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"I hope that Fizban's Treasury of Dragons is remotely close to the love and effort that was put into this book, because it's absolutely amazing." -Ted from Nerd Immersion (YouTube series)

"And by god, did they deliver; this book is an absolute unit." -Cassandra MacDonald (Skullport: Shadow of Waterdeep)

"All those dragons are awesome. Makes me wanna run a game with a world full of dragons. Well, more full. Your artwork is amazing." -How to Be a Great GM (YouTube series)

The Draconomicon

Brought to you by QL Games, The Draconomicon is a comprehensive review of dragons and dragon-related content from previous editions not yet part of fifth edition! It builds on principles and rules found in the Player’s HandbookMonster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide.

Inside you will find a wealth of knowledge that will help you to integrate, present, and play both new and old dragons with the awe-inspiring grandeur they deserve. Below is a short description of some things you will find in each chapter of this book:

Chapter 1: Dealing with Dragons

  • The outlook and teachings of dragons, such as spiritual aspects, overarching philosophies, common desires, and draconic gods and religion.

  • Descriptions of dragon physicality, containing an overview of the dragon life cycle, physiology, and common misconceptions.

  • Notes on dragon encounters: their lairs, their hoards, their behaviors, their potential contributions, and how to best find, fight, and even ride a dragon.

Chapter 2: Races

  • 10 playable races, including draconians, with rules on how to play as classic Monster Manual species: bullywugs, ettercaps, gnolls, kobolds, lizardfolk, thri-kreen, and troglodytes.

Chapter 3: Feats and Gifts

  • 25 all-new feats pertaining to fighting, emulating, and even worshipping dragons.

Chapter 4: Spells

  • 44 draconic spells that harness the magic surrounding dragons to aid you in your social, exploratory, and combative endeavors.

Chapter 5: Magic Items

  • More than 50 magic items that may be wielded by, endowed through, stolen from, or even used against the dragons in your campaigns.

Chapter 6: Bestiary

  • Over 80 types of classic true dragons now in 5e for the first time, including

    • Arcane dragons

    • Chromatic dragons

    • Cosmic Dragons

    • Gem Dragons

    • Lung Dragons

    • Metallic Dragons

    • Planar Dragons

    • And More!

Chapter 7: DM's Workshop

  • Templates that guide you through creating other age groups

  • 25 builds for innate spellcasting dragons

  • Expanded combat for dragons to control the battlefield, unlocking such options as:

    • Breaking down structures

    • Swallowing smaller combatants

    • Crushing enemies with a body slam

    • Moving opponents

    • And more!

  • 42 traps and dungeon hazards to protect your dragon’s hoard

  • Lists and tables to quickly generate custom dragon encounters

  • DISCLAIMER: The print version of this product lacks a full-page illustration featured in the PDF version of this chapter (see Frequently Asked Questions, below).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why reprint content from the Dungeon Master's Guide, Volo's Guide to Monsters, and other books?

A: We're aware most players of Dungeons and Dragons don't have access to the whole library of officially released fifth edition materials. As such, we wanted The Draconomicon to be a complete, one-stop reference of all dragon-adjacent content from both previous and current versions of the game. As such, we reprint a small amount of material (two races, two spells, and a handful of magic items) from sources beyond the Player's Handbook.

Q: Why include non-reptilian races?

A: As described in the Chapter 2: Races introduction paragraph, these are races of creatures that commonly serve dragons. They are intended for players who wish to create characters with a history (or present!) of serving a powerful dragon, but can be used by any player who wishes to play a bullywug, ettercap, slig, or other monstrous race.

Q: Why do some dragons have one age group presented, while others have all four?

A: Page count. The Draconomicon already rivals or exceeds most Wizards of the Coast official hardcover publications in page count. A higher page count means a higher cost, especially for printing. For many of the more obscure dragons (such as planar dragons, semiprecious gem dragons, or ferrous dragons), we provide only one age group and trust the Dungeon Master to approximate damage values, calculate save DCs, and other mechanics for if they wish to use other age groups for those dragons.

Q: Why are some feats/gifts weak in mechanics, while others are very strong in mechanics?

A: Just like the feats from the Player's Handbook, not all options are equally useful in all campaigns and situations. We wanted to represent a wide variety of playstyles and character builds, even if that means some options we print won't be taken very often outside of narrative reasons. Don't believe us? Compare the Linguist and Lucky feats from the Player's Handbook.

Q: Why are some dragons templates or variants of others?

A: The Draconomicon is a near-comprehensive review of dragon-adjacent content from earlier editions that hadn't been brought to the current version of the game at the time of writing. Just like the shadow dragon from the Monster Manual is a template that can be applied to other dragon stat blocks, some dragons from earlier editions were best represented as a template/variant of another dragon stat block, instead of its own, very similar stat block.

Q: Why is the blue dragon illustration from page 225 of the PDF missing in the physical version?

