frankthedm said:
7 PCs?! Ok, more bodies are definitely needed. Maybe a small harem of young adult female dragons, none of which like each other all that much. The older dragon is basically conniving them and they infight for his favor. This means that there will be plenty of dragons to go around, each PC grouping gets their own dragon to fight if they get split up and IF the players get in over their heads, one rival dragon might decide the time is ripe to strike down a rival female. And if the older dragon's favored mate gets killed by her rival dragon, he might even kill her slayer in anger as he starts tearing into the PCs as befitting the chaotic evil nature of black dragons.
Lol, actually Frank, that is the encounter 3 lvls from now for these PC's, only it's vs. a Garg. White Dragon, his two huge Mates, and a bunch of Juveniles.
To Shin> Mr. Okada, your point about Expansion is why I'm using this combination, and it will be a Mature Adult Black Dragon/ Psy Warrior 3.
I have taken into consideration party resources, and believe that this will be a very challenging encounter, but not impossible, although the possibility of a TPK is there. And the Players know it.
There are many arguments, to be sure, that this is too easy (one creature) or too hard (CR17 v. 7 9th characters). However, I have proven to Players, (and to their poor, dead Characters), that as long as a monster has an Int score greater than, oh... 16-ish, a sub-CR encounter can be as lethal as the DM chooses.
The Party:
Warlock
1/2 Celestial Paladin
PsyWar/Scout
Fighter
Cleric
Sorceror (force mage)
Bard
The Threat:
Mature Adult Black Dragon PsyWar 3 whose feat whose feats are:
Max Breath
Hover
WingOver
Imp Manuervability
Power Dive
Clinging Breath
Power Attack
Tempest Breath
Imp. Init
Dire Charge
Whirlwind Tail Slap
Psionic Meditation
Ghost Attack