D&D 5E Give my Dragon Encounter More Bite!

[Sword of Spirit]

I need to kill some characters (in good fun).

Last night was intended to be the final session of our Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign. The party had done everything else, and our final night was going to be challenging the dragon.

To make a long story* short, due to one or two misjudgments on her part the battle turned from the dragon playing with her food to barely escaping with her life.

I need to make sure that doesn’t happen for the rematch next session.

The triumphant 4th level party will be 5th level for the rematch. I’m planning on having the dragon recruit some subservient allies through a combination of intimidation and offers of payment, and was planning on having her fortify her lair and environs.

I’d like the encounter odds to look something like this:
80% Party slays dragon, defeats or drives off minions, at least two members of the party end up dead
10% Party wins with 0 to 1 fatalities (cleric has revivify to help with this)
10% TPK

Here is what the party looks like:
Tiefling Fighter (Eldritch Knight)
Human Cleric (Life)
Dragonborn Rogue (Arcane Trickster)
Drow Wizard (Transmuter)
Human Monk (Open Hand)
Human Sorcerer (Wild Mage)

They rolled well for stats and optimization level is normal (stats went where they made sense but no one is looking for loopholes or synergies). So a large, well-balanced party with above average stats.

5th level will be a significant power increase. I’m looking for a large encounter to really make them sweat. The plan is for her and her minions to be expecting them when they arrive at her tower a couple of weeks after their previous encounter.

How would you go about meeting these encounter goals? Staying in Thundertree would be an ideal scenario.


*Story in next post for those interested.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Now for the story of how they got to where they are now.

They negotiated with Venomfang in her tower. She played them pretty well, as green dragons are wont to do. The party offered to lead her to Cragmaw Castle in hopes she would relocate there and leave Thundertree, and she agreed to come take a look at the place. That night while they were sleeping, she swooped in and surprised the party (including the watch), with a blast from her poisoned breath. The wizard outright died, the monk dropped to 0, and no one was looking that great. The cleric used his revivify scroll to bring the wizard back, and got the monk back on his feet (twice).

After her initial attack, she began circling the party just out of sight (the drow was down for a few rounds). She cast mirror image on herself. Her plans to pick them off one by one failed when the drow got back on her feet and hit her with faerie fire. Meanwhile, the life domain cleric had healed the tanky fighter all the way up to full, not to mention spreading a lot of healing around in general. Pretty much everyone drank a potion of healing.

Now, there were a few things she could have done differently up to this point that might have helped, but I wasn’t intentionally taking it easy on them. I play dragons as if they are my own PCs. She was in the battle to win, because she wanted the party’s loot. That being said, she’d never actually fought adventurers before. She was attempting to play it safe, but wasn’t taking every miniscule precaution she could to guarantee that they had no chance whatsoever. The players definitely thought they were doomed. They had mostly decided to make a run for it, and were expecting a high probability of TPK.

The fighter used his potion of flying to get up into the air. I think one of her mirror images had been taken out at this point, but she was still packing 100+ hp and not seeing any increase to the threat. Her fly speed of 80’ kept her pretty much in control of her position. So when she saw the fighter taking up position to basically “guard” the party, she figured she could attack him and take him out in one or two rounds. She didn’t realize that he had been healed all the way up to full hp.

This is the point where I think I made the turning point mistake that lost her the fight. I was on the fence about just breathing on the fighter and flying out of his range, or charging in biting and clawing. I finally decided that she wanted to get physical, so she flew into melee with the fighter.

Dragon and fighter did some damage to each other, and the last of her mirror image duplicates went down. All faerie fired up and now in range of the wizard and sorcerer, they started pelting her with magic missiles and fire bolts. She realized she was in a bad place when her hit points started plummeting like a guillotine. She wisely chose to accept an opportunity attack from the fighter and flee. Then fighter fired a 7th level magic missile at her with his wand of magic missiles. The cleric had his heavy crossbow out now. Her hit points kept dropping and the cleric got another shot at her as she was retreating. She got away with 19 hp—just in time.

The monk and rogue didn’t manage to contribute. The monk had no ranged weapons except darts, and the rogue was holding concentration on a readied tasha’s hideous laughter. That spell could have created a dead dragon in the circumstances. I don’t expect them to be as ineffective in the rematch.

The good news for her is that she now knows the party’s capabilities. The bad news is that they now know hers, and her information is out-dated because they are now level 5.

