That's the idea behind my current campaign! (Just started, so who knows where the players will take it.) Volo's has some great giant lore, tips for roll playings and add'l giant monster concepts/stats that has given me great ideas. A fellow GM also suggested stealing ideas from the Storm King's Thunder adventure module, esp. for lairs and magic items.
Volo’s did a section on Giants, it didn’t go into the finest details but it does flesh out the Giant race a lot better. Between the cultures, religion, and how they interact with one another and other races, it’s a great start. If you’re a lore keeper, then a standalone book would definitely be a nice new addition, but if you’re a DM fleshing out your own world (like me) you’d be much better off with certain ambiguities so you can adapt the race into your own world. I take a LOT of creative liberties when it comes to big D&D races such as dragons, giants, Drow, etc. and I do so to sculpt a more immersive world.
@@1003JustinLaw Yeah, I agree more than words can say. Being a storyteller and forcing me to make my own adventures we could play made me realize a few things. The first one was that generic magical items would not exist in a magical world unless it had seen war. No enchanter of note would be willing to make a generic item, that's for their apprentices to do and only when they can make an item by without variations would they be allowed to progress. That would down the line lead to no two magical item being exactly the same. They would have the enchanters calling card, unless it was a point to not add that. One might add flames flickering along the edge without it affecting the weapon at all or it might add a big of fire dame. Each maker would add their own flair and it would be boring to make a +1 item beyond a certain point. So magical items would all be slightly different. The other was a type of monster evolution were the various types of monsters would change a bit to better fit in at an area. This means that there would be no generic monster. Oh, sure it might be a bear and it might look like a black bear, but you would need to understand the local habitat to really know which variant you were up against. And such bests and monsters might also evolve due to some external force. Knowing this I made my own stuff from when I was 16 I think, that's over 30 years ago with me creating my own stuff. I get inspired by things sure and have insane ideas, that needs to be reined in to be used, but over time you gain a sense of what's right. It's not about creating a challenge, it's about creating a world that will grow such challenges naturally, a living breathing world filled with wonders. I started small, with an island actually that help one settlement. From there it grew with bordering towns, roads, the larger area, a big city and then suddenly you have a continent filled with stuff, A few years later I had a whole world filled to the brim with history anyone could pick up on by looking in the right place. A world isn't static because the people and creature in that world had their own wants and needs. Usually I imagined dropping the players into an remote area due to a failed teleport or something like that and from there let them find their way back. Then I would look upon that area and see how it had evolved and how the players actions would have affected the area as they would plow through to get back to where ever. Or maybe it wasn't the players, but rather a younger exploring character. How would such interruption into the local habitat affect it. My players feared the words looks wild, because they knew that in such places what they knew might not be up to keeping them safe. That's how countless weird monsters were born and more than one character any player could interact with. Like the book loving lich who collected magical tomes and readily traded for new books, attack him and he'd rip you to pieces, but trade books ooh, that would be interesting. Or the Tea witch as the players called her. A bonkers old tea loing potion master who liked to experiment on her customers by serving them potion tea. She was to useful to avoid, and to annoying to really want to go to as she would always be pushing tea at you. Random events leads to random consequences, run through a few senarios in any given area of your world and think hard about what would happen if.... Then run that a few hundred times and suddenly you have a nice little area with some weirdness thrown in. Start small and let it grow.
@@taleg1 I wish I could spam likes for this reply, this is exactly what I’m going for. I created a world with a Pangea-like supercontinent but a relatively short description, and some of my lore-loving players were like “can we get a detailed description of the history and whatnot?” To which I reply “there isn’t one, at least not a consistent one”. What I do is set a vague world in which anything can be changed and milder to fit my player group and the circumstances they find themselves in.
I got the book yesterday, my daughter is running a Ranger and just hit level three, she was going beast master, obviously now she’s going drakewarden, She is definitely a dragon fanatic, but super awesome book
Nice. Sounds like my situation. I'm running a campaign where my wife was going to be a beast master and I told her about the Drakewarden (the party will be hitting level 3 tonight). Now she's just in time to discover a large geode that will hatch her little drake companion.
Me: *sees the Deep Dragon, Dragonblood Ooze, and Elder Brain Dragon* *casually drops them into my Illithid campaign without a second of concern for the players*
Breath Weapon. When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks with an exhalation of magical energy in a 30-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus). On a failed save, the creature takes 1d10 damage of the type associated with your Chromatic Ancestry. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage. This damage increases by 1d10 when you reach 5th level (2d10), 11th level (3d10), and 17th level (4d10).
@@DungeonDudes Logan is correct. All of the updated and new breaths regardless of ancestry can be used as part of your Attack action, the breath doesn't replace it entirely as the original Dragonborn did. The wording says "When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks..." for all of them, implying that if you have Extra Attack it only replaces one of the attacks, not the entire Action. This is a HUGE buff for martial classes with extra attack because generally it was better for them to just do a normal Attack as the 2+ attacks made would out perform a breath weapon usage. Now they don't have to choose. A Dragonborn Paladin with Extra attack can charge in, take a swing on a goblin with their sword, and then as part of the same Attack action perform a breath attack on the goblin and its nearby friends.
@@jmtrujillo33 Metallic Dragons gain even more from this at level 5, because they get a "Metallic Breath Weapon" that is not their original Breath Weapon, and is even written as "second breath weapon". RAW it doesn't say it can't be used in the same turn as the Breath Weapon, so it would be a nice 1-2 punch in a 15 ft cone.
This book is exciting but I'm also disappointed there aren't additions to draconic sorcerer to make it feel a little more powerful like Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul.
You can give them Dragon's Gift at the moment of character's creation, though. Which may be incredibly strong depending on which gift will the character receive. Which is better than nothing, I guess
100% agree with you. I love the book but I feel it could have added more stuff. They definitely missed an opportunity with revising the draconic sorcerer! Draconic sorcerer is still powerful and cool but definitely could use more features such as free elemental themed spells/draconic magic. Also I still find it odd how they didn't give all dragonborn darkvision. I always found it silly how dragonborn don't have darkvision or keen senses like their dragon ancestors! As a DM I would give my dragonborn players darkvision and proficiency in perception. I absolutely love the dragonborn variants! Not only do you get new and improved traits but you can choose your stat boosts rather than being pigeon holed into strength and charisma. The new subclasses are fantastic! I can't wait to try out drakewarden! Overall this book is 9.5/10
Ooooo, I like that! Perhaps Strahd twists the spirit of Argynvost? His beacon of light and hope getting extinguished by Strahd would definitely drive the point of Barovia home.
I'm currently running a campaign of all dragonborn using the UA rules adapted in Fizban's and my players are loving it. The breath weapon is much more satisfying to use since they dont have to ration it as much, and the extra features are cool. I have two gem dragonborn and 2 chromatic. They are powerful, but feel balanced.
