DDB Drops is a growing library of adventures, player options, and DM tools available to D&D Beyond subscribers—with new content releasing every month! Every Drop is yours to keep as long as you're subscribed, and they'll appear in your library automatically.
Start exploring at your own pace with any D&D Beyond subscription, including a 30-day free subscription trial.
We're exploring the Para-elemental Planes! In case you need a quick primer on the Para-elemental Planes: they're where the Elemental Planes (of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water) collide and their elements mingle. You can read more about the Para-elemental Planes in the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Plane of Ash: Where the Plane of Air and Plane of Fire collide.
Plane of Ice: Where the Plane of Air and Plane of Water collide.
Plane of Magma: Where the Plane of Earth and Plane of Fire collide.
Plane of Ooze: Where the Plane of Earth and Plane of Water collide.
Naturally, if we're taking time to talk about and explore the Para-elemental Planes, we'll also want to give you some Elementals to go along with them!
Ice Elemental (CR 6). These frigid Elementals can fire their icicles at enemies or use them to pierce foes. Artist Credit: Michele Giorgi
Magma Elemental (CR 6). These roiling Elementals are every bit as destructive as volcanoes — and capable of throwing globs of magma and lava at their foes. Artist Credit: Michele Giorgi
Mud Elemental (CR 6). These oozing Elementals are made up of dripping blobs of muck. Take special care to avoid getting engulfed by them! Artist Credit: Michele Giorgi
Smoke Elemental (CR 6). These incendiary Elementals burn and suffocate their foes with ash and smoke. Artist Credit: Michele Giorgi
4 Para-elemental Maps. We've also commissioned brand new maps to depict each of the Para-elemental Planes to mirror and compliment their Elemental counterpart! You can find them in Maps VTT by following these locations:
Gerralt Landman
This floating island in the Plane of Ash is staying aloft with the help of the turbulent air and smoke. Be sure not to fall through any of the cracks – it may be the last thing you do! In Maps VTT, it can be found under Wilderness > Floating Island > Floating Island on the Plane of Ash.
Despite the raging blizzards that take place on the Plane of Ice, this cave appears untouched. What secrets might this hidden cavern contain? In Maps VTT, it can be found under Wilderness> Caves > Cavern on the Plane of Ice.
Constant eruptions and a seemingly never-ending flow of lava are commonplace in the Plane of Magma. Will you survive its treacherous terrain without getting burnt? In Maps VTT, it can be found under Wilderness > Mountain > Mountainside on the Plane of Magma.
This horrid and mucky swamp on the Plane of Ooze is teeming with objects and treasures lost across the ages. Take special care not to step in the muck, lest you become lost as well! In Maps VTT, it can be found under Wilderness > Swamp > Swamp on the Plane of Ooze.
12 Para-elemental Stickers. And finally, we wanted to make sure you had the elements at your disposal! We've included 12 stickers themed around these elements so that you can give your maps an elemental flair! You can find them in the Sticker Browser under D&D Beyond Drops: Para-elemental Sticker Pack.
Detect Thoughts: DM Options
One of the things that fascinates me the most about D&D is the incredible amount of lore and the endless storytelling opportunities that can be found across its rich history. As a fan, I especially adore D&D's planar cosmology, and I wanted to explore the lesser-known corners of the multiverse with this month's Drop.
That's when we landed on re-visiting the Para-elemental Planes and the monsters within — these poor Elementals haven't been featured in an official D&D product since 3.5e (20+ years ago!).
Each of the maps included today helps provide a small taste of that plane (for example — a swamp in the Plane of Ooze) that's flexible for you to use in non-planar campaigns (for example — the Mountainside on the Plane of Magma map can just as readily serve as the side of an erupting volcano).
Gerralt Landman did a phenomenal job of bringing these maps (and the stickers) to life.
For Players
We have some fun stuff for martial characters to play with! We're including 3 new magic items and 4 new feats.
Magic Items
Climber's Ammunition. This is Uncommon Ammunition. When this magic ammunition hits a solid surface, it attaches to the surface, and a rope trails out from behind it.
Goggles of Foe-Finding. This is a Rare Wondrous Item. With these goggles, your ranged weapon attacks ignore Half Cover and Three-Quarters Cover.