A: Print-on-Demand has two unique requirements: the page count must be divisible by 4, and images can't require too much ink in one spot (otherwise it may bleed through). To comply with the first requirement, we needed to cut 1 page from the PDF. To comply with the second requirement, we needed to get rid of this particular image (it was too saturated; our graphic designer couldn't edit the picture enough to comply with the ink limit). To comply with both simultaneously, we decided to remove this image and page from the print version of the book.

Q: Is there a smaller file size available?

A: Yes! In our May 2023 update, a printer-friendly version of the PDF was added. It's the same content as the original version, except without illustrations and in black and white.

Design Team

Zavier Bates: Project Assistant Lead, Editor, Writer

Heath Harris: Playtesting Lead, Writer

Ryan Langr: Editor

Mike Olson: Writer

Andrew Welker: Producer, Layout and Art, Writer

Landon Zea: Project Lead, Editor, Writer

Contact Us

Interested in learning more about The Draconomicon? Want to stay up-to-date on QL Games playtest opportunities and product announcements? Contact us at QLGames@yahoo.com!

Sample Pages

To celebrate reaching Electrum bestselling status (top 20%), here's a free sample of our Electrum Dragon!

https://imgur.com/gallery/1J9Vom7

Ancient Electrum Dragon with PictureAdult Electrum DragonYoung and Wyrmling Electrum DragonsElectrum Dragon Description

Changelog

1.0 (August 2021) - Original

1.0.1 (August 2021) - Revised to comply with DMs Guild layout guidelines

1.0.2 (November 2021) - Typo correction; reduced file size

1.0.2.1 (May 2023) - Printer-Friendly version added


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Reviews (8)
Discussions (18)
Customer avatar
everett L November 20, 2023 8:26 pm UTC
PURCHASER
could you update the pdf version of this? there are times i wanna copy things from the statblock and you cant like at all and it sucks typing out some of the things in this book and it takes ages please and thank you!!!!
Customer avatar
Michael C February 19, 2023 10:04 pm UTC
PURCHASER
book is great, but it was soaked and covered in dirt when I got it
Customer avatar
Christopher P July 06, 2022 10:15 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I think this book is really spectacular, and I really love having a big, chunky, physical hardback tome of dragon lore and mechanics on my shelf. But I feel like there is a lot big opportunity to have artists fill in the many, many, MANY gaps in dragon art that this book leaves. I find some of the physical descriptions extremely lacking, and some of the pages appear to just be missing artwork? Or, there are big voids above some stat blocks or at the tops of pages where it seems like artwork could go but it's just awkwardly absent.
There are other weird decisions like adding a monochrome, simplistic picture of a hill with some trees, or some skulls on pikes as artwork in a book about dragons.
I can't even tell if the art included next to some dragon names are meant to represent the dragon being mentioned.

I really think this book could catapult to the highest ranks if it was gradually updated with new dragon art to break up all of these very dense pages of text.
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Customer avatar
Christopher P July 06, 2022 10:18 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Steel dragon - picture of a manor
Orium dragon - pen drawing of a sealed gate
Mithral dragon - paint smudges...?
Must dragon
Reply
Customer avatar
Christopher P July 06, 2022 10:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
....couldn't edit my last comment, but most dragons in this book but the point was most dragons in this book don't have unique art.
Customer avatar
Sean S June 03, 2022 4:27 am UTC
This is great! Combined with Fizban this gives me ample resources to create dragon characters, adventures, and so on. This is a dream for anyone like me who is obsessive about dragons and wants every detail possible cause I mean honestly in a game called Dungeons and Dragons can one ever have too many dragons? Don’t answer that because it’s ALWAYS yes and you can’t make me believe otherwise .
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Customer avatar
Andrew W June 07, 2022 9:31 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for the wonderful review :)
Customer avatar
Jade A April 28, 2022 9:49 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This book is great! I had no idea just how vast it was & how attractive. Thought I’d save money by getting the soft cover & now I wish I’d gotten the hard bound. Great job!
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Customer avatar
Andrew W May 02, 2022 2:38 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for the wonderful praise!
Customer avatar
James W January 24, 2022 8:54 pm UTC
Are Orange Dragons included in this book?
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Customer avatar
Andrew W January 25, 2022 4:05 am UTC
CREATOR
We couldn't find any references to orange dragons in our research, so no.
Reply
Customer avatar
James W January 26, 2022 8:12 pm UTC
That's fair, they're a little more obscure having been introduced in Dragon Magazine #65 and revisited in #248. Similar situation to the Pink Dragon introduced in Dragon Magazine #156.
Customer avatar
Fable S January 12, 2022 8:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello sorry, I'm not sure if this is the right spot for this but, is there anyone i can talk to about my order its been over a month now and i still haven't gotten order
Reply
Customer avatar
Andrew W January 12, 2022 11:03 pm UTC
CREATOR
I'm so sorry, we utilize the DMs Guild's Print-on-Demand service and have no influence over shipping times. :( But I found a customer support portal that might help you! Try contacting them. Here's a link: https://support.dmsguild.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Customer avatar
Benjamin B December 01, 2021 4:20 am UTC
Are there plans to update this book going to reflect Fizban's, or have you decided not to?
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Customer avatar
Andrew W December 01, 2021 3:51 pm UTC
CREATOR
We've decided not to, so people who like our first take on the few dragons that are listed in both can still access them.
Customer avatar
Justin M November 30, 2021 8:30 am UTC
PURCHASER
Given how exhaustive this is, was it a deliberate choice to exclude the Time Dragon?
Also, did you considering adding new Arcanes to cover the missing schools, or did you only want to include dragons that were previously published?
Reply
Customer avatar
Andrew W November 30, 2021 4:07 pm UTC
CREATOR
I don't remember off the top of my head what the methodology was with the time dragon, sorry. :(

