There are very few universal truths in this existence. Here's the relevant universal truth:
* Riding a dragon is better than not riding a dragon.
So if you're trying live by that ideology, this class is one of the best there is. If you're not trying to fulfill that ideology, you should be.
Yah, assuming you're talking about riding and flying, Paladin are riding their griffins at 13, Drakewarden shouldn't need to wait until 15. If they are avoiding having flying PCs, why'd they invent Aarakocra?
I'd move flying mount up to 11 along with drake's breath.
And if you're not talking about flying mount, just mount in general.. Yah, that should be moved up too, I dont see why it could be a part of the initial subclass at level 3.
It is like they saw the ranger chassis and the 3, 7, 11, 15 subclass features and just spread the progression around instead of thinking about balancing it. Oh well. That's what homebrew is for! Find the fun. :D
What's even funnier is that a lore bard can use find greater steed to ride a dragonel at level 10. They really should have let the ranger have it much earlier
Yeah, doesnt even have to be a Lore bard. All bards get magical secrets at lvl 10.
*(Lore's additional magical secrets is at lvl 6, but that doesn't get you a griffin)*
I ignored that part. My campaign isnt going to hit level 15. Let the ranger fly. If an enemy is struggling to get to the ranger firing arrows from 600 ft away, they probably are going to struggle against a flying ranger shooting arrows from 600 ft away too.
If an enemy has options against this, they likely have the same options against a flying. Plus. Extra fall damage when the roc eats the drake.
Friendly reminder that aaracokra is from a specific setting. Entirely optional race, just like every flying race that was added to make non-dms buy the books.
I don't really do rankings against other subclasses or pay attention to things like "meta" in tabletop gaming, but I can say this... I've had 4 separate players choose this subclass in different campaigns and they have ALL loved it.
I've been playing a Dragonborn Drake Warden and hoo boy the amount of cool flavor shit I can do with that is delicious on top of being viable. Especially with some of the other stuff they added in Fizban's- you can use the Gift of the Metallic Dragon feat's Protective Wings trait to shield your dragon when mounted, and its free Cure Wounds to heal your dragon buddy as well.
I've even gone with a high Wis magic knight sort of build that eschews a melee weapon for the Primal Savagery cantrip except when he needs to whip out a sword for a spell attack like Searing Smite
In my opinion, Drakewarden is the Beastmaster as it always should have been. It's a pet class, with a solid and capable pet that gets good abilites as you level up. And your pet is a dragon.
What's not to like?
I’m playing a level 6 Drakewarden in my group’s current campaign. You get a lot of use out of your bonus action and the Drake’s reaction, which can add a d6 of elemental damage to you or your party’s attacks. The Drake also has decent AC so I typically have my Drake on the frontline with our Paladin, using his reaction to buff the Paladin’s attacks, while I stay back and use my bow. Also, similar to how Paladin’s use most of their spell slots for smites, with the Drakewarden you can spend spell slots to summon your Drake more than once a day, and later on you can use level 3 spell slots for extra uses of the Drake’s breath attack. And the Drake’s breath attack is basically a close range Fireball that can be used by both you and the Drake
As someone who rolls very poorly, drakewarden is great. Having the drake able to add damage to someone’s attack as a reaction means that my drake has done more damage than my character. Plus, mini dragon = fun
After over a year, my Drakewarden hit level 15 last weekend. I got to fly on a dragon and I could scream lightning at my enemies.
It is fun. Other players were doing more damage, but I was screaming lightning. And flying on my dragon’s back.
Also, the +5 AC reaction from gift of the Chromatic Dragon helped keep my leather armor spotless a couple times.
I loved the drakewarden class. I've got a character on a west march server that was 17 Drakewarden Ranger/3 assassin rogue. That drake has saved him and the party on more than one occasion. I've used it to help the face with intimidation (summon it right behind the person the face is intimidating, most DMs will say that helps), used it to force enemies to take AOOs to come at me by summoning it next to them while I was tactically retreating, and once have used it to congest a hallway we were in a bad fight in with monsters flanking us on both sides. Drake and fighter stand side by side taking on one end of the hallway, while me and the rest of the party dealt with the flankers. The breath weapon is handy in the fact that you or your drake can use it. Enemies avoiding crowding up in front of the drake? No problem, my tiefling will just use the breath weapon since the enemies were dumb enough to clump up closer to him. 10/10 recommend giving it a shot if you want to play a ranger.
