Fizban is back, and he's brought a whole bunch of scaly friends and foes for our consumption and critique.
Personally, I've been really satisfied with the menagerie thus far and I like that it's also dragon adjacent. I wasn't around for the previous Draconomicon, so I don't know what's new and what is returning. I was really excited for Gem Dragons, but was surprised by things like the anti-dracolich, Hollow Dragon. Also the challenge ratings are through the roof, which, as I understand, is something that is sorely needed in 5e. It's also cool to see the new formatting for things like reactions, bonus actions, and the like. I'm just really dazzled.
Some of the items seem like cool, but I think many have varying degrees of balance. I think they are trying harder to reflect that in the rarity though, so it actually isn't to bad if you just assume legendary items are going to be super strong. I'm a sucker for evolving items like CR Vestiges of Divergence, so Hoard Items made me pretty happy. Could be really interesting in a dragon hunter campaign.
I think I could ramble on about lore, gifts/feats, and subclasses, but those are the two parts that really had me engaged. What are your thoughts on this new addition to 5e?
Overall, I like it. I know some folks will think the Ascendant Dragon Monk got too nerfed from the UA, but I think it still looks fun. And I've already got a Ranger who's gonna be going Drakewarden. :) I love the updated Dragonborn race options, and the feats look decent too. The spells look good, but I wish the Warlock had at least gotten Rime's Binding Ice. Some of the new magic items look fun, and the beastiary is terrifying in the best way possible :)
Overall, I like it. I know some folks will think the Ascendant Dragon Monk got too nerfed from the UA, but I think it still looks fun. And I've already got a Ranger who's gonna be going Drakewarden. :) I love the updated Dragonborn race options, and the feats look decent too. The spells look good, but I wish the Warlock had at least gotten Rime's Binding Ice. Some of the new magic items look fun, and the beastiary is terrifying in the best way possible :)
I like Rime's Binding Ice because it really makes the enemy choose between movement and fighting back. Pretty strong, imo. Fizban's Platinum Shield has some great value for making anything tanky. I'd like to see it get twinned even though it sounds like a huge waste of sorcery points.
One of the flaws for dragons in the book is "Damn bipeds, back when I was a Wyrmling we respected our elders!"
Ah, there's an interesting story behind this gold piece. In 1257 DR, I remember it was, I got up in the morning and made myself a piece of ogre. I set my breath weapon to three! Medium brown.
TLDR: 7.5/10, mostly very positive (subclasses, art, and most chapters), 1 big letdown (chapter 5), and 1 point of emphasis in the book that just didnt resonate me (dragon "echos")
Artwork: the artwork is AWESOME! Lots of great little cut scenes and static art of monsters/dragons to help inspire adventure hooks, or set the tone if shared with players. Hats off to the artists and design team on this one. The dragons that should be imposing/intimidating are, and the dragons that should be enchanting/captivating give off that feeling as well.
Chapter 1: some really fun options. Im not a big reader of all the latest UA, so I cant speak to how some of these may have changed in the official printing, but they all carry the dragon theme pretty well, and add to the options available to classes. Im sure I'll have more thoughts on these and particular skills as I/my players play them more, but on a read through I've got no big complaints.
Chapter 2 (magic items and spells): Fantastic! Love all of this. A few magic items that even while legendary, still have a good balance to them that wouldn't be campaign breaking even if given to parties in the lower levels.
Chapters 3-4: Nice, good general background about dragons and their beliefs/groups. Wish some of it was more tailored to specific kinds of dragons, but the parts about the hordes (and the loot tables) are very handy.
Chapter 6 gives a good bit of detail on the new dragons. It's not really as much as I'd hoped (I was hoping for something closer to the 4e metallic/chromatic dragonomicons which REALLY got into some fun lore, more on this later) but they're rather robust entries similar to the monster manual, so its enough to get an understanding of the dragons general nature, what makes it tick, what types of deeds/actions it might take on, and other general things you would want to know to roleplay the creature. The lair maps are nice too and can be dropped into pretty much any scenario, while also emphasizing the nature of many of the dragons and how they might use their lair as a shelter/trap respectively.
Chapter 5: OK, so I dont want to be a negative nancy but what an absolute letdown this was. When I saw "dragonomicon" of COURSE I was hoping this would be like the amazing 4e books that really delved deep into the lifecycle, the lore, and even the cultures of the dragons. The 4e dragonomicons were just so much MORE that was specifically tailored to each dragon, compared to just a monster-manual level description. Calling chapter 5 a dragonomicon is quite frankly, wrong. Call it a "customize your dragon" section, call it a "Dragon tables" chapter, but a dragonomicon it is not.
The only other part that didnt do much for me was the whole notion of dragon echo's that Wizards came up with for this book. They're in everything from the quest hooks, to the death of dragons, to how ancient dragons may become greatwyrms. I can see how it would be a fun concept for some parties/DMs, but I was excited by the new features/info for dragons in the prime material plane, so your mileage may vary with this depending on your interest in plane hopping. Its a unique idea, but just one that didnt grab me. In no way did it detract from the book, but as it was a big point of emphasis throughout the book I thought id at least toss in my 2 cents.
I find it weird that Tiamat in 5E is a CR30 monster, and the Aspect of Tiamat is also a CR 30 monster. I'd have expected a mere Aspect to be weaker than the real thing.
