My thoughts on Fizban's Treasure of Dragons.
First the player options. Two subclasses, one for monks (Ascendant Dragon) and one for Rangers (Drakewarden). Ascendant Dragon is better than most of the other monk options, in my opinion. Some abilities are more fluff (rerolling certain charisma checks and speaking draconic) and the majority being combat related (breath weapon attacks, elemental damage for martial arts attacks, flight during step of the wind, resistance aura, blindsight, point blank AE). Solid, looks fun. Too bad monk is still a shit class (thanks Crawford). Rangers get Drakewarden, which is a lazy reskin of Beastmaster with all the associated problems and no solutions. And at high levels you can do a fireball's worth of damage with a breath weapon 1/long rest and the drake can be used as a flying mount. I really dislike the pokemon-esque nature of "summoning a spirit" rather than befriending an actual beast/drake. It's shitty and lazy. Ranger and monk continue to be the red-headed step-children of this edition.
Race options are all flavors of Dragonborn: Chromatic, Gem, and Metallic. They all get a breath weapon and a color coded resistance. Chromatics can become immune to their element for a minute, Gems get psionic communication and temporary flight, and Metallics get 1/long rest secondary breath weapon that either incapacitates enemies for a round or pushes them back/knocks them prone. Stat modifiers no longer matter, as everything gets their choice of a floating +2 and +1. All the breath weapons can be used WITH the attack action, and replace one of your attacks, making these all solid choices, especially Metallic.
Feat options are Gift of the Chromatic/Gem/Metallic Dragon. Chromatic is a 1/long rest elemental damage buff to a weapon that adds 1d4 for 1 minute and a temporary damage resist buff that lasts 1/turn and uses your reaction which can be procificency mod/long rest. Meh. Gem is decent for casters as it's a +1 Wis/Int/Cha (choose one) and use your reaction when you take damage to shove something away and deal psychic damage. Metallic has you learn Cure Wounds and gain 1 free casting of it and the ability to cast it using your spell slots and a ghetto shield spell you can use proficiency mod/long rest. Once again, best for casters. Kinda ho-hum feats over all.
All the spells are really good. Nathair's Mischief is a 20x20 debuff that lasts a minute and the area of effect can be moved 10' per round, and forces a new save on each subsequent turn you take. Rime's Binding Ice is Cone of Cold Jr, which is solid. Ashardalon's Stride let's you run around, setting fire to things and creatures with impunity (would be a solid choice for an Eldritch Knight or Bard with high mobility). Raulothim's Psychic Lance is a great save or suck with damage stacked on top that targets an uncommon save (Int). Fizban's Platinum Shield is a good buff to toss onto a squishier character about to get walloped which can also be moved to other targets on each turn. Summon Draconic Spirit is a fairly decent summoning spell (they're all kinda lackluster this edition). Draconic Transformation is one of the better self buffs as it operates purely on bonus actions and gives a breath weapon, blindsight, and 60' flight.
Next post will be about the bestiary and the "art". Not all of it is bad, but holy shit some of it looks godawful.
comicbook.com