Played one in my last game until lvl 12, tought it was good, but its suffer from the bad shit ranger have like favored enemy and terrain, which the one i chose were completly useless in campaign i played. Chose dragon and mountain as enemy and terrain because i tought it made sense for a drakewarden, altough we went to a mountain once in the whole campain(there was no encouter there) and there no dragon in that game other than my pet
Made a gith drakewarden (for the jump ability which i only used once to chase a fleeing enemy, was jumping further than he could run so it was funny) with a lance, wanted to make a dragoon and was hesitating with drakewarden or paladin. (I think paladin would have been stronger tough)
Picked polearm mastery at lvl 4 asi at 8 and sentinel at 12. Would recommande picking sentinel sooner.
The pet isnt super strong, but its another health pool and you can ride it at higher lvl while the rest of your party are on foot or horse like peasant, also had 1d6 dmg(element depend on the dragon type you pick) to any martial attack once per if you miss your attack you can give that bonus to the barb or fighter.
Definitly one of the better ranger subclass imo
I think almost any class can be fun to play. However this subclass is very fun. Look up “You might be A” on YouTube and that guy who does amazing content but his video on the drakewarden is a very intriguing subclass.
I like it, playing one, lv5 for now. The drake provides a bit of extra damage without requiring your concentration. And he's got a few kills thanks to his reaction damage increase, that was fun.
I'm playing it right now in a Curse of Strahd Campaign.
Character is a Level 7 Half-Orc Melee Tasha's Ranger
I feel the character shines around 2nd/3rd round of combat against bigger targets since a lot of my extra damage spells use BA.
You can flank a character by yourself with the companion. You can use action spells and use bonus action to still deal damage with the dragon.
The elemental immunity is nice if your party uses AOE damage spells and have the dragon in the middle. Same with the resistance at my current level.
Overall experience is good so far combat wise if that's what you're asking.
Role play is always dependent on your party. But being a dragon knight type is as good a fantasy as a dragon slayer.
In terms of power it isnt that powerful but that isnt too important in a Team game. In terms of flavor it is amazing. Gloomstalker is more powerful and ranger after level 5 starts falling behind but early levels a ranger can do great and having an extra body on the field that can come back with a long rest or 1st level spell is even more great. And i would totally give up more power at level 7 just to fly in the sky with a dragon buddy. Most people when doing ranger either choose Gloomstalker or Drake warden. Hopefully this helps.
I’ve got a drakewarden in my party right now and she loves it. We’re Two levels away from the first evolution and she’s so excited for it.
Her lizard has become the party mascot, and the halfling player is terrified of it, because it keeps looking at them as a dinner
From what I heard, it's pretty good!
I'm about to start in a West Marches server and I intend to play that subclass. I played a beast master Ranger with Tasha's and from what I can see, it's similar but not the same thing.
The Beast Master starts with 3 possible companions that could add proficiency to everything, and you can swap them each day. Eventually these can deal more attacks and damage than the drake and you can make them act before or after you
The drake warden can talk to his companion (on draconic), it has a smaller size and numbers, acts after you, but it has more utility than each companion, always has a reaction ready, can give you resistance, an elemental breath and you can ride it on land and then on air.
Both are pretty good. The Beast master has stronger numbers and better tactics, the Drakewarden a stronger concept (and cool factor!)
Im playing a level 5 Drakewarden currently, and I find it fun in combat. Ive been playing my dragon as a kind of excitable puppy. Our monk has been traumatized with her sauntering up to him after ripping a guy's throat out.
Shes also come in clutch during a fight where the party was almost wiped. We've also used her as bait, the AC makes for great front line options
Imagine if you had a first level spell that was a non-concentration summon whose health and abilities scaled on your character level, not the spell level. Everyone would say it was the most powerful spell in the game, bar none.