 

[Voort]

Your dragon really needs to hit the party with tactics that nullify their previous tactics. A few suggestions:

-give the dragon a small tribe of goblins or kobolds to do her prep work (and die for her fleeting tactical advantage)
-is there a body of water nearby, or some way for the minions to flood the area near the tower? I'm picturing the dragon doing hit-and-run attacks from underwater or trying to drag someone under.
-for the final battle, have the minions ambush the PCs before the dragon is in range. Oh, they had a shaman? And there's a silence spell on you? Oh look, here comes a dragon into melee range...

 

[Eejit]

(Tucker's) Kobold minions, many of them, trapped lair.

Use more EVIL spells...

• Darkness.
• Blindness/Deafness on casters.
• Tasha's, shove prone or Wing Attack on a PC who flies - them bring prone = speed 0 = falling.
• Heat Metal on someone wearing heavy armor.
• Hold Person.
• Magic Missile (to break PC concentration at range)
• Misty Step to get out of Dodge
• Silence
• Bonus Action spells like the Smites, Spiritual Weapons

 

[Paraxis]

All the blood that spilled on the field of battle from the first fight, and the dragons near death experience cause it to grow in power and bond with the land. Make the area around the small village it's lair and give it lair actions, also have it tap into it's unknown before spellcasting ability, use the rules in the MM think that dragon would get 2 spells off any list up to level 2. Mirror image and misty step might be good choices, so is shield.

Have it know of and be allies with a mated pair of ettercaps nearby, the green dragon entry says they work with them sometimes.

No surprise the first fight went the way it did .

Group Info
Players: 6 Level: 4
Easy: 750 exp
Medium: 1,500 exp
Hard: 2,250 exp
Deadly: 3,000 exp

Young green dragon is only 3,900 then you divide that by half since there are six or more party members, so only 1,950 xp that is just above medium.

So yeah 2 more ettercaps for added threat and crowd control, lair actions of thorn walls and stuff, plus any two spells and you got yourself a pretty damn deadly fight.

 

[Derren]

You first have to realize that single big monsters are pushovers in 5E. That means you have to keep them out of melee as much as you can because as soon as the PCs pile on it it is dead, especially dragons which lack any form of special defense besides flying. Of course if the party is primarily ranged you can forget it from the beginning. So do not try to use "single big monster" fights with an XP budget below deadly. But as you noticed, any single enemy strong enough to stand against a party for more than 2 rounds is also able to one shot some PCs at low level.

So a dragon needs minions which, very often, turn out to be more dangerous than the dragon itself. Also, use the spellcasting variant dragons as especially at higher levels there are so many spells the PCs can use to mess up a dragon that you need magical defense (See the "Dropping Flyers" thread).
As for tactics, do not fight on their terms. A buffed party is unstoppable against single targets. Let the dragon fly away and wait till their buffs and potions run out, then come back and fight.

But in the end you have to accept that the PCs rolling over any form of opposition quickly is simply the way 5E was designed (shorter combats with the PCs winning) and that thanks to bounded accuracy quantity beats quality.

 

[Cernor]

If the dragon is ambushing the party at night, Pass Without Trace is probably the best spell the dragon can have. +10 to every Stealth check means that it can fly in, target a PC (to get up to three instant criticals), then fly away before the party can respond. Kill order should be Cleric>Drow>Sorcerer>Fighter>Rogue=Monk... Without healing the party can easily be worn down, without faerie fire it can continue to attack from the darkness... And if the Drow is on watch and gets knocked to 0 HP (if not killed outright) from the breath attack, then your party's inability to see in the dark will likely be its downfall. With a +10 to Stealth it's pretty much guaranteed that the dragon will go undetected until it's first strike, so it can take the party's packs and fly them even 1 minute away in the woods where they can't retrieve torches. They have to stay within eyeshot to avoid getting picked off one at a time, but if "eyeshot" is a 10ft. radius around their dying campfire then they're bunched up for the breath weapon, putting them in an excellent lose-lose situation. Anyone who drops to 0 should be picked up by the dragon and torn apart above the survivors to demoralize them further. If the cleric is alive, that also solves the pesky problem of revivification: it's hard to revive someone within one minute of their death if you have to spend 10 gathering up the pieces.

 

[Nebulous]

(Tucker's) Kobold minions, many of them, trapped lair.

Use more EVIL spells...

• Darkness.
• Blindness/Deafness on casters.
• Tasha's, shove prone or Wing Attack on a PC who flies - them bring prone = speed 0 = falling.
• Heat Metal on someone wearing heavy armor.
• Hold Person.
• Magic Missile (to break PC concentration at range)
• Misty Step to get out of Dodge
• Silence
• Bonus Action spells like the Smites, Spiritual Weapons

I'd go with this plan - have boatloads of kobold minions who are are slavishly subservient to Venomfang. The most devoted even have a poison breath weapon. Most are fodder, but there are warriors and shamans thrown into the mix.

