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[BADD] A clinic for DMing Dragons- long

This may already be posted.... but -

My personal fave for younger white dragons (with a spellcastong ability of at least 1)... make sure the have power attack and hover. Use ridiculous flying speed to strike like a bolt from the blue, charge right into their midst using True strike and power attack... once there, use the hover feat to send them all into blind confusion - wizards are a lot less likely to toast your wyrm with a fireball if they can't see it. Everyone's blinded, confused, and at least one person took a whack of damage from a charge. Head off with a hovering full attack on any that still stand next to you beloved beastie of the north, and the round after fly out to freeze any who escaped the blinding cloud of debris with a breath weapon. Repeat as necessary, and retreat. Dragons are old, an if White's don't kill within the first four rounds, i could easily see them just waltzing off to return in an hour or so, when the party's trying to recover. when you're 600 yrs old, you can afford to play with your food.
Hey - If fighting on an iced over lake, take a turn to break through the ice, and take advantage of the swim speed. Let the player's try some scary whack-a-mole.
Play white dragons as ferocious and FAST... no need to be brainy, just do enugh to through them completely off balance.... and given that you encounter whites in REALLY difficult terrain (deep snow/ ice/ frozen lakes), it'll take some time for the players to regroup... :D
 

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Yes... I must re-iterate.... for any dragon, true stike is a must-have combined with power attack..... just take 20 of your attack, add it too damage, compensate with true stike.... it becomes the most damaging 1st-level spell for a wyrm. It's not just breath you gotta fear - it's the bite.
And criticals are ugly beyond belief.
 

quexly: I feel the need to speak up as devil's advocate. You can only take 20 off your attack if you have 20 hit dice or more, as power attack is based on your BAB for its maximum effect. Other than that, great strategy. :)
 

James McMurray said:
quexly: I feel the need to speak up as devil's advocate. You can only take 20 off your attack if you have 20 hit dice or more, as power attack is based on your BAB for its maximum effect. Other than that, great strategy. :)
I was fully aware of that, ole' chap, but thanks anyway... White dragons can't cast 'till they're adults, and they have at least 18HD by that point.... Power attack, for a dragon, at any age is pretty nasty. An extra +13 to damage for a young red is nothing to scoff at. Especially for a first-level spell...

By the way, I'm dissapointed... or confused... I though Hover would be rated as a must-have feat for any dragon - nothing lets you see through that debris... a radius of 30 fett x age category's pretty spiffy.:D
 

I wasn't so much saying you didn't know it as I was just pointing it out to make sure noone forgot...

Hover is a great feat for dragons, but none of the dragon feats are really must-have feats. That's the great thing about them, you can go any direction. If you really wanted to, you could make adragon that didn't even need his wings to be a terror, with power attack, cleave, improved disarm, etc.
 

Baby Dragons

Thought I'd join in.

One thing a certain somebody needs to remember is that CR 1 dragons are babies. Not that long out of the shell. Dragon babies have dragon mommies. Among some species they have dragon daddies as well. A party comes in and starts beating on junior, guess who's gonna be ticked? That's right, the CR 9 parents.

And what about siblings? On the average you'll have 3 babies in the nest. Perhaps more. And even a white wyrmling can cause serious pain to a low level party.

Then add in an adult white mom. No, it don't pay to go after baby dragons.
 

The problem with that theory mythusmage is that WotC has already published at least two instances that I know of where wyrmling dragons were not in a nest or with their parents: Sunless Citadel and a Dungeon Magazine adventure. I think that gives a bit of precedence to the people who feel that dragons don't always rear their young.

Maybe the lawful ones do, but the chaotics don't? Both wyrmlings were from chaotc species: white and red.
 

Dragon Parenting

I'd say both got it wrong. I kinda got it wrong too, but only where young-adult dragons are concerned. Adult and older parents do care for their kids.

Of course, in my game you'd better believe dragons of any age stay around to make sure the youngins get a good start on life.
 

James McMurray said:
The problem with that theory mythusmage is that WotC has already published at least two instances that I know of where wyrmling dragons were not in a nest or with their parents: Sunless Citadel and a Dungeon Magazine adventure. I think that gives a bit of precedence to the people who feel that dragons don't always rear their young.

Maybe the lawful ones do, but the chaotics don't? Both wyrmlings were from chaotc species: white and red.

The real problem is the MM's description of small "slutches" of eggs left around the countryside. All I did IMC was to note that dragons are protective parents and young dragons are seldom seen.

The results? No infantacide, and no dragons until the party's high enough level to see their real power.
 

Gargoyle said:
lol. And the man himself drops in just as I post. Thanks for the great online tools, Charles, you've saved me a ton of work.

I'm glad to have helped. I actually put a few hours of work into my generators just today - more changes are coming...

As always, feel free to make suggestions, here or by private email (mwtools@thyle.net).
 

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