Two new drakes — lesser dragons related to the true dragons — are set to appear in the upcoming CORE20 Playtest Creature Package update. The praetyrian is built around the guard drake of D&D 5e, but felt like they needed a less mundane name. The venenatus is a brand-new creature created for CORE20 — a drake who feeds on magic, often of the sort carried by characters.
When I wrote the first version of the venenatus (colloquially known as the dweomer drake) for a campaign, it was an original-to-me concept. The Forgotten Realms dweomervore (a similar theme, but very different execution) came to my attention only afterward, with the venenatus mostly inspired by the magic-eating disenchanter (another creature I use a lot, much to my players’ dismay).
(Click on the stat block header below to download the full stat blocks in PDF.)
