As part of 2021's D&D Celebration, Wizards of the Coast provided a sneak peek at the Drakewarden ranger subclass coming in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. As a Drakewarden, you'll command your very own drake that grows in size and ferocity as you level up. Customize their appearance and abilities and rain down fire — or acid, cold, lightning, or poison — on your enemies.

Click below to preview the subclass and learn more:

• Drakewarden subclass features
• Pros
• Cons
• Sample build

Drakewarden subclass features

Draconic Gift

Kicking off the Drakewarden subclass is the small but flavorful Draconic Gift feature. You learn thaumaturgy and either Draconic or one other language. Intimidate your foes as you speak the tongue of dragons and make the ground tremble at your feet or make your eyes burn with a fiery light.

Drake Companion

Also at 3rd level, you gain the service of a drake that you can magically summon using an action. The drake is central to the subclass, with every feature beyond level 3 tying back to your companion. There are a few noteworthy things to consider as you review the drake and its statistics:

• You choose how your drake appears each time you summon it, plus its damage immunity and the damage type for its Infused Strikes.
• You'll command the drake using your bonus action. 
• It has a high starting AC that scales with your proficiency bonus.
• If the drake dies, you can resummon it using a 1st-level or higher spell slot and an action. 

Overall, the drake companion is a powerful ally that you can fight alongside.

Bond of Fang and Scale

At 7th level, your drake companion increases in size and gets a handful of upgrades, including a damage buff to its Bite attack. Notably, when you summon your drake, you can give it a flying speed or a swimming speed and the ability to breathe underwater. You can also use your drake as a mount, though it won't yet be able to fly with you sitting atop it. 

Drake's Breath

Live out your dreams of charging into battle atop a mighty beast that breathes fire onto mobs that retreat in terror. The 11th-level feature, Drake's Breath, allows you or your drake to make a breath attack using an action. The damage is akin to fireball, though you get to choose the damage type each time you use this feature.

You get one free use of this feature per long rest. Each subsequent use requires you to spend a 3rd-level spell slot or higher. (As an 11th-level ranger, you have three 3rd-level spell slots.)

Perfected Bond

At 15th level, your drake gets another round of upgrades. It grows to size Large, allowing it to use its flying speed while you are mounted. Its Bite attack also gets another increase in damage and you get a new use for your reaction. When you or your drake take damage, you can use a reaction to grant either you or the drake resistance to the damage type, increasing your survivability in combat.  

Pros

There's a lot to love about the Drakewarden ranger. Let's unpack what makes this a solid pet class.

Customization options

The ability to change your drake's appearance has a lot of roleplay potential. If you're playing an evil character, imagine the chaos you could sow by having your drake appear as a young gold dragon as it razes a town, for example. Your drake's appearance could even reflect your character's emotional state. If you are angry when you summon your drake, its scales could appear as smoldering coals. For those journeying into the Feywild for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, your drake could simply appear as a larger faerie dragon!

You can also change the damage type your drake is immune to and that Infused Strikes deals. Is your party hunting down trolls? Summon your drake so that its Infused Strikes deal fire damage to turn off the trolls' Regeneration. Alternatively, make your drake immune to cold damage if you're planning to face off against a white dragon.

High AC and solid hit point scaling

The drake starts off with a solid 16 AC, and it increases with your proficiency bonus, to a maximum 20. Further, the drake receives a maximum 105 hit points at ranger level 20. Comparatively, the Battle Smith artificer's steel defender has barely more hit points than the drake but 15 AC (17 when the Battle Smith hits 15th level). On the flip side, the steel defender can repair itself in combat.

Bonus action commands

Getting to control your drake with a bonus action is a big deal. As a ranger, you'll likely be spending your actions firing off arrows or casting spells like summon beast to better control the battlefield. Although commanding your drake will compete with the quintessential ranger spell, hunter's mark, that's a small price to pay.

Another thing that's worth noting: if your character is incapacitated, your drake can take actions normally, no commands required. Talk to your DM about how your drake would respond if your character were to go down in combat.

Ease of resummoning

If your drake falls to 0 hit points, it goes poof. Luckily, you can bring them back with a 1st-level or higher spell slot and an action. It doesn't get much easier than that.

Cons

No subclass is without its drawbacks. Here are a few cons to keep in mind as you evaluate the Drakewarden.

Mid- to late-game mount 

Unless you're a Tiny-size fairy, don't expect to ride your mount into combat. You'll have to wait until 7th level to use your drake as a mount, and even then, it won't be able to fly with you on it until 15th level. Of course, you could always kindly ask your friendly bard or another spellcaster to cast fly on your drake.