We only wanted to include dragons that were previously published, but having a dragon for each school of magic would be super cool! Great idea!
Reply
Customer avatar
Kyle T December 12, 2021 10:10 am UTC
PURCHASER
I don't want to be "that guy" but Time Dragons were a published species of dragon from 3rd edition. They were a member of the Epic Dragon subcategory of true dragons. Time Dragons actually have the highest CR of any monster in officially published D&D history!
Customer avatar
Nik C November 25, 2021 3:07 am UTC
PURCHASER
I just saw this and am very excited for it, but I'm worried about buying it now vs. on Black Friday -- any advice or suggestions? (I'm planning on getting the pdf/hardcover copy)
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Customer avatar
Andrew W November 25, 2021 5:04 am UTC
CREATOR
I recommend waiting 48 hours or so for the Black Friday sale to hit!
Reply
Customer avatar
Nik C November 25, 2021 5:29 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks!
Customer avatar
Benjamin B November 16, 2021 2:33 pm UTC
Would love to see a proper review of this book as fizban's d&d dragon book has some mixed reviews.
Customer avatar
Alex E November 09, 2021 12:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
This book looks so good, and I've had the PDF in my wishlist for a while now. I was hoping that this would be included in the Dragontacular Sale on now, but alas not! Will this product ever be on sale?
Reply
Customer avatar
Andrew W November 09, 2021 5:25 pm UTC
CREATOR
Yes! Come back on Black Friday, for sure. :) There's also a bundle option right now if you're interested in "Wyrms of the Realms: Mythic Encounters"
Customer avatar
Leif E November 07, 2021 4:32 am UTC
PURCHASER
The team that created this rendition of “The Draconomicon” pretty much nailed it. Thank you all for the hard work. I have “The Draconomicon, the book of Dragons” published back in 2001 which I like a lot as well. It focused on the 10 ubiquitous chromatic and metallic dragons now in the Monster Manual. This has book on the other hand, has so many new dragons for 5e (over 100 pages). Super job. the art is stunning. Bravo!
Reply
Customer avatar
Andrew W November 07, 2021 4:27 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for the wonderful review!
Customer avatar
Josh S October 18, 2021 4:33 am UTC
Does this one have harvesting tables for each dragon?
Reply
Customer avatar
Andrew W October 18, 2021 11:00 pm UTC
CREATOR
Short answer: No.

Medium answer: But we do have information on general dragon anatomy (pages 25-27), like what magical properties different dragon body parts have. Let your inner artificer go wild!

Long answer: Pages 25-27
Customer avatar
Dave P October 16, 2021 3:39 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I just purchased and haven't had a chance to review it yet; however, I noticed something a bit concerning right away - the file size. The PDF is well over 200MB. If you get the time please work on your file / asset compression to get this to a more manageable size. Thank you!
Reply
Customer avatar
Andrew W October 16, 2021 7:34 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for the feedback. We'll make sure to compress it in the next update, which should be coming soon.
Customer avatar
Joshua K October 07, 2021 10:30 am UTC
Looks like a fun product. I'd have to do some serious modifications to it though based on you Ancient Electrum Dragon sample. 21AC for example means it'll be hit every time with high lvl melee characters, everyone really. I like dragons tough. 28 AC for example makes sense for Ancient dragon scale. :-)

I'll give it a whirl when have the spare $$$

Cheers
Reply
Customer avatar
Andrew W October 07, 2021 2:51 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for the feedback! The ancient dragons in the Monster Manual all have ACs ranging from 20-22. We wanted to follow the precedent of the MM dragons when formulating this book, so players can feel comfortable switching between MM and Draconomicon dragons at will. If you think an AC 28 electrum dragon presents a more interesting challenge for your players though, please go ahead and make the change! DND is all about customizing rules-as-written to be best for each individual table.
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Customer avatar
Joshua K October 09, 2021 12:02 am UTC
All good man. I always thought the MM Dragons were to weak in 5th Edition. I amp them all up so they are an actual threat. Thanks for the reply :-)
Reply
Customer avatar
Dave P October 16, 2021 3:36 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Monsters in the MM are really for groups without magic items and no tactical acumen (no bless). So the ancient dragons work well for those groups. If you your group has magic items, you should expect to raise the AC 1 per +, and then possible a couple for tactics. So it would be reasonable to expect you to need to add 3-5 to the AC of high CR monsters, but if a general product did that it would be mostly unusable for people who don't play that way.
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File Last Updated:
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This title was added to our catalog on August 17, 2021.