AnotherGuy
Hero
This thread is about an idea inspired by my conversation with some of the posters playing indie games whereby the players are the only ones who roll attack rolls during combat (using Degrees of Success and Failure). Their opponent, a dragon, made auto successes with their LA or if the PC failed their hit roll they were also automatically hit.
I built in many ways to mitigate damage since this was supposed to be a challenge/test not a bloodbath.
Situation. The PCs were meeting with the Draconic Council from tRoT (The Rise of Tiamat) to convince them to ally with the Council of Waterdeep. I was using Mark Comforts DMsGuild product How to Roar and Pout like a Moody Dragon for guidance and inspiration. In any event the idea is the party meets with each metallic dragons separately and attempts to alter the dragon's attitude towards the party in an effort to gain their support (and their kin) in the attack against Tiamat and her forces.
So the meeting with the gold dragon, Protanther, went dismally. The failed skill challenge resulted in Protanther challenging them to a duel to see if the mortals were worthy enough for the dragons to follow them into battle or if the dragons should rather go at it alone. I designed the combat so that it played out mechanically on its own and I gave the PCs a document which spelt out how it would all work. Amongst the PCs there was an Artificer academic as well as a Wizard dracologist (Maccath the Crimson) so I was happy to share some of the details of the dragon which I thought there characters would know.
I have also included some of Protanther's dialogue and description of the beast from Mark Comfort's module.
The hidden combat triggers which existed, could have been assumed by an insightful player (based on dialogue) and those were:
To note dragon would not use its flight except to manuever around the combat via the Wing Buffet ability, obviously targeting those in order of preference. He very much engaged in melee as that was the challenge.
One important thing that was not on the PDF, additional attacks in the round by the same PC (except for bonus actions and a Haste attack) would progressively become harder to succeed on as the dragon would adapt and defend itself. Hence the Attack Table. The successes started at 22 as the dragon's AC was 22.
Given that Protanther's disposition was Unfriendly (3 categories away in attitude from Friendly), they had to either make 9 successful attacks or survive 3 rounds of combat.
I was using Level Up's stats for the dragon and the PCs were 15th level but 3 of the 4 PCs were very much depleted in resources with the elf PC had under 50 hit points.
Anyways it was a fun challenge for the table with movement playing a significant roll.
This kind of combat should definitely be tailor made for your group.
I built in many ways to mitigate damage since this was supposed to be a challenge/test not a bloodbath.
Situation. The PCs were meeting with the Draconic Council from tRoT (The Rise of Tiamat) to convince them to ally with the Council of Waterdeep. I was using Mark Comforts DMsGuild product How to Roar and Pout like a Moody Dragon for guidance and inspiration. In any event the idea is the party meets with each metallic dragons separately and attempts to alter the dragon's attitude towards the party in an effort to gain their support (and their kin) in the attack against Tiamat and her forces.
So the meeting with the gold dragon, Protanther, went dismally. The failed skill challenge resulted in Protanther challenging them to a duel to see if the mortals were worthy enough for the dragons to follow them into battle or if the dragons should rather go at it alone. I designed the combat so that it played out mechanically on its own and I gave the PCs a document which spelt out how it would all work. Amongst the PCs there was an Artificer academic as well as a Wizard dracologist (Maccath the Crimson) so I was happy to share some of the details of the dragon which I thought there characters would know.
I have also included some of Protanther's dialogue and description of the beast from Mark Comfort's module.
The hidden combat triggers which existed, could have been assumed by an insightful player (based on dialogue) and those were:
- Due to the history of the Dracorage, Protanther dislikes elves first, humans second, and thereafter everyone else is a free-for-all (die roll determines who he attacks). This means that the gold would go after the elf PC first (we only had 1) with its Legendary Attacks, if it could. Once the elf dropped it would target the human PC (we only had 1) before going for the rest.
- Protanther would only use its breath weapon on those who shied away from combat, as though they were not participating. Actions such as dodging, hiding or fleeing would fall into the non-particpating category and thus incur its breath weapon.
To note dragon would not use its flight except to manuever around the combat via the Wing Buffet ability, obviously targeting those in order of preference. He very much engaged in melee as that was the challenge.
One important thing that was not on the PDF, additional attacks in the round by the same PC (except for bonus actions and a Haste attack) would progressively become harder to succeed on as the dragon would adapt and defend itself. Hence the Attack Table. The successes started at 22 as the dragon's AC was 22.
Given that Protanther's disposition was Unfriendly (3 categories away in attitude from Friendly), they had to either make 9 successful attacks or survive 3 rounds of combat.
I was using Level Up's stats for the dragon and the PCs were 15th level but 3 of the 4 PCs were very much depleted in resources with the elf PC had under 50 hit points.
Anyways it was a fun challenge for the table with movement playing a significant roll.
This kind of combat should definitely be tailor made for your group.
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