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.
When I have a character with find familiar and I choose to change the familiar's FORM, I still view it as the same creature in another form. It would be very easy for me to view the drake the same way. (uh oh.. better summon Rex in his fire form to fight these winter wolves)
Ok but Draconic Patron Warlock when
There was homebrew book that came out a while ago called "Legendary Dragons". It came out with the dragonrider class, not subclass class, which I feel does miles better than this, although it is a subclass so I suppose its fair. However the main reason this subclass kind of disappoints me is the fact that while a 3rd party book created a class that makes you feel like you have a close and strong bond with an intelligent creature that you train with every day, using maneuvers to work in combinations with your dragon to defeat your enemies, and making it feel like both of you really relied on each other, this just feels like "Ah, I have a dragon now, neat". It feels almost feels like this is just beastmaster with a 4th type of beast, the dragon beast.
"Also not a fan of changing the dragon types and abilities every summon"
Nobody is stopping you from putting that restriction on yourself.
YESSSS!!! Finaly! I made a dragonborn I've been itching to play, glad to know I found Their subclass!
I'm very excited to play this in my group's upcoming Tomb of Annihilation campaign!
subclass seems great! very odd they dont have extra spells since it seems every ranger subclass gets them now. if it's meant to be fair to the beastmaster not getting extra spells they should just give the beastmaster extra spells too
Finally, you can be Hiccup!
Narratively you'd have even more problems as to why this dragon seems to grow up in the span of a campaign, which considering the lengthy lifetime of a dragon is almost certainly too short. Unless the players don't mind skipping a few decades here and there?
Because it's a magically created drake, not a normal dragon.
It seems the primal companion is overall stronger than the drake.
The only thing that goes for the drake is the mount thing but there is the biggest problem.
You need to much ranger levels to make it work and for a moutn build you need to mulitclass if you wont a strong build.
Which would mean that such a build would be level 20 .... does anyone else see the problem?
Rangers can cast Enhance Ability, so even if your character is Medium, they can double their drake's carrying capacity, effectively making it Large, and have a flying mount.
Keep in mind a medium sized Drake only has a carrying capacity of 240 lbs...anything more will put it in encumbered status.
An exotic saddle alone weighs 40 lbs, that leaves your character weighing average 150-200 and no gear.
So by RAW you won't be mounting it until 15th level still unless other magics get involved
@powerspear
Enhance ability is concentration.
Its not a reliable solution when the Drake should just get powerful build by default.
Depends on play style. Players in my main campaign don't really care about leveling up and sincerely enjoy lower levels, so they've been playing around levels 5-7 for the last two campaigns. Of course that system would probably work better in our world, but nothing stops you from changing levels with years and keep the table ;)
Speed doesn't increase as the size goes up? Useless mount at 40 feet of movement.
No shared spells, or even casting touch spells through the drake? Considering it's a "Draconic Spirit" of sorts, with a strong bond to the summoner, that's disappointing.
Was looking forward to this subclass, but ultimately seems rather lackluster on its own, especially the ability to change the drake when you summon it, feels like a distinct lack of attachment for something you're supposedly strongly bonded with... Would have preferred a proper drake.
Is there a Draconic Warlock subclass coming with this book? Cuz that would make a heap of sense too.
it is not, also you can view the changing the element part in several ways that wont break the bond. one you can view it as having potential of all the elements but only brings forth the element you concentrate on during a long rest. you can have it being reborn like a phenix. a patron gave you a magical dragon egg that the patron gives power to best suit what they think you will need. Just dont change the element... or even have it change based on its personality each day by means of a bonding ritual.
Summon beast uses your bonus action as well, so probably not the best spell for Drakewardens.
There is one thing also missing seems like, the bite atk never seems to become magical. That kinda dumps the Drakewarden much further down too. Plus with it as a dragon it wouldnt even combo with sheperd druid making them magical since that uses beast and fey.
Summon Beast uses its own action control (given by you freely). It does not use your bonus action.