Drakewarden Ranger Handbook: DnD 5e Subclass Guide

Introduction

The Drakewarden pairs the Ranger with a draconic spirit which they can summon into physical form as a Drake Companion. This companion is a durable fighting companion with some minor supportive abilities, and, over time, the drake grows in size and gains the ability to fly and serve as a mount. With the ability to serve as an essentially disposable front-line martial character, the drake is a powerful and effective pet welcome in practically any party.

Unique among nearly all characters, the Drakewarden Ranger has an effective mount built into their features. Paladins get Find Steed and Find Greater Steed, but the stats of those mounts don’t scale, and they remain frail and vulnerable. This makes the Drakewarden a go-to choice for mounted combat enthusiasts.

Unique among nearly all characters, the Drakewarden Ranger has an effective mount built into their features. Paladins get Find Steed and Find Greater Steed, but the stats of those mounts don’t scale, and they remain frail and vulnerable. This makes the Drakewarden a go-to choice for mounted combat enthusiasts.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the 2014 DnD 5e Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Drakewarden Ranger Features

  1. Draconic Gift:
    • Thaumaturgy: Fun flavor, but rarely useful.
    • Tongue of the Dragons: Not especially useful for the Ranger since they’re not a good Face, but your drake speaks draconic so it’s nice to be able to talk to it.
  2. Drake Companion: The central feature of the Drakewarden. Drake Companion is modeled very similarly to the Primal Companions introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and follows very similar rules for commanding it, summoning it, what happens if it “dies” (it’s a spirit that you summon back into physical form).

    The drake is a decent tank with a starting AC of 16 and a decent pool of hit points, and since you can replace with for the cost a spell slot of any spell level, you can afford to throw your drake in front of you to defend you while you do things like archery.

    While the drake is already a decent combat pet, it also improves as you gain levels, adding additional damage, the ability to fly, and the ability to be used as a mount.

    Infused Stikes notably uses the phrase “extra damage”, which means that the additional die is multiplied on a critical hit.

  3. Bond of Fang and Scale:
    • Drake Mount: This is the first class feature we’ve gotten which provides a mount with scaling hit points. 5th edition has been out for 6+ years.

      While this is obviously an amazing benefit, it has some serious challenges if you’re eyeing a mounted combat build. The drake is intelligent, which means that it’s an uncontrolled mount. That means that it acts on its own turn, which the Drake Companion feature specifies is immediately after yours. Taking your full turn (or taking the Ready action) then waiting for your drake to move somewhere convenient for you isn’t helpful for melee builds, and even for ranged builds it’s often frustating because you can’t reposition to deal with cover or enemies who are slightly out of range. If you can make it work it’s great, but expect to spend many turns in a bad location to attack.

      Because your can ride your drake, try to find a Saddle of the Cavalier. It will dramatically improve your drake’s durability. Mounted Combatant is also an option, but I wouldn’t bother getting both since it’s so easy to re-summon your drake.

    • Magic Fang: Confusingly, this doesn’t make your drake’s attacks magical. Instead, you add a d6 damage of the type chosen when you summon the drake. That d6 will get around resistance and immunity to non-magical weapon damage types, but the flat damage bonus is still piercing damage so anything with resistance/immunity is a huge problem for your drake.
    • Resistance: Persistent damage resistance for you, and since you can resummon your drake for the cost of a spell slot you can change the damage type whenever necessary.
  4. Drake’s Breath: The damage matches Fireball. It’s a good AOE damage option, but it doesn’t magically make you a Blaster. Still, the Ranger is generally ill-equipped to handle crowds, so this is a welcome addition.
  5. Perfected Bond:
    • Empowered Bite: Another d6 damage, bringing the total to 3d6+5 at this level (3d6+6 very soon). That’s not a ton on a single attack, but it’s much more than most characters can do with a Bonus Action.
    • Large Drake: Aside from making it hard to fit your drake through doors, this is excellent. The ability to ride your drake while flying makes flight easily accessible and puts archery builds safely out of enemy reach.
    • Reflexive Resistance: This is great if you or your dragon take a big hit from a single source of damage like a spell or a critical hit. Don’t burn your limited uses on every random attack; you’ll only get 5 or 6 per long rest.

