blackshirt5
First Post
Of topic, is that your cat MarauderX? He looks absolutely psychotic. I may have to use that picture in my case of People v. El Gatos Diablos to prove that yes, Felines truly are psychotic.
Dragons, Dragon Lairs, And Defenses
- Thread starter SHARK
- Start date
sword-dancer
Explorer
Hello SHARK
Dragon Hoards to small?
1 Why should a dragon hoard his money and not use it, to buy a merchants house and call it Saeder Krupp?
Yes why shouldn`t he use it?
Buying things or lore/knowlege/henchmen etc with it
Or what would a dragon really like to own?
Defence of a dragons lair
Would a part of an kingdoms armed forces be enough?
Since this dragon is the ruler/king of this human kingdom since he gives a dying man, the king, a promise?
Or a dragon who is married, with child
, with the crownprincess of a kingdom, who guards a part of the kingdoms border.
Dragon Hoards to small?
1 Why should a dragon hoard his money and not use it, to buy a merchants house and call it Saeder Krupp?
Yes why shouldn`t he use it?
Buying things or lore/knowlege/henchmen etc with it
Or what would a dragon really like to own?
Defence of a dragons lair
Would a part of an kingdoms armed forces be enough?
Since this dragon is the ruler/king of this human kingdom since he gives a dying man, the king, a promise?
Or a dragon who is married, with child
, with the crownprincess of a kingdom, who guards a part of the kingdoms border.
Skarp Hedin
First Post
Well, in my campaign, dragons aren't intelligent. Well, Int 2 or so. Some might qualify for 3, the old smart ones.
So they don't really defend their lairs, nor do they have non-incidental treasure (killed and ate some guy, the guy's stuff is still laying around, etc).
If I was doing intelligent dragons, hoof. I dunno.. lots of followers, and I'd have me some children that weren't strong enough to be a threat, but weren't weak enough to be useless.
I'd also put my lair at somewhere almost totally inaccessable, and if I had any magic powers that'd let me get into somewhere that other people couldn't follow (i.e., gaseous form, teleport, whatever), I'd make heavy use of those.
Yeah.. the treasure.. it's in a big room accessed only by a network of tiny cracks the dragon uses while gaseous...
So they don't really defend their lairs, nor do they have non-incidental treasure (killed and ate some guy, the guy's stuff is still laying around, etc).
If I was doing intelligent dragons, hoof. I dunno.. lots of followers, and I'd have me some children that weren't strong enough to be a threat, but weren't weak enough to be useless.
I'd also put my lair at somewhere almost totally inaccessable, and if I had any magic powers that'd let me get into somewhere that other people couldn't follow (i.e., gaseous form, teleport, whatever), I'd make heavy use of those.
Yeah.. the treasure.. it's in a big room accessed only by a network of tiny cracks the dragon uses while gaseous...
Eben
First Post
This issue depends on what Dragons are in your campaign world.
1. Major powers. Dragons can be a strong part of the political landscape in a campaign world. Goals could go from anything from world domination to the accumulation of knowledge and power to steer the rest of the world. Think Shadowrun and think of the Dragon Lords in Shadow World (a setting for Rolemaster, not sure if this setting is widely know or even liked.) These Dragons would have quite elaborate defences, natural and magical. The Shadow world Dragon I remember from the top of my head has a great fortress/lair in a northern wasteland with quite some volcanic activity and it has a volcanic plasma stream for a moat. This kind of rules out the possibility of entering though the front door.
Below the lair is a huge carnous system that functions as a massive breeding pit for orks (they have a different name in the setting, but what's in a name? That which we call a goblinoid, by any other name would smell as foul.) To get from the caverns into the fortress you have to get past two greater spiders. I don't know what 3e has done for these, but think Shelob and above when you're playing Rolemastes: guick badass fighters with extensive mind control and illusion abilities.
2. Tolkien dragons. Alignment: selfish-evil. These dragons live in a world in which there are not so many things that can harm them. They are bred by evil for the sole purpose of being evil. So lying inside a moutain on a pile of gold (they obviously have a different definition fo comfort than we have) is sheer arrogance. And why worry if the worst that can come up is a halfling with a dagger and a bunch of deadbeat homless dwarves? In the truely epic sense their arrogance is their undoing.
3. Monsters. These dragons do not even have the intelligce to think up elaborate defences. They go by instinct.
I believe SHARK is refering to the first type of dragons. Other options might be lairs in frozen wastelands tortured by blizzards and marauding frost giants. (In the campaign I currently play in, we're trying to reach this one.) Islands surrounded by dangerous reefs and currents, swamps, moutain tops, ... If I were a dragon, I'dd look out to make the most of natural defences and settle myself on a difficult to reach location.
1. Major powers. Dragons can be a strong part of the political landscape in a campaign world. Goals could go from anything from world domination to the accumulation of knowledge and power to steer the rest of the world. Think Shadowrun and think of the Dragon Lords in Shadow World (a setting for Rolemaster, not sure if this setting is widely know or even liked.) These Dragons would have quite elaborate defences, natural and magical. The Shadow world Dragon I remember from the top of my head has a great fortress/lair in a northern wasteland with quite some volcanic activity and it has a volcanic plasma stream for a moat. This kind of rules out the possibility of entering though the front door.
Below the lair is a huge carnous system that functions as a massive breeding pit for orks (they have a different name in the setting, but what's in a name? That which we call a goblinoid, by any other name would smell as foul.) To get from the caverns into the fortress you have to get past two greater spiders. I don't know what 3e has done for these, but think Shelob and above when you're playing Rolemastes: guick badass fighters with extensive mind control and illusion abilities.
2. Tolkien dragons. Alignment: selfish-evil. These dragons live in a world in which there are not so many things that can harm them. They are bred by evil for the sole purpose of being evil. So lying inside a moutain on a pile of gold (they obviously have a different definition fo comfort than we have) is sheer arrogance. And why worry if the worst that can come up is a halfling with a dagger and a bunch of deadbeat homless dwarves? In the truely epic sense their arrogance is their undoing.
3. Monsters. These dragons do not even have the intelligce to think up elaborate defences. They go by instinct.
I believe SHARK is refering to the first type of dragons. Other options might be lairs in frozen wastelands tortured by blizzards and marauding frost giants. (In the campaign I currently play in, we're trying to reach this one.) Islands surrounded by dangerous reefs and currents, swamps, moutain tops, ... If I were a dragon, I'dd look out to make the most of natural defences and settle myself on a difficult to reach location.
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
They're kind of like ninjas, when you think about it.hong said:
drnuncheon
Explorer
mystraschosen said:
I think the secret to handling a proper dragon's horde is this:
1) Make sure the dragon has lots of subordinate monsters helping guard its lair.
2) Don't give them any treasure.
3) When the PCs defeat the dragon, put all the treasure there - the dragon's (double standard) and the subordinate monsters.
This will nicely beef up the dragon's horde, and your PCs will probably forget that all the beasties they whacked on the way didn't give them much of anything.
Heck, you can do this with unrelated monsters, really - just keep track of how many you've been throwing at the PCs without treasure, and add 'em to the horde.
J
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