6th level party vs a white dragon

[Kershek]

Don't necessarily go with the biggest and baddest dragon. Go with a Juvenile (CR 5) and use the environment to give the dragon an advantage.

Make his lair large and open (at least 100 feet high), with plenty of maneuverability. Cover the ground with a sheet of ice so that party members have to make a balance check (DC 8 or 10) every time they make a melee attack. Create plenty of natural rock formations and winding side chambers for the dragon to utilize during the fight for cover. Have him fly out of the chamber and make the party feel they've won. Then, as they're busy with looking at the loot, swoop back in with a breath weapon and give them hell. Give the dragon a few cure potions in its treasure pile, or stashed in the winding side chambers, so that he can fly over there and drink them during the fight (use fog cloud to disorient the party when doing this). Have him (ahead of time) create several icicles as big as stalactites in the ceiling. He can fly up and brush against them to rain them down on the party (think of an appropriate attack bonus in an area or just give them reflex saves for half damage).

In Hollywood fights, what makes the final battle interesting often is the environment. Use it to your advantage and it will be a memorable fight!

And since the party had a big disadvantage, give 150% or 200% of normal experience to the part for a job well done.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

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.

That sounds really nasty.


About Dragons and CR: IMHO, their underrated in CR because of their abilities alone. Add the fact that they are usually smart bastards, usually using well-considered tactics, and have quite a lot of time to choose their lair to emphasize their advantages and downplay their disadvantage, they're really killers. The only disadvantage a dragon really has is his vanity.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Don't forget that White dragons are not smart. A juvenile or young adult only has INT 8, and

Among the smallest and least intelligent of dragonkind, most white dragons are simply animalistic predators. Their faces express single minded ferocity rather than the shrewdness of their more powerful kin

Just as powerful dragons shouldn't be underplayed, it is equally important not to overplay lesser dragons. When one appeared in my campaign, it came down to the lowlands in a long, harsh winter - and was pleasantly surprised to find that most stuff was vulnerable to its cold breath (unlike the frost giants it tended to hide from in the mountain tops) and that led to hubris; it didn't really think that anything down here could really threaten it. making it less careful than it might have been (and thus giving the players a bit more of a chance against it).

Cheers

 

[Kershek]

I didn't realize the younger white dragons had such low intelligence. It wouldn't be smart enough to do most of the things I mentioned, then.

Of course, the MM only lists average stats, so you could bump up its intelligence if you wanted.

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

Of course your party doesn't HAVE to kill it Just smack it hard enough to know you mean business then ask to parley. Dragons love to listen to 2 things, the screams of the weak on the praise of their abilities. Perhaps, since this isn't the dragon that killed the clerics parents and the one that did is still alive; we can work to our mutual benefit? Say you help us kill that bleep-bastard of a killer and you you get 90% of the lair's treasure? Hopefully you know the Dragon will break his end of the bargain just hope its not smart enough to know you'll break yours

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Don't forget that White dragons are not smart. A juvenile or young adult only has INT 8

Yea, I forgot that the White are real "cognizantly sub-optimized creatures" (being politically correct, I of course don't call them dumbasses)

But they still got dragon power, and that means that their CR tends to be an understatement (though not as much as other dragons')