Dragons are powerful beings that are both strong and magically powerful. What sorcerer would not want to have even a small amount of that power to call their own?
As it turns out, you can!
The Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer calls upon the powerful and timeless magic of Dragons to aid them on their quests. Harnessing elemental power based on their unique draconic ancestry, the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer is a force to behold!
Do you have what it takes to control the dragon within? You will very soon!
This is the full subclass guide to the draconic bloodline sorcerer in D&D 5e!
What is the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer in D&D 5e?
In many ways, the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer is the archetypal sorcerer subclass.
Their powers come not from themselves but from the blood of their ancestors coursing through their veins. As it just so happens, one of those ancestors was a dragon! (Or at least might have made a type of pact with one strong enough to gain draconic powers!)
Aren’t you glad you knew Grandpa after he really settled down?
Though it might go even further back than relatives that you have met. Either way, you have enough draconic influence within you to channel powerful arcane magic based on instinct and natural talent.
The Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer can be found in the 5e Player’s Handbook.
Do You Have to Be a Dragonborn?
While Dragonborn are the obvious race that comes to mind with this subclass, you don’t have to play a Dragonborn character to choose this subclass.
Any race in D&D 5e can be a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. You are totally able to make a Tiefling Draconic Sorcerer or whatever other race you’d like!
There’s just enough draconic influence within you to allow these powers to manifest. Even if you don’t have prominent draconic traits, the power of a draconic ancestor can still exist within you!
Role in the Party
The Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer is the definitive blaster amongst Sorcerers in D&D 5e.
Depending on the character’s ancestry, they might incinerate enemies with dragon fire, freezing cold, corrosive acid, noxious poison, or spectacular lightning!
As a draconic bloodline sorcerer, you wield your element of expertise like a glove.
You will typically want to stay toward the back of the party. Don’t forget, sorcerers tend to be very squishy! But as you level up you will find yourself growing much tougher than sorcerers of other origins.
Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer Features 5e
The Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer has a great spread of abilities that they gain as they continue to level up.
At the early levels, you get extra hit points and an armor class bonus due to your ancestry. You also begin gaining familiarity with the element associated with your draconic ancestor.
In the later levels, you gain the ability to sprout wings and take to the skies while inspiring fear and awe and those around you.
There are some very fun features to the draconic bloodline sorcerer subclass, so let’s dive in!
Draconic Ancestry (Level 1)
We kick things off by looking at the old family tree and figuring out what kind of Draconic Ancestry you have!
At level 1, you choose a type of dragon. The damage type that is associated with that dragon will come into play as you level up.
| Damage Type | Dragon Type(s) |
| Fire | Red, Brass, Gold |
| Lightning | Blue, Bronze |
| Cold | White, Silver |
| Acid | Black, Copper |
| Poison | Green |
Plus you get an extra language and a bonus to interacting with dragons!
You can speak read and write Draconic.
Additionally, whenever you make a charisma check when interacting with Dragons your proficiency bonus is doubled if it applies to the check
It’s good practice to choose your words wisely when dealing with dragons. You’ll definitely be the party’s face in those situations!
What Draconic Ancestry Should You Choose?
The only damage type that I strongly recommend avoiding for your Draconic Ancestry is Poison.
Between the small number of poison spells and the fact that it’s incredibly commonly resisted by or ineffective against creatures you’ll be encountering, it’s clearly the worst option.
As far as dealing with resistances against the other damage types, you’ll want to prioritize getting the Elemental Adept feat to go alongside your chosen damage type. (Elemental Adept only works with acid, cold, fire, lightning, and thunder.)
Fire has the most options for spells and the resistance you gain with your Elemental Affinity feature will come in handy quite often. While it’s also the most commonly resisted damage type, Elemental Adept has you covered.
Lightning would be my personal second choice followed by Cold and Acid.
If you’re going for a specific theme, you can also work with your DM to make some homebrew changes to existing spells. Fire Bolt, for example, could easily be turned into an Acid Bolt or Frost Bolt as a homebrew option.
Gem Dragons
The introduction of Gem Dragons in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons opens a ton of exciting dragon lore and character options that you can incorporate with a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer.
