Bad breath and scaly skin. Dragonborn get an update in D&D 2024 and our guide is here to help you play as one.
What are Dragonborn?
Dragonborn are related to true dragons, but are more humanoid in size and shape. They do however retain the scales, jaws, colouration and other features of their draconic progenitors.
Different Dragonborn are descended from different dragons, granting them relevant powers. This includes resistance to certain types of damage and a breath weapon that uses that same damage type.
Dragonborn remain a core playable species in D&D 2024, but with some quality of life improvements. Interestingly, Gem Dragonborn have been left behind with only Metallic and Chromatic Dragonborn making the cut.
With all these changes, I’ve created an updated guide to help you build, play and optimise your own Dragonborn character.
Is a Dragonborn the right species for me?
Choose a Dragonborn if you like…
- Being a little tougher than others
- Having great melee, AoE attacks available
- Want temporary flight
- Love dragons
A Dragonborn might not be for you if…
- You’d rather stay out of melee range
- Have 1 attack and more powerful AoE options
- Don’t like scales
What’s changed for the 2024 Dragonborn?
The 2024 Dragonborn gets a sort of merging of previous traits held by all 3 types of Dragonborn. Your breath weapon can be a line or a cone (you decide when you use it) and all Dragonborn gets temporary flight now. Otherwise, you still choose the damage type of your resistance and breath weapon just like you did before.
Dragonborn 2024 traits
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Size | Medium |
| Speed | 30ft |
| Traits | Draconic ancestry, breath weapon, damage resistance, darkvision, draconic flight |
| Resistances | Choose one |
| Proficiencies | None |
| Darkvision | Yes |
| Innate spellcasting | No |
| Book found in | Player’s Handbook 2024 |
Draconic ancestry:Choose the type of dragon you’re descended from. This will affect your appearance, as well as the damage type of your breath weapon and the damage type of your resistance.
| Dragon | Damage type/resistance |
|---|---|
| Black | Acid |
| Blue | Lightning |
| Brass | Fire |
| Bronze | Lightning |
| Copper | Acid |
| Gold | Fire |
| Green | Poison |
| Red | Fire |
| Silver | Cold |
| White | Cold |
Breath weapon:You can replace one of your attacks with a use of your breath weapon (you have a number equal to your proficiency bonus). This causes a 15ft cone or 30ft line to come from you causing 1d10 damage of the damage type associated with your draconic ancestry. This damage increases with your level up to 4d10.
Damage resistance:You have resistance to a damage type determined by your draconic ancestry.
Darkvision: You have darkvision with a range of 60ft.
Draconic flight: At level 5, once per long rest, you can fly for 10 minutes using a bonus action
Where are the ability score increases?
You may have noticed that there are no ability score increases associated with your species any more. This is because these increases are now linked to your background. This gives you more flexibility to play the species you want and optimise more easily for a broader range of classes.
Check out our to find out more.
Tactics
Which type is best: Ideally what you want is a damage type that is rarely resisted but also commonly used (so you get mileage out of your resistance and your breath weapon remains effective). Unfortunately, damage types that are often used are also often resisted (as with fire and poison damage).
Conversely, cold damage is your worst options as it is both rarely used and often resisted. Acid and lightning form more of a middle ground though acid is probably your better option as it’s both more commonly used and resisted less.
Alternatively, you can go for fire and poison to benefit from their greater protection and just be selective about the targets you attack.
Sadly, the best damage options all belong to the Gem Dragonborn which don’t feature in the 2024 Player’s Handbook (force and necrotic damage). For a full breakdown of this, check out my comprehensive research on damage types.
Bad breath: Your breath weapon is really powerful, giving many characters a chance to deal AoE damage that wouldn’t ordinarily get this. This makes it particularly useful for martials, on top of the fact that it can be used to replace an attack from the attack action rather than the entire action. This means that classes with extra attacks can also strike with their weapon in the same turn.
Cones tend to be your best option, but require getting up close and personal. Lines can work nicely in tight spaces like corridors though, and give some distance if you don’t want to get too close to your enemies.
Fly you fools: Flight is really handy. You can use it out of combat to access difficult to reach areas or use it in combat to stay safe and out of reach. Combining this with your breath weapon makes Dragonborn great for hit and run tactics in D&D 2024.
