Lord Vangarel
First Post
What level are the PCs? What races and classes and notable options do they have? An adult green dragon (CR 15) and two young green dragons (CR 8 each) have an adjusted XP value of 41,600 XP. By the numbers that's "Deadly" for up to four 18th level PCs (not that I think the numbers are all that accurate when it comes to actual play). What were the other elements of the scene - terrain, use of lair actions, monster goals, PC goals, etc.? Are you bringing your A-game when making choices for the monsters? Are you doing things that force the players off their standard operating procedure and onto their backup plan? How many fights did they get into that day prior to this scene?
Was the scene fun for both you and the players? Did it tell an exciting, memorable story? Your objections seem to be centered around the scene not lasting as long as you would like or not doing enough damage to the characters. What's your metric for determining when a scene is long enough or damaging enough?
Personally, I don't generally change monsters. But I do present scenes that involve more than a race to 0 hit points. This allows for even crummy monsters to present a challenge to players with optimized characters. I could suggest some ideas to you using the green dragon encounter as an example, but need some more information.
Ok some background information:
6 PC's, all 10th level.
1 Battlemaster Fighter with Great Weapon Fighting and Sharp Shooter so good at both melee and ranged. Has a sword that was part of the module that is very overpowered giving +2d6 damage per attack.
1 Life Cleric.
1 Barbarian. Rage is ridiculously good giving resistance on all damage but psychic making the character very difficult to hurt.
1 Warlock.
1 Evoker Wizard.
1 Paladin.
They also have Protection from Poison items meaning a successful save results in one quarter damage from the dragon's breath weapons.
Average hit points for them all come in around 90 with the highest and lowest about 25 either side. The paladin, fighter, and cleric all have 20 AC.