Deep Dive - The Faerie Dragon
This week, we get to explore a creature that isn’t trying to kill you and suck the marrow from your bones, which is a welcome relief to us and all adventurers. These little joyful pranksters are probably the most fun an adventurer can hope for when it comes to the Monster Manual, as they can’t help but want to laugh. Even if you are the type of person to never crack a smile, you won’t be able to help yourself when they breath their euphoria gas in your face.
AD&D - Faerie Dragon
Frequency: Very rare
No. Appearing: 1-6
Armor Class: 5 (1 when invisible)
Move: 6”/24” (MC:A)
Hit Dice: See below
% in Lair: 25%
Treasure Type: S, T, U
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1-2
Special Attacks: Breath weapon, magic use
Special Defenses: Invisibility
Magic Resistance: See below
Intelligence: High to genius
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Size: S (1-1 1/2’ long)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Chance of: Speaking: 90%, Magic use: 100%, Sleeping: 40%
Level/X.P. Value: V/280 + 4 hp
Dragon #062, June 1982 TSR Inc.
This mischievous tiny dragon is first found in Dragon #62 (June 1982) created by Brian Jaeger; it was then reprinted in the Monster Manual II (1983). As far as first impressions go, they look like small little dragons, since, you know, they are dragons. There is no set color for these creatures for you to watch out for, as they change color as they age. They begin as a red-scaled dragon and then move down the colors of the rainbow, ending as tiny purple dragons once they live long enough to be ancient. Luckily, you can use color to help identify them a little bit, as male faerie dragons shine silver in the sunlight, while females shimmer gold.
The Faerie Dragon's tiny little wings resemble those of a butterfly, and they have tails that have been adapted to grasp or hold objects. Not much else is said about what they'd use their tails for, but one can use their imagination on how you might pull a few pranks with such a useful tail. These dragons always have a wide grin on their faces, which is more than a little creepy, but also a bit endearing. They can also breathe underwater, loving to swim and dive. Best of all, they can become invisible whenever they want, making it all the harder to yell at them when you get punk'd.
Monster Manual 2, 1983 TSR Inc.
Speaking of pranks, the Faerie Dragon lives for them. When your best friends are sprites and pixies that is bound to happen, but these dragons have taken it to a whole new level. Some of the pranks are in the moment type deals, like if you're just wandering through the forest and a Faerie Dragon sees you, be ready to be the victim of some mischief. Faerie Dragons also excel at the long game, spending months setting up elaborate practical jokes that others could only dream of achieving.
Of course, not everyone is going to appreciate a bit of harmless fun, and may want to take this innocent Faerie Dragon out. Fighting isn’t really the Faerie Dragon’s thing, though, and they only engage in direct conflict if cornered or you attack their lair. We can understand why they don’t like to get into tussles; they are quite small and their only physical defense is a bite attack that deals 1 to 2 points of damage. But, these little scamps actually have two great defensive weapons, their breath and their spells. When we say their breath, we mean their breath weapon, as they are proper dragons, and so they must have a devastating breath weapon that shoots fire, drips poison, or blasts you with cold… except they don’t. Their breath weapon, instead, fills all creatures who are exposed to it to be filled with a combination of bliss and indifference to the world around them for up to 12 rounds. Luckily for you, you do get to make a save every round against this weapon by rolling a d20 and comparing it to your Intelligence score. Super luckily for you, you would never make Intelligence your dump stat, right?
The way this works is that you roll the d20 and then if you roll your Intelligence score or less, than you are unaffected for that round. Once you fail this check once, you are just lost in its euphoric effect. While in this state of euphoria, your desire to fight is completely gone and you spend your actions each round just wandering about the battlefield, stopping to smell the flowers that you are always too busy to do normally. In addition, your AC is lowered by 10% - and don’t get us started on how that math works since this edition also uses THAC0.
When it comes to spellcasting, think less fireball and more hallucinatory terrain. The Faerie Dragon’s spells aren’t offensive or defensive, but ones that maximize their ability to screw with you or to aid in their practical jokes. All Faerie Dragons can cast spells, with most preferring to utilize magic-user spells up to 8th-level, but some will instead focus on being druidic and can cast those spells up to 7th-level. No matter which class of spells they can cast, remember, it's all about pulling off an epic prank, so the GM needs to choose accordingly.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t first tell you the favorite food of Faerie Dragons, and it’s apple pie. Apparently these little dragons will do all sorts of tricks and pranks to pilfer food, with apple pie as their favorite dish to consume.
