Take flight with World of Warcraft’s own version of the Dragonborn species.
The Dracthyr are the World of Warcraft equivalent to Dragonborn. They lack breath weapons or the the elemental resilience of their D&D equivalents, but make up for this with powerful tails and wings that cause unarmed strikes alongside the ability to glide and shapeshift.
The Dracthyr is a brand new species from D&D: World of Warcraft. Below, I’ve analysed the new species, given guidance on how best to use a Dracthyr and which classes work well with it.
Is a Dracthyr the right species for me?
Choose a Dracthyr if you want…
- Temporary flight
- To be good at unarmed strikes
- Want to shapeshift a bit
A Dracthyr might not be for you if…
- You have low strength
- Already have too much going on with your bonus actions
- Don’t want the pressure of deception in a shapeshifted form
Dracthyr traits
| Creature Type | Dragon |
| Size | Medium |
| Speed | 30ft |
| Traits | Darkvision, gliding wings, natural weaponry, visage, draconic flight |
| Resistances | None |
| Proficiencies | None |
| Darkvision | Yes |
| Innate spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | D&D: World of Warcraft |
Dracthyr traits
Darkvision – 3/5
Darkvision is often useful and beats using torches or spells to see.
Gliding wings – 3/5
Falling doesn’t happen loads but when it does, it can be nasty. Reducing up to 100ft of fall damage is situationally decent and means most times you fall, you’ll take no damage. I’m not sure why it couldn’t prevent all fall damage. Surely you can glide down 200ft just as well as 100ft, but that is how it works.
Natural weaponry – 4/5
Bonus action options can be great on bonus action-lite characters. With this being an unarmed strike, this would mainly help strength builds like fighters and shamans. A paladin might do alright too but monks, who have great unarmed strikes, have better things to do with their bonus action.
Shove is decent too. Knock your opponent prone for advantage on subsequent attacks or push them out of reach so you can move somewhere else without provoking an opportunity attack. You can even knock them off a ledge.
Visage – 3/5
While this is a shapeshift into another form, it doesn’t have nearly the same flexibility as a Changeling, for example as you only get one other form. It’s a decent option if you need a disguise when being chased (but it won’t change your clothes) or if you need to look like another species to travel somewhere more safely. Just be aware of the limitations here and pick your alternate form carefully.
Draconic flight – 4/5
10 minutes of flight per day isn’t loads, but it’s decent enough. You can use it to get at a safe range while you blast attacks, for accessing high places or to fight aerial enemies.
How good is the Dracthyr?
The Dracthyr has a bunch of decent features, but nothing too specialist. Fall protection, darkvision, temporary flight and a single form shapeshift are all decent traits and give enough variety, but it falls short when it comes to excelling in a particular area, as some of the best species do.
Natural weaponry is the closest it comes to this, favouring a strength build. But it’s not as profound as the Lupin is for unarmed strikes, for example. Still, it’s a solid species.
Score: 4/5
Choosing a class for your Dracthyr
Below I’ve scored how well each class works with a Dracthyr. I’ve used the renamed class reskins in D&D: World of Warcraft, but these change little mechanically from the typical classes in the Player’s Handbook so you can use the same guidance below with the original versions of these classes:
Demon hunter: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Death knight: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Druid: ⭐
Evoker: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hunter: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mage: ⭐⭐⭐
Monk: ⭐⭐
Paladin: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Priest: ⭐⭐
Rogue: ⭐⭐⭐
Shaman: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Warlock: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Warrior: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best classes for a Dracthyr
Everyone can benefit from flight and fall resilience so the very best classes are those that benefit from bonus action unarmed strikes (so strength builds without much to do with their bonus action). This means I’d favour a shaman or fighter most for a Dracthyr.
They have varied capabilities though so many classes will benefit from temporary flight, shapeshifting and fall protection.
I think that charisma characters and backline spellcasters can do fairly well too as shapeshifting will work best on a charisma build (when you need to pretend to be someone else) and flight is useful protection on ranged, vulnerable characters. This includes the likes of sorcerers and warlocks.
Worst Dracthyr classes
Most classes have something to gain from the Dracthyr, but druids are perhaps an exception. They don’t have the strength for the unarmed strikes, can wild shape for flight not much later than the Dracthyr can fly and lack the charisma for deceptive shapeshifting (and can shapeshift themselves if they need to go unnoticed in other ways).
Priests perhaps benefit less too as they often aren’t backline spellcasters and also lack the charisma to make good use of shapeshifting. The monk also stands to gain less as they already have fall resilience, have better uses for their bonus action and tend to have less issues with heights, though flight remains useful.
About Dracthyr
Appearance
Resembling draconic humanoids, Dracthyr are taller than the average Human standing at 7ft tall. They possess the appearance of dragons with scales, wings a tail and claws but unlike their draconic progenitors, they are bipedal, standing on 2 legs.
History
Created by Neltharion, leader of the black dragonflight, to fight in the war he foresaw. He chose forms that combined the power of dragons and the adaptability of humanoids.
Once the war was won, Neltharion feared that the Dracthyr might rise against the dragonflights. To prevent this, he placed them in a magical stasis in hidden creches for 20 millennia. They have since begun to awaken, with different groups choosing allegiances with different factions on Azeroth.
