Expected read time: about 13 minutes

So who has seen the classic fantasy adventure film Dragonheart? Starring Dennis Quade as Bowen the Dragon Hunter and Sean Connery as Draco the Last Dragon, this was one of the formative movies of my childhood. Plus the soundtrack is just beautiful.

Anyway, this barbarian subclass—the first Primal Path that Caleb Willden and I ever worked on together—is directly inspired by that awesome film.

Without further delay, here’s some background info on how we designed the Path of the Dragonheart Barbarian!

Inspired Dragon Lore

So if you’ve seen Dragonheart, you know that in the beginning of the movie the king’s son is mortally injured. With no other recourse, they take the wounded prince to a wise and benevolent dragon who cuts out a piece of its own heart and puts it in the prince’s chest, granting him supernatural strength and resilience to overcome his injury.

This act of mercy also creates a spiritual bond between the prince and the dragon, allowing them to feel each other's pain to some extent.

This moment in the story is one of wonder and awe, and has drastic consequences for the rest of the show. It made me think about dragons in D&D and how mystical they are, and I started mapping out some ideas. I was always worried though if D&D players would buy the idea that an otherwise unremarkable warrior could gain some of a dragon’s strength and power. Then Wizards of the Coast published Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, and a wealth of dragon lore was added to the game, much of it lining up nicely with the narrative idea behind this subclass.

As we go through the Dragonheart’s features, we’ll discuss the background lore a bit more.

Now, on to the features!

Dragon Bond

Similar to the prince in the movie you bond with a dragon somehow, but we leave the narrative of exactly how that happens up to you and the DM. We give a few suggestions in a short random table, but in the end the story is yours.

Maybe you slew a dragon and bathed in its blood, or otherwise took its heart by force. Or perhaps it’s a tribal rite that has been passed down through generations. My favorite of the options is, “I saved a dragon’s egg and it blessed me for my deeds.”

However it happens, you get to choose what type of dragon granted you its power, so we include an extensive list of Chromatic, Metallic, and Gemstone dragons to choose from. Each one has an associated damage type that plays into your future features.

It makes sense in D&D that you’d have some special defense against the dragon’s associated damage type, but we didn’t want to give damage resistance; you know, the game mechanic where you only take half damage from a certain type of damage. Because there are a few ways to get resistance to the more common types (like fire), and we wanted this added resilience from the subclass to stack with that.

What we came up with reads, “Whenever you take damage of the type associated with your bonded dragon, that damage is reduced by your Constitution modifier (minimum of 0).” I really like this, because in D&D 5e even a tiefling or fire genasi or gold dragonborn that sticks its hand into a campfire is probably going to take some fire damage, even if they reduce the damage by half. But a Dragonheart is capable of reducing that damage to 0. And if you happen to already have fire resistance, you’re just that much better at not taking damage from fiery sources.

Dragon Rage

Also at 3rd level you get some bonuses while raging. I like to imagine that a Dragonheart barbarian actually has a piece of a dragon’s heart fused into their chest, helping to pump your mortal blood through your body. When you rage, the dragon heart goes into overdrive, filling you with supernatural endurance.

So now when you rage, you get temporary hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus. I don’t love the temporary hit point mechanic in 5e, but I like how it works here; you get a small pocket of extra hit points, but on a barbarian that number often feels doubled because of the damage resistances you get from raging.

We actually wanted this to be comparable to the Bear Totem barbarian option in the Player’s Handbook. Not as good, and certainly not better, but a step in the direction of additional defense. It’s not the only benefit you get from the Dragon Rage feature, however. You also get a pretty cool offensive one!

You also get this nifty ability where when you hit with a weapon attack while raging, you can choose to make the struck target and any other enemies adjacent to it take 1d4 damage—the same kind of damage as, you guessed it, the type associated with your dragon bond. This extra damage goes up a bit as you level, to keep it relevant.

It’s actually pretty similar to a cleave-type mechanic, which is largely missing from 5e. With this ability, you can literally blast your way through waves of weaker enemies. It also incentivizes dual-wielding, which I think is usually an interesting and under-supported option for barbarians.

