Stuff D&D People Like No. 4: Dragons

Stuff D&D People Like No. 4: Dragons

August 6, 2022

It half of the name of the game they love so it’s only natural D&D people like dragons. (We’ll get to dungeons later on.) D&D people like dragons so much the most widely known individual in the game’s history ain’t no run-of-the-mill dragon either. D&D’s preeminent dragon is Tiamat, an evil entity boasting five dragon heads! The queen of chromatic dragons (the nasty variety) represents the entire brood with white, green, red, blue and black dragon heads.

Nowadays people can even play dragonlike characters right out of the gate thanks to the dragonborn race, which got freshened up with the release of Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. Pretty much every edition of the game features at least one book completely dedicated to this most famous monster.

There’s even a famous anecdote from the earliest days of D&D wherein someone asked the game’s co-creator Gary Gygax what to do if someone wanted to play a red dragon. Good ol’ Gary gave the notion a thumbs up, advising the DM only to make sure it’s power was comparable to other traditional characters. That’s right — making rulings over rules and creating your own specialized material isn’t a new concept introduced by the game’s fifth edition. They’ve been part and parcel of D&D since the very beginning.

It makes a lot of sense that D&D people like dragons so much too. Cultures all across the globe include dragons or draconic creatures in their real world folklore. Just like in these myths from our own world in D&D dragons are immensely powerful, intelligent, fierce, magical and long lived. They can also fly, which holds great appeal for lots of people. And they’re often depicted with hoards of valuable treasures. Who wouldn’t want to get in on that action?

When it comes to dragons in D&D some players feel like dragons should appear only very rarely and with tremendous impact. Others squeeze dragons into their games whenever possible. In the trailer for the upcoming movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves there’s three dragons! Where do you fall on how often should dragons show up in Dungeons & Dragons?

*Featured image — The five-headed progenitor of chromatic dragons in Dungeons & Dragons lore, Tiamat embodies the vices of evil dragons. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]