This review has been sponsored by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
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Designed by: Magnus Andersen Vogel, Lucas Anderson
Beholders, liches, and goblins are beloved by DMs, but there’s no arguing the celebrity status of dragons. Even the lowliest dragon conjures respect and fear from every adventuring party [see our most recent DM Roundtable discussion, all about dragons!].
Dragons are given over 30 pages and 40 statblocks in the D&D 5e Monster Manual. But we could always use more!
Dragons Remastered adds 100 pages of enhanced dragon statblocks, with new breath weapons, traits, legendary actions, and spells for all the dragons in the Monster Manual — plus a few newcomers to 5e.
All 1o chromatic and metallic dragons are here, including all four statblocks for each tier of play: wyrmling, young, adult, and ancient. One of the biggest advantages to using dragons is being able to quickly find the right one for your party, even if the right one is way out of their league.
Dragons Remastered also adds six new dragons to 5e, updating older edition dragons such as the telekinetically-powered purple dragon, petrifying gray dragon, and jungle-dwelling orium dragon.
Each dragon is attributed with one or two primary traits that reflect their personality, lair, and attacks. Silver dragons are religious. Red dragons are egotistical bullies. Mercury dragons are obsessed with beauty.
The designers go a step further with Description Rolls sidebars for each dragon type. A player can make a History, Religion, or Arcana check (depending on the dragon) to discover a dragon’s typical personality, features, and unique attacks in an easy-to-read-aloud format. Very helpful!
Most of the ‘remastering’ lowers the dragons’ defensive stats (AC and HP) while increasing or adding offensive capabilities, such as secondary breath weapons, passive traits, and more interesting legendary actions. After years of D&D combat, I’m generally in favor of enemy creatures that can deal awesome amounts of damage with unique attacks, but also don’t stick around too long.
Green dragons, for example, gain the Master of Poisons trait, buffing its claw attack with additional CON-save debuffs, such as losing attacks of opportunity, or losing an entire turn to vomiting. Legendary actions include making another poison claw attack, or recharging its poisons.
In addition to its poison breath, green dragons also gain Enthralling Breath, dealing psionic damage and reducing enemy movement speed to zero as they exhale a cloud of hallucinogens.
The psionically-gifted purple dragons has a bevy of awesome telekinetic powers, including a Vader-like Force Choke, damage-reducing barriers, and teleporting breath attacks.
The classic red dragon gains a new meteor breath, literally hurtling a ball of fire that explodes on impact. When reduced to half its hit points, it becomes enraged, lowering is AC but gaining an additional claw attack. New legendary actions include a defeaning roar, and a 30-ft trampling charge that knocks away everyone in its path.
If you’re looking for something beyond even an ancient dragon, Dragons Remastered includes two CR 30 statblocks for the god-like Avatar of Tiamat and Avatar of Bahamut. I particular like the d10 tables for the chaos that ensues when these massive creatures fall to below 100 hit points.
Any dragon can be a spellcaster, but in the Monster Manual it’s mostly left up to the DM . While dragons aren’t given specific spells in their statblocks, Dragons Remastered offers over 20 new dragon-only spells.
Dragon spells are organized by theme, such as high magic, ice magic, and necromancy, making it easy to enhance a dragon’s already large number of tactical options with thematically appropriate spells.
Summon fire tornadoes, animate armies of undead, lock down spellcasters, and bind the life of two different creatures. And the best part: each spell action can simply replace the dragon’s strongest attack as part of its multiattack action. No having to choose between casting a spell or unleashing the dragon’s devastating triple attack.
Dragons Remastered is also one of the more attractive monster books I’ve seen. While it lacks the original artwork of the Monster Manual Expanded series, the layout is absolutely lovely, expertly weaving in every piece of dragon art in half-page, full-page, and even two-page spreads around the text and statblocks. It’s a great read, with thematically redesigned statblocks to surprise your players with.
Pros:
- New traits, breath weapons, and legendary actions for every dragon* in the 5e Monster Manual.
- Brings six new dragons to 5e, plus two god-like avatars!
- Informative description rolls for every type of dragon.
- Over 20 new dragon-specific spells, grouped by theme.
- Attractive layout with plenty of dragon art.
Cons:
- No new lair actions or regional effects.
- *No love for dracoliches or dragon turtles.
The Verdict: Even if you’re all dragon’d out from Fizban’s Treasury, Dragons REmastered is worth your attention with updated 5e dragons, and new breath weapons, legendary actions, and dragon-specific spells.
A review copy of “Dragons Remastered” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
RogueWatson 