I *almost* feel guilty...

Wow, that's quite a party. I would say that dragon is just a suit of armor waiting to happen.

I have to agree with several other posters, the II might be a bit much to start with. Although, I do see the dragon using the spell if he/she takes a bit of a beating. The dragon might fly off a short distance, cast the II and come back, looking to target the PCs since they ruined his/her fun of ransacking a village.


Regards,
Airwolf
 

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With a party that strong and caster heavy the Improved Invisibility in combat may be quickly mitigated with spells such as true sight etc... So him comming in sneak attacking while improved Invis'd i feel is more than fair. Maybe have a bit more fun and if possible use summoned monsters (many small ones) for the pose purpose of dropping flask's of Alchemist fire and/or smoke sticks. True Seeing does nothing to help vs concealment. Play the Dragon Mean and vicious. he's their to hurt someone and hurt someone bad. you said he knows hunters are in the area so have him concentrate on whoever hits him the hardest first untill he realizes that their is alot of damaging coming his way. Oh.. and load up on Dispells!! I know B.A.D.D. would be sadded to hear how a group of 4 17th level Characters killed a Great Red Wyrm in 4 turns and walked away undamaged (the only one that took damage was the Animal Growth'd Dire Tiger of the Druid but it was tagged with a Heal Spell before the dragon went down). And the primary reason why we kicked its butt so bad was when we tport'd in we had multiple Dispell Magic's and Greater Dispell Magic's ready so that when we went in we dispell'd many of his protections (we missed haste but got his Engergy Immunity-Cold) and then readied to counterspell any attempt to cast a spell. while the Awakened Animal Growth'd Dire Tiger ripped it appart in physical combat the Druid pounded on it with Energy Substitution-Cold spells and the Cleric (Me) and the Sorcerer were ready with Dispells. While the Arcane Archer Plucked at it some too. With a group with 5 of the 7 being caster's having the Dragon Haste'd would allow him to move or attack while having a Dispell Readi'd to counterspell spells the party throws at him. Make sure his spellcraft skill is high so he can identify the spell and determine if he wants to counter it or not. Have him bring help (Summon Monster) so that the party doesnt just focus on him. Again if he wants to caust alot of damage real fast have him use a slew of Monster Sum-1 level monsters to carry Smoke Sticks, Acid and Alchemist Fire. have him hit his targets fast and hard take a PC out and leave. Do it again the next day.
 

Airwolf said:
Wow, that's quite a party. I would say that dragon is just a suit of armor waiting to happen.
Yeah. The majority of them have been playing those characters since 1st level. I'm debating on making the dragon a bit older...

I have to agree with several other posters, the II might be a bit much to start with. Although, I do see the dragon using the spell if he/she takes a bit of a beating. The dragon might fly off a short distance, cast the II and come back, looking to target the PCs since they ruined his/her fun of ransacking a village.

Yeah. That's prolly what'll end up happening. :-)
 

They don't call this game Dungeons and Kobolds pal! Pull out all the stops!

Burning villages is great and all, but remember to be unrepentantly mean. This is a creature of embedded evil we're talking about here. Eat a couple of children on a fly-by attack. Scoop up an old grandma, take her up a few hundred feet, then drop her on town square. Don't forget to burn all the crops you can.

And by all means, keep the improved invis. What's scarier than an angry Red Dragon? An angry stealth Red Dragon!
 



Nightchilde-2: have you settled on an age for the Dragon yet?

If its not too late may I humbly suggest the following?

1.) Drop Imp Invis. Older dragons will know that this is useless versus vetern dragon hunters. Try Obscuring Mist or Cloudkills instead. The Dragon has Blindsight, the entire party should not; it will gain concealment in most cases and still be able to target the party.

2.) Limited Wish = the must have spell for high-level dragons.

3.) Slow = the next must have spell. The party will run out of Hastes before it (as a Sorcerer) runs out of Slows. With the pre3.5 rules the "Haste/Slow" round per round Mage Vs. Dragon duels in my campaign have served to eat up rounds of "mage does nothing" to no end. ;)

4.) Snatch Bite + True Strike = can't beat it. The Rogue types, and yes with the senses that a dragon has it should recognize Rogues just like high level players do. Once the Rogue is Snatched (make sure its the round before it can breathe, or the round during if hasted) it breathes for no save for the poor Rogue.

5.) Dispel Magics = Ok. Dispel Good a Cleric spell (which Red dragons get access too) = BETTER! Target that Energy Immunity or Prot Fire on the Cleric and *poof* its gone. While its summoned creatures distract the party and its cloud-type spells confuse them, it makes a hasty Snatch-breathe snack of the cleric. ;)

6.) Teleport. Re-dundant for a flyer? Nope, the dragon is a poor or clumsy flyer. The ability to get-away fast is invaluable.

7.) FireShield = cold version. C'mon, every Red in its right mind knows that "hunters" will try to throw Cold vs. it.

8.) Contingency (can be done through Limited Wish prior to any encounter) and Heal. Reds get cleric access, this should always be up as "When I drop to below 10% of my health." (which is correct role-playing as well since folks don't know their "true" hit points in that sense).

9.) Greater Planar Binding = Dragon summons Outsider X. Makes bargain = You get blood and souls to take back to your realm, and trinkets I don't want (rare, but could happen) in exchange for being my body-guard/assistant for the next year. This spell provides much needed side-tanks for dragons at a very cheap cost. Dragons are smart enough to make wise calls on this, and other beings are wise enough to know its good to have a dragon friend. ;) (aka Wurmy from old Dragon magazine)

10.) Use all of it's items. Magic items re-size to fit the wearer, including rings, cloaks, boots (on a dragon *shrug*), whatever it would find usefull and you deem is acceptable.

11.) Keep this in mind: Smaug was the weakest and dumbest of his kind. The other dragons were coniving, sneaky, deceptive, and the deadliest creatures (next to the Valar) in ME. Use Smaug tactics of "BURNINATOR" as a last ditch effort, and only if you want the PCs to win.
 

Just a couple of thoughts,

With a party that high in level, inv spells are going to be down in no time. So I say ditch the Imp. Inv. and go with regular Inv. Instead, use that 4th spell for stone skin or fire shield(more cold protection). Dragons are smart and will use the PC's fears against them. Have the dragon telekinese a couple hundred pounds of villigers up in the air, forcing the PC's to scramble to save them. Feeblemind, criples arcane spell casters, haste lets your dragon attack and cast spells in the same round, grease is an absolute bane to fighter types and works quite often. To be especially leathal, buff up your dragon a bit(fox's cunning for int and increased DC saves)
Don't feel bad about it eather, Reds plan out their attacks in painstaking detail, accounting for all contingencies.

That party can afford to lose a couple of PC's.
cheers,
justfisch
 

Just a clarification:
Smaug was the last great Dragon, the greatest of his time. He may not have been as mean or conniving as Glaurung or Ancalagnon the Black, but he was still mean.
;)
 

bah!

any dragon who doesn't know that 1 of his 4 million scales are missing and dies from being shot by a slaying arrow = wuss.
:p

Ok, i'll admit that the whole "crushing a whole town in your death throes thing" is neat; but he's still the lowest on the totem poll of all dragon-kind in ME and shouldn't be emmulated by other dragons aspiring for greatness. hehe. ;)
 

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