no weapon. I never found so many men before me that I did not think myself much stronger, and all were afraid of me."

–The Saga of the Volsungs

Legends abound of the power of dragons, and how men may claim a parcel of their might. How many adventurers were lost seeking their way to a dragon's hoard, prying fallen scales from underneath its sleeping body, recklessly charging a wyrm to drink its fabled blood?

Some succeed, and find the legends to have been lies and exagerations. Blood is only blood. Some succeed, and find that the tales were true beyond their heart's wildest desires.

Those barbarians who claim the dragon's blood rarely begin their journey having slain one of the beasts of legend. Rather there exist berserker lodges which transmit from mentor to student a draught made from a drop of dragon's blood, or chew on the dried, withered remains of a wyrm slain long ago by their predecessors. Others are blessed or cursed by the dragons themselves in one of their strange and twisting schemes spanning centuries. Still the warriors find power in such ersatz, and their own heroism is the catalyst to their transformation.

But the blood brings with it a hunger, a greed not unlike that of the dragons themselves. Those who partake of wyrm's blood may find their pupils turn thin as blades, their joints to grow strange scales, their sharp teeth better suited to meat than any other food. They covet - whether it be power, glory or gold.

Above all they covet the dragon's blood. The taste imparted on them in their initiation only creates a craving. In time they must sate it by seeking and slaying a dragon, bathing in their blood or devouring their heart, and so complete their ascension.

Or die trying.

Nails Like Spears

When you join this path at 3rd level, your nails harden into deadly implements. You gain a natural claw weapon which you are proficient with, and which deals 1d6 piercing damage. If you use these claws to attack a creature with advantage, and the lower of the two d20 rolls beats its AC, you can automatically grapple them. Your natural weapon deals 2d6 piercing damage against an enemy you have grappled.

Starting at 6th level, your teeth grow to match your claws. If you take the Attack action on your turn and hit a creature with your natural weapon, you can use a bonus action to make another attack with your natural weapon.

Credit: Arthur Rackam

Hide like Horn

Starting at 3rd level, your body begins to grow patches of scales and your skin takes on a colored hue. Choose one type of damage: acid, cold, lightning, fire or poison. While raging, you have resistance to that damage type.

Additionally, you learn how to speak Draconic.

Wisdom like Memory

Beginning at 6th level, you can use a long rest to meditate and enter a kind of trance, listening to the whispering echoes of dragon's blood within you. This trance must last at least 10 minutes, and as long as you prolong it you can understand the speech of beasts around you, and sense the presence of any dragon within 30 miles.

Once you have performed this trance, you may call upon the cunning of the dragon. After failing a Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma Ability roll, you may reroll the die, adding your proficiency bonus to the second reroll (even if it already applied to the roll). You must use the second result. You must finish a long rest before you use this feature again.