Early Bird Bonus: extra free mount and art prints if you pledge in the first 48 hours!
Dragon Rider's Primer for 5E

Dragon Rider's Primer for 5E

This crunchy 5E sourcebook elevates your adventure to new heights with flying mounts for all characters and their adversaries! Variant cover by 2014-era legend Hydro74 is hobby trade exclusive! Plus exclusive play mat, pogs and pawns for tabletop play!
Edit
$18,071 🎉
of $10,000
199
backers
user avatar image for Alex Welford
user avatar image for Hand Of Cthulhu
user avatar image for CrispaGreedo
user avatar image for Joe Dombrosky
user avatar image for Brad Adams
user avatar image for Allan MacKenzie-Graham
user avatar image for Jaccsen
user avatar image for Todd L Lyter
user avatar image for Colin Brodd

Join 9 on the Backer Train! 9 on the Backer Train!

Back in : to keep the train going

🗓 Estimated to ship by September 1, 2026

Ends on at .
Share

Share

Twitter

Bluesky

Facebook

Copy Link

Edit

Welcome to Dragon Rider’s Primer!

Within these pages you’ll find everything you need to make mounted flight an integral part of your 5E game experience. Be warned! This tome is a feast of aerial character options, new rules, and new magic that will cast your campaign skyward forever more. Once your players have experienced flight like this, no matter which heroic personae they adopt, they’ll never want to return to the ground again.



What's In the Book?

This crunchy 5E sourcebook elevates your adventure to new heights with flying mounts for all characters and their adversaries!
  • Level your hero with 12 new subclasses (that’s one per core class), suitable for use with OG5E as well as the 2024 rules update.
  • Mount up and take wing with a host of new feats, spells, and backgrounds to boost your character’s ascent.
  • Before you take off, don’t forget to equip yourself and your mount with new gear, both magical and mundane.
  • For the GM, complete the experience with new rules for mounted aerial combat and long-distance aerial travel, plus guidance for incorporating all of it into your game.
Edit

Choose Your Cover!



This sturdy hardcover tome is available in two cover options:
  • A beautiful painting by Doug Kovacs, hand-painted using physical creation methods and accented with a 2014-era cover treatment.
  • An ornately rendered graphic by Wizards of the Coast legend Hydro74, who designed the amazing hobby-trade-exclusive covers during the 2014 era. This cover will be produced in only a single print run as a hobby trade exclusive, available only through the crowdfunding, game stores, conventions, and the like.
Edit

Crowdfunding Exclusives!



Add-ons to complete the aerial combat experience!
  • Aerial combat play mat! Rollable cloth-and-rubber mat with a grid to run your aerial combats! Measures 36"x36" with 1" squares. Painted using physical art methods by Doug Kovacs. Exclusive to this campaign!
  • Cardstock die-cut token sheets! Aerial pogs of mounts plus new subclass token pawns to ride them! The pawns are designed to sit on top of the birds-eye-view mounts, making aerial combat easy to manage on the tabletop. Exclusive!



Leatherbound edition is exclusive to this campaign!

This exquisite edition celebrates Hydro74's amazing cover in a heritage format. Features a real leather cover, with debossed foil ornamentation surrounding a gloss litho label showing Hydro74's iconic Dragon Rider's Primer illustration. Smythe-sewn binding, sewn-in satin ribbon bookmark, and sumptuous handfeel.
Edit

Announcing The OG5E Journal



Add on issue #1 of the OG5E Journal! Ground yourself in the original foundation of the game, even as we take it to new heights! New rules, new options, and an engaging new vision!
Edit

Stretch Goals

Help us make an amazing book of additional options for backers!

Edit

12 New Subclasses for 5E!

Edit

Let's Talk Dragons!

Edit

Download the Beta Rules!

Click now to download the beta rules!


Integrate aerial combat into your 5E campaign right now by downloading the beta rules! Play a game and send in feedback so you can shape the final product!
Edit

Shipping & Fulfillment

Expected fulfillment timeline is approximately Q3 of 2026.

Shipment charges will be assessed after the campaign ends based on the actual cost of each person's pledge.

Packages will originate as follows, by region:

  • US pledges will originate from a US shipping location.
  • EU/UK pledges will originate from a UK shipping location.
  • Canada pledges will originate from a Canada shipping location.
  • AUS/NZ/SEA pledges will originate from an Australian shipping location.

There is additional information on common shipping questions in the FAQ.
Edit

Pay Over Time Feature

For this campaign, we have enabled Backerkit's Pay Over Time feature! If your pledge is over $150, after you select a pledge and go to Checkout, you'll be given the option to pay 4 equal interest-free monthly installments of your pledge total over the course of 4 months.

If you select Pay Over Time, you acknowledge that:

  • You understand that your rewards will not qualify for shipment until you have paid in full.
  • You understand that any partial payments made are not eligible for a refund.
  • You understand that you will not be able to access the pledge manager survey until after you have paid in full. 
If you believe that this project is not in compliance with BackerKit’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, you can file a report by sending a message via this link: Report this project

Confirm