why bother with the dragon AOE when you can literally cast fly, and cast fireball way sooner as a wizard?
1) Because I chose to be a Ranger, not a Wizard
2) It doesn't always have to be fire, I can choose the damage type for my drake depending on the situation, if I know I'm going to be facing creatures that resist one or more damage types. For example, if I know I'm going to be fighting demons I can go with Acid or Poison instead of the Cold/Fire/Lightning that many demons resist.
Meta gamer! ☝️
Don't be silly. It's perfectly reasonable for characters to research different types of monsters, especially if the primary quest of a campaign is focused around a given type(which more than one of the official campaigns have done). If the Big Bad of your campaign is a major demon or a cult that summons demons, etc. then it would make sense that you would try to learn the best ways to fight them. Heck, one of the main aspects of the original Favored Enemy feature of Rangers is to give them advantage on knowledge checks to recall information about the creature type you choose.
So let's say I'm roleplaying a special dragon, that can change it's element periodically. Can I burn a first level spell slot mid combat to have my dragon switch from fire to say lightning? RAW are a bit unclear since it doesn't say I can dismiss but also doesn't say the spell fails if there is already a dragon summoned
The drake remains until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon the drake again, or until you die.
So yes I would say if you want to burn your action and if the drake has been summoned since you last long rest you could swap the drake’s essence with a spell slot.
if your drake has been around as fire all week and you need cold you just burn your action to swap.
The fact that you can (re)summon a fully healed ~100 hit points Drake (with reliable resistance and immunity) with a 1st level spell slot is pretty cool for higher tiers of play.
The fact that you can (re)summon a fully healed ~100 hit points Drake (with reliable resistance and immunity) with a 1st level spell slot is pretty cool for higher tiers of play.
You get four 1st-level spell slots at 20th. This effectively means you are providing the party with a ˜400 point meat/THP shield every day. That's...that's not nothing.
Nu-Beast Master can't do that mid-combat, and original flavor Beast Master needs Revivify to come back (thank God Tasha's gave that spell to Rangers,) or a full 8 hours to get a new one.
The Beast Masters pets do get proficiency in all saves tho. But the drake gets a damage immunity (that you can also share in the form of a resistance.) So I think they end up evening out on the defensive front.
So it seems the release version lost its water breathing/swim speed at 7th level compared to what was shown in the celebration?
Do we have an 'animal companion'/extra version available to use on our sheets for drakewarden, or do we have to manage it via class feature on my sheet if I want to summon it as a different type and manage its hit points?
The prospect of a Tortle Drakewarden with a dragon turtle-textured Drake did sound great though. Guess we'll have to settle with Githyanki red dragon riders.
I was totally disappointed that the swim speed option seems to be taken out. Why? There really isn't much of a feasible reason except to tax underwater adventures.
I kind of want a sheet in my 'Extras' to handle the pet rather than an awkward bit in the class features, myself.
I haven't had the opportunity to play a Drakewarden yet, but I do have a plan for playing this character and how I would build this character up to about level 11.
A quick summary of my Point-Buy Ranger build:
Used Tasha's Cauldron of Everything's Optional Rules for Rangers
Topaz Dragonborn for Gem Flight and the Psychic connection so I can give my Drake commands if I engulf the area with a Silence Spell.
I didn't choose any Bonus action spells, reserving the bonus action for issuing commands to my Drake
Summon Beast should be a winner with Pack Tactics + the Drake focusing on a single melee target
Archery Fighting Style build with Piercer Feat, then working on maxing Dexterity
I will name my Drake "Gruul" as he will commonly be a green drake (poison) or red drake (fire). :-)
I put together a video to detail with a level-by-level build of my Drakewarden character, if you want to see how I did things:
I played a Candlekeep Mystery with the UA version.
In practice, it played a lot like the Beast Master. Not better or worse. Mostly the same.
Granted, I didn't build my character super optimally. She had high Int instead of Wis (for backstory reasons,) which means she couldn't take advantage of save spells, and she went sword&board instead of archery or GWM, which somewhat cut into her DPR.
She was still very good at delivering damage. The only martial in the party at level 10, I did feel like the Sorcerers did flashier and bigger things. But in terms of the numbers, I was able to keep up just fine, if not outshine them. Flame/Ashardalon's Stride was also really cool to get to use.
