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Dragons of Krynn (3.5)

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Dragons.

The undisputed masters of Krynn.

The stuff of legends for over a thousand years.

Whether encountered alone in their lairs beneath the ruins of ancient cities or flying in great numbers over the battlefields of Solamnia, dragons are the icons of fear and hope in the unfolding drama of the DRAGONLANCE world.

This volume offers authorial insights, creative perspectives, cultural legends, and factual accounts of the marvelous wyrms of Krynn from the ten clans of true dragons and their myriad kindred to the indomitable breeds of draconians. New racial classes, new feats, and a collection of dragon-themed magic items are provided. The bakali lizardfolk and their offshoots are presented in full detail, together with rules and background for dragonspawn, dragonkin, and the noble draconians.

Dragons of Krynn also includes articles on dragons by best-selling authors: Ed Greenwood, Mary Herbert, Richard Knaak, Chris Pierson, Jean Rabe, and Paul B. Thompson, with an introduction by R.A. Salvatore.

Product History

Dragons of Krynn (2007), by Cam Banks, Sean Everette, and Amanda Valentine was a monster splatbook for Dragonlance. It was published by Margaret Weis Productions for Gen Con Indy 2007.

Ending Sovereign's Dragonlance Saga. By 2007, the company known originally as Sovereign Press and later as Margaret Weis Productions had been reliably publishing 4-5 Dragonlance products every year since 2004. This meant that Sovereign was supporting Dragonlance as well as TSR ever had, and Sovereign's books tended to be bigger and denser. Wizards of the Coast might have achieved a greater height for the line in 1998 when they pushed out seven different SAGA products, but Sovereign's sustained height from 2004-2007 was at least as notable.

Unfortunately, Sovereign's reign was now coming to a close. In April 2007 Margaret Weis announced that her license for Dragonlance was ending at the end of the year. Dragons of Krynn would thus be Sovereign's 11th and final Dragonlance sourcebook — counting back to the Dragonlance Campaign Setting (2003) that they'd produced for Wizards. An ambient magic book, covering the sorcerers and mystics of the Age of Mortals, was the most notable sourcebook that the Sovereign team never got to produce.

Sovereign produced three more Dragonlance products before the end of the line. Their final two adventures, Dragons of Winter (2007) and Dragons of Spring (2008), and the non-fiction Lost Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home (2007) all appeared in a flurry right around the turn of the year.

Another Dragon Sourcebook. Dragon sourcebooks had been an ongoing component of the D&D line since the '90s. By 2007, Wizards had already published two draconic books of their own for D&D 3e: Draconomicon (2003) and Races of the Dragon (2006). Meanwhile, Dragonlance authors had been writing about dragons forever too, starting with Roger E. Moore's short "The Dragons of Krynn" in Dragon #98 (June 1985). The most important draconic source for Dragonlance was Wings of Fury (1998), a SAGA system box that had one book full of "Dragonlore".

Sovereign rather uniquely got to build on all of that past lore when writing Dragons of Krynn. The authors of course used Wings of Fury as a major source, canonizing the SAGA background in the D&D game. However, they were also able to make their new book compatible with the Draconomicon (and the rest of Wizards' monster books); because Sovereign was a license holders — not dependent upon the OGL or the d20 Trademark License — they didn't have the restrictions that most third-party publishers had, which would have limited what they could use from open source books!

Expanding Krynn. Dragons of Krynn's biggest expansion of Krynn was the collation of all of Dragonlance's dragon background into one place. This included all of the cultural information about dragons from Wings of Fury as well as decades of other dragon lore — such as dragon master Douglas Niles' writing on the topic in The Dragons (1996) and elsewhere.

Dragons of Krynn also devotes an entire chapter to the nation of Teyr, which became a haven for draconians in Draconian Measures (2000), a novel by by Don Perrin with Margaret Weis.

Expanding the Dragons. Dragons of Krynn contains extensive discussion of D&D's traditional chromatic and metallic dragons and even the othlorx dragons of Taladas. However, the dragons of Krynn multiplied beyond D&D's standards over the years, and so a half-dozen additional dragon types also get attention within this book, most of them unique to Krynn:

  • Amphi Dragons first appeared during the War of the Lance in DL12: "Dragons of Faith" (1986), and then made additional appearances in other early supplements like DL14: "Dragons of Triumph" (1986) and Tales of the Lance (1992).
  • Aqua Dragons were much newer, having been created by Margaret Weis for the Bestiary of Krynn (2004, 2007).
  • Fire Dragons were chaotic creations who premiered in the novel Dragons of Summer Flame (1995) before receiving stats in Dragon #246) (April 1998) and Chaos Spawn (1999) for the SAGA System.
  • Frost Dragons were another chaotic dragon, who'd made its gaming debut in the Bestiary of Krynn (2004).
  • Sea Dragons were another long-lived Krynn dragon that also premiered in an early trilogy of DL12: "Dragons of Faith" (1986), DL14: "Dragons of Triumph" (1986), and Tales of the Lance (1992).
  • Shadow Dragons
  • were the only special dragon to have originated outside of Krynn, having premiered in the Monster Manual II (1983).

Even with all that attention to Krynnish dragons, others like the brine dragon from DLR1: "Otherlands" (1990) and the spider dragon from DLS4: "Wild Elves" (1991) were missing. (In fact, both dragons have been largely unloved since their first appearances, with the only exception being a reprint for the brine dragon in one of the Monstrous Compendium Annuals.)

Other Monsters of Note.> Dragons of Krynn also gives some strong attention to the other draconic races of Krynn. All of the various dragon-created creatures get attention, including the draconians from the original saga (1984-1986), the dragon spawn from the New Age (1996-1998), and the noble draconians from Bestiary of Krynn (2004).

The bakali are also highlighted. These are the Krynnish version of lizardmen, who first appeared in Time of the Dragon (1989). They're primal races that learned knowledge from the dragons long ago. The bakali races include the kobolds, who also get attention here. Though they're not dragon-blooded in Krynn, they're still related to dragons thanks to these ancient connections.

About the Creators. Though Cam Banks, Sean Everette, and Amanda Valentine were the main developers for Dragons of Krynn, a larger writing team provided considerable content for the book. That included many authors from Wizards of the Coast's fiction line, among them Ed Greenwood, Jean Rabe, Richard Knaak, and Douglas Niles, who wrote essays about dragons for the book.

About the Product Historian

This history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

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Any plan on being able to buy printed hardcover of this book?
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168
ISBN
978-1-931567-27-5
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SVP4406
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This title was added to our catalog on March 31, 2015.