Drakewarden Ranger Ability Scores

Little different from a typical Ranger. You might build around Strength if you plan for mounted combat. If you’re fighting at range and letting your drake do the tanking, stick to Dexterity.

Drakewarden Ranger Races

No different from a typical Ranger. If you plan to ride your drake, being medium or small doesn’t matter, so you’re free to stick with medium races.

Drakewarden Ranger Feats

Little different from a typical Ranger, though Mounted Combatant becomes appealing.

  • Mounted CombatantPHB: Your drake companion will have decent AC, but considerably fewer hit points than you. This will let you start tanking hits for your drake, and will make it more likely to survive area damage. The Advantage benefit is very tempting, but you won’t consistently face enemies small than your drake until it becomes Large, at which point you’re frequently (though not constantly) facing Huge+ enemies.

Drakewarden Ranger Weapons

Little different from a typical Ranger, but you might actually be able to use a Lance if you build around Strength.

Drakewarden Ranger Armor

No different from a typical Ranger.

Drakewarden Ranger Multiclassing

Little different from a typical Ranger.

  • Fighter: Starting with 1 level is a massive improvement if you’re planning for mounted combat. Consider Fighting Style (Protection) or (Interception) so that you can mitigate damage when enemies attack your mount instead of always resorting to using Mounted Combatant.

Example Drakewarden Ranger Build – Heavy Dragon Cavalry

We’re building around Strength! It’s happening! A Strength-based Ranger on RPGBOT! I’ve been promising it for years, and it’s finally here! We’re also using Mounted Combatant on something other than a paladin! Truly, we have done the impossible, and it worked out pretty well.

This build focuses on riding your Drake Companion into melee, which the subclass very specifically supports. The damage output is adequate, but not amazing, but you’re also incredibly durable thanks to a second pool of hp and high AC. There’s some room to rearrange the feats to suit your needs and preferences, but the order presented below works and offers some great tactical flexibility within the build.

We’re going to use all of the Ranger’s Optional Class Features. The class needs it even with a good subclass like the Drakewarden.

This build would benefit significantly from starting with a level in Fighter. Another Fighting Style, heavy armor proficiency, and Constitution saves are all a significant improvement.

Ability Scores

14 Wisdom is plenty for the Ranger, then we’ll max Strength and Charisma. We’re going for Variant Human, so we get two +1 increases, then we’ll get +1 Strength from Heavily Armored at level 1.

BaseIncreased
Str1517
Dex88
Con1516
Int88
Wis1414
Cha1010

Race

Variant Human. We want the feat at level 1 so that we can get heavy armor proficiency without multiclassing. We also get a bonus skill proficiency, which is nice.

If you start with a level of Fighter, consider other races. Custom Lineage or Variant Human are always great choices, but we don’t need Mounted Combatant until Ranger level 7, and we can wait until level 8.

Background

Guard. Athletics and Perception are a great fit.

Skills and Tools

We’ll use our class skills for proficiency in Insight and Nature, then we get Athletics and Perception from our Background. We’ll get Expertise in Perception from the Canny feature.

Feats

At level 1 we take Heavily Armored, which comes with a +1 Strength increase.

At level 4 we take Heavy Armor Master and increase our Strength to 18.

At level 8 we take Mounted Combatant and increase our Strength to 19.

At level 12 we take Sentinel.

At level 16 we take Piercer and increase our Strength to 20.

At level 19 we increase Con to 18.

Levels

LevelFeat(s) and FeaturesNotes and Tactics
1Feat: Heavily Armored
Favored Foe
Deft Explorer
Canny
– Athletics
– 2 languages		At this level we’re basically a Fighter with worse attacks and better skills. Grab a shield and the heaviest armor that you can get, then go hit things with a sword or something.

Canny lets us get Expertise in Athletics, which instantly makes us a good grappler. We won’t have easy access to Advantage like a Barbarian would, but we’re still rolling with +7 at level one, so we could use the grapple+shove combo.
2Fighting Style: Defense
Spellcasting
Spells Known:
– Ensnaring Strike
– Longstrider		By this level you might be able to afford a riding horse, but at 75 gp compared to the 90 gp wealth by level, you’ll need to pinch pennies.

Grab a lance and jump on your horse. You now have the AC of a sword-and-board build with the damage of a two-handed melee build. We’re deliberately not taking Hunter’s Mark because we need our Bonus Action to command our Drake Companion, but we do have Favored Foe.

Unfortunately, the Ranger doesn’t get access to Fighting Style (Protection or (Interception), both of which would be great on this build.

Our DPR: 8.25 (1d12 + 3 + 1d4 Favored Foe)
3Subclass: Drakewarden
Draconic Gift
Drake Companion
Primal Awareness
New Spell Known:
– Absorb Elements		First, we gain the Thaumaturgy Cantrip and proficiency in the Draconic language. But, more importantly, we get our Drake Companion! For now, our Drake Companion is just a combat pet. Remember to use its Infused Strikes to boost your own attack damage.

Remember that your companion can be re-summoned at the cost of a spell slot. If it’s low on hit points after a fight, it’s often more efficient to drive your drake down to 0 hp, then summon it again. It’s also a great incentive for your drake to draw a lot of attacks since it’s so easily replaced.

Our DPR: 8.25 (1d12 + 3 + 1d4 Favored Foe)
Drake DPR: 7.25 (1d6 + 2, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
4Feat: Heavy Armor Master (Str 17 -> 18)18 Strength and reduced damage from weapon damage types which will pay off for our whole career. Reducing incoming damage will also reduce the DC for saves to maintain Concentration, but only by 1 or 2.

This level reveals a frustrating quirk in the Drake Companion’s stats: It’s attack bonus is 3 + PB, and the 3 never changes, so at levels 4 and 8 it falls behind the Fundamental Math and its attacks become less reliable.

Our DPR: 8.9 (1d12 + 4 + 1d4 Favored Foe)
Drake DPR: 6.98 (1d6 + 2, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
5Extra Attack
New Spell Known:
– Barkskin		Double our damage output (ignoring our dragon).

Barkskin is a weird choice, but it will raise your horse’s AC by 6. Your DM might let you use barding, in which case, grab Magic Weapon or Spike Growth. Horses are expensive and painfully frail, so boosting their durability is a great way to keep your mount alive.

This is the level where 5e expects you to be able to afford full plate. Get yourself some as soon as you can and enjoy that 21 AC.

Our DPR: 17.8 (1d12 + 4 + 1d4 Favored Foe, Extra Attack)
Drake DPR: 7.58 (1d6 + 3, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
6RovingSome nice movement speeds that we’ll rarely use.
7Bond of Fang and Scale
New Spell Known:
– Aid
– Retrain Barkskin -> Magic Weapon		We can finally ride our drake! It’s not as fast as a horse, unfortunately, and it comes with some really annoying complications because 5e’s mounted combat rules are a nightmare. Most importantly, our drake takes its turn after ours, so it moves after we act. When you’re built for melee, that’s kind of a problem. You have Reach with your lance, but that’s not enough in most cases.

One some turns you may need to use your Action to do something other than attack with your lance. I’m not sure what that would be, but it’ll need to happen sometimes. If you’re out of ideas, you can Ready to make a single attack when your drake gets you into reach. You might also Ready to Shove an enemy prone so that your drake can attack them with Advantage. Remember that you’re really good at Athletics.

Aid lets us buff ourselves and potentially our drake, but it’s more cost effective to let your drake die and re-summon it, as silly and cruel as that may seem. Magic Weapon is a nice damage boost, but it requires Concentration, so you can’t use it with Favored Foe. Favored Foe is better DPR, but only works on one target, so they work in different situations.

You might decide to continue riding your horse. I wouldn’t blame you, really, but we’re going to keep leaning into the fantasy of riding our drake because that is what this build is about.

Our DPR: 17.8 (1d12 + 4 + 1d4 Favored Foe, Extra Attack)
Drake DPR: 9.85 (2d6 + 3, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
8Feat: Mounted Combatant (Str 18 -> 19)
Land’s Stride		Mounted Combatant helps us to distribute damage between ourselves and our drake. The drake has 5 x level hp, which is much less than ours, but it’s still pretty good, so you can distribute attacks between yourself and your drake in order to stretch your total pool of available hp.

