Angry at players...

[Jeremy]

While the shadows will be made powerless by a few deathwards, they are of small concern anyways with a cleric of any significant level around.

What you may want to do is retreat from all those short duration buffs and then make them pay. Or dispel them.

For more hints, check out Gfunk's story hour for how JollyDoc spiced up the encounter with a half dragon kir'lanan servitor and several of the kir'lanan cronies.

As for XP, did you award full XP for avoiding the encounter? If so, remind them of that and maybe give a minor bonus for the accomplishment, the tactics depending on how brutal it turns out, etc.

Also, play the dragon smart. Don't waste time hacking on the meat walls or allowing the meat walls to get full attacks in. Snatch Will up in your claws and fly away. Or grab the Marcus and run. One of the fun things about shadow dragons is their mobility with dimension door and such. Do not allow all of the party to get their attacks on the dragon each round. etc

I'll go grab a link to Gfunk's story.

 

[Jeremy]

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showpost.php?p=558539&postcount=13

Check it out.

 

[TiQuinn]

Did you tell them much about the dragon's companions? They know there are others with the dragons (reinforcements), but do they know their nature?

In this case, a wizard or a cleric with dispel magic can potentially ruin part of their grand plan. A shadowdancer with the shadow jump ability could also pose a threat, Wall of Force or no.

Also, if the dragon is linked to the Shadovar, killing the dragon could garner the PC's a lot of attention that they may not want. You could let them kill the dragon, and then let that action be the springboard for other encounters with the Shadovar, who may want to meet the PC's personally.

 

[robberbaron]

The moral to this story is, don't EVER tell the players anything they haven't found out for themselves, unless what ever it is will not be encountered again.
And even then, don't give away any tricks you want to use later.

So they bypassed the dragon, fine. It leaves you a well-noted NPC/monster for another time.

My group of players are ALWAYS bypassing encounters. Sometimes they skip gaily past a couple of pages of NPC interaction and plot development. You just put it back in the file for use another day.
I have also learned not to put too much effort into fully documenting encounters, leaving much of the information in my head, for use as and when required.

 

[robberbaron]

The moral to this story is, don't EVER tell the players anything they haven't found out for themselves, unless what ever it is will not be encountered again.
And even then, don't give away any tricks you want to use later.

So they bypassed the dragon, fine. It leaves you a well-noted NPC/monster for another time.

My group of players are ALWAYS bypassing encounters. Sometimes they skip gaily past a couple of pages of NPC interaction and plot development. You just put it back in the file for use another day.
I have also learned not to put too much effort into fully documenting encounters, leaving much of the information in my head, for use as and when required.

 

[Numion]

So out of game I have informed them now that there is plenty of adventure between them and the end fight, and that they will have opportunity to level several more times before facing her. Hopefully that will dissuade them from tangling with the Shadow Dragon out of the sole desire to farm XP and GP (which I think is one big reason why I am po'ed, thats just TACKY in my book).

Hmm .. I wouldn't really steer a group away from a good fight, be it for gold or whatever reasons. I guess fighting for just for exp is bad, but surely adventurers "in-game" wouldn't want to back away from a fight and a chance to kill an evil being?

Vanquishing evil should be incentive enough for adventurers!

I just don't get your pov here. They have in-game information about a dragon, and now they want to kill it. Whats the problem? That's what the adventuring thing is about, baby!

 

[Tortoise]

I think I'd have to make a few minor adjustments to liven things up a bit and then tweak tactics if it were me as the DM in the situation described.

Just like the PCs could get a potion of fire breath, perhaps the dragon has a potion or two that give it different minor breath weapons. Or maybe a magic item that changes or adds characteristics to its breath weapon.

What kinds of items (especially limited use items) does it have in its hoard that it could and likely would make use of?

Can it summon creatures to fight for it?

The problem characters should always have when going after a dragon is the problem of not knowing all of the dragon's resources and tactics. That factor will always make a dragon encounter dangerous even when the players know the info you've already given them.

 

[S'mon]

It was deleted, as it was full of stuff that isn't in the SRD and thus can't be posted. Email KaeYoss if you need more details.

It just can't be posted under the OGL or d20 system license, Piratecat. Those are contracts people choose to sign up to, not some general law of the land.

 

[Mystery Man]

Bah, forget all this fluffy philosophical talk and wipe the party out. You'll feel better, they'll realize that their not indestrucable and you'll all be better players for it.

Now go and kill!

 

[DiFier]

I just don't get your pov here. They have in-game information about a dragon, and now they want to kill it. Whats the problem? That's what the adventuring thing is about, baby!

They have in game info about A dragon. Do they know in game that it is a shadow dragon? or did they come to that conclusion becasue the DM told them. I think that is the problem. Shure the charachters could have come to that conclusion on their own. They are preparing for the dragon battle knowing what the DM told them about the dragon's abilities, which the charachter might not know.