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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Monsters  > 5th Edition Tome of Beasts – Dragons
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5th Edition Tome of Beasts – Dragons

In gaming as in literature, the villains make the heroes
5th Edition Tome of Beasts - Fey Lords and Ladies

Every Dungeon Master loves access to new monsters.  And what Dungeon Master does not like using Dragons.  With the Open Gaming License we are starting to see 3rd party publishers getting hardbound products out as options to, well give us more options.

Kobold Press has released a new product out for Pre-order.  You can preorder your copy here.  We did a review on Daves copy that he got early because he backed the kickstarter.

I was sad when I found out that missed getting my own early copy.  When we looked at the pdf we were not disappointed.  There are so many awesome monsters in this book as well as some new beasts and NPCs to easily add into your game.

Today I am just going to talk about the Dragons that are in this book. Next week I will touch on some dragonsother monster groups.  I will keep this series going until the book is released.

In this book you get 6 new Dragon types for your 5th edition game.  Kobold Press does not give you any carbon copy of dragons that exist in your 5th edition monster manual but 6 new whole cloth creations that stand out as unique.

Almost all of the dragons have 4 separate stat blocks for the 4 age categories of Dragons: ancient, adult, young and wyrmling. I make my notes below

The cave dragon is a fierce beast that constantly needs to eat.  It lives underground where its sensitivity to sunlight keeps it safe.  But sadly living underground is not a place abundant with food.  It is not mindless and is a true dragon.  I compare this one with a white dragon with lower stats and its desire for food out weighs its desire for any coin.  Sorry adventurers if you are looking to slay a dragon for its vast wealth I would avoid going after one of these guys unless you know a wealthy bone collector.  Because they usually starve to death before they get there you never (rarely) see an ancient one of these guys. And because of that we do not have an ancient stat block in for the Cave Dragon.

Flame dragons, according to this book, make red dragons look nice.  They love to kill main and destroy for the sake of their own enjoyment.  When you let them get old enough the tend to work the long plan and see how much suffering that they can make happen.  They tend to do so using mechanations, sometimes even working both sides.  Some times their planning works so well it back fires and the plans never come to full fruition because it winds up in this endless loop.  I feel the flame dragon is one that could very easily be a major villain in any game being a puppet master pulling your regular villains strings.

Mithral dragons, these guys tried to end the feud between chromatic and metallic dragons but they tome of beastsfailed.  So these guys are neutral.  When they are young they still like to pillage and raid to gain their sizable hoard, but after that they settle down and try to keep the peace, with people coming to them for their advice.  I am not seeing the jump here, if I were to use these guys in my campaign world I would have them earning their hoard in various guises keeping the peace and offering ways to settle disputes.  It fits more with the mindset.  You can play them however you like.  This one is the only other dragon without all four stat blocks, for some reason it lacks the wyrmling.  It does not mention why.

The sea dragon is the king of the waters, or at least it thinks so.  I love the fact that it is a seige monster so that it can easily tear apart your players boats and leave them helpless in the water with it.  It also artfully tears apart those boats so it can decorate its lair with the wreckage and have its treasure again artfully cascade out of the broken ships.  The sea dragon has the face of a shark you can tease the players by having them see a shark in the water and when they do not panic have the dragon tear that boat apart.  This one is by far the least dragon looking but I love it.  If you like non-standard dragons you will certainly get a kick out of this one. (pun intended because it has no feet)

The void dragon comes with its own warning label.  How great is that?  The void dragon is one that 5th editionactually lives in the stars so not something you should worry about unless you are doing a spell jamming type game. WRONG.  It actually does come to the planet and can link to its proper lair and mess up the world by doing so.  Isn’t that just lovely.  They spend their time collecting knowledge and lost lore.  So much so that it has actually driven them a bit insane.  They have the madness, and can spread it to you.  The warning comes in that because they are so stellar that when they die, they actually EXPLODE.  Each creature and object within 1 MILE takes a massive amount of bludgeoning, cold and psychic damage.  The warning actually states that the amount of damage is enough to outright kill some players and they should do research before fighting them to be more prepared.  Does it get any better than that?

But we are still not through with our dragons yet.  The wind dragon.  Typically creatures of the wind are flighty and weak.  They are more artsy and are push overs.  Not so with this chaotic Neutral dragon. The wind dragon claims dominion over anything the air touches.  And with the abilities this thing has it can certainly back it up.  The winds are always in it favor making it IMMUNE to ranged weapon attacks.  WOW, if that was not enough they are also uncontrollable.  What does that mean do you ask?  There speed can not be reduced by any means magical or other wise.  It can’t be restrained (per the condition), and it escapes automatically from any non-magical restraints (such as chains, entanglement, or grappling) by spending 5 feet of movement. Being underwater imposes no penalty on its movement or attacks.  This guy is just insane with power.  Will with a Chaotic Neutral bent I guess so . . .

Well there you have it some dragons in the Tome of Beasts.  If you have not pre-ordered your own copy, what are you waiting for.  You can get it here.  It is time to challenge those players of yours and you certainly can with this book.

 

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Ted Adams

The nerd is strong in this one. I received my bachelors degree in communication with a specialization in Radio/TV/Film. I have been a table op role player for about 20 years 17 of which with the current group. I have played several itterations of D&D, Mutants and Masterminds 2nd and 3rd editions, Star wars RPG, Shadowrun and World of Darkness. I am an avid fan of books and follow a few authors reading all they write. Favorite author is Jim Butcher I have been an on/off larper for around 15 years even doing a stretch of running my own for a while. I have played a number of Miniature games including Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Fantasy, Heroscape, Mage Knight, Dreamblade and D&D Miniatures. I have practiced with the art of the German long sword with an ARMA group for over 7 years studying the German long sword, sword and buckler, dagger, axe and polearm. By no strecth of the imagination am I an expert but good enough to last longer than the average person if the Zombie apocalypse ever happens. I am an avid fan of board games and dice games with my current favorite being Quarrios.

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