While it’s useful for clearing out mobs, it’s also not useless in a 1v1 fight, because you pretty much always get that extra 1d4 stacked onto your hits. And if you know the enemy has resistance to damage from nonmagical weapons, the extra damage you deal has the potential to bypass that, which is neat. And there’s always the chance, though small, that an enemy you come across might have vulnerability to the extra damage you deal!

But mostly we just wanted it to be an obvious and cinematic display of your draconic might, and I think it accomplishes that.

But Wait!

Some people will look at this subclass so far and say, “But where’s my Dragon’s Breath feature? If I’m getting draconic characteristics, I want to breathe fire!”

Well, this is as good a time as any to bring up one of my design philosophies: When designing a player option around a particular monster theme, you don’t always want to just take monster abilities and slap them onto the build as racial traits or class/subclass features. That works in some cases… but I often find that’s the low-hanging fruit, the easiest route to go, and it doesn’t always work well for the build. Sometimes you can find things you like better by just digging a little deeper.

So if you’re looking for a barbarian that breathes fire and grows dragon claws to slash at enemies, or wings to fly around, this isn’t that one—though that one could still be a lot of fun.

Here are a few reasons we didn’t go with dragon breath.

First off, a feature that lets you do something like a dragon’s breath attack would be pretty darn close to being like a spell effect. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but barbarians like to smack things with their weapons, and using your action to do spell effects rather than weapon attacks cuts you off from using those nice barbarian features that key off of weapon attacks, like rage bonus damage, Reckless Attack, and Brutal Critical.

But if you can use some sort of breath attack, you can potentially reach and damage or kill more enemies with its larger area of effect, and that would let the barbarian have more interesting choices in combat, right? Well yes, that’s true. To a point. But there’s also a consideration of the action economy.

If you make a satisfying AoE breath attack, should that use your action or your bonus action? Well, if it’s an action then you don’t get to make your weapon attacks that turn. But if it’s a bonus action, you can’t enter or exit a rage that turn, and combining it with attacks from your action would probably make the feature overpowered.

This is one of the issues with the dragonborn race, by the way. Wizards of the Coast has tried a few different ways to implement the race’s breath weapon, and no one solution makes everyone happy or satisfied. Their most popular solution, substituting the breath weapon for one of the attacks you make with the Attack action, is nice and flexible, but I personally don’t care as much for the small amount of damage it does…

The dragonborn race brings up a second point against this subclass granting a breath weapon. Let’s say you really want to double-down on dragon-ness. Draconity? So you make a Dragonborn Path of the Dragonheart Barbarian. Well, then you would have two breath weapons, likely with different mechanics, and… that could get pretty confusing.

So for me, personally, if you want to have a breath weapon, play a dragonborn. This subclass is telling a somewhat different story.

Soul Bond

At 6th level is where we take the narrative borrowed from the Dragonheart movie and flip it on its head a bit. To give some utility and support to a class that is usually a bit lacking in those departments, the Soul Bond feature lets you share with another creature some of the benefits you get from your Dragon Bond. Just as a dragon once shared strength with you, you can share it with somebody else.

So over a short rest you can pick a creature and forge a bond with it, and while that bond lasts you and the bonded creature can telepathically share emotions and ideas with each other, and you always know where the other creature is. That’s kind of fun. The real meat of the feature is that whenever you get those temporary hit points from your Dragon Rage, the bonded creature also gains those temporary hit points.

These actually turn the subclass into a sort of bodyguard build, or at least gives it an option to do so. You’re not saying “Hey, eyes on me!” like a true 4e defender class, but being able to strengthen and keep track of an ally is pretty neat.

The next feature plays into this a little bit more.

Heart of Courage

First off, the name is liberally borrowed from a Two Steps From Hell song—one of their best! Fun story, that song is actually the theme Summer picked for her half-orc fighter character (Alalla) in our Icewind Dale play-by-post game. In that campaign, Alalla actually did have her own heart removed and replaced with the heart of a black dragon. She nearly took some barbarian levels to get this subclass, but Alalla chose specifically not to go that route, since giving in to rage like that could have given Gruumsh more of a hold on her. Spoiler: she actually ends up later dedicating herself to Torm and taking some paladin levels. Awesome stuff!

Anyway, back to the Dragonheart.

