DMG Adventure and Final Fight

[Goonalan]

My guys (I'm the DM) put the dragon down in three rounds, I changed the stats on the beast to reflect the MM version, this was their fifth session of 4e but only their second with their characters, they'd been using the Pre-gens from KOTS previously but fell out of love with them and the adventure. The dragon managed two hits in the entire fracas, even spending his action point he still missed, I was gutted as I thought the fight would take them right to the wire. Having said that three of the players rolled "20", we use RPTools so I witnessed the rolls, in the final round of combat they reduced the thing from 120 HP to -1, one player crit for something like 42 damage. They had all their daily's to use as they had a tough time with the Wyrmpriest and a Kobold Patrol that I added to the mix, they'd run through a hefty encounter before arriving at the Kobold Hall, still three rounds... I've been bitching about it ever since to them.

 

[Goonalan]

My guys (I'm the DM) put the dragon down in three rounds, I changed the stats on the beast to reflect the MM version, this was their fifth session of 4e but only their second with their characters, they'd been using the Pre-gens from KOTS previously but fell out of love with them and the adventure. The dragon managed two hits in the entire fracas, even spending his action point he still missed, I was gutted as I thought the fight would take them right to the wire. Having said that three of the players rolled "20", we use RPTools so I witnessed the rolls, in the final round of combat they reduced the thing from 120 HP to -1, one player crit for something like 42 damage. They had all their daily's to use as they had a tough time with the Wyrmpriest and a Kobold Patrol that I added to the mix, they'd run through a hefty encounter before arriving at the Kobold Hall, still three rounds... I've been bitching about it ever since to them.

I figure they got lucky, afterwards all i could hear on Skype was them giggling and repeating "... a dragon, at first level...", they were amazed- I'll get 'em just you wait and see.

 

[Keenath]

The "Big Boss" fight before the dragon is actually tougher than the dragon itself. I suppose you must've just had bad luck, because my group of four was pressed, but not unduly so. I think they wound up using about two surges apiece.

They had rested before the Big Boss fight, and two of the four used their daily power in that previous battle.

If you go in with few surges and no dailies, yeah, that's a tough fight. If you go in relatively rested, no, it's not a big deal. The fact that it's a solo doesn't make it harder than a normal level 3 battle, and there are lots of level 3 battles in Kobold Hall.

 

[nittanytbone]

I think the lack of a striker in the OP's group may have hurt. I've found in actual play that encounters go pretty easily if the party takes a mindset of supporting the striker as the number one priority. The striker dishes out much more damage than anyone else, so if the defenders are being "sticky" and keeping him from getting hit while providing flanking buddies, the leader keeps him alive, and the controller handles the mobs/applies status conditions, then the striker will drop foes in quick order.

 

[Khime]

The "Big Boss" fight before the dragon is actually tougher than the dragon itself. I suppose you must've just had bad luck, because my group of four was pressed, but not unduly so. I think they wound up using about two surges apiece.

Two surges apiece? Just curious, but did this group have 2 leaders? I can see everyone taking their Second Wind to use up one surge apiece, but the second one for each player is kinda hard to pull off (unless the leader had high enough Wis to use his healing 4 times...)

 

[inati]

Two defenders, two leaders, and a controller. You just don't have enough DPR (damage per round) to effectively kill the sucker. Not impossible by any means, but it would be a lot easier if you had at least one if not two strikers in the group.

 

[Hedgemage]

Human Wizard
Dwarf Fighter (optimized for being a damage sponge)
Elf Ranger, archer
Dwarf Lazer Cleric
Eladrin Tactical Warlord

Our DM telegraphed that the fight would be major, so we were at nearly 100% power when we went in, and had drawn up a basic plan which was for everyone to use Aid Another to make sure that the Warlord could hit with Lead the Attack. After that, everyone had the +5 to hit and it went fairly smoothly. The Wizard did die, though.

 

[juggler434]

My group didn't seem to have too much trouble, although they took an extended rest before the fight, so that might have a lot to do with it.

They were using the KotS characters.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

My group: Fighter, Rogue, Warlock, Warlord, Wizard.

After the first two rounds, the defender was down and dying (hit by the breath weapon and hit with two claws), the rogue and warlord were stunned in terror, and only the wizard and warlock were left to fight it.
The warlock put on a decenbt show, dancing round the room and hiding, while zapping it. But once the dragon put the wizard down, about three rounds later, and the defender had failed three death saves, and neither the rogue or warlord had broken out of stun*, the warlock decided to flee.

At one point, a total of 13 saving throws had been made by the group, and only two succeeded. Unfortunately these were the fighters saves aagainst stun and weakened, made while he was unconscious and dying. He didn't succeed the death saves...

So the warlock fled, but was caught in the corridor and the dragon grabbed him.
At this point the warlord had just recovered from stun, and charged the drago hitting it. This took the dragon to bloodied (the warlock had done most of the 119 points it had taken so far). I'd decided before the combat that the dragon was a coward and would flee if bloodied, and I'd modified the cave (adding tow mounds of snow that hid tunnels it could escape through), so it ran off avoiding them. (I also forgot about its free breath weapon recharge at this point.)

The two dead guys get resurrected (there was a frozen cleric of bahamut in the chamber who had been hunting the dragon, and he could have helped during the fight if they got to his body, but no-one really had the chance to do so; anyway this cleric raised the dead guys in response for a promise to fulfil his quest, and then he was able to die peacefully).

So, now the players dug throughy the tunnels, for a rematch with the dragon.
It had spent one healing surge, removing half the damage inflicted on it, and laid a trap for them (a mound of snow that it's bloody tracks led up to, so they'd all be niceles clustered around it when it leapt from ambush.

But the rogue finally made one good roll, and spotted the trap before they walked into it, and they spring an ambush of their own, pretending to walk into it.
As the dragon leapt out they unloaded into it, and during one round did over a 100 points of damage. It's breath weapon and frightening presence were less effective (each affecting a different two of the team), and then couldn't escape the fighter and get a decent distance away, so it was soon taken out.

(And I forgot again to use the breath weapon when bloodied. I'll remember for the next dragon.)

So my conclusion: this is a very swingy encounter. If you have a bit of bad luck early on, you can then be slaughtered before you have a chance to recover. If you have good luck early on, the dragon can be taken out with a bit of effort but quite speedily.
Last night, my group experienced both of those.