Choosing a class for your Dragonborn
Below I’ve scored how well each class works with a Dragonborn:
Artificer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐⭐
Sorcerer ⭐⭐
Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wizard ⭐⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best classes for a Dragonborn
Your best options for a Dragonborn are martial classes. Not only are they close enough to the enemy to make the best use of their breath weapon, the action cost is lower as they can still make extra attacks alongside this. Unfortunately for spellcasters, they essentially replace this with the effects of a spell (many of which can be more powerful and cast from a greater distance) and often have poorer constitution (harming the effectiveness of your breath weapon).
Add onto that a damage resistance for greater durability. Flight is good for everyone but hit and run specialists will likely enjoy it more. I’d recommend the following as your best options for a Dragonborn:
- Artificer – Battlesmiths and armorers will enjoy some of the hit and run tactics flight can aid with. Plus their extra attack allows them to make the most out of their breath weapon.
- Barbarian – The best barbarians can do for dealing with crowds is using cleave. Losing one attack for the greater overall damage of the breath weapon is really helpful. They should also have some of the best constitution of any class making them particularly effective with this.
- Fighter – Fighters get a bunch of extra attacks which a breath attack slots really nicely alongside. It’s also easy for a fighter to invest in constitution to make your breath weapon harder to avoid.
- Monk – Flight is excellent for a fairly vulnerable martial class. They can easily disengage and fly out of reach giving them a bit more safety. Breath weapon is good for crowd control. Be careful you don’t get stuck in the thick of lots of enemies, but flight will help with this.
- Paladin – You can only add smite to one attack so you might as well use your breath weapon and smite on your other attack for some big damage turns.
Worst classes for a Dragonborn
Dedicated Spellcasters with a single attack tend to fair poorly. Because of this, Dragonborn tend not to work so well with:
- Cleric: You’ve got more powerful things you can do with your action than your breath weapon.
- Druid: You can likely do more powerful things with your spells too, and you can use flight just a few levels later with your wild shape. Your breath weapon probably shouldn’t be able to use your breath weapon while in your wild shape and most other druids probably don’t want to get too close to the action (though an argument could be made for a sea druid here).
- Rogue: You can’t use sneak attack alongside a breath weapon use, severely limiting your damage output. You also should avoid getting that close to crowds.
- Sorcerer: You’ve got more powerful things you can do with your action than your breath weapon and you should always be far from the action.
- Wizard: You’ve got more powerful things you can do with your action than your breath weapon and you should always be far from the action.
About Dragonborn
Appearance
Dragonborn are two-legged humanoids with the features of a dragon, including things like scales, sharp teeth and horns. Each Dragonborn also takes on the features of the dragon type they’re descended from. This might include horns for a gold Dragonborn, webbed fingers for a bronze Dragonborn or shiny scales for a brass Dragonborn.
You can of course accentuate these features however you like for your character, though your colour should match your Dragonborn type.
Personality
Typically, chromatic dragons are of evil alignment (being followers of Tiamat) while metallic dragons are good aligned (being followers of Bahamut). A similar divide can be found in the Dragonlance setting too, though the gods and situations do differ.
In certain circ*mstances and settings, this can have an influence on the personality of the Dragonborn that are descended from these dragons too. This is particularly the case in the Dragonlance setting where the lines between good and evil dragon-kind are very pronounced.
However, this is not a determiner of their personality with centuries for Dragonborn to outgrow the inclinations of their ancestors.
Despite this, some personality traits have persisted and you may find your Dragonborn lineage causes your character to lean into certain traits more than others. For example, gold Dragonborn tend to be more noble and wise, red Dragonborn tend to be more confident and arrogant and bronze Dragonborn tend to be more adventurous. However, Dragonborn personalities are hugely varied and your character doesn’t need to lean into these stereotypes if you don’t want them to.
No matter your type though, most Dragonborn tend to have a fairly independent streak and an inclination towards self-mastery.
Roleplaying a Dragonborn
If you choose to play as a Dragonborn, consider some of the approaches below when roleplaying them:
Loyalty to their friends: Most Dragonborn are extremely loyal to their friends and can be trusted, at least if that loyalty has been earnt. Respect deals and agreements made and back up your friends, even when the odds are stacked against them.
The path of self-mastery: Dragonborn work in a huge number of vocations and specialties, but whatever their chosen vocation, they seek to become masters of it. Be disappointed with failures in your area of speciality and seek to master your skills diligently.
Respect when earnt: Dragonborn have a great respect for others that are masters of their own craft. Consider showing respect for a worthy foe that gave an excellent fight, perhaps showing mercy to another master of their art.
Other D&D 2024 playable species guides
With the launch of D&D 2024, we’re covering off how you can optimise all the updated species. You can check these out below.
