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(CR ratings) Could 6 level 6 characters survive and beat a Young Blue Dragon?
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<blockquote data-quote="DaveDash" data-source="post: 6629839" data-attributes="member: 6786202"><p>The recent Dragon fight that I ran felt satisfactory. The party felt challenged and they were a bit stressed half way through the fight, but only as a DM knows I never felt they were in serious danger. </p><p></p><p>Level 14 at the time - Lore Bard, Light Cleric, Abjurer Wizard, Vengeance Paladin.</p><p></p><p>The Dragon lived on a vertical cliff face which was partially in the plane of shadow. In this zone, fire spells fizzled and the Dragon could pop in and out of shadows as a bonus action. I used the Adult Red Dragon stats but converted it to a Shadow Dragon, and I used the spell casting variant. I gave it spells like Counterspell, Shield, Misty Step, etc (CR18).</p><p></p><p>The party had been scaling up the cliff face killing the Dragons's Kir-Lanan minions. They then happened upon its lair, as it skulked in and out of the deep pools of shadow. It was willing to parley at first, but to my surprise they actually decided to attack it.</p><p></p><p>The Paladin and Wizard stumbled upon it at first, the Paladin already had fly cast on him as they were scaling this cliff face. The Wizard misty stepped and got the hell out of dodge as quickly as he could as well (he had slippers of spider climbing), they all retreated into a L shaped cave before the Dragon could catch up to them, hiding around the bend. They were spread out, and I didn't really want to waste my breath weapon on only getting one of them, and having ran a few Dragons before I knew heading into that little cave would actually be suicide for the Dragon, so I waited outside.</p><p></p><p>The Cleric cast bless and basically hid, the Bard was concentrating on Fly and also basically hid. The Paladin drank a potion of Storm Giant strength and a potion of haste, and went out to do battle. The Wizard followed him out with Mirror Image (heh little did he know this doesn't work against Dragons), Blink, and other buffs.</p><p></p><p>Despite the fact that the Paladin could easily kill it in two rounds (~270hp, with all those buffs he can easily output 150DPR), it ended up being a very hard fight. The Wizard almost died (his Arcane Ward saved him) when I rolled breath weapon twice in a row, and the Paladin had to retreat for at least one Heal spell.</p><p></p><p>Ultimately though there wasn't a lot it could do. The Paladin can move faster than it, do more damage than it, and also heal. It was a nailbiting fight for the group, but they did rush in foolishly in the beginning. If they retreated (wind walk), prepared some better spells, and then came back in they probably would have cake walked it.</p><p></p><p>The moral of the story here is Dragons by themselves don't really stand up against a group unless they have the odds stacked heavily in their favor. But this is also true of most creatures - a party can punch WELL above its weight when it's got a good amount of resources left and not scared to blow them.</p><p></p><p>The next Dragon my group will come across is a Dracolich, but I have lots of Dragon Zombies in the fight too, and they all look terribly similar. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out. Even though the Dragon Zombies are bags of hit points and can't do much, it's going to freak them out until they figure out what's going on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DaveDash, post: 6629839, member: 6786202"] The recent Dragon fight that I ran felt satisfactory. The party felt challenged and they were a bit stressed half way through the fight, but only as a DM knows I never felt they were in serious danger. Level 14 at the time - Lore Bard, Light Cleric, Abjurer Wizard, Vengeance Paladin. The Dragon lived on a vertical cliff face which was partially in the plane of shadow. In this zone, fire spells fizzled and the Dragon could pop in and out of shadows as a bonus action. I used the Adult Red Dragon stats but converted it to a Shadow Dragon, and I used the spell casting variant. I gave it spells like Counterspell, Shield, Misty Step, etc (CR18). The party had been scaling up the cliff face killing the Dragons's Kir-Lanan minions. They then happened upon its lair, as it skulked in and out of the deep pools of shadow. It was willing to parley at first, but to my surprise they actually decided to attack it. The Paladin and Wizard stumbled upon it at first, the Paladin already had fly cast on him as they were scaling this cliff face. The Wizard misty stepped and got the hell out of dodge as quickly as he could as well (he had slippers of spider climbing), they all retreated into a L shaped cave before the Dragon could catch up to them, hiding around the bend. They were spread out, and I didn't really want to waste my breath weapon on only getting one of them, and having ran a few Dragons before I knew heading into that little cave would actually be suicide for the Dragon, so I waited outside. The Cleric cast bless and basically hid, the Bard was concentrating on Fly and also basically hid. The Paladin drank a potion of Storm Giant strength and a potion of haste, and went out to do battle. The Wizard followed him out with Mirror Image (heh little did he know this doesn't work against Dragons), Blink, and other buffs. Despite the fact that the Paladin could easily kill it in two rounds (~270hp, with all those buffs he can easily output 150DPR), it ended up being a very hard fight. The Wizard almost died (his Arcane Ward saved him) when I rolled breath weapon twice in a row, and the Paladin had to retreat for at least one Heal spell. Ultimately though there wasn't a lot it could do. The Paladin can move faster than it, do more damage than it, and also heal. It was a nailbiting fight for the group, but they did rush in foolishly in the beginning. If they retreated (wind walk), prepared some better spells, and then came back in they probably would have cake walked it. The moral of the story here is Dragons by themselves don't really stand up against a group unless they have the odds stacked heavily in their favor. But this is also true of most creatures - a party can punch WELL above its weight when it's got a good amount of resources left and not scared to blow them. The next Dragon my group will come across is a Dracolich, but I have lots of Dragon Zombies in the fight too, and they all look terribly similar. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out. Even though the Dragon Zombies are bags of hit points and can't do much, it's going to freak them out until they figure out what's going on. [/QUOTE]
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(CR ratings) Could 6 level 6 characters survive and beat a Young Blue Dragon?
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