Best Anti-Dragon Tactics

[Plane Sailing]

Or in other words, what anti-Dragon tactics and/or spells does your PCs carry around with them on a daily basis?

As a player:

My Druid character normally carries Wall of Thorns - won't damage the dragon, but will probably slow him down a whole lot. He also has Resist Energy, and so would cast the appropriate one (hopefully!) at the earliest possible opportunity.

Other than that, he would probably follow his tried and true tactic of summoning animals and animal growthing them and hoping it all works out for the best

My Sorcerer character (that campaign is currently on holiday) would just use his sorcerer spells to the best of his ability - probably dispel magics first to strip off low level dragon protective magic and acid fog to restrict the dragons mobility, followed by lots of fireballs unless it appears to be immune to fire, in which case lots of magic missiles

In other words - if not specifically expecting a dragon, they'll make do with what they have to hand!

Cheers

 

[MarkB]

Second Round: Wizard delayed for Priestess/Necromancer Sorceress, who cast wall of fire around the dragon. Wizard cast a second quickened Manyjaws (using hero points), followed by a wall of force around the dragon. First manyjaws inflicts horrible damage on dragon (Wizard is Force Weaver from Path of Magic. He gets +4 to each damage die on force-based spells. Manyjaws for that Wizard does a minimum of 50 hp/round for 3 rounds per casting.)

Did the wizard have a feat or class feature allowing him to Concentrate as a move or free action? Manyjaws has a duration of "Concentration, up to 3 rounds", so the moment you don't spend a standard action concentrating on it, it blinks out. The first Manyjaws shouldn't have had time to inflict a second round's damage.

 

[Canaan]

So did you house rule Wall of Force? It only appears as a vertical wall, so it would have been useless for holding the dragon in place.

Uh, <shamefuly> I guess we all failed to notice the 3.5 change to Wall of Force last week That would have made a BIG difference!

Which is absolutely fine. I was just suggesting that if one is playing a high-powered campaign, the dragon (or anything else) needs to be powered up too.

Yeah, the DM does power up his BBEG most of the time. This dragon just wasn't. I suppose he was letting us off easy

 

[Plane Sailing]

Preparation is key! Our 12th level party recently massacred a Very Old Green Dragon as follows:

I'm tempted to make a spoof post like

"Our 12th level party recently massacred a very old green dragon as follows:

Our wizard cast an empowered fireball and had a feat which gave +3 damage per die to his fireball spells and was a member of a dragonbane prestige class which gave an extra +6 damage per die and automatically bypasses his spell resistance. We C00k3d his g00s3".

When I DM I'm very strict about what stuff from supplements I allow into the game, because of the horrible potential for mad synergies to crop up. I know that other DMs are happy to run 'anything goes' campaigns, and that is fine, but my antenna would have been wiggling at the Force Weaver as presented here - just with magic missiles alone how much damage would a force weaver do with 'empowered mm + quickened mm" each round? Would that be 91 or so points of force damage each round?

Cheers

 

[The Forsaken One]

Wingbind, lower spellresistance, chains of vengeance and howling chains of fate make dragons cry T_T.

 

[Tyler Durden]

As people have pointed out, dragons are really tough enemies any way you cut it, so there isn't any objectively easy way to fight them, assuming the DM has some idea of what they are doing.

That said, if you do get a chance to go on the offensive with a dragon, it's best to focus on their weaknesses, namely the low dexterity score. Using Assay Resistance followed by Lahm's Finger Darts (BoVD) or Shivering Touch (FB), preferably with a rod of empower or something like that, can incapacitate most dragons.

Other good tactics include giving the dragon all your valuable possessions and running like hell...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Lower the dragons maneuverability: Use Tanglefoot Bags or Nets to slow it down.
Alternatively, improve your own maneuverability - flight or speed increases might prove very useful.

Beyond that, I don't have much advice to offer.

 

[darthkilmor]

Other good tactics include giving the dragon all your valuable possessions and running like hell...

PC's: "Hey mr dragon, dont eat us, here's 4,000gp and a cool statue, we'll be by next month with more, btw thanks again for not eating us. and a cow, we'll bring a cow next time too."
Dragon: "k thx hurry up before i eat you"
<repeat 3-4 times>
PC's: "Hey mr dragon we can't give you any money this month, these other mean ol' guys beat us up and stole it <describe some of the PC's enemies they can't beat/ think could kill said dragon>"
Dragon: "well lemme go kill them and get all that phat loot!"
<one dead dragon later>
PC's looting the dragon's lair: "See, isnt this better than trying to work for money?"


or alternatively, run run run !

 

[Canaan]

Did the wizard have a feat or class feature allowing him to Concentrate as a move or free action? Manyjaws has a duration of "Concentration, up to 3 rounds", so the moment you don't spend a standard action concentrating on it, it blinks out. The first Manyjaws shouldn't have had time to inflict a second round's damage.

No. We use a variant rule from a supplement that uses a concentration skill check to keep concentrating while casting another spell.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Let's take a peek from the POV of the dragon.

The dragon is doing well...
--If it can isolate a subset of the party. It is physically overpowering to just 1 or 2 PCs.
--If Fear can temporarily nullify some of the party's assets.
--If it can hit an unprotected group of the party with its breath weapon. (A party with the right energy protections can just suck it up without blinking.)
--If it can unload a full attack, but not necessarily if it is going to have to eat multiple full attacks (or the equivalent) in return.
--If it can gain even a temporary state of magic superiority. That means choosing the time and place of combat and buffing up accordingly. That also means casting spells like Charm or Suggestion against a target while (VERY IMPORTANT) it will not face retribution form the party spellcasters. Do not attempt to compete in a spellcasting contest with real professionals.
--If it can use its high mobility.
--If it can use its immense size and strength to snatch a party member and pull him to where he can be casually eaten.
--If it can use LOS disrupting effects to hinder the party spellcasters.
--If it can use LOS disrupting effects with Blindsense/Blindsight to gain tactical advantage

Therefore the Party wants:
--Not let the dragon do any of the above.
--Use basic good tactics: Keep together, give the fighter/archers more full attacks than the draon, let the spellcasters do their thing.

We recently had a dragon kill. We were fighting the Frost Giants in ye olde G2. A big White Dragon ambushed us during our retreat from a sortie. Caught our fighters in a Obscuring Mist and was thrashing them pretty good. Cleric brings down the Obscuring Mist. Bard casts Hold Monster. Burns through the Spell Resistance. Dragon rolls Save: 1. Paladin does the CdG. Scratch one dragon.