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How many (ancient) dragons would it take to destroy a (dwarven) city?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6412075" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>Thoughts:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The standard tactic when trying to tackle an ancient dragon with low-level warriors is to rely on mass archery and the law of large numbers. This does not work in an underground city, where combat takes place in confined spaces and only a relatively small number of dwarves can engage the dragon at any one time. The city's regular defenders would be very hard pressed. It's quite plausible IMO that one dragon could do it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Furthermore, siege defenses that rely on heat and fire (boiling oil, molten lead, etc.) do not work on a red dragon. They do work on a blue dragon, however, so if there was a head-on assault involved, it would make sense to have the red dragon take the lead.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If the city had a force of golem guardians, that'd be a different story. Golems are very, very tough customers, and several of them could go head to head with a dragon--especially since the dragon couldn't engage them from the air. I assume you have the blue dragon fighting the golems because mithril golems are similar to iron golems and thus immune to fire? Iron golems are immune to non-magical weapons, so the dragon could only hurt them with elemental damage.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The obvious siege defense for an underground city is to drop rocks on the head of the attacker. That works even on a dragon. I would expect the main gates of the city to have a last-ditch mechanism that could be used to collapse the whole tunnel. The dragons would need to disable that if they wanted to break in through the main entrance.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The weak point of any big city is its supply of food and water, and that goes double for an underground city which can't grow its own food. (Mushrooms don't need light but they do need nutrients, and those nutrients have to come from somewhere.) One of the dragons could find and cut off the dwarves' source of water and/or food, while the other prowled outside the city slaughtering any who left the shelter of the city's defenses. This also gives you the opportunity to put in some nice, chilling, Moria-style memoirs for when your PCs explore the ruins: <em>We cannot get out. We cannot get out.</em></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pursuant to cutting off the water supply... don't black dragons have a regional ability that lets them poison water within some large (a mile or more) radius of their lairs? The dwarves, not being stupid, would have their supply routes well protected, but there wouldn't be much they could do against that.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 6412075, member: 58197"] Thoughts: [LIST] [*]The standard tactic when trying to tackle an ancient dragon with low-level warriors is to rely on mass archery and the law of large numbers. This does not work in an underground city, where combat takes place in confined spaces and only a relatively small number of dwarves can engage the dragon at any one time. The city's regular defenders would be very hard pressed. It's quite plausible IMO that one dragon could do it. [*]Furthermore, siege defenses that rely on heat and fire (boiling oil, molten lead, etc.) do not work on a red dragon. They do work on a blue dragon, however, so if there was a head-on assault involved, it would make sense to have the red dragon take the lead. [*]If the city had a force of golem guardians, that'd be a different story. Golems are very, very tough customers, and several of them could go head to head with a dragon--especially since the dragon couldn't engage them from the air. I assume you have the blue dragon fighting the golems because mithril golems are similar to iron golems and thus immune to fire? Iron golems are immune to non-magical weapons, so the dragon could only hurt them with elemental damage. [*]The obvious siege defense for an underground city is to drop rocks on the head of the attacker. That works even on a dragon. I would expect the main gates of the city to have a last-ditch mechanism that could be used to collapse the whole tunnel. The dragons would need to disable that if they wanted to break in through the main entrance. [*]The weak point of any big city is its supply of food and water, and that goes double for an underground city which can't grow its own food. (Mushrooms don't need light but they do need nutrients, and those nutrients have to come from somewhere.) One of the dragons could find and cut off the dwarves' source of water and/or food, while the other prowled outside the city slaughtering any who left the shelter of the city's defenses. This also gives you the opportunity to put in some nice, chilling, Moria-style memoirs for when your PCs explore the ruins: [I]We cannot get out. We cannot get out.[/I] [*]Pursuant to cutting off the water supply... don't black dragons have a regional ability that lets them poison water within some large (a mile or more) radius of their lairs? The dwarves, not being stupid, would have their supply routes well protected, but there wouldn't be much they could do against that. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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How many (ancient) dragons would it take to destroy a (dwarven) city?
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