Fighting a Dragon at low levels

[haora]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forums..

Searching on google for ideas on how to confront a Young black dragon I found you, so here I am...

Let me tell you how the party is formed:
Right now, we're all level 5, and only confronted the dragon very quickly before it flied away, but we know it's going to come back to bite us a bit more..

- Fighter(lvl4)/Ranger(lvl1) - Me, wielding a 2handed sword.
- Cleric(lvl5) evil.
- Rogue(lvl5). with 2 swords

We're a group of players new to this whole world, and because of this, we normally lack ideas during combat.

So, my question is.., what can a group like this do against a young black dragon?

Thanks in advance....

 

[Dandu]

Start looking for useful Cleric spells.

 

[haora]

Thanks for the quick reply, but I was going for something in terms of tactics to use, and weaknesses on the dragon.

Also, since I'm the fighter/ranger, I'd like to know what my choices are..., other than.. "I hit it with my mighty blade"

 

[Dandu]

It flies and has a breath weapon. I suggest you look into archery.

 

[Persiflage]

You're all going to die, unless your DM plays this dragon like a total twit. Dragon CR's are out of whack anyway, and it's never more true than at the lower end of the level range.

Rampant pessimism aside, you either need to develop a good ranged capability fast, or you need to get this thing to join you on the ground by finding cover it can't burn through with its acid.

If you had time to prepare and acquire new spells, you might try the following: buff (Protection From Energy (acid) and/or Resist Energy (acid) would seem like good places to start), get the dragon on the ground by retreating to the cover of trees, cast Entangle (assuming you've got high enough Wisdom for a single bonus spell), hit it from range until it gets free, then melee and hope like hell.

The Cleric will hopefully have Spiritual Weapon, making the above significantly easier. If you can get the tactical positioning right, you can slow the dragon down for two rounds' worth of ranged-attacking mayhem even if it makes two successive DC20 Strength checks (very unlikely, but hey). Chuck flasks of alchemists' fire: the range penalties will suck, but the dragon's touch AC whilst entangled is only 8.

Oh yeah, and don't stand in a line.

Good luck

 

[haora]

Cool! Thanks for the tips Persiflage!

I'll probably have time to get some pots like the resist energy one, and fly (my DM told me about this one), but I don't think I'll be able to develop ranged skills pretty soon (I could probably buy a bow and some arrows, but I don't know how usefull that could be).

I don't know the terrain we'll be on when we finally confront the beast, since it's been following our party for a while now, but I'll try to remember your advice.

And I'll try to suggest the Spiritual Weapon to the Cleric, but he hates it when other players tell him what to do, so I don't know what will happen there...

Thanks again!

Any other tips will be very much appreciated...

 

[Dandu]

Parlay with the dragon. Sacrifice the cleric.

 

[Persiflage]

Cool! Thanks for the tips Persiflage!

I'll probably have time to get some pots like the resist energy one, and fly (my DM told me about this one),

Your DM hates you, and wants you to die. With your Fly spell, the dragon is two-and-a-half-times faster than you are. It'll just get out of range and wait for your spell to run out, and that's if you're really really lucky. If you're unlucky, it'll just fly up high, wait for you to get a long way off the ground, burn you with its breath weapon, melee with you whilst hovering and THEN watch you fall to the ground. Besides which, nobody in your party can cast fly.

Other than that, it's a brilliant idea.

but I don't think I'll be able to develop ranged skills pretty soon (I could probably buy a bow and some arrows, but I don't know how usefull that could be).

Throw flasks. Throw lots of flasks. Lovely flasks full of lovely fire.

I don't know the terrain we'll be on when we finally confront the beast, since it's been following our party for a while now, but I'll try to remember your advice.

Hang on a minute... Its been following you around for quite a while, but you're not dead? It obviously doesn't want you dead. You can tell this because you are not dead. As such, Dandu's suggestion:

Parlay with the dragon. Sacrifice the cleric.

...is clearly the appropriate one

What other tips do you need?

 

[haora]

Mh, good to know (about the fly pot)...

I didn't know about the flask though... I guess I'll look into that... it'll give me something to do while the bastard is flying

Thanks again!

 

[HoboGod]

Well, you have a 5th level evil cleric, maybe it's time for him to wander down the path of necromancy, cause either the dead are gunna start helping you or you're going to join them. Find a graveyard, and animate all the archers from the dead as skeletons. They wont be very powerful, I assure you, but by playing the numbers you might get a critical hit every now and then. And if the dragon gets pissed off enough, he might start hacking them to pieces, giving you time enough to actually kill the beast before you're all murdered. I'd also recommend using some of the skeletons provide flanking bonus to the rogue, but unless that rogue has a high AC, you don't want to start taking full attacks from a dragon.