D&D 5E How soon is too soon to fight a Dragon?

[iserith]

Also, a quick question. Recharge 5-6? Does this mean that I roll a d6 every round after the Dragon uses its breath, until it recharges?

You do it at the start of the dragon's turn. But I would recommend you do it at the end of the dragon's turn instead - and do it in full view of the players, adding whatever description makes sense to show that the dragon may use its breath weapon on its following turn. This creates some suspense and also allows the players to plan for the eventuality. I find that's a lot more rewarding for the players since they can make decisions to improve their chances of survival a little more effectively than finding out with no notice that the dragon has its breath back.

Also, consider checking out this scenario I posted a while back: Monkey Business. In this challenge, the characters' goal is to retrieve their friend from an area where two gigantic monsters are fighting each other. You may get some inspiration from how I set things up.

 

[ccs]

Also, a quick question. Recharge 5-6? Does this mean that I roll a d6 every round after the Dragon uses its breath, until it recharges?

Yep.

As for fighting dragons?
We took on the blue dragon in the 1st chapter of HoTDQ at lv.2. We won (drove it away with a crit, but other than that we dealt it almost 50 pts of damage)

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Also, a quick question. Recharge 5-6? Does this mean that I roll a d6 every round after the Dragon uses its breath, until it recharges?

Yes. See MM p. 11 for details.

Would the AoE be able to shoot almost straight up, and at the ground? That is the kind of fight I am expecting, if they can keep the enemy Dragon grounded.

If it's a cone, it extends upwards and downwards as well as to the sides. If I were a dragon getting mobbed by another dragon and a party of ground-bound opponents, and the other dragon was directly above me, I'd just move 5-10 feet over before breathing so I could catch both the airborne dragon and the humanoids in a horizontal cone. That is, if they can manage to keep me grounded. And that's a big if, since I very much do not want to be grounded.

Not sure if the enemy will necessarily be a chromatic, thinking I might make dragons more individual than RAW, so it could be an Evil gold fighting a Good green, for example. I also thought of making my own chaos Dragon, that gets a random breath weapon when it recharges.

The numbers are about the same for metallic dragons. Brass has the lowest at 49.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Would the AoE be able to shoot almost straight up, and at the ground?

Unless you have a reason to deny that, sure.

I also thought of making my own chaos Dragon, that gets a random breath weapon when it recharges.

Sounds fun, if the fight isn't over too quick.

Otherwise, I wasn't planning on throwing it at them until at least 5th level, I just wanted to make sure it was something they could be reasonably expected to survive, or if I should wait longer than that.

BA means that even a 1st level party could walk into a fight between two dragons and 'contribute' in some small way. It doesn't mean they have any reasonable chance (by the numbers) of surviving if one of the dragons breaks off the duel to kill them. ;P

Besides, if you want them to survive, they will. It's just a matter of how you narrate the encounter. Describe the dragon's struggling but stalemated, if they step in, they alter that balance and the one they help wins. Doesn't matter if the mechanics necessarily back that up in some statistically-probable sense or not, just how you as the DM set things up, and how you rule when the players act.

 

[Lanliss]

Alright, have a slight bit more written up. It is going to be a tweaked Young Green Dragon vs. An Adult Chaos Dragon (Black Dragon stats, random breath weapon.) Young Green will have increased fly speed of 100 ft, and a +3 Dex mod.

I will roll a d4 on the Chaos dragon's turn, and it will try to fly on a 1. If it does this, the green Dragon will grapple it. On a successful grapple, the green will throw the Chaos back to the ground. If it fails, they will begin circling, spraying their breath weapons at each other. There will be a few trees in the area that are tall enough for the players to jump onto the dragons, if they think of it.

Thoughts so far? Does it seem doable for 5th level PCs?

 

[Tony Vargas]

Not sound like a method actor, but what's their motivation?

 

[Lanliss]

Not sound like a method actor, but what's their motivation?

The players or the Dragons?

Dragons, I have changed my mind (in the few shorts hours since I started this thread). The territory belongs to the Green, Chaos is the invader, because Chaos is more like an animal than a thinking creature. Chaos is defending itself, Green is defending its territory.

Players
No idea, other than the fact that my players like meddling. They might decide they want a Dragon friend, or maybe by this point one of them will have a character that loves green dragons for some reason.

 

[Shiroiken]

I had a group get between 2 Adult White Dragons and 5 Cloud Giants at level 6-7. Only 1 PC death

 

[Tony Vargas]

Yes, both, thank you.

It sounds like it'd be fairly reasonable for the dragons to ignore the PCs until after they actually do something. If that something is pivotal enough, there might not be overwhelming consequences to them.

Seems like a workable scenario to me. And a potentially interesting one.

It'd be more interesting if the players went into it knowing something about the dragon's backstories, especially in the case of the green, since it's in essence a local. Does it exact tribute/provide protection/take livestock/drive off other predators/etc? Is it a local legend rarely seen, or often in the skies? Does it find human pawns useful, or is it cautious of humans because they can be dangerous out of all proportion to their frail mortal forms?

If the Chaos dragon is more bestial, it could still have a history, or at least it's type could. Are chaos dragons 'real' dragons? Do they arise spontaneously? Are they a race apart or the result of a 'normal' sort of Dragon suffering some sort of consequence or aberration? Are they mentioned in a prophecy or a sign of some force of chaos rising in the world?

 

[Lanliss]

Yes, both, thank you.

It sounds like it'd be fairly reasonable for the dragons to ignore the PCs until after they actually do something. If that something is pivotal enough, there might not be overwhelming consequences to them.

Seems like a workable scenario to me. And a potentially interesting one.

It'd be more interesting if the players went into it knowing something about the dragon's backstories, especially in the case of the green, since it's in essence a local. Does it exact tribute/provide protection/take livestock/drive off other predators/etc? Is it a local legend rarely seen, or often in the skies? Does it find human pawns useful, or is it cautious of humans because they can be dangerous out of all proportion to their frail mortal forms?

If the Chaos dragon is more bestial, it could still have a history, or at least it's type could. Are chaos dragons 'real' dragons? Do they arise spontaneously? Are they a race apart or the result of a 'normal' sort of Dragon suffering some sort of consequence or aberration? Are they mentioned in a prophecy or a sign of some force of chaos rising in the world?

Chaos dragon's are widely known of. they are chaotic corruptions of normal dragons, that occur spontaneously when a Dragon brushes too close to a chaos relic. WIll be a history, or nature check to see what they can remember.

Green will be known as well. She has a history of defending the area from creatures such as the Chaos, but the PC's will not know this unless they try to learn about it from local NPCs.