Need BADD assistance

[Barendd Nobeard]

My players (children age 7-12) are in Forge of Fury and approaching the final level....

Any suggestions on running the dragon? I think it's time for a real challenge (although the yellow mold almost killed one player earlier, and it looked bad for a few rounds when the cleric forgot to turn some undead).

The party is large (7 characters) and very well balanced (Clr4, Rog4, Wiz4, Pal3, Ftr2/Wiz2, Bar2/Pal2, and Druid3).

Some of them were present a while back when the group killed a very young blue dragon. It scared the bejesus out of them, so I think they have a healthy respect/fear for dragons even though they killed one once.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[gfunk]

If I were you, I would use a lot of hit and run tactics. For instance, have Nightscale cast Darkness on herself (I believe she can do this at least 1/day) and use hit and run tactics. A particularly brutal strategy would be to cast Darkness and come out of the water. On the next round breathe your acid stream adn dive underwater again. Rinse and repeat.

Dare the PCs to actually go swimming to get you . . .

 

[Tom Cashel]

Check out the rules for Disarm and Trip. Have Nightscale pop up out of the water, take away their weapons and knock them down. Can this dragon Snatch? If so, pulling PCs underwater and invoking The Drowning Rule is a good way to knock them off. She could also breathe on the rickety bridge if more than one PC is on it...or even one strong PC (the paladin?). But hit and run is the operative phrase here...remember that Nighscale can see them LONG before they can see her...

 

[Xarlen]

Using her tactics in the module, she could eat through a lot of people.

Due to the size of the group, I would raise her an age catagory or two, then have her take full advantage of blindsight. If not that, then do the darkness acid spraying and such, then have her dive under the water, and come around at the party's back, while they're trying to figure out what to do. Use Move Silently to sneak up on anyone (Paticularly spellcasters), and lay into them like there's no tomorrow.

Or, try to have her grapple someone, and drag them into the water with her.

Wow, them's some young players.

 

[Tom Cashel]

I just noticed the age range. I'd say that BADD (Lords of TPK) advice is probably for "mature audiences."

BADD advice...heh.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Wow, them's some young players.

Start 'em young, that's my motto. Two of the players are my children, one is the son of someone I play with, and the others are their friends.

It's really funny to see the 7-year-olds ignore the advice of the 11-12 year olds. The older ones rarely verbalize it, but the the look on their faces always has that "I told you so!" smirk.

 

[kengar]

I concur with Tom. I wouldn't raise the age level of Nightscale either. Dragon CR is goofy anyway (+2 or 3 to MM CR; unless party *knows* it's there and buffed up specifically to kill it). I ran group of 5 (ages 25+) through FoF. By the time they reached the dragon, they were nearly all 7th level characters (they kept leaving the dungeon and "side-adventuring" to a large city to sell loot). They had wiped the floor with the CR10 Roper so I boosted Nightscale to a CR6 (Young adult iirc).

T...P...K

Granted, this party had no healer/cleric, but still! The only one who ever even hit the dragon was the ranger who had about a +12 with her bow. I think she took off max 5-10% of the thing's hp before getting ripped to pieces.

For such a young group, leave the dragon as is and maybe boost its HP a bit (closer to max hp for HD instead of avg) to keep it from dying too fast (everyone gets a shot or two in). IMHO. YMMV, etc. etc.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I just noticed the age range. I'd say that BADD (Lords of TPK) advice is probably for "mature audiences."

BADD advice...heh.

Well, the age of the players is one reason I won't rasie the dragon's age category.

But, really, I don't want to play this dragon like a moron. I do enough of that already! I'm assuming they will run away and most (if not all) of them will live. If they stay to fight (even just a few rounds), well, the dragon is no dummy and they'll pay the price.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Right on.

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

Yeah, our party faced Nightscale and it was almost a TPK. Her hit and run tactics killed two of us (leaping out of the water, grabbing, and swimming away).

I wouldn't dumb down the dragon, but what I would do if find someone in the FoF who might offer some advice to the players on how to kill the thing. Maybe some prisoner of the Trogs whom they rescue. He/She can tell them to lure the dragon out of the water or plan some sort of strategy against it.

'Cause if they fight the thing in the water and not run, it's likely to be a TPK.