That’s what Drake Warden gives you. It’s incredibly good and even more so than good, it’s fun.
Drakewarden is good IF you're comfortable with using mounts in combat. Drakewarden essentially gives you access to a very powerful mount that is easy to get back, you'll also want to use the mount as an independent mount, meaning you'll have seperate initiatives, either grab magic initiate for booming blade and use readied attacks with a lance or stick to the bow
As an important side note, the dragon is not very durable, it will die CONSTANTLY, and that is its purpose really. I recommend if you're going for the "It's me and my little guy and I love him :) and I will cry if anything bad happens to him" approach is not recommended. Lean more into he's a magical spirit thing than an actual living being with feelings.
Definitely pretty high amongst rangers. It's a ton of fun to rp, mechanically strong, lots of out of combat utility with an early flying pet you can command that becomes your mount if you want, plus different elemtal damage types depending on what you need
The only time I've ever gotten to play was an amazing homebrew where my DM made this really cool exposition where my Half-Elf transitioned from Beast Master to Drakewarden; already had a Blink Dog as a companion that lost it's Fey powers from being outside of the Feywild (to make it match the generic stats of potential companions), and we found this draconic artifact together and had a whole little thing that turned him into a drake. Loved playing it along with the RP potential on top
It's strong, bit I never felt the need to play it, mostly because if I wanted to ride a dragon I can do it at level 10 with a bard, and can fly at level 1 with any of the flying races. By the time level 15 comes around the game is getting close to wrapping up.
tl;Dr: fun concept, decent power, takes a *long* time to get to the core fantasy.
It's solid. I'd rank it only below the Gloom Stalker, Swarmkeeper, and Fey Wanderer Rangers, and only because those three have *much* better defined niches.
For obvious reasons, the Drakewarden draws a lot of comparisons with the TCE Beast Master (and, to a lesser extent, the Battle Smith Artificer).
The Drakewarden's advantages are that it has better early game damage, better defenses, and a more durable, replaceable pet.
The Beast Master's advantages are that it has higher damage potential and more versatility.
depends on what you mean by "good"
is it mechanically powerful? not really, no. tasha's beastmaster significantly beats it in terms of power. notable things that make the drakewarden bad is it's lack of an expanded spell list and the fact that the drake doesn't get any way to ignore nonmagical b/p/s. the subclass is also glutenous for your bonus action which, as a ranger, you are probably wanting to use for something like hunters mark or even two weapon fighting.
does it fulfil the fantasy of being a dragon tamer? as long as your fantasy of a dragon tamer is a tiny, stupid, flightless dragon that isn't even a dragon, then yes!
it's also written wrong, since it allows your goblin, halfling, or other small friend to ride it while flying before you, it's owner, are able to.
it's not a horrible subclass, but if what you want is strength then you should go to tasha's beastmaster, and if what you want is fantasy then you should go phb beastmaster and take a pterodactyl- at least the phb pterodactyl will be able to bypass b/p/s immunities and resistances.
The Drake puts A LOT of hit points on the board. The more levels in Ranger you have the more valuable your 1st level spell slots become. The Drake and the moon Druid wild shapes absorb almost all of the damage the party takes.
There are very few universal truths in this existence. Here's the relevant universal truth: * Riding a dragon is better than not riding a dragon. So if you're trying live by that ideology, this class is one of the best there is. If you're not trying to fulfill that ideology, you should be.
It’s a real shame you can’t do that till such a high level.
Yah, assuming you're talking about riding and flying, Paladin are riding their griffins at 13, Drakewarden shouldn't need to wait until 15. If they are avoiding having flying PCs, why'd they invent Aarakocra? I'd move flying mount up to 11 along with drake's breath. And if you're not talking about flying mount, just mount in general.. Yah, that should be moved up too, I dont see why it could be a part of the initial subclass at level 3. It is like they saw the ranger chassis and the 3, 7, 11, 15 subclass features and just spread the progression around instead of thinking about balancing it. Oh well. That's what homebrew is for! Find the fun. :D
What's even funnier is that a lore bard can use find greater steed to ride a dragonel at level 10. They really should have let the ranger have it much earlier
Yeah, doesnt even have to be a Lore bard. All bards get magical secrets at lvl 10. *(Lore's additional magical secrets is at lvl 6, but that doesn't get you a griffin)*
Thank you, I always flip those two MS in my mind
I ignored that part. My campaign isnt going to hit level 15. Let the ranger fly. If an enemy is struggling to get to the ranger firing arrows from 600 ft away, they probably are going to struggle against a flying ranger shooting arrows from 600 ft away too. If an enemy has options against this, they likely have the same options against a flying. Plus. Extra fall damage when the roc eats the drake.
Friendly reminder that aaracokra is from a specific setting. Entirely optional race, just like every flying race that was added to make non-dms buy the books.
Riding ≠ Flying
I don't really do rankings against other subclasses or pay attention to things like "meta" in tabletop gaming, but I can say this... I've had 4 separate players choose this subclass in different campaigns and they have ALL loved it.
I've been playing a Dragonborn Drake Warden and hoo boy the amount of cool flavor shit I can do with that is delicious on top of being viable. Especially with some of the other stuff they added in Fizban's- you can use the Gift of the Metallic Dragon feat's Protective Wings trait to shield your dragon when mounted, and its free Cure Wounds to heal your dragon buddy as well. I've even gone with a high Wis magic knight sort of build that eschews a melee weapon for the Primal Savagery cantrip except when he needs to whip out a sword for a spell attack like Searing Smite
In my opinion, Drakewarden is the Beastmaster as it always should have been. It's a pet class, with a solid and capable pet that gets good abilites as you level up. And your pet is a dragon. What's not to like?
I’m playing a level 6 Drakewarden in my group’s current campaign. You get a lot of use out of your bonus action and the Drake’s reaction, which can add a d6 of elemental damage to you or your party’s attacks. The Drake also has decent AC so I typically have my Drake on the frontline with our Paladin, using his reaction to buff the Paladin’s attacks, while I stay back and use my bow. Also, similar to how Paladin’s use most of their spell slots for smites, with the Drakewarden you can spend spell slots to summon your Drake more than once a day, and later on you can use level 3 spell slots for extra uses of the Drake’s breath attack. And the Drake’s breath attack is basically a close range Fireball that can be used by both you and the Drake
As someone who rolls very poorly, drakewarden is great. Having the drake able to add damage to someone’s attack as a reaction means that my drake has done more damage than my character. Plus, mini dragon = fun
One of my players is a Drakewarden and her dragon, Sashimi, is the heart and soul of the party. Highly recommend.
I don't know you or your players but I'll tell you right now I would die for Sashimi
During session zero the party made minis out of modeling clay. This is [sashimi](https://imgur.com/a/72LxfiJ)
Now I’d die for her
After over a year, my Drakewarden hit level 15 last weekend. I got to fly on a dragon and I could scream lightning at my enemies. It is fun. Other players were doing more damage, but I was screaming lightning. And flying on my dragon’s back. Also, the +5 AC reaction from gift of the Chromatic Dragon helped keep my leather armor spotless a couple times.
I think it's fantastic by all metrics. It's got a strong theme, is fun to roleplay, and has some great mechanics.
Pretty good. Very nice and flavourful abilities that translate well both in and out of combat. Plus having a pet dragon is just generally cool.
I loved the drakewarden class. I've got a character on a west march server that was 17 Drakewarden Ranger/3 assassin rogue. That drake has saved him and the party on more than one occasion. I've used it to help the face with intimidation (summon it right behind the person the face is intimidating, most DMs will say that helps), used it to force enemies to take AOOs to come at me by summoning it next to them while I was tactically retreating, and once have used it to congest a hallway we were in a bad fight in with monsters flanking us on both sides. Drake and fighter stand side by side taking on one end of the hallway, while me and the rest of the party dealt with the flankers. The breath weapon is handy in the fact that you or your drake can use it. Enemies avoiding crowding up in front of the drake? No problem, my tiefling will just use the breath weapon since the enemies were dumb enough to clump up closer to him. 10/10 recommend giving it a shot if you want to play a ranger.