I love the new dragonborn cause I felt the old one was straight up bad, the breath weapon was worse than an attack from a weapon and for immunity you could just go genasi, it was sad especially because dragonborn are so cool looking
I would LOVE to see more "themed" books for zombies, orcs, mindflayers, ect like you mentioned.... Would say I would love a cosmic horror one but from what I understand that is essentially Dungeons of Drakkenheim haha
The 'hoard magic items' reminds me of what a RPG system (name totally forgotten, it was end 90s) implemented for magic items in that any item could become magical by being 'used'. i.e. the fighters sword would slowly become magical over time and get powers related to it's usage. So if the fighter was constantly slaying goblins, it might get +1/+4 against goblins or such. I would think of it as the 'aura' of the wielder, as they grew in power, would also affect everything around them and what they carry. Naturally something with more power would affect stuff even more-so and/or quicker.
yeah, as DM, i very much enjoyed how this book was presented. i easily could see how to modify and adapt the content for a dragon-themed campaign. as a Player, this book is good if you will want to play a dragon-related character, plus you might enjoy learning some of the ideas, lore, etc
I hope once you stop selling the miniatures for Dungeons of Drakkenheim you'll release the STLs. I have a resin printer coming and would love to print extras.
I love this book a lot. Most of the new player options are great additions, and I love all the extensive dragon content for the game called Dungeons & Dragons. Poor Monk & Sardior though....
I think, honestly, the most disappointing thing about this book is the Greatwyrms Super underwhelming IMO. Everything else fantastic, and the Elder Brain Dragon has literally inspired an entire Illithid campaign.
@@mikeprado4381 Well, I hate the fact that they all share the same stat blocks, for one. They all share the same movement traits, essentially the exact same statistics with the only difference being their immunity to whatever element they are. I also hate the fact that their breath weapon is just bigger, and not stronger. The fact that the Ancient Red Dragon's fire breath does more damage than Red Greatwyrm is very underwhelming. The 26d6 from the Ancient Red Dragon not only averages a higher amount of damage, the maximum amount of damage is higher as well. And I get what they were trying to do, it's supposed to be a city annihalator, and the 300ft range is effective at that. BUT, in combat, the 300ft range is a essentially a nonfactor. On top of that, almost all attacks do about the same damage. I think the Red Greatwyrm averages a little bit more, but not enough to really make a huge difference. I do love some of the added elements to their attacks - not sure about the grapple added to their Claw attacks, but I do love the added Prone save with their Tail attacks. Adds a cool element that actually makes the tail attack something you'd want to use, although the fact that it's not an AOE and is still not included in its Multiattack is another thing I dislike, but that's the same with all Dragon types so I can't be too pressed about it. Still, even with the added Prone, I don't ever see myself using it against my players. I'm also not the biggest fan of the "Arcane Spear" legendary action, as it's just a not as good version of the Aspect of Bahamut's "Celestial Lances". It's almost the exact same thing tho, just not as strong, which again kind of exemplifies the lack of creativity with the design. The fact that all greatwyrms have this type of ability makes the Aspect of Bahamut less unique, IMO. Now the biggest issue I have with it is the fact that Red Greatwyrms have basically two lives, which mean they have about 1000 health, they have EIGHT Legendary Resistances (Because they refresh after the Chromatic Awakening happens) which essentially means they are almost the exact same dragon, with more health, and more resistances, which is going to make the fight quite a bit longer but neccesarily more exciting. I love the mythic actions, however, I just wish there were more of them and that they were unique. Maybe a couple passive Mythic like abilities - like a Blizzard forming around the White and Silver Greatwyrms causing the environment to become difficult terrain while it's active and causing Cold damage, or a Lightning aura around Blue or Copper Greatwyrms that sends lightning bolts at targets who enter the area, or a Fire Aura around Red and Gold Greatwyrms that deals damage when an enemy attacks the Greatwyrms, etc. IDK. It just felt very underwhelming for me. I love dragons, but I just wanted a little bit more.
@@Helldog6 Gotcha. Great ideas to tweak what they’ve written though, like your passive Mythic-like abilities! And thanks for pointing all of this out. I’m a relatively new DM and have yet to run any type of dragon. Great education!
@@Helldog6 hey! Honestly I think the tail is there to confuse the players with attacks of opportunity, since it hasn't got the same range as the other attacks I believe
I've been excited about this vid. Really enjoy most of the book, there are cool spells, items, and some really cool lore. Very happy with it as a whole
I've been working on a homebrew world for a good chuck of this year that is very dragon heavy, and I've been aching for this books release since it was announced. I am *so* excited to put it into use.
Fizban looked at the portrait on the wall,it depicted a battle of dragons of everykind,gold,brass and the silver dragons of huma.All had riders and lances....
I’ve been running a campaign that has a lot of Dragons and Dinosaurs for 2 years so far and this book was great for my campaign and springs new idea as a DM and a Player.
A really great book for fellow DMs. Aside from subclasses, spells and items, I really like dragon hoards and lairs suggested mechanics described in the book. Many ideas to inspire a DM. And yes, dragonfolk are finally diverse and exciting to play! 🥳
At first I overlooked this book.. I was running a heavily modified DoIP + HotDQ + RoT, the cult had Half-Dragon Champions riding Dragons as a tandem of destruction, and once the party slayed the young white dragon in DoIP the cult became aware of this group capable of killing dragons and hence became enemy number one. We made it to the hatchery of HotDQ, and my plan was to let the players keep one egg each and potentially earn their own dragon mount/companion. I bought this book and am totally reinvigorated to continue on with the campaign, the lair additions are amazing as I can add "bounty" quests and the party can track down champions and slay them and their dragons. Thanks for the review guys, I never miss a video!
It's very cool to see the Drake Warden finally get an official release! One of my friends has been playing the UA version in my Trials of the Realm campaign for a while now. Haven't seen all the changes that have been made for the official release but it's been a really cool class to have in our game thus far!
I've been playing it in a mid/high level campaign for a while now. Started at 10, currently 14. We homebrewed some changes to the UA that actually wound up being in the final print. Such as the drake gaining a size bump to medium rather than going from small to large with no in between. I like the changes they implemented personally
My favourite part about this book is how inspiring it is to me as a player and as a DM. As a general note, D&D can sometimes make the most exciting things almost seem mundane because of how it's interacting with things that are just as exciting. This really added the mystique back to dragons, in my opinion. As a DM, I felt inspired to add hints to dragons in things that previously didn't have them. I'm currently running a homebrew domain of dread campaign and you bet they're going to meet a dragon and it's going to be a very memorable encounter. As a player, however, I now look forward to facing a Dragon to meet a character and for it to have the intensity of when I first met Smaug when reading The Hobbit as a young boy. I think this book is a necessity if you're needing inspiration because of how much it can offer to things that weren't necessarily dragon related. The deep and elder brain dragons give me more things to add to an Underdark campaign; the dragon-like beasts give me something to add to a campaign with an evil experimenting Mage at it's heart; the extra stat blocks for dragon turtles and such now let me put "here be dragons" on a map and it could be any manner of options. I love this book.
this makes me want to have a campaign where players meet Fizban and he is like a Steve Irwin like character who studies dragons and is all like "Oi Crikey, you're a beaut ain't ya" to all the dragons he comes across and like none of them hurt him cause they all love him.
I’m honestly shocked to hear that they weren’t a huge fan of The new Monk subclass, After looking over it really well. It gives the monk a much needed elemental damage that The Four Elements Monk couldn’t provide well enough. The abilities are heavily stacked on 3rd level and they just keep improving! It’s easily my favorite, and I think It could EASILY make A Tier
The reason why they aren't fans of the new monk subclass is because it became harder to use the features of the subclass going from UA to official printed material. Things became more expensive, less impactful or unable to use more than a set number of times.
