Since publishing this article, I’ve begun work on 5e Stat Blocks for Fourth Wing dragons. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
As I wrote in my previous article, the dragons of Fourth Wing are a key component of the setting. There are more than a few similarities between D&D dragons and those from the book. Flight, leg count, breath weapon, frightful presence, tail attacks are pretty much all there. So what does distinguish them?
Dragon Colors and Tails
In D&D, color is connected to breath weapon type for most dragons. Chromatic, metallic and gem dragons have breath weapons that correspond to their colors. In Fourth Wing, the dragons colors are less distinctive. All of these dragons breath fire. The colors indicate temperamental differences. Here’s my best stab at what the colors mean and how to apply that to the dragons stat block.
| Dragon Color | Notes | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | Ruthless and Large, should not be approached | Chaotic, Powerful Build, Higher CON score, tail attack as reation |
| Black | Intelligent, very rare | Lawful, Higher Int Score, Magic Resistance |
| Red | Short tempered | Chaotic, Faster Breath Weapon Recharge |
| Orange | Unpredictablle | Chaotic, Wreckless, Dex Saves |
| Green | Reasonable, intelligent | Lawful, Advantage on attacks against sstructures, Higher INT/WIS. |
| Brown | Should not be shown fear | Neutral, higher Save DC for frightful presence attack as a reaction on failed save. |
The other big difference for the dragons in fourth wing is the tail weapon. Pretty much all D&D dragons have the same tail. There are a lot of tails in Fourth Wing, although we don’t get a lot of insight on the differences between the tails. I’m going to use the adult red dragon as the basis for these stat blocks. For reference, their tail attack is 2d8 + modifiers. I’m going to beef that up a little bit, as the book focuses on the importance of their tails. Here’s the rundown and my first pass at implementation.
| Tail | Damage |
|---|---|
| Mornigstartail | 1d10 Bludgeoning, 1d12 Bludgeoning and Piercing, Seige Monster |
| Clubtail | 2d10 Bludgeoning, Siege Monster |
| Daggerfail | 4d6 Slashing |
| Swordtail | 2d12 Slashing reach additional 5ft reach |
| Scorpion Tail | 1d12 Piecing 1d6 Poison, CON save for poisoned condition. |
Of course, all this still leaves the bond, telepathy and an few other issues to deal with…but we’ll get there!
1 Comment
Tairneanach of Fourth Wing - Dungeonsports Coliseum · March 14, 2024 at 8:46 am
[…] in the Fourth Wing series, so I decided to start with his stat block first. As I mentioned in my previous article, the dragons in the books bear some similarity to those in D&D. I’ve beefed up the tail […]