The New Dragonborn Variants in Fizban’s 5e: The Best Versions Available

Last Updated on January 22, 2023

With an entire sourcebook dedicated to dragons, it’s no surprise that we got some new dragonborn variants.

While the dragonborn of the PHB gives us a great playable race with some cool breath weapons, these new variants on the concept allow us to really dig into our draconic heritage. 

Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons introduces us to three variants of dragonborn, the chromatic, gem, and metallic dragonborn races.

If you’re familiar with the original race, you may recall that your draconic ancestry could be from either chromatic or metallic dragons, but don’t let the repetition fool you. All of the variants in FToD are in fact new races.

Shared Dragonborn Features

There are several features of the variants that don’t change, so rather than bore you by repeating them, I’ve placed those stats here. 

Variant Dragonborn Features

The chromatic dragonborn is going to feel very similar to the original dragonborn race, except for the introduction of chromatic warding. This is a relatively small extra feature, turning your draconic resistance into a full immunity. Immunities are great to pick up and any of these 5 damage types are going to be coming up frequently enough to really make it worth it. Remember that 1 minute is often a full combat, so if you’re only running into one or two combats a day, you don’t have to be conservative with your one-a-day use.

Gem dragonborns have long been awaited and they are showing up in full force. Their draconic ancestry damage types round out the options so that we now have everything except for the physical damage types covered in breath weapons. I think you’d have a hard time explaining piercing breath to me anyways. 

They also get some standout side abilities. Telepathy that is always online is incredible, although the wording is a bit vague. Typically an ability that features mental communication is very clear whether or not the recipient can talk back to you.

Since it doesn’t specify, I’d definitely rule it as a two-way communication, but we’ll keep an eye on the SA column to see what crops up.

Then we have a dragonborn that can not only fly, but hover as well. When a character doesn’t always have wings it’s very rare that we gain the ability to remain in the air at the end of our turn, but this dragonborn has finally done it. Kudos to you gemstones. I think I see a topaz necromancer in my future.

Lastly, we come to the metallic dragons who are all about that breath. Maybe someone should give them a toothbrush? Jokes aside, the extra abilities these alternate metallic breaths have are pretty great.

Being able to decipher whether a con save or str save is more likely to be failed will be half the battle, but after that you’ll be completely altering the battlefield with these.

Dragonborn Review

In our main dragonborn article, we have a section discussing what the best classes for a dragonborn are. It’s a question that comes up for just about any race, and more often than not the answer comes simply from looking at the ability scores and plugging in the right class.

Strength and constitution? Yep, that’s a fighter or barbarian. Intelligence and strength? Looks like we have an Eldritch Knight or Artificer.

That is the way of the past! Ever since November 17th, 2020 when Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything hit shelves, new playable races have been introduced with this +2 and +1 or three +1s set up for ability scores and it. is. everything. 

Now we get to look at these variant races for their actual features, not just the numbers attached to them. What do these tell us?

Well they tell us that just about any race that’s frequently taking the Attack action is going to be golden. Or sapphire. Or whatever. Breath weapons function as part of the Attack action and are specifically stated to be one of your attacks, meaning a class with the Extra Attack feature can go in for the kill, deal some melee damage, and then let off a burst of whatever draconic breath they happen to have up their sleeves. 

Which Is the Best Variant? 

Flying and telepathy are two extremely coveted abilities that are so rarely seen together that I have to say the Gem Dragonborn is absolutely blowing my mind.

Even if telepathy wasn’t an incredible ability, the fact that it is the only feature to not be limited is amazing. No time limit, no x amount of uses per long rest, nada. This is just good old-fashioned psycho powers.

Which brings me to the question no one has but I must answer.

What rAe the Best Subclasses for a Variant Dragonborn? 

The first that jumps out at me is a Soulknife rogue. Taking the emerald gem ancestry so that you have a psychic AOE effect along with your psychic blades is traumatizing for your enemies.

In the very rare instance you come across psychic resistance you can find a way to overcome it, but most creatures have no way to deal with it. 

Then of course we have two instances of telepathy, letting you save your group telepathy subclass feature. Finally, a flying gem dragonborn can utilize the teleporting throwing knives in ways that a normal soulknife could only dream of. 

There’s also, of course, the circle of the moon druid. It doesn’t even matter which variant you go with, just being able to easily put a dragonborn’s breath weapons on any beast with a mouth when you wild shape is incredible.

Because of the ability score increases you can make an optimized druid without sacrificing a bit of your points to strength. 

My last pick would have to be the echo knight. Since any attack you make can originate from your echo, you can create some amazing tactics, corralling your opponents until you’re ready to hit them all with your breath. Who need’s a party when you’ve got dragon breath coming from two points on the battlefield?

The dragonborn has long been an amazing race, offering up some of the coolest racial features out there. Thanks to ole’ Fizban, it may now be one of the strongest races in the running. We’ll just have to wait and see what WotC comes out with next.

As always, happy adventuring!