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!
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.
Gotta disagree on the second point. There are so many monsters now with auto-prone conditions on hit. This removes those monsters’ allies from advantage on attacking the PC while allowing the PC to avoid the disadvantage on their attacks of opportunity (assuming most people will just use 1/2 their movement to get up before their attacks). This removing of advantage is great if the DM is running the monsters like they know what they’re doing. This feat is equally about keeping melee frontliners output steady as it is buffing prone snipers.
Doesn't shifting combatant's domino strike already exist somewhat in the rules already? If you push a medium creature into another's space, they apparently both get prone with no save. That makes the feat kind of redundant unless that previous interaction wasn't intended. Is there any way to get clarification on this?
The newest feats and subclasses have power creep. 3.5E did a better job with prestige classes and feats.
i really like the subclasses but if you split them up into feats and let people pick feats (some with prerequisites) then you would get awesome characters.
Here is my takes on these additions. All in all, pretty good, but some could use a bit of tweaking.
Climber's Ammunition. Love this one. Very useful single use magic items. Well designed. No notes. **well one note, should be a common magic item, not uncommon.**
Goggles of Foe-Finding. ... this is another case of unnecessary attunement. These requiring attunement take them from a very useful item to one that will be the first to be discarded when attunement slots fill up. We need more useful non-attuned items.
Stormwalker's Cloak. Excellent magical item. Two resistances and 3 uses of a first level spell with minor alteration. This is an appropriate item to require attunement.
Feats
Pack Fighting. This has potential as a second or third fighting style, but in general, I don't see it getting picked as a first one unless it is by a monk with a single level of fighter or something. It does make a great second option for a two weapon fighter.
Prone Fighting. I guess there is potential here for a certain build type to make use of this, but I'd have to seriously think through what that build might look like. This feels too situational to be a serious option for most characters. I feel like it probably should give a benefit to being prone, not just remove the detriment.
Shifting Combatant. I like this one. Might be a little on the weak side, but it is fun at least. I think ideally it should give a range or height bonus to the long jump. Or possibly a minor AOE around where they land if they are wielding a bludgeoning weapon, but as is, it is fun and flavorful. **after reading some other responses, I think the pushing mechanic needs attention as it appears to be redundant with an existing rule.**
Tactical Combatant. This one is neat. Not terribly useful unless you are wielding a great weapon of some flavor. If you aren't rolling at least 1d10 the temp hit points are going to be very minor at best. The extra bonus to an ability check is very nice though.
I DM’d for a March-West style campaign a few weeks ago and used elementals for most combat encounters. I was surprised that 5.5e didn’t have para-elementals before now! Not a lot of ice creatures or smoky buds. Glad to see them included here. I really enjoy the flavoring do the Galeb Duhr and Invisible Stalkers. Would love to see something similar in other elements.
YAY! Now do the QUASI-ELEMENTAL PLANES!!! Wait a minute, I know this isn't second edition anymore (sniff) and some of the planes got mixed up when Vecna used the Demiplane of Dread as a slippy-slide into Sigil when he leveled up (for once, it was the DPs who got...DP'd!) but the cosmology was
Para-Elemental Planes
Magma (Fire/Earth)
Ooze (Earth/Water)
Ice (Water/Air) and
SMOKE (Air and Fire)
Ash was a Quasi-Elemental Plane (Fire/Negative) along with
Dust (Earth/Negative)
Salt (Water/Negative)
Vacuum (Air/Negative)
Radiance (Fire/Positive)
Minerals (Earth/Positive)
Steam (Water/Positive) and
Lightning (Air/Positive)
Was this intentional? If you do wind up reprinting the Quasi-Elemental planes, how will that pan out? Smoke will become the new Fire/Negative combo?
Wonder if we'll get something distinctly beneficial to the rogue. Yeaaahhh sure the martial feats are cool, but how about something that screams, "This is for the Rogue," or "this makes the Rogue feel good." Yeah Zhent tactics is cool, but it feels bad sacrificing uncanny dodge or cunning action for it. Especially when feats feel so good on other classes like warcaster for casters, or any combination of polearm master, sentinel, and GWM for martials. I think drops would be a great way to introduce some well-needed quality of life buffs for the rogue.
I have minis for all the primary elements, I hope we get all the rest of them. Ravenloft also had great elementals: Grave (Earth), Mist (Air), Blood (Water) and Pyre (Fire).
These are great updates! It's really nice to see new content and continued support for D&D Beyond, especially the focus on martial characters.
That said, many of us in the Spanish-speaking community are still waiting for news about the Spanish translations, both physical and digital. It's been months without any official update.
We're especially looking forward to the Heroes of Faerûn books, which have already been available in English for quite some time. Even a simple status update or roadmap would be greatly appreciated.
Please don't forget about the Spanish community! Thanks!