Stormwalker's Cloak. This is a Rare Wondrous Item. This cloak gives you Resistance to Lightning and Thunder damage and lets you cast Hellish Rebuke using Lightning or Thunder damage instead of Fire damage.
Feats
Pack Fighting. This Fighting Style feat gives you a slight boost in extra damage when you and an ally surround an enemy. That damage increases if another ally within range also has this feat!
Prone Fighting. This Fighting Style feat lets you fight without any drawbacks when you have the Prone condition.
Shifting Combatant. With this General feat, you'll be able to jump into the fray without concern and force enemies to collide and fall Prone.
Tactical Combatant. With this General feat, you'll be able to turn your weapon strike into some extra protection and potentially turn a failed Ability Check into a success.
Backdrops
We've also included 4 elemental backdrops so that you can get in on the elemental fun!
Detect Thoughts: July Player Options
An ongoing theme in community feedback — including Drops-specific responses — has been a desire to see more love for martial characters. While the Pact feats are available to both martial and spellcasting classes, we wanted to make sure non-magical characters had equally exciting options to explore. With that in mind, we're adding two new Fighting Style feats and two martial-focused General feats designed to open up new combat strategies for those who prefer steel over sorcery. I'm excited to hear your thoughts! The magic items we've included this month lean into that same spirit as well.
Other Updates
Here are some other updates surrounding Drops that you may have missed:
DDB Drops is now available in the mobile app! Thank you so much for your patience while the team worked to make it available.
Brian Perry (the Executive Producer for DDB) recently announced that DDB Drops will also be available as a standalone SKU! We're currently planning to release an annual bundle each May that would contain the previous year's content and be purchasable for all players (and wouldn't need a subscription to use).
Brian also announced that Master-tier subscribers can share DDB Drops content with their groups!
That's all, folks! I'm excited to see what you all think of what we've released today and what you'd like to see in future drops!
So these new fighting styles are meant specifically to give multiclass builds a significant leg-up, because neither of them are options you'd want to take as any character who only gets access to one fighting style.
Pack Fighting gives a lesser and less consistent damage increase than existing fighting styles, so the only reason to take it would be to stack extra damage on top of Dueling/GWF/TWF.
I heavily disagree with your argument here. The entire point of pack fighting is to use it in tandem with other players who also have it. In that situation, it's +2 damage per attack with any melee. Dueling also gives +2 but requires a 1-handed weapon. Your basic combo is a rapier with dueling for 1d8+2+mod. That's the same average damage as a great axe. But the great axe does an extra 2 damage per swing if you got another melee using pack fighting next to the enemy. Pack fighting also boosts unarmed for when situations demand it. Dueling does not.
Great weapon fighting with a great axe. 1/12 times, you will get a boost of +2. (When you roll a 1 on damage). 1/12 times you will get a boost of +1. (When you roll a 2 on damage). If you're using pack fighting alongside another player with it, you're certainly gonna have the other player next to the mob more than 1/12th of your damage rolls. Even if the other player is only next to the mob 1/6 of the time, it's still a boost over GWF. And again, GWF requires a weapon, it has no boost to unarmed. Pack fighting does.
Two weapon fighting gets a boost of +3-4 per turn. But it requires two light weapons. Assuming extra attack, 18 str, and scimitars. That's 3d6 + 12 (With 4 of that from TWF). 22.5 damage average. Pack fighting with a great axe, extra attack, another pack fighting player nearby, and 18 str is 2d12 + 12 (With 4 from pack fighting, 2 per attack). That's 25 damage. As long as you have another pack fighting player nearby on 50% of your turns, it's just a tad better to the point of even. But, again, pack fighting boosts unarmed and TWF doesn't.
These are very solid fighting styles and perfectly balanced for the 2024 rules. Excellent for a group with 2-3 melee, all of whom have this feat.
As you point out, Dueling always gives the same damage boost as Pack Fighting does when a.) another member of the party has the Fighting Style (remember, only 3/13 classes get Fighting Styles, and 2024 makes it so that characters who don't get the Fighting Style feature can never take a Fighting Style) and b.) that party member happens to be in melee with the same enemy as well. So you have to both take a situational Fighting Style and have an ally who is willing and able to take the same Fighting Style.