Other than that and the stuff people have already said about Chapter 5, I like it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I find it weird that Tiamat in 5E is a CR30 monster, and the Aspect of Tiamat is also a CR 30 monster. I'd have expected a mere Aspect to be weaker than the real thing.
Other than that and the stuff people have already said about Chapter 5, I like it.
The original statblock was an aspect. WotC just didn't call it that.
Solid so far. Nice to see something throwing a bone straight to DMs and lore hounds. I love the Draconomicon sections to the point that I kinda wish the book had just been that with less crunch and wonky stuff.
The fixation on Dragonsight and Dragon Echoes was pretty weird. I assume this has to do with the new direction on bringing out a bunch of alternate settings and more multiverse stuff, but it came off a bit silly.
I know gem dragons seem popular, but I just don't get it. They don't have anything that sets them drastically apart from metallic or chromatic dragons, with lots of overlap in personalities and terrain preferences. Sapphire dragons are kinda just bronze dragons; topaz dragons are kinda just shadow dragons. Psionics are barely a thing in 5e, so why make a whole group of dragons to awkwardly point out that their powers work the same as normal dragon magic? In an age where alignment is heading toward not mattering anymore, and the Draconomicon gives evil trait options for metallic dragons and good ones for chromatic dragons - what purpose do gem dragons have for existing?
The First World. This, I feel, is generally just a big pointy middle finger to homebrewers that enjoy setting up their own stories. I don't understand why it was necessary to introduce this as hardcore lore for ALL worlds in the material plane. Instead, it would have been nice with inspiration and ideas on how to make dragons special in YOUR setting.
Character Options. This was woefully disappointing. Just a re-take on the dragonborn, only two subclasses for this massive theme, and a couple of lines and a random table for characters affiliated with dragons. The theme here is somewhat limited to dragon breath, damage resistance and frightful presence. Wow. Groundbreaking. Sorry, but this might be the greatest disappointment in any of the books that I have gotten in 5e so far.
Spells. Dragons are meant to embody magic, and here we get 7 spells. It's not a lot, and on top of that, it's those annoying spells with "some character's name" and another word, so now we have to think about who these persons are that named the spell. Anti-homebrew again. So, are the spells at least good or interesting?
Ashardalon's (sigh) Stride: 3rd level boost to your speed to avoid opportunity attacks. I think Misty Step is better. Wouldn't want to spend a spell slot on this.
Draconic Transformation: This is at least flavorful. Surprise, it's a breath weapon and fly speed.
Fizban's (sigh) Platinum Shield: Now we're dealing with cover mechanics to grant a +2 bonus to AC, I guess so we cannot use cover and this bonus of a mighty +2 to AC from a 6th level spell together. It's fine. It's just another shield spell.
Nathair's (sigh) Mischief: It's a crowd control spell at level 2 with the signature lengthy and unnecessary descriptions that bogs the game down to a crawl. Hope you are ready to have your players read up on this spell every single time they cast it, because I am not.
Raulothim's (...) Psychic Lance: It's a single target psionic type spell that causes incapacitation. It's ok.
Rime's Binding Ice: It's an AoE AND a crowd control, and 30 feet is not bad. It seems strong for a 2nd level spell.
Summon Draconic Spirit: It's another of those new summon spells. Seems fine enough.
Overall: Annoying and underwhelming. And so few spells. Uninspired.
Magic Items. We get a hand full of items here, but not much stands out to me. Hey, there's a new magic bow, and guess what, it just deals extra damage, and you don't need ammo (so few track these things anyway in my experience). Boring. The most interesting thing here is a magical firearm that actually has interesting features.
Hoard Items. I'm beginning to sound really obnoxious at this point I guess, but I'm just gonna pretend I never read this section. It's way too complicated, and it doesn't even make sense.
Draconic Gifts. This is fine, just another set of charms and minor stuff.
Dragons in Play. This seem to be the best chapter thus far. Inspiration for building a dragon, some interesting tables along with a name generator and other useful information. Sadly contaminated by the stupid echoes across worlds idea. Besides that, a good read.
Lairs and Hoards. This was a good chapter too. Some additional options for lair actions and regional effects.
Draconomicon and Bestiary. This is ok, but it confused that this chapter is before the bestiary, which is admittingly a minor thing. I was reading about how amethyst personalities are before I even read about the dragon type or saw it's stat block. Feels wrong. The stat blocks themselves look good and interesting, they'll be put to use for sure.
So overall - I think it's not so good, when compared to other official books, like Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.
The First World. This, I feel, is generally just a big pointy middle finger to homebrewers that enjoy setting up their own stories. I don't understand why it was necessary to introduce this as hardcore lore for ALL worlds in the material plane. Instead, it would have been nice with inspiration and ideas on how to make dragons special in YOUR setting.
As someone who always homebrews, this is a really weird take to me. Obviously all of this is optional in your own world, and a fully fleshed out example (with applications spelled out for multiple settings) is exactly what I look for in terms of inspiration and ideas. I'm not sure what you would have wanted to see here instead, just another lame d8 table?
Character Options. This was woefully disappointing. Just a re-take on the dragonborn, only two subclasses for this massive theme, and a couple of lines and a random table for characters affiliated with dragons. The theme here is somewhat limited to dragon breath, damage resistance and frightful presence. Wow. Groundbreaking. Sorry, but this might be the greatest disappointment in any of the books that I have gotten in 5e so far.
