Sometimes wandering Rangers enter into the service of great dragons and are gifted a portion of their power. Undergoing an ancient ritual, they are bound to a Draconic Companion, a powerful scion of an elder dragon. Known as Drake Guards, these Rangers fight alongside their Companions as powerful draconic servants, and can eventually become dragon riders.
Drake Guard Spells
3rd-level Drake Guard Conclave feature
You always have certain spells prepared at the Ranger levels in the table below. The spells count as Ranger spells for you, but they don’t count against the spells you prepare each day.
| Ranger Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | absorb elements, command |
| 5th | dragon’s breath, warding bond |
| 9th | elemental weapon, fear |
| 13th | dominate beast, elemental bane |
| 17th | awaken, dominate person |
Draconic Companion
3rd-level Drake Guard Conclave feature
Your soul has been bound to that of a Draconic Companion. You choose its Essence from the following options: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. Its Essence influences the color of its scales, and once it is chosen it cannot be changed.
Your Companion uses the Draconic Companion stat block on this page, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) and Ranger Spell save DC throughout. It cannot bear a rider.
Your Draconic Companion is friendly to you and your allies and it obeys your commands. In combat, it acts on your turn. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but it only takes the Dodge action on its turn unless you use a bonus action to order it to take an action from its stat block or another action. Also, whenever you take the attack action, you can forgo one of your attacks to command the Companion to attack. When you are incapacitated, your Companion acts on its own, and will defend both itself and you to the best of its ability.
When your Companion is reduced to 0 hit points, it makes death saving throws like a player character would. If it dies, you can perform a special 1-hour ritual, which can be during a short or long rest, that restores it to life with 1 hit point. As part of this ritual, it can expend hit dice to regain hit points.
Wyrmsoul
3rd-level Drake Guard Conclave feature
The magic that bonds you to your Companion has infused you with draconic power. You learn to speak, read, and write Draconic, and when you cast a Ranger spell that deals acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage, you can cause it to deal the damage type of your Companion’s Essence instead.
Sword, Sorcery, and Dragons!
Interested in playing a true dragon rider? Check out the Order of Scales for the Magus Class, the arcane half-caster companion to the Paladin and Ranger!
Draconic Companion
Small Dragon, Lawful Neutral
Armor Class: 14 + PB (natural armor)
Hit Points: 5 + five times your Ranger level
Speed: 30 ft., fly 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 (+3) | 12 (+1) | 15 (+2) | 8 (-1) | 10 (+0) | 14 (+2) |
Damage Immunities: Essence type
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages: Draconic, understands any languages spoken by the Drake Guard bound to it.
Hit Dice. Your Companion has a total number of d8 Hit Dice equal to your Ranger level. It also gains all the normal benefits of both short and long rests.
Soul Bound. You add your PB to any ability check or saving throw that the Draconic Companion makes.
Actions
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 +PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 +3 +PB slashing damage + 1d4 Essence damage.
Greater Companion
7th-level Drake Guard Conclave feature
As your power increases, so does that of your Companion. Your Companion becomes Medium in size, and can bear you as a rider so long as you are Medium or smaller. However, its flying speed is halved while you are riding it. You can also roll d6s, in place of d4s, for the damage of its Claw attacks.
Elemental Breath
11th-level Drake Guard Conclave feature
You and your Companion can directly channel the elemental power of its Essence. As an action, you, or your Companion, can exhale a 30-foot cone of elemental breath. Creatures in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Ranger Spell save DC. Creatures take 8d6 Essence damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a success.
You and your Companion can use this feature a combined number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. When you have no uses left, you can expend a spell slot of 3rd-level or higher to use this feature again.
Mythic Companion
15th-level Drake Guard Conclave feature
Your bond with your Companion has unlocked its true power. As an action, your Companion can change its size, choosing to be Small, Medium, or Large. If it is Large in size, its flying speed is no longer halved while it bears you as its rider.
Also, once per turn when you command your Companion to attack, it can make two attacks instead of one. Finally, the damage of Elemental Breath increases to 10d6 damage.