There are so many exciting monsters in DnD 5e. It can be hard to decide what monster you will throw at your players or how you can fight your DMs weird encounters. Today, we are discussing the Faerie Dragon 5e. This little dragon is about the size of a cat, but you should not underestimate it, even more so if they are Violet!
In this Faerie Dragon 5e guide, we are discussing the stats, possible encounter scenarios, lore, and strategies on how to fight them. So, without further chatting, let’s look at how the Faerie Dragon works in D&D!
What are Faerie Dragons?
These tiny dragons are very similar in size to the Pseudodragon familiars you might have encountered or even tamed during your campaign. However, despite their similar size, the Faerie Dragons are a much stronger monster that boasts many spells to rely on in combat.
The tiny dragon generally is friendly toward adventurers and visitors in their habitat. However, they will not hesitate to defend their home and allies when in danger. The older the Faerie Dragon, the more spells it has access to in battle. You can determine their age by their color. The youngest variants are a bright red color, while the oldest is Violet.
Faerie dragon 5e stat block
Faerie Dragons are Chaotic good monsters of the dragon race and are tiny-sized.
- AC – 15
- HP – 14 (4d4 +4)
- Speed – 10 feet, fly 60 feet
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 3 (-4) | 20 (+5) | 13 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1)1 | 16 (+3) |
As you see, there are a couple of stats that pop. Let’s start with the weakness of Faerie Dragons. Their Strength stat is abysmal. If they have to do an STR check for anything at all, they will usually fail dramatically. So if you have spells or attacks that force a Strength saving throw, it is straightforward to hit them or cause the effect you want.
All their other stats are pretty decent. However, there is an amazing one. Their Dexterity is 20, and they have a +5 modifier. This dex stat makes them agile and dangerous to fight against if you are low level. If they have to make some kind of a Dex saving throw, you will almost always miss the attack at low levels.
Skills and languages
- Skills: Arcana +4, Perception +3, and Stealth +7. Their stealth, size, and dexterity combination is extreme for ambushes and just sneaking around in areas with a lot of vegetation and hiding places.
- Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13. Great to have darkvision if you are fighting in the dark.
- Languages: Draconic, Sylvan. Having a faerie dragon familiar or trying to communicate with one will be hard if you don’t know these two languages.
Challenge Rating 1: (200 XP) for a red, orange, or yellow faerie dragon;
Challenge Rating 2: (450 XP) for a green, blue, indigo, or violet faerie dragon
Spells and feats
- Superior Invisibility. As a bonus action, the faerie dragon can magically turn invisible until its concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). If the dragon is wearing any equipment, it also becomes invisible.
- Limited Telepathy: Do you want to mess with these creatures? You better look out for their friends. Using telepathy, the dragon can magically communicate with any other faerie dragon within 60 feet of it. So the monster brings his friends to the fight too.
- Magic Resistance. The dragon has an advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. So your wizard and warlock will have an even harder time hitting it.
- Innate Spellcasting. The dragon’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13). The faerie dragon can innately cast several spells, requiring no material components. As the dragon ages and changes color, it gains additional spells, as shown below. You can change these spells a bit to weaken or strengthen the creature if you are a DM; however, make sure you don’t overpower it too much.
Faerie Dragon spells and colors
As the dragon ages, it changes color. With those changes come new spells. However, they can still use the previous spells from the color before they change. So you might want to avoid fighting Violet Faerie Dragons as they can use spells like hallucinatory terrain and polymorph.
- Red, 1/day each: dancing lights, mage hand, minor illusion ( I like to add Silent Image)
- 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
Faerie Dragon 5e Actions
The standard melee attack of the faerie dragon is Bite. This Bite is a melee Weapon Attack with +7 to hit and a reach of 5 ft., one creature. However, when it hits, it does a meager 1 piercing damage.
One of the special attacks of the faerie dragon is the Euphoria Breath (Recharge 5-6). The dragon exhales a puff of euphoria gas at one creature within 5 feet of it.
When a Euphoria Breath attack is targeted, the target must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw. If the target fails the WIS saving throw, it can’t take reactions for a minute and must roll a d6 at the start of each turn to determine its behavior.
- When the target rolls 1-4, the target takes no action or bonus action and uses all of its movement to move in a random direction.
