Dragon Delves Dedicated to Chris Perkins

The new Dragon Delves anthology is dedicated to Chris Perkins, who recently retired from Wizards of the Coast. The new adventure anthology is officially out in early release today. The new anthology contains a brief dedication to Perkins in the credits, acknowledgind his "decades of contributions" to Dungeons & Dragons. Perkins is also credited as a designer for the book.

Perkins had worked for Wizards of the Coast since 1997, holding a variety of design-related roles with the company and spearheading much of the work for D&D's popular 5th Edition. Perkins announced his retirement back in April, following the release of the final 2024/2025 Core Rulebook. However, his retirement was a brief one, as Critical Role's Darrington Press announced that he was joining the publisher as Creative Director, a role similar to the one he held at Wizards of the Coast.

 

[Parmandur]

My lot took out an ancient blue dracolich at that level without breaking into a sweat (and had already been through a couple of fights without resting), and they are a bunch of sub-optimisers and tactical duffers. That was the 2014 rules though, are dragons that much tougher in the new rules?

The Dragons got some of the biggest tweaks in the new MM, so should be living up to their CR more often at least.

 

[Burnside]

My lot took out an ancient blue dracolich at that level without breaking into a sweat (and had already been through a couple of fights without resting), and they are a bunch of sub-optimisers and tactical duffers. That was the 2014 rules though, are dragons that much tougher in the new rules?

I'd argue they are stronger in 2024. 5 legendary resistances instead of 3, and they have a legendary action which turns them invisible and lets them fly, and they have a legendary action shatter spell which they can do anywhere - the comparable 2014 ability they could only do in their lair. They also have some at-will spells, whereas the 2014 one didn't. Some of their saving throws aren't as good as the 2014, but the extra legendary resistances more than make up for that. Their AC, breath weapon, and HP are same as 2014.

 

[Distracted DM]

Haven't read the adventure, but I would think a level 12 party would make short work of an ancient blue dragon, without the benefit of a dragon ball.

Same. I ran RHoD, the party was level 12 near the end and it was supposed to be an Adult blue (in 3.5), I upped it to ancient.. they still rocked its face :'D

 

[Distracted DM]

I'd argue they are stronger in 2024. 5 legendary resistances instead of 3, and they have a legendary action which turns them invisible and lets them fly, and they have a legendary action shatter spell which they can do anywhere - the comparable 2014 ability they could only do in their lair. They also have some at-will spells, whereas the 2014 one didn't. Some of their saving throws aren't as good as the 2014, but the extra legendary resistances more than make up for that. Their AC, breath weapon, and HP are same as 2014.

@dave2008 is the resident dragon-master, have you taken a look at the 2024s and how they stack up?

Ofc the 2024 characters are more potent as well so...

 

[dave2008]

@dave2008 is the resident dragon-master, have you taken a look at the 2024s and how they stack up?

Ofc the 2024 characters are more potent as well so...

2024 dragons are definitely a tougher encounter than their 2014 counterparts and they generally have more interesting and thematic abilities too. However, I still think there is a lot of room for improvement.

 

[Sulicius]

The new ancient blue deals roughly 25% more damage, which is the biggest change.

 

[Burnside]

I decided to do a podcast episode based on the write-ups I did in this thread. If interested, you can listen wherever fine podcasts are heard in the PodCast Party: A D&D Podcast feed or here: Power Word TALk: July 2025

 

[Burnside]

Just wanted to flag that, on DNDBeyond at least, WotC has fixed the misplaced treasure pile/centipedes map error on the lair map for Death at Sunset. I'm not sure if they'll be stopping by my place to correct my print copy though.