Fizban's Dragonborn

 The Dragonborn is one of the playable races in the Player's Handbook. While it's very cool in concept, mechanically it's a little lacking. You get resistance to your lineage's damage types, and a breath weapon that does that damage type.

Fizban's gives us a re-work of the race, transforming it into three new races - Chromatic, Gem, and Metallic dragonborn. Interestingly, these are not presented as variants or sub-races, but independently (the Astral Elf from the new UA makes me think they might be dispensing with the notion of "sub-race" altogether, but we'll see).

So, what are the changes?

First off, these new ones work in the same way that the Gothic Lineages and Feywild races from previous publications have, going along with the new race rules established in Tasha's. That means that you can pick your ability score increases and languages independently of your race - something I've been a big champion of since they were first introduced. Dragonborn in the PHB were clearly well-suited for Paladins given their Strength and Charisma bonuses, but now it really doesn't matter.

The changes here aren't huge, but the subtle differences will have major ramifications.

First off, you still get resistance to the damage type associated with your heritage. This remains the same for Chromatic and Metallic dragons. Gem dragons (which are new to 5th Edition, though showed up in earlier ones) are the following: Amethyst (Force), Crystal (Radiant), Emerald (Psychic), Sapphire (Thunder), and Topaz (Necrotic). Honestly, these are all pretty great - while you might have reason to use your resistance less, you'll also be far less likely to encounter creatures resistant to your damage type (actually, despite being possibly the third-most common magical damage type, I think I've only ever been hit with lightning damage once on my blue dragonborn - though I wonder if the DM just never picks any monsters that deal that damage because of that...)

Paranoia aside, let's move on:

The breath weapon has been pretty thoroughly redesigned. Chromatic Dragonborn now all do a 30x5 line, while Gem and Metallic Dragonborn do 15-ft cones. The efficacy of these is debatable. It's definitely easier to hit more foes with a cone, but it's also easier to avoid hitting friends with a line.

The damage also scales differently. In the PHB, it begins as 2d6, then goes to 3d6 at level 5, 4d6 at 11, and 5d6 at 17. In Fizban's, it is instead 1d10, then 2d10, then 3d10, then 4d10.

This means that the damage is actually a bit lower in tier 1, but starts to pull ahead on average by level 5. By tier 4, you're doing 22 damage with a breath, compared to 17.5 with the PHB version.

But that's not all:

The next change is the action economy, and this is where the new breath weapon pulls way ahead for any martial class. Rather than taking a full action, your breath weapon is considered a single attack. So, if you have the Extra Attack feature, you can breathe and then use your weapon as part of the same action.

This makes the scaling past level 5 even better. As a level 12 Fighter, my dragonborn character can choose between a single breath for an average of 14 damage (2d6) or can use his +1 battleaxe to make three attacks (1d8+6, which comes to 10.5, x3, which is 31.5). Even if he hit two targets, on average the three attacks do more damage (yes, given that the breath will always do at least some damage this gets a bit muddled, but you get the idea.) Now, however, he can just swap in a breath to do 3d10 (16.5 on average) lightning damage, potentially to multiple targets, and then make two attacks (21 damage) for a total per-turn damage of 37.5 - a step up. (I'm not going to get into the nuances of War Magic and Green Flame Blade, as that's more of a class thing than a racial thing).

But it gets better!

Rather than being able to use the breath once per short rest, you can now use it a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus every long rest.

It's somewhat rare for people to take more than one short rest per day, so even in tier 1, you're probably about even when it comes to uses per day. But as you level up, you get far more uses of it (by my level, I've got four uses a day. I don't think we've ever had three short rests in a day).

So I would count this redesign as a pure win (except possibly if you were a Red dragonborn that preferred a cone breath).

Now, the final piece:

The resistance and breath weapon are all you get with the PHB dragonborn, but the Fizban ones give you an additional feature depending on your dragon family - Chromatic, Metallic, or Gem.

Chromatic Dragonborn get Chromatic Warding. Starting at 5th level, as an action, you can give yourself full immunity rather than resistance to the damage type associated with your draconic heritage. You can do this once a day. Admittedly, a full action is a steep price if you're taken by surprise, and unless you're up against a foe you know will be using that type of damage a lot (like, say, a dragon that has the same heritage) it might not feel worth it to spend a whole turn doing this. Still, full immunity is somewhat rare for player characters, and being able to, say, swim in lava for a full minute or grab onto an electrical cable (if you're in a somewhat more sci-fi/steampunk setting) could be pretty useful.

Gem Dragonborn get two things. The first is Psionic Mind, which lets you send telepathic messages to creatures you can see within 30 feet as long as they know at least one language (you don't need to know the same ones.) It looks like, similar to the Great Old One Warlock's Awakened Mind, this only lets you send, not receive, but it could still be very useful.

Additionally, Gem Dragonborn get Gem Flight. Once per long rest, after you hit 5th level, you can use a bonus action to manifest wings for 1 minute that give you a flying speed equal to your walking speed, and you can hover (like the gem dragons do). Flight is a nice ability to have (especially a hover-style flight) and the fact that it's activated with a bonus action makes it easy to use.

Metallic Dragonborn, at level 5, get an alternative use of their breath weapon, which they can only use once per long rest. (I think it also consumes a use of your normal breath weapon). You can choose between two different options: Enervating Breath causes creatures in the cone to be forced to succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be incapacitated until the start of your next turn. Repulsion Breath forces them to succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed 20 feet away from you and knocked prone. Both pretty strong effects, especially given the improve action economy of the breath weapon (you could use repulsion breath and then run up and hit them with melee attacks while they're prone.) Also, let's appreciate that this lets you Fus Ro Dah, as another kind of dragonborn would do.

The upshot of all of this is that Dragonborn become a lot more appealing as a race from a mechanical standpoint and a flavor one.

I've already spoken with the DM of the campaign I play in with the Dragonborn, and got pre-approved to convert my character to this new version, so once she gets Fizban's on DND Beyond (and shares it in her campaign) I'm going to be able to actually use my breath weapon! (And grab hold of the aforementioned live electrical cables).