Krynn is a war-torn world with a long history of dragons. Though, when Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen kicks off, dragons have been gone from the world for centuries, only to return when the Dragon Queen Takhisis musters her armies to conquer the continent of Ansalon. To bolster her Dragon Armies, dead dragons are resurrected through perverse means and made to serve in her ranks.

Let’s take a look at these so-called death dragons and how to use them in your games! 

• What are death dragons?
• How are death dragons different from other dragons? 
• Cataclysmic Breath weapon 
• Facing off against death dragons
• Using death dragons in your game

What Are Death Dragons? 

In Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, death dragons are created when the skeletal remains of a dragon become infused with magical fires from the Cataclysm. Though death dragons retain some of their former personalities, they are a twisted, malevolent shadow of who they once were.

Greater death dragons retain almost all of their personality and intelligence—however, their sense of self is twisted by the necromantic magics that give them life. Lesser dragons, on the other hand, are feral creatures that may experience flashes of memory but quickly let their rage consume them.

What Do Death Dragons Want?

Most often, death dragons are created by practitioners of the necromantic arts and unleashed upon enemies they want destroyed. While devastatingly effective, those who employ the use of death dragons must be careful. As a death dragon grows in power, they retain more of their former selves. This could eventually result in a death dragon turning against its master in an attempt to regain autonomy.

Death dragons who are successful in this endeavor often seek revenge for the slights they experienced in life. Fueled by hatred, death dragons don't rationalize their feelings of vengeance. For example, they may relate an affront from a particular Knight of Solamnia to all members of the organization and seek to wipe out all the knights they come across. Other death dragons return to collecting and jealously guarding treasure hoards to regain a semblance of their previous life.

How Are Death Dragons Different From Other Dragons? 

Being unwilling necromantic recreations, death dragons significantly differ in personality from their living counterparts, as well as other voluntarily undead dragons like dracolichs and hollow dragons. Death dragons are feral and cruel, toting a lower Intelligence than other dragons while also applying vicious tactics. The greater death dragon’s Bite and the lesser death dragon’s Claw attacks can grapple targets, allowing them to lift their victims into the air and drop them from heights.

Greater death dragons—who have a challenge rating (CR) of 14—also gain Legendary Actions, one of them being Cataclysmic Rush. This ability allows the death dragon to immediately move up to half its flying speed without provoking opportunity attacks. 

Cataclysmic Rush also damages creatures in the death dragon’s path, though the primary danger will come from creatures that have been grappled, as they’ll now be 40 feet in the air with only an angry undead dragon as company. While lesser death dragons—who have a CR of 10—don’t have access to this ability, they share the greater death dragon’s flying speed of 80 feet, which can still be a big issue for creatures that find themselves in a death dragon’s clutches.

Cataclysmic Breath Weapon 

As with any dragon, death dragons have a devastating breath weapon. These undead creatures can unleash a blast of necrotic fire called Cataclysmic Breath, which is about as terrifying as it sounds. When used, the death dragon spews out a cone of ghostly purple flame, which deals 8d8 necrotic damage for lesser dragons and 10d8 necrotic damage for greater dragons. As if this isn’t deadly enough, the breath weapon has a brutal rider effect that will certainly up the stakes of the encounter. 

The death dragon's breath weapon automatically kills any creature that is reduced to 0 hit points by the attack, but it doesn’t stop there. Any creature killed by this attack, along with any other humanoid corpse within the area of effect, immediately arises as zombies. This means resurrection and raise dead won’t work on creatures killed by this effect. Revivify will work, but the creature will return as a zombie.

Facing Off Against Death Dragons

When facing off against death dragons, players will quickly learn to take cover whenever possible. They definitely don’t want the death dragon, with its superior mobility, to be able to swoop down and pick their party off one by one. 

Though they have immunity to necrotic and poison damage, resistance to piercing damage, and can’t suffer from exhaustion or the poisoned conditions, the death dragon’s Undead creature type provides them with exploitable vulnerabilities. The cleric’s Turn Undead and the protection from evil and good spell can prevent the death dragon from getting too close, and the paladin’s Divine Smite can dish out some extra damage when it does close in for a strike. 

Using Death Dragons in Your Game 

Whether you’re playing in a Dragonlance setting or not, death dragons are a terrifying monster to throw at your party. Their cruel tactics and deadly breath weapon, combined with their vengeful nature and lack of need for sleep, make these creatures a nightmare to deal with.

Where Do Death Dragons Come From?

If your campaign is set outside Dragonlance, death dragons may be created in a way that doesn’t involve magical fires from a calamity centuries past. Instead, you can roll on the table below for ideas we have homebrewed on how a death dragon may have originated in your world:

Death Dragon Tactics

If your party got on the wrong side of a powerful necromancer or caused the death of a particularly vengeful dragon, they may have a death dragon coming after them for revenge. Immune to exhaustion and able to go without food or sleep, death dragons would tirelessly hunt down their quarry, and once found, they wouldn’t show an ounce of mercy.

Infused with hatred and a need for vengeance, death dragons may not be as plotting as other dragonkin. But, their instincts are to follow the same tactics that other dragons employ to make short work of their victims. Surprise them with a breath weapon, then pick off the survivors one by one by grabbing them and dropping them from on high.

These tactics will be even more devastating with the death dragon’s ability to grapple as part of their Multiattack, rather than committing their entire action to a grapple attempt. This is doubly so for the lesser death dragon, who gets two Claw attacks as part of their Multiattack and can grapple a target in each hand.

Will Your Party Survive?

In Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, your party will face off against death dragons and other terrifying monsters as they battle for the fate of Krynn. What other dastardly creatures does the Dragon Queen have in store for your heroes? Only one way to find out!

Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his girlfriend, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.