D&D (2024) Rogue's Been in an Awkward Place, And This Survey Might Be Our Last Chance to Let WotC Know.

[Yaarel]

The same absurdity you are trying to involve applies to a village militia taking on a dragon.

Heh, but the Dragon is the Size of a proverbial side of a barn.

To be fair, per the 2014 weapon stats, longbow archers shooting beyond 150 feet do incur a Disadvantge.

The Dragon is easier to hit. Likewise the Dragon too is attacking at Disadvantage, at best. The question is: can a Dragon even meaningfully aim beyond 600 feet?

The only difference is that the dragon seeing hundreds of villagers approaching their lair could just say "K, LOL" and fly off to go slaughter/destroy the undefended livestock crops and village structures.

That is a trope. Vengeful or malicious dragon destroying livestock and architecture.

IoW the very reason a dragon is a nation state level issue rather than village militia level nuisance is the dragon's ability to think. "Hundreds of villagers vrs a dragon" only works as a scenario if you take away the dragon's ability to think and reason at or above human levels.

A Dragon is an existential threat to a town. And. The local army can have methods to deal with such a threat.

They don't need to target individual villagers because you have a swarm of hundreds. The dragon only needs to injure incapacitate or kill enough to make poking their nose into the dragon's territory recognized as stupid idea

When they see a cannon ball dropping, the soldiers can literally step out of the way. (This is different from the speed shot from a cannon.)

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I like bounded accuracy as well, though 5e bounded it too much and it should have been +10 over 20 levels instead of 6. However, you don't name a game after something the town militia can take out. You might as well call the game Dungeons and Some Ogres.

A dragon shouldn't be vulnerable to a town militia like that. Hell, it should be able to take out a major city if old enough. They are the quintessential monster that warranted the game being named after it.

Actually the dragon does fairly well against town militias.
It just can't stand there and let them hit them for free.

But in the story and worldbuilding it really does make sense: towns were built to provide shelter against normally unbeatable foes. A town that can raise a 100 men strong militia with the right armament will make the dragon think twice about engaging.

A foe that could just kill any town if they like makes world building more difficult.

 

[Yaarel]

Plus. A Dragon dropping boulders might be humorous for one Combat Encounter.

But it would be an anticlimactic way to showcase the might of the archetype of a Dragon.

 

[Yaarel]

Why even are adventurers if a swarm of nobodies can take on THE premier monster?

A player character eventually becomes a superhero. An army of one.

 

[Vaalingrade]

A player character eventually becomes a superhero. An army of one.

That should never get to the point because the regular army is able to do their job.

 

[Yaarel]

That should never get to the point because the regular army is able to do their job.

Heh, a high tier party is three to ten armies, who can do devastating special ops.

 

[tetrasodium]

Heh, but the Dragon is the Size of a proverbial side of a barn.

size impacting AC strength & dex is a 3.5 mechanic. There is no reason that a dragon flying above bow range should pose any difficulty for the dragon. Aircraft & mountain climbers don't need oxygen until several thousand feet of elevation &hot air balloons/gliders have a much much higher ceiling.

• Why would the dragon with human or better mental capabilities feel they must engage the village militia on equal terms like some kind of klingon honor duel in this hypothetical scenario?
• Why does the dragon with human or better mental capabilities need to deal with the entire village millitia all at onx=ce rather than picking them off at a rate faster than they can repopulate & mature?
• Why does the dragon with human or better mental capabilities feel that they must do it now rather than a week from now when said group of brain donors turned starving refugees are fleeing from a destroyed village surrounded by destroyed crops & dead/missing livestock?
• Why does this village militia seem to be trained to seal team six level standards that allows it to reliably land enough double nat20's at max longbow range with disadvantage to worry a dragon?
• Is it standard for village militias to be madeup of brainwashed emotionless killers with no fear of death? Why is this village militia willing to fight this dragon to the last man?
• Why do PCs have a role in the world if townvillage militia is so incredibly capable?

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Actually the dragon does fairly well against town militias.
It just can't stand there and let them hit them for free.

But in the story and worldbuilding it really does make sense: towns were built to provide shelter against normally unbeatable foes. A town that can raise a 100 men strong militia with the right armament will make the dragon think twice about engaging.

A foe that could just kill any town if they like makes world building more difficult.

Prior to the invention of aircraft, our world's real world experience with defending a town was pretty simple. Settlements only ever had to resist attacks from landbound humans. Walls were very effective against smaller forces of humans. Armies had to travel, and siege engines had to be built and transported.

In D&D, a city wall means nothing to dragons, kaiju, aerial monsters and cavalry, or creatures that can burrow, like earth elementals used in siege warfare.

A town can only survive if they are not threatened by fantastic forces, or if they have their own fantastic or supernatural defenses. In a world of danger, the leaders would be people who actually have the power to protect the commonwealth, doing so themselves, or by being so respected that powerful heroes serve them loyally.

Without such defenses, an intelligent dragon can absolutely destroy just about any open air settlement they can can access. They can destroy the crops, water sources, trade, and besiege the town. They can make strafe attacks at night to kill wall defenders. They can get servants/allies to infiltrate, poison wells, or assassinate, or pretty much anything else.

If dragons had a habit of destroying humanoid settlements, dragon slayers would exist and hunt down those existential threats.

Cities without powerful defenders that can rival dragons are not threats to dragons. That is why dragons can, and sometimes do in the stories, accept tithes. It makes sense for some dragons to accept bribes. It would be worth trading some of your livestock to feed the local dragon. It's just business. Be useful to the dragon so it doesn't want to kill you. A very common local law could be... don't piss off the local dragon.

 

[Pauln6]

Dragon fear would rout most town militias and ordinary soldiers.

 

[Maxperson]

Heh. I see you are a 3e fan!

I am, but that's not relevant here! I'm also a fan of 5e.

I know you are talking about the Dragon requiring "plot protection", which is fine. But it depends on the Dragon, and the scenario.

No. Not plot protection. Nigh invulnerable dragon hide protection. You know, like dragons have!

For the "average" Dragon, sotospeak, a town army should be able to kill it if necessary for self defense.

Maybe the Ancient Gargantuans are a different story.

This is not correct. Dragons are not stupid. Making them unkillable by a town militia doesn't suddenly cause them to start eating towns. Dragons know that doing that sort of thing is what brings high level adventurer dragon hunters from all over, and that is actually dangerous to them.

Town defense is for things like some orcs, ogres or a some giants. Not dragons. As was mentioned, if any old town militia can take out dragons, the quintessential D&D monster, why do adventurers even exist?