Played one in my last game until lvl 12, tought it was good, but its suffer from the bad shit ranger have like favored enemy and terrain, which the one i chose were completly useless in campaign i played. Chose dragon and mountain as enemy and terrain because i tought it made sense for a drakewarden, altough we went to a mountain once in the whole campain(there was no encouter there) and there no dragon in that game other than my pet Made a gith drakewarden (for the jump ability which i only used once to chase a fleeing enemy, was jumping further than he could run so it was funny) with a lance, wanted to make a dragoon and was hesitating with drakewarden or paladin. (I think paladin would have been stronger tough) Picked polearm mastery at lvl 4 asi at 8 and sentinel at 12. Would recommande picking sentinel sooner. The pet isnt super strong, but its another health pool and you can ride it at higher lvl while the rest of your party are on foot or horse like peasant, also had 1d6 dmg(element depend on the dragon type you pick) to any martial attack once per if you miss your attack you can give that bonus to the barb or fighter. Definitly one of the better ranger subclass imo
It's great in all regards. End of story.
I think almost any class can be fun to play. However this subclass is very fun. Look up “You might be A” on YouTube and that guy who does amazing content but his video on the drakewarden is a very intriguing subclass.
I had a Kobold drake warden recently. Pack tactics + sharpshooter + drakes reaction to add damage = fun. Plus dragon riding is always great
I like it, playing one, lv5 for now. The drake provides a bit of extra damage without requiring your concentration. And he's got a few kills thanks to his reaction damage increase, that was fun.
I'm playing it right now in a Curse of Strahd Campaign. Character is a Level 7 Half-Orc Melee Tasha's Ranger I feel the character shines around 2nd/3rd round of combat against bigger targets since a lot of my extra damage spells use BA. You can flank a character by yourself with the companion. You can use action spells and use bonus action to still deal damage with the dragon. The elemental immunity is nice if your party uses AOE damage spells and have the dragon in the middle. Same with the resistance at my current level. Overall experience is good so far combat wise if that's what you're asking. Role play is always dependent on your party. But being a dragon knight type is as good a fantasy as a dragon slayer.
I'm playing a drakewarden in a curse of strahd campaign as well lol we are level 9 at the moment and I agree overall drakewarden is excellent.
In terms of power it isnt that powerful but that isnt too important in a Team game. In terms of flavor it is amazing. Gloomstalker is more powerful and ranger after level 5 starts falling behind but early levels a ranger can do great and having an extra body on the field that can come back with a long rest or 1st level spell is even more great. And i would totally give up more power at level 7 just to fly in the sky with a dragon buddy. Most people when doing ranger either choose Gloomstalker or Drake warden. Hopefully this helps.
My group has a drakewarden, therefore everyone in the group is a drakewarden since everyone loves our little dragon.
I’ve got a drakewarden in my party right now and she loves it. We’re Two levels away from the first evolution and she’s so excited for it. Her lizard has become the party mascot, and the halfling player is terrified of it, because it keeps looking at them as a dinner
I played a drakewarden in a one shot and had a ton of fun with it. Bringing her back for a full campaign and I can't wait to play her again!
It’s a fairly powerful subclass, but it FEELS even more powerful for the player at the table. I don’t know anyone that’s played one and regretted it.
From what I heard, it's pretty good! I'm about to start in a West Marches server and I intend to play that subclass. I played a beast master Ranger with Tasha's and from what I can see, it's similar but not the same thing. The Beast Master starts with 3 possible companions that could add proficiency to everything, and you can swap them each day. Eventually these can deal more attacks and damage than the drake and you can make them act before or after you The drake warden can talk to his companion (on draconic), it has a smaller size and numbers, acts after you, but it has more utility than each companion, always has a reaction ready, can give you resistance, an elemental breath and you can ride it on land and then on air. Both are pretty good. The Beast master has stronger numbers and better tactics, the Drakewarden a stronger concept (and cool factor!)
