Help me Choose a Dragon

[Octangula]

Yeah, this group isn't really into power gaming. The group attack bonuses are:
Paladin: +9
Rogue: +10
Avenger: +11
Druid: +8

Although, as Ferghis pointed out, the Druid doesn't have any powers which attack AC.

Which makes the Druid effectively +10, since the system assumes that NADs are an average of 2 less than AC. This doesn't feel that horrible to me.

A level 6 dragon would be EL+2 (+1 for being one level higher, +1 for being used against a party of 4), which is a hard fight on paper, but not overly so. Assuming that this is their first Solo, this seems reasonable enough. On average, they will be hitting on a 10+, which isn't too frustrating. A level 5 Solo with an additional monster (or minions) may be an alternative.

As for which dragon, I'm not sure, as I don't know them very well. Don't feel you are restricted to choices that are level 6, though, as it's fairly easy to adjust a monster up or down a couple of levels (HP by 8/16/32 for Standard/Elite/Solo; attack rolls, damage rolls, and defences by 1; skills and initiative by 0.5; DCs according to the table; everything else is pretty much the same). I would suggest sticking to dragons that are using the modern stat block, however, as Solo design principles changed at around the same time.

 

[Jhaelen]

I'd like to add something which may not have been obvious from my previous post:

A big reason why the fight against the Young Blue Dragon was so hard for my group was that dragons can fly.

If your group is mostly relying on melee powers, they'll have a problem because the dragon can easily outmaneuver them. So you may want to use a dragon type that prefers wading into melee instead of keeping its distance.

 

[Derren]

How about choosing a dragon which would actually make sense to be wherever your PCs are?

 

[jjrtootle]

How about choosing a dragon which would actually make sense to be wherever your PCs are?

I'm the kind of GM who would rather choose the monster(s) that my group encounters based on the interest and difficulty of the fight rather than the flavor text. I can always rewrite descriptions to make whatever creatures get chosen make sense in the setting. It should be noted that the group is playing in a custom world and that I don't have any players who have memorized all the monsters and would, in the middle of the battle, say "Hey! That's not one of the green dragon's powers!" Those people kill all the fun.

 

[Advilaar]

One of the things I usually do to emulate the flavor of spellcasting 2e/3e dragons is put a class template on them. Do not add the +HP, though... that is too much. Just the powers and +def.

That way, it can have a cool flavor at will/ encounter/ daily and be a bit cooler than your standard MM dragon.