D&D 5E Green Dragon Lair

Obviously the green dragon doesn't live in a cavern, no! It lives in the thick, semi-interwoven canopy at the densest and oldest part of the great forest. The PCs can wander around for ages looking for it, certain that they're at the right point on the map until they finally realise the lair is UP. So they climb, wending their way along giant tree branches and scrabbling for purchase against thick vines. And snakes. Of course there are the ever-present snakes winding their way through the thick creepers, almost invisible in their mottled green and brown scales. Finally the PCs break through to the upper reaches. The blue sky opens up before them. As do the jaws of the great dragon.

They battle it across an uneven sea of green, never sure when they might misplace a foot and vanish downwards into the dark to cling fearfully at some branch and from there to hurry back to their comrades following the moving sounds of battle above. And even if they don't fall through the canopy, he dragon does - time and again vanishing down into the shadowed depths, becoming a moving cacophony of snapping branches and terrified birds taking flight only to burst up wings unfurling where the heroes least expect it or reach through the very branches on which they stand and yank them down inside to see it twined around the giant trunks, finding easy purchase with its claws. The plate armour the fighter wore in expectation of it being a blessing, instead makes it harder to prevent herself from falling. The firespells of the wizard ignite parts of the terrain and produce great clouds of black smoke from the green foliage burning. And the PCs learn what true terror is, facing the dragon between forest and sky.

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So in game terms, all you really need is an amorphous area for the canopy, an upper layer for the very tops (somewhere for archer PCs to climb and shoot from Legolas-style) and a lower layer and some weak areas for PCs to fall through and the dragon to erupt from. You could even just handle it abstractedly with rolls by players to avoid falling through and placing perilous wholes in the map where the dragon has erupted from. If a player plunges down a level or two, well they're going to have make some athletics rolls to get back up there. They might even get the odd spell off as the battle moves in and out of view above them but they'd best not stay down there too long lest they end up facing the dragon alone (or her minions).

Bonus points if during this battle the impossibly ancient treant titan they are fighting in the top of is roused from a few hundred years of sleep by the battle and sets off walking whilst they fight, causing everything to sway even more alarmingly than before.

A massive downed tree with multiple "side tunnels" and exits that its branches or roots. The PC's enter near the top of the tree and make their way through traps, sentient evil plants, poisonous fungi and other hazards until they reach the bole/base of the tree.

There the dragon waits surrounded by a pool of fungi, toxic pools of water and hanging (man-eating) vines...

Plaguescarred said:

Not long ago in my GREYHAWK campaign the party was tempted to go in the Gnarley Forest to find the lair of Chaustichlorinus, the green dragon that terrorize Verbobonc's region. They're south but heading soon there.

Apart from the typical cavern, i am looking for interesting suggestion for a green dragon lair, and possible regional effects if you think of one.

Thanks in advance!

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What level(s) are your PCs?

When I saw the picture, my first thought is giant overgrown sinkhole. Kind of cave-adjacent but with lots of light and green.

Something along the lines of

I love green dragons as described in the Monster Manual and I stay pretty true to the description. Green Dragons are smart, manipulative planners. To me, they would not be dumb monsters encountered in the forest that fight you until they are dead.

In my campaign, green drags play an important part in the political intrigue that the party has to deal with. So far they only encountered one in person. It was a young-adult male who laired in the border lands, far enough from civilization to avoid unwanted attention, but close enough to be able to gather intelligence.

His lair is a cave behind a waterfall. He has a main cave and then a small network of caves inhabited by kobolds who serve him--providing food, grooming, cleaning, and acting as lookouts and informants.

Upstream a ways from his cavern is dimond mine run by a large kobold community that serves him.

A nearby tribe of lizardmen provide muscle and protection to the kobolds (or, more accurately to the green dragon's interests).

Below the water fall is a large lake and on the other side of the lake is a ruined city, below which is a Yuan-ti city. The dragon/kobolds provide mined diamonds to the Yuan-ti who take a share and return a share as finished gems, works of art, and diamond dust.

Here is how the party discovered and approached it. They first were hired by Dwarven merchants to find out why the kobolds have stopped trading dimonds with the dwarves. Diamond dust is important for a number of industrial purposes for the dwarves and the supplies of diamond is drying up.

Two party members had infiltrated the kobold mines and followed a heavily guarded shipment (by barge) from the kobold mine to a cave behind a water fall. They watched the area for a couple days and saw one of the crates from the mines being lowered down the waterfall to a Yuan-ti barge that came from across the lake. The Yuan-ti take possession of it and connected a chest to be raised. As it was being lifted, the two party members used stealth and a little magic to cause the rope to break. The chest fell, smashed on the rocks below and the party saw it was full of finished gems and diamond-studded luxury items. They returned to inform the merchant.

Later in as a party of six, they returned, planning on stealling one of the shipments from the Yuan-ti barge. The sorcerer was underwater and used animate objects to make the check fall into the water and start moving to shore. Things seemed to be going well...until the green dragon came up from the under him in the lake and chased him to the shore edge.

Rather than engaging the party in battle, the dragon opened negotiations. In exchange for whatever information they could give him on topics he was interested in, along with a magic ring a party member had, he gave them a portion of the diamond dust that was in the shipment they were trying to steal. He promised that he would have other opportunities for the party if they were to willing to provide their services to him.

I thought this was a good lair and good encounter for a green dragon. The cavern is where he may go to to be groomed and to meet with his minions. But they can breath underwater. Perhaps that would be a safer or more comfortable place for him to sleep. Or at least it makes sense that he may keep watch on his treasure shipments from below, in the water, than from above, from a cave.