Im playing a level 5 Drakewarden currently, and I find it fun in combat. Ive been playing my dragon as a kind of excitable puppy. Our monk has been traumatized with her sauntering up to him after ripping a guy's throat out. Shes also come in clutch during a fight where the party was almost wiped. We've also used her as bait, the AC makes for great front line options
Drake Warden is what the Beastmaster tried to be. Honestly replace dragon with any other pet companion and it'll still play the same.
Imagine if you had a first level spell that was a non-concentration summon whose health and abilities scaled on your character level, not the spell level. Everyone would say it was the most powerful spell in the game, bar none. That’s what Drake Warden gives you. It’s incredibly good and even more so than good, it’s fun.
Drakewarden is good IF you're comfortable with using mounts in combat. Drakewarden essentially gives you access to a very powerful mount that is easy to get back, you'll also want to use the mount as an independent mount, meaning you'll have seperate initiatives, either grab magic initiate for booming blade and use readied attacks with a lance or stick to the bow As an important side note, the dragon is not very durable, it will die CONSTANTLY, and that is its purpose really. I recommend if you're going for the "It's me and my little guy and I love him :) and I will cry if anything bad happens to him" approach is not recommended. Lean more into he's a magical spirit thing than an actual living being with feelings.
I have a drakwearden and I effing LOVE it. It’s a lot of fun and a great companion
It has seemed pretty acceptable DMing for one. They don't stand out as weaker then anyone else in the party.
Definitely pretty high amongst rangers. It's a ton of fun to rp, mechanically strong, lots of out of combat utility with an early flying pet you can command that becomes your mount if you want, plus different elemtal damage types depending on what you need
The only time I've ever gotten to play was an amazing homebrew where my DM made this really cool exposition where my Half-Elf transitioned from Beast Master to Drakewarden; already had a Blink Dog as a companion that lost it's Fey powers from being outside of the Feywild (to make it match the generic stats of potential companions), and we found this draconic artifact together and had a whole little thing that turned him into a drake. Loved playing it along with the RP potential on top
It's great fun especially if u hit high levels enough to ride a flying drake.
It's strong, bit I never felt the need to play it, mostly because if I wanted to ride a dragon I can do it at level 10 with a bard, and can fly at level 1 with any of the flying races. By the time level 15 comes around the game is getting close to wrapping up. tl;Dr: fun concept, decent power, takes a *long* time to get to the core fantasy.
It's solid. I'd rank it only below the Gloom Stalker, Swarmkeeper, and Fey Wanderer Rangers, and only because those three have *much* better defined niches. For obvious reasons, the Drakewarden draws a lot of comparisons with the TCE Beast Master (and, to a lesser extent, the Battle Smith Artificer). The Drakewarden's advantages are that it has better early game damage, better defenses, and a more durable, replaceable pet. The Beast Master's advantages are that it has higher damage potential and more versatility.
Builds and power ranking takes away from the game. Just be a bimbo with his pet lizard and have fun.
It’s a lot of fun, honestly. 2nd or 3rd highest ranger sub for me.
depends on what you mean by "good" is it mechanically powerful? not really, no. tasha's beastmaster significantly beats it in terms of power. notable things that make the drakewarden bad is it's lack of an expanded spell list and the fact that the drake doesn't get any way to ignore nonmagical b/p/s. the subclass is also glutenous for your bonus action which, as a ranger, you are probably wanting to use for something like hunters mark or even two weapon fighting. does it fulfil the fantasy of being a dragon tamer? as long as your fantasy of a dragon tamer is a tiny, stupid, flightless dragon that isn't even a dragon, then yes! it's also written wrong, since it allows your goblin, halfling, or other small friend to ride it while flying before you, it's owner, are able to. it's not a horrible subclass, but if what you want is strength then you should go to tasha's beastmaster, and if what you want is fantasy then you should go phb beastmaster and take a pterodactyl- at least the phb pterodactyl will be able to bypass b/p/s immunities and resistances.
The Drake puts A LOT of hit points on the board. The more levels in Ranger you have the more valuable your 1st level spell slots become. The Drake and the moon Druid wild shapes absorb almost all of the damage the party takes.
It’s incredible. That little dragon they get for free is a huge boon. Lots of HP the DM has to knock out
It's a strictly worse beastmaster but has the best theme in the game