D&D 4E 4E Dragons - Where's the beef?

[chaotix42]

So much for dragons being powerful.
I bet any normal +4 encounter would have resulted in an TPK.

Too bad, I wish I could take that bet. Like I said the party had almost all of their daily powers ready to go. A lot of the powers they used against the dragon would have been better applied to a group of monsters anyway (Wall of Fire, Burning Sphere, several paladin AoEs). The rogue could have used Knockout to greater effect too, keeping one big bad down while they focused on the rest.

Additionally, while he did combine the encounters into one to not allow them a short rest, it's hard to say how banged up they were.

Yeah, they were in OK shape. The day went like this: 13th lvl encounter, *short rest*, 14th lvl encounter + 17th lvl encounter. Day over.

The paladin & wizard were both bloodied, and the group had only used 1 Inspiring Word. When the dragon arrived he KOed the wizard, so the healing rush really kicked in there. And like I said, they ended up using lots & lots of resources in the fight just to stay conscious.

I must say though, that adamantine dragon inspires a terror in my meta-PC that no 4e dragon ever has!

 

[Doctor Proctor]

Yeah, now that you've explained the PC's resource usage and health prior to the Dragon, I'm not surprised they were able to win. They really weren't in that bad of shape. Two PC's bloodied isn't too bad off, since a single heal can restore at least 1/4 of their HP, up to possibly 1/2. I can see why it would be a HARD encounter, but not impossible.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

So much for dragons being powerful.
I bet any normal +4 encounter would have resulted in an TPK.

Not in my group - I basically need to run my party through a +4 simply to have them run through their healing triggers. That said, my 5 PCs include 2 leaders and a palladin. Last session I ran them through 2 such encounters back-to-back (with a short rest between), and I think only 1 daily was used - though the wizard did use 2 healing potions.

For the game where I play a PC, yeah, a +4 would likely be much tougher. However, that campaign is just 3 PCs, with a Warlock (me), a Fighter and a Cleric.

So, it really depends on the group and how much healing they have.