This is the same amount of character options as Van Richten's offers, which you seem to like. It's pretty much par for the course for this kind of book, which is primarily for DMs. And while we're comparing books, VR had zero spells in it.
Magic Items. We get a hand full of items here, but not much stands out to me. Hey, there's a new magic bow, and guess what, it just deals extra damage, and you don't need ammo (so few track these things anyway in my experience). Boring.
Do you know how many other bow-specific enchantments this game has? Two. One is a Theros artifact and the other is VR. This bow is actually a really good addition that fill an existing need.
Not disputing your overall rating as I'm not fully through the book yet, but if these are the biggest problems with the book then it sounds great to me.
The First World. This, I feel, is generally just a big pointy middle finger to homebrewers that enjoy setting up their own stories. I don't understand why it was necessary to introduce this as hardcore lore for ALL worlds in the material plane. Instead, it would have been nice with inspiration and ideas on how to make dragons special in YOUR setting.
You can ignore it. And yes, I know how much I loathe hearing this myself, but WotC is making their own story. Just tell your players you don't follow official WotC lore (I don't actually believe Wildemount follows this lore as the myths of the creation there certainly are far fetched if this was the case).
But why Tiamat and Bahamut? Why are dragons all-important? They're only just dinosaurs with wings! And they don't even have dinosaur feathers! They are so booooring. (Sorry dragon lovers, I enjoy some dragons like Smaug or Toothless, but all WotC's dragons look like identical copies with pigmentation changes, which implies the stupid old idea of "race", which again is racist, and I could go on for decades, but I won't).
Character Options. This was woefully disappointing. Just a re-take on the dragonborn, only two subclasses for this massive theme, and a couple of lines and a random table for characters affiliated with dragons. The theme here is somewhat limited to dragon breath, damage resistance and frightful presence. Wow. Groundbreaking. Sorry, but this might be the greatest disappointment in any of the books that I have gotten in 5e so far.
The art for the drakewarden looks like two strange dragonborn in awful, intimate positions. It's so weird. But other than that and the Acendant Dragon Monk (why was that one even necessary), I have enjoyed the implications of new dragonborn. Is this some sort of societal rift? However, I do not think this is applicable to Wildemount, though I do feel like the other PHB races will be updated in MP: MotM now, more than ever.
Spells. Dragons are meant to embody magic, and here we get 7 spells. It's not a lot, and on top of that, it's those annoying spells with "some character's name" and another word, so now we have to think about who these persons are that named the spell. Anti-homebrew again. So, are the spells at least good or interesting?
Ashardalon's (sigh) Stride: 3rd level boost to your speed to avoid opportunity attacks. I think Misty Step is better. Wouldn't want to spend a spell slot on this.
Draconic Transformation: This is at least flavorful. Surprise, it's a breath weapon and fly speed.
Fizban's (sigh) Platinum Shield: Now we're dealing with cover mechanics to grant a +2 bonus to AC, I guess so we cannot use cover and this bonus of a mighty +2 to AC from a 6th level spell together. It's fine. It's just another shield spell.
Nathair's (sigh) Mischief: It's a crowd control spell at level 2 with the signature lengthy and unnecessary descriptions that bogs the game down to a crawl. Hope you are ready to have your players read up on this spell every single time they cast it, because I am not.
Raulothim's (...) Psychic Lance: It's a single target psionic type spell that causes incapacitation. It's ok.
Rime's Binding Ice: It's an AoE AND a crowd control, and 30 feet is not bad. It seems strong for a 2nd level spell.
Summon Draconic Spirit: It's another of those new summon spells. Seems fine enough.
Overall: Annoying and underwhelming. And so few spells. Uninspired.
Still more spells than the magical academy of Strixhaven. This makes me sour - there's still many niches left to fill! What about spells that create magical items for a time? And what about better actual spirit summoning spells - Tasha's spells are good, but they don't summon an army of ghosts. What about a spell that copies something, like the Echo Knight? Is it to much to ask for a series of rune related spells to do with tossing runes and maybe even a new RUNE TOSSER CLASS (I love you, but I hate you, Rune Knight)? There's so many gaps and WotC seems to just copy what previous spells have done, as you noted Yurei.
Magic Items. We get a hand full of items here, but not much stands out to me. Hey, there's a new magic bow, and guess what, it just deals extra damage, and you don't need ammo (so few track these things anyway in my experience). Boring. The most interesting thing here is a magical firearm that actually has interesting features.
I'm never a magic item fan, I prefer character flavour and feats tenfold. Gimme mundane equipment!
However, I'm sure Fizban has a few other tricks up his sleeve here.
Hoard Items. I'm beginning to sound really obnoxious at this point I guess, but I'm just gonna pretend I never read this section. It's way too complicated, and it doesn't even make sense.
Ouch. I thought they were a glorified theft of the Vestiges of Divergence idea?
Draconic Gifts. This is fine, just another set of charms and minor stuff.
Why. A large section on Dragon Group Patrons would be better instead. Why do dragons be all powerful, and Giants (who actually are interesting, unlike Dragons and Paladins) get what basically amounts to a footnote in D&D terms in a book that has since been basically scrapped and likely the entire lore removed? Give me giants!
