draconomicon - tactics any good?

[Plane Sailing]

To anyone who has seen the Draconomicon - is the "dragon fighting tactics" section any good? How do they divide it up? Any surprises?

Also... have they given the pre-built ancient blues & reds some spells from the cleric list this time

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

The sections on "Running a Dragon Encounter" include:

- The Mechanics of Melee (how to use dragon attacks depending on size)
- Fighting on the Wing (Rules & Tactics for aerial combat)
- Using a Breath Weapon (area charts, when you notice your enemies have resistances)
- To Breathe or Not to Breathe? (Under which conditions breath weapons vs. melee weapons are preferred)
- Using Special Attack forms (how/when to use Crush & Tail Sweep)
- Dragons as Spellcasters (preferred dragon spells and tactics)

The section's about six pages total; it has pretty good general advice, though it doesn't have round-by-round tactics designed to humiliate your pet powergamer or anything like that. The "dragons as spellcasters" seciton could be expanded, and a section on making the most of the environment would make the tactics section more complete.

The sample blues & reds do have cleric spells (Heal is mentioned as a preferred spell. Wonder why? )

 

[diaglo]

are you sure he isn't talking about killing the dragons?

they have a section for pcs too. on tactics to use vs dragons.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Thanks Olgar - although the phrasing of my question wasn't great, it was "tactics that dragons can use" that I was thinking about.


So from the sound of it you think it is pretty good advice then? Does it include specific advice for different kinds of lairs?

Cheers

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

"Pretty Good Advice" depends on your experience running dragons -- great advice for the novice/intermediate DM, but the BADD folks here could write a primer on advanced dragon tactics that could add a lot to the book.

There's an example lair for each of the ten dragon types (along with a sample dragon of each type at each age level) -- pretty useful for running an off-the-cuff dragon encounter.

While I wouldn't using this book in every game, and there are certainly things you can add -- but what product can't be improved on? -- I'd have to say that based on overall quality and content I consider it one of my top three purchases after the core books.

 

[diaglo]

There's an example lair for each of the ten dragon types (along with a sample dragon of each type at each age level) -- pretty useful for running an off-the-cuff dragon encounter..

also as is the habit for the 3.11ed for workgroups books there are diagrams for miniature use when it comes to the size of dragons, their breath weapons, and the range of their attacks including each type of attack