- When the target rolls 5-6, the target doesn’t move, and the only thing it can do on its turn makes a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.
How and where do they live
Faerie dragons are creatures that live in the fey wild, far away from busy settlements. They prefer to live in woods and nest in the holes of old trees where they mate and sleep. Since these beasts enjoy water and love swimming, they are often found nearby creeks and small calm rivers.
While they are good-natured, they enjoy messing around and playing pranks on creatures that wander into their domain. Mostly they mean no harm and are just looking for a way to entertain themselves. They often use their spells – like polymorph – for their pranks.
Bringing sweet fruits, pies, or honey is a good idea if you want to befriend a Faerie dragon. They will appreciate the gift a lot. Younger Faerie dragons that are still bright red might even follow you around and help you out as long as you keep the treats coming. They are good-natured, so you won’t need animal Friendship to convince them you don’t mean them harm if you really do not.
Faerie Dragon encounters ideas for DMs
Play pranks on players
Faerie dragons are best known for their pranks. However, you can do many funny things to your players, thanks to their stealth, darkvision, and small size. A couple of ideas are:
- Fill your player’s boots with dung, stones, or water. When they wake up, they are sure to look for the culprit. Bonus points if you get the players to blame each other.
- Put dirt into their food. Do your players enjoy a nice snack after the battle? Well, not anymore!
- Use illusion to make them think there are interesting things to do nearby or frame them for something they did not do.
Make sure to keep the pranks light, as the creatures still have a good nature.
Give them a fun Faerie Dragon familiar for a short time
If your players are familiar with these creatures, they might give them a bit of fruit or even a piece of fruit pie. If they do, you might want to have one of the younger faerie dragons follow them around and help them with small things like warning them when enemies are approaching or stealing things from other NPCs. Don’t forget that these creatures are smart but do not speak common.
Trap them into pissing off a nest
The fact that Faerie Dragons can communicate telepathically can have disastrous effects on your players if they manage to piss off a full nest of them. If they do, you might want to mess with them by having the dragons pull major pranks on them or use all kinds of magic.
Player strategies when encountering a Faerie Dragon
- Leave them be: If you see a Faerie Dragon in the wild, don’t attack them or trap try to trap them. They generally are completely harmless and won’t attack unprovoked. Depending on how you mess with them, you can land yourself in a world of trouble.
- Bring sweets: Do you want to make a good impression on these little critters? Bring some sweets with you. These creatures are known to love sweet fruit and pastries like peach and apple pie. Giving them some is a sure way to win their favor! You might even walk away with your very own Faerie Dragon Familiar!
- Learn the colors: The colors of the monsters say a ton about their abilities and age. You don’t want to mess with the violet ones as they are the oldest and strongest of the bunch.
Final thoughts
Faerie Dragons make a fun encounter for your players. While this monster isn’t a combat encounter, you can still mess with your party quite a bit. You can pull pranks on them, have them harass your players, and punish them harshly if they attack these monsters.
You don’t need a lot of creativity to find a use for these monsters. You can get a lot of fun out of prankster creatures like these. However, if you are a DM, I would advise you not to use these in combat. While they have decent stats, their ability to do damage is lacking.
If you are a player, make sure you keep critters as your ally. For example, Faerie dragon familiars or allies are useful as they are smart, creative, and have a ton of interesting spells that might help you out.
Faerie Dragon 5e FAQ
Can you have a Faerie Dragon Familiar in 5e?
Yes, it is possible to have a Faerie Dragon Familiar in 5e DnD. However, it is up to your DM to allow you to get one and keep one. There are two common ways to get one as a familiar. The first is finding a young Faerie Dragon and feeding it treats and treating it well. However, they do not often bond with you as intensely to become familiar. The best way to get a Faerie Dragon familiar is to raise them from an egg.
How large is a Faerie Dragon in 5e DnD?
The Faerie Dragon is a tiny creature. An adult is about the size of an average house cat. A baby just hatched from an egg is about the size of a mouse.
What loot is on a Faerie Dragon?
The loot on a Faerie Dragon depends on what your DM wants to give you. Usually, these creatures don’t have anything on them, but for items they just snatched. However, their nest in the trees might have some loot (like rings, small weapons, coins) they stole as a prank.