@@GuardianTactician I’d have to disagree, being able to use most abilities a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and then if you wanna use it again you just spend 1-3 key points depending on the ability, and the more expensive ones you don’t get until much higher levels. I found that the damage to be just about one par with spell casters when they cast spells. And taking into account the abilities to swap damage types at any time with no ki point spending is HUGE. So now the monks can target most damage vulnerabilities on any enemy they encounter. I think it scales quite nicely.
In the first campaign I played, we had a new ranger introduced to the party, and it just so happened we came upon a dragon egg. After it hatched, the dragon became the ranger’s beast (this was a few years ago, like 2017). It made for a really fun party!
There was one spell I really do see a lot of potential with: Ashardalon's Stride. Would be a higher level build but I'd go with a new bronze dragonborn then multiclass 6 levels each of tempest cleric and storm sorcerer. Pick up transmute spell metamagic and elemental adept feat (lightning). Now cast Ashardalon's Stride with a 6th level slot transmuted to lightning damage. You get 65ft of movement + any other speed boosts you are able to pick up. When you first cast it it triggers Heart of the Storm and you can push them all 10ft away with Thunderbolt Strike, then each creature you move within 5ft of takes 4d6 counting 1's as 2's lightning damage and you can push them 10ft with Thunderbolt Strike. Use your racial breath, dash for more movement, or use lightning lure to move more people. You can pretty easily move people in postion to hit with an upcast lightning bolt or transmute another spell to lightning damage triggering Heart of the Storm again letting you push them 10ft if needed and use channel divinity to make it deal max damage instead of rolling, and push people with the spell since it deals lighning damage, then with Tempestuous Magic you get an extra ten feet of flight to move around as a bonus action to hit more people with Ashardalon's Stride and push them around more.
Everything in it great, I *love* the Drakwarden and its abilities, and I enjoy the the spells AND the Dragon Lance magic item. Tho, I gotta say I am VERY disappointed they didn't include the UA Kobold revisions. Give the little guys an update too!!!
@@bigdream_dreambig I was at least hoping to be rid of the sunlight sensitivity. Also, I'd have preferred the Advantage to fear or Extra Sorc Cantrip options- fine maybe they shoulda kept pack tactics but honestly I loved what I saw.
This book is exactly what I needed. I am running a dragon heavy champaign. I started by combing the Lost Mines and Ice Spire peak setting, and had both dragons present, and those being confused as to why a white and green dragon where in the same area. This has help flush the story out
Thanks for the shout out for an actual full Dragonlance book for 5e. I go to my 3.5 books over and over and still want 5e to give a solid setting book for Krynn. I could talk Dragonlance all day and this book is finally a step in that direction, so I'm excited.
Gift of the Metallic Dragon is a game changer for PCs who want to play a Wizard/Sorcerer/Warlock but also want to be the party’s healer. Learning Cure Wounds and being able to use your spell slots on it for the cost of a feat is great.
Couldn't agree more with wanting more focused books like this. I still remember the 3.5 books Libris Mortis and Lords of Madness. Those were 2 of my favorite books because they added a whole new layer to undead and aberrations that inspired me beyond most other books. Great review dudes!
I think I read somewhere, that the reason the feats are there was because the responses from the UA was alot of people wanting dragon subclasses for almost all the classes, and instead of that they chose to add the feats so that people who play a barbarian has an option to be "dragon-touched"
Only up to the section about subclasses, but since I didn't hear them bring it up I thought I would just point this out real quick: Another way they drastically improved the Dragonborn breath weapon, besides the more uses per day and the larger damage die, is that instead of taking an action on its own it replaces an attack when the character takes the Attack action, which greatly increases its utility for martial classes. With the regular breath weapon, it gives an AoE damage ability to these classes that often don't have easy access to AoE otherwise. On top of that, since it is used as part of the Attack action, it doesn't disable other class abilities that key off of the Attack action (like Flurry of Blows). For Metallic Dragonborn specifically, their second breath weapon can be a useful control tool for melee builds. As part of the same Attack action, you can use Repulsion Breath to knock a foe prone, then close the gap and make a normal attack at advantage. Imagine, for instance, a Gold Dragonborn Fighter doing that, then popping Action Surge to lay on even more attacks at advantage. Or a Silver Dragonborn Conquest Paladin casting Wrathful Smite, knocking the foe prone with Repulsion breath, then hitting them with a regular attack to apply the fear effect and trap them in the prone state.
Thanks Dungeon Dudes for your informative videos. I'm looking forward to DMing again eventually. If I will be a player I have decided on playing the eloquence bard with a dip in hexblade warlock.
Enjoying the book. Just started DMing as my kids were interested (particularly in the dragon part of D&D) so this is great. Definitely using an ancient Amethyst Dragon as a patron “using” their party to try to maintain balance in the area.
I’ve been building a campaign based on draconic factions so this was amazing! I loved the new player features and all of the amazing flavor! Awesome stuff as usual guys 👍
I love how the new Dragonborn Breath Weapons can just replace an attack, a multiattack being replaced with two force breaths just seems pretty fun. They again do not consume actions or bonus actions, they consume attacks. So action surge dual attacks can be 4 breath attacks Also, Chromatic Red Dragonborn Valor Bards singing and walking through fire breath with their activate-able fire immunity is super metal
a level 7 Red Chromatic Dragonborn Sorcerer can make themselves immune to fire, then cast Wall of Fire down a hallway filled with enemies and just walk into it casting more spells.
You had me at "Mind Flair Dragon" Wow! I just got an idea for a homebrew undead campaign. I just got this book so I'm looking at reviews. This book might get me to change my mind. Though I have a Mind Flayer campaign in my notes that I outlined, but didn't get the chance to run. I'll have to look at that Mind flayer Dragon, & may add that and start that old campaign I had in mind.
Love the content as always. Just want to add that I'm running Storm King's Thunder right now for my group and there are a LOT of dragons and possible content in that campaign that this book can really help with!
I'm homebrewing a world at the moment, and I've called the history book for it "The History of Kren and Dragons"... I'm really going to need to get Fizban's
So I’m currently creating a multiverse themed campaign, and have been working on it for 1.5 years. With this book, one of my worlds is based on hunting all things dragon, it really helped emphasize the mood of the world.
its worth noting the dragonborn breath weapon can be used as part of your attack action taking the place of one of your attacks if you have something akin to extra attack where it used to be an action.
Really good video, Dudes! I'm running Rise of Tiamat right now and am SO excited to incorporate stuff from this book into it. I completely agree with your point about wanting more books like it for other creature types. Particularly I'd love to see one on Goblins and Orcs
Really wish there was more Dragonlance info. As a lover of the setting, was really hoping this book would have more info on the setting. Outside of that, love the book! Amazing info and very in depth
I enjoyed perusing Fizban's. Your comment of the quality of this book rings true and look forward to WotC continuing this level in future publications. I really enjoyed your suggestion of the Ranger Beast Master taking on specific Beast Masteries (Wolf, Falcon, etc.), or multiple creatures at various levels (I've done this). It seems that many in the D&D world, especially WotC, believe that a creature from a Find Familiar spell should be as powerful/helpful as one defining an arch-type... Since the Ranger is NOT what it should be, I chose to combine most of the Ranger abilities from PHB & Tasha's. Thank you for what you two do, really enjoy it...John
One thing this book really got me excited for was not so much anything in the book itself, but the precedent it sets. To me, this is a (slightly watered down) reimagining of the Draconomicon from 3.5, and there were some amazing books in that vein from that edition, like Lords of Madness, The Book of Vile Darkness. I want to see expansions on the lore of various monster types or expanded setting books, I'm not sure if I'd be more excited for a second official Eberron book or an actual Demonomicon of Igwilv. What I'm saying is, Wizards, you're on the right track, give me, by which I mean I speak for the fans, MOAR
I wish that the dragon monk would've gotten an upgraded version of dragon transformation spell as a class feature and the drake warden would've gotten an upgraded version of the summon dragon spirit spell as a class feature that used your drake as the dragon spirit and added the extras from that spell to your drake when you summoned it. That'd really push both classes, especially the monk, to a higher and cooler place as subclasses.
Curious to see your opinions. I'm pretty split on this book, with the lore changes (most notably Sardior being killed), Ascendant Dragon Monk nerfs, no new Kobold, only Gem Dragonborn get flight... There's plenty of good stuff too, like the Drakewarden, the magic items and the new Gem Dragons, but those problems really stung personally.
One of the campaigns I was running was just coming off of having killed a dragon in the previous session and the the day it dropped we were dealing with the aftermath. The Draconic Gifts ended up being very cool and very unexpected by the party. Good Stuff!
The 'Great Game' referred to in this video is called the Xorvintaal. A bizzare game played by dragons in which the lives of millions are the pieces on the board. Entire geopolitical areas are competed over by different dragons. Adventurers are certainly used in these games as powerful and versatile pieces/allies/scapegoats as the manipulating dragon needs.
I took a LOT of creative liberties with dragons in my world, it’ll be interesting to see which part of this new book I can absorb and which part will fuel my creativity to alter and change to fit in with the rest of my world. Also this will probably take up the rest of my November since I took around 2 months roughly 3 years ago and designed additional stat blocks for more draconic age categories for each of the 10 normal dragons in the MM (which I’m willing to share with anyone interested): Juvenile - between wyrmling and young Adolescent - between young and adult Mature - between adult and ancient Wyrm - after ancient Great Wyrm - after wyrm
Huh. Lately I've been thinking about a dragon-themed campaign, at my nephew's suggestion. Now that I catch up with the Dudes, they tell me there's a book for that. *Exactly* for that.
this book came out at a good time because our dm has been running a very dragon centric campaign for over a year. My character who is a hexblade warlock has a dragon patron. His weapon contains the will of a deceased ancient dragon that telepathically communicates with my character. The Dm actually homebrewed a dragon themed weapon for my character but the dragon hoard weapon actually fits alot better theming wise for what the magic weapon is.
I actually did get a little bit of stuff I can use for an upcoming character. I'm playing a Fairy Cleric whose deity is Nathair Sgiathac, so getting more info on him and Fairy Dragons in general is nice (plus the spell, even though it's not a Cleric spell I'm sure with feats there's a way of me getting it or my DM may decided it's not too OP and fits thematically). But yeah, definitely more of a book for DMs, like the DMG, and it does that job really well. The Ravnica/Theros comparison is very apt. I would love to see more books like this (as you suggest for other monster categories for things like goblins, undead etc)
I'm running a campaign in which dragons act as an unknown force guarding the material plane from the encroaching influences of the far realm. This book was an absolute godsend for me.
I actually have a final fantasy meets Ryuutama (ttrpg) setting where dragons were connected to the crystals that protect the world. This book is going to be super helpful with fleshing out the dragons more.
Poked through it, and as a long-timer going back to '79, I'd recommend this to basically any GM who hasn't been running games for years already. Whether you use it as a chapter-and-verse, color by numbers source, exactly as presented in the text...or just to fuel your own imagination to facilitate creating variations on a theme that suit your campaign(s)' flavor more precisely, it is a very good resource. More good stuff dudes, see you in the dungeon! (or the towns/wilderness/outerplanes...you get the idea!) 8>D
the mention of gem dragons combined with my recent playing of swtor gave me an idea for a kyber crystal dragon who could activate an aura (for a certain amount of time, maybe 3 or 4 rounds or so) of lightsaber energy.. this lead me to the idea for a campaign based in really ancient times in the starwars galaxy, before technology advanced.. so it'd be the basic tech lvl of any normal dnd game. "magic" would be the force, and the warforged would be the first attemps of droids..
Kelly low-key trying to sneak the phrase “Imagine Dragons” into the conversation as often as possible.
Part of me wonders if it was on purpose, but with the amount of times he said 'imagine dragons' it _had_ to be intentional.
Imagine dragon these nuts across your face ayeeeeee gottem
Came here to say the same thing!
He better be careful. Too many mentions of it and he may be waking up to ash and dust.
@@invertedghostgames9899 Maybe he is a Believer
Now we need this for Giants. Giant characters, Giant society, Giant adventures, and the war between Giants and Dragons. A must
That's the idea behind my current campaign! (Just started, so who knows where the players will take it.) Volo's has some great giant lore, tips for roll playings and add'l giant monster concepts/stats that has given me great ideas. A fellow GM also suggested stealing ideas from the Storm King's Thunder adventure module, esp. for lairs and magic items.
Volo’s did a section on Giants, it didn’t go into the finest details but it does flesh out the Giant race a lot better. Between the cultures, religion, and how they interact with one another and other races, it’s a great start. If you’re a lore keeper, then a standalone book would definitely be a nice new addition, but if you’re a DM fleshing out your own world (like me) you’d be much better off with certain ambiguities so you can adapt the race into your own world. I take a LOT of creative liberties when it comes to big D&D races such as dragons, giants, Drow, etc. and I do so to sculpt a more immersive world.
@@1003JustinLaw Yeah, I agree more than words can say. Being a storyteller and forcing me to make my own adventures we could play made me realize a few things.
The first one was that generic magical items would not exist in a magical world unless it had seen war. No enchanter of note would be willing to make a generic item, that's for their apprentices to do and only when they can make an item by without variations would they be allowed to progress. That would down the line lead to no two magical item being exactly the same. They would have the enchanters calling card, unless it was a point to not add that. One might add flames flickering along the edge without it affecting the weapon at all or it might add a big of fire dame. Each maker would add their own flair and it would be boring to make a +1 item beyond a certain point. So magical items would all be slightly different.
The other was a type of monster evolution were the various types of monsters would change a bit to better fit in at an area. This means that there would be no generic monster. Oh, sure it might be a bear and it might look like a black bear, but you would need to understand the local habitat to really know which variant you were up against. And such bests and monsters might also evolve due to some external force.
Knowing this I made my own stuff from when I was 16 I think, that's over 30 years ago with me creating my own stuff. I get inspired by things sure and have insane ideas, that needs to be reined in to be used, but over time you gain a sense of what's right. It's not about creating a challenge, it's about creating a world that will grow such challenges naturally, a living breathing world filled with wonders.
I started small, with an island actually that help one settlement. From there it grew with bordering towns, roads, the larger area, a big city and then suddenly you have a continent filled with stuff, A few years later I had a whole world filled to the brim with history anyone could pick up on by looking in the right place. A world isn't static because the people and creature in that world had their own wants and needs.
Usually I imagined dropping the players into an remote area due to a failed teleport or something like that and from there let them find their way back. Then I would look upon that area and see how it had evolved and how the players actions would have affected the area as they would plow through to get back to where ever. Or maybe it wasn't the players, but rather a younger exploring character. How would such interruption into the local habitat affect it. My players feared the words looks wild, because they knew that in such places what they knew might not be up to keeping them safe.
That's how countless weird monsters were born and more than one character any player could interact with. Like the book loving lich who collected magical tomes and readily traded for new books, attack him and he'd rip you to pieces, but trade books ooh, that would be interesting. Or the Tea witch as the players called her. A bonkers old tea loing potion master who liked to experiment on her customers by serving them potion tea. She was to useful to avoid, and to annoying to really want to go to as she would always be pushing tea at you. Random events leads to random consequences, run through a few senarios in any given area of your world and think hard about what would happen if....
Then run that a few hundred times and suddenly you have a nice little area with some weirdness thrown in.
Start small and let it grow.
@@taleg1 I wish I could spam likes for this reply, this is exactly what I’m going for. I created a world with a Pangea-like supercontinent but a relatively short description, and some of my lore-loving players were like “can we get a detailed description of the history and whatnot?” To which I reply “there isn’t one, at least not a consistent one”. What I do is set a vague world in which anything can be changed and milder to fit my player group and the circumstances they find themselves in.
Great ideer
I got the book yesterday, my daughter is running a Ranger and just hit level three, she was going beast master, obviously now she’s going drakewarden, She is definitely a dragon fanatic, but super awesome book
Yeah im glad they brought this out for my kiddo he's obsessed
This made me happy to hear. Thanks for sharing 🐉🐉
That's wholesome
Lol I wish I could reroll as a drakewarden also but my DM said he's not ready for that mess
Nice. Sounds like my situation. I'm running a campaign where my wife was going to be a beast master and I told her about the Drakewarden (the party will be hitting level 3 tonight). Now she's just in time to discover a large geode that will hatch her little drake companion.
Me: *sees the Deep Dragon, Dragonblood Ooze, and Elder Brain Dragon*
*casually drops them into my Illithid campaign without a second of concern for the players*
Players always deserve arbitrary suffering.
Note on the New Dragonborn. Their breath weapon can REPLACE an attack when you take the attack action, which is a pretty big upgrade.
I believe this only applies to the Metallic Dragonborn's special breath weapon.
@@DungeonDudes Nope. It applies to all of the Breath Weapons.
Breath Weapon. When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks with an exhalation of magical energy in a 30-foot
line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus).
On a failed save, the creature takes 1d10 damage of the type associated with your Chromatic Ancestry. On a successful save, it takes half as much
damage. This damage increases by 1d10 when you reach 5th level (2d10), 11th level (3d10), and 17th level (4d10).
@@DungeonDudes Logan is correct. All of the updated and new breaths regardless of ancestry can be used as part of your Attack action, the breath doesn't replace it entirely as the original Dragonborn did. The wording says "When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks..." for all of them, implying that if you have Extra Attack it only replaces one of the attacks, not the entire Action.
This is a HUGE buff for martial classes with extra attack because generally it was better for them to just do a normal Attack as the 2+ attacks made would out perform a breath weapon usage. Now they don't have to choose. A Dragonborn Paladin with Extra attack can charge in, take a swing on a goblin with their sword, and then as part of the same Attack action perform a breath attack on the goblin and its nearby friends.
@@jmtrujillo33 Metallic Dragons gain even more from this at level 5, because they get a "Metallic Breath Weapon" that is not their original Breath Weapon, and is even written as "second breath weapon". RAW it doesn't say it can't be used in the same turn as the Breath Weapon, so it would be a nice 1-2 punch in a 15 ft cone.
"Cool Story, Bro. Needs more dragons."
*Bahamut turns into Fizban*
Fizban: "Hold my beer."
"What they don't tell you about Dragon Hoards" has a lot more dragons!It really needs more atention cause it covers everything Fizban's did not.
This book is exciting but I'm also disappointed there aren't additions to draconic sorcerer to make it feel a little more powerful like Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul.
Yeah, give them a bloodline spell list!
You can give them Dragon's Gift at the moment of character's creation, though. Which may be incredibly strong depending on which gift will the character receive. Which is better than nothing, I guess
that is indeed a missed opportunity
100% agree with you. I love the book but I feel it could have added more stuff. They definitely missed an opportunity with revising the draconic sorcerer! Draconic sorcerer is still powerful and cool but definitely could use more features such as free elemental themed spells/draconic magic. Also I still find it odd how they didn't give all dragonborn darkvision. I always found it silly how dragonborn don't have darkvision or keen senses like their dragon ancestors! As a DM I would give my dragonborn players darkvision and proficiency in perception.
I absolutely love the dragonborn variants! Not only do you get new and improved traits but you can choose your stat boosts rather than being pigeon holed into strength and charisma. The new subclasses are fantastic! I can't wait to try out drakewarden! Overall this book is 9.5/10
I agree. I also want a Draconic Warlock.
I'm currently running curse of Strahd, I'm definitely gonna use a Ghost Dragon controlled by Strahd as a sub-boss.
Ooooo, I like that! Perhaps Strahd twists the spirit of Argynvost? His beacon of light and hope getting extinguished by Strahd would definitely drive the point of Barovia home.
Or you can make Strahd turn into dragon after he dies.
@@mardshima2070 No
Oooooohhh my. Good luck to your players.
I'm currently running a campaign of all dragonborn using the UA rules adapted in Fizban's and my players are loving it. The breath weapon is much more satisfying to use since they dont have to ration it as much, and the extra features are cool. I have two gem dragonborn and 2 chromatic. They are powerful, but feel balanced.
I love the new dragonborn cause I felt the old one was straight up bad, the breath weapon was worse than an attack from a weapon and for immunity you could just go genasi, it was sad especially because dragonborn are so cool looking
the new dragon born feel more like what they should have been in the first place
@@maksudshtrudel1089 I always plucked the Ravenite DB from Critical Role since they feel far more flushed out
I would LOVE to see more "themed" books for zombies, orcs, mindflayers, ect like you mentioned.... Would say I would love a cosmic horror one but from what I understand that is essentially Dungeons of Drakkenheim haha
Could do one for each creature type! Might wanna skip beasts and humanoids though lol
Sounds like you want Lords of Madness, Libris Mortis, the Fiend Folio, etc. They’re all 3.5, but have tons of stuff in them
@@dang5736 thanks for the recommendations! I'll have to check em out!
Codex of evil 5e, Van Richten's guide to ravenloft...
@Dan G I was just thinking about those 3e books lol.
The 'hoard magic items' reminds me of what a RPG system (name totally forgotten, it was end 90s) implemented for magic items in that any item could become magical by being 'used'. i.e. the fighters sword would slowly become magical over time and get powers related to it's usage. So if the fighter was constantly slaying goblins, it might get +1/+4 against goblins or such.
I would think of it as the 'aura' of the wielder, as they grew in power, would also affect everything around them and what they carry. Naturally something with more power would affect stuff even more-so and/or quicker.
yeah, as DM, i very much enjoyed how this book was presented. i easily could see how to modify and adapt the content for a dragon-themed campaign. as a Player, this book is good if you will want to play a dragon-related character, plus you might enjoy learning some of the ideas, lore, etc
Because of this amazing book I wanna DM for the first time, I freaking love dragons and the new dragonborns are super cool
I hope once you stop selling the miniatures for Dungeons of Drakkenheim you'll release the STLs. I have a resin printer coming and would love to print extras.
Something tells me they aren’t in charge of that.
I love how many times the phrase "imagine dragons" was used.
I wonder what Kelly's favorite band is...
