Through a strange twist, the best new dragons released for Dungeons & Dragons this year aren’t in the draconic compendium Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, but rather in the other newly published D&D book coming out this month. Back in October, Dungeons & Dragons released Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, a fantastic tome of lore, rules, and material themed around dragons. The book contained dozens of new dragon statblocks, adding classic creatures like gem dragons as well as new deadly greatwyrm statblocks to the game. While ComicBook.com called Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons one of the finest rulebooks published for Fifth Edition, we sadly have to note that Wizards of the Coast was holding back on D&D fans, as its other fall release Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos contains five dragons that are even more impressive than the ones found in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons.ย
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For those unfamiliar with Strixhaven, the school is a magic university split into five colleges, each of which has its own specialty. Strixhaven originated as a Magic: The Gathering locale and so the five colleges are each aligned with two of Magic: The Gathering’s five mana colors. Each of the five colleges were founded by a different ancient dragon, whose personalities are aligned somewhat with the college that bears their name. While no longer directly associated with Strixhaven, the five founder dragons can usually be found somewhere in the vicinity of the magic school.
All five Founder Dragons have statblocks in Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, and they are some impressive pieces of work. Not only are all five dragons spellcasters, they also have unique breath weapons that simultaneously deal out two types of damage. Tanazir Quandrix exhales a “weakening equation” that deals both force damage and psychic damage and physically weakens those it hits. Meanwhile, Beledros Witherbloom deals both necrotic and poison damage with her breath weapon that also prevents its targets from regaining hit points for a round. All five dragons also have legendary actions that allow them to summon creatures or use their teleport/movement ability, which gives them the ability to move without drawing attacks of opportunity.ย
The five dragons all follow a similar statblock template, but they’re still pretty impressive creatures that can be used by a DM as a final boss if needed. With spellcasting, unique breath weapons, and all the tools of a normal dragon, these dragons have enough wrinkles and tools to keep a combat encounter interesting for both players and Dungeon Masters. There are several other fantastic monster statblocks found in Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, which should make the book appealing to D&D players who have no interest in Magic: The Gathering crossovers.ย
Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos will be released on December 7th. Pre-orders are live on Amazon now.ย