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
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.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 4, 2026Thank you. I truly hope that’s the case.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
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.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
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
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 5, 2026Gotta disagree on the second point. There are so many monsters now with auto-prone conditions on hit. This removes those monsters’ allies from advantage on attacking the PC while allowing the PC to avoid the disadvantage on their attacks of opportunity (assuming most people will just use 1/2 their movement to get up before their attacks). This removing of advantage is great if the DM is running the monsters like they know what they’re doing. This feat is equally about keeping melee frontliners output steady as it is buffing prone snipers.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 5, 2026Doesn't shifting combatant's domino strike already exist somewhat in the rules already? If you push a medium creature into another's space, they apparently both get prone with no save. That makes the feat kind of redundant unless that previous interaction wasn't intended. Is there any way to get clarification on this?
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 6, 2026The newest feats and subclasses have power creep. 3.5E did a better job with prestige classes and feats.
i really like the subclasses but if you split them up into feats and let people pick feats (some with prerequisites) then you would get awesome characters.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 6, 2026soooo you want pathfinder 2, but named D&D 😂 how about no?
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 6, 2026Will Quasi-Elementals make an appearance? Lightning, Salt, Minerals, Vacuum?
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 7, 2026Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 7, 2026I love to see more fighting styles, please keep it up!
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 7, 2026Here is my takes on these additions. All in all, pretty good, but some could use a bit of tweaking.
Climber's Ammunition. Love this one. Very useful single use magic items. Well designed. No notes. **well one note, should be a common magic item, not uncommon.**
Goggles of Foe-Finding. ... this is another case of unnecessary attunement. These requiring attunement take them from a very useful item to one that will be the first to be discarded when attunement slots fill up. We need more useful non-attuned items.
Stormwalker's Cloak. Excellent magical item. Two resistances and 3 uses of a first level spell with minor alteration. This is an appropriate item to require attunement.
Feats
Pack Fighting. This has potential as a second or third fighting style, but in general, I don't see it getting picked as a first one unless it is by a monk with a single level of fighter or something. It does make a great second option for a two weapon fighter.
Prone Fighting. I guess there is potential here for a certain build type to make use of this, but I'd have to seriously think through what that build might look like. This feels too situational to be a serious option for most characters. I feel like it probably should give a benefit to being prone, not just remove the detriment.
Shifting Combatant. I like this one. Might be a little on the weak side, but it is fun at least. I think ideally it should give a range or height bonus to the long jump. Or possibly a minor AOE around where they land if they are wielding a bludgeoning weapon, but as is, it is fun and flavorful. **after reading some other responses, I think the pushing mechanic needs attention as it appears to be redundant with an existing rule.**
Tactical Combatant. This one is neat. Not terribly useful unless you are wielding a great weapon of some flavor. If you aren't rolling at least 1d10 the temp hit points are going to be very minor at best. The extra bonus to an ability check is very nice though.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 7, 2026I DM’d for a March-West style campaign a few weeks ago and used elementals for most combat encounters. I was surprised that 5.5e didn’t have para-elementals before now! Not a lot of ice creatures or smoky buds. Glad to see them included here. I really enjoy the flavoring do the Galeb Duhr and Invisible Stalkers. Would love to see something similar in other elements.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 7, 2026YAY! Now do the QUASI-ELEMENTAL PLANES!!! Wait a minute, I know this isn't second edition anymore (sniff) and some of the planes got mixed up when Vecna used the Demiplane of Dread as a slippy-slide into Sigil when he leveled up (for once, it was the DPs who got...DP'd!) but the cosmology was
Para-Elemental Planes
Magma (Fire/Earth)
Ooze (Earth/Water)
Ice (Water/Air) and
SMOKE (Air and Fire)
Ash was a Quasi-Elemental Plane (Fire/Negative) along with
Dust (Earth/Negative)
Salt (Water/Negative)
Vacuum (Air/Negative)
Radiance (Fire/Positive)
Minerals (Earth/Positive)
Steam (Water/Positive) and
Lightning (Air/Positive)
Was this intentional? If you do wind up reprinting the Quasi-Elemental planes, how will that pan out? Smoke will become the new Fire/Negative combo?
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 8, 2026I would really love to see more elementals from these tertiary planes—especially lightning.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 8, 2026Wonder if we'll get something distinctly beneficial to the rogue. Yeaaahhh sure the martial feats are cool, but how about something that screams, "This is for the Rogue," or "this makes the Rogue feel good." Yeah Zhent tactics is cool, but it feels bad sacrificing uncanny dodge or cunning action for it. Especially when feats feel so good on other classes like warcaster for casters, or any combination of polearm master, sentinel, and GWM for martials. I think drops would be a great way to introduce some well-needed quality of life buffs for the rogue.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 8, 2026This is great! Player kobolds gonna bust (up some humaniods) XD
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 8, 2026I have minis for all the primary elements, I hope we get all the rest of them. Ravenloft also had great elementals: Grave (Earth), Mist (Air), Blood (Water) and Pyre (Fire).
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 9, 2026These are great updates! It's really nice to see new content and continued support for D&D Beyond, especially the focus on martial characters.
That said, many of us in the Spanish-speaking community are still waiting for news about the Spanish translations, both physical and digital. It's been months without any official update.
We're especially looking forward to the Heroes of Faerûn books, which have already been available in English for quite some time. Even a simple status update or roadmap would be greatly appreciated.
Please don't forget about the Spanish community! Thanks!
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jul 9, 2026I love this!