Not all CR's are equal!

[Archer]

Obviously if the party isn't prepared and the dragon has other advantages then the dragon has an advantage beyond what is suggested by merely its CR. If the dragon was freakishly lucky after putting some points into power attack that's not reflective on CR. Without power attack it had about a 50% chance to hit? Did you max power attack to +14 and roll a 20? What sort of 7th level fighter has no magic weapon. Weren't all the fighters hasted? Greater magic weapon would make any weapon +2 (or 50 arrows)

I still don't see why they weren't able to use ranged attacks. You are better off fighting a dragon outside where it only gets 1 attack per round and you can always shoot it especially when it isn't big enough to grab you as long as the wizard has some place to hide. The fire shield would work pretty well if cover wasn't available.

You said the party was prepared and didn't say anything about poor situation vs the dragon. If the cleric was underequiped for his level and in a poor situation then obviously the encounter would be easier.

 

[Petrosian]

Miscellaneous observations based on the description...

"Everything iced over" which seems to mean the PCs had movement penalties or die rolls to stay afoot, is a serious terrain edge. While it was mentioned that the dragon created it, thats pretty much a setup/terrain advantage. i would consider that at least +1 CR. It sounds like it had a significant impact, so possibly a +2.

Its definitely bad form for the PCs to engage with non-magic weapons. IIRC its DR is +1 so even a first level magic weapon spell does wonders. BAD TACTICS, unless the party has no resource to use these spells.

Standing to-to-toe with multiattack creatures is usually just plain dumb. (If the ice made them not want to move around much, then hey, thats yet another ice terrain issue.) Usually, as a group you are better off taking a swing and backing off, at least every other round or two, because as a group giving thedragon ONE bite and then ONE AoO per turn is much better than giving him a bite, two clawsm a tail, two wings each turn. this is especially true for high BAB critters like dragons or renders like trolls. Either way, whatever drove the PCs to stand and give the dragon FRAs was a serious detriment to their battle. Hopefully, it was a learning experience.

Make the dragon move 10' and suddenly its not mauling you anywhere near as much.

I remember readin a post once from a guy who just played on of thw wotc modules and was complaining about this creature with 7 attacks per round doing d6+6 each and how it mauled the party. Of course what he had not seen was that it was an open field battle and said beastie had a 10' move tops with no range. His gang had rushed in and stood there, taking FRAs all along. No wonder they got mauled.


If the battle against the classed characters was more of a straight up fight, i can see why these two forces fought at different strengths.

BTW, can you provide the characters classes and levels?