Add lair effects, such as poison fog, or obstructing poison fog that doesn't hurt the kobolds. Give two dozen kobolds a volley of ranged arrow attacks and come up with some reason why the attacks have Advantage - concentrate fire on certain characters if you want to be especially mean. And play it by ear; have more kobold minions waiting in the wings if the players suddenly demolish an entire squad of them with one spell.

Don't forget the Help action for monsters too.

 

[Nebulous]

So a dragon needs minions which, very often, turn out to be more dangerous than the dragon itself. Also, use the spellcasting variant dragons as especially at higher levels there are so many spells the PCs can use to mess up a dragon that you need magical defense (See the "Dropping Flyers" thread).
As for tactics, do not fight on their terms. A buffed party is unstoppable against single targets. Let the dragon fly away and wait till their buffs and potions run out, then come back and fight.

But in the end you have to accept that the PCs rolling over any form of opposition quickly is simply the way 5E was designed (shorter combats with the PCs winning) and that thanks to bounded accuracy quantity beats quality.

Yeah, he's right, and by the time the party is 5th level Venomfang doesn't stand much of a chance unless she's lucky. Add the minions, add some spells, add some lair effects and you're going to have a whopping deadly encounter.

 

[steeldragons]

Sounds to me like the party's pretty screwed.

She has seen what they can do. She knows they're caster heavy.

At the bare minimum:
Silence, as already mentioned, shuts more than half the party's capabilities down for a good few rounds. I would make it from a caster that stays near the dragon, if she's not going to be up and about. But she could do it herself, I guess. But that, then precludes other concentration effects. So I'd make the silence someone else's job, who stay near/behind/hidden. Can the party find/figure out where/which of these 2 dozen orcs/hobgoblins/gnolls has the sound turned off...or is it the dragon herself?

Shield at the ready or by worn item to ignore those pesky magic missiles.

The minions, as already mentioned, tough to maintain concentration spells -or blast a dragon- with 2 orcs per party member (minimum, I"d probably go with 3 for a truly epic battle) barreling down on you and soaking up your offensive spell-cannons.

That oughta do it.

All else fails, if there's room for her to be flying them and/or get in some sneaky dive-bombing attacks, why isn't she grabbing two at a time (the now known casters, I would say), flying up and dropping folks?

And that damnable fighter, the one with the magic items....best to keep him at a distance. Minions can help with that too.

Goes something like this: Let's say, 15 hobgoblins have been hastily impressed, er, I mean "hired" by the dragon. Including a shamanic caster and a boss/captain.

About a 6 hobos for a perimeter "soften them up" encounter. Loss of half their number and they retreat to main hall/cavern/wherever the dragon is.

Shaman, invisible or mirror imaged, from the dragon, and behind her. Instructed not to move. The shaman's only job is to stay unseen if possible, concentrating on, and recasting as necessary, Silence. Drop 40' diameter sphere from 10' outside the chamber to 30' inside. The hobgoblins should know to keep the intruders pressed into that area (30' or less from the door/cave/entrance).

Brooch of Shielding, either found amongst her hoard or purchased from someone/somehow in the week of prep time, is pinned to a jaunty little jade silk stole around her left wing. Bye bye magic missile damage.

Captain to stay close to the dragon/behind the lines.

Round 1 : Opening salvo of poison breath when the party arrives.

Round 2: Hobo's (so that's 6 more soldiers + remainder of perimeter force) move in.

Round 3 thru death: Battle, battle, battle.

Anyone who forces their way through the soldiers or makes it outside the Silenced area, get's a face full of Wing Buffet.

Anyone who breaches entirely before being engaged by the Captain and last (strongest/toughest/most HP) soldier.

Battle, battle, battle.

If/once the soldiers are mostly if not totally wiped out, breathe again.

Mop up the pieces with claw and fang.

Scavenge bodies for magic items and coin. Snack on half the remains. Use the other half to place on spikes at the perimeter of your territory.

Reward shaman (and captain if still surviving) handsomely -but not toooo handsomely-- and offer promises of power and wealth if he'll bring the remainder of his tribe/garrison to establish a base at the edges of the dragon's territory.

Begin turning hobgoblin shaman into green dragon-pacted warlock to be major player in next leg/campaign while your players are rolling up new PCs.

Now, if the Silence goes down/off or the shaman gets taken out, take to the air and straife or Misty Step out/leave the hobgoblins to their fate.