2e - Faerie Dragon (Dragonet)
Climate/Terrain: Temperate, tropical, and subtropical forests
Frequency: Very rare
Organization: Solitary or clan
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Herbivore
Intelligence: Genius (17-18)
Treasure: S, T, U
Alignment: Chaotic Good
No. Appearing: 1-6
Armor Class: 5 (1 when invisible)
Movement: 6, Fl 24 (A)
Hit Dice: See below
THAC0: 17
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1-2
Special Attacks: Breath weapon, spells
Special Defenses: Invisibility
Magic Resistance: See below
Size: T (1’-1 1/2’ long)
Morale: Steady (11)
XP Value: 3,000
Monstrous Compendium 3, 1989 TSR Inc.
The Faerie Dragon appears in a puff of smoke in the Monstrous Compendium Appendix III: Forgotten Realms (1989) and in Monstrous Manual (1993). They are listed in a subcategory of dragons known as the dragonet. What the heck is a dragonet, you ask? Dragonets are tiny lesser dragons, according to this edition, but don’t let the ‘lesser’ fool you; these pranksters are still true dragons no matter what some book might call them.
There isn’t much new information, but we’ll touch on the few new pieces of information and a couple of things we didn’t mention before. First, Faerie Dragons are considered an offshoot of the better-known pseudodragon, adding to the insult of being called dragonets. Strangely enough, even though they are dragons, there is no mention of what they hoard when even the pseudodragon hoards things. We suppose that maybe the Faerie Dragon’s idea of a treasure hoard is all the jokes and laughs they create, which makes this creature the most wholesome of any creature we’ve done a deep dive on.
Monstrous Manual, 1993 TSR Inc.
The Faerie Dragon still changes color as it ages, but now its final color is black when it becomes a great wyrm, which is a bit sad. They are so colorful all their life, but we guess everyone grows up and eventually loses that color of life that these dragons wore so proudly on their scales. In addition, if you happen to see a flash of rainbow, it’s probably not a leprechaun seeking out their treasure, but a clan of Faerie Dragons. They exist in groups of up to six and can communicate telepathically even when they are up to 2 miles apart. We can only imagine that they are constantly brainstorming pranks and giggling maniacally with each other when they do hit-and-run euphoria breath weapon attacks on their unsuspecting targets. They’ll even team up with sprites, nymphs, or pixies, bringing them in on pranks and just having a great time with their mischief.
If you are hoping to get on the good side of a Faerie Dragon, you might try to appeal to their stomach. They are herbivores who like nuts, berries, honey, and similar foods. Of course, their favorite food in the world isn’t found naturally in nature, but rather comes in the form of fruit pastries and apple pie. This does spark the debate of whether cake or pie is better, and it seems like the Faerie Dragon is proudly waving the pie flag. What this does mean for adventurers, though, is that you aren’t going to be devoured by these little guys… unless your wizard polymorphs you into an apple pie.
In Dragon #155 (March 1990), the Faerie Dragon is briefly discussed in the article The Folk of the Fairy Kingdom written by Vince Garcia. The article is an interesting little piece about the Faerie Queen, the faerie plane, and the creatures that live there. Of importance to us is the Faerie Dragon, which, not surprisingly, is native to the plane of faeries. We choose to believe that the Faerie Queen created them, but some say they are just cousins to pseudo-dragons. Whatever the case, they most likely got to the Material Plane traveling with the Faerie Queen on one of her trips and got left behind - or wandered off, probably pulling some pranks on some poor dwarves, knowing them. They even discuss that, while Faerie Dragons do like shiny jewels and coins, like all dragons, they don’t compose a hoard around it as they love sweets and sugary treats far more, going to great lengths for fresh apple pie.
3e/3.5e - Faerie Dragon
Small Dragon
Hit Dice: 8d12+6 (58 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), fly 100 ft. (perfect), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 19 (+1 size, +4 Dex, +4 natural), touch 15, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+5
Attack: Bite +13 melee (1d6+1)
Full Attack: Bite +13 melee (1d6+1) and 2 claws +8 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Breath weapon, spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., immunity to magic sleep effects and paralysis, low-light vision, scent, spell resistance 18, water breathing
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +9
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 15, Wis 17, Cha 16
Skills: Bluff +14, Diplomacy +7, Disguise +3 (+5 acting), Hide +19, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (nature) +13, Listen +14, Move Silently +15, Sense Motive +14, Sleight of Hand +17, Spot +14, Survival +3 (+5 in aboveground natural environments), Swim +1
Feats: Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse
Environment: Temperate forests
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic good
Advancement: 9 HD (Small); 10–13 HD (Medium); 14–19 HD (Large); 20–24 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: +2
Draconomicon: The Book of Dragons, 2003 WotC
The Faerie Dragon doesn’t grace the pages of any of the Monster Manuals, but rather appears in Draconomicon: The Book of Dragons (2003). The description for our favorite tiny dragon is more about what is missing than what is written. A Faerie Dragon now doesn’t shift through the hues of the rainbow as it ages. Instead, its scales reflect all the colors of the rainbow in the sunlight. They still smile at all times, except when pissed off and in a fight, and have a long prehensile tail. Nothing about the tail being able to hold onto a wand or sharp pointy stick yet, but it does twitch when the Faerie Dragon is excited, probably because a nymph just pulled down your pants.
