Anyone fought an Ancient Red?

[MasterGarrow05]

Was going to make a one shot for my players. First battle against an Ancient Red Dragon, plus a few other creatures (I have six players). I'm sitting here looking at near 1400 hit points and a 48 AC, and I'm trying to calculate a fighter's attack bonus. My best estimate: +30. Now I know, she's a Soldier type, and is supposed to be one of the most feared creatures in the world. And I know there are powers that PCs have that will boost their attack bonus or reduce the dragon's AC. But opening up the battle with a fighter needing a roll of 18 to hit this monstrocity seems ghastly difficult.

My question is, has anyone done this? How did it go? Did the encounter last an entire night or what? Are my estimations wrong?

 

[greyscale1]

fighter to hit = 15(lvl)+6(ench)+3(prof)+1(fighter)+6(abil)+2(flank, hopefully at least half the time)

thats 33, so you would hit on a 15.

By that level, a well constructed party should be giving each other +5 to hit ALL THE DAMN TIME. A level 1 warlord can possibly give everyone +5 to hit such a beast ALL ENCOUTNER.

That being said, as a one shot, this might be deadly. The players will have to be at the top of their game, teamwork included, and its hard to get good at teamwork without practice.

 

[Stalker0]

The bigger question is....how is the fighter going to hit it?

It has 12 fly (hover) and 4 squares of reach. Its not going to be anywhere near those landlubbing players!

 

[greyscale1]

Can the dragon do flybys? I am not sure as I dont have my book on me.

If it cant, then by that level the players with appropriate gear should hopefully be able to fly around a bit themselves.

Stalker0's point still stands though, tactical dragonflight will Eff up your meleefellows.

In order to win they must knock it prone then stunlock for great justice.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well they could use things besides normal Powers to trap the dragon somewhere that it can't fly around.

 

[El Mahdi]

Well, if you consider being target practice for an aerial killing machine as "fighting", then yes.

 

[Allister]

I would actually recommend against it.

Unless your players have become totally familiar with both their powers and teamwork, the players will be frustrated and disappointed as they get rolled by the dragon.

 

[MasterGarrow05]

Hmmm. First, I forgot the weapon proficiency bonus (damn),so that's not so bad.

Second, I have been sufficiently cautioned. The whole point behind this was that our group is still only 4th level, and a) we were curious about what the high levels looked like, and b) there are some frustrations on players' parts about whether this is the game for them, and I thought a 30th level outting might be the rush of excitement they needed to seal the deal. What I'm hearing is that I'm only going to add to frustration, so maybe I'll quit this plan and just hope this frustration works out by itself the slow and steady way.

Thanks people.

 

[SlyFlourish]

30th pregens

If you do this, please consider posting the pre-gens so other people can run battles like this. I'd love to do a "Best of the Best" one-shot where 30th level players battle the top guys. There are a lot of 30th folks in the Forgotten Realms campaign guide I'd like to see battled.

 

[Allister]

Hmmm. First, I forgot the weapon proficiency bonus (damn),so that's not so bad.

Second, I have been sufficiently cautioned. The whole point behind this was that our group is still only 4th level, and a) we were curious about what the high levels looked like, and b) there are some frustrations on players' parts about whether this is the game for them, and I thought a 30th level outting might be the rush of excitement they needed to seal the deal. What I'm hearing is that I'm only going to add to frustration, so maybe I'll quit this plan and just hope this frustration works out by itself the slow and steady way.

Thanks people.

The thing is, at high levels in 4E,you need to have a well-oiled machine against Solo threats unless you're going for the ORB-cheese.

Otherwise, most Solos will stomp you into the ground as you will be missing a lot and doing as much damage as you hould when you DO hit.