If you ask someone what colour a dragon is, they might say Red, or Black, depending on whether their mind conjures up Smaug from the Hobbit or the dragons from Reign of Fire1. Ask a Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast, and they will list off the Red, Green, Blue, White, Black, Gold, Silver, Brass, Bronze, Copper, Sapphire, Topaz, Crystal, Amethyst, and Emerald, and then they might throw in the only Platinum dragon to boot, as well as Shadow and Elder-Brain dragons, in which case they might be trying to show off.
But one of the ones most rarely mentioned are the Faerie Dragons.
Faerie Dragons are a small, mischevious feywild critter with a penchant for tricks and a wicked intelligence. Their colours change through those of the rainbow as they age, and they learn additional spells as they grow older, and thus 7 different variations are listed in a single entry in the Monster Manual.
Now one thing that helps so many players keep track of the 15 “main” types of dragon (5 chromatic2, 5 metallic, and 5 gemstone) is the Dragonborn Race (or Species as it is in the 2024 rules). This option for your character allows you to have the appearance of a humanoid, human-sized dragon, with (canonically) no tail or wings, but who can breathe fire/lightning/cold/acid/poison/force/necrotic/thunder etc., just like your bigger counterparts. Rules-wise, Dragonborn are a solid choice - they swap an attack (not an action) for a breath weapon attack which they can do a certain number of times between naps. Very good for in-your-face hostile characters, like barbarians, fighters, and monks.
But what of the humble Faerie Dragon? They don’t get their own humanoid equivalent. And I thought that was unfair, so I made my own!
The Faerie Dragonborn
The Faerie Dragonborn are a creation I created3 to fill this niche in my world. They are small, excitable, and extremely varied in appearance. Their villages form around the portals between the material plane and the feywild, and they are always larger than they appear - half in this world, and half in the world behind it. Inside is a feast for the senses - bright, coloured lights, magical foods and drinks, beautiful music. Fey folk of all sorts gather in Faerie Dragonborn villages, making them exciting, noisy, and dangerous for those who wander!
Faerie Dragonborn are small, slight, and infinitely unique. Some have antlers, some have horns. Some have beards, other have moustaches, others still are bald, whilst others again have thick shaggy fur. Some have beaks, others have snouts. And the colours they have make them look as varied as the imaginary food spread from the hit 1991 movie Hook, or as though they start each morning with the Holi Festival of Colour. As a result, it is entirely possible to make them resemble (both in appearance and in mannerisms) some wonderful Jim Henson puppets from the 80’s…
Though you may need illusion magic for them to safely remove their heads!
Faerie Dragonborn are equipped with all the tools a fey trickster might need for sowing mischief and mayhem. They can turn invisible, and innately know the Dancing Lights and Minor Illusion4 cantrips. Their breath weapon is able to send a creature runnign in circles, or standing in disbelief, for up to a minute, and as they get older, they can affect more and more creatures with it.
When combined with a Bard or Wizard class choice, the Faerie Dragonborn becomes a natural trickster, and a charismatic force for good - or evil - in your games!
What you Get
In this £0.75 supplement, you get everything you need to create a Faerie Dragonborn character for games of D&D. Furthermore, you get a page and a half of background and lore concerning what they’re like, where they’re from, and what they do - everything a Dungeon Master needs to introduce them to their game as an encounterable people! Additionally you get some unique artwork, custom made for the supplement (and none of it AI-plagiarised5!), and a list of potential names for your Character (Faerie Dragonborn, I may note, will never give their true name freely, and make up new names for themselves weekly to avoid true association, and therefore power).
Call for 3rd party content!
Thankyou all for reading this far! I intend to keep this segment going every other Thursday, and whilst I have a fair few pieces I can shout about of my own, I would love to shout about yours! If you’ve got anything published on DrivethruRPG, or DM’s Guild (or elsewhere, to be fair!), and you would like me to review it and shout about it to the world, please drop me a message and we’ll make it happen!
For now, thank you all for reading, and I bid thee farewell!
It’s a good movie and that’s a hill I shall die on!
I am 90% certain that the name “Chromatic” is the reason we don’t have a Chrome Dragon. Which, coincidentally, would be a killer name for a fantasy-themed chopper.
Creatively.
Not to be mistaken for “Miner Illusion”, which manifests a coal-smeared Welshman from the late-1800’s to cough unpleasantly over your foes.
Serious and slightly embarassing reveal. If you browse my content, you will see a few pieces of AI art on a couple of other pieces. This came from a time before I knew the evils therein, and suffice to say I will never be using it again. Furthermore, I will be working my way back through them to de-AI them with real, human-made artwork. Then I will print out the AI art pieces, delete them from everywhere, then burn the prints, erasing them forever. Then I’ll mix the ashes into a paste, sculpt it into an effigy of AI art, then burn that too, for good measure.