So You Wanna Ride a Dragon in D&D – Here’s How
With Dragonlance on the horizon, the one thing everyone’s going to want to know is how to ride a dragon in D&D.
It’s right there in the name: Dragonlance. And if you’ve read any of the books, or even spent a minute looking at the cover of any of the material, you know that there’s one iconic part of the story:
That’s right, flying on the back of a majestic dragon. Or at least posing near one when you’ve got a painter handy. But how do you accomplish that? Here’s how to ride a dragon in D&D.
How to Ride a Dragon in D&D – Where To Begin
Before you know how to ride a dragon in D&D, you’ve got to know how to ride in D&D. In D&D, there are two big things that requires: the right kind of saddle, and the ability to make the most out of fighting from a mount.
The saddle is easy. All you need for that is the right kind of artisan and 60 gold pieces. That will buy you an Exotic Saddle, which is required for any aquatic or flying mount.
Now you can stay on the back of your dragon as you fly through the air. Once you’ve got that sorted, you’ll want to be a good combatant. Which means the Mounted Combatant feat.
Mounted Combatant makes you “a dangerous foe to face while mounted.” Which translates to three big benefits:
- Advantage on melee attacks against unmounted creatures smaller than your mount
- Redirecting attacks targeted at your mount to you instead
- Granting evasion to your mount
That last one, in particular, will help the third big thing you need in order to ride a dragon: an incentive.
Making Friends with a Dragon
Okay. So you’ve got the ability to ride a dragon. Now you actually have to convince one to allow you. There are a couple of ways to do this. Fortunately, all dragons are intelligent enough to realize the benefits of taking on a skilled rider.
A good dragon rider can be a partner to the dragon, helping to make them sturdier thanks to their feat. But you’ll probably also need to gift it something unless you find a dragon egg and raise it from a hatchling (or your family does – dragons take a while to age). But you only need a Large dragon, which is the “young” version of any dragon to start with.
Fizban’s treasury of dragons gives you some insight into how dragons work, and what they like. But in general, gold, gems, or appealing to its interests is likely to be your best bet.
Also bear in mind that you can make dragon barding. Sure it’s expensive, coming in at four times the base value of any armor, but you could potentially improve a weaker dragon’s armor class (up to a point) and a gift of cool dragon armor is sure to impress.
Essential Items
Once you’re soaring on the back of your dragon companion, you’ll want the right kind of magic items to complement you. Start with the iconic Dragonlance, a weapon that can be either a lance or a pike, ironically. A Dragonlance is a powerful magical weapon that does an extra 3d6 force damage upon hitting a dragon, and any dragon of your choice that you can see within 30 ft (like the one you’re riding), can immediately use its reaction to make a melee attack.
That’s the power of teamwork.
You’ll probably also want a ring or armor of protection to keep you safe from the breath weapons of dragons you may be fighting. You’ll also want something to keep you safe, should you fall.
For that, we recommend a ring of feather fall or else a feather token. Both will automatically slow any fall. You might also want to pick up wings or boots of flying to save you as a backup plan, just in case you don’t want to be drifting slowly while dragons fight around you.
Once you’re geared up, you’re ready to go out there and ride some dragons.
