A Dragon Ally?

[Cpt_Micha]

Here's my take. Treat it as you would a Mount. Deduct the Dragons xp value from the encounter as you would if he were a mount.

That's probably the best way to do it (obviously the encounters are more difficult as well and worth abit more xp)

 

[Merkuri]

I think the dragon should be made a recurring character, but not a permanent member of the party. Let it stick with them for maybe one or two battles (which you pad with extra XP-worth of monsters to make up for it), then have it get wanderlust and take off. Every once and a while when the players least expect it have the dragon pop back in and participate again for a while before leaving.

Maybe give the PCs some way to get in contact with the dragon when they need it, but leave yourself a way to make the dragon unavailable if you think using it would make their job too easy. Maybe it has picked a new place for a lair and the PCs can visit whenever they want, but sometimes the dragon simply isn't there when they arrive. Of course, sometimes it IS there. If they can never use it when they want it then it becomes less fun.

Your goal should be to make the dragon entertaining and fun to have around, but not game-breaking or spotlight-hogging, and I think the best way to do that would be to make it a rarely available resource.

 

[SpydersWebbing]

Remind me to never ever say anything ever again. Jeez. Apparently I'm a walking bag of racism and never knew it.

Anyway, yeah, the end game's comin up. I wish I could have the campaign go for much longer (like 5 years), but it doesn't work that way unfortunately. We have till the second week of August....


Um, yeah, off topic. The dragon will definitely not be in the boss fights, but holding off hoards like you suggested. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I really appreciate them.

 

[Coffee]

Based on your description of the dragon, I would think that he (or she) would have an incredible curiosity about the world. It is probably a world that may see this curious dragon as a frightful menace. This lack of understanding of the world would lead to many of the interesting consequences that have already been mentioned.

I would think that this ignorant, out of date dragon would be fairly useless in combat or be just as much danger to the party as their foes. The dragon would also probably be too big to go most of the places that he party goes.

Interesting events could occur when this dragon meets other modern dragons of your world, particularly evil dragons.

The dragon may decide that he (or she) likes (or loves) one of the characters more than the others. Maybe this is the character that first offered food or contributed the most to the skill challenge. This dragon, particularly if it has an evil nature, may start scheming to isolate the favored character or do away with the others.

In the end, I would think that the dragon should become (at best) an NPC noncombat ally or patron that the party can occasionally turn to for some assistance or information rather than a combat pet. Maybe the dragon can fly the party somewhere in times of great need. The dragon may have artifacts or ancient books as part of its treasure horde that the characters can borrow or use for research. The dragon could represent the party as a diplomat to other dragons on occasion possibly.

I understand that you do not wish to punish the characters for successfully completing a skill challenge rather than solving the problem by combat. However, I do not see how you could allow a creature that is probably as powerful as all the characters put together to regularly assist in combat without ruining your game. The only exception that I can think of right off hand would be background or storytelling combat. For example, the dragon flies several passes breathing lightning on the front ramparts of the Frost Giant castle to distract the defenders while the party sneaks in a hidden tunnel in the back. This way the dragon is assisting the characters in their war, but not fighting thier battles for them.

Have fun with your dragon!

 

[Otterscrubber]

Wow, your adventures sound very creative and interesting. Depending on how you want to play the dragon of course. I don't think anything HAS to be evil just cuz it's a blue dragon, but I think dragons in general have strong urges not to share their pretty shinies. This would be an interesting roleplay if they want to stay on the good side of the beast that is helping them kick butt. Of course, a blue dragon might steal some of the thunder from the PCs and I think letting them have complete access/control over one would imbalance things in the game, but then if it works for your campaign, then it works for your campaign.

I like that the dragon is a bit unbalanced, cool that they have a big gun, but not one they can totally rely on.

 

[On Puget Sound]

At some point this dragon is going to meet another dragon, possibly even one of the opposite gender and same color type (mixed color dragons don't interbreed, do they? I think it odd that a blue dragon will cross with a human, but not with a red dragon). That might offer another way to write the dragon out of active combat, while leaving it around as a friend and informant, should you decide you need to.

 

[SpydersWebbing]

What I'm planning on doing for the moment is this: Give them one fight where the dragon fully participates,and scale the xp encounter for it. We're talking about a devil army with two war devils, a pit fiend, and a hired on balor and elementals. The dragon draws the fire of the elementals and the balors, leaving a manageable fight for the PCs. The dragon decides after that (understandibly) that this is just too much and won't fight with them anymore, flying off to discover what else there is to do in the world. It then comes back for the last fight, following them all the way into the Abyss to help them defeat Orcus, Prince of the Undead himself. At the cost of his life, of course.

 

[TheLordWinter]

What I'm planning on doing for the moment is this: Give them one fight where the dragon fully participates,and scale the xp encounter for it. We're talking about a devil army with two war devils, a pit fiend, and a hired on balor and elementals. The dragon draws the fire of the elementals and the balors, leaving a manageable fight for the PCs. The dragon decides after that (understandibly) that this is just too much and won't fight with them anymore, flying off to discover what else there is to do in the world. It then comes back for the last fight, following them all the way into the Abyss to help them defeat Orcus, Prince of the Undead himself. At the cost of his life, of course.

Sounds like quite the epic confrontation (pardon the pun!). My only thought is to maybe work the dragon in a little bit more. Perhaps instead of fighting in the final encounter though, the dragon makes the final encounter possible. Have your group fighting their way ever closer towards Orcus, their draconic companion having been driven off by monsters when they encounter an entire one of Orcus' undead legions waiting for them - perhaps the entire Exsanguinous XIII, an army of 6,000 or so vampires howling for blood and death.

As the characters become surrounded and things look grim, the dragon swoops down and grabs them and flies them over the army and directly towards Orcus' throne, where the Prince of the Undead strikes it down with his wand for its impudence. The characters then have an huge battle with Orcus over and around the body of their now dead friend, all the while seeing on the horizon an unstoppable army of vampires drawing closer.

Whatever you wind up doing with it, try to let the dragon serve as a prop or a set piece so that it doesn't become the star and leave the PCs with second billing.


Off-Topic:
Also please don't take the earlier comments on race and racism as any sort of personal attack - I certainly don't think you're a racist, it's merely an attempt to open up conversation about the history of some of the language we might take for granted without realizing it.

 

[renau1g]

Yeah, same feelings here Spyder. I used many phrases without realizing it, especially because relatives used it.

I think that using the dragon as a mount could be great fun, especially for a Paladin (ala Dragonlance) if you want some arial combat between now and the end game. I like the previous posters idea about it allowing the encounter to happen, additionally, instead of it being smote by Orcus, it could also hold the door into his lair (Not too familiar with him so not sure if he has a traditional "lair") against said armies, buying the heroes the time the need to defeat (or be defeated) by the demon prince.

 

[fallingmercury44]

Let them have some combat success with the dragon in tow. Then when it's loot distribution time the dragon assumes posession of all coins and anything magical. That's a very dragon-esque thing to do.

It creates quite a dilemma. Even though the dragon swipes all the loot, maybe it's worth it - at least sometimes.