[B.A.D.D.] I did a bad thing....

[adndgamer]

Hey man,

You did the right thing in coming here. That's what BADD is for, to help people NOT make the same mistakes again. And at least you were able to admit what you did, and see what you did wrong.

I think most of us have made a mistake sometime or another. In my eyes, you're fully forgiven.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Hold on...

...all is not lost. Do dracoliches still go out and get themselves killed in combat to finalize their transformation?

If so, that green dragon could be making a comeback.

Anyway, that's what I'd do.

 

[Hatchling Dragon]

The next step...

Post the stats, listen to the suggested changes and tips/tactics/tricks, then move on to the next stage, revenge.

Ma 'n the yung'unz are dead, now Pa's got a burnin desire for pay-back!

Have the group start hearing rumors of a Dragon, apparently new to the area, that's rampaging around the countryside destroying lives and property. Naturally, full of self-confidence fueled by thier recent victories, they'll charge off to slay yet another 'stupid treasure lizard, er.. Dragon!'.

In actuality it's the mate of the slain green and father of the youngsters that the PC's just brutally murdered. It's used magic (Polymorph Self?) and 'leg work' to find out who was responsible for killing it's kin and robbing it's lair, easy enough to do since few groups I've heard of would not brag about thier deed. It's tracked them down now, perhaps even arranging to meet the "heroes" while disguised, and is luring them out into an ambush.

Another way to handle the ambush would be to have the disguised dragon meet the PC's (to verify identity) and then, without warning, revert to it's true form. At this point the fight's up to you, perhaps with imput/ideas from fellow B.A.D.D. members, just be sure to use that suprise round to get in at least one crushing blow before retreating to set up another ambush/attack. A couple of possible ideas: A) Snatch the 'big nasty warrior' type and head for the clouds (be sure he doesn't have those Boots); B) Shred the Wizard on the spot and Dimention Door out, perhaps to attack again, or just to Polymorph Self and dissappear until they let thier guard down again.

And don't feel too bad about the encounter, the youngsters weren't very old or experienced, and a Mother isn't very likely to think straight when she's just witnessed her children being butchered. A good memorial is to work on the PC's so that they eventually wonder just how they actually managed to kill a Dragon at all, let alone 3. If you do your work well enough I'm sure they'll convince themselfs it was all an Illusion/ruse by someone to lul them into a false sense of confidence!

Hatchling Dragon

 

[Alaska Roberts]

Another poster child

I should be another poster child for BADD, I let the halfing rogue in our party find some nice dragon poison once (hey, it seemed the proper thing to find at the time), I forget about it, he takes his ring of cameleon, rolls an insane bluff and hide roll, then sneak attacks the next round, da,mn that was alot of damage.

He had already been hit a few times by the other members of the party and down he went.

Mistakes

Almost no use of spells, magic items, defenses, etc, etc....

I could make this a really long list, but I don't want to depress myself anymore.

OH the PAIN.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Have the group start hearing rumors of a Dragon, apparently new to the area, that's rampaging around the countryside destroying lives and property. Naturally, full of self-confidence fueled by thier recent victories, they'll charge off to slay yet another 'stupid treasure lizard, er.. Dragon!'.

There's a fine line between teaching them a lesson and being a R-B DM. The best way, as far as I'm concerned, is to use a dragon with a CR lower than the party level. It sounds hard, but you can kill the party with such a dragon. Trust me.

If you throw a great wyrm at them, it doesn't make the point that dragons are powerful - only that you're a jerk.

 

[adndgamer]

Hm. I really like Hatchling Dragon and Tom Cashel's ideas

I'm gonna go off of both of your ideas here:

See, what you could do is...

Have reports of a new dragon from far away who is killing off many many innocents. Have him do lots of carnage. Have the dead dragon's mate -- the aforementioned dragon, find out who the "heroes" who killed his loved ones are. Then have him polymorph to human shape. He will pose as a rich farmer or merchant whose family was murdered by the dragon. He offers the PCs a considerable cash reward for the destruction of this dragon, plus whatever treasure this dragon has. He tells them that this new dragon has set up a lair in the old dragon's lair. He then disappears, after leaving a generous 'incentive' (read as cash) for the PCs to do this.

From here, you can do two things. Either:

He goes back to his lair, readies a number of traps (or preferably, already has these set up), and waits in ambush. He casts alarm at the enterance to his lair, and when it goes off, casts an illusion spell to make the PCs think that he's sleeping in his nice cozy lair. They'll come up to attack him (well, the illusion of him), and he'll get them from the side (let's say he was cloaked with an invisibility spell). What a dragon could do....

Alternatively, you could have him have his mate and children raised as dracoliches, and when the PCs come to the lair, they'll have a nice family unit to deal with. If possible, cave in the enterance after the PCs enter, so that they are forced to deal with the dra(colich/agon) family. If I were the dragons, and knew I'd win, I'd for-sure try to close off any escapes.

Just some ideas.

 

[adndgamer]

There's a fine line between teaching them a lesson and being a R-B DM. The best way, as far as I'm concerned, is to use a dragon with a CR lower than the party level. It sounds hard, but you can kill the party with such a dragon. Trust me.

If you throw a great wyrm at them, it doesn't make the point that dragons are powerful - only that you're a jerk.

Hm. I think that it's rather plausible that a dragon have a mate. He doesn't have to be a great wyrm, but I definitely think that revenge would be a motive. Every action has a reaction and all that

Oh, back on the original subject... Was there too much treasure to be carried off at once? If the PCs just leave it there in the lair, I'd expect much looting to take place. Unless.. oh, wait. You said that the lair was through an underwater bit. Forget about other people looting it then.

 

[Squire James]

Frankly, I don't see this as a BADD situation. The heroes were powerful enough to take the dragons in question out, and they thought things through well enough to execute their plans and the dragon. Not every dragon has a Dragon Mountain to work with, and sometimes those spells just aren't that darn useful!

Still... a good Dispel Magic or two would do wonders in that encounter!

 

[CRGreathouse]

Hm. I think that it's rather plausible that a dragon have a mate. He doesn't have to be a great wyrm, but I definitely think that revenge would be a motive. Every action has a reaction and all that

Oh, I don't dispute this at all. My problem is that the DM might think "OK, they killed a mature dragon, so the mate will be ancient so it can kill them." The mate should be within one age category, but should still make (one or more of the) PCs into paste.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Was there too much treasure to be carried off at once?

I'm sure there was. What if one of the pieces of treasure (art object) was very special and known to the mate? It could then locate object (from a scroll) and find the PCs easily...