How to kill a blue dragon?

[jonshaft]

Poisonous dwarf

I think the perfect idea would be to force feed the party dwarf as much poison as he could possibly take preferably after getting him thoroughly intoxicated. Then have him lay down in a field under the dragon and wait for the dragon to eat him, get sick , and die. Then take the dragon's hoard and buy the raise dead ritual for the party dwarf. Laugh and spend the remaining hoard on more poison and ale.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

I think the perfect idea would be to force feed the party dwarf as much poison as he could possibly take preferably after getting him thoroughly intoxicated. Then have him lay down in a field under the dragon and wait for the dragon to eat him, get sick , and die. Then take the dragon's hoard and buy the raise dead ritual for the party dwarf. Laugh and spend the remaining hoard on more poison and ale.

My God...that's just crazy enough to work!

*grabs Dwarf* "Here my friend, have a drink of this and let's discuss this 'Dragon problem' that the town is having..."

 

[Orcus Porkus]

I think the perfect idea would be to force feed the party dwarf as much poison as he could possibly take preferably after getting him thoroughly intoxicated. Then have him lay down in a field under the dragon and wait for the dragon to eat him, get sick , and die. Then take the dragon's hoard and buy the raise dead ritual for the party dwarf. Laugh and spend the remaining hoard on more poison and ale.

You know, you can propose this openly to us dwarves. I'd volunteer to do this.
I'll probably survive my saving throws against poison, swallowed whole, and being out whole because noone can digest dwarfs.

 

[Jhaelen]

You know, you can propose this openly to us dwarves. I'd volunteer to do this.
I'll probably survive my saving throws against poison, swallowed whole, and being out whole because noone can digest dwarfs.

Oh, you've obviously never heard about the Glorantha trolls, then:
They consider dwarves a delicacy because their digestive system 'identifies' them as mineral matter and forwards them to their 'rock-stomach' where their flesh becomes extra-tender.

 

[outsider]

There are no powers with range in heroic tier that can knock a target prone or immobilize it.

Walking Wounded, Rogue 5, PHB

There are actually a tonne of Wizard and Warlock powers that do this in heroic tier, but their range is only 10, so not useful for your specific situation.

Flying artillery is a pretty hard type of monster to deal with, particularly at low levels. I'm not suprised a level 4 party would find it near impossible in an open field. As the party levels though, it becomes easier to deal with.

 

[DracoSuave]

Open fields are bad encounter design in the 4e mentality anyways.

 

[Nail]

Open fields are bad encounter design in the 4e mentality anyways.

For most encounters? Sure, I agree with you. But for one memorable encounter over the course of a campaign? ...it sounds like a great idea.

 

[Skallgrim]

Flying artillery is a pretty hard type of monster to deal with, particularly at low levels. I'm not suprised a level 4 party would find it near impossible in an open field. As the party levels though, it becomes easier to deal with.

This is true. The other thing is simply encounter design in general.

PCs in an open field (with few ranged options) vs. a blue dragon strafer?
Very hard.

Same PCs outside a tall castle against kobolds on the walls?
Very hard.

Group with no Arcana-trained character against a magical trap?
Very hard.

If you give your group any encounter that your group doesn't have the "tools" to meet, it's going to be very hard. I don't know why this type of discussion keeps popping up everywhere I go, in every game system I play. There's no need to come up with a specific answer for the particular challenge, because there will always be another encounter which can be designed this way.

If I was playing this scenario, as a player I'd assume one of these things (in no particular order):

The DM must not really intend for us to fight this monster. We are supposed to run away, or negotiate, or something. We don't have the tools for this.

The DM is running a deliberately deadly encounter to encourage us to be creative in surviving it. He has hidden (or will allow) "plot tools" to help us overcome this threat.

The DM is a doofus and hasn't thought this encounter out. We are all going to die because he is dumb.

The DM wants to kill us, but "seem fair" about it, rather than just having a Tarrasque eat us.

I mean, if you put your group in a situation where you know they don't have the tools (and aren't going to be allowed to find/create the tools) to succeed, you either want them to fail (which is fine for story reasons), or you are a doofus, to me.

 

[Plane Sailing]

It also (mostly?) comes down to the broad 'status quo' vs 'sandbox' style of campaign (I remember the 3e DMG discusses this. Does the 4e DMG discuss it?)