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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ShinHakkaider" data-source="post: 3419390" data-attributes="member: 9213">In the context presented I have to agree with some of the other posters in the thread a CR 14 Dragon is going to be nothing to a party of prepared adventurers. But my favorite action movies are the ones where the heroes have to usually fight through layer after layer of minions and threats before they get to the main bad guy. DIE HARD, ALIENS, LETHAL WEAPON all examples of how the heroes get roughed up before they meet the main villian and do battle. IMHO there are few things that a well prepared party with available splatbooks cant overcome (barring REALLY unlucky die rolls) one on one (or in this case one on four) the trick is the proper use of minions, terrain and misinformation. A blue dragon (if it's aware that the PC's are coming) should be laying traps for the PC's in it's terrain. Make the PC's go into the desert after that sucker. Have the dragon dig sandtraps (because all true dragons can burrow, and apparently living under the sand isnt that much of an issue for them, the PC's not so much...), use its wings to create sandstorms, blind and disorient the PC's. There's a good book by Fantasy Flight Games called Wildscape. I think it's written by some d00d named Mike Mearls, use the enviornmental effects in there against the PC's in coordination with the stuff in the Draconomicon. Even if the PC's survive the encounter they'll be thinking twice about confronting a dragon on it's own terrain. The thing about PC's is that you have to MAKE them respect thier adversaries. Don't hold back, unless youre one of those DM's that think that killing PC's is BAD and WRONG and the sign of a BAD DM. My thing is that this dragon has survived this long, he's faced other prepared adventurers before, he/she is smart and has lived a long time through a combination of guile and strength. If it knows that a group is coming after it (vis minions and/or other means) it's not going to willingly put itself in a position to be killed. Would the PCs do that? Nope. Remember Jaws? The shark leads the crew of the Orca out of the shallow water of the coast where it had been feeding and into the middle of the ocean onto HIS terrain and keeps up a constant campaign of harrasment until the crew begins to run out of options and are forced to into a situation where they actually have to go underwater to try and kill the shark (which ends pretty badly).  If the Dragon looks like it's going to get beat, have it pull away. Lead the PC's (who will be no doubt feeling confident, perhaps overly so) into a situation that will drain thier resources. At worst the PC's will realize what the dragon is doing and back off. The dragon will live to fight another day and will be familiar enough with the PC's as not to underestimate them a second time. There are like a million ways to make Dragon encounters entertaining, I tend to not treat them just like any other monster becasue they are not. Dungeons & DRAGONS d00d...</blockquote>

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