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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gargoyle" data-source="post: 6340159" data-attributes="member: 529">Your concern is valid.  Dragons are like levers.  If you put a lever in a dungeon, someone will pull it.  There are three things that I would do:1) Make sure they encounter the cultists first, or at least encourage them to do so through the druid NPC.2) Instead of the druid asking them to drive off the dragon right off, have him ask them to slay the twig blights and zombies.  3) Warn them overtly of how powerful the dragon is.1)  Cultists.   The cultist encounter is a pretty good one (evil guys that don't automatically attack!) that resourceful players might use to their advantage against the dragon.  I can see groups easily seeing through their manipulation and turning the table on the cultists. I could see it playing out like this:- PC's encounter the creepy cultists who have evil written all over the them with their masks, etc, but who aren't hostile and try to convince the PC's to help them talk to the dragon.- PC's converse privately and agree, but they know they're going to get doublecrossed and have a plan.- The cultists try to offer them up as tribute to the dragon, but the PC's enact their plan, which could be a number of things.- The dragon ends up attacking the cultists for a couple of rounds, first with his breath, and they try to run.  Maybe one survives to serve as a recurring villain.- The PC's commence with the stabbing and spellslinging and drive the dragon off.They could botch things and end up having to fight both the dragon and cultists, but I think not.  More likely they either get the hell out of there with intention to return later (smart) or convince the dragon the cultists are out for its treasure and forced them to join them, which would be an easy sell...who brings armed tribute?  (clever and daring)Now if they never meet the cultists and go straight to fight the dragon, I think that would be a shame, so I'd make sure they encounter them first, but other than that I wouldn't railroad them too much.    While I mostly like letting them go where they want, if they headed straight to the tower, I'd divert them, maybe have the druid find them and warn them away.  2) Druid.  One thing I dislike about this druid fellow is that he really doesn't know how powerful these adventurers are, but is fine with sending them off to fight the dragon...without helping.  So maybe he's a fool and a coward, but you'd think he'd at least do two things:  One, have them prove their might and help him by killing the zombies and twig blights in the area and investigating the cultists.  He doesn't help because he needs to "conserve his magic", or some such...maybe he provides some sanctuary by concentrating on a ritual and could provide some healing for them when they rest.And two, after they've had a long rest (and hopefully leveled up) ask them to help him drive off the dragon.  So there are two ways they are nudged to fight the dragon, one is the cultists, one is the druid.  I don't believe there are stats for the druid so you'd have to either make them up using playtest rules, or stat him up as a cleric.  I'd give him lots of healing and buff type spells to keep the spotlight on the PC's, with maybe shapeshifting into a bear form if they are caster heavy and need a melee distraction.  Or maybe he doesn't face the dragon with them (I'm too old to fight) but buffs them before they go.3) I wouldn't make the dragon any easier to fight, but in town maybe have them hear a couple of rumors about how a green dragon killed an entire patrol with just one breath. Bodies of would be dragon slayers rotting in the entrance to the tower can block the entrance while providing a suitable warning of the type of breath they can expect.Personally I'm also ok with them randomly running across a creature too tough for them now and then and being forced to run.  But I can see the point where it's anticlimactic to get one-shot TPK'd.  And I'd much prefer that encounters with dragons aren't anticlimactic.OTOH, as a card carrying member of BADD (Bothered About Disposable Dragons) I don't want dragons to be a meaningless encounter / loot pinata, thus me thinking I don't want to pull too many punches and probably won't change it much, but I might make this dragon more than a side encounter.  So while I will probably leave the encounter as is using the above methods to make the encounter interesting, it might be the mate of the true mastermind (instead of a drow, make it a female green dragon) and fly off early to warn her of the adventurers.  Or maybe I won't cause I'm busy and it's just easier to run it as is.</blockquote>

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