ideas for building a dragon killing druid (needed for backstory)
- Thread starter oliverhenshaw
- Start date
two
First Post
Dead Dragon
Well, if the dragon is in the druid's home territory, it's over with.
Assuming the dragon is "trackable," and not hiding out quivering with terror somewhere:
Day 1: Druid buffs, goes to dragon in toad form or something, casts a save-or-be-screwed spell. If dragon saves, run away immediately. If dragon fails, finish it off. Must also penetrate SR, so that's another roll to be made.
Day 2: Repeat.
Day 3: Repeat.
Day 40: The dragon has rolled a natural "1" by now (at least) on a spell that penetrated SR and is unhappy or dead.
Basically, as long as you can survive a single round vs. the dragon (who might not even know where you are, if you cast a silent version of the attack spell) you are golden. Plus, you have to be able to track the dragon down every day, but, unless it flees the Druid's territory, that's easy.
So, just stay out of charge/grapple range, cast one spell a day (or two if you get surprise) and then flee. Attrition, based on a natural 1. Always works. Just takes a while.
Nothing survives a few months in a cranky Druid's terrain.
Well, if the dragon is in the druid's home territory, it's over with.
Assuming the dragon is "trackable," and not hiding out quivering with terror somewhere:
Day 1: Druid buffs, goes to dragon in toad form or something, casts a save-or-be-screwed spell. If dragon saves, run away immediately. If dragon fails, finish it off. Must also penetrate SR, so that's another roll to be made.
Day 2: Repeat.
Day 3: Repeat.
Day 40: The dragon has rolled a natural "1" by now (at least) on a spell that penetrated SR and is unhappy or dead.
Basically, as long as you can survive a single round vs. the dragon (who might not even know where you are, if you cast a silent version of the attack spell) you are golden. Plus, you have to be able to track the dragon down every day, but, unless it flees the Druid's territory, that's easy.
So, just stay out of charge/grapple range, cast one spell a day (or two if you get surprise) and then flee. Attrition, based on a natural 1. Always works. Just takes a while.
Nothing survives a few months in a cranky Druid's terrain.
Storyteller01
First Post
What keeps the dragon from tracking the druid with high spot/listen checks as well as "clair-everything" for senses. You'd have to a teleport ready to go before the attack.
Last edited:
Brother MacLaren
Explorer
Storyteller01 said:
The fact that the dragon doesn't know who just cast that baleful polymorph. Was it the frog over on that rock? The bird flying overhead? The bobcat at the shore of the lake? With Natural Spell, is there any indicator that a creature just cast a spell? Detect magic might give away the Wildshape, but you cannot scan 360 degrees at once, and it takes a round to cast. Call lightning storm from hiding and from several hundred feet away is another good tactic.
Playing my first druid right now... not sure, but it looks like the aquatic animals he can summon (with Augment Summoning) are slightly stronger than the land-based ones. He could probably make life very difficult for an equal-CR black dragon, especially once he knew it breathed acid and could cast Resist Energy or Protection From Energy accordingly.
Hey, look, I like dragons. They shouldn't be disposable. But they aren't all geniuses, they aren't all archmages, and they aren't all demigods.
Darklone
Registered User
I would assume that a dragon with a sufficient Int and skill score in Spellcraft would know that a druid can wildshape and cast in animal form, as well how to "see" that. Even if not, a simple detect magic will let the druid shine like a lighttower with all his buffs.
Running away, from a dragon??? Check their speeds.
Running away, from a dragon??? Check their speeds.
Sejs
First Post
Actually a sufficiently high level druid is one of the few people that -can- run away from a dragon, if they're in the right environment. Tree Stride pretty much makes your escape ensured because there's no way to track which direction you went in.
... I think it's Tree Stride. It's that or Transport Via Plants. In any case - the good one. The one that lets you make multiple jumps. There's also things like Master Earth and such that can let a druid get away, too.
As for the dragon automatically sensing the druid.. it's not so bad in 3.5, now that a dragon's blindsense is a set range, rather than growing with age category. As long as the spell is medium or long range, casting undetected shouldn't be all that difficult if you're careful.
... I think it's Tree Stride. It's that or Transport Via Plants. In any case - the good one. The one that lets you make multiple jumps. There's also things like Master Earth and such that can let a druid get away, too.
As for the dragon automatically sensing the druid.. it's not so bad in 3.5, now that a dragon's blindsense is a set range, rather than growing with age category. As long as the spell is medium or long range, casting undetected shouldn't be all that difficult if you're careful.
Brother MacLaren
Explorer
Darklone said:
The dragon might know about wildshape and natural spell, but "how to see that" is to cast True Seeing. Out of our CR 9 adult black's range (casts as a third-level sorcerer). What are the visible signs of Natural Spell? Detect magic is not particularly useful in this case. It's a 60' range, and it only covers a 60-degree arc (not sure how that applies in 3-D). The first round of concentration, you only get the presence or absence of magical auras, not their strength.
In other words, if I've tossed a few light stones in opaque bags here and there in the swamp beforehand, or cheap magic items, I can make the dragon waste two rounds on each; one to scan the arc, and one on concentrating to determine the number of auras and strength of the most powerful aura. In the first round, a light stone gives the same result as a Holy Avenger.
Also, with the limited range, Detect Magic wouldn't catch a caster who cast Baleful Polymorph and then moved away. In fact, by placing false auras, you could create a useful diversion. Assuming no caster feats, a DC 19 Baleful Polymorph (+4 Wis) has about a 9% chance to work (60% chance of beating the SR, 15% chance of the dragon blowing the save). That's not bad at all for a single character trying to take out an equal-CR dragon with a single spell. Alternatively, Call Lightning Storm is useful for staying out of sight and hammering the beast. If you have Augment Summoning, a giant constrictor snake or a pair of giant crocodiles (with Animal Growth in either case) would be a challenge even for a dragon.
Last edited:
two
First Post
Darklone said:
It's not that the dragon 100% won't notice a bird flying overhead, or a toad hopping 100' away, or a snake or gopher or fox. The dragon might see such a creature, after all. But the dragon can't spend the whole day incinerating all living creatures, or retreating from every flopping fish. Or spend all day with detect magic up!
If all a druid wants is one round to cast a spell vs. the dragon (and that's all a druid needs to do every day) I can't see how barring some meta-gaming or the dragon sealing itself up in a cave, you can stop an inventive shapeshifting druid from doing this. The druid casts a spell via natural spell (he might even win initiative) and then retreats via tree stride or burrowing or whatever. Make sure the Druid has Freedom of Movement up, and that even stops any remote grappling dangers from the Dragon, if the Druid has to get that close.
At the very least -- this is an adequate back story. Tell the party of the harassing Druid, who used a different animal form every day, and on the 20th day cast Baleful Polymoph vs. the Dragon which worked, and transformed the dragon into a housecat. Or something like that. It's solid on a rules front, makes sense (never fight druids on their home court), but doesn't make dragons seem wimpy. Dragons just have limitations, is all, which is fine. We all do.
