Pathfinder 1E Dragon hunting adventure - help please!

psiphre · Oct 16, 2012

I am running a game for a large party (six characters and two animal companions) at level six. The players have expressed interest in a dragon slaying adventure. I'm pretty familiar with dragons, and I've got a good one picked out, but I'm anxious about a couple of things.

1 - encounters leading up to the dragon itself. As solitary creatures, the dragon isn't likely to have minions or followers/worshipers, and at level 6 there aren't a lot of random encounters that pose a threat significant enough to act as much more than a speed bump on the way to the big encounter.

2 - tangental to 1, the action economy in a fight between 6 (effectively 8) PCs and one solo monster, even a dragon, is massively skewed toward the party. I don't want to threaten one shotting players by pumping up the CR of the fight, and i don't want to quintuple the dragon's HP just to give everyone a chance to "be awesome", but i'm stuck as to what else to do.

Fooly_Cooly · Oct 16, 2012

May I ask what kind of dragon it is? As I have read it there are quite a few evil dragons who like manipulating mortals into there service or enjoy being worshiped. As for the challenge. Hm. Increase DR? Add fast healing? Or the more reasonable route(that would take more prep) would be to make the dragon prepared. He has been going around doing evil stuff and making himself known. He knew adventures would come for him seeking glory and treasure. Let him set up traps and pitfalls in his area. Have him try to get the pc's fighting him in areas where he can kind of control there movements. Magic dead zones ,traps collapsing ceilings. That sort of thing. After all dragons are really intelligent

Blackbrrd · Oct 16, 2012

Just throw in some hatchlings as a bonus to the players and some nasty environmental effects depending on the dragon type.

slobo777 · Oct 16, 2012

Blackbrrd said:
Just throw in some hatchlings as a bonus to the players and some nasty environmental effects depending on the dragon type.

This.

Dragons don't lair in pleasant places, on the whole. A few miles of rotting swamp, or burning desert, or unscalable volcanic mountain, are no barrier to a dragon, and keep the pests (adventurers) away. These sorts of wild location often have their own denizens, that need to be tough or sneaky enough to live in a Dragon's territory.

psiphre · Oct 16, 2012

Sorry, I should have mentioned! It's going to be a white dragon that recently woke up from a long hibernation to find that a farming community has sprung up at the bottom of the mountain his lair is on.

Jester David · Oct 17, 2012

A colony of kobolds tat worship the dragon might work for support. They claimed and have been sqatting it is lsir and have been maintaining the sir.
In the dragon fight the kobolds can help by flanking and blocking, or aiding the dragon's AC.

Stick his lair by a glaciar and have the fight take place someplace it can take advantage of its Icewalk power. Slick floors that halve movement unless an Acrobatics check is made, or people fall prone. Throw in some winding ice passages that block line of sight and provide cover and you're set.
White dragons can burrow and ice shape, which is a good way to seperate PCs. Nothing like a sudden ice wall separating the party.
A juvenile white is CR 7. That's low for a party of six L6 so bump it up a tad. The advanced template should make it a decent challenge at CR8. Being cheap and giving it a warrior level woudn't hurt.

Zezicks · Oct 22, 2012

I love dragons. They're one of the most iconic creatures in the game, and often the most terrifying.

When it comes to the face to face, don't short change on the descriptions. If you put fear into the hearts of the players before the fight even begins, you're job of making it a memorable and challenging fight is mostly done already. When it comes time to roll initiative, they should be wondering in the backs of the heads if they've bitten off more than they can chew, even if they memorized the stat block and know otherwise.

Tell them when they're near the dragon it's so cold their skin hurts and it's hard to blink. Tell them it's hard to breath through the biting, chest crushing cold. Have frozen corpses in the walls or in the floor, human and monster alike, maybe even a monster of higher CR or a well known local adventurer silenced forever in a glass-like tomb.

Environment is key in any dragon encounter. They're masters of their element, and would be fools to not use it to their advantage. Make sure the dragon makes use of more than just icy footing. Maybe he can fly up a cliff face and force an avalanche in the PC's direction. Maybe he has set up the roof of his lair to collapse in an emergency, sending a rain of jagged ice plummeting towards intruders, while giving him an escape to the open sky, where it's flight will give it an advantage.

And even solitary dragons will sometimes collect a few devoted followers, even if it doesn't want them. Someone already mentioned the dragon worshiping kobolds. Other monsters are not out the question. Maybe a misguided young person from the farming village has been coerced or bought or thinks that the PC's will loose and wants to protect his village from a reprisal.

There are lots of ways to make the encounter more challenging, without simply adding a template or increasing the CR.

Munktar · Oct 22, 2012

Enviromental advantages might be an option.
Making the combat scenes frosty cold, slippery, and with a fierce wind blowing down will make it much more difficult for the PC to fight. Also guerilla attacks of the dragon to lure them to his false lair, actually the hideout of some other monster be it undead, frostworms, or ninja pirates of the viking queen...