D&D 5E D&D Gem Dragons Are Officially Back

So if you're (not) like me and you don't have the time or patience to watch Spoilers & Swag, you may have missed this awesome reveal... Gem Dragons are back! And I don't just mean back in a third-party book like Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers (great book, check it out), I mean back officially for D&D 5e.

In case you don't know, Gem Dragons are the third-wheel of dragonkind... they are not Good (Metallic) or Evil (Chromatic), they are Neutral. This makes them easily overlooked in the struggle of good vs. evil, but they've popped up here and there in previous editions.

But it looks like Gem Dragons have returned, first to promote the sale of a very expensive sapphire dice set. This little paper fold-out is included (screenshots below), complete with lore for gem dragons and a statblock for the Adult Sapphire Dragon specifically.

Of course, if you don't want to buy a pricey set of dice for a statblock... you're in luck, as Nathan Stewart reveals that everybody else will get access to it "early in 2020, where we [WotC] will have some fun ways to get that out there." So it looks like some product will be released including the Neutral Dragons, a new adventure or maybe a new monster book!

Feel free to speculate, here's the images;

 

[Parmandur]

Given their tie to psionics, I expect them to come in whatever book gives us our psionics.

Yeah, feels appropriate for some sort of Setting but ok or Monster book.

 

[dwayne]

I am still hoping that psionics might get its up date and setting (fingers crossed for darksun) as it would be a great setting to reintroduce, and give it a more hard core feel. Bring back death effects and such make life a struggle and less friendly to the players, more of a survival in many ways.

 

[Aldarc]

I wonder if the ferrous dragons will a;so make a come back Chromium (Chrome) Dragon, Cobalt Dragon, Iron Dragon, Nickel Dragon, Steel Dragon, and Tungsten Dragon.

I wish. 4e did dragons incredibly well and expanded their lore in interesting ways.

Given their tie to psionics, I expect them to come in whatever book gives us our psionics.

I almost wish that each set of dragons was tied to a different type of magic: e.g., chromatic=arcane; gems=psionics; metallic=divine; etc.

 

[jgsugden]

….I almost wish that each set of dragons was tied to a different type of magic: e.g., chromatic=arcane; gems=psionics; metallic=divine; etc.

I do a twist on this idea. There are 5 of each type of dragon within a set. In my campaign world there are 5 different types of magic. Each color/type favors a different type of magic. For example, red is arcane (wizard), blue is divine (cleric), green is nature (druid), black is psionic (awaiting the official rules), and white are supernatural/elemental/scientific based magics (they gain magics that mimic abilities of supernatural creatures, or natural elemental abilities, generally).

 

[Ancalagon]

Well, it's almost September... did the gem dragons come out in a book and I missed it?

In fact... are there any new dragons "officially" out? Like the steel dragon, the yellow dragon, the brown dragon, the deep dragon... anything?

Thanks!

 

[Azzy]

Well, it's almost September... did the gem dragons come out in a book and I missed it?

Nope. There's a long shot that they'll be in Tasha's as one of the articles mentions "creatures". But that's probably a reference to the new beast master pets and summoning spell critters, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[Haldrik]

Im guessing the gem dragons come out after psionics debut?

 

[Parmandur]

Im guessing the gem dragons come out after psionics debut?

I'm guessing that the next straight monster book is a Draconomicon.

 

[Marandahir]

I wish. 4e did dragons incredibly well and expanded their lore in interesting ways.

I almost wish that each set of dragons was tied to a different type of magic: e.g., chromatic=arcane; gems=psionics; metallic=divine; etc.

I liked that Adamantine, Cobalt, Steel, Mercury, Iron, Orium, and Mithral dragons were added to the Metallic group, and that Brown, Purple, and Grey were added to the Chromatic Group.

I don't mind the Gem group being added back, but I'd prefer to keep the "Ferrous" Dragons a part of the Metallic ones, and also to avoid alignment tropes for intelligent species like Dragons that aren't naturally tied to the upper or lower planes (The Platinum and Chromatic Dragons being exceptions here, of course, as they're tied to Celestia and Baator respectively).

 

[Parmandur]

I liked that Adamantine, Cobalt, Steel, Mercury, Iron, Orium, and Mithral dragons were added to the Metallic group, and that Brown, Purple, and Grey were added to the Chromatic Group.

I don't mind the Gem group being added back, but I'd prefer to keep the "Ferrous" Dragons a part of the Metallic ones, and also to avoid alignment tropes for intelligent species like Dragons that aren't naturally tied to the upper or lower planes (The Platinum and Chromatic Dragons being exceptions here, of course, as they're tied to Celestia and Baator respectively).

Providing more nuanced lore on the standard Dragon types, and spelling out every Dragon type from the history of the game, is probably enough for a whole Volo's style book.