Sword of Spirit
Legend
I think that encounter went about right, and sounded really fun. I might have given the dragon a ledge or two it could have flown up to (I think the MM might have even recommended that).
As far as it being boring for dragons to just fly past a party in the open using their breathe weapon until the party is dead...I just can't agree with that.
It is boring if the party is unwise enough to just stand there and let the dragon do that. It should also be fatal. If a dragon can defeat a party like that, with minimal risk to itself, it should (in my play-style). I always treat dragons as powerful and interesting NPCs--even if they just use the vanilla stat block.
Here is what I would do, as a dragon, if I found a party traveling out in the open and wanted to eat them. I would swoop by and hit them with my breathe to test them out. If they look like they are about dead, I'd probably land and finish them and enjoy my meal. If it looked like it damaged them but they were staying in a group and weren't doing too much damage to me with ranged attacks, I'd keep doing the same thing until they were dinner. If they were smart enough to split up, then is when it would get much more fun for everyone involved.
I'd target someone who looked rather weak or squishy. I'd swoop down, grab them, fly up into the air and drop them--preferably over a cliff or onto another party member. Maybe do it again to someone else, but as a dragon with style I'd probably shake it up and do something different. I'd probably find the next opponent who doesn't look like they have strong melee capabilities and is far enough away that those party members who do won't be able to charge me immediately. I'd land and go to town on them with all of my attacks, and probably a tail attack as a legendary action. For my next legendary action, I'd use my wing buffet and fly up and away so I'm still not in range of those pesky action surging whirling blades of death.
By now I likely have a breathe attack recharged and the party is more scared of being isolated than being together, so I go find another 2 or 3 of them bunched together and breathe on them.
Now that there is only one tough melee opponent left in the battle, and he is down to half hit points or so, I land in front of him and then let him do his worst so he can feel good about himself while I shred him to bits, eat him, and claim his treasure as my own.
At any point, if the party seems to be making a real comeback or pulling out spells that seem like they might negate my advantage (something that can knock me out of the sky, for instance) I directly address that, or fly away and plot how to ambush them under more favorable conditions later. I also use my spells as needed (and the spellcasting dragon variant is always used in my world).
Adventurers are dinner. That is why we are hundreds of years old and have hoards full of the treasure they have delivered to us with their corpses.
That sounds pretty scary exciting to me as a player too. Dragons should be feared. Standing out in an open field while one of them comes at you ought to send you running for cover. That's why adventurers track them into their lair in the first place. Of course, they not only have lair actions, they have traps and minions and advantageously positioned terrain, etc.
And now some of you are thinking of how you would attempt to counter those tactics and defeat the dragon. Good! As DM, when playing a legendary creature I really am out to defeat the party, and they should earn their victory, or die. Of course, they ought to have a good reason to expect they are up for a challenge, because random TPKs are no fun for anyone. And as the DM I want the players to win so they can keep on adventuring in my campaign that we are all enjoying. But I wear many hats and that dragon intends to eat them. Fear the dragon.
As far as it being boring for dragons to just fly past a party in the open using their breathe weapon until the party is dead...I just can't agree with that.
It is boring if the party is unwise enough to just stand there and let the dragon do that. It should also be fatal. If a dragon can defeat a party like that, with minimal risk to itself, it should (in my play-style). I always treat dragons as powerful and interesting NPCs--even if they just use the vanilla stat block.
Here is what I would do, as a dragon, if I found a party traveling out in the open and wanted to eat them. I would swoop by and hit them with my breathe to test them out. If they look like they are about dead, I'd probably land and finish them and enjoy my meal. If it looked like it damaged them but they were staying in a group and weren't doing too much damage to me with ranged attacks, I'd keep doing the same thing until they were dinner. If they were smart enough to split up, then is when it would get much more fun for everyone involved.
I'd target someone who looked rather weak or squishy. I'd swoop down, grab them, fly up into the air and drop them--preferably over a cliff or onto another party member. Maybe do it again to someone else, but as a dragon with style I'd probably shake it up and do something different. I'd probably find the next opponent who doesn't look like they have strong melee capabilities and is far enough away that those party members who do won't be able to charge me immediately. I'd land and go to town on them with all of my attacks, and probably a tail attack as a legendary action. For my next legendary action, I'd use my wing buffet and fly up and away so I'm still not in range of those pesky action surging whirling blades of death.
By now I likely have a breathe attack recharged and the party is more scared of being isolated than being together, so I go find another 2 or 3 of them bunched together and breathe on them.
Now that there is only one tough melee opponent left in the battle, and he is down to half hit points or so, I land in front of him and then let him do his worst so he can feel good about himself while I shred him to bits, eat him, and claim his treasure as my own.
At any point, if the party seems to be making a real comeback or pulling out spells that seem like they might negate my advantage (something that can knock me out of the sky, for instance) I directly address that, or fly away and plot how to ambush them under more favorable conditions later. I also use my spells as needed (and the spellcasting dragon variant is always used in my world).
Adventurers are dinner. That is why we are hundreds of years old and have hoards full of the treasure they have delivered to us with their corpses.
That sounds pretty scary exciting to me as a player too. Dragons should be feared. Standing out in an open field while one of them comes at you ought to send you running for cover. That's why adventurers track them into their lair in the first place. Of course, they not only have lair actions, they have traps and minions and advantageously positioned terrain, etc.
And now some of you are thinking of how you would attempt to counter those tactics and defeat the dragon. Good! As DM, when playing a legendary creature I really am out to defeat the party, and they should earn their victory, or die. Of course, they ought to have a good reason to expect they are up for a challenge, because random TPKs are no fun for anyone. And as the DM I want the players to win so they can keep on adventuring in my campaign that we are all enjoying. But I wear many hats and that dragon intends to eat them. Fear the dragon.
We were set up perfectly in our scenario: full resources, magic items, unescapable lair, etc.