Our DPR: 16.5 (1d12 + 4 + 1d4 Favored Foe, Extra Attack)
Drake DPR: 9.45 (2d6 + 3, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)

Our DPR drops slightly due to falling slightly behind the Fundamental Math.
9New Spell Known:
– Elemental Weapon		Elemental Weapon provides a nice buff to your damage output with a 1-hour duration, allowing you to fit multiple fights into one casting of the spell. It also compensates for our attack bonus falling behind the Fundamental Math.

Our DPR: 17.8 (1d12 + 4 + 1d4 Elemental Weapon, Extra Attack)
Drake DPR: 9.9 (2d6 + 4, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
10Nature’s Veil
Tireless		–
11Drake’s Breath
New Spell Known:
– Any		Drake’s Breath is the damage damage as Fireball, and it gives you a good option for when you’re not in melee reach and need to wait for your drake to move. You can Ready to use the breath weapon when you reach a specific point, potentially part-way through your drake’s move.

Rangers also don’t have many great 3rd-level spell options, so using a spell slot for another Drake’s Breath is frequently a great choice. We can also upcast Magic Weapon, but the DPR increase is tiny.

Our DPR: 18.15 (1d12 + 4 + Magic Weapon +2, Extra Attack)
Drake DPR: 9.9 (2d6 + 4, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
12Feat: SentinelWe’re still behind the Fundamental Math, so you might swap this for Piercer (which we plan to take at level 16).

Sentinel gives is a good way to get a additional attacks. Our AC is higher than our drake’s, and we’re reliant on our drake for mobility, so it makes sense for some enemies to target the drake first, especially once we hit level 15 and it can fly while we ride it. Use Sentinel to get a free attack, but use Mounted Combatant to redirect attacks as yourself if you’ve already used your Reaction.

If you’re not drawing these attacks consistently, have your drake intentionally provoke Opportunity Attacks unless you’re already taking a ton of damage. It’s a 50% boost to your DPR, which is the difference between the high end of “Target DPR” and actually making it into the “High DPR” range. We’ll assume that you’re unable to get the additional attack when calculating DPR.

Our DPR: 18.15 (1d12 + 4 + Magic Weapon +2, Extra Attack)
Drake DPR: 9.9 (2d6 + 4, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
13New Spell Known:
– Guardian of Nature		Two first in one build: I’m advocating for the Primal Beast version of Guardian Nature. First a Strength-based Ranger, and now this. It’s absolute chaos.

Guardian of Nature (Primal Beast) gives us Advantage on Strength-based attacks and +1d6 damage per hit. That’s a significant boost to our DPR. However, it does mean not using Magic Weapon, Elemental Weapon, or Favored Foe, and it only has a 1-minute duration, so save it for big fights.

Our DPR: 25.47 (Advantage, 1d12 + 4 + 1d6 Guardian of Nature, Extra Attack)
Drake DPR: 10.45 (2d6 + 5, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
14Vanish–
15Perfected Bond
New Spell Known:
– Any		Your drake is now large and can carry you while flying! It also does more damage with its bite, and Reflexive Resistance gives you a great way to mitigate damage from sources other than attacks.

Our DPR: 25.47 (Advantage, 1d12 + 4 + 1d6 Guardian of Nature, Extra Attack)
Drake DPR: 12.55 (3d6 + 5, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
16Feat:
– Piercer (Str 19 -> 20)		A nice damage boost with our lance, and we’re finally back on the Fundamental Math!

Our DPR: 29.54 (Advantage, 1d12 + 5 + 1d6 Guardian of Nature, Extra Attack, Piercer, ignoring Piercer’s damage reroll)
Drake DPR: 12.55 (3d6 + 5, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
17New Spell Known:
– Any		Unfortunately, none of the Ranger’s 5th-level spells appeal to us. Plan to upcast Elemental Weapon. Elemental Weapons +2 to hit and +2d4 damage doesn’t beat Guardian of Nature’s DPR, but it lasts a full hour, so it’s often a better use of a spell slot.

Our DPR: 29.54 (Advantage, 1d12 + 5 + 1d6 Guardian of Nature, Extra Attack, Piercer, ignoring Piercer’s damage reroll)
Drake DPR: 13.1 (3d6 + 6, 1d6 from Infused Strikes once per round)
18Feral Senses–
19Ability Score Increase: Constitution 16 -> 18
New Spell Known:
– Any		–
20Foe SlayerStill bad. Using Favored Foe in order to use this would amount to a massive drop in our DPR.