The Dragon Patron (Warlock)
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“Hurry! The dragon demands tribute again. His acolyte is outside, and she’s burning things!”
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: The Dragon Patron, Acid Cloud
With a name like Dungeons and Dragons, it’s no surprise that one of the most commonly desired warlock patrons is a spellcasting ancient dragon, such as a wise gold dragon or a cunning black dragon, lending its arcane power to a warlock just as a fiend, archfey, or genie might. Dragons are ubiquitous across nearly every D&D universe, and many have long-term goals that require agents such as warlocks to do what simple kobolds cannot. Even the most bestial of dragons might lend power to a warlock for the purpose of consolidating hunting territory or growing their treasure hoard.
This patron’s design is based partially on the Celestial patron and Genie patron for warlocks and the Draconic Ancestry origin for sorcerers, with some Dragonborn breath weapon as a spice. While the 1st-level features are most useful at 1st-level for the armor provided by draconic scales, the breath weapon damage becomes more and more important as the warlock gains levels. The scales were originally part of the 10th level feature, but it proved to be far less meaningful by that level, and felt like it belonged earlier, during the character building process. The warlock also gains access to the fearful aspects of their patron’s Frightening Presence at both 6th and 14th level. There’s also dragon-specific invocations that allow the warlocks to further differentiate the abilities of chromatic and metallic dragons. The goal for this subclass is that it feels distinctly different from the dragon sorcerer. We sought a mage that borrowed power from a dragon rather than a mage that was part dragon.
There are many homebrew takes on a dragon patron out there, but the D&D Unleashed version benefits from being able to grant so many dragon-specific spells from our own homebrew spell lists. The expanded spell list is slightly different for each dragon, even those with the same damage type. Some spells are based not on damage type, but on the attributes of the dragon kind’s lair and the surrounding areas. For example, both black dragons and copper dragons grant acid spells, but black dragons are associated with water, whereas copper dragons are associated with earth, and their spell lists reflect this. You can have great fun by casting these draconic spells through a Pact of the Chain pseudodragon familiar!
Acid cloud is presented new in this preview document because it hasn’t been previewed yet. All the other homebrew spells on these expanded spell lists have already been previewed here: Cold Snap, Drown, Envenomed Weapon, Fingers of Lightning, Glistening Acid Slick, Ice Sculpture, Radic’s Sudden Spark, Sinking Maw, and Toxic Breath. The spells marked with “XGE” are from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, but you can also find them (with some minor alterations) in the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion, a free supplement that you can download. Similarly, the spell from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything (marked with “TCE”), Tasha’s caustic brew, can be replaced with the acid stream spell from Unearthed Arcana (though note that the Unearthed Arcana version is significantly stronger).
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: The Dragon Patron, Acid Cloud
