D&D: New ‘Ancient Gold Dragon’ Stat Block Reveal – Gold Does More Than Glitter
How does the Gold Dragon stack up after a 2025 makeover? See it for yourself with this partial stat block reveal.
WotC wants to raise the bar on dragons in D&D 5.5E. But what does that actually mean? Well, you can take a look for yourself, thanks to a partial stat block reveal.
Over at the official Dungeons & Dragons Instagram page, WotC revealed a partial teaser of the new ancient Gold Dragon stat block. In the new stat block, you can already see many differences, including a new implementation of a Lair action. You don’t get the complete picture, though, but it’s a taste of things to come.
New Gold Dragon Stat Block Reveal – More Hit Points, Better Saves
Right away, there is one big difference: initiative. This has notoriously been one of the big weaknesses of dragons in D&D. Dexterity is all dragons’ lowest stats, and the 5E version of the gold dragon has a paltry +2 to initiative.
But the new version is sitting at a cushy +16, which should give it a significant leg up in any combat. Another boost is in the form of an extra use of Legendary resistance if it is in its lair. This is one of the “folded in” lair actions we’ve heard so much about. I dunno what else it has, but hopefully, other lair actions are a little more impressive.
The other big change is to the dragon’s multi-attack routine. Compared to the 5E version, the new dragon does more damage overall. This is, in part, because the dragon’s attack routine has had a significant upgrade.
Instead of the usual “claw-claw-bite” multi-attack, which had two “weaker” claw attacks dealing 2d6 + 10 (or around 17 damage) and a bite attack that dealt 2d10 + 10 (average damage 21 for a total of 56 damage if all three attacks hit), those attacks have been distilled into a singular rend.
And rend will mess you up. Because a rend is infused with elemental energy. It can reflect gnashing teeth, beating wings, slapping tails, tearing claws, whatever you want. At the end of the day you’re dealing 2d8 + 10 slashing, plus an additional 2d8 fire damage. Or around 28 damage on average, which rounds out to a hefty 74 average damage if all three attacks hit.
Gold Dragon’s Got Spells
On top of the increased basic attack damage, gold dragons have more magical options. Multiattack is more flexible in the new edition, and it shows here. The ancient gold dragon can replace an attack with the use of its Weakening Breath or with a casting of a 4th-level Guiding Bolt that hits for 7d6 and gives an advantage on one of the attacks.
And other than that, not much else is different. The breath weapon is the same. All the senses and skill proficiencies are the same. But again, that’s just what we can see. There’s a whole spell list we don’t have access to just yet, as well as any other abilities or regular actions in the dragon’s repertoire, to say nothing of the Legendary Actions we don’t know about – one of which is casting Banishment.
Still, the new ancient gold dragon already hits harder and has more tools to play with. Here’s hoping what we don’t see is even bigger and better!
