Dragons in Level Up
The Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition Monstrous Menagerie has dragons–lots of dragons. With 85 pages of true dragons (about 90 stat blocks and variants) and 15 more pages of dragon turtles, sea serpents, and so on, we have a full source book’s worth of draconic friends and foes.
Along with the usual chromatic and metallic dragons, we have gem dragons (sapphire, amethyst, and emerald dragons) and a new category of dragons, essence dragons (earth, river, and shadow dragons).
Whereas chromatic dragons despoil the world and metallic dragons cultivate it, essence dragons embody the land. An earth dragon who presides over rolling farmland might offer protection to worshipful villagers, while the earth dragon of barren badlands might be as cruel and indifferent as the land itself.
Gem dragons are visionary, subterranean creatures who rarely encounter humanoids directly. Gem dragons often use intermediaries to dabble in the affairs of smallfolk in order to gain–and suppress–knowledge of realms beyond the material.
Brass dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
brass dragon spellcaster variant
Bronze dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
bronze dragon spellcaster variant
Copper dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
copper dragon spellcaster variant
Gold dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling, great wyrm)
gold dragon spellcaster variant
Silver dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
silver dragon spellcaster variant
Dragon turtle
titanic dragon turtle variant
Faerie dragon
faerie dragon familiar variant
Half dragon template
half-red dragon veteran
Sea serpent
Wyvern
Dragon Lich template
adult black dragon lich
Black dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling, great wyrm)
black dragon spellcaster variant
Blue dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling, great wyrm)
blue dragon spellcaster variant
Green dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling, great wyrm)
green dragon spellcaster variant
Red dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling, great wyrm)
red dragon spellcaster variant
White dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling, great wyrm)
white dragon spellcaster variant
Earth dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
earth dragon spellcaster variant
River dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
river dragon spellcaster variant
Shadow dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
shadow dragon spellcaster variant
Amethyst dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
amethyst dragon spellcaster variant
Emerald dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
emerald dragon spellcaster variant
Sapphire dragon (ancient, adult, young, wyrmling)
sapphire dragon spellcaster variant
Minions and Hoards
If you’re facing a dragon in its lair, it’s likely to have allies. The Monstrous Menagerie aims to save you preparation time by providing encounter groups for a wide range of levels. If you need a bodyguard for a wyrmling, or mighty minions for an ancient dragon, we’ve got options for you–usually quite a few.
Similarly, we’ve got premade treasure hoards for every dragon type and age group. If you don’t feel like coming up with thematic art objects, magic item, and trade goods, we’ve got you covered.
The Dragon’s Lair
We don’t give lair actions to our dragons: those types of thematic draconic abilities are available to our dragons no matter where they are, in the form of extra actions, reactions, bonus actions, and legendary actions. Essentially, dragons take their lair abilities with them.
However, a dragon’s lair is not to be entered lightly. Instead of giving identical lair features to every dragon of a specific type, we offer a choice of lair features the Narrator can use to customize each draconic domicile. Thus, a second battle against the same type of dragon may offer a surprise or two.
Elemental Power
When you’re battling a dragon, the color of its scales and the damage type of its breath weapon aren’t the only clues to its nature. A dragon’s particular species informs its battle strategy, its reactions to being attacked, and the way it twists the world around it to create supernatural effects.
Level Up lead designers Andrew Engelbrite and Cassandra Macdonald made sure that each dragon’s attacks and legendary actions feel distinct. The black dragon is a terrifying ambusher that lurks in magical darkness. The gold dragon protects and inspires its allies and encases its enemies in gouts of molten gold. The amethyst dragon wields psionic forces to charm, stupefy, and telekinetically toss its foes. The river dragon inundates its foes with crashing waves, whirlpools, and waterspouts.
Draconic Spellcasters
Each dragon has a variant that gives it the ability to cast spells. Each dragon type/age category combination has a different spell list. It’s up to the Narrator to determine whether spellcasting dragons are rare or nonexistent, or whether every dragon can use magic.
Dragons don’t cast a lot of direct-damage spells–even a fireball can’t compete with a red dragon’s breath–but draconic spellcasters can wield powerful utility and defensive spells. While a young dragon might only know spells up to level 2 or so, an ancient or great wyrm dragon might be able to cast eighth-level or even ninth-level spells.
Great Wyrms
Speaking of great wyrms: they’re the pinnacle of dragonkind, older and fiercer than ancient dragons. Luckily for the world, great wyrms spend centuries asleep: but when they awake, the gods are said to tremble upon their thrones.
A great wyrm is a truly epic opponent, offering a battle approximately as tough as fighting two ancient dragons simultaneously. When fighting a great wyrm, even a high-level, well-optimized adventuring party may meet its match. A battle against a great wyrm is in two stages. Once the dragon is bloodied (reduced to half of its hit points), it becomes more destructive, gaining new traits and new, more dangerous legendary abilities.
We’ve got six great wyrms–each of the chromatic dragons plus the gold dragon–each with specific, thematic abilities that make them distinct from each other. Fighting one of these beasts can well be the capstone of an adventure.
White great wyrm (equal to two CR 22 monsters)
Black great wyrm (equal to two CR 23 monsters)
Green great wyrm (equal to two CR 24 monsters)
Blue great wyrm (equal to two CR 25 monsters)
Red great wyrm (equal to two CR 26 monsters)
Gold great wyrm (equal to two CR 26 monsters)
With all these dragons, plus plot hooks, lairs, minions, and treasure, Monstrous Menagerie has everything you need to plague your lands and torment your adventurers. Let the wings of your dragons darken the sky!