While the book doesn’t explicitly add Gem Dragons to the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer’s ancestry options, it’s easy enough to do if you want more options to choose from!
| Damage Type | Dragon Type |
| Thunder | Sapphire |
| Force | Amethyst |
| Radiant | Crystal |
| Psychic | Emerald |
| Necrotic | Topaz |
Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons is a fun, lore-heavy book that covers everything you could want to know about the various types of dragons in D&D 5e. While it’s generally more suited towards Dungeon Masters, there’s a ton of great lore that will help you really get into playing a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer!
Draconic Resilience (Level 1)
Sorcerers are one of the squishiest classes in D&D 5e. Thankfully, dragons are known for being hardy, and some of that toughness got passed on to you!
At first level your hit point maximum increases by 1 and increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level in this class.
Additionally, parts of your skin are covered by a thin sheen of dragon-like scales. When you are not wearing armor, your AC equals 13 plus your Dexterity modifier.
It might be easy to roll your eyes at the 1 extra hit point per level, but that will add up over time. Especially when it comes to hit points, every little bit helps!
The armor provided by your scales is great. It’s effectively a permanent Mage Armor, but it can’t be dispelled and is free. As a Sorcerer, you don’t really have any business wearing armor in the first place so this is a solid buff that will greatly come in handy!
Not to mention, having patches of scales of your chosen dragon color just looks cool!
Recommended: The Best Sorcerer Spells By Level in D&D 5e
Elemental Affinity (Level 6)
Remember how I said your chosen type of dragon’s damage type will matter later?
Well, here we are!
When you cast a spell that deals damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry you can add your Charisma modifier to one damage roll of that spell.
At the same time, you can spend one sorcery point to gain resistance to that damage type for one hour.
Being able to add your Charisma modifier to your spell damage sounds small but has a major effect. Not only are you getting even more damage out of your spells, but this can also work exponentially with AoE spells.
So, if you chose a Red Dragon for your Draconic Ancestry, you’ll get this bonus on fire spells.
Let’s say you have a Charisma score of 20 which means you have a +5 modifier. If you hit, say, 6 enemies with a fireball that’s 6 enemies times 5 extra damage dealt to each enemy for a total of an extra 30 points of damage you’ve just dropped on the field.
Mix in some extra “oomph” from the Sorcerer’s metamagic feature and you’re cooking with gas now!
As for the resistance, it’s nice to have this in your back pocket. If you find yourself on the wrong end of a spell of your Draconic Ancestry’s damage type, you’ll be glad you have this!
Don’t be scared to use it, but don’t waste your sorcery points if you don’t really need this. Sorcery Points are incredibly valuable to you since they are what powers all of your metamagic and spellcasting!
Related: Mastering the Sorcerer’s Metamagic in D&D 5e!
Dragon Wings (Level 14)
At level 14, it’s time for this dragon to take to the skies!
That’s right, you’re getting your wings now!
You gain the ability to sprout a pair of dragon wings from your back, gaining a flying speed equal to your current speed. You can create these wings as a bonus action on your turn. They last until you dismiss them as a bonus action on your turn.
You cannot manifest your wings while wearing armor unless the armor is made to accommodate them, and clothing not made to accommodate your wings might be destroyed when you manifest them.
Especially at this level of play, being able to fly is incredibly useful. While you are tougher and have more powerful spells, enemies are also hitting much harder. But they can’t hit what they can’t reach!
Now you can maintain aerial superiority in combat. Outmaneuvering melee enemies on the ground, you can rain draconic fury down upon your enemies in a way that will surely make your ancestors proud!
The best part is that this is not a spell. Where you typically would need to keep your concentration to maintain the Fly spell, you don’t have to worry about that now that you’ve got your own wings!
Also Check Out: The Complete Guide to the Sorcerer Class in D&D 5e
Draconic Presence (Level 18)
Finally, we come to the capstone feature of the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. At level 18, you’ve gained the power of Draconic Presence to charm or terrifying those around you!
As an action, you can spend 5 sorcery points to draw on this power and exude an aura of awe or fear (your choice) to a distance of 60 feet.
For one minute or until you lose your concentration as if you were casting a concentration spell, each hostile creature that starts its turn in this aura must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed (if you chose awe) or frightened (if you chose fear) until the aura ends.
