The many dragons we’d like to see in the upcoming Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons D&D sourcebook

Last week during D&D Live we learned that one of the upcoming D&D projects is Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, a sourcebook that’s all about the second, and arguably cooler, part of the game’s name. Oh, sure, we spend a fair few moments in D&D dungeon crawling, but without dragons, would the game really be as much fun? I say no. There’s a long tradition of dragon-centric Dungeons and Dragons books over the years — from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons setting Council of Wyrms which let you play as a dragon, to the various books entitled Draconomicon, all of which I own because I love dragons. 4th Edition D&D in particular had two Draconomicons, one for Chromatic and one for Metallic dragons, while the 3.5 Edition book branched out into stuff like Fang Dragons, extraplanar dragons, and even vampire, skeleton, and zombie dragons.

Over the years, there have been a lot of Dragons in D&D. What do we think will be making a comeback in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, especially with its focus on Fizban and presumably his relationship to the Dragon-God Paladine? Will we hear about various Dragons from Kyrnn, perhaps even Paladine’s opposite number, the dread five headed Takhisis?

We know that we’ll be seeing Gem Dragons and Gem Dragonborn, and a primordial First World that was destroyed and is somehow tied to Dragons and their origins, plus creatures like mind flayer-infected dragons. But what else could we see in the book? Though we don’t know the whole contents of Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons (yet), we have a few guesses based on the many dragons we’ve seen in the past.

Dragons in D&D can be weird, and we’d like to see more of that

Sure, the book absolutely has to have the classics — the Red, White, Black, Green and Blue Chromatic Dragons, and the Bronze, Brass, Copper, Gold, and Silver Metallic Dragons — because it just wouldn’t be right to skip over them in a treasury of dragons. But there are a lot of dragons in D&D history and some of them, like the Orium Dragon (above), are bizarre creatures with strange and cool abilities that I’d love to see more of in 5th Edition. Other weirdo dragons are Faerun’s Fang Dragons (also known as Grey Dragons), which are covered in bone spikes that they can use as piercing and slashing weapons. Then there’s the sinister Brown Dragon and various near-dragons and dragon relatives like Landwyrms, or the terrifying Planar Draons, including creatures such as the Abyssal Dragon.

There are also all sorts of dragon-like creatures like Dragonborn we could meet — the Draconians, created from the eggs of Dragons by an evil ritual, or the Half-Dragon offspring of dragons and members of other peoples, created when the dragon is shapeshifted into a suitable form, such as a Half-Dragon Elf or a Half-Dragon Elephant. Dragon scions tend to have higher intelligence and power than their non-dragon kin, but lack the true majesty and power of their dragon antecedents.

I’m totally hoping for all of this and more.

We might meet some dragon celebrities

There are a lot of dragons, and over the years, some of them have become famous — or possibly infamous depending on your point of view. Some of these dragons have been the movers and shakers of vile plots, others have aided the mortal races of their respective worlds. Are we going to see characters like Heart, the Silver Dragon love of Huma Dragonbane? What about the malevolent Ashardalon, who sought immortality so desperately that he broke into a demiplane where mortal souls were created to bathe in their essence? Or the powerful Dracolich Dragotha, who waged war on his former lover, Tiamat herself, alongside the disturbing Worm that Walks, Kyuss?

I really want at least some of these dragon luminaries to make an appearance. How about Valamaradace the crafty Ancient Gold Dragon? Cyan Bloodbane, the Green who served Takhisis and blighted the Elves? Zebukiel, who destroyed an ancient Dragonborn empire? Flame, the Red Dragon who featured in three adventures in Dungeon magazine (issues number 1, 100, and 200 if you’re curious)? Jalanvaloss, the Steel Dragon that masqueraded as a Human in Waterdeep? Ephelomon, one of Tiamat’s consorts, who came to Vlaakith the Lich Queen and made a pact between Githyanki and the Dragon goddess? Silvara, the Silver Dragon who lost her love by revealing her true nature to him, but still fought to defend his people? There are so many really awesome dragons we could see in this book, I’d be ecstatic if we got half of them.

Especially Dragotha, because he’s Dragotha. Dragotha. Dragotha. It just becomes a sinister chant if you say it enough times. And any dragon willing to pick a fight with Tiamat has got to be respected, even if Dragotha ended up a Dracolich.

There are also dragon gods: entities like Io, Chronepsis, and Falazure. We don’t always have to have every single dragon either worship Tiamat or Bahamut. It’s okay for there to be a variety of dragon gods! Hopefully the story of the First World ties into that in some way.

Magic items, mounds of treasure, and other cool dragon things

Look, the whole point of even having a dragon in your D&D game, to paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, is to show that they can be beaten. And then to take all their stuff, of which there is usually a lot, because dragons like stuff. Think of them as fantasy versions of billionaires, hoarding all the wealth and needing to be dealt with so some good-hearted adventurers can redirect it back into communities.

Sadly, this means some dragons have to die so we can use their body parts and blood to make magic items, use their massive treasures to buy castles and other massive expenditures of wealth, and in general it’s just better for everyone involved if we relieve them of all that loot. However, it’s not going to be easy — even a relatively young dragon is a terrifying opponent, and once you start getting into Adult, Elder or Ancient Dragons? Whooo boy.

Items like Orbs of Dragonkind, various Dragonslaying weapons, even magical items made for dragons can and should all make an appearance in this book. Maybe even the fabled Dragonlances that have given the world of Krynn the name most of us know.

I’m super excited for Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons and I hope it can be as cool and inclusive as its predecessors, bringing all of the weird variety of D&D’s dragons into 5th Edition.