Great Weapon Fighting is more effective with 2d6 weapons, outperforming Pack Fighting on average.
Two-Weapon Fighting will add your modifier twice for a Dual Wielder build, meaning +10 damage that is entirely unconditional.
Citing unarmed attacks is pointless because the only class who'd ever make unarmed attacks (the Monk) can't take Fighting Styles—unless you multiclass, in which case you've now added a new way that 2024 Monks that dip into another martial class are significantly more powerful than pure-classed Monks.
At the end of the day, unless you're doing some multiclass build, you'd never take Pack Fighting on a character who only has access to one Fighting Style.
Stickers, would it be possible to have the stickers tree colappsed when open that menu in maps? So that you see the categories first, or this might just be my preferred view. :)
The planes aren’t new. They have been pulled out of mothballs from (I think) third edition.
the real issue here is needing a monthly subscription. I want a book. I can use it, share it, and when it gets messed up, buy a new one. I’m also happy with a pdf of the book.
I find myself not as interested if I need a subscription.
I audibly squeed when I saw the return of the para-elementals, and I did so again when I saw the new Fighting Style feats. The magic items are pretty cool, and the General feats are, in my opinion, gimmicky and flawed but (with the exception of the so-so Prone Fighting) not bad.
Plunging deeper and deeper and deeper into a D&D SaaS model, I see, where we’re renting features from WotC instead of owning access to the content in perpetuity.
“We're currently planning to release an annual bundle each May that would contain the previous year's content and be purchasable for all players (and wouldn't need a subscription to use).”
Clearly you didn’t read the whole article.
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Posted Jul 3, 2026i like the fact that martial classes get some love. it felt underwhelming for some of my players in comparison to casting classes. thats good!
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Posted Jul 3, 2026FEAT: Prone Fighting = Finally, Brazilian Jiu-Jutsu has come to DnD.
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Posted Jul 3, 2026As neat as all this is, I'm still hoping for the monk's belt or monk's tattoo magic item to be converted to 5.5 because monks need some love.
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Posted Jul 3, 2026As you point out, Dueling always gives the same damage boost as Pack Fighting does when a.) another member of the party has the Fighting Style (remember, only 3/13 classes get Fighting Styles, and 2024 makes it so that characters who don't get the Fighting Style feature can never take a Fighting Style) and b.) that party member happens to be in melee with the same enemy as well. So you have to both take a situational Fighting Style and have an ally who is willing and able to take the same Fighting Style.
Great Weapon Fighting is more effective with 2d6 weapons, outperforming Pack Fighting on average.
Two-Weapon Fighting will add your modifier twice for a Dual Wielder build, meaning +10 damage that is entirely unconditional.
Citing unarmed attacks is pointless because the only class who'd ever make unarmed attacks (the Monk) can't take Fighting Styles—unless you multiclass, in which case you've now added a new way that 2024 Monks that dip into another martial class are significantly more powerful than pure-classed Monks.
At the end of the day, unless you're doing some multiclass build, you'd never take Pack Fighting on a character who only has access to one Fighting Style.
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Posted Jul 3, 2026There definitely should be some stuff that anyone can use, Spellcasters and melee characters alike.
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Posted Jul 3, 2026Stickers, would it be possible to have the stickers tree colappsed when open that menu in maps? So that you see the categories first, or this might just be my preferred view. :)
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Posted Jul 3, 2026Good work ;)
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Posted Jul 3, 2026The planes aren’t new. They have been pulled out of mothballs from (I think) third edition.
the real issue here is needing a monthly subscription. I want a book. I can use it, share it, and when it gets messed up, buy a new one. I’m also happy with a pdf of the book.
I find myself not as interested if I need a subscription.
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Posted Jul 3, 2026I audibly squeed when I saw the return of the para-elementals, and I did so again when I saw the new Fighting Style feats. The magic items are pretty cool, and the General feats are, in my opinion, gimmicky and flawed but (with the exception of the so-so Prone Fighting) not bad.
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Posted Jul 3, 2026“We're currently planning to release an annual bundle each May that would contain the previous year's content and be purchasable for all players (and wouldn't need a subscription to use).”
Clearly you didn’t read the whole article.