A creature that succeeds on the saving throw is immune to your aura for 24 hours
If you find yourself getting swarmed by enemies, this could be useful.
But there’s a slight problem…
While there’s a ton of flavor and style to the Draconic Presence feature, 5 sorcery points is pretty expensive. At level 20, you’re using a quarter of your total number of sorcery points for this instead of just casting a spell like Fear or Calm Emotions.
If this feature were just a little bit cheaper, it would make for an incredible capstone. Instead, it’s a bit on the “meh” side.
But I wouldn’t worry about this unless you’re really expecting your adventure to get into these higher levels. Even then, there’s a lot of great stuff before this point that it’s still not worth discounting this subclass!
Connections
So how do you connect a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer to the party and the story that you are playing?
Like many sorcerers, your power at level 1 has recently awakened. How does your character feel about this? Were there tall tales in the family about a particular ancestor being a dragon or has all of this come as one big surprise?
Does your character take pride in these powers or is it scary to them?
A character that takes pride in their powers might view adventuring as a great way to further improve their skills and grow more powerful. Perhaps this is a way for them to prove themselves worthy of the draconic blood that flows in their veins.
On the other hand, a character who is surprised by these powers might fear the destruction that they can cause.
Perhaps they approach Dragons and the lore surrounding them from a research perspective.
Maybe they are typically calm and controlled, but their powers were awakened as a result of the character losing their temper. Much like the Hulk, they might fear what destruction is able to be caused but also believe that they can control it and use it for good.
How does your family feel about these draconic powers?
Some families are aware of powerful elements within the family tree. Some may very well take a great deal of pride in it, but most are unaware…
How’s that for an awkward conversation with the parents? How did they take it?
Is the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer Good?
The Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer is a solid subclass option for spellcasters that want to bring draconic fury down upon their enemies.
You do want to make sure that you are choosing spells based on the elemental type that you chose at level 1.
As I mentioned, it’s also a good idea (basically mandatory) to take the Elemental Adept feat so that you do not have to worry as much about enemies resisting your spells.
For example, there are many fire spells available to you but there are also a ton of enemies that resist or are immune to fire damage. If you cannot get around this resistance you will have a bad time.
Taking the Elemental Adept feat and maybe homebrewing some spells to better fit your character’s element/theme make this an excellent Sorcerer subclass!
You can see where the Draconic Bloodline lands in my full ranking of every Sorcerer subclass in D&D 5e here!
Conclusion – Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer in D&D 5e
Well, that concludes this guide to the Draconic Bloodline sorcerer in D&D 5E.
What do you think? Is your character going to start getting really into studying their ancestry in the near future?
With so many different types of dragons in D&D 5e, you have a lot of options for how to build a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. if you have a character concept in mind, drop it in the comments and let’s chat!
Also, if you want all the latest play your guides, DM tips, news, reviews, and more for D&D 5E don’t forget to sign up for the Tabletop Joab newsletter below!
You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.
If you found this article helpful and want to support the site, you can buy me a coffee here! (It’s not expected, but very appreciated!)
At the moment I have two Draconic Sorcerers: a Dragonborn and a Kobold. And I really would like to bring the latter to high levels. Why? Just for the scene of a small Kobold stepping forward, dwarfed by the enemies who laugh…
…and then spreading draconic wings, flying up high and beginning raining fireballs.
(The only time I have played him, sadly, was together with my wife, and she had a Goblin Wizard of Evoker subclass. They went along surprisingly well and these small casters were the terror of the enemies).
Hi VZ!
Thank you for the laugh! The mental image of a Kobold Sorcerer and Goblin Evoker blowing up everything they come across is both hilarious and terrifying!
Indeed. We had lots of memorable moments during that session.
GM: So, you want to slide down the rope. Won’t you damage your hands?
Goblin: Gloves!
Kobold: Scales!
GM: …damn you.
But, returning to the Sorcerer, it almost always pays mechanically to take a Triton, a Tiefling or a Dragonborn and get resistance to two elements.And I should note that level 14 flight is among the best flight features through the subclasses: as it doesn’t have a duration. Well, fitting. A dragon descends when a dragon wants, after all.