# Half-dragon (starting race)
Half-dragons are a new playable race in dNethack.

Properties
Half-dragons may be anachrononauts, archeologists, barbarians, binders, cavepeople, convicts, knights, monks, madmen, nobles, priests, rogues, rangers, samurais, troubadours or wizards.
Half-dragons have a draconic breath weapon selected at game start, usable via #ability
The breath is randomly selected from fire, frost, lightning, poison, acid, sleep. Half-dragon nobles will instead get either cold or magic with equal odds, and half-dragon madman will get a random breath attack ala shimmering dragons if they're female or fire if they're male
It costs 15 energy to use, does not burn nutrition, and does not suffer from spell failure.
Base damage is (1+(XL/2))d6 damage, the same as magic missile. This can be upgraded by wearing dragon scale armor that matches your breath weapon, by 50% per matching armor piece worn. For example, a half-dragon with acid breath will get 50% extra damage with their breath while wearing yellow dragon scale mail, or double damage if wearing both mail and a shield.
You are granted full immunity to your own breath weapon, which permanently grants the appropriate resistance. This does grant permanent intrinsic magic resistance with magical breath, and does not grant anything to male madmen who have a randomly varying breath attack. This also grants full intrinsic immunity, rather than just resistance, for fire, cold and lightning bearing half-dragons, which fully negates primordial elemental attacks compared to the halved damage they normally deal through resistances. Lightning half-dragons are not immune to being blinded "by the flash" caused by being hit with a lightning bolt.
Half-dragons gain 1 bonus AC per 3 levels.
Half-dragons are slower than normal (base speed 8 instead of speed 12).
Half-dragons gain a bonus to bare-handed and martial arts damage from their claws - they have triple dice size, so they'll deal 1d6 damage instead of 1d2, or 1d12 instead of 1d4 with martial arts
Half-dragons are counted as dragons for cannibalism and same-race sacrifice purposes.
Half-dragons gain intrinsic flying at 14th level. ("You feel wings sprout from your back!")
Half-dragons will start with a pet "tiny pseudodragon" instead of a dog/cat/pony, and the pseudodragon also shares the relevant breath attack/resistance.
Knights spawn with "saddled riding pseudodragon", which is 2 steps of growth older and can be ridden.
Stats

Characterrace

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

Half-dragon

25

10

20

20

20

20