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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Koren" data-source="post: 6868634" data-attributes="member: 6802236">I just ran a couple of sessions with a young black dragon antagonist for one of my home games.  Inhabiting the ruins of a city once ruled by a now-fallen lizardfolk empire, it was the god/chief of the remaining tribes of lizardfolk.  It's interesting to see how someone else runs a very similar boss-type enemy.I think it's been clarified that non-legendary creatures (dragons don't go legendary until Adult size) don't get lair actions.  It would certainly make the fight tougher if they do, and if you feel they can handle the additional challenge they impose, by all means keep them. Strength 19 has a carry capacity of 285 lbs, so flying with a dress-wearer is likely possible.  I might reduce its flying speed some due to the load (would give the players a chance to hit him and make him drop the caster before he got to a terminal height).My party was 5 level 6 characters, each with a magical item or two, and they managed to down the dragon the second time they engaged it.  The first encounter was a fly-by breath/spells exchange while they were fighting lizardfolk outside its lair in a ruined palace partially sunk in the swamp, with the dragon flying off and diving into the water surrounding its lair at around half health to go get healed by one of the lizardfolk shamans.I wore them down a bit with lair guardians, more lizardfolk groups led by shamans and directing the dragon's menagerie of poisonous creepy crawlies (giant poisonous snakes, giant scorpions).  They had to fight through a gauntlet of these, culminating in an encounter with the dragon's elite guards, lizard king/queens.It ambushed them again at a subterranean entrance to its lair while they were engaged with the final pair of of its elite guards, but good saves, attack rolls, and a wtf-smite nova by the paladin brought an end to it in three rounds, with over 50% health dealt in the final round, and before its breath recharged again.  No party deaths, but a couple of characters knocked to 0 between the two encounters with it.  The plan was to have the dragon fly off again under half health and come back to harry them on the way out, but the paladin's final smite was epic enough to give them the win, and their resources were too low for me to justify any hp-total fudging to add additional drama.The characters' party:6th level Vengeance Paladin with Sword and Board6th level Open Hand Monk6th level Chain Lock of the GOO with Darkness/Devil's Sight/HoH6th level Battle Master Fighter with GWM6th level Dragon Sorcerer (copper) with Fireball/Hypnotic Pattern as 3rd level spells</blockquote>

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