I think any green dragon lair would have perhaps a cave/cavern/dungeon for loot and minions, but would also have a sizable body of water like a lake, large river, maybe a moat, but nothing brackish like a swamp (that's black dragon habitat). It would also have a lot of forest. Either old growth forest that it protects for its selfish purposes, or perhaps it also has minions managing the forest for lumber.

Green dragons are my favorite Chromatic dragons to use as a DM.

Ruined elven tree settlement by a lake. Underneath the entire area runs a network of flooded tunnels with many outlets hidden in various locations. Some of the tunnels are designed to be collapsed so as to divide enemy invaders. On the surface, the dragon can try to use tree foliage for cover against ranged attacks; and/or try to lure combatants up into the branches (along old elven tree-paths) where it can knock them down with wing attacks.

Dragon lairs should be like onions - none more so than those of the scheming green.

IMO Green Dragons have been a really interesting monster ever since DragonLance when one controlled an elven nation (the Qualinesti iirc). Because of how comparatively easy it is to resist their breath weapon they have to use other techniques. The crucial elements to emphasise of a green dragon to differentiate it from another dragon are poison, plants and mind control.
Poison is tough to use in a fresh way (you can have poisonous snakes, snake swarms, a Wyvern or poisonous hydra servant, clouds of poisonous gas etc) and the players will likely have resistance or immunity. Let the players enjoy their win against the poison - this "victory" just makes them overconfident.
Plants, I'm more a fan of maybe a reskinned treant or shambling mound than the anthropomorphised vine blights etc. but there is plenty there - they should be like the aliens in Aliens, Appearing out of the surroundings. Trap plants like Venus fly traps, grasping vines that duplicate evards tentacles would work too (in a cloud of poisonous pollen or vapours would be good).

Mind control is really the key IMO. The dragon should have control "children of the corn" style of a nearby village of ostensibly good guys -elves, forest gnomes or humans. They should refer to the dragon with some creepy name like "mother" or "the essence" (The dragon can have lizardfolk too but the lizard brains aren't mind controlled they truly worship The Emerald One).

Also if the party meets a guide early on to take them through the outer dangers to the dragons lair (- and they should -say by rescuing a helpful and loveable oddball halfling and centaur team) just when they think they have defeated the villagers, resisted the poisonous beasts, hacked away the treacherous foliage, beaten the trusted servants and found somewhere to safely rest up the guides eyes should glaze over and should say something like "mother will be pleased" and they will realise that they have been lead into a trap, the halfling has swapped out their anti-toxin for water, the giant smooth barked trees beneath which they rest allow a dragon to freely perch and clamber above them while getting cover from missiles, they have been covered in glowing pollen duplicating a faerie fire, vines they were resting on are coming alive and that shape in the tree branches above has moved, unfurled its wings and is staring at into their eyes. In the distance they can hear the approach of the children of the corn...

On a game mechanic level for a green dragon I think I would give it some sort of way to do psychic damage a bit because the poison attacks will likely be easily defended against via resistance - and co-op the abilities from other editions and sources:
Lure : as a legendary action it can cause something to make an int wis or Cha save (your flavour choice), failure means they move 15' as directed by the dragon and take xd6 psychic damage
Delude: as a reaction the dragon can make a successful attack against it have targeted someone else of the dragons choice. The attacker gets a wisdom save to resist. ("You just lightning bolted me!" "I'm sorry I thought you were the dragon")
As a second reaction! Misty escape ability of the warlock of the archfey.
Poisonous aura: anyone who starts their turn within 25' of the dragon has to save or take some poison damage (just a few d6 con save for 1/2)
Mind poison: As a legendary action the beast meets the gaze of someone within 50' and they have to make an int save or they take a few d6 psychic damage and act as if poisoned for 1 minute - it's a mental effect so poison resistance or immunity doesn't help but charm resistance or immunity does. Get to reroll the save at the end of every turn to shake off the effect.

Lair actions
Cloud of pollen: as faerie fire + if start turn within the pollen cloud save or get poisoned condition for 1 round
Grasping vines terrain: area becomes like an evards black tentacles
Misdirection: 30' square area becomes confusing, int save on beginning of turn or will move in a random direction (1d8) at beginning of turn

Have fun.

Just a really big tree.

Wild Elves (grugarch?) would make perfect involuntary minions. They already hate outsiders, but are too weak to kill or drive him off. They would want someone to kill him, but couldn't accept aid from outsiders (even other elves). It could create some interesting RP situations, assuming the pcs don't just attack everything on sight.

I'll second plant monsters as actual minions, so long as they are neutral to evil, such as shambling mounds and vegipigmies (sp?).

not-so-newguy said:

Vegepygmie minions! How about Grungs?

They're both in the Volo's Guide to Monsters

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I'll have to look into those but they could be what i'm looking for, either as is or slightly refluffed as blighted plant creature or something.

Leatherhead said:

A massive hedge maze.
Regional effects include closing off and opening up new paths.

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I like the idea of a thicket maze dungeon a lot.

Edwin Suijkerbuijk said:

Banyan Trees / fig trees can have aireal roots that can grow back into themselves giving them a realy strange look.
A drageon would have plently of time to have these pruned and guided into growing into it's lair

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Humm that's wicked looking and could be incorporated into @Leatherhead 's maze idea perhaps.


Yan
D&D Playtester