I love this book a lot. Most of the new player options are great additions, and I love all the extensive dragon content for the game called Dungeons & Dragons. Poor Monk & Sardior though....
I think, honestly, the most disappointing thing about this book is the Greatwyrms Super underwhelming IMO. Everything else fantastic, and the Elder Brain Dragon has literally inspired an entire Illithid campaign.
@@Helldog6 What specifically do you feel is underwhelming about the greatwyrms?
@@mikeprado4381 Well, I hate the fact that they all share the same stat blocks, for one. They all share the same movement traits, essentially the exact same statistics with the only difference being their immunity to whatever element they are.
I also hate the fact that their breath weapon is just bigger, and not stronger. The fact that the Ancient Red Dragon's fire breath does more damage than Red Greatwyrm is very underwhelming. The 26d6 from the Ancient Red Dragon not only averages a higher amount of damage, the maximum amount of damage is higher as well. And I get what they were trying to do, it's supposed to be a city annihalator, and the 300ft range is effective at that. BUT, in combat, the 300ft range is a essentially a nonfactor.
On top of that, almost all attacks do about the same damage. I think the Red Greatwyrm averages a little bit more, but not enough to really make a huge difference. I do love some of the added elements to their attacks - not sure about the grapple added to their Claw attacks, but I do love the added Prone save with their Tail attacks. Adds a cool element that actually makes the tail attack something you'd want to use, although the fact that it's not an AOE and is still not included in its Multiattack is another thing I dislike, but that's the same with all Dragon types so I can't be too pressed about it. Still, even with the added Prone, I don't ever see myself using it against my players.
I'm also not the biggest fan of the "Arcane Spear" legendary action, as it's just a not as good version of the Aspect of Bahamut's "Celestial Lances". It's almost the exact same thing tho, just not as strong, which again kind of exemplifies the lack of creativity with the design. The fact that all greatwyrms have this type of ability makes the Aspect of Bahamut less unique, IMO.
Now the biggest issue I have with it is the fact that Red Greatwyrms have basically two lives, which mean they have about 1000 health, they have EIGHT Legendary Resistances (Because they refresh after the Chromatic Awakening happens) which essentially means they are almost the exact same dragon, with more health, and more resistances, which is going to make the fight quite a bit longer but neccesarily more exciting. I love the mythic actions, however, I just wish there were more of them and that they were unique. Maybe a couple passive Mythic like abilities - like a Blizzard forming around the White and Silver Greatwyrms causing the environment to become difficult terrain while it's active and causing Cold damage, or a Lightning aura around Blue or Copper Greatwyrms that sends lightning bolts at targets who enter the area, or a Fire Aura around Red and Gold Greatwyrms that deals damage when an enemy attacks the Greatwyrms, etc.
IDK. It just felt very underwhelming for me. I love dragons, but I just wanted a little bit more.
@@Helldog6 Gotcha. Great ideas to tweak what they’ve written though, like your passive Mythic-like abilities! And thanks for pointing all of this out. I’m a relatively new DM and have yet to run any type of dragon. Great education!
@@Helldog6 hey! Honestly I think the tail is there to confuse the players with attacks of opportunity, since it hasn't got the same range as the other attacks I believe
I've been excited about this vid. Really enjoy most of the book, there are cool spells, items, and some really cool lore. Very happy with it as a whole
I've been working on a homebrew world for a good chuck of this year that is very dragon heavy, and I've been aching for this books release since it was announced. I am *so* excited to put it into use.
Fizban looked at the portrait on the wall,it depicted a battle of dragons of everykind,gold,brass and the silver dragons of huma.All had riders and lances....
Now what was that spell again? Fire-
*Raistlin aneurysm intensifies
I’ve been running a campaign that has a lot of Dragons and Dinosaurs for 2 years so far and this book was great for my campaign and springs new idea as a DM and a Player.
A really great book for fellow DMs.
Aside from subclasses, spells and items, I really like dragon hoards and lairs suggested mechanics described in the book. Many ideas to inspire a DM.
And yes, dragonfolk are finally diverse and exciting to play! 🥳
At first I overlooked this book..
I was running a heavily modified DoIP + HotDQ + RoT, the cult had Half-Dragon Champions riding Dragons as a tandem of destruction, and once the party slayed the young white dragon in DoIP the cult became aware of this group capable of killing dragons and hence became enemy number one.
We made it to the hatchery of HotDQ, and my plan was to let the players keep one egg each and potentially earn their own dragon mount/companion.
I bought this book and am totally reinvigorated to continue on with the campaign, the lair additions are amazing as I can add "bounty" quests and the party can track down champions and slay them and their dragons.
Thanks for the review guys, I never miss a video!
this sounds like the perfect opportunity to use Matt Colville’s Draconic Empire villainous organization!
Still waiting on my copy, good to know you Dudes liked it. #1 D&D UA-camrs imo.
It's very cool to see the Drake Warden finally get an official release! One of my friends has been playing the UA version in my Trials of the Realm campaign for a while now. Haven't seen all the changes that have been made for the official release but it's been a really cool class to have in our game thus far!
I've been playing it in a mid/high level campaign for a while now. Started at 10, currently 14.
We homebrewed some changes to the UA that actually wound up being in the final print. Such as the drake gaining a size bump to medium rather than going from small to large with no in between.
I like the changes they implemented personally
My favourite part about this book is how inspiring it is to me as a player and as a DM.
As a general note, D&D can sometimes make the most exciting things almost seem mundane because of how it's interacting with things that are just as exciting. This really added the mystique back to dragons, in my opinion.
As a DM, I felt inspired to add hints to dragons in things that previously didn't have them. I'm currently running a homebrew domain of dread campaign and you bet they're going to meet a dragon and it's going to be a very memorable encounter.
As a player, however, I now look forward to facing a Dragon to meet a character and for it to have the intensity of when I first met Smaug when reading The Hobbit as a young boy.
I think this book is a necessity if you're needing inspiration because of how much it can offer to things that weren't necessarily dragon related. The deep and elder brain dragons give me more things to add to an Underdark campaign; the dragon-like beasts give me something to add to a campaign with an evil experimenting Mage at it's heart; the extra stat blocks for dragon turtles and such now let me put "here be dragons" on a map and it could be any manner of options. I love this book.
This is why I love watching these guys, just from watching this video I've got enough ideas to write a book series. I'm definitely getting this book.
Rime's Binding Ice probably going to be the best Evocation 2nd level AoE spell.
this makes me want to have a campaign where players meet Fizban and he is like a Steve Irwin like character who studies dragons and is all like "Oi Crikey, you're a beaut ain't ya" to all the dragons he comes across and like none of them hurt him cause they all love him.
I’m honestly shocked to hear that they weren’t a huge fan of The new Monk subclass, After looking over it really well. It gives the monk a much needed elemental damage that The Four Elements Monk couldn’t provide well enough. The abilities are heavily stacked on 3rd level and they just keep improving! It’s easily my favorite, and I think It could EASILY make A Tier
The reason why they aren't fans of the new monk subclass is because it became harder to use the features of the subclass going from UA to official printed material. Things became more expensive, less impactful or unable to use more than a set number of times.
@@GuardianTactician I’d have to disagree, being able to use most abilities a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and then if you wanna use it again you just spend 1-3 key points depending on the ability, and the more expensive ones you don’t get until much higher levels. I found that the damage to be just about one par with spell casters when they cast spells. And taking into account the abilities to swap damage types at any time with no ki point spending is HUGE. So now the monks can target most damage vulnerabilities on any enemy they encounter. I think it scales quite nicely.