About those delightful pranks a Faerie Dragon would spend months planning; no mention of them is found. One can indirectly infer that they still love a good joke with the company they keep since they usually live near sprites and nymphs, but, sadly, this point of difference has been removed. While they prefer to hide and watch you from a distance than engage you in combat, it feels like the creature has begun to shift from sneaky prankster to just another beast looking to kill you.
If you do force a Faerie Dragon into combat, which, how dare you, the Faerie Dragon will do everything it can to flee. If that fails, it then relies on a host of spells to slow you down, summoning animate objects to attack you or causing the ground itself to entangle you in brambles and vines. If that doesn’t work and you get up close and personal, it will use its breath weapon, unleashing euphoric gas. This causes you to become dazed for up to 6 rounds, which means you can’t take any actions but you don’t take any penalties to your armor class. If you are still being a jerk and trying to fight this little dragon who just wants to laugh, it will resort to using its bite and claw attacks while still seeking a way to escape as soon as it can.
4e - Adult Faerie Dragon Flittering
Level 4 Skirmisher
Small fey magical beast (dragon) / XP 175
Initiative +7 / Senses Perception +4; darkvision
HP 53; Bloodied 26; see also dazzling departure
AC 18 (see also flitter); Fortitude 14, Reflex 16, Will 15
Speed 6, fly 6 (hover)
Tail Spike (standard; at-will) +9 vs. AC; 1d4 + 3 damage.
Breath Weapon (standard; encounter) ✦ Radiant, Teleportation Close blast 4; +7 vs. Reflex; 3d6 + 3 radiant damage, and the faerie dragon teleports 1 square for each enemy caught in the blast. Miss: Half damage, and the faerie dragon does not teleport.
Dazzling Departure (when reduced to 0 hit points) Close burst 1; targets enemies; each target is blinded (save ends). When slain, the faerie dragon dissolves in a burst of rainbow light.
Flitter (move; at-will) The faerie dragon moves up to 4 squares, gains a +4 bonus to AC against opportunity attacks, and gains combat advantage against any target that it ends its move adjacent to
Combat Advantage The faerie dragon deals 1d6 extra damage on melee attacks against any target it has combat advantage against.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Draconic, Elven
Skills Bluff +8, Stealth +10, Thievery +10
Str 11 (+2) Dex 17 (+5) Wis 14 (+4) Con 13 (+3) Int 13 (+3) Cha 13 (+3)
Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons, 2008 WotC
The Faerie Dragons are found in Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons (2008) where they not only live in beautiful forest groves but in the magnificent eladrin cities throughout the Feywild. Faerie Dragons travel in flocks, which is a good idea when you're the size of a small dog and physically non-threatening. With their dazzling colors, reflective scales, and creepy grins plastered on their faces, they are the Feywild manifested as sly tricksters. These dragons love to sing and are huge show-offs, doing amazing aerial acrobatics because they can.
They aren’t quite as friendly with the other residents of the Feywild, probably because they lead intruders to dryads, pixies, sprites, and others, forcing the inhabitants to deal with the outsiders. These dragons do help their fae allies, flitting into the fight and providing some assistance, though they won’t stick around for long if they start getting hit or targeted by spells.
As with most of the creatures found in this edition, we get multiple stat blocks for the Faerie Dragon. The Flittering and Windgleam have some neat abilities that are new and exciting for these dragons, giving them a more dynamic presence on the battlefield. They no longer bite for little damage, as their tails now have spikes which they'll try to slap you in the face with. Of course, we can’t forget to talk about their breath weapons.
The Flitterwing’s breath weapon deals a bit of damage but then allows them to immediately teleport if anyone in the blast fails their saving throw against it, teleporting 5 feet for each enemy that failed the save. When the Windgleam uses it’s breath weapon, it deals a bit of damage as well, but then the dragon turns invisible if at least two creatures failed their save against the breath weapon. Both have exciting ways to move about the battlefield, disappearing far from their enemies and being a general nuisance.
