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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davelozzi" data-source="post: 1990579" data-attributes="member: 771">Yes, boys and girls, it's time once again for the bi-monthly Forge of Fury thread.  This time around, we're talking about the big bad at the end of the module.  Naturally, spoilers will abound so if you're planning to play this module and don't want anything given away, you better walk away now..........Shoo, I said, Shoo!........Okay, all the potential players gone now?  Here we go.  I've been running a modified Forge of Fury in my game, and my party is rather large, and of a higher than recommended level (mostly 7th).  I have eight players in my party anyway, and because of the situation, they temporarily have seven dwarven "cohorts" accompanying them (mostly 4th level).  This is because the party is helping the one dwarven PC (Durgeddin's grandson and namesake) reclaim his ancestral hold, and they've negotiated with his clan to have the support of the additional seven dwarves.  They're not real cohorts as far as the rules are concerned, they're just around for this one adventure.At any rate, either the next session or the one after, they should be going up against Nightscale (black dragon).  I would like to make sure the battle is memorable and appropriately dangerous.  I want the PCs to be in real danger, and though I'm not out to kill them, death should certainly be a possiblity.  However, I'm hoping to avoid a situation in which anyone targeted by the dragon goes down in one round (though it's okay if some of the dwarven cohorts do).Now ideally I would have switched the single dragon out for a mated pair, but it's too late for that.  So now I'm in the unenviable position of trying to stat up a single dragon that can provide an appopriate challenge for all these characters without slaughtering them.  The mini I have (Reaper's <a href="http://www.reapermini.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=1146&cat=0&page=1" target="_blank">Deathsleet</a> ) would be Huge in D&D terms, so I was thinking of going with a young adult aged dragon advanced to huge size, though I could always ignore the size of the mini and just give it large stats anyway.I've never had a significant dragon encounter in my game before, so I'm hoping to make it memorable without using a bunch of minions, though I might have to.  If I do need to, one option that would be easy to use is for me to bring in Nimira, the duergar leader that escaped from their last battle.  I've bumped her up from Ftr5 to Ftr9 and added the voidmind creature template from MM3 (basically, she has a stunning slime cone attack and her hidden mind flayer master can manifest powers as a 9th level psion through her body).  In the last battle her favored tactic was to remain in the shadows and while her hidden master used psionic dominate through her to turn the PCs against each other.  At any rate, if you're still with me, thanks for reading, and if you have any suggestions, fire away.  Here's a quick summary of the party and their most relevant weapons and tactics, in case it helps:PCs:Durgeddin, male dwarven barbarian4/dwarven paragon3  (from Unearthed Arcana), wields keen orcbane greataxe 2-handedLenia, female human Ftr7, wields dragonbane bastard sword 2-handedSir Ancelon, male human Ftr5/Pal2, wields flaming longsword with searing light 1/day, and carries a shieldCaelan, male human Ftr2/Clr5 (domains: Sun & Heal), wields +1 longsword and carries shieldEmeril, male human Wiz7 (evoker), favors Fireball, & Flaming Sphere (and can do cold versions of those fire spells too, and uses Lesser Globe of Invulnerability to protect himself and the psion).Gavin, male human Rog7, usually uses ring of invisiblity to move in for Sneak Attack, wields +2 keen longswordOedon, male human Psion7 (telepath), usually uses domination to turn foes against each other (which won't work on the dragon) and augmented mind thrust on big bad guys....and a brand new PC (as yet named) male elven non-magical Rgr7 specializing in the longbow, with wolf companion.cohorts:Eberek, male dwarven Clr5 of Moradin (domains: Earth & Protection), wields warhammer and carries shieldBaerna & Dorna, 2 female dwarven Ftr4, both wield masterwork dwarven waraxes.Brodwarn, Brimsar, Storngrist, & Sturlgrim, all male dwarven Ftr3 (but they may raise to 4th level before this battle)All four of 'em have masterwork dwarven waraxes, and Sturlgrim also has a +2 halberd.The dragon can use hit & run tactics from the cover of the dark lake that he lives in, as outlined in the module, though I've enlarged the lake and added a ledge around both sides of of it in order to accomodate the larger party. </blockquote>

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