D&D's The Book of Dragons Comes Out in August

I still dislike the new 2025 Dragon designs, which the book partially uses... I say partially as it seems they are reusing old art from 3E and other sources too.
But one thing does make me happy - the Sapphire Dragon looks exactly like in Fizban's. That gives me hope they will not update the Gem Dragons and we can still get proper miniatures of them. I mean Wizkids still has not done Sapphire Wyrmlings or a young sized Emerald and adult sized Amethyst Dragon.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

I have a hard time picturing Tiamat writing anything. Ideally, it'll be Tiamat dictating to one of her servants.

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Why not, she has a lot of free time on her hands in Avernus. And she has 5 heads, one can dictate letters or write them with mage hand while the others give orders to her minions. She also has avatars and aspects to do her hands-on business in the material plane... like masquerading as Takhisis on Krynn.

EzekielRaiden said:

I was half-right. 2e did introduce actual, legit Asian-inspired dragons, as noted above. But it also still had the wingless Gold. It was 3e that introduced the (IMO profoundly ugly) fish-fin-wings. Which means, at this point, no particular form for the Gold is any more traditional than any other--they've all got roughly the same history.

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I know 2E had the Lung Dragons, but I cannot find where exactly they were present. Probably in the Kara-Tur Monster Manual appendix?
And yes, the Gold was still wingless in AD&D 2E.
Though I think by the end of 2E, art started to portray them with wings and proper quadrupedal bodies without the super long and thin asian look.
Ah yeah, I know. It was in the short-lived Council of Wyrms setting.

I also vaguely recall that some art showed them with big hair-like manes and again, with wings. Maybe it was some of the Dragonlance books?

BB Shockwave said:

Why not, she has a lot of free time on her hands in Avernus. And she has 5 heads, one can dictate letters or write them with mage hand while the others give orders to her minions. She also has avatars and aspects to do her hands-on business in the material plane... like masquerading as Takhisis on Krynn.

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Telling the queen of the dragons that she's got time to do servant's work is a great way to get eaten.

sevenbastard said:

agreed the dragon has no tactical reason to ever land in a fight. Stay aloft and stay alive.

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I guess you never played 3E, Huge and larger Dragons could simply land ON YOU and pin enemies to the ground, damaging them every round and keeping them immobilized? Hard to cast spells when a 10 ton Dragon is sitting on your head.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

Telling the queen of the dragons that she's got time to do servant's work is a great way to get eaten.

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Nobody would tell her that. But I also do not think that Tiamat would trust anyone to tell her story better than she can remember. For starters they weren't there when the universe way young... she was.

dave2008 said:

This is a new image from the book that I haven't seen before:

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Interesting. That is still 2014-to24 style 5E art, I can tell since his feet and wings are not randomly black, like he was covered in soot. Plus the horns and head-fins are the old style too, the new style has less fins and black horns.

beta-ray said:

I love DK books and this looks like a nice edition. Will likely pick it up.

I think there are more images at the DK page
Dungeons & Dragons The Book of Dragons

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That first images shows the main thing I really dislike about the 2025 MM art - every damn Dragon has ridiculously thick necks. They are as thick or thicker than their heads, making them seem like they are big Moray Eels. I find it especially terrible on Tiamat, who looks like she swallowed too much food and it got stuck in her necks, all 5 of them.

BB Shockwave said:

Interesting. That is still 2014-to24 style 5E art, I can tell since his feet and wings are not randomly black, like he was covered in soot. Plus the horns and head-fins are the old style too, the new style has less fins and black horns.

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No, it is the 2024 design, just by a different artist. Look at the horns - straight out the 2024 handbook. It looks a lot like the red head from the Tiamat image in the 2024 PHB as well.

BB Shockwave said:

That first images shows the main thing I really dislike about the 2025 MM art - every damn Dragon has ridiculously thick necks. They are as thick or thicker than their heads, making them seem like they are big Moray Eels. I find it especially terrible on Tiamat, who looks like she swallowed too much food and it got stuck in her necks, all 5 of them.

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well that is not a 2024 design thing, here is Tiamat with the 3e+ era of designs and very chunky necks (probably my favorite image of Tiamat though):

BB Shockwave said:

That first images shows the main thing I really dislike about the 2025 MM art - every damn Dragon has ridiculously thick necks.

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That is definitely not true (blue and copper in have thin necks particular are thin in the concept art), but some do have thick necks in some of the images. That is a good think. IMO, thick neck = strong; skinny neck = weak and I generally like my dragons to be strong. Though there is a point were things get too thick for me too, the 2024 art has not reached that point IMO for the most part. The Ancient Blue in the MM, and the named silver in this book being notable exceptions IMO.

BB Shockwave said:

I still dislike the new 2025 Dragon designs, which the book partially uses... I say partially as it seems they are reusing old art from 3E and other sources too.
But one thing does make me happy - the Sapphire Dragon looks exactly like in Fizban's. That gives me hope they will not update the Gem Dragons and we can still get proper miniatures of them. I mean Wizkids still has not done Sapphire Wyrmlings or a young sized Emerald and adult sized Amethyst Dragon.

Why not, she has a lot of free time on her hands in Avernus. And she has 5 heads, one can dictate letters or write them with mage hand while the others give orders to her minions. She also has avatars and aspects to do her hands-on business in the material plane... like masquerading as Takhisis on Krynn.

I know 2E had the Lung Dragons, but I cannot find where exactly they were present. Probably in the Kara-Tur Monster Manual appendix?

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They were in the first FR Monstrous Compendium Appendix.

Sardior has an image in the new book

MonsterEnvy said:

Sardior has an image in the new book

View attachment 406611

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Well, that is intriguing. It's definitely a nice piece (actually, has Saridor ever been pictured in D&D art before?); I do like the crystals above his head that represent each of the gem dragon types.

Demetrios1453 said:

Well, that is intriguing. It's definitely a nice piece (actually, has Saridor ever been pictured in D&D art before?); I do like the crystals above his head that represent each of the gem dragon types.

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There have been pictures of him since 1e and 2e.