D&D: Gem Dragons In Fizban’s Treasury Of Dragons Explained

Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons is a new sourcebook for Dungeons & Dragons that brings back some old content, as the gem dragons have officially returned to D&D as powerful new monsters. The Monster Manual includes stats for the ten “true dragons,” which are the five chromatic dragons (black, blue, green, red, and white), and the five metallic dragons (brass, bronze, copper, silver, and gold), but there is a third designation of true dragon that has only just returned to the game.

The chromatic dragons generally belong to the evil alignment and worship the five-headed goddess Tiamat, while the metallic dragons generally belong to the good alignment and worship the platinum dragon, Bahamut. There are also “lesser” dragons that share traits with the true dragons, but they usually aren’t as strong as the chromatic or metallic dragons. These lesser dragons include creatures like wyverns and drakes, which are more likely to be encountered by the average adventuring party.

The Monster Manual II for the third edition of D&D introduced gem dragons, which were the third category of true dragon that generally belonged to the neutral alignment. After many years of being away from the game, the gem dragons have returned in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, giving DMs the chance to use psionically-gifted dragons in their campaigns. The gem dragons have a less defined role in the multiverse of D&D, with some of them simply being interested in the pursuit of knowledge. This looser boundary means that it’s easier for DMs to use them how they see fit in their campaign, so long as a suitable role can be found for a telepathic dragon.

D&D’s Gem Dragons Return Thanks To Fizban’s Treasury Of Dragons

There are five types of gem dragon: amethyst, crystal, emerald, sapphire, and topaz. Unlike the chromatic and metallic dragons of the multiverse, the gem dragons generally reside on the Inner Planes, which contain the four elemental planes. The gem dragons are gifted in the use of psionics, which gives them access to a small number of spells in 5e. The breath weapons of the gem dragons are unusual, compared to the elemental ones used by the other true dragons. The amethyst dragon’s breath weapon is a gravity beam that deals force damage, the crystal dragon’s breath weapon is a beam of light that deals radiant damage, the emerald dragon’s breath weapon is a wave of mental energy that deals psionic damage, the sapphire dragon’s breath weapon is a lance of sound that deals thunder damage, and the topaz dragon’s breath weapon is a negative energy mist that deals necrotic damage.

The gem dragons collectively worship a god called Sardior, which is the ruby dragon. Sardior’s divine form has been broken into pieces, and there are five incredibly powerful greatwyrms trying to use their power to rebuild him. Each of the five gem greatwyrms in Fizban’s Treasury has the strength of a titan, with each being a CR 26 creature with a Mythic trait. An epic-level Dungeons & Dragons campaign could be based around aiding these majestic beings or stopping them from doing something that could shatter the multiverse itself.

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Scott Baird
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Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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