Dragons in Play. This seem to be the best chapter thus far. Inspiration for building a dragon, some interesting tables along with a name generator and other useful information. Sadly contaminated by the stupid echoes across worlds idea. Besides that, a good read.
Why do you need inspiration? There's tables in the DMG, the PHB, XGtE, and so many other locations that go over motivations. I feel like this section is a waste of space to anyone with a gram of inspiration. Others might find they need it, but here's a tip: Dragons want gold 99% of the time. They are big, powerful, and sometimes callous brutes that will do all they can to get and protect their hoard. They are also stupid. Plus, their names are always just stringing together 8 or more random letters, including the letter g in 50% of cases, eg. Yuhngrax.
Also, the world echos is actually cool in my opinion.
Lairs and Hoards. This was a good chapter too. Some additional options for lair actions and regional effects.
Why do we need dragon lair maps? And hoards? There's a table (several dozen in fact) on this in the DMG. What, you hate that book? Grow up. Oh, and lair actions are the worst.
Draconomicon and Bestiary. This is ok, but it confused that this chapter is before the bestiary, which is admittingly a minor thing. I was reading about how amethyst personalities are before I even read about the dragon type or saw it's stat block. Feels wrong. The stat blocks themselves look good and interesting, they'll be put to use for sure.
It's certainly something.
So overall - I think it's not so good, when compared to other official books, like Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.
In other words, it's SCAG-level for me, except I will defend SCAG - I will never defend Fizzbang's.
I'm really enjoying the book so far. Still far too early to rate it though.
Huge bummer that the Drakewarden's companion doesn't work correctly out of the box, but being that it's been a year and D&D Beyond still hasn't fully implemented Tasha's let alone things from the core rulebooks, I'm not surprised that they dropped the ball yet again. Maybe they'll finally implement it in 2024 in time for the new edition. 🙄
Most of the art is pretty good, but the Aspect of Tiamat's necks look bad/weird and I don't like the more impressionistic art that looks unfinished to me. For example, the young deep dragon's wings. It reminds me of how in a video game sometimes textures won't load and you're seeing the blurry polygons underneath. I have the same problem with the Rising from the Last War cover where it seems like unfinished art. It's a subjective taste thing though, so I can't be too upset about it.
Anyone else get the physical book? Is it just me or does it seem like WotC used cheaper paper stock from previous books? Paper seems a little softer, more bendable, and a little less glossy. I could be wrong though.
I noticed some serious problems with ink blotches in the physical book. Pages 126-127 in particular just had blotches all over the place.
That was true of my Monster Manual, which has badly cut pages cropping monster art somewhat, ink splotches, a small rip, and a creaky spine. My first Tasha's had the first page almost completely ripped off, and the second had tiny tears on the bottom of several pages. My Explorer's Guide to Wildemount was also given tiny cuts when it arrived by what looked to be a misshapen, very small hole puncher. 50% of D&D books are damaged upon selling.
Huge bummer that the Drakewarden's companion doesn't work correctly out of the box, but being that it's been a year and D&D Beyond still hasn't fully implemented Tasha's let alone things from the core rulebooks, I'm not surprised that they dropped the ball yet again. Maybe they'll finally implement it in 2024 in time for the new edition. 🙄
What part of the Drakewarden's Companion isn't working for you on D&D Beyond? I just created a 3rd-level Drakewarden and it the stat block of the drake shows up in the same place as the Primal Companion stats if you use them from Tasha's for the Beastmaster. No, you can't click on the drake's attack and have it roll the digital dice, but it does have all of the stats and it lets you track the drake's HP. If all that's missing is the buttons to roll digital dice, I can live with that.
And which features from the other books aren't working for you?
Hmm... Initial issue seams solved now. I had a player who had a UA Drakewarden who converted over to a Fizban's Drakewarden yesterday. With the old UA version, it would do the math for you as far as HP and AC and all that for the drake companion and put it under Actions. When he first converted his character, we weren't seeing that. Instead I was seeing placeholder text like "Armor Class 14 + PB" and my player was asking me what his PB was, yadda, yadda, yadda. I checked his newly converted character just now I'm seeing the drake companion being calculated correctly underneath his actions. I thought DDB had went backwards as far as functionality and I was very irritated because I knew that player would constantly ask me what his PB was and what he needed to roll. Thankfully that's fixed.
As far as other features from books, I'm still waiting for sidekick character sheets. I have young nieces and nephews and it's much easier for them to understand sidekicks than it is regular characters with all their bells and whistles. I've got to do all those sheets on paper and it's not my favorite thing to do. Or how about how I have to homebrew every spell scroll my party comes across because you can't just select which spell the scroll should use? There are other quirks like this, but that's all off topic.
I put above average, and would probably rate it a solid 8/10. Overall I love the book. So many good things in it. The new races, the bestiary, the spells. And the entire section about all of the dragons and their lairs. There is just so much in there, and it's going to take me a long time to dissect it all.
The things I don't like are the subclasses and the greatwyrms. The subclasses just feel poorly executed despite their good ideas. The drakenwarden especially certainly isn't lacking in power, but just feels clunky, badly designed, and missing the point on flying around on a big reptile to the point that beastmaster, paladin, bard, wizard, sorcerer, and druid all manage the 'ride a flying reptile' part earlier than the dedicated subclass for it.