In the first campaign I played, we had a new ranger introduced to the party, and it just so happened we came upon a dragon egg. After it hatched, the dragon became the ranger’s beast (this was a few years ago, like 2017). It made for a really fun party!
There was one spell I really do see a lot of potential with: Ashardalon's Stride.
Would be a higher level build but I'd go with a new bronze dragonborn then multiclass 6 levels each of tempest cleric and storm sorcerer. Pick up transmute spell metamagic and elemental adept feat (lightning). Now cast Ashardalon's Stride with a 6th level slot transmuted to lightning damage. You get 65ft of movement + any other speed boosts you are able to pick up. When you first cast it it triggers Heart of the Storm and you can push them all 10ft away with Thunderbolt Strike, then each creature you move within 5ft of takes 4d6 counting 1's as 2's lightning damage and you can push them 10ft with Thunderbolt Strike. Use your racial breath, dash for more movement, or use lightning lure to move more people. You can pretty easily move people in postion to hit with an upcast lightning bolt or transmute another spell to lightning damage triggering Heart of the Storm again letting you push them 10ft if needed and use channel divinity to make it deal max damage instead of rolling, and push people with the spell since it deals lighning damage, then with Tempestuous Magic you get an extra ten feet of flight to move around as a bonus action to hit more people with Ashardalon's Stride and push them around more.
My #1 channel for D&D opinions
I picked up my alt cover art version on Tuesday. Been reading through it a bit, so far have really liked it.
Made a kobold drakewarden so far my favorite character
Everything in it great, I *love* the Drakwarden and its abilities, and I enjoy the the spells AND the Dragon Lance magic item. Tho, I gotta say I am VERY disappointed they didn't include the UA Kobold revisions. Give the little guys an update too!!!
The UA Kobolds simply didn't share the flavor of previous 5e kobolds. IMO they'd have to go back to the drawing board.
Volo's kobolds are 100 times better than the UA. No revision was the right choice.
@@bigdream_dreambig I was at least hoping to be rid of the sunlight sensitivity. Also, I'd have preferred the Advantage to fear or Extra Sorc Cantrip options- fine maybe they shoulda kept pack tactics but honestly I loved what I saw.
This book is exactly what I needed. I am running a dragon heavy champaign. I started by combing the Lost Mines and Ice Spire peak setting, and had both dragons present, and those being confused as to why a white and green dragon where in the same area. This has help flush the story out
As a DM with a homebrew Dragon filled world, this book is my favorite book and is going to add a lot to my games.
Thanks for the great video!
I just had my first session of Drakewarden at level 3 and I was definitely a standout in battle. Tons of fun
Thanks for the shout out for an actual full Dragonlance book for 5e. I go to my 3.5 books over and over and still want 5e to give a solid setting book for Krynn. I could talk Dragonlance all day and this book is finally a step in that direction, so I'm excited.
Gift of the Metallic Dragon is a game changer for PCs who want to play a Wizard/Sorcerer/Warlock but also want to be the party’s healer. Learning Cure Wounds and being able to use your spell slots on it for the cost of a feat is great.
Couldn't agree more with wanting more focused books like this. I still remember the 3.5 books Libris Mortis and Lords of Madness. Those were 2 of my favorite books because they added a whole new layer to undead and aberrations that inspired me beyond most other books. Great review dudes!
I think I read somewhere, that the reason the feats are there was because the responses from the UA was alot of people wanting dragon subclasses for almost all the classes, and instead of that they chose to add the feats so that people who play a barbarian has an option to be "dragon-touched"
Only up to the section about subclasses, but since I didn't hear them bring it up I thought I would just point this out real quick:
Another way they drastically improved the Dragonborn breath weapon, besides the more uses per day and the larger damage die, is that instead of taking an action on its own it replaces an attack when the character takes the Attack action, which greatly increases its utility for martial classes.
With the regular breath weapon, it gives an AoE damage ability to these classes that often don't have easy access to AoE otherwise. On top of that, since it is used as part of the Attack action, it doesn't disable other class abilities that key off of the Attack action (like Flurry of Blows).
For Metallic Dragonborn specifically, their second breath weapon can be a useful control tool for melee builds. As part of the same Attack action, you can use Repulsion Breath to knock a foe prone, then close the gap and make a normal attack at advantage. Imagine, for instance, a Gold Dragonborn Fighter doing that, then popping Action Surge to lay on even more attacks at advantage. Or a Silver Dragonborn Conquest Paladin casting Wrathful Smite, knocking the foe prone with Repulsion breath, then hitting them with a regular attack to apply the fear effect and trap them in the prone state.
Thanks Dungeon Dudes for your informative videos. I'm looking forward to DMing again eventually. If I will be a player I have decided on playing the eloquence bard with a dip in hexblade warlock.
Enjoying the book. Just started DMing as my kids were interested (particularly in the dragon part of D&D) so this is great. Definitely using an ancient Amethyst Dragon as a patron “using” their party to try to maintain balance in the area.
I’ve been building a campaign based on draconic factions so this was amazing! I loved the new player features and all of the amazing flavor! Awesome stuff as usual guys 👍
Thanks for the review. That settles it, it’s going in the collection.
Thanks for the update! I’m working through the Drakenheim campaign, loving all the plot twists. Getting great ideas on how to play my own characters.
I love how the new Dragonborn Breath Weapons can just replace an attack, a multiattack being replaced with two force breaths just seems pretty fun. They again do not consume actions or bonus actions, they consume attacks. So action surge dual attacks can be 4 breath attacks
Also, Chromatic Red Dragonborn Valor Bards singing and walking through fire breath with their activate-able fire immunity is super metal
a level 7 Red Chromatic Dragonborn Sorcerer can make themselves immune to fire, then cast Wall of Fire down a hallway filled with enemies and just walk into it casting more spells.
You had me at "Mind Flair Dragon" Wow!
I just got an idea for a homebrew undead campaign. I just got this book so I'm looking at reviews. This book might get me to change my mind. Though I have a Mind Flayer campaign in my notes that I outlined, but didn't get the chance to run. I'll have to look at that Mind flayer Dragon, & may add that and start that old campaign I had in mind.
Love the content as always. Just want to add that I'm running Storm King's Thunder right now for my group and there are a LOT of dragons and possible content in that campaign that this book can really help with!
I ran a Dragon Proxy War campaign in 4e with a crew of Dragon Privateers aboard an airship. Absolutely my best and longest campaign
I'm homebrewing a world at the moment, and I've called the history book for it "The History of Kren and Dragons"...
I'm really going to need to get Fizban's
22:50 correction. the tiamat in Rise of Tiamat is one of her 2 Avatars. her second (and preferred) Avatar is a red Dragon
"and gave us new ways to imagine dragons" - the unintentional reference made me chuckle.
I was already crafting a homebrew adventure that was an off shoot of Horde of the Dragon Queen, and this is so perfect for me
So I’m currently creating a multiverse themed campaign, and have been working on it for 1.5 years. With this book, one of my worlds is based on hunting all things dragon, it really helped emphasize the mood of the world.
I backed your campaign! Looking forward to it! --- Great Video here too!
If only this dropped sooner! I would have loved to use it for inspiration for one of my players running a Homebrew Dragon Shaman class last campaign.