The last thing we want to talk about in this edition is something rather sad. If you kill a Faerie Dragon, it explodes in a dazzling display of light, briefly blinding anyone looking at it. Why anyone would want to kill such wonderful creatures is beyond us, but at least you get free fireworks to mark the occasion.
5e - Faerie Dragon
Tiny dragon, chaotic good
Armor Class 15
Hit Points 14 (4d4+4)
Speed 10 ft., swim 60 ft.
STR 3 (-4) DEX 20 (+5) CON 13 (+1) INT 14 (+2) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 16 (+3)
Skills Arcana +4, Perception +3, Stealth +7
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Draconic, Sylvan
Challenge 1 (200 XP) for a red, orange, or yellow faerie dragon; 2 (450 XP) for a green, blue, indigo, or violet faerie dragon
Superior Invisibility. As a bonus action, the dragon can magically turn invisible until its concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment the dragon wears or carries is invisible with it.
Limited Telepathy. Using telepathy, the dragon can magically communicate with any other faerie dragon within 60 feet of it.
Magic Resistance. The dragon has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Innate Spellcasting. The dragon’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13). It can innately cast a number of spells, requiring no material components. As the dragon ages and changes color, it gains additional spells as shown below.
Red, 1/day each: dancing lights, mage hand, minor illusion; Orange, 1/day: color spray; Yellow, 1/day: mirror image; Green, 1/day: suggestion; Blue, 1/day: major image; Indigo, 1/day: hallucinatory terrain; Violet, 1/day: polymorph
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 1 piercing damage.
Euphoria Breath (Recharge 5–6). The dragon exhales a puff of euphoria gas at one creature within 5 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw, or for 1 minute, the target can’t take reactions and must roll a d6 at the start of each of its turns to determine its behavior during the turn:
1–4. The target takes no action or bonus action and uses all of its movement to move in a random direction.
5–6. The target doesn’t move, and the only thing it can do on its turn is make a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Monster Manual, 2014 WotC
This edition returns the Faerie Dragon to the Monster Manual (2014), a welcome change as we think everyone needs to be hit by the euphoria of this creature. The Faerie Dragon is now no bigger than a cat, and once again have beautiful butterfly wings, a sly smile, a barbed tail, and they go through a range of colors as they age. In fact, we even have a general idea as to how old these Faerie Dragons can get, changing colors about every 10 years, with those who are 51 years or older being violet Faerie Dragons. We would like to think most of these dragons are violet-colored, but adventurers are just the worst and have probably skewed the average age of them to be much younger.
Pranks are back and a big part of what makes a Faerie Dragon so much fun to be around. With invisibility being one of their best abilities, you can just imagine the type of tricks and practical jokes it imposes on other creatures. They utilize their sharp wit and wicked sense of humor to develop practical jokes, some of epic proportions that they spend months working towards. If you are tired of the constant jokes and want to escape its pranks, the best thing you can do is offer up some treasure in the form of baked goods and lots of sweets. Shiny baubles also work as a bribe, but a raspberry danish would be better.
If you do fight these creatures, get ready for the euphoria gas that will cause you to move about in random directions or you will just stand there motionless as you experience joy. Unfortunately for the dragon, this gas can only affect a single creature at a time, meaning that the average adventuring party isn’t going to be caught in a fit of giggles when they try to hunt down this little jokester who just wants to have fun.
Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, 2021 WotC
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons (2021) gives us a bit more for the Faerie Dragon, including what a lair for such a dragon would look like. Since Faerie Dragons love jokes and having fun, they often head to the Feywild whenever possible since it's a merry party plane. A Faerie Dragon can also be found hiding in the attics of people who own many shiny things, though they aren’t just homebodies, as a Faerie Dragon will immediately hit the road when adventure comes calling, so long as it promises to be fun and exciting.
A great deal of time is spent discussing the Faerie Dragon's lair. No one lair is the same. You can find them just about anywhere, but many recreate their lairs to resemble those of more giant dragons. A Faerie Dragon will design their abode with multiple rooms, including but not limited to a bedroom, a place to entertain guests, and a space for all their shiny stuff. Being the trickster they are, you should be ready for any number of traps when you enter a Faerie Dragon's home. Their treasure hoards are even separated with spaces for shinies and the other for nibbles… we can only hope that their space for nibbles is far larger than the one for shinies, as we all know that apple pie is far greater than a few worthless gold pieces.
The Faerie Dragon flits happily through the editions of Dungeons & Dragons, bringing pranks and good cheer with them… even if no one else wants to laugh. They seek out the tastiest of treats to fill their hoard, a hard task as they can’t help but give into their sweet tooth. We recommend that if you ever encounter ones of these dragons, just go along with the prank and have a good time! They can be great allies with a bottomless appetite for good times.