This feature, Heart of Courage, is simple enough: “You and the creature bound to you through your Soul Bond can’t be frightened while you’re raging.” While that dragon’s heart is beating in your chest you simply can’t get scared, and that same feeling is shared with the target of your Soul Bond.

But Wait! Again!

The subject came up while designing this feature that dragons don’t have immunity to fear. They have the Frightful Presence ability. They’re not brave or courageous; they’re scary. Why would you get bonuses against being frightened when no such thing exists in a usual dragon’s stat block?

Well, remember how we aren’t just taking monster traits and slapping them down as subclass features? There’s some more nuance than that.

I’ll start with one of the more important reasons to me, the narrative we’re trying to bring to life. You are a mortal, lowly adventurer who has been gifted with great power by one of the most powerful beings in the world. When that dragon’s heart beats within you and floods blood and adrenaline and strength through you, how can you not feel a sense of confidence, of majesty? I think this translates very well to not being able to be frightened while raging.

Another reason is that the barbarian class, while it can withstand severe physical punishment, is pretty weak to mental effects, such as being frightened or charmed. Nothing stops a barbarian in its tracks and ends its rage quite like a Wisdom saving throw. Being able to look a dragon in the eye without flinching, as an equal, is part of what the story of this subclass is about. The true dragon radiates fear, but that fear falls off of you like water on a duck’s feathers.

Another reason is that the Path of the Berserker in the Player’s Handbook already has a feature that inflicts the frightened condition, and gets it at 10th level, the same level we’re discussing now, actually. We don’t want to step on the Berserker’s toes, not when digging a little deeper might yield a better result.

Wait, didn’t I say that we didn’t want to step on the Berserker’s toes? But the Berserker gets immunity to the frightened and charmed conditions at 6th level! Doesn’t Heart of Courage infringe on the Berserker’s Mindless Rage feature? Well yes, kind of. But the story evoked is considerably different! The Dragonheart isn’t throwing up a wall of unreasonable anger blocking everything else out. It’s standing bold and empowered in the face of danger. That’s why the Dragonheart doesn’t get immunity to the charmed condition; I think we can all agree that Smaug was fearless, but particularly susceptible to Bilbo’s flattery.

Legendary Resistance

So remember how I said (twice!) that slapping monster features down as player options is like taking the most obvious path? I kind of have to eat my words now, because I did exactly that for the Dragonheart’s capstone. I mean, I did consider this feature for a long time and revisited it often, but it just seems to fit pretty well for the story.

Basically it’s what it says on the label; you can turn a failed saving throw into a success, just like legendary monsters can. Stolen directly from the stat block of every dragon that’s an adult or older.

Consider the narrative though! The Dragonheart has laid claim to a literal piece or the essence of a dragon. Just once per day, it can channel that pure awesomeness of a dragon and say, “No.” No Hold Person, no Hypnotic Pattern, no Banishment, no Dominate Person. It’s sort of comparable to the fighter’s Indomitable feature, but comes online at a much higher level, only allows one use per day, and it’s an automatic save instead of a reroll.

It’s powerful, it’s simple, and it’s fitting.

Wrapping it Up

And so we come to the end of the Path of the Dragonheart! Whew, that was a long one. But it’s one of our oldest subclasses, so there’s a lot of history and thoughts about design packed in there.

Similar to the Ruffian, it’s actually one of the options for free subclass you can get for signing up for our newsletter! So if you’d like to give it a try, don’t forget to subscribe to the archives!

(Don’t tell anyone, but that email you get when you join the newsletter, the one that lets you pick from the Ruffian, the Dragonheart, and the Slaad Symbiote? You can actually click on EACH of those links and get them all for free. You don’t have to just pick one. Sshh, it’s a secret! But if you’ve already joined the newsletter and want to go back and pick up the other two choices, go do it! If you’ve lost that email, just hit us up on social media or through email and we’ll make sure you’re sent the other ones.)

But if you really want to pay for it, you can find it here.

Oh, and it’s also one of the few Unraveled Archives options that’s had the honor of being translated and released in Spanish, so if that interests you or if you have Spanish-speaking friends, you can check it out here.

Thanks for joining us on this journey of reminiscing about our old subclasses. If you’ve got any questions or comments, feel free to sound off in the comments!

Have a good one, and stay safe.

Options Unraveled: Path of the Dragonheart Barbarian