An end-of-October surprise, a new Unearthed Arcana with two subclasses. Both of these subclasses use draconic power: the monk’s Way of the Ascendant Dragon and the ranger’s Drakewarden.

(Psst, also, hey! If you’re eligible to vote in the 2020 general election in the United States, make sure to vote if you haven’t already!)

Let’s take a look at these subclass features!

Monastic Tradition: Way of the Ascendant Dragon

This Monastic Tradition uses the power of dragons along with ki to fight. Both of these subclasses have Origin tables to explain the draconic influence on your character. For example, you could have learned under a dragon’s tutelage, or you studied in a dragon’s lair and were affected by the area’s magic.

Draconic Disciple: 3rd level feature

This feature grants three benefits. First, you can cause your unarmed strike to deal acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage when you hit. You also learn Draconic as a language. And, if you fail a Charisma (Intimidation) or Charisma (Persuasion) check, you can use a reaction to reroll the check. You can use this part of the feature until a failure turns into a success. So, for example, if you reroll a Charisma (Intimidation) check and still fail, you can reroll a different check later if you fail it.

This reroll feature is a nice improvement on reroll features that are worded differently. It’s more fun to guarantee that you’ll be able to reroll later checks until it turns failure into success once. Then, the feature refreshes on a long rest. The unarmed strike damage aspect of this feature is also neat—it’s both a fun flavor thing and can come in handy for foes with damage resistances/vulnerabilities.

Breath of the Dragon: 3rd level feature

Also at 3rd level, you get the Breath of the Dragon feature. This allows you to replace an attack with a breath attack, essentially. You can pick whether this breath attack is a cone or a line, and you can pick its damage type as well (acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison). This attack forces a Dexterity saving throw and does half damage on a successful save. The damage value is equal to two roll of the Martial Arts die. (This increases to three rolls at level 11.) You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You can use a ki point to regain a use of this feature if you run out before a long rest.

This feature is a great way to differentiate this subclass from others. And even if you’re already a dragonborn with a breath attack, this feature gives you some more flexibility outside the bounds of the dragonborn feature.

Wings Unfurled: 6th level feature

This feature is used at the same time you use the monk class feature Step of the Wind. When you use that feature, you can gain a flying speed equal to your walking speed until the end of your turn, as spectral dragon wings appear on your body. This feature’s usages are also bound by your proficiency bonus, and if you run out, you can use a ki when using Step of the Wind to get another use of Wings Unfurled.

This feature can give the already-mobile monk a leg up in maneuvering around the area. And, on top of it just being useful, flying is automatically cool, doubly so if you get dragon wings temporarily.

Aspect of the Wyrm: 11th level feature

This feature lets you use a bonus action to create a 30-foot aura around you for 1 minute. You choose between acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage for this aura. This grants you and your allies resistance to that damage. Additionally, if an enemy in the aura hits you or an ally, the hit creature can use a reaction to deal damage back to the enemy. You can use this bonus action once per long rest, and you can expend 4 ki points to regain a use.

The Aspect of the Wyrm aura can help protect your friends or at least make life harder for your enemies in close quarters. Elemental resistances like this can be a toss-up as to whether they’re useful in a given campaign, but the damage back to enemies is a fun way to fight back.

Ascendant Aspect: 17th level feature

This final subclass feature grants three benefits. It grants you blindsight out to 30 feet. This allows you to see anything (even invisible creatures) so long as they’re not hidden/behind total cover. Your Breath of the Dragon will cling to creatures, forcing them to make saves on their turns or take additional damage. And, lastly, your Aspect of the Wyrm causes an explosion of damage you can apply to any creatures you choose within the aura.

Ascendant Aspect powers up some of the features you got earlier on in your level progression. This way, you can look forward to these power-ups at early levels and really feel like your character has gotten stronger once you get there. Blindsight is really useful as well. Overall, I think fans of the draconic side of things will have a blast with this subclass.

Ranger Archetype: Drakewarden

A drake is a type of dragon that is less powerful than the archetypal dragons of D&D, but it can be a valuable companion. This ranger archetype leans into that—instead of having a beast companion, this ranger subclass allies with a drake. For example, you could have received an egg as a gift from a true dragon, or you could be a part of a secret order of rangers who preside over draconic lore.

Draconic Gift: 3rd level feature

This feature allows you to learn Draconic as a language and add the thaumaturgy cantrip to your spells. Thaumaturgy is great for dramatics, which aptly suit the aesthetic of a dragon.

Drake Companion: 3rd level feature

You can use an action to summon your drake companion. This feature provides a stat block to use for this drake companion. To make the stat block less wordy, they use PB as an acronym for proficiency bonus. Your proficiency bonus influences a few different aspects of your drake’s stats. You also select a damage type (acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison) as the drake’s damage immunity and the damage its attacks deal. It has a bite attack and a reaction that gives extra damage to someone else’s attack. The drake sticks around for a number of hours equal to your proficiency bonus.

Summoning a minor dragon is really cool, and I’m really curious to see what people do with this subclass. It seems like WotC is going to continue using this format for creature companions moving forward, which I don’t have any complaints about.

Bond of Fang and Scale: 7th level feature

This feature empowers your bond with your drake. The drake’s Draconic Essence—the damage type you chose—now also grants you resistance to the damage type. Your drake also either grows wings and a flying speed, or it is able to breathe in air and water and gains a swimming speed. Its bite also grows more powerful.

I like the idea here that both the ranger and the drake grow more powerful with this feature. The drake is now more mobile and does more damage, and its Draconic Essence is sort of protecting the ranger.

Drake’s Breath: 11th level feature

With this feature, you and the drake get breath attacks. It’s a cone of acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage, and it forces targets to make a Dexterity saving throw or take damage (taking half on a successful save). The damage increases at 15th level. You can do this (or cause your drake to do this) once per long rest, or you can use a 3rd level or higher spell slot to get another use.

Again, this isn’t a copy of the dragonborn’s breath attack, which is nice since I’d probably imagine a dragonborn using these subclasses. The choice to have you or your drake use the breath attack gives you some options in combat, too.

Perfected Bond: 15th level feature

Your drake grows more powerful, in that it literally grows from Small to Large size. Dang. Its bite attack also deals more damage. And, when you’re close to your drake and either of you take damage, you can use a reaction to grant the recipient resistance to that damage.

Large size means that the drake can’t be pushed around as easily… literally. It becomes an even more imposing presence. Congrats, your small dragon is now Big. This is probably the best possible outcome for fans of this subclass. Heck, I don’t usually play rangers, and I’m considering playing this sometime!

What do you think of these subclasses? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!