Lord Soth is one of the most infamous villains in D&D history. He first appeared in the third book in the Dragonlance Chronicles series, Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, back in 1985 when I was in first grade, but he hasn’t really made an appearance since the 2002 book Dragon of a Vanished Moon that I’m aware of, until now. So this is a mini that’s going to mean a lot to old school D&D fans, and this may be an introduction to the character for those of us who started playing with 5th edition. And the death dragon mini here is comparable in size to our other adult dragon minis while being just a bit more expensive, so there are certainly folks who are going to be primarily interested in that. And of course, many thanks to WizKids for sending it our way for review. Now, a fight with an epic creature like this should leave something behind for the PCs to remember it, so we’ve come up with a magical item that can be harvested from a slain greater death dragon. It’s not easy to harvest though, requiring expert knowledge in both medicine and arcana, but if it’s successfully retrieved, it can be a powerful tool for the PCs to use in their adventures.  You can find the magical item and a transcript of this video over on our website at gallantgoblin.com!  So, gather your supplies, because it’s time to meet Lord Soth and his greater death dragon.

Before we jump in, I’ve got something new and exciting for you! If you’ve been hanging around at the Gallant Goblin for awhile now, you’re well familiar with the Big Bad Booklets from our sponsor Hit Point Press.  Well, on Tuesday, March 21st at 10AM, Hit Point is going to launch a Kickstarter for two hardcover Big Bad Books! In the Big Book of Big Bads you’ll find 25 of the very best Big Bads from their extensive collection, with their backstories, tactics, minions, and more, all ready to drop into a one-shot or into your ongoing campaigns. You’ll even get introduced to the Big Bad Bureau so you can turn the big bads into a campaign of its own. And the second book, Creatures and Curios, is a bestiary and magic item compendium packed with over a 100 beautifully illustrated monsters and treasures! Go sign up to be notified when they launch at the link down below. Using our link lets them know that we sent you, and then they’ll keep us on the air to bring you more videos and content.  That’s The Big Book of Big Bads coming to Kickstarter soon! 

Let’s start out by looking at Lord Soth on his greater death dragon. This is a modular set, so you can have Soth on the dragon, or have them as two complete but separate minis. Lord Soth has a long history in the Dragonlance setting, and even in the Ravenloft setting, though that story is a bit more controversial, and I’m going to do my best not to spoil some of his exploits in his various appearances in the D&D novels, which are well worth reading.  But I will give you an overview of his history as presented in the Shadow of the Dragon Queen. Soth is described as the most powerful death knight on Krynn, the classic story of a virtuous and powerful knight who succumbs to pride, time and time again. He had more than one chance at redemption, including having the opportunity to confront the evil kingpriest of istar and avert the great cataclysm, but he chose chaos and ended up dying in the process, rising again as a death knight. In the adventure he’s a bit of a free agent, which allows him to be a pretty fun separate antagonist for the PCs.  He carries the last remnant of the Cataclysm’s fire, as you can see on his mini. He can hurl the flame once a day to deal 10d6 fire and 10d6 necrotic damage to foes. Anyone who dies from it rises as a skeleton under his control. Oh, and once a day he can just straight up deal 100 necrotic damage with a word, killing anyone brought to zero HP. He earns his CR of 19.  Here you can see the Soth Mini next to the Lord Soth promo figure which you can pick up for free by ordering anything from dndmini.com. Yeah, it doesn’t have to be a Dragonlance product. Though for whatever reason there is a 20 dollar minimum purchase required, so can’t just pick up a single 5 dollar unpainted mini pack sadly. We’ll talk more about the promo minis later this week probably.

The death dragon was introduced into 5e in the recent Dragonlance book. A death dragon arises from the corpse of a metallic or chromatic dragon that was either infused with the lingering fires of the Dragonlance Cataclysm or because its death was heinous enough to consume the dragon with enough vengeance to rise from the dead. Though they do retain a shadow of their previous life and personality, and interestingly, the more powerful they become, the more they’re able to fight the hate that consumes them and the more they become like their former selves, which opens up some interesting story potential. Their breath weapon taps into that cataclysmic fire, dealing necrotic damage that instantly kills anyone dropped to zero hero points and raises them as a zombie under the dragon’s control, which technically makes spells like revivify, resurrection, and raise dead ineffectual in bringing them back. Death dragons have a lower intelligence than most dragons, making them more instinctual and animalistic, though not quite to the level of white dragons. They do have a tendency to grab foes and then drop them from great heights, which is reflected in their stat block as a grapple ability on their bite attack.  

Otherwise they have a more or less normal dragon stat block, with a bit more mobility. Being an undead creature, the greater death dragons give your clerics and paladins an opportunity to shine. The greater death dragon like we have here has a CR of 14 and is huge in-size, upsized in its mini form as all adult dragon minis are these days.  The lesser death dragon, which has a huge sized mini in the Dragonlance booster set, is technically large in size and has a CR of 10. You can see them together here. Both stat blocks are in the Dragonlance book.  And the greater death dragon is of a comparable size to our other adult dragons and frankly just looks really cool.  In a pinch I think you could also pass it off as a shadow dragon, a hollow dragon, a ghost dragon, or even a black dragon with some sort of magical effect cast upon it. The death dragon also gives you the chance to use two different minis for the same dragon character after something unfortunate happens to the dragon they’ve come to know. 

Lord Soth and the Greater Death Dragon is expected in April for between 105 and 120 dollars. As always since the pandemic, release dates are nebulous things, so keep an eye out if you’re wanting to pick this one up. Let me know what you think of it down below. And get the magic item, Death Dragon Bone Fragment over on our website at gallantgoblin dot com! And don’t forget to sign up, using our links, to be notified when the Big Book of Big Bads launches on Kickstarter in March!  If you enjoyed the video today, leaving us a like and subscribing to the channel will help us grow and improve. You can get yourself a cute cuddly kobold over at koboldplush dot com, and you can always follow us on Insta-Face, Tik-Book, My-Tok, and ICQ.  For now, stay safe, have fun, love each other, and I’ll see you next time at the Gallant Goblin!  

And here is your Death Dragon Bone Fragment magic item: