D&D 5.5E’s New Green Dragon Turns up the Green and the Snake
Green dragons look a lot more snake-y in 5.5E, according to a new preview from Gizmodo. Come see the new poison sneks.
Green Dragons are one of the two most iconic kinds of dragons in D&D. Perhaps because before D&D came along, most dragons were kinda depicted as big, green, and scaly. Now, of course, there’s a rainbow of colors in the dragon spectrum. But green dragons have made a niche of their own in D&D.
They’re master manipulators. Plotters and schemers who think in centuries. The bene gesserit have nothing on a good green dragon who has set up a lair and infiltrated the local populace with insidious promises of power.
There’s something very snake-like about them, and in 5.5E, that aspect is turned up bboth visually and lorewise. Gizmodo previewed the art just a short while ago, so let’s take a look!
The New 5.5E Green Dragon – Revamped Look, More Poison!
But it’s not just a preview of the look of the new dragon that Gizmodo has. They also got to talk to Josh Herman, art director for D&D, about what went into the dragon’s new design. While the core identity of the dragon hasn’t changed, the team at WotC is playing up the duplicitous, manipulative nature with some serpentine style:
“For the green dragon we made some large changes to its design, hoping to better show off the personality of the dragon. We also wanted to give the green dragon a new movement style unique among the cast of the chromatic dragons. Their movement shows the cunning and duplicitous nature of the green dragon while also tying into a more serpentine look.”
And it tracks. Green Dragons have the highest intelligence of any of the Chromatic Dragons. They don’t have thes amw raw strength or power, but they are master manipulators. Herman referenced green dragons “luring people into the forests” and that paints quite the picture:
“Rather than kicking down the door and burning the town, it would lure people into the forests where it could manipulate and deceive them, telling lies about why they were brought there and spinning tales about how they needed to help the dragon. A green dragon would use its intelligence and other regional effects to make it appear as invisible as possible, because it knows that being forward about its goals wouldn’t help it accomplish them.”
All of which you can see in the new Monster Manual, due out in February 2025.
What do you think of the new Green Dragon design? Serpentine delight? Or molted skin?
