Summary

• The cover art for the revised D&D Player's Handbook hints at possible dragon allies for heroes, adding an exciting new mechanic.
• Strongholds and Followers subsystems from MCDM games reintroduce the concept of gaining a home base and followers into modern D&D.
• Good-aligned metallic dragons may become party allies, emphasizing the iconic separation from evil-aligned chromatic dragons in D&D lore.

Cover art has been released for the revised Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, and while the prominent imagery of dragons comes as no surprise, the specific types of dragons featured could hint at an exciting new mechanic that pays homage to past editions. Prior to third edition DnD, characters would gain access to a home base and followers as part of normal character progression. The cover art for the new Player’s Handbook features a metallic Gold Dragon and a chromatic Red Dragon. This could hint at a system where heroes gain good-aligned metallic dragon allies as they level up.

The third-party supplement from MCDM games, Strongholds and Followers, adds these subsystems, last seen officially in 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as core rules, back into the modern 5e Dungeons & Dragons system.

The DnD strongholds from Baldur’s Gate 2 were inspired by Advanced DnD, where powerful characters gained strongholds and followers based on their class. Fighters would gain a keep populated by aspiring warriors, where Clerics would gain a temple with acolytes of their faith. While these rules provided excellent flavor, appropriately showing the societal influence of high-level heroes, they were only appropriate for specific types of campaigns. Games where characters are constantly expanding a frontier or touring the multiverse make it harder to realistically set down roots. Still, for conventional fantasy settings with a regional home base, a stronghold made sense.

Dragons Are Not Always Fearsome Enemies In D&D

The Monster Manual Contains Many Good Aligned Creatures That Can Heroes

Players can use hirelings effectively in 5e DnD, on occasion, but gaining allies or a home base is typically handled on a case-by-case basis by the Dungeon Master, instead of a predefined part of character progression. Gaining a powerful patron or sponsor is also generally campaign-specific, but returning it to a core rule does open some intriguing possibilities, including good-aligned metallic dragons as party allies. The separation of the evil-aligned chromatic dragons and the good-aligned metallic dragons is an iconic element of DnD lore that the 5.5 edition can fully lean into, more than ever, with a dragon patron system.

The notion that the game designers want players to become comfortable with the idea of draconic allies is not as far-fetched as it might seem since the alternate DnD Player’s Handbook 2024 cover features adventurers enjoying a respite, complete with freshly brewed tea, alongside a gold dragon. Showing a quiet moment, essentially a Short Rest, spent reclining against the neck of a massive dragon (that has its own cup in hand), evokes a sense of true friendship and camaraderie. The dragon does not present itself as a distant commander issuing orders, but a close, personal friend of the party.

Many character builds, like heroes of the Dragonborn race or Draconic Bloodline Sorcerers, are closely linked with dragons. These archetypes make ideal pairings for a party with a dragon patron.

Despite the book’s title of Monster Manual, the guidebook to DnD’s various magical beasts and supernatural foes also contains many good-aligned creatures. These include benevolent entities like Ki-Rin and Guardian Naga, along with angelic beings like Solars and Planetars, but the metallic dragons remain among the most powerful.

Although DnD has moved away from fixed alignments for humanoid, playable races, and settings like Eberron are more flexible on alignment requirements, good-aligned dragons remain a powerful storytelling tool. Dragons are sometimes portrayed as being distant from the affairs of lesser beings, but times of crisis could cause good dragons to intervene.

Riding On A Dragon Lets D&D Feel Closer To JRPGs

JRPGs Began By Emulating D&D, But Modern D&D Copies JRPGs In Many Ways

There are DnD alignments some Dungeon Masters hate, based on how they are commonly played, but most adventuring parties do include a variety of moral and philosophical outlooks on the world. Since most groups do encom a spectrum of alignments, the group’s metallic dragon ally could be based on the average of where individual party lie on the axis of Chaos and Law. Evil parties could similarly have a chromatic dragon ally at high level, though trusting a Chaotic Evil Red Dragon would be a dubious choice, even for those of similarly bleak morality.

The recommended number of encounters per adventuring day is higher than ever in 5e, which is why DnD Dungeon Masters must create urgency in their stories. Shifting towards a larger number of smaller stakes encounters that take their toll through attrition puts modern DnD closer to the Japanese RPG video games that many players may have experienced before taking up the tabletop RPG hobby. While JRPGs originally took their cues from DnD, giving the next ruleset more JRPG-inspired mechanics could have some appeal. In classic JRPGs, acquiring new vehicles opens more of the map for exploration.

In of sheer speed, the Druid spell Wind Walk still outdoes a draconic mount. An ancient Gold Dragon has a fly speed of 80, but the Wind Walk spell gives up to 11 creatures a fly speed of 300 and lasts for up to eight hours.

Going from traveling on foot to acquiring a boat to explore the overworld map’s ocean is a common thread in classic JRPGs like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Riding on the back of a friendly dragon is often the final mode of travel, at which time the world map fully opens for exploration. High-level DnD characters often already have access to swift modes of transportation, including spells like Wind Walk and Teleport. Still, riding on dragon back can save spell slots and provides a distinctly larger-than-life vibe that matches the upper tiers of play perfectly.

The New 2024 Books Showcase The Dragon In D&D

Whether Included In The Rules, Or By DM, Dragons Make Great Epic Allies

Many DnD fans eagerly await June 18, when the new trio of core rulebooks will go up for pre-order. The Player’s Handbook cover art could simply be a reminder that good dragons exist or a foreshadowing of new rules. Regardless, its imagery pairs perfectly with the heroic fantasy RPG. Whether a Gold Dragon is fighting alongside the heroes against a rampaging Red Dragon and its minions or just enjoying downtime together, the art reminds Dungeon Masters that metallic dragons make excellent allies for epic heroes, even if the Dungeons & Dragons rules do not make it official.