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Help Me Build a Challenging Dragon Mini Boss
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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7795058" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>I actually think your 5th-level party will do just fine. By the numbers, that's just a Hard encounter and this monster is in LMoP against (usually) 3rd- or 4th-level parties. Plenty of people have reported that they've succeeded in that fight. A Hard encounter versus 5th-level PCs is almost certainly going to go the PCs' way in my experience, especially if they have time to prepare. The cleric could hit every person in the party with <em>protection from poison, </em>still have enough slots for <em>bless, </em>and this dragon will likely be a pushover.</p><p></p><p>As with anything, I recommend telegraphing the green dragon's abilities including its lair actions prior to the PCs encountering it. This will give them an opportunity to prepare and, whether they do prepare or not, removes the perception of any "gotchas" if things do go badly for them.</p><p></p><p>I would likely spend the most amount of prep time on building the lair, which would be along the lines the Monster Manual suggests - a maze of brambles choked with fog at the center of which is a sheer cliff in the side of which is a cave. I might even do a "false" cave - a smaller dug-out area about the shape of a, say, 30-foot cone into which the green dragon throws some of its treasure in plain sight - only the "gold" it puts there are wooden chips painted to look like gold. If it detects someone climbing into there, it swoops down from its real lair some 60 feet above, blasts the area with poison breath, then seals them inside with a wall of thorns (lair action) while its breath weapon recharges.</p><p></p><p>If there is an elf in the party, that character gets the brunt of any melee attacks until the PC is unconscious at which point the dragon grabs the body and flies away to be used as a hostage in exchange for gold. The dragon is a manipulative creature, after all. It won't honor any bargain and plans on eating the elf after the PCs supplicate themselves. I'd probably give it some spells to include charm person which it may use on the ranger. That'd be a useful servant for a green dragon.</p><p></p><p>Prior to all that though, I'm going to play up some kind of creepy exploration challenge in the forest around its lair, where the PCs run a big risk of getting lost and bad things happening.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7795058, member: 97077"] I actually think your 5th-level party will do just fine. By the numbers, that's just a Hard encounter and this monster is in LMoP against (usually) 3rd- or 4th-level parties. Plenty of people have reported that they've succeeded in that fight. A Hard encounter versus 5th-level PCs is almost certainly going to go the PCs' way in my experience, especially if they have time to prepare. The cleric could hit every person in the party with [I]protection from poison, [/I]still have enough slots for [I]bless, [/I]and this dragon will likely be a pushover. As with anything, I recommend telegraphing the green dragon's abilities including its lair actions prior to the PCs encountering it. This will give them an opportunity to prepare and, whether they do prepare or not, removes the perception of any "gotchas" if things do go badly for them. I would likely spend the most amount of prep time on building the lair, which would be along the lines the Monster Manual suggests - a maze of brambles choked with fog at the center of which is a sheer cliff in the side of which is a cave. I might even do a "false" cave - a smaller dug-out area about the shape of a, say, 30-foot cone into which the green dragon throws some of its treasure in plain sight - only the "gold" it puts there are wooden chips painted to look like gold. If it detects someone climbing into there, it swoops down from its real lair some 60 feet above, blasts the area with poison breath, then seals them inside with a wall of thorns (lair action) while its breath weapon recharges. If there is an elf in the party, that character gets the brunt of any melee attacks until the PC is unconscious at which point the dragon grabs the body and flies away to be used as a hostage in exchange for gold. The dragon is a manipulative creature, after all. It won't honor any bargain and plans on eating the elf after the PCs supplicate themselves. I'd probably give it some spells to include charm person which it may use on the ranger. That'd be a useful servant for a green dragon. Prior to all that though, I'm going to play up some kind of creepy exploration challenge in the forest around its lair, where the PCs run a big risk of getting lost and bad things happening. [/QUOTE]
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