The other issue is the greatwyrms. Which are just one big homogenous stat block for each category of dragon, with the things which make them unique removed. They should have been more unique than ancient dragons. Not less so. If I was going to DM, I'd certainly be homebrewing my own versions rather than using the official ones.
I will say this book could have used a pronunciation guide. Ingeloakastimizilian, Imvaernarhro, K’rshinthintl, Claugiyliamatar? Oof, look at that alphabet soup.
I think overall it's great. There are some major flaws, but the parts that are good are well worth the money. This was also a much needed book.
First world:
I really like this section. It provides a cannon creation story, that can be used as is or as inspiration for your world. Or completely ignored of course if you don't like it. Surprisingly enough, this happens to be somewhat similar to the creation story of my homebrew world. (with a few major differences).
Races:
This was also pretty cool. A lineage alternative to dragonborn for those who prefer it, and a lot more balanced in my opinion. And we (finally) get metallic breath weapons and gem dragonborn.
Subclasses:
I kinda like these, though for some reason the theme of dragons appears to be limited to breath weapon, damage resistances, and frightful presence... Drake warden also has really weird art...
Draconic feats:
I like these a lot. Something other than breath weapons!!
Spells:
Really nice. I wanted an illusory hoard spell that forced people to attempt to get it at all costs after a failed wis save, though.
Magic Items:
Meh... A few magic items loosely related to dragons... I think the only magic item that really stood out was the emerald pen.
Draconic Gifts:
I was surprised to find that I really like these. We could have done with a few draconic patron ideas to go with them though.
Dragons in Play:
This was as amazing as expected! Love this. 5/5. My only two problems with it are 1, I already created a dragon customization thing that was way better, IMO. And 2, This is all inspiration stuff. For super creative, amazing DMs, this isn't really useful. But for (I think) most people, it can be a ton of help for inspiration and guidance creating dragons.
Lairs and Hordes:
I liked it... But it wasn't as good as the dragons in play section. The lair action are boring things I already came up with, and the hoard part of it is mostly repeats of DMG. But the horde stuff it still pretty cool, I guess.
Dracomonicon:
LET'S GO WE GET DEEP DRAGONS! Um, other than that's it's pretty useful information. Love the premade maps, I'm a terrible artist and will most likely adapt one to my dragon when/if I ever run a dragon.
Bestiary:
LET'S GO WE GET DEEP DRAGONS! I really like a lot of the monsters here! Also we finally get stats for Bahamut. (It was unfair that Tiamat got one but not Bahamut). I like the new ages of dragon turtles, and I'm glad to finally get draconians. Animated breath seems interesting too... My main problems with this is 90% of the monsters are CR 15+, and we literally get 12 CR 20+ monsters.
Art:
Really inspiring art. Except a few, such as drakewarden... Those are just weird.
Overall a great book, but with a few major flaws. For that reason I give it a 4/5.
Fizban is back, and he's brought a whole bunch of scaly friends and foes for our consumption and critique.
Personally, I've been really satisfied with the menagerie thus far and I like that it's also dragon adjacent. I wasn't around for the previous Draconomicon, so I don't know what's new and what is returning. I was really excited for Gem Dragons, but was surprised by things like the anti-dracolich, Hollow Dragon. Also the challenge ratings are through the roof, which, as I understand, is something that is sorely needed in 5e. It's also cool to see the new formatting for things like reactions, bonus actions, and the like. I'm just really dazzled.
Some of the items seem like cool, but I think many have varying degrees of balance. I think they are trying harder to reflect that in the rarity though, so it actually isn't to bad if you just assume legendary items are going to be super strong. I'm a sucker for evolving items like CR Vestiges of Divergence, so Hoard Items made me pretty happy. Could be really interesting in a dragon hunter campaign.
I think I could ramble on about lore, gifts/feats, and subclasses, but those are the two parts that really had me engaged. What are your thoughts on this new addition to 5e?
Overall, I like it. I know some folks will think the Ascendant Dragon Monk got too nerfed from the UA, but I think it still looks fun. And I've already got a Ranger who's gonna be going Drakewarden. :) I love the updated Dragonborn race options, and the feats look decent too. The spells look good, but I wish the Warlock had at least gotten Rime's Binding Ice. Some of the new magic items look fun, and the beastiary is terrifying in the best way possible :)
I like Rime's Binding Ice because it really makes the enemy choose between movement and fighting back. Pretty strong, imo. Fizban's Platinum Shield has some great value for making anything tanky. I'd like to see it get twinned even though it sounds like a huge waste of sorcery points.
One of the flaws for dragons in the book is "Damn bipeds, back when I was a Wyrmling we respected our elders!"
Ah, there's an interesting story behind this gold piece. In 1257 DR, I remember it was, I got up in the morning and made myself a piece of ogre. I set my breath weapon to three! Medium brown.
TLDR: 7.5/10, mostly very positive (subclasses, art, and most chapters), 1 big letdown (chapter 5), and 1 point of emphasis in the book that just didnt resonate me (dragon "echos")
Artwork: the artwork is AWESOME! Lots of great little cut scenes and static art of monsters/dragons to help inspire adventure hooks, or set the tone if shared with players. Hats off to the artists and design team on this one. The dragons that should be imposing/intimidating are, and the dragons that should be enchanting/captivating give off that feeling as well.
