D&D 5E The October D&D Book is Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons

As revealed by Nerd Immersion by deciphering computer code from D&D Beyond!

Spoiler

Fizban the Fabulous is, of course, the accident-prone, befuddled alter-ego of Dragonlance’s god of good dragons, Paladine, the platinum dragon (Dragonlance’s version of Bahamut).

Which makes my guess earlier this year spot on!

UPDATE -- the book now has a description!

D&D 5E - Fizban's Treasury: The Dragon Book Now Has A Description... And A Feat

Courtesy of Amazon, we now have a description for Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, the October D&D hardcover. The book introduces gem dragons, dragon-themed player options, and plenty of draconic lore! This joins September's The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and November's Strixhaven: Curriculum of...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - My guess for the other D&D book this year... Draconomicon!

We know the fifth major product this year will be James Wyatt‘s as-yet unannounced project, and we know it will be coming out this year between Witchlight and Strixhaven. Wyatt co-wrote the Draconomicon for 3E. There have been two recent dragon-themed Unearthed Arcanas — dragon-themed...

www.enworld.org

Fizban the Fabulous by Vera Gentinetta

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Well, yes and no. Noble Draconians were a 3.5 gloss on the originals -- they were created by corrupting the eggs of chromatic dragons that had died during the War of the Lance. The shtick used to justify them was that after the liberation of the good dragon eggs Ariakus needed more troops. So just as corrupting good dragon eggs turns them evil -- the corruption of evil dragon eggs turned them unexpectedly good. So that the noble draconians of the 3.5 setting could have agency to become good guys (and thus, PC races or friendly NPCs).

It's a 3.5 era retcon ca 2005. I'm not suggesting it isn't. Still, that was the backstory to em.

That's not a retcon. It doesn't change or alter what was known
That's an addition. It adds new lore

As for good draconians, less evil ones started appearing in mid-2nd Ed in 1996

The Doom Brigade

The Doom Brigade is a fantasy novel by Margaret Weis & Don Perrin. It is the beginning of the Kang's Regiment series and follows characters which originally appeared in The Dragons of Krynn and The Dragons at War anthologies. The book covers how Kang and his regiment have lived for 25 years...

dragonlance.fandom.com

Written by the setting's co-creator

With PC rules four years later

Draconian Measures

Draconian Measures is a fantasy novel by Don Perrin. It is the second volume of the Kang's Regiment series and follows characters which originally appeared in The Dragons of Krynn, The Dragons at War, and Heroes and Fools anthologies. The book covers how Kang and his regiment travel east and...

dragonlance.fandom.com

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

"The minions of Takhisis stole our eggs! If we don't sit out this war, they will destroy them!" "Well, can't we just lay more eggs?"

"The minions of Thakhisis kidnapped our children! If we don't sit out this war, they will kill them!" "Well, can't we just make more children?"
While you state that eggs are not people, some humans IRL do see human fertilized eggs as person and equates foetus with baby. Maybe the "good dragons" share these views? Could it be compatible with the general behaviour of dragons toward eggs (and young dragons... if they don't raise them but try to eat them, it's mooot) in the setting?

 

[Dire Bare]

Well, that may be. And if you are trying to justify a non-evil Draconian, that might be one way to do it. Freeing a corrupted soul of its possessor is another. There are many others we could dream up, too.

Nevertheless, the way that draconians were made is not an afterthought to the setting; finding out how it happened and taking steps to stop it from continuing to happen is one of the two climaxes to the original DL story. It's literally the main plotline!

Whatever the case, in a time where we are backing off of races being "inherently evil" (for some good real-world reasons) there is still something useful in maintaining a fantasy race that is the by-product of possession by objectively evil and irredeemable devils. There is great utility in the moral clarity that provides. That's a useful thing in what is ideally used as an introductory epic story like DragonLance to new players of the game.

The idea that we need always-evil people that we can just kill without thought and with "moral clarity" . . . well, let's just say I disagree that we need that, and feel it's just shoddy world-building.

As a kid in middle-school, the evil draconians of the original stories were scary and made effective villains. But as more Dragonlance stories were told, they became boring to me. When Weis and Perrin starting writing about Kang and his regiment, giving the draconians more depth . . . they became fascinating, even to young adult me back in the day.

Now that Dragonlance has come and gone . . . and will be revived again soon (at least in novel form), I'm way more interested in stories that portray well-rounded villains with depth, and that avoid poor tropes of the evil, ugly people that only serve as antagonists to defeat and slay.

Although, to be fair, I'd rather see a reimagining of the Dragonlance setting than simply a revival. Rework the world and story to get rid of the problematic elements, like always-evil draconians and goblins, and the gods of "good" deciding to drop a mountain on the world, killing millions of innocents . . .

 

[Demetrios1453]

Other potential dragons include making the rest of the planar dragons as templates, a la the shadow dragon, and ferrous dragons, lungs, and linnorms.

I can definitely see the lung dragons updated, as well as dragon-adjacent creatures such as the dragonne.

I'm also guessing we might see individual dragon stat blocks as examples of particularly interesting or powerful individuals, likely with some sort of interesting mechanics twist.

Incidentally, I'm glad they put a gem dragon on the cover - they so often get the short stick when it comes to dragon lore/books, so its great to see one prominently featured like this...

 

[Steel_Wind]

Well, whatever the case, I hope WotC decides not to release a "setting book" for Krynn in 2022. They've gone down that road before and it wasn't very good. Another pseudo Tolkienized world setting is not what 5e needs.

I'd rather they simply re-do the classic Dragonlance campaign for 5e. And not just do an updated conversion. I mean a reboot. There was a lot that was innovative and excellent about the original Dragonlance campaign. (no, I don't mean the pre-gen argument -- can we please leave that aside?). I mean the campaign design itself. Re-do it. Hell, hire Weis to rewrite the Chronicles too, if they want. Change it. She was a new author with limited skills at the time she and Hickman wrote those novels.

Set loose upon them now with complete freedom to change the characters and outcome? She could add a lot more gravitas to what was pretty lightweight fare. She is 4 decades removed from being a new author. She has the chops to do it.

Whatever the case, on the game side - there is lots to like; there were some great iconic dungeons, some of them with truly great and truly memorable designs. And some of them with really poor designs, too. And a terribly rail-roady design. So change it.

Keep most of the good - throw out all of the bad and re-do it. Not just a new coat of 5e paint. Not just some filler and sanding and cosmetic body work. I mean a whole new car, damnit, that mostly looks the same. Mostly.

That's the opportunity they have. And if they did it right - it would give birth to an IP with film or tv potential. WotC has money. They are not dumb - they are smart at what they do. They could do this and do it well, too.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Anyone else underwhelmed by the cover?

I managed to scroll by without it registering to me that it was a picture of the cover, so I suppose I have to be a yes. It seems fine, "workmanlike", etc. but not particularly striking given that it is a picture of two dragons squaring off for a dragon fight, which should not be a hard thing to make pop. But I'll withhold actual judgement until I see it not in a pixelated and desaturated image.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Although, to be fair, I'd rather see a reimagining of the Dragonlance setting than simply a revival. Rework the world and story to get rid of the problematic elements, like always-evil draconians and goblins, and the gods of "good" deciding to drop a mountain on the world, killing millions of innocents . . .

^This.

Trying to justify the "gods of good" dropping an asteroid on a planet because of what a few people may have done in their arrogance was awful. Your world view has to be deeply-rooted in... well... yeah. THAT.

How about NOT THAT?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I managed to scroll by without it registering to me that it was a picture of the cover, so I suppose I have to be a yes. It seems fine, "workmanlike", etc. but not particularly striking given that it is a picture of two dragons squaring off for a dragon fight, which should not be a hard thing to make pop. But I'll withhold actual judgement until I see it not in a pixelated and desaturated image.

If they added shiny cover effects to the breath weapons, that would help.

 

[RFB Dan]

I personally like the shout-out to Dragonlance, and agree that this is quite the hint that we will be going back to Krynn next year. I also wouldn't be surprised that we see all the dragon types people have been clamoring for here, as well as a 5e set of rules akin to the Council of Wyrms expansion from 2nd Edition. Speculation of course, but fun speculation.

 

[Hussar]

Heh, I would love to see a reboot War of the Lance. If they set it in later era DL, I think I'll pass.

One thing I always wanted to run but never got the chance was the board game that came with one of the modules - DL 11(?) where you could play out the War of the Lance as a war-game. They even suggested that you then combine the board game with the modules so that the events of the war-game became playable events in the campaign. I thought it was such a FANTASTIC idea. If you expanded that concept even further, you'd have an endlessly replayable module where the group plays out the board game and then zooms down to the PC level and plays out the resolution of events in the board game. The board game then moves forward based on the resolution of what happened in the RPG.

I always thought that would make an unbelievably cool campaign.