One lone attack

Although the drake is a solidly tanky companion, its lone Bite attack is lackluster when compared to what you could get with the pre-Tasha's Beast Master's beast companion. The wolf companion can knock enemies prone when it attacks, for example. Others have Charge, which adds damage if your companion moves a certain distance before attacking.

At 11th level, the Beast Master's companion can begin using Multiattack. This widens the damage gap unless you're fighting mobs, where Drake's Breath really shines.

No Share Spells

Not to downplay the Drakewarden's 15th-level feature, but the Beast Master's Share Spells is hard to top. Having both you and your companion benefit from guardian of nature just feels so good.

Meet Talren and his drake companion, Maurel

"The night is clear and the winds in our favor, Captain!" Jam, a sprite halfling, called down from the crow's nest of The Red Rock, a small-but-respectably-sized merchant ship. The vessel was just hours from setting sights on Waterdeep, the City of Splendors, with contraband for the Xanathar Guild. But chance would have it that The Red Rock would never complete its voyage.

A sickly green acid spewed up from the waters beneath the ship. Smoke and the smell of burnt wood rose from the dark waters and Jam rang an alarm bell. As the crew rushed atop The Red Rock's deck to look overboard for whatever deadly creature had attacked, arrows rained down upon them from the opposite side of the ship.

The crew screamed out for help as the ship began to sank and more arrows fell upon them. But no one was there to save them on those open waters.

Talren is a water genasi that hails from Waterdeep. He's an 11th level Drakewarden ranger and a member of the Zhentarim, a shadow organization that makes its coin by trading goods and mercenaries. The faction opposes the Xanathar Guild and aims to cripple their dealings in the City of Splendors by destroying ships transporting their contraband.

Talren resides in the Dock Ward and keeps a low profile, careful not to draw attention by walking the streets of Waterdeep with his drake, Maurel. Every few weeks, a Zhentarim member will contact Talren with information on an incoming or outgoing ship transporting Xanathar Guild merchandise. Using this information, Talren will pack a sufficient amount of food to last him several days before swimming into the Great Harbor. Because he is a water genasi, he can breathe underwater and has a swimming speed, allowing him to evade detection while in the harbor.

Once in the Great Harbor, Talren will summon Maurel by his side. She appears similar to a sapphire dragon to help her evade detection while underwater. The genasi will also choose to give her a swimming speed and the ability to breathe underwater. The two will then travel beyond the boundaries of Waterdeep to await their target.

Talren and Maurel use a two-pronged attack to take down ships. Maurel will swim underneath a ship and use an acidic Drake's Breath to damage its hull. She will then swim to one side of the ship to draw attention. With the crew distracted, Talren will swim to the other side of the ship and unleash a conjure barrage to destroy the ship's masts. The two will then swim underneath the ship and continue damaging the hull until the ship begins to sink, after which they will swim deep underwater to safety.

Playing Talren

Talren is a chaotic neutral water genasi with the Marine background. His highest ability score is Dexterity, and he has good Constitution and Wisdom scores. He has the following skill proficiencies:

• Athletics
• Investigation
• Nature
• Perception
• Stealth
• Survival (expertise from Skill Expert)

Talren uses speak with animals and speak with plants to track the movement of ships beyond Waterdeep's Great Harbor. Preferring to remain unseen, he attacks ships at night and keeps darkvision and pass without trace prepared. Enhance ability helps him navigate treacherous waters while conjure barrage helps him make short work of a ship's masts and any crewmembers that attack.

Playing Talren as an NPC

Talren is gruff-voiced and cares more about making coin than taking down the Xanathar Guild. A former adventurer, the genasi began working for the Zhentarim after a lord had Talren blacklisted from the Adventurers' Guild following a scuffle at the Yawning Portal. Talren has since lost his moral compass and won't hesitate to sink ships even when they are unknowingly carrying Xanathar cargo into or out of Waterdeep.

The genasi's sole goal is to make enough gold to purchase a property in the Sea Ward near the lord who spited him. From there, he plans to torment the lord in every legal way imaginable.

Fight alongside dragonkind!

The Drakewarden allows players to create a character that can ride into battle atop a fearsome drake. The ranger subclass allows you to customize the look and feel of your drake. With a large pool of hit points, solid AC, and a breath attack, the drake companion is everything a ranger needs to dominate the battlefield.

Michael Galvis (@michaelgalvis) is a tabletop content producer for D&D Beyond. He is a longtime Dungeon Master who enjoys horror films and all things fantasy and sci-fi. When he isn’t in the DM’s seat or rolling dice as his anxious halfling sorcerer, he’s playing League of Legends and Magic: The Gathering with his husband. They live together in Los Angeles with their adorable dog, Quentin.