Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons

Quickly: For some reason I really loved reading this one. Great resource. Summary: This is a 255 hardcover supplement for Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. I would consider this a DM only product mainly, though I suggest letting the players either read the Dragon Lore section or slowly giving out that information in game. The Book is divided into 4 chapters. The 1st chapter talks about Dragon Lore. This goes into Physiology, life cycle, outlook, religion and more. Each chromatic dragon type is looked at in great detail including physical characteristics like wingspan and tail length. The 2nd chapter is information for DMs. This contains Combat encounters, social encounters (including two fleshed out examples) and dragonic traps. Adventure seeds and hooks are listed including 6 fleshed out story arcs. Suggestions for Draconic patrons are given. Two campaign suggestions are listed. An entire section is devoted to Dragon Hordes. The chapter is finished off with new Artefacts, rituals and components as well as some Famous Dragons. Chapter 3 includes 3 lairs for each tier of play. These are fully mapped out and each includes two fully detailed encounters. Chapter 4 is the last half of the book and includes New Monsters. The non-standard Chromatic dragons (Purple, Gray and Brown) are statted out along with Wyrmling versions of your standard Chromatics. Many planar and Undead dragons are given as well as some creatures associated with Dragons (including Kobolds and Dragonborn). There are full stats for some famous dragons, including probably the most famous of all: Tiamat. The chapter finishes with a couple of templates and then some Alternative Powers. The Good: If you've read my Open Grave review the above structure will seem very familiar. What's odd is that I didn't like it in Open Grave but didn't mind it at all in this book. I found this one a much more enjoyable read and even liked reading the Dragon Lairs (which was the section I thought could have been omitted from Open Grave). I don't know if I just like Dragons more then Undead or what. This was a great book, I really enjoyed reading it and was inspired by each chapter to add something to one of my home games. The initial chapter on Outlook will have me running dragons completely different in every game I run going forward and I think my games will be more memorable and better for it. The Bad: As with open Grave, the section of Lairs was a bit long. For some reason or another I found it more enjoyable to read. I think mainly because the dragon lair is such an icon of fantasy, seeing 9 of them fully fleshed out was pretty cool. Still I doubt I will use many and definitely not all of these in my games, 3 per Tier is a bit much. The Ugly: I wasn't a fan of the Dragon Components section of the book. It just felt forced. It's like they know that it's a tradition to have wizards wanting dragon bits, but then don't actually want players to just be dissecting every dragon they find and I don

This is an excellent and extremely fun book for the DM! Although it does not include more actual stats for the 5 colors of dragon that were already listed in the first Monster Manual, it provides the same sets (young, adult, elder, ancient) for other chromatics (brown, purple, etc.). It also goes in-depth into dragon lore, including what each kind eats, lifespan, physical make-up, treasure types, etc. Not only this, but it includes several dragon-oriented adventures (including maps and monster stats and all) for all levels, and goes so far as to suggest some dragon-based campaign ideas. There are also stats for dragon-related monsters (wyrmlings, etc.). Lastly and what I appreciated greatly, there are some new artifacts. Of the six 4e books that I own, this is the only one that has any new artifacts after the original DM Manual, so that was very exciting for me. All in all, an excellent resource for DMs, especially when playing with groups who love dragons. Just be sure not to let your players peek at it!

I'm fairly selective about the D & D supplements I purchase, so what made me want to buy this Draconomicon? First, a frustration over having played D & D for two years and the closest I came to a dragon was fighting a dragon-like creature. I wanted dragons to make frequent appearances in my own campaign. However, when I put in a dragon encounter, it was memorable mechanically, but didn't have the roleplaying feel I would have liked. Second, I had stranded my PCs in the Shadowfell without a clear direction on how to accomplish their quest. I needed to introduce two important NPCs that I wanted to be dragons: a mentor and a BBEG. This book helped me answer some important questions in fleshing out these two long-running characters. Why would a dragon mentor a group of humanoid adventurers? How might the Shadowfell specifically affect dragons? How do I make a dragon who is a threat to adventurers and even other dragons, yet ultimately with weaknesses that make him defeatable? What would those weaknesses be? What kind of social arrangements might exist between the mentor and the BBEG, or between them and powerful non-dragon characters like the Raven Queen? Sure, there are some good mechanics presented in the book, with some new monsters, new rituals, alternate abilities, and lair maps that I will likely use, but for me the best reason to get this book is for the fluff.

As a DM, I always love books that are for *DMs*. This book is, and I love it. There are no contrived player feats or other such fluff filling these pages - it is all dragons, all the time. There are new chromatics like the gray and purple, and there are wyrmlings for all chromatic types, in case the youngest of the MM aren't quite low enough for you. Additionally, there are a bunch of planar type dragons, undead dragons (not just 1 or 2 types like in previous editions), and a few surprises. If you're into dragonspawns there's a few of those as well. There are a few lairs detailed out, much better than the lairs that were in the 3e draconomicon. All in all, this is one of the best 4e books I've had so far.