D&D General Tell Me About Your Favorite Use of a Dragon In D&D

[Reynard]

It isn't called Dungeons and Dopplegangers for a reason. Dragons are awesome. They are fun to use in play, from singular monsters to slay, to long running villains, to patrons and allies.

What is your favorite use of a dragon in D&D as a GM, and/or your favorite experience with a dragon as a player?

I love dragons, especially city-buster sized Record of Lodoss War dragons. I usually use them as villains and monsters, and often as the pinnacle challenge of a campaign (I know, in most editions of D&D dragons are not the most powerful monsters, but I love them anyway and will buff them until they are).

Perhaps my favorite campaign level dragon was the Great beast of the Earth, whose coming signaled the End of the Age. He was more apocalypse in draconic form than character, and his presence (first rumors of, later actual activity) loomed over the whole campaign.

The most fun, though, (in the same campaign, during the 2E era) was a one off with a black dragon. It was basically playing the role of Alien, in a magically dark, flooded network of abandoned mines. It was awesome and the players were legitimately scared for their PCs' lives.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I’ve used dragons in my current campaign in various ways that have been fun for myself and the group.

One of the earlier quests my players embarked on was investigating strange going’s on in an overgrown forest a couple of days travel from the Dwarven capital. Some of the capital’s griffon guards spotted suspicious activity near the forest’s edge, but the canopy of the forest was too thick for them to gather anymore information. There investigation led them to an old abandon mining tunnel filled with shady sorts that had been kidnapping newborn chromatics dragons and transforming them into Dragonspawn, which in my world are horrific abominations created from foul and aberrant demonic magic and the mutilated and sewn together body parts of dragons (usually chromatics). The party were able to rescue five wyrmlings, some of them already showing signs of mutation caused by the foul magic being used to prepare them for the gruesome Dragonspawn ritual.

The boss of this operation was a corrupted young gold dragon, claiming to be following orders given to her by Mephilia, the Platinum Valkyrie and goddess of Battle, Bravery, Loyalty, Vigilance, and patron deity of Metallic dragons. However, it became clear to the party that something more malevolent and alien held control over the dragons mind and they were forced to fight her. While the dragon at first fought like a typical gold dragon, moving gracefully across the battlefield and fighting tactically, once bloodied she went on a rampage, black ichor pouring from her wounds, her eyes, and her mouths as she ripped her wings apart before they mutated into horrid, acidic tendrils that lashed out at the party and the wyrmling they were protecting, trying to corrupt them. The players told me after that fact that this battle was chilling yet awesome.

They were eventually able to down the dragon. One of the player who was playing a character with a history of dealing with souls and soul corruption attempted and was successful in capturing the dragons soul, freeing it from her abberant master, and now it acts a one of his spirit companions. Kind of like a Pokémon.

 

[payn]

I've never been good as a GM with dragons. My players have always made easy work of them. I blame myself for being a little gun shy about party wiping and not knowing dragon tactics well. That said, I ran Carrion Crown in PF1 and there is an undead dragon that is a scary beast. I had a pretty good time using it against the party. Another was a black dragon in a swamp the players tried to sneak by. It did not like trespassers, no sir.

I tend to run dragons as more feral beasts of incredible stature than wicked smart magicians that fake being humanoid for reasons of modern takes. YMMV

 

[Gorck]

In one of my campaigns, the 5th level party needed an expensive diamond from the town's Jeweler. Unfortunately, he didn't have the diamond that the party needed, but he knew where they could find one: a cave high up on a mountain cliff-side was rumored to have one. The party ventured up through a tunnel system full of Kobolds to find that the cave was occupied by a red dragon wyrmling. They defeated the wyrmling and recovered the diamond. When they got back down to the base of the mountain, they were met outside the tunnel entrance by the Jeweler who thanked them for removing a potential adversary and clearing out his new summer home. He then transformed, revealing himself to be an ancient silver dragon disguised in human form all along.

 

[cbwjm]

I had a dragon elder as the backdrop for a campaign final battle. All you could see was the head of this sleeping behemoth and at the end when the party had defeated the evil warlock, the elder opened its eyes, heaved itself out of the ground it was imprisoned in and flew off into the distance, other smaller dragons flying with having answered the call of the elder.

This thing is now out in the world which will have repercussions if we play again in that setting. Will it awaken the other elders? Will the gods return to send these immensely powerful beings back into slumber beneath the earth? Not even the most powerful seer will be able to answer that.

 

[MarkB]

The favourite use of a dragon I've seen in D&D? Themberchaud in the Honor Amongst Thieves movie.

In actual play? Way too swingy. Give them open terrain and some common sense and they can do a serious number on a party, using grapple-and-drop tactics on the squishies and keeping the party separated, then retreating to rest and heal the moment they feel the least bit threatened. Enclose them in tight quarters where they can't get out of anyone's range, on the other hand, and they'll tend to go down like chumps.

 

[Reynard]

In actual play? Way too swingy. Give them open terrain and some common sense and they can do a serious number on a party, using grapple-and-drop tactics on the squishies and keeping the party separated, then retreating to rest and heal the moment they feel the least bit threatened. Enclose them in tight quarters where they can't get out of anyone's range, on the other hand, and they'll tend to go down like chumps.

So you have never had a good (read: fun, tense, or exciting) dragon experience in play?

 

[pawsplay]

My players were talking the lair of an adult blue dragon. They entered the humongous main chamber, and... no dragon. They started to investigate the dragon's hoard when one of the players got this look on their face and said, "Wait a minute..." And they narrowly escaped a total ambush by a dragon using spider climb and invisibility to hide on the ceiling...

 

[MarkB]

So you have never had a good (read: fun, tense, or exciting) dragon experience in play?

As a player, I honestly don't recall the last time I saw a dragon encounter.

As a DM, no, I think the few I've run tended to wind up more frustrating than fun for the players. The first ones I ran were in the old 3.5e Red Hand of Doom as an inexperienced DM. Had a couple of encounters with them early-ish (Very Young black and Young green IIRC) and followed the module's guidance to the letter, which meant they were easily able to escape once they decided to retreat. Brought the green back later to give them another crack at it and it got away again. When they got to the final lair, they had to go up against both of those plus the blue dragon that normally lives there, and got TPK'd.

About the only dragon that's shown up since then is the mechanical Chardalyn Dragon from Rime of the Frostmaiden. First time I ran that campaign I did it by the book, and the party cornered it at the second-to-last town to be trashed, and it got crippled with successive strikes of Tasha's Mind Whip, barely managing to do anything before it was dropped.

Second time around, I made it part of the encounter at Sunblight fortress. That fight was tense and exciting, resulting in the dragon barely getting away, but the means by which it survived was using its Commanding Presence to order party members to attack each other, which tends to be annoying to players.

 

[Reynard]

When they got to the final lair, they had to go up against both of those plus the blue dragon that normally lives there, and got TPK'd.

Seems like a cool, memorable result to me.