Raucous Raptors

Feathered Dragons are a race of small dragons adapted to arboreal life, though some scholars claim they are more closely related to saurians. Roving through the woodland canopy in ferocious packs, Feathered Dragons tolerate no intruders to their hunting grounds—except when they are celebrating something, which is usually several times per week. For a Feathered Dragon, a few days without a wild, frolicking romp leaves their last reveling far out of memory and they will look for any excuse to party. Religion is ad-hoc, with a pack "shaman" acting as the head party animal.

Out and about

Feathered Dragons' exception mobility allows them to travel unhindered through rugged terrain and dense jungles. Feathered Dragons are among the most widely traveled of races in the wild. The wanderlust that feeds a Feathered Dragon's curiosity about life beyond the forests is unique among draconic races, many of which tend to focus on territory and hoards. Despite their lack of etiquette and propriety, uncivilized Feathered Dragons in search of food and fun will often adopt an adventuring party. However, explaining to their new volunteer feathered dragon "leader" that they are not in charge can become dicey.

Fancy Feathers

Feathered Dragons have brightly colored plumage on their heads, winged arms, and tails, often in a riot of colors. Their attractive bodies have pale, opalescent scales and their hands and feet have claws adapted for gasping and climbing. Feathered Dragons are small creatures but can grow to medium size in their later years. They are comfortable walking one two legs or four and have nimble hands for a clawed creature, often making jewelry or decorations out of the bones and plundered treasure of slain enemies. Feathered Dragons often dangle strings of colored beads from their feathers.

Head Hunters

Feathered Dragons have inherited some of their ancestor dragon's psychic abilities. A Feathered Dragon will often attack the mind of its prey to dull its senses, before landing its first blow.

Sacred Stone Stackers

Feathered Dragons make piles of interesting stones. Nobody knows why, though the practice may hark back to the keeping of treasure hoards by larger dragons. Some argue the stones are trail markers or denote a feathered dragon pack's territory, or are simply to hide their communal waste depositories. Even Feathered Dragons argue about the practice: whether it is instinctual or learned, and whether the size of a Feathered Dragon's pile of stones matters more, or the color of the stones, or whether skulls are sacrilegious or essential to stone piles.

For most travelers in the woods, a conspicuous pile of stones with a few brightly-colored feathers nearby is enough to encourage them to find another path.

Feathered Dragon Names

Feathered Dragons receive a given draconic name from their parents similar to the names of dragonborn, although they are more frequently known by their secondary earned name which most often proclaims their hunting method such as "the pouncer", "the beheader", "the strangler", "the crusher", or the manner in which they party or defend their pack, such as "the relentless", "the vengeful", "the guzzler", "the cavorter", and so on.

Late in life, when a Feathered Dragon rises toward the top of its pack's social status, the earned name gains an honorary: "the swift slaughterer", "the hasty gorger", "the most raucous", "the scandalous dancer", or "the eager ransacker".

Feathered Dragon Traits

Your feathered dragon character has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase. Increase one ability score (e.g. Dexterity) by +2 and another ability score (e.g. Wisdom or Charisma) by +1, or three different scores by +1.

Alignment. Feathered Dragons tend toward chaotic. They value loyalty within a clan, but only so far as it protects them from a stronger enemy, and their sense of honor and morality can be cryptic at best.

Size. Your size is medium. Feathered Dragons are typically around 4 feet tall, or 6 feet from nose to tail, and have slender builds, a fact they can hide by fanning their feathers.

Arboreal traveler. Your have a movement speed of 30 feet, which can include any combination of walking, climbing or gliding (minimum descent of 5 feet).

Psychic assailant. You gain the cantrip mind sliver. Choose Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for this spell.

Pouncing Predator. You have sharp talons on your hands and feet that assist in grappling prey of up to one size larger. You can use your Dexterity (Acrobatics) when attempting to grapple a creature. When you successfully grapple a creature, you can make a bite attack as a bonus action. On a hit, the bite deals 1d6 + Str piercing damage and the bit creature has disadvantage to escape your grapple until the beginning of your next turn. To maintain a grapple you use your Strength (Athletics) modifier, as usual.

Winged leap As a bonus action, you can use your wings to make a boosted jump of up to 30 feet long and 10 feet high or 15 feet vertically. You can use this feature when you are not wearing heavy armor. This feature has a number of uses equal your proficiency bonus. Uses recover when you complete a long rest.

Languages. You know two languages of your choice, such as Draconic and Common.