D&D (2024) Check Out D&D's New Gold Dragon Redesign

In the new 2024 edition of Dungeons & Dragons, WotC is redesigning its iconic dragons. ComicBook.com got a close-up and personal look at the brand new gold dragon, with a gorgeous art piece by Chase Stone. The dragon is, as can be seen, wingless--or at least with greatly reduced wings--in a nod to older editions of D&D--in AD&D 1E, gold dragons were more inspired by Asian dragons, but gained large wings in later editions. ComicBook's Christian Hoffer spoke to WotC's art director Josh Herman, who said "The wing change was really to give it a little bit of something extra, but also hopefully make it clear that they don't need their wings to fly all the time".

You can read the full article and interview here.

 

[Distracted DM]

I mean...
View attachment 364720

The body is definitely a lot longer with ?Shen-ron/lon? (my memory fails me) before it goes past legs and becomes tail. But with the coiled way that he and the OP image are, it's hard to tell. When you stretch them out like in the "grounded" pic, their tails are quite longer than their source inspirations:
The gold dragon very strange.

Spoiler

 

[Vaalingrade]

Not really a fan of the super-long tails, but then I wasn't a fan of the Lockwood tropical fish sails either, and that's been all the D&D dragons in my career, so it's a wash.

Of all the dragons to be Long/Lung-shaped, the gold is probably the one that should be though and the flying version in the OP looks pretty cool. Reminded me of Serpentera, Lord Zedd's Zord from Power Rangers for some reason I can't put my finger on since Serpentera wasn't capable of that pose.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

Stated this in the other dragon art thread but I love this Redesign. It's probably one of my favorites shown so far because the previous Gold Dragon design was my least favorite of the ten primary dragons and this is such a wonderful improvement.

 

[J.Quondam]

It's lovely and mysterious, seems somehow more elemental or alien, much more than just "big magic lizard."

 

[Vaalingrade]

Also, if dragons are going to have these huge, long tails, we should mechanically be able to grab and swing them by them.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

II’m glad that the dragons are getting redesigned to look more unique. The original 5e versions all basically look the same, with minor variations.

 

[dave2008]

Yep, I'm digging these redesigns. The gold is a nice combination of the 1e/2e and 3e+ designs IMO. Nice work. I think I like the proportionally longer body in the painting than the one in the reference art. A bit closer to the 1e/2e design which I am all for!

 

[dave2008]

Also, if dragons are going to have these huge, long tails, we should mechanically be able to grab and swing them by them.

Then make it happen! You can't expect them to stat everything a dragon could possibly do - that would take a multiple page statblock! I am statblocks are just a reference, a starting point for our creativity - don't be limited by them!

 

[Chaosmancer]

This looks pretty bad. The super long tail and the ribbon/flatworm shape is one thing, but Moose antlers? Eww..

Where the heck are you getting Moose Antler from?

I have only seen art of the Gold, Red and Bronze. Where have you seen the Green?

Collection from the other dragon thread of the arts for dragons so far

Spoiler: Lots of Dragon Pics

Eh, might as well throw gold in here to consolidate all of them

Well, sure, Gold Dragons were basically chinese style Oriental Dragons in 1E and 2E, but since we got the Lung / Oriental Dragons later who are all that design, I feel 3E did the right thing by redesigning them.

So... Gold Dragons were Oriental Dragons, then we got Oriental Dragons also known as Lung Dragons so we switched Gold dragons for... reasons..., and now we don't have those, but Gold dragons shouldn't go back to that style?

Why not?

 

[dave2008]

So far for me, as a huge dragon lover, these are all improvements on the 3e and earlier designs while also being true to the source material.

To be clear I am talking about the ones we have official concept art of: red, gold, and bronze (?). I think we have seen all the chromatics, but I am not 100% sure what we've seen is the final word on those.