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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 2047752" data-attributes="member: 15999">The band of PCs that comes a'knocking are not "mere" humans.  But they are not like those the dragon has fought, and the dragon doesn't know this.  The vast majority of those labeled "adventurers" are probably Warrior-class mercenaries, or more rarely PC-types of inferior level to the dragon's CR.  Why?  Because under any reasonable distribution of levels, most PC-classed NPCs are far below an adult dragon's CR, and NPCs don't have the "DM's Mercy" of only having a dragon placed in their path when they have some hope of a positive outcome.  In addition, dragons are so fast that they can retreat from just about anything on the rare occasion that something appears to be not a cakewalk (i.e., if nothing dies from the first breath weapon attack).  A CR 14 dragon won't sit cowering in its heavily fortified lair, because it has never run into anything in the world that could challenge it for the past few centuries.  Those 15th-level PCs who come knocking?  The dragon might assume they're just like every other group it's faced: the 100+ groups of 4th-10th level chumps who gave it its gold hoard in the first place.  Those groups represent the vast mass of "adventurers," outmatched and killed at an early age.  PCs (actual PCs, not NPC members of PC classes) are something else.  PCs are the ones who have a chance to defeat the vampire that has plagued the kingdom for a thousand years.  PCs are the ones who might return from the Keep of No Return.  "DM's Mercy" - the fact that PCs generally face things of an appropriate CR - is one reason why PCs are not just like everybody else.  Some DMs maintain that the monsters' CR is fixed, and what you encounter is not related to the party's level.  Most DMs do not do that, since it quickly leads to TPK.  (You might say "Not if the players are smart," but in truth the characters really shouldn't have any way of knowing when they're ready to take on the dragon.  The characters don't understand CR and don't have the Monster Manual, so the players have to trust the DM not to abuse their characters' ignorance.  PCs who have beaten a 9' ogre might logically think that a 10' hill giant is not much more of a challenge, even though the players know otherwise.)   And Numion, playing dragons as more reckless forces of nature is clearly still Dungeons & Dragons - just an older edition.  In B/E/C/M, a majority of dragons were not capable of speech or spellcasting.  This suggests that they were powerful beasts (as in "Reign of Fire") rather than schemers.  Nothing wrong with creating some dragons that fit that mold.   Many low-CR dragons are still fairly dim in 3.5E (though smarter than beasts), and dragons as a whole don't have much spell power relative to their CR.  Sitting in a pool of lava works for a red dragon, and sitting at the bottom of a swamp lake for a black dragon.  But elaborate traps just don't seem to fit with the dragon's image IMO.  That's something more appropriate to kobolds or goblins (who might indeed protect their dragon protector with traps).  A brilliant and cowardly dragon, or one with powerful enemies, might create a series of traps and hide in its lair.  The red dragon at war with the local fire giants would do so, or the dragon who annoyed a lich.   But your Smaug-type who has never been seriously challenged?</blockquote>

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