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Dragons are dangerous enough without being 20th-level spellcasters. Niv-Mizzet may be one of the hardest challenges in Dungeons & Dragons.
Since they’re right there in the title, Dungeons & Dragons includes a huge variety of dragons for Dungeon Masters to choose from across a range of power levels. There are those that fresh-faced adventurers can challenge and those who protect a horde of valuable loot that higher-level players crave. At the top of all of them, however, is one dragon deadlier than all the rest.
Niv-Mizzet from Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica is possibly the most dangerous dragon in the game, with the highest challenge rating of any of them. What makes him unique are his spellcasting abilities which, if used correctly, could be lethal to even the highest levels of players. What is it about this monster that makes him so powerful?
Originating in Magic: The Gathering lore, Niv-Mizzet stands out as unique among many of the dragons there are stat blocks for simply by virtue of carrying a name. The generic dragons that players typically face are identified by their age or their color, with ages ranging from Young to Ancient denoting their strength while their color generally distinguishes their primary resistances and damage types. Niv-Mizzet carries all the typical abilities of a powerful dragon — which are scary enough on their own.
Among such abilities are the iconic Fire Breath, with which Niv-Mizzet deals a devastating 26d6 of damage and requires a whopping DC 25 Dexterity saving throw just to escape half its total output. His Bite, Claw, and Tail attacks are straightforward melee attacks, but since he has Multiattack, Niv-Mizzet can use all three in a single turn. Much like other powerful dragons, Niv-Mizzet has the usual Magic Resistance, gargantuan size, fly speed that outpaces any player, immunities and resistances that make him all the harder to hurt, and Legendary Resistance and Legendary Actions that make him an army of one. Even still, none of that is what makes Niv-Mizzet the game’s deadliest dragon.
What truly distinguishes Niv-Mizzet are his spellcasting abilities. He is a 20th-level spellcaster who forces a DC 26 spell save and gets +18 to his spell attacks. His options includes the ninth level Prismatic Wall, which is a death-sentence to try to pass through, and with offensive options like Maze, Power Word Stun, Disintegrate and Reverse Gravity, Niv-Mizzet can pick off his opponents one-by-one and leave them little to no room to resist or resurrect his attacks. Even worse, he has special abilities that boost his spellcasting beyond anything most players will ever face in their adventuring careers.
Locus of the Firemind allows Niv-Mizzet to maintain concentration on two spells at once, a fundamentally impossible achievement for players. It also grants him advantage on maintaining concentration, which was already hard enough to break given his immunities, resistances and +17 to Constitution saving throws. The Master Chemister ability allows Niv-Mizzet to change the type of damage his spells do to optimize their effect against players, and his unique Dracogenius Legendary Action allows him to regain his lowest level spell slots so that his arsenal never runs out throughout a combat encounter. How could any party hope to defeat such a monster?
Niv-Mizzet has few weaknesses for players to exploit, but some options are certainly better than others. Since he can only regenerate spells of third level or lower, trying to Counterspell Niv-Mizzet’s highest-level casts is the best way to burn through his deadliest options. He notably does not have resistance or immunity to poison, meaning that with some preparation a party’s martial members can make their weapons far deadlier against him. Niv-Mizzet is also least likely to pass Dexterity saves, so players who can force those will be better off than those relying on other kinds.
At the end of the day, though, there is no way to end a fight with Niv-Mizzet quickly. It will likely be a prolonged and costly battle, and the best option may be to avoid combat with the spellcasting dragon altogether. He does follow a Chaotic Neutral alignment, so the best advice anyone can follow when facing him is diplomacy. Failing that, prepare for an epic battle of historic proportions.
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