Chapter 1: some really fun options. Im not a big reader of all the latest UA, so I cant speak to how some of these may have changed in the official printing, but they all carry the dragon theme pretty well, and add to the options available to classes. Im sure I'll have more thoughts on these and particular skills as I/my players play them more, but on a read through I've got no big complaints.
Chapter 2 (magic items and spells): Fantastic! Love all of this. A few magic items that even while legendary, still have a good balance to them that wouldn't be campaign breaking even if given to parties in the lower levels.
Chapters 3-4: Nice, good general background about dragons and their beliefs/groups. Wish some of it was more tailored to specific kinds of dragons, but the parts about the hordes (and the loot tables) are very handy.
Chapter 6 gives a good bit of detail on the new dragons. It's not really as much as I'd hoped (I was hoping for something closer to the 4e metallic/chromatic dragonomicons which REALLY got into some fun lore, more on this later) but they're rather robust entries similar to the monster manual, so its enough to get an understanding of the dragons general nature, what makes it tick, what types of deeds/actions it might take on, and other general things you would want to know to roleplay the creature. The lair maps are nice too and can be dropped into pretty much any scenario, while also emphasizing the nature of many of the dragons and how they might use their lair as a shelter/trap respectively.
Chapter 5: OK, so I dont want to be a negative nancy but what an absolute letdown this was. When I saw "dragonomicon" of COURSE I was hoping this would be like the amazing 4e books that really delved deep into the lifecycle, the lore, and even the cultures of the dragons. The 4e dragonomicons were just so much MORE that was specifically tailored to each dragon, compared to just a monster-manual level description. Calling chapter 5 a dragonomicon is quite frankly, wrong. Call it a "customize your dragon" section, call it a "Dragon tables" chapter, but a dragonomicon it is not.
The only other part that didnt do much for me was the whole notion of dragon echo's that Wizards came up with for this book. They're in everything from the quest hooks, to the death of dragons, to how ancient dragons may become greatwyrms. I can see how it would be a fun concept for some parties/DMs, but I was excited by the new features/info for dragons in the prime material plane, so your mileage may vary with this depending on your interest in plane hopping. Its a unique idea, but just one that didnt grab me. In no way did it detract from the book, but as it was a big point of emphasis throughout the book I thought id at least toss in my 2 cents.
I find it weird that Tiamat in 5E is a CR30 monster, and the Aspect of Tiamat is also a CR 30 monster. I'd have expected a mere Aspect to be weaker than the real thing.
Other than that and the stuff people have already said about Chapter 5, I like it.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The original statblock was an aspect. WotC just didn't call it that.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
Solid so far. Nice to see something throwing a bone straight to DMs and lore hounds. I love the Draconomicon sections to the point that I kinda wish the book had just been that with less crunch and wonky stuff.
The fixation on Dragonsight and Dragon Echoes was pretty weird. I assume this has to do with the new direction on bringing out a bunch of alternate settings and more multiverse stuff, but it came off a bit silly.
I know gem dragons seem popular, but I just don't get it. They don't have anything that sets them drastically apart from metallic or chromatic dragons, with lots of overlap in personalities and terrain preferences. Sapphire dragons are kinda just bronze dragons; topaz dragons are kinda just shadow dragons. Psionics are barely a thing in 5e, so why make a whole group of dragons to awkwardly point out that their powers work the same as normal dragon magic? In an age where alignment is heading toward not mattering anymore, and the Draconomicon gives evil trait options for metallic dragons and good ones for chromatic dragons - what purpose do gem dragons have for existing?
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
I find it a great disappointment so far.
The First World. This, I feel, is generally just a big pointy middle finger to homebrewers that enjoy setting up their own stories. I don't understand why it was necessary to introduce this as hardcore lore for ALL worlds in the material plane. Instead, it would have been nice with inspiration and ideas on how to make dragons special in YOUR setting.
Character Options. This was woefully disappointing. Just a re-take on the dragonborn, only two subclasses for this massive theme, and a couple of lines and a random table for characters affiliated with dragons. The theme here is somewhat limited to dragon breath, damage resistance and frightful presence. Wow. Groundbreaking. Sorry, but this might be the greatest disappointment in any of the books that I have gotten in 5e so far.
Spells. Dragons are meant to embody magic, and here we get 7 spells. It's not a lot, and on top of that, it's those annoying spells with "some character's name" and another word, so now we have to think about who these persons are that named the spell. Anti-homebrew again. So, are the spells at least good or interesting?
Overall: Annoying and underwhelming. And so few spells. Uninspired.
Magic Items. We get a hand full of items here, but not much stands out to me. Hey, there's a new magic bow, and guess what, it just deals extra damage, and you don't need ammo (so few track these things anyway in my experience). Boring. The most interesting thing here is a magical firearm that actually has interesting features.
Hoard Items. I'm beginning to sound really obnoxious at this point I guess, but I'm just gonna pretend I never read this section. It's way too complicated, and it doesn't even make sense.
Draconic Gifts. This is fine, just another set of charms and minor stuff.
Dragons in Play. This seem to be the best chapter thus far. Inspiration for building a dragon, some interesting tables along with a name generator and other useful information. Sadly contaminated by the stupid echoes across worlds idea. Besides that, a good read.
Lairs and Hoards. This was a good chapter too. Some additional options for lair actions and regional effects.
Draconomicon and Bestiary. This is ok, but it confused that this chapter is before the bestiary, which is admittingly a minor thing. I was reading about how amethyst personalities are before I even read about the dragon type or saw it's stat block. Feels wrong. The stat blocks themselves look good and interesting, they'll be put to use for sure.
So overall - I think it's not so good, when compared to other official books, like Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.
As someone who always homebrews, this is a really weird take to me. Obviously all of this is optional in your own world, and a fully fleshed out example (with applications spelled out for multiple settings) is exactly what I look for in terms of inspiration and ideas. I'm not sure what you would have wanted to see here instead, just another lame d8 table?
This is the same amount of character options as Van Richten's offers, which you seem to like. It's pretty much par for the course for this kind of book, which is primarily for DMs. And while we're comparing books, VR had zero spells in it.
Do you know how many other bow-specific enchantments this game has? Two. One is a Theros artifact and the other is VR. This bow is actually a really good addition that fill an existing need.
Not disputing your overall rating as I'm not fully through the book yet, but if these are the biggest problems with the book then it sounds great to me.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
You can ignore it. And yes, I know how much I loathe hearing this myself, but WotC is making their own story. Just tell your players you don't follow official WotC lore (I don't actually believe Wildemount follows this lore as the myths of the creation there certainly are far fetched if this was the case).
But why Tiamat and Bahamut? Why are dragons all-important? They're only just dinosaurs with wings! And they don't even have dinosaur feathers! They are so booooring. (Sorry dragon lovers, I enjoy some dragons like Smaug or Toothless, but all WotC's dragons look like identical copies with pigmentation changes, which implies the stupid old idea of "race", which again is racist, and I could go on for decades, but I won't).
The art for the drakewarden looks like two strange dragonborn in awful, intimate positions. It's so weird. But other than that and the Acendant Dragon Monk (why was that one even necessary), I have enjoyed the implications of new dragonborn. Is this some sort of societal rift? However, I do not think this is applicable to Wildemount, though I do feel like the other PHB races will be updated in MP: MotM now, more than ever.
Still more spells than the magical academy of Strixhaven. This makes me sour - there's still many niches left to fill! What about spells that create magical items for a time? And what about better actual spirit summoning spells - Tasha's spells are good, but they don't summon an army of ghosts. What about a spell that copies something, like the Echo Knight? Is it to much to ask for a series of rune related spells to do with tossing runes and maybe even a new RUNE TOSSER CLASS (I love you, but I hate you, Rune Knight)? There's so many gaps and WotC seems to just copy what previous spells have done, as you noted Yurei.
I'm never a magic item fan, I prefer character flavour and feats tenfold. Gimme mundane equipment!
However, I'm sure Fizban has a few other tricks up his sleeve here.
Ouch. I thought they were a glorified theft of the Vestiges of Divergence idea?
Why. A large section on Dragon Group Patrons would be better instead. Why do dragons be all powerful, and Giants (who actually are interesting, unlike Dragons and Paladins) get what basically amounts to a footnote in D&D terms in a book that has since been basically scrapped and likely the entire lore removed? Give me giants!
Why do you need inspiration? There's tables in the DMG, the PHB, XGtE, and so many other locations that go over motivations. I feel like this section is a waste of space to anyone with a gram of inspiration. Others might find they need it, but here's a tip: Dragons want gold 99% of the time. They are big, powerful, and sometimes callous brutes that will do all they can to get and protect their hoard. They are also stupid. Plus, their names are always just stringing together 8 or more random letters, including the letter g in 50% of cases, eg. Yuhngrax.
Also, the world echos is actually cool in my opinion.
Why do we need dragon lair maps? And hoards? There's a table (several dozen in fact) on this in the DMG. What, you hate that book? Grow up. Oh, and lair actions are the worst.
It's certainly something.
In other words, it's SCAG-level for me, except I will defend SCAG - I will never defend Fizzbang's.
Frequent Eladrin || They/Them, but accept all pronouns
Luz Noceda would like to remind you that you're worth loving!
I'm really enjoying the book so far. Still far too early to rate it though.
Huge bummer that the Drakewarden's companion doesn't work correctly out of the box, but being that it's been a year and D&D Beyond still hasn't fully implemented Tasha's let alone things from the core rulebooks, I'm not surprised that they dropped the ball yet again. Maybe they'll finally implement it in 2024 in time for the new edition. 🙄
Most of the art is pretty good, but the Aspect of Tiamat's necks look bad/weird and I don't like the more impressionistic art that looks unfinished to me. For example, the young deep dragon's wings. It reminds me of how in a video game sometimes textures won't load and you're seeing the blurry polygons underneath. I have the same problem with the Rising from the Last War cover where it seems like unfinished art. It's a subjective taste thing though, so I can't be too upset about it.
Anyone else get the physical book? Is it just me or does it seem like WotC used cheaper paper stock from previous books? Paper seems a little softer, more bendable, and a little less glossy. I could be wrong though.
I noticed some serious problems with ink blotches in the physical book. Pages 126-127 in particular just had blotches all over the place.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
That was true of my Monster Manual, which has badly cut pages cropping monster art somewhat, ink splotches, a small rip, and a creaky spine. My first Tasha's had the first page almost completely ripped off, and the second had tiny tears on the bottom of several pages. My Explorer's Guide to Wildemount was also given tiny cuts when it arrived by what looked to be a misshapen, very small hole puncher. 50% of D&D books are damaged upon selling.