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It was a joke.
I got the joke. I thought it was funny.
So let's say I'm roleplaying a special dragon, that can change it's element periodically. Can I burn a first level spell slot mid combat to have my dragon switch from fire to say lightning? RAW are a bit unclear since it doesn't say I can dismiss but also doesn't say the spell fails if there is already a dragon summoned
The drake remains until it is reduced to 0 hit points, until you use this feature to summon the drake again, or until you die.
So yes I would say if you want to burn your action and if the drake has been summoned since you last long rest you could swap the drake’s essence with a spell slot.
if your drake has been around as fire all week and you need cold you just burn your action to swap.
The fact that you can (re)summon a fully healed ~100 hit points Drake (with reliable resistance and immunity) with a 1st level spell slot is pretty cool for higher tiers of play.
Art Portfolio
You get four 1st-level spell slots at 20th. This effectively means you are providing the party with a ˜400 point meat/THP shield every day. That's...that's not nothing.
Nu-Beast Master can't do that mid-combat, and original flavor Beast Master needs Revivify to come back (thank God Tasha's gave that spell to Rangers,) or a full 8 hours to get a new one.
The Beast Masters pets do get proficiency in all saves tho. But the drake gets a damage immunity (that you can also share in the form of a resistance.) So I think they end up evening out on the defensive front.
So it seems the release version lost its water breathing/swim speed at 7th level compared to what was shown in the celebration?
Do we have an 'animal companion'/extra version available to use on our sheets for drakewarden, or do we have to manage it via class feature on my sheet if I want to summon it as a different type and manage its hit points?
You can manage its HP on the character sheet. You can change its element in the Character Builder.
And tbh, nobody was paying too much attention to the dragon's swim speed. Except me. I wanted a sea dragon. :(
The prospect of a Tortle Drakewarden with a dragon turtle-textured Drake did sound great though. Guess we'll have to settle with Githyanki red dragon riders.
Art Portfolio
I kinda wanted a Large Sea Dragon that looked an awful lot like a Sea Horse that I could Jason Momoa Aquaman surf on. But oh well.
I was totally disappointed that the swim speed option seems to be taken out. Why? There really isn't much of a feasible reason except to tax underwater adventures.
I kind of want a sheet in my 'Extras' to handle the pet rather than an awkward bit in the class features, myself.
So am I getting something wrong here but how do I select Drakewarden?
It isn't coming up as an option when selecting Ranger Archetype in the character builder.
I have access to the source material but it doesn't seem available.
Sorry if this is the wrong forum. But help would be appreciated.
Just an old nerd...
Just found out that the drakewardens summon isn't in the extras list, kinda disappointed with that but otherwise its my new favourite class
You can find the drake's info in the Features section, they did the same with the new Primal Companion options for the Beast Master.
I was definitely going to go for a Green Power Ranger, flavouring the summon as a magical dagger-shaped flute that he plays to call his dragon forth.
Has anyone played one yet?
I've build a new Ranger for a campaign starting in a couple of weeks, and he's going to be a Drakewarden. I can't wait to try it out :)
You may need to clear the cookies and cache on your browser. That is what I had to do. Good luck!
I have a YouTube channel with 5th Edition D&D Puzzles, Character Creations, DM Tips and Quests ideas. Check it out!
Wally DM on YouTube
I haven't had the opportunity to play a Drakewarden yet, but I do have a plan for playing this character and how I would build this character up to about level 11.
A quick summary of my Point-Buy Ranger build:
I put together a video to detail with a level-by-level build of my Drakewarden character, if you want to see how I did things:
I have a YouTube channel with 5th Edition D&D Puzzles, Character Creations, DM Tips and Quests ideas. Check it out!
Wally DM on YouTube
I played a Candlekeep Mystery with the UA version.
In practice, it played a lot like the Beast Master. Not better or worse. Mostly the same.
Granted, I didn't build my character super optimally. She had high Int instead of Wis (for backstory reasons,) which means she couldn't take advantage of save spells, and she went sword&board instead of archery or GWM, which somewhat cut into her DPR.
She was still very good at delivering damage. The only martial in the party at level 10, I did feel like the Sorcerers did flashier and bigger things. But in terms of the numbers, I was able to keep up just fine, if not outshine them. Flame/Ashardalon's Stride was also really cool to get to use.