D&D 5E How did you fare against Venomfang the Young Green Dragon Lost Mine of Phandelver?

[Greenstone.Walker]

My players never went to Thundertree. I had some nice ideas based on what I had read on these forums, but never got to use them.

To be honest, the party wasn't very successful. They didn't save any of the Rockseeker brothers and didn't capture or kill Glasstaff or the Black Spider.

 

[devincutler]

My players met the druid and were warned about Venomfang. They decided to tackle him last and so finished all of the rest of LMoP. Then at 4th level they took him on with the druid casting Protection from Poison on key PCs. They then did no talking to the dragon and just ganked him,

The sorcerer didn't have Protection from Poison and got a bit too close to the action and was caught in the breath weapon attack and failed his save and died. The rest of the PCs easily took his hit points down to the level that he tries to flee. They shot at him with long ranged weapons for a few rounds and if they hand't rolled so poorly on their heavy crossbow damage rolls would have taken him down. He escaped with 7 hp left.

So....1 casualty, and that was from a tactical mistake.

The encounter isn't that difficult if you prepare properly, go in at the end of LMoP, and have a druid or cleric cast Protection from Poison (advantage on saves AND resistance!).

 

[Croesus]

(snip)...Then at 4th level they took him on with the druid casting Protection from Poison on key PCs...(snip) The encounter isn't that difficult if you prepare properly, go in at the end of LMoP, and have a druid or cleric cast Protection from Poison (advantage on saves AND resistance!).

Wow, I hadn't noticed that protection from poison is NOT concentration, so it can be cast on multiple characters by one caster. Not only is it only 2nd level, but not having concentration makes it the perfect spell for green dragons and other creatures that mainly deal poison damage. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Jediking]

Rant/story time:

I was a level 2 Bard with 5 other players (playing on Roll20). In this session, 3 of them were no-shows, so they 'headed back to town' to wait for us. We had decided to go to Thundertree to visit the druid, and had searched the village thoroughly, without finding anything that gave sign of the druid or a dragon being there, before going to the tower. Our DM had told us the druid was secretive and had taken several protective measures to avoid being found, so we thought the acrid smoke from the tower was just a fake cover to scare off others. As one player wisely pointed out, "Druids can cast Acid Splash all day." We opened the door and walked in, expecting to see a leafy or possibly furry face.

It wasn't the druid we sought. We walked into a scaly Green Dragon. After failing Arcana checks (our Wizard was back in town), no age was given for the dragon. We tried to talk, barter, sell, or volunteer our way out of it, but as Green Dragons were Evil and could simply kill us and take our stuff, that's what happened. The 3 of us died (the Fighter and Paladin nearly instantly from his breath weapon) and I took off, trying to dart and hide under separate buildings. I was found and killed once the breath weapon recharged, cowering behind pile of rubble and spider webs.

We were silent for a bit, as the DM tried to explain that bargaining with a dragon was insulting to them as humanoids are so far beneath their notice, that acid obviously came from Green Dragons, if we had asked more around town we could have found rumours of a dragon. After realizing the missing druid was not going to deux ex reincarnate me as an Awakened Lyre, I said farewell to the two players and we all took our leave.

TL;DR: So I still haven't finished LMoP.

 

[ChelseaNH]

The party was 3rd level. I decided I wasn't going to force a confrontation, but give them the opportunity for a fight if they wanted it.

My party went to Thundertree, met the druid, cleared out the ash zombies and twig blights. They ignored the cultists and camped out in the barracks for a while. A bunch of them went up to the roof to observe the dragon. (Thus ensued several minutes of me trying to get them to tell me that they were hiding without actually saying, "So, are you going to sit there in plain sight or hide?")

I figured Favric was trying to rally the cultists who were discovering that talking about talking to a dragon is a lot easier than talking to a dragon. I gave him 75 minutes to win over some converts. Then he and a few comrades came near the town square. "Oh great and glorious dragon, heed your humble servant Favric!" His plan was to "be of service" to the dragon by snitching on the adventurers, and oh by the way, offering treasure.

The dragon climbed out of its tower and flew over to Favric. "You don't sound very humble." Chomp! Favric went down, two more cultists ran for it and the last was too petrified by fear to run. The dragon chased the cultists, ripped their house apart and hunted them all down. Then it went to talk to the frozen one.

The party was delighted to get some good intelligence on the dragon's abilities, but had the sense to climb off the roof and sneak out the back door while the dragon was busy playing with the cultists. They were a round or two away when they heard, "Yoo hoo! Adventurers!" The dragon didn't find them in the barracks, and suspected they were sneaking into its tower, so it zipped back there. This gave the party more time to escape into the woods. (The druid circled around and met them, to lead them back to Phandalin through the woods.)

