How can a party of 3 PCs at 14th level defeat a CR20 dragon?

[delericho]

The battle looks like this:

bard 10/Seeker of the Song 3/arcane archer 1
cleric11/paladin 3
monk 14

vs.

Mavarothix

That's a TPK. Even with the barbarian and the rogue, there's an extremely high likelihood that it will be a TPK.

I suggest postponing the big battle until your party have another level or two under their belts. This can perhaps be most easily achieved by having the dragon pound on the three PCs, forcing a retreat and a rethink on their parts.

Be sure to leave the PCs with the option of an escape (preferably without having to leave fallen comrades behind), but if they are foolish enough not to take it... wipe them out, all of them.

Our long awaited battle against a bbeg (Gargantuan Black Dragon) is going to be anticlimatic due to the fact that two of the players have cancelled at the last minute. The last few sessions have been leading up to this encounter and the PCs are expecting to face the dragon tonight. Just short of cancelling the session or throwing a one-off at the party, what can I do? Do you have any suggestions on how I can keep this from being a TPK?

In this instance, I strongly suggest cancelling the session or running an one-off. Sometimes, life gets in the way of gaming, and while I would normally advocate pressing on regardless, when you're talking about the climax of the campaign, it seems better to wait until you can do it justice.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

In a previous campaign, the DM gave us full access to the spell list of a ~16th level druid. For various story reasons he wasn't able to come into the dragons cave... but we could get whatever buffs and summons we wanted.

Worked well and we did defeat an oversized over CR black dragon. However it was a close run thing and it was a party geared up to kill '1 big monster' as their main job. And the PCs were farily combat focused.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I'm curious--how did the battle play out?

 

[ruleslawyer]

Nope - the primary purpose of a DM is to be storyteller, the player of all of the NPCs and a neutral arbiter whose goal is not to favor either the players or himself.

Sure. But killing off the PCs isn't exactly constructive in the context of the game. The goal is, after all, to keep playing rather than get up and leave the table after 20 minutes.

 

[SavageRobby]

Sure. But killing off the PCs isn't exactly constructive in the context of the game. The goal is, after all, to keep playing rather than get up and leave the table after 20 minutes.

The players could run away.


I don't see it as the DM's job to balance encounters so much as its the player's job to figure out when to avoid a fight.

 

[Shazman]

Talk about thread necromancy. I can only guess that someone's extreme boredom must have prompted them to reply to 6 month old thread.