Need help with Dragon Tactics

[Altamont Ravenard]

I'm guessing TPK in a major way.

Don't fight it then. Run away. In another plane.

And screw the DM big time

AR

 

[Tilla the Hun (work)]

Don't fight it then. Run away. In another plane.

And screw the DM big time

AR

Yea - but don't tell the GM till the last possible moment.

Players: We approach the cave at about 2 miles out.

GM: The dragon takes flight, looks like he's climbing for a strafing run.

Players: We teleport. Then Planar Shift into another dimension. Waht can we find to do here where we can survive?

 

[Grant_Stoom]

One thing we could do is to get right before his cave, and use our Rod of Security and go rest for 20 minutes. That should remove a lot of his buffs

I'm not a big fan of meta-gaming, but times like these were made for Taster's Choice.

 

[melkoriii]

Make a whole lot of Rods of Immobility with both end sharp and pointy.

Then place them in the enterance to the cave a few feet apart in a matrix that covers the enterance. Then cast some invis/hide spell on the area to hide the rods.

What for the Dragon to Fligh in or out and impail on the rods.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I'd recommend not fighting it. Or at the very least, not fighting it within its lair.The dragon likely has significant resources and you've said it has ample warning of your arrival. There are a lot of things it can do that won't be disrupted if you delay for 20 minutes before entering, or even 20 days. You should expect lots of permanent or near permanent defenses at least on the dragon's inner lair if not the whole complex it's lairing in. Mordenkainen's private sanctum has a 24 hour duration (or permanence). Possibly permanent prismatic walls erected just inside the sanctum, if you're hasty and walk into the shroud of the sanctum you hit the wall. Dimensional locks blanketing the area (19 days duration each for a great red wyrm). A minefield of various symbols to wade through. A widened antimagic field would perhaps be a good option for the dragon given the almost mandatory reliance on magic to defeat it. And if you do manage to overcome all of that and defeat it hope that it was confident enough to assume that it would never be defeated and so hasn't tucked away a clone of itself somewhere.

Whether or not the dragon would be able to do all these things depends a lot on the situation, of course. From what you've said, though, I'd be anticipating the worst. A great red wyrm would be tough enough for your group on an open battlefield. Add to that the fact that you're meeting it on its home turf. Add to that the fact that it knows you're coming. As you already know all of that (and your characters probably aren't ignorant of a lot of this reasoning either) I'd have to ask why you're doing this in the first place. Seems a lot like walking into a death trap.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Destroy its lair, from the outside, with liberal uses of disintegrate, earthquakes, etc. Bury it alive.

AR

 

[Pax]

The first, last, and best rule I can think of is: DON'T FIGHT IT ON A BATTLEFIELD OF THE DRAGON'S CHOOSING. Make it come to you, if at all possible. Fight it INDOORS, if you can.

 

[Pax]

Yep.

It's factored into the CR, (not 20 extra levels of sorc - just what dragons get naturally) and this dragon is one of those "can cast from the cleric list" variety. So we get to expect Heals on itself too. YAY!

OH ^%#& ... nevermind my post just now. Run away. RUN VERY FAR AWAY!!!!!.

Access to cleric spells means, probably an Unhallow. With some effect tied to it, which affects YOU but not the DRAGON.

Which could be very very bad. Picture the whole place blanketed in a constant silence spell, which doesn't affect the Dragon (it can hear you, and cast spells w/o using the Silent Spell feat, etc).

 

[Plane Sailing]

The only thing that you have even slightly in your favour is that you can have lots of actions each round to the dragons one action (assuming that it has no minions, etc... very unlikely).

I wouldn't rate your chances very well though.

Cheers

 

[Nail]

Haven't made a will save yet. Would it prevent the scrying or just alert us to it?

Read up on the spell. A successful Will save means you can't be scryed.

...Unless yer DM cheats. If it were me, I'd count on that.

So: Tell us how it went!