6th level party vs a white dragon

[Narzul]

In my current dungeon crawl game that I (DM) play with my girlfriend(Player) I need to decide the age category of a female white dragon that the party will try to kill.

The party :

Human fighter using a greatsword
Elf sorceress
Dwarf cleric of Moradain
Human rogue

The story around this encounter...

They are currently on a very long trip to the mountain temple of Moradain where the dwarf cleric was trained. Long ago, a powerfull white dragon killed the cleric's both parents.

A couple of months ago, one of the child of this dragon has settled in a high moutain near the temple...

Since they can't climb the moutain, they will reach the dragon's lair by the tunnels of an ancient dwarven mine full of different critters..

 

[Knightcrawler]

I would go with a Young Adult or Adult dragon. Balance it with how many magic items and weapons the characters are carrying. Just be careful about AC, make sure that they have at least a 20% chance to hit the dragon.

Also you got to think about your players. How good or bad are they about figure things out, coming up with solutions to hard problems and have they ever faced a foe that is that much more powerful than them.

If your players are really good you might even be able to make the dragon a Mature Adult. But this is only if there very good. AC 28; AttkB +27; Fear DC 21; SR 20. There's a good chance of killing some of the characters. But if your looking for more than just one toe to toe battle go for the more powerful dragon, it will be more interesting in the long run.

 

[Pax]

As a rule of thumb, increase Dragon CR's by 25% to 50% of the listed value; dragons were grossly under-rated CR-wise. IMO anyway.

 

[Knightcrawler]

Hey, thats why I went more by what each age category could do rather than CR. If the DM doesn't make a dragon wily and cunning with multiple different plans then the dragon is just another monster and the CR matches. If your thinking of XP purposes the DM can always give more for good ideas or roleplaying.

 

[Ketjak]

In my current dungeon crawl game that I (DM) play with my girlfriend(Player) I need to decide the age category of a female white dragon that the party will try to kill.

The party :

Human fighter using a greatsword
Elf sorceress
Dwarf cleric of Moradain
Human rogue

The story around this encounter...

They are currently on a very long trip to the mountain temple of Moradain where the dwarf cleric was trained. Long ago, a powerfull white dragon killed the cleric's both parents.

A couple of months ago, one of the child of this dragon has settled in a high moutain near the temple...

Since they can't climb the moutain, they will reach the dragon's lair by the tunnels of an ancient dwarven mine full of different critters..

Um, it sort of depends more on their levels, no?

I mean, not to me, because I'm a right bastard. To other DMs, I mean.

- Ketjak

 

[Narzul]

Their level was in the topic's title (all 6th)

 

[Plane Sailing]

In my current dungeon crawl game that I (DM) play with my girlfriend(Player) I need to decide the age category of a female white dragon that the party will try to kill.

The party :

Human fighter using a greatsword
Elf sorceress
Dwarf cleric of Moradain
Human rogue

Don't go for more than a young adult. My party of 6x 6/7th level characters fought a young adult white and nearly lost two of the party (i.e. someone healed them just before they expired). Everyone was knackered and it was touch & go who would survive. And this was with me forgetting its magic resistance...

 

[hong]

_I_ would use a young adult (CR 7) but _you_ should use a juvenile (CR 5) since your girlfriend is playing.

 

[Narzul]

LOL

In fact, I want this game to be very tought...

Her fighter was cursed by a wererat, every characters have some permenanent ability damage (Allip and Wight) and in the last session, the sorceress was killed by a failed ref against a 9th-level flame strike.

At first, the dwarven cleric was heading to the temple to recover from the Allip encounter (He got 4 points of Wis damage) but now they need 3 Restorations and a Resurection !

What I tried with this game, is to learn her the game, so I try to have a really big diversity of critters and a fast progression.

Every adventure will have enough encounters to give the party a level and enough treasure to follow the chart in the DMG.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

In my Dragonstar Campaign, I try the same (though until last session, everybody fared quite well). It worked pretty well, though last session was really deadly - only three players (and thus characters) were present, a Rogue4, a Monk4 and a Bard4, and two of them (Rogue and Bard) were killed by a Druid6 and his Giant Constrictor companion. I was a bit surprised about the deadlyness of that encounter, since both enemies had a very low AC, and some well placed shots with a Laser or Blasterpistol could have severely injured the enemies...
(And the characters were at Full hp, and had some spells cast on them, that severely helped them - well, the NPCs were also properly prepared)

I am looking forward to my next session as a DM, were the rest of the group will hopefully kick serious butt and take a revenge...

Mustrum Ridcully