9
\$\begingroup\$

Whether a dragon's breath weapon is considered magical is specifically addressed in the Sage Advice Compendium:

Is the breath weapon of a dragon magical? [...] First, Cold Breath isn’t a magic item. Second, its description mentions no spell. Third, it’s not a spell attack. Fourth, the word “magical” appears nowhere in its description. Our conclusion: Cold Breath is not considered a magical game effect, even though we know that dragons are amazing, supernatural beings.

The same is true of dragonborn characters from the PHB: "You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic ancestry determines the size, shape. and damage type of the exhalation." This does not mention being magical, and so the same strictures from the S.A.C. presumably apply.

However, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons changed this. The chromatic, metallic, and gem dragonborn species presented in that book say this:

Breath Weapon. When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks with an exhalation of magical energy in a 30-foot line that is 5 feet wide.

This does claim to be magical. Now, this seems like a deliberate change, so quite possibly the Fizban's team explicitly decided that if you're using the Fizban's dragonborn, the breath weapon is now susceptible to being suppressed inside an antimagic field or similar, and that this is an actual change from the previous version. This feels like a straight-up deficit for a dragonborn character, which isn't ideal, but equally the Fizban's dragonborn has some straight-up improvements (breath weapon use governed by your proficiency bonus rather than short rests, for example) so perhaps this balances out?

\$\endgroup\$
3
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Are you asking if it is magical or of is it balanced? \$\endgroup\$
    – Eddymage
    Commented Aug 1 at 12:07
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I'm asking if it's magical. My read is that it is, based on the rules as outlined by Crawford. I brought up balance because this seems like quite a large mechanical change to have made with a simple word change, and it's possible that while RAW a Fizban's dragonborn's breath weapon is magical, maybe by RAI it isn't (as it wasn't in the PHB) and they made the change by accident, and I'd be open to theories suggesting that maybe it should not be treated as magical even though by RAW it is. \$\endgroup\$
    – sil
    Commented Aug 1 at 12:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ The Fizban's version introduces some changes, for example you can substitute any attack with the breath weapon, while the old version requires an entire action. \$\endgroup\$
    – Eddymage
    Commented Aug 1 at 12:52

1 Answer 1

11
\$\begingroup\$

Yes, the breath weapon of Fizban's Dragonborn is magical.

As you observed in your own post, the description says that it is magical.

This satisfies the last of the requirements stated in the Sage Advice Compendium to check if a game feature is magical or not:

Ask yourself these questions about the feature:

  • Is it a magic item?
  • Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description?
  • Is it a spell attack?
  • Is it fueled by the use of spell slots?
  • Does its description say it’s magical?

If your answer to any of those questions is yes, the feature is magical.

\$\endgroup\$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .