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
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.
Another lackluster ranger class. I'm playing the Test version of this and combining some of it's features with the beastmaster class to make it even remotely useable. The "real" version is a straight up downgrade. No flying mount till 11 and it loses its elemental damage on its bite? What a waste of a bonus action. The flavor is excellent, but the implementation is trash.
Technically even if you are reduced or the Drake is enlarged you still can't fly while riding it, rules-as-written.
This seems pretty lousy compared to Tasha’s beast master. The drake does minor damage and can add a minor amount of damage you your attacks. 7 is a super minor damage boost. 11th level is pathetic, an action to do fireball damage? At 11? Fighters just got a third attack, beastmasters just got a second beast attack without any wasted action economy. But you have to give up your whole action to do a moderate amount of aoe damage once a day? 15th level is cool, but damn we can’t ride our drake through the sky until level 15? That’s a long time to wait, and the road there kind of sucks.
Idk I feel like just playing a beast master with a beast of the air flavored as a drake would make a better drake-warden unless you are starting at high level and 15 will be relevant.
The drake does not lose its elemental damage on its bite, not sure which version of the class you're reading.
RAW - No you cant. [which is annoying]
The feature states: "...you can use the drake as a mount even if your size is Medium. While you are riding your drake, it can’t use the flying speed of this feature."
With the specific rule being the Drakewarden may use the drake as a mount, regardless of the Drakewarden's size, not other characters/PCs, and regardless of size of the rider, the drake cannot fly while being used as such.
This is a huge disapointment TBH... Druids can fly with wild shape at 8th level, spellcasters with fly spell at 5th, or a flying race at 1st!
If I had a Player with this sub-class I would definately ignore the hinderance and go with the rule of cool.
That is something that I found annoying. If you are playing a race which has the Flying ability, and are a Druid, there is no reason you cant Wild Shape to a flying creature imv.
As to others riding the drake, they still can, they are just limited to the standard one size smaller rule for such that is in place.
On a side note, how can ya make that typo on the stat block. "Bite. Meele Weapon Attack"
Also to add, with its ability to fly while someone is mounted, I think that should go back to the size of the person on the drake, specially if the drake is medium sized, then it should be able to fly when carrying someone that is Small/Tiny without problems due to the one size lower. Leaving it to 15th level to be able to do such takes the fun away.
I was discussing this flying issue with my player a few hours ago. We agreed that while he can fly while riding the dragon at lower levels, both the character and the dragon lack the skill to do that gracefully, not to mention during combat. So the way I'm ruling this (which is not RAW, of course) is that as soon as the dragon is big enough to be used as a mount, they can begin to fly outside of combat (provided it does not involve flying through complicated environment such as too close to the ground in city streets or between canyons). Level 15 is just the level needed to be able to fight while riding the dragon without constantly endangering themselves.
Here, this is the chart I'm probably going to use to keep track of the dragon's skills as they level up:
Seems weird the bite attack doesn't get to add Str? I get adding the PB, but why not both?
A way to increase the damage without increasing the damage die. The ability scores for monsters normally wont increase but the PB will so this is a way to let the damage advance between damage die increases.
PCs dont add both, so it stands to reason neither would a monster?
I can't say I like the way both Tasha and Fizban handels animal/drake -companions. It would be a lot better (IMHO) if the companions actually were animals or drakes and not just some kind of spirit that can be summoned at will. Give the class a spell like ability (or outright spell) that allows them to resurrect a fallen companion. And if it's no longer possible, ensure that there's a way you can get a new companion through roleplaying and exploration.
Having them just be a "spirit" which the player chose the abilities or appearance for ensures that the companion has no depth what so ever. Take a look at companions like Night Eye from Hobbs Farseer novels or even Guenhwyvar of the Drizzt series. Those are very well fleshed out characters. Not just a spirit that can be sent on suicide missions as the PC'll just resurrect the spirit again, but this time with wings, or fins or whatever. Have the companion level up together with the PC and get a few abilities, sure. But this feels like you just get a new companion whenever you summon it, or reach a new level.
But that might just be me. I much prefer character over stats and this is only stats without any depth at all.
Frankly I feel like this class is a neat idea thematically, but I don't like that everything is tied to your Drake companion. I also still don't like using your bonus action to command it..
Feels like a bit of a misfire to me. I didn't want a new beast Master with a dragon-flavored companion for my dragon themed Ranger, I wanted a dragon themed Ranger.
Eh... another miss for me.
Just
Wizards, please don't nerf Ascendant Dragon Monk and the new Dragonborn into the ground.
I really like this subclass so far!
One of my players just started playing one at our level 15 game, so we'll see how it works at higher levels!
I appreciate the in depth look at it, and the NPCs, Talren and Maurel are really a nice creations!
I think this is one of the most interesting Rangers, which is one class I haven't played yet, and this makes them seem really appealing!
It is (chef's kiss) beautiful. It just continuously gets stronger, more flavorful, and cooler to play. Cannot wait.
Can't wait to try this one out. Lots of added flavor and flare for Rangers. My kids have a sidekick dragon which I've been having to keep track of, this subclass will make that a lot easier!
This is a really neat idea. Thanks for sharing the concept!
“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.”
except conjure barrage RAW affects creatures, and is silent on any damage to objects, unlike shatter.
Where is the drake coming from? Ysgard?
This is INSANE!!!!
Says 'Magic Fang' for the ability at level 7 so can be the DM's call in my opinion.
I think of it as the same spirit, capable of changing its form whenever its summoned. Imagine a shape-shifting Toothless.