Meanwhile, the dragon used lair actions to encircle its tower with thorny thickets. Unbeknownst to the party, it commissioned the surviving cultist to find out who they are and report back. So if the party decided not to confront the dragon again, there was always a chance that the dragon would confront them.

 

[bneffer]

My party (3rd level - 2 fighters, Druid, wizard) received warning from Reiloth. They didn't seem to believe him, or at least trust him much.
They then ran into to the Cult and though they could tell Favric was evil, they agreed to go talk to the dragon together.

Venomfang called out as the approached. They listened to his lies of fair parley and entered the lair. The party's wizard spoke elegantly and respectfully, then the dragon spoke of his fears and gained thier trust, much to my (the DM's) surprise!

As Venomfang neared the end of his attempt to convince the humanoids that he was not the true threat and to help him, the party shoved Favric forward. He kneeled in supplication to the dragon, who was by now mere feet away, offering the diamonds and "these adveturers" to him as Tribute.

At this the Dragon 'smiled' , and breathed on the group (avoiding Favric) - killing 4 cultists, and knocking two PCs out. They had a chance to run... and instead the 'hero of Thundertree' Grif Nansen, a pole arm wielding fighter, shouted "For Thundertree" and charged Venomfang. Initially the rest of the party tried to back Grif up. After a second breath weapon killed Grif instantly, the dragon born Balthazar and wizard Gavin Quickfingers ran, the Druid Fargrim turned into a spider and hid.

R.I.P. Grif

My one regret as a DM was not giving the PCs time to think and react to Favrics betrayal, and giving Venomfang pause to revel in the twisting of humanoid hearts. I got anxious and unleashed him a bit soon I think. Everyone had a good time and Andrew ( Grif) is looking forward to a new character actually!

 

[Leatherhead]

We dropped an anvil on his head.

 

[Bitbrain]

The main DM for my group tried to incorporate him into his current campaign.
Unfortunately, we were at 6th level, were playing it "theater of the mind" that session, and were rolling ridiculously well.

The War Cleric got off a critical Guiding Bolt, The Paladin (at the time Oath of Devotion) crit twice against him and cut off his wings, the Bard/EK blasted him with Thunderwave then used an action surge to crush one of his legs with a maul, The Warlock hexed and Eldritch Blasted the dragon's exposed organs, the Assassin Rogue shot him in the eyes, and I finished him off with a Fireball.
All in one round.

 

[tglassy]

Yeah. So, I played with a group of four. Two of which couldn't play that night, so it was just two. Both level 3. One Eldridge Knight, the other a Paladin.

They stumbled upon him by accident. Just walked into the tower, opened the door, and hey look, a green dragon is staring at them.

Well, the EK's backstory was he was raised by dragon hunters. So what does he do? He charges the dragon.

Commence the most number of times I, as a DM failed my rolls.

Literally, the dragon couldn't hit them. Well, he did hit the Paladin once, but it didn't kill him. They managed, just the two of them, through a series of incredible rolls, to get half his life down. So the dragon starts climbing the inside of the tower to get to the outside.

The EK was having none of it. He sprinted up the stairs on the tower, and I let him get to the top the same time the dragon did.

He said "I want to leap in the air and stab him in the eye, and hold on."

"Do an attack roll, but if you miss, you're fallin gall the way down and likely dying."

He rolled a 19.

So, he stuck the sword in the dragon's eye. The dragon screams, and jumps out of the tower, with him on board. He was an EK, so he can't be disarmed, so I interpreted that as he couldn't be forced to let go of his sword, so he was literally latched on to the dragon's head. He proceeded to use his other sword to hack at the dragon, while the dragon tried to shake him off and couldn't.

Then he crits, and the dragon dies, in mid air.

"Ok, he's dead. How do you kill him?"

"I pull out my sword, and then take both my swords, cross them and scissor the dragon's head off!"

"Sweet, his head flies off. Now you're falling through the air. Make a dex save."

"19!"

"Frick. You surf the dragon down through the air, it crashes and you just stand on top of it like Legolas, and when it comes to a stop, you jump down, the dragon dead behind you. You also land in front of a house, and a man (The dragon cultists in this area) walk out, amazed that you killed the dragon they had been trying to befriend. Their leader isn't happy."

"I try to intimidate them into running away!"

"Roll that with advantage, this is awesome."


I left out a little, but that was the gist. I swear, the only thing I did to help them was I didn't have the dragon use its breath attack. Cause, you know, that would have ended the fight immediately. I figured the dragon wouldn't want to melt its treasure horde.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I left out a little, but that was the gist. I swear, the only thing I did to help them was I didn't have the dragon use its breath attack. Cause, you know, that would have ended the fight immediately. I figured the dragon wouldn't want to melt its treasure horde.

Yeah, he'd rather run away and let them take it....