Frequent Eladrin || They/Them, but accept all pronouns
Luz Noceda would like to remind you that you're worth loving!
What part of the Drakewarden's Companion isn't working for you on D&D Beyond? I just created a 3rd-level Drakewarden and it the stat block of the drake shows up in the same place as the Primal Companion stats if you use them from Tasha's for the Beastmaster. No, you can't click on the drake's attack and have it roll the digital dice, but it does have all of the stats and it lets you track the drake's HP. If all that's missing is the buttons to roll digital dice, I can live with that.
And which features from the other books aren't working for you?
Hmm... Initial issue seams solved now. I had a player who had a UA Drakewarden who converted over to a Fizban's Drakewarden yesterday. With the old UA version, it would do the math for you as far as HP and AC and all that for the drake companion and put it under Actions. When he first converted his character, we weren't seeing that. Instead I was seeing placeholder text like "Armor Class 14 + PB" and my player was asking me what his PB was, yadda, yadda, yadda. I checked his newly converted character just now I'm seeing the drake companion being calculated correctly underneath his actions. I thought DDB had went backwards as far as functionality and I was very irritated because I knew that player would constantly ask me what his PB was and what he needed to roll. Thankfully that's fixed.
As far as other features from books, I'm still waiting for sidekick character sheets. I have young nieces and nephews and it's much easier for them to understand sidekicks than it is regular characters with all their bells and whistles. I've got to do all those sheets on paper and it's not my favorite thing to do. Or how about how I have to homebrew every spell scroll my party comes across because you can't just select which spell the scroll should use? There are other quirks like this, but that's all off topic.
Sorry for being grumpy.
I put above average, and would probably rate it a solid 8/10. Overall I love the book. So many good things in it. The new races, the bestiary, the spells. And the entire section about all of the dragons and their lairs. There is just so much in there, and it's going to take me a long time to dissect it all.
The things I don't like are the subclasses and the greatwyrms. The subclasses just feel poorly executed despite their good ideas. The drakenwarden especially certainly isn't lacking in power, but just feels clunky, badly designed, and missing the point on flying around on a big reptile to the point that beastmaster, paladin, bard, wizard, sorcerer, and druid all manage the 'ride a flying reptile' part earlier than the dedicated subclass for it.
The other issue is the greatwyrms. Which are just one big homogenous stat block for each category of dragon, with the things which make them unique removed. They should have been more unique than ancient dragons. Not less so. If I was going to DM, I'd certainly be homebrewing my own versions rather than using the official ones.
I will say this book could have used a pronunciation guide. Ingeloakastimizilian, Imvaernarhro, K’rshinthintl, Claugiyliamatar? Oof, look at that alphabet soup.
I think overall it's great. There are some major flaws, but the parts that are good are well worth the money. This was also a much needed book.
First world:
I really like this section. It provides a cannon creation story, that can be used as is or as inspiration for your world. Or completely ignored of course if you don't like it. Surprisingly enough, this happens to be somewhat similar to the creation story of my homebrew world. (with a few major differences).
Races:
This was also pretty cool. A lineage alternative to dragonborn for those who prefer it, and a lot more balanced in my opinion. And we (finally) get metallic breath weapons and gem dragonborn.
Subclasses:
I kinda like these, though for some reason the theme of dragons appears to be limited to breath weapon, damage resistances, and frightful presence... Drake warden also has really weird art...
Draconic feats:
I like these a lot. Something other than breath weapons!!
Spells:
Really nice. I wanted an illusory hoard spell that forced people to attempt to get it at all costs after a failed wis save, though.
Magic Items:
Meh... A few magic items loosely related to dragons... I think the only magic item that really stood out was the emerald pen.
Draconic Gifts:
I was surprised to find that I really like these. We could have done with a few draconic patron ideas to go with them though.
Dragons in Play:
This was as amazing as expected! Love this. 5/5. My only two problems with it are 1, I already created a dragon customization thing that was way better, IMO. And 2, This is all inspiration stuff. For super creative, amazing DMs, this isn't really useful. But for (I think) most people, it can be a ton of help for inspiration and guidance creating dragons.
Lairs and Hordes:
I liked it... But it wasn't as good as the dragons in play section. The lair action are boring things I already came up with, and the hoard part of it is mostly repeats of DMG. But the horde stuff it still pretty cool, I guess.
Dracomonicon:
LET'S GO WE GET DEEP DRAGONS! Um, other than that's it's pretty useful information. Love the premade maps, I'm a terrible artist and will most likely adapt one to my dragon when/if I ever run a dragon.
Bestiary:
LET'S GO WE GET DEEP DRAGONS! I really like a lot of the monsters here! Also we finally get stats for Bahamut. (It was unfair that Tiamat got one but not Bahamut). I like the new ages of dragon turtles, and I'm glad to finally get draconians. Animated breath seems interesting too... My main problems with this is 90% of the monsters are CR 15+, and we literally get 12 CR 20+ monsters.
Art:
Really inspiring art. Except a few, such as drakewarden... Those are just weird.
Overall a great book, but with a few major flaws. For that reason I give it a 4/5.
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
>Extended Signature<