The 2024 Monster Manual (5.5e) (Amazon link, if you’d like to support us here at DungeonSports) gave dragons a upgrade. The power-creep is real for Player characters. Although 5.5 is backwards compatible with 5e, I can tell you from experience that the original monster manual critters started out a little underpowered. Now, as a DM, you’ll have a hard time creating fair matchups against your players with monsters written for 5e.
The bad news is, that feels like a bit of a cash-grab, potentially requiring you to buy the same content over again when you get the 2024 Monster Manual. The silverish lining is that the monsters are a lot better written. If you’re getting into D&D now, the new Monster Manual has some really great monster. Let’s talk about those dragons.
The Way Dragons Were
In the 5e Monster manual dragons felt really limited. You had your metallic dragons and your chromatics. They went from wyrmling to ancient. For the most part though, stamped out of a template. Chromatics were pretty much all the same with the variation of breath weapon damage. Chromatics got an extra breath weapon type, and shape changing ability. None of them new any magic by default. You’ll find the option to give them magic in a sidebar. All of them had Armor classes that seemed unreasonably low.
Fizban’s brought gem dragons and greatwyrms, along with Aspect of Tiamat and Aspect of Bahamut. Gem dragons had some limited spellcasting and the ability to teleport. Greatwyrms basically got stamped out of a template to the point that some didn’t even deal the appropriate damage type for their color, but force instead. It was a nice addition to the Monster Manual. Of course, it didn’t do anything to correct the issues in the older content. That’s where the 2024 Monster Manual comes in.
Dragons in the 2024 Monster Manual
As I’ve said, the situation for dragons is greatly improved. All dragons have some magical abilities by the time they are Adults, and the spell lists feel relevant to the dragon types. Metallic dragons now get a second breath weapons that doesn’t deal damage and doesn’t require a recharge to use. Metallics get a little more power than their evil counterparts. That’s typical for allied NPC creatures in the 2024 Monster Manual, and in previous publications.
Dragons also no longer get bite and claw attacks, but a single “rend” attack. Sometimes I feel like stat block simplification goes too far, but I agree with this change. I really hate it when stat blocks have one good attack, and then a weaker attack that doesn’t seem to do anything but add flavor. I can narrate the dragon’s action just fine on my own and don’t need another attack that doesn’t do anything different to help.
Maybe when I have a chance I’ll go through and update the gem dragons so they are in line with the writing for the metallics and chromatics in the 2024 Monster Manual. Unless WotC beats me to the trick and publishes an updated Fizban’s. Let me know if that’s content you’d like to see.
Now that you’ve learned how good those 2024 Monster Manual dragons are, maybe check out some nice hardware to give your players.
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