D&D General Which Edition Had The Best Dragons?

[GMforPowergamers]

For D&D specifically, which edition do you think had the best dragons? Why?

2e had the best lore and out of combat RP stuff... 4e had the best monster stat blocks...

I wish would could have evolved 4e into a more 2e story focused game

 

[Aldarc]

Fairly neutral on this. I will say this though, I vastly prefer the dragonkin from 3E to any form of dragonborn.

And I vastly prefer dragonborn over the dragonkin from 3E, so it evens out.

 

[deganawida]

Even though 4e had the best dragons for encounters, the 2e versions are my favorites. They oozed power and flavor to me.

 

[payn]

And I vastly prefer dragonborn over the dragonkin from 3E, so it evens out.

I know folks are very touchy about their dragonborn. For me, the dragonkin felt like draconic humaniods, where dragonborn feels like humanoid dragons. A distinction that might not matter to most.

 

[Aldarc]

I know folks are very touchy about their dragonborn. For me, the dragonkin felt like draconic humaniods, where dragonborn feels like humanoid dragons. A distinction that might not matter to most.

I'm already convinced about dragonborn. You don't have to convince me further here.

 

[billd91]

I think it's a toss up between 2e and 3e for me. 5e dropped too many interesting special abilities. 2e made what I consider necessary corrections to 1e's dragons by making it possible for them to be a LOT tougher.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

3rd edition have the most dragon books to scour through. The Draconomicon, Races of Dragons, Dragons of Faerun, Dragons of Eberron, Dragons of Krynn, and Dragon Magic, all were books I have read through multiple times for ideas.

4th edition had some of my favorite lore for dragons, added many more members to the Chromatic and Metallic line up, and also introduced the Catastrophic Dragons which are some of my favorites. I also enjoyed their stat blocks and abilities. I love both of the Draconomicons released in this edition as well.

5th edition added quite a few interesting things for dragons in Fizban's, such as the origin of the First World, the idea of Dragons being tied to the Materiel Plane, Dragon Sight/Echos, Draconic Gifts, an interesting origin story for Tiamat and Bahamut that I found compelling and tragic, and so on.

 

[overgeeked]

Even though 4e had the best dragons for encounters, the 2e versions are my favorites. They oozed power and flavor to me.

4E mechanics, 2E lore and write ups.

 

[Stalker0]

for people talking about 4e dragons. Maybe the monster vault ones, I didn't get use them much myself. I can say the core 4e MM dragons were actually quite bad. they got brought in in that initial batch of monsters before solo design was polished, and those dragons often performed badly

 

[overgeeked]

for people talking about 4e dragons. Maybe the monster vault ones, I didn't get use them much myself. I can say the core 4e MM dragons were actually quite bad. they got brought in in that initial batch of monsters before solo design was polished, and those dragons often performed badly

Yep. The MM1 was terrible. MM2 was better, but not by that much. MM3 was fantastic as was Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale.