[BADD] My players threw down the gauntlet!!

[jdavis]

Don't go with the TPK have the dragon let them off the hook after he has beaten them, it makes it all the more down to earth. After a sound thrashing, have the monster laugh and fly away, thus allowing for a recuring encounter. You have three PC's and they want three Wyrm's, man that's nuts. Yea they might be able to beat them, in a closet. Put them on a mountain pass, protect the dragon from the fire attacks to come and pound them from the air with spells and breath weapons. Oh and just in case the dragon gets some bad roles, keep a suprise plan just in case. (Example: the rider has a Staff of Life, when the dragon gets too injured they fly around the mountain and come back fresh, that's a tough one for characters to figure out.)

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Don't go with the TPK have the dragon let them off the hook after he has beaten them, it makes it all the more down to earth. After a sound thrashing, have the monster laugh and fly away, thus allowing for a recuring encounter.

Yes, and when they meet it again...EPIC DRAGON! BUAHAAHAHAHAHA!!

 

[Inez Hull]

Have the PC's track down the Dragon and encounter it in it's lair - a great ice cave. Unknown to the PC's it has a secret cave accessable only by dimension door which has about 30' of ice between it and the main cave. However, the dragon has access to a ring of mindshielding to protect it from scrying and has a custom spell 'icevision' which allows it to look through ice. When it knows the PC's are approaching it 'ports into its hidey hole and buffs up. Using its icevision spell it watches the party through the ice walls until they are in an ideal position to be ambushed. It then 'ports into the cave and casts a greater dispelling - give it a scroll or two. BBEG's always get dispelled first round by the PC's to good effect but PC's are often surprised when they get the same tactics back at them.

The other alternative is have your dragon accept that it will inevitably get it's buffs dispelled and instead start the combat with an antimagic field up to negate all the parties spell power.

It's lair should have plenty of booby traps set up to spring on the party during a fight like stalagmites and cave ins. Hey, if ewoks can use booby traps to great effect then dragons certainly can.

 

[Malin Genie]

Yep, the weak caster level is going to be a problem, with a greater dispelling the dragon will be unbuffed, and its dispels are very unlikely (if possible at all) to work on the party's buffs, as mentioned above.

If your players have any clue, then the dragon is also going to be dimensionally anchored, thus a physical escape route is a must.

I agree with the lair preparations idea - one that uses a non-cold element would be good given that the players are likely to have protected themselves against cold but not necessarily other elements. Rockslides/rockfalls (see the natural hazards section of the DMG) are particularly nasty, as of course is lava.

A lava source beneath an icy cave? The entire area is steamy and slick (concealment and Balance checks to move,) and with a soften earth or earthquake or summoning earth elementals to destroy the floor the party could be forced to confront the possibility of being dumped in 20d6-per-round lava....

How about trapping the characters underwater? If they have to negotiate an underwater cavern, the dragon can seal the by freezing, using his breath weapon to deepen the ice every 1d4 rounds - even with water breathing or similar they have to find a way out - and cold subdual damage is dealt every minute (with even a single point of cold subdual rendering characters fatigued) to strip down the resist and protection from colds...

 

[Endur]

Why Spell Penetration and Improved Spell Penetration?

My best guess is that as a level 11 caster, if the Dragon needs to beat SR, he probably won't.

Instead, I'd take the Snatch feat. Although the automatic damage requires the three or four size difference, the improved grab portion of snatch doesn't require the size differential. Which means any hit is an improved grab.

And maybe something other feat, like Quicken Spell Like Ability.

 

[Dagger75]

The Rider

Here is the rider of the dragon. I made him for ride by attacks and charging while on the dragon

Jarl Myger Icecrown

10th Level Frost Giant Fighter

Str 30
Dex 9
Con 22
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 11

HD 14d8 +84 10d10+60 Hit Points 340

AC: 26 (-1 Dex, +5 Breastplate, +9 Natural +3 Enhancment)
Breast Plate of Minor Fortification +3

Spd 30ft
Face/Reach 5x5/ 10ft
BAB: +19/+14/+9/+4

Saves: Fort 26 Ref 10 Wil 13
Cloak of resistance +3, Luckstone

Feats
Cleave, Great Cleave, Power Attack, Sunder, Improved Init, Mounted Combat, Ride By Attack, Spirited Charge, Blind Fighting, WF Greataxe, WS Greataxe, Improved Crit Greataxe, Iron Will, Improved Crit Heavey Lance

Equipment: Cloak of restance +3, Luckstone, Ring of Major Fire Resistance, Potion of Haste.

Weapons
Huge IcyBurst Greataxe +3

Huge Heavey Lance of Wounding +2

 

[Numion]

As for snatch, per the rules the dragon can only snatch up creatures 4 sizes smaller than it.

Yes for a claw. It can however snatch Medium creatures (three sizes smaller) with it's Bite attack. Not too bad. (This is from the MM II version of Snatch feat).

For the gargantuan white wyrn this only means small creatures. Will not help here. I don't know it I am looking for a TPK, definitly a humbling experience. As for the rider, he is going to be a lance charging monstrosity.

Remember to set the rider with Spirited Charge feat. Triple damage for a lance charge should do them in! (Double for a lance while charging, double again for the feat! )

Happy hunting!

edit: uh oh, you had already posted the rider. Good job!

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I figure a great wyrm should be able to use anti-magic field to kill just about anything.

Add a couple of saddlebags full of big rocks for the giant, then hover nearby while he pounds the crap out of them. Tanglefoot is fun, too.

Keep circling higher and higher during the fight. If anybody flies up near you, you can snatch em out of the air and chew on 'em a while.

Hmm... If they fly within range of the anti-magic, and their flight cuts out, can the dragon curl up his wings and fall right along with them, keeping them in the anti-magic, then pull out of his dive about... oh, 10' above the ground? That would dandy.


Wulf

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

If you're going for utter humiliation, you should drop sunder in favor of Power Crit: Heavy Lance.

Even if it's only once/day (2d6+13)x5+1d6+2d10 (cold)* averages out to 115 points of damage.

Considering that your rider starts out a +34 to hit (+19 BAB, +10 str, +2 enhancement, +2 charge, +1 luck, you can probably drop 9 points into power attack for an average of 160 points of damage. If the dragon casts an empowered bull's strength on its rider before the battle (average 5 points of strength), the giant can power attack for 2 more and deal an average damage of 200 at +25 to hit.

And what's worse, the giant can then cleave into another party member. . . .

Of course, if you wanted to be truly evil, you could drop a few fighter levels for Blackguard levels and make the dragon his bonded servant. That way, they could share spells which would make them even more deadly (since the giant could benefit from the dragon's personal range spells).

 

[Victim]

I figure a great wyrm should be able to use anti-magic field to kill just about anything.

Add a couple of saddlebags full of big rocks for the giant, then hover nearby while he pounds the crap out of them. Tanglefoot is fun, too.

Keep circling higher and higher during the fight. If anybody flies up near you, you can snatch em out of the air and chew on 'em a while.

Hmm... If they fly within range of the anti-magic, and their flight cuts out, can the dragon curl up his wings and fall right along with them, keeping them in the anti-magic, then pull out of his dive about... oh, 10' above the ground? That would dandy.


Wulf

A Great Wyrm can't fit in an AMF. All it would do is suppress it's own effects. Even a 9th level 3x Enlarged AMF would be of limited use.