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!
As 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.
I'd settle for the Dragonhide belt to be fixed so it actually works in the character sheet - it doesn't update the monk abilities DC which is the main thing it does!
Not holding my breath, it's been broken since introduction in 2021...
Personally I hope that when they release his for purchase that everything done as a drop has been looked at for balance and power. As it everything player facing given since this started feels under tuned and misses the mark, maybe not by much but definitely feels more like a UA article than a finished product.
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.
The pack will be buyable as a digital purchase in May 2027.
If you have a subscription or buy the yearly pack, it will be shareable.
If you don't like having a digital only purchase, then I would advise not buying things on the DDB site. The monthly subscription wasn't an issue before drops, and it still isn't. This content isn't a must have, it's bits and bobs as a direct response to the surveys saying that they wanted to see more value from their subscriptions.
If you don't like the model, the only solution is to not buy it, ignore the stuff dropped here, and go on with your life. If they don't see anyone using this stuff, it won't continue.
The vocal minority needs to accept that they don't need these Drops, or can get them when they're sold as a pack, instead of trying to torpedo it for those who are enjoying the content. The subscription is a very minor cost.
Evolving Martial Gear: Introduce signature weapons and armor that gain power, unlock new properties, or increase in bonus as the character levels up, ensuring martial progression keeps pace with high-level magical utility.
Expanded Utility Traits: Enhance Species and Background options to include more meaningful features for Exploration and Social interaction. This would provide martial characters with consistent, non-combat ways to influence the narrative and solve problems.
your first point is supposedly going to be a feature in the Arcana Unleashed book
It's a little odd to see all four elementals resistant to all physical damage when 5.5 was supposed to move away from that, but I guess it's also hard to argue when it would make sense for each of the things these are based on to resist it. Mostly, anyway.
I feels it weird that release the para elementals, just when Dungeon Dad release his UPDATE versión of the para elementals. I like more his artwork that got, I kinda like more the flavor that he give to the para elementals.
I'm just saying Wizards, just give him a job
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Posted Jul 4, 2026Pack fighting is basically inviting you to do a whole group of melee characters...
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Posted Jul 4, 2026I'd settle for the Dragonhide belt to be fixed so it actually works in the character sheet - it doesn't update the monk abilities DC which is the main thing it does!
Not holding my breath, it's been broken since introduction in 2021...
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Posted Jul 4, 2026Personally I hope that when they release his for purchase that everything done as a drop has been looked at for balance and power. As it everything player facing given since this started feels under tuned and misses the mark, maybe not by much but definitely feels more like a UA article than a finished product.
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Posted Jul 4, 2026Finally adding para-elementals, next we need quasi-elementals!
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Posted Jul 4, 2026Hope you choke on your greed soon...
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Posted Jul 4, 2026If you don't like having a digital only purchase, then I would advise not buying things on the DDB site. The monthly subscription wasn't an issue before drops, and it still isn't. This content isn't a must have, it's bits and bobs as a direct response to the surveys saying that they wanted to see more value from their subscriptions.
If you don't like the model, the only solution is to not buy it, ignore the stuff dropped here, and go on with your life. If they don't see anyone using this stuff, it won't continue.
The vocal minority needs to accept that they don't need these Drops, or can get them when they're sold as a pack, instead of trying to torpedo it for those who are enjoying the content. The subscription is a very minor cost.
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Posted Jul 4, 2026Thank you. I truly hope that’s the case.
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Posted Jul 4, 2026It's a little odd to see all four elementals resistant to all physical damage when 5.5 was supposed to move away from that, but I guess it's also hard to argue when it would make sense for each of the things these are based on to resist it. Mostly, anyway.
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Posted Jul 4, 2026I feels it weird that release the para elementals, just when Dungeon Dad release his UPDATE versión of the para elementals. I like more his artwork that got, I kinda like more the flavor that he give to the para elementals.
I'm just saying Wizards, just give him a job