D&D (2024) What do people think of the new dragon designs?

[Reynard]

Is that like a reverse Peewee’s Playhouse situation…?

Yes. Still involves screaming, even...

 

[plecostomus]

The Cover Art for the PHB shows the new look for the Gold Dragon

It will be interesting to see the design schematic for the gold. I can see what they are going for, but looking at the WIP shots of this painting in the GI article, this particular gold had some position/design revision. It looks like it was originally a 2nd red dragon, or a red dragon was used as a placeholder because they didn't have the final design ready for the artist. This is unfortunate because if you look at the red dragon design it has a fairly short neck. It would be tough to swap between the two.

I think the gold ended up at an unflattering angle that flattens the sheer length of its design. This makes the arm on the left look too small, instead of conveying understanding that arms are pretty vestigial on such a grand noodle. I believe the left side gets cut off by the cover width, but the gold would have benefited from a more dynamic portrayal of its length regardless.

I do want to say my campaign recently had an encounter with a gold dragon so I was pretty excited to see one on the cover! My Cleric also wears one of those bucket helmets with wings like Strongheart on this cover. Not dragon-related: I am very much looking forward to the new key art for the Paladin and Cleric classes. I think they are difficult to visually differentiate.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Yeah, I feel the same way. Variety is the spice of life. Anyway, the dragons in my campaign look like whatever miniature I am currently jonesing to use. So if that makes the villain a gold dragon, that's just how it is.

On an aesthetic level, I prefer my dragons to look reptilian. The one from the new PHB art looks too much like a lion for my taste. It's not a miniature I would buy.

It's supposed to look like an Eastern Dragon.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I should mention as well, that Fizban's used a couple images of the new dragon designs as well.

The New Green and White were also used on Diceling Toys

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Overall I like these designs well enough, though the wing design on the black looks really goofy.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

These are certainly the best dragons since the 3E Draconomicon, which remains the high water mark for me. I kind of wish they'd waited to do Fizban's after the 2025 Monster Manual, but I'm sure it won't be the last dragon-centric book published by WotC.

 

[dave2008]

So the titular monsters of Dungeons and Dragons are getting a full visual redesign! The dragons have had a consistent design since 3rd edition, so I was pretty shocked when I heard that they were being redone. However when I saw them I instantly loved them. More than ever before they feel like real flesh and blood monsters, and the design both resembles their previous iteration, while being a lot more distinctive than before.

I'm still hoping that their statblocks get redone to be worthy of both the namesake of DnD, and one of the most commonly used BBEGs in peoples campaigns. 'Big blob of health which occasionally does fire damage' isn't exactly a memorable encounter.

What do people think of the new designs?

I like them both. I have no issues with the bronze, but I would make a few changes to the red. They are my favorite D&D dragons so I am more particular about them. I may take the concept image into GIMP and see what I can do with it.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

These are certainly the best dragons since the 3E Draconomicon, which remains the high water mark for me. I kind of wish they'd waited to do Fizban's after the 2025 Monster Manual, but I'm sure it won't be the last dragon-centric book published by WotC.

Wouldn't be against bringing back some of the more obscure chromatic/metallic/gem dragons, to say nothing of lung dragons, linnorms, 4e cataclysmic dragons, etc.

Assuming Fizban's rather authoritative stance on "anyone who claims they've seen a type of dragon not explicitly enumerated in this book is wrong" can be rolled back...

 

[dave2008]

We actually did get pictures of the updated designs for the other Chromatics.
Let me post them again.

Not exactly - notice the red dragon you posted does not match the red dragon concept art posted yesterday. Not sure what that means for the rest of them. They are both clearly red dragons, but there are lots of subtle differences. My be artistic license too.

I new image has:

• longer limbs
• 4 horns vs 2
• shorter neck

old image

vs new image

 

[MonsterEnvy]

They look pretty similar. I think Artist differences can be taken into account.