D&D 3.x Fighting an Old Black Dragon? (3.5)

I will observe that, as a Sorcerer, you can use 4th level spell slots to fire lower level spells. And you should definitely consider See Invisible for yourself, so you don't shoot your allies. And, of course, they'll be at risk for running into/shooting each other.

Also remember that Greater Invisibility only lasts 1 round per caster level. If you're 11th level and are casting 7 of them prior to the combat, then the first one you cast only has 4 rounds of cover, max, before it goes away.

So consider this: Wall of Force set to clog the cavern entry, but not fill it perfectly. Have the bottom a foot off the floor, or the side a foot away from a wall, so you can cast spells over/under/around it. Since you can't have the WoF intersect with a solid object anyway, there's going to be a gap somewhere. Make sure it's where you want it, and can take advantage of it.

Now, while he's worrying about the Cloud Kill you dropped in there, you're dropping fireballs and lightning bolts as fast as you can, shooting under the wall, again and again. Use 4th level slots for these, to increase the total number. Save a Black Tentacles though. At some point during the fireworks, he'll try to assume Human form (one of a Dragon's powers) to slip past that barrier. As soon as he tries, tentacle him. He loses Draconic strength and size mods in Human form. But wait until he's near the cave wall, trying to slip past your barrier, when you drop it. And then drop a second WoF to pin him against that wall so he won't be able to change back to a dragon. He'll literally be caught between a rock and a hard place.

Also assume that your plan, being elaborate and detailed, will fall to pieces on about round 2. So make sure you have a "Plan B", and probably a "Plan C" prepared as well.

Have fun! :)
 

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I must say, after looking over your spell list... you should ask the DM if you can rework it at the nearest opportunity. Burning Hands is useless, Identify is best left to wizards, there is no need for both Lightening Bolt and Fireball - and a good argument could be made that there is no need for either - Scorching Ray cries when an enemy with fire resistance comes along, and that's damn near everyone at higher levels. The stat boosts you have are alright, but you lost a lot of versatile second level spells to have them.
 

Dandu, you are right. He was build with RP in mind, we were about 12 characters at the beginning of the campaign (2 for each player). We were a sort of company and I started to pick a wide range of spells so not to keep the spotlight from most of the party.

Its was mostly an undead-abomination campaign so I build him with a fire focus. If you ever saw Naruto, he's a Chaotic Good Deidara. He likes to explode bad guys. ;D Sadly, most of the players left and the DM stood down for a while so our new DM wanted to send us to fight the dragon soon. lol

Greenfield, thank you very much for your ideas! I was actually wondering if I should leave a small 5ft gap at the end of the wall, otherwise the couldkill would slip past us.

I hear you about the invisibility! I would cast it on the 3 main melee chars at the end so they last longer.

I would need to cast polymorph on our main Fighter so not to waste any rounds during battle.

Hahaha, plan b would be throw the alchemist flasks and Plan C would be Teleport and GTFO. He has a pair of Dimension Boots (5/day 60ft away) and i'm almost sure the wizard has Teleport in her spellbook, so at least they could get away with it.

someone asked me if we just took the stuff we had and ran, but i'm pretty sure any Dragon worth his salt would chase us to the end of the world because of it. Besides, I rather fight it in a cave than in the open!! ;D
 

The casters will need to dispel the dragon's buffs. Be cautious about short duration buffs of your own since the dragon could just take a flying run at 600' a round to burn those out then return. Plus the dragon could have Dimension Door.
 

Cloudkill won't do much, actually. Not only does it move away from you at 10' per round (so the dragon wouldn't be in it very long, even if he has no room to move). It can also be dispersed in a round by a strong wind - which the dragon can easily manage in enclosed spaces with his wings. So expect to do 1 point of Con damage (2 if you're lucky) with your valuable 5th level slot (coz the dragon will pass his Fort save on a 1).
Of course, you can spam 4 Cloudkills in a row, dealing an average of 5.25 Con damage all told. In fact, it's even a little more, because the dragon's Fort save decreases when it takes Con damage, but it's close enough. Let's say you deal 6 Con damage for nice, round, and optimistic number.
The dragon has now lost 3 points of Fort save bonus, along with 75 HP for its 25 HD. Is that really worth all of your highest-level slots, as well as 5 standard actions?

Also note that if you can cast spells underneath your Wall of Force, so can the dragon (or use his breath weapon, or a magic item, or whatever).
 

...Greenfield, thank you very much for your ideas! I was actually wondering if I should leave a small 5ft gap at the end of the wall, otherwise the couldkill would slip past us.
Make it a 1 foot gap, seriously. Something a man could slip through, barely.

Hahaha, plan b would be throw the alchemist flasks and Plan C would be Teleport and GTFO. He has a pair of Dimension Boots (5/day 60ft away) and i'm almost sure the wizard has Teleport in her spellbook, so at least they could get away with it.
Alchemist's flasks? That sounds more like plan Z.

Start by presuming that the black dragon is a black dragon, meaning he has some magical ability, can Polymorph to human, can cast Deeper Darkness more or less at will, will pretty much never fail a Save or a Concentration check, and has the collected loot and magic items from every other adventuring party that forgot he was a Black Dragon.

By sheer weight of numbers you may take him down, but to do that you need to get all of those numbers in and on him as fast as you can.

Your original plan had you spending a lot of time prepping up, which gives the dragon an equal amount of time to prep up.

So I'm the Dragon, and somebody pops a Cloud Kill around me, then corks the cave with a Wall of Force.

I flap my wings and get rid of the annoying spell, then Deeper Darkness the place.

And now they give me 10 minutes to get ready, while their wall runs its course? I'll pitch another darkness around their wall, then slip over it in Human form, while they can't see me coming. My cave, after all, isn't made of straight lines, and their Wall has to be.

By the time they think they're ready to fight me, I'm behind them, ready to either take the fight to the open sky (where I *will* win), or maybe I'll just rip into them while they're throwing prep spells.

I'll concentrate on the spellcaster first, of course, because while the fighter types can open a huge can of whupass on me, they can't trap me anyplace I don't want to be, and can't follow me if I choose to leave.

Maybe I'll just grab him and head for the sky. When the others finally catch up, I'll drop their Sorcerer on them from 20,000 feet, just to get the message across.

So real advice? Ennervation is good. Wall of Force is good. Waiting before attacking is bad. Prep before you enter, Teleport in so he can't see you coming, and then hand the fighters the can opener for that aforementioned can of whupass. Use the Wall to lock him in with you, Ennervate him, and then concentrate your magic on enhancements, buffs and containment.
 




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