D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Drakewarden and Way of the Ascendant Dragon

We have a new UA available today, this time showcasing new monk and ranger dragon-themed subclasses, in the Way of the Ascendant Dragon and the Drakewarden, respectively.

Interesting to note that these are both dragon adjacent subclasses. Is this foreshadowing for an upcoming product? Or just coincidence?

 

[Charlaquin]

Huh. Well, we do know they were working with Hickman and Weis on a new Dragonlance trilogy... Maybe despite deciding not to move forward with that product they’re still planning to release a Dragonlance setting book that would have tied in with it?

EDIT: The subclasses themselves are pretty cool. I like the draconic monk a lot, seems very powerful. The drakewarden is basically a dragon-taming take on the beastmaster with one of the souped-up beast companion stat blocks. The drake even gets large enough to mount at 15th level, which is awesome.

 

[the Jester]

I foresee a chance of a 5e Draconomicon on the horizon...

 

[Remathilis]

Dragonlance confi.... Doh!

Way to late for Tasha, and the dragon theme doesn't jive with the gothic one of the last. No idea where they are going return this...

 

[OblivionDrive]

Just got done reading through them and honestly what bugs me the worst about this is that the Dragon Monk totally craps all over a Wyvern Monk idea I was working up for DM’s Guild. tosses notes in the trash

On a more serious note (not that my pain isn’t serious) I’m still not sure how I feel about these yet. Drakewarden just feels like a dialed-in, beefed-up Beastmaster for the most part. Interesting that your dragon buddy starts off small and then grows to large at high levels. Just gonna give medium size a total miss eh?

 

[DEFCON 1]

James Wyatt was one of the authors of this playtest. Are there any Magic: The Gathering settings that focus on dragons or have them prominent?

 

[Remathilis]

James Wyatt was one of the authors of this playtest. Are there any Magic: The Gathering settings that focus on dragons or have them prominent?

Tarkir?

Oh, that's a possibility...

 

[OblivionDrive]

Tarkir?

Oh, that's a possibility...

That's the one that's vaguely Mongolian if I'm not mistaken, yeah?

Interesting...

 

[Charlaquin]

On a more serious note (not that my pain isn’t serious) I’m still not sure how I feel about these yet. Drakewarden just feels like a dialed-in, beefed-up Beastmaster for the most part. Interesting that your dragon buddy starts off small and then grows to large at high levels. Just gonna give medium size a total miss eh?

That’s good feedback. They could easily tack growing to medium size onto an earlier class feature in a later draft.

 

[Remathilis]

That's the one that's vaguely Mongolian if I'm not mistaken, yeah?

Interesting...

Vaguely all sorts of different non-Japanese Asian cultures.

The first version was based about Kahn's, but the second (timely wimey) was about dragons.