OMG when looking over the magic items my eyes when straight to the Bow, and I was like "ohh yea!, two now"
its worth noting the dragonborn breath weapon can be used as part of your attack action taking the place of one of your attacks if you have something akin to extra attack where it used to be an action.
Fizban was the best character in D&D books. Hilarious
Really good video, Dudes! I'm running Rise of Tiamat right now and am SO excited to incorporate stuff from this book into it. I completely agree with your point about wanting more books like it for other creature types. Particularly I'd love to see one on Goblins and Orcs
Really wish there was more Dragonlance info. As a lover of the setting, was really hoping this book would have more info on the setting. Outside of that, love the book! Amazing info and very in depth
I need that hypothetical Mind Flayer book you mentioned, like, yesterday.
I enjoyed perusing Fizban's. Your comment of the quality of this book rings true and look forward to WotC continuing this level in future publications. I really enjoyed your suggestion of the Ranger Beast Master taking on specific Beast Masteries (Wolf, Falcon, etc.), or multiple creatures at various levels (I've done this). It seems that many in the D&D world, especially WotC, believe that a creature from a Find Familiar spell should be as powerful/helpful as one defining an arch-type... Since the Ranger is NOT what it should be, I chose to combine most of the Ranger abilities from PHB & Tasha's.
Thank you for what you two do, really enjoy it...John
This book was the last piece I was missing to adapt one or more of Capcom's old Breath of Fire games for my party.
Ordered my copy of Fizban’s. Should be here tomorrow!
I'm actually running a Xorvintaal (the Great Game) campaign so I'll definitely be picking this up!!!
One thing this book really got me excited for was not so much anything in the book itself, but the precedent it sets. To me, this is a (slightly watered down) reimagining of the Draconomicon from 3.5, and there were some amazing books in that vein from that edition, like Lords of Madness, The Book of Vile Darkness. I want to see expansions on the lore of various monster types or expanded setting books, I'm not sure if I'd be more excited for a second official Eberron book or an actual Demonomicon of Igwilv. What I'm saying is, Wizards, you're on the right track, give me, by which I mean I speak for the fans, MOAR
I wish that the dragon monk would've gotten an upgraded version of dragon transformation spell as a class feature and the drake warden would've gotten an upgraded version of the summon dragon spirit spell as a class feature that used your drake as the dragon spirit and added the extras from that spell to your drake when you summoned it. That'd really push both classes, especially the monk, to a higher and cooler place as subclasses.
Curious to see your opinions.
I'm pretty split on this book, with the lore changes (most notably Sardior being killed), Ascendant Dragon Monk nerfs, no new Kobold, only Gem Dragonborn get flight...
There's plenty of good stuff too, like the Drakewarden, the magic items and the new Gem Dragons, but those problems really stung personally.
I'm honestly fine with all the dragonbron changes, but Sardior & Ascendant Dragon was a major dissapointment yeah.
Dragons have a secret key role in a campaign that I'm running now. May need to check this out.
And as my favorite character is a Dragonborn ranger…..I’m pumped!
One of the campaigns I was running was just coming off of having killed a dragon in the previous session and the the day it dropped we were dealing with the aftermath. The Draconic Gifts ended up being very cool and very unexpected by the party. Good Stuff!
The 'Great Game' referred to in this video is called the Xorvintaal. A bizzare game played by dragons in which the lives of millions are the pieces on the board. Entire geopolitical areas are competed over by different dragons. Adventurers are certainly used in these games as powerful and versatile pieces/allies/scapegoats as the manipulating dragon needs.
I really enjoyed the Draconomicon books for 4e, so I'm excited to get my hands on this one !
I took a LOT of creative liberties with dragons in my world, it’ll be interesting to see which part of this new book I can absorb and which part will fuel my creativity to alter and change to fit in with the rest of my world.
Also this will probably take up the rest of my November since I took around 2 months roughly 3 years ago and designed additional stat blocks for more draconic age categories for each of the 10 normal dragons in the MM (which I’m willing to share with anyone interested):
Juvenile - between wyrmling and young
Adolescent - between young and adult
Mature - between adult and ancient
Wyrm - after ancient
Great Wyrm - after wyrm
My Dm just got this book and we are in the middle of a tyrany of dragons campaign. The timing is amazing on this.
Big fan of the dragon maps! There needed to be more explanation for the design/layout of hoards 🐉
Huh. Lately I've been thinking about a dragon-themed campaign, at my nephew's suggestion. Now that I catch up with the Dudes, they tell me there's a book for that. *Exactly* for that.
this book came out at a good time because our dm has been running a very dragon centric campaign for over a year.
My character who is a hexblade warlock has a dragon patron. His weapon contains the will of a deceased ancient dragon that telepathically communicates with my character.
The Dm actually homebrewed a dragon themed weapon for my character but the dragon hoard weapon actually fits alot better theming wise for what the magic weapon is.
So excited to see Dragonlance material finally coming to the forefront. Adding Draconians to party encounters brings tons of versatility. 🤓
Damn, I wish I had seen this in time for birthday gifts. Fortunately, it's not too late for xmas =)
I actually did get a little bit of stuff I can use for an upcoming character. I'm playing a Fairy Cleric whose deity is Nathair Sgiathac, so getting more info on him and Fairy Dragons in general is nice (plus the spell, even though it's not a Cleric spell I'm sure with feats there's a way of me getting it or my DM may decided it's not too OP and fits thematically).
But yeah, definitely more of a book for DMs, like the DMG, and it does that job really well. The Ravnica/Theros comparison is very apt.
I would love to see more books like this (as you suggest for other monster categories for things like goblins, undead etc)
Monty started describing the very dragon campaign I was thinking of minutes before he said it. I think it was meant to be created.
Dracohydra looks fun as hell
As DM obsessed with dragons, this book is perfect for me.
In a future game I'll probably use a slay the 5 dragons campaign. Glad there are lots of useful tools for it in the book.
I find it interesting that aside from Thaumaturgy the Drakewarden ranger doesnt get a spell list expansion like most other ranger subclasses did.
I'm running a campaign in which dragons act as an unknown force guarding the material plane from the encroaching influences of the far realm. This book was an absolute godsend for me.
I actually have a final fantasy meets Ryuutama (ttrpg) setting where dragons were connected to the crystals that protect the world. This book is going to be super helpful with fleshing out the dragons more.
Reminds me of the earthdawn magical items that become greater by having more legend. One of the best dragon dominated settings.
Poked through it, and as a long-timer going back to '79, I'd recommend this to basically any GM who hasn't been running games for years already. Whether you use it as a chapter-and-verse, color by numbers source, exactly as presented in the text...or just to fuel your own imagination to facilitate creating variations on a theme that suit your campaign(s)' flavor more precisely, it is a very good resource. More good stuff dudes, see you in the dungeon! (or the towns/wilderness/outerplanes...you get the idea!) 8>D
"A book like this for undead"
YES PLEASE
10:30 I would like this idea applied to Moon Druids too
Doing a magic the gathering campaign right now, gonna use this for a tarkir chapter of the game, can’t wait!
the mention of gem dragons combined with my recent playing of swtor gave me an idea for a kyber crystal dragon who could activate an aura (for a certain amount of time, maybe 3 or 4 rounds or so) of lightsaber energy.. this lead me to the idea for a campaign based in really ancient times in the starwars galaxy, before technology advanced.. so it'd be the basic tech lvl of any normal dnd game. "magic" would be the force, and the warforged would be the first attemps of droids..