D&D 5E Observations and opinions after 8 levels and a dragon fight

[Xxandx]

I think Dragons is suposed to be one of the hardest creatures in any rpg setting to beat! And the older they are the harder they get.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

No one has killed a dragon in my games so far, although intimidation factor is at least part of it....I suspect they could kill a dragon of appropriate CR but they're so freaked out at the risk that they just try to escape or talk their way out of dragon encounters instead. The fact that when they did get into an initial row with a dragon it killed every single NPC (and there were a lot) in the radius of its breath weapon instantly was pretty terrifying...and close to half the party was dropped by 1/2 to zero HP in one shot.

One of my two groups is terrifying, though: three warlocks and a druid. It's an unbeatable combination of area effect and raw firepower.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

No one has killed a dragon in my games so far, although intimidation factor is at least part of it....I suspect they could kill a dragon of appropriate CR but they're so freaked out at the risk that they just try to escape or talk their way out of dragon encounters instead.

This matches my experience exactly, and I love it! Intimidation is definitely a part of it, and that intimidation is built on uncertainty, which comes from lack of intelligence (in the knowledge sense)... which is a large part of what I want my game to be about! If they ever do decide to take on the dragon whom they're running from now, I want it to be a big deal emotionally for the players even if it winds up not being a big deal mechanically for the PCs, and that happens if the players aren't sure going in whether they're going to win or lose.

All they know at this point is that dragons are apex predators, and that this dragon single-handedly killed the vampire NPC wizard who was kind of an evil mentor to them (doing about 100 points of damage per turn to him). And they may know the MM stats I guess. So right now they'd rather evacuate the planet they're on than take on the dragon, which is pretty delicious from a roleplaying perspective.

 

[the Jester]

One of my groups recently had their first (and my first) 5e dragon experience.

It was a party of... I think there were 8 pcs present; they were 3rd level (with maybe one or two 2nd level guys).

The encounter was with a hill giant and a green dragon wyrmling. The giant had the wyrmling on a chain but immediately let it loose to attack.

The pcs slew the giant but the dragon escaped, yelling that it was gonna find its mom.

 

[Starfox]

The pcs slew the giant but the dragon escaped, yelling that it was gonna find its mom.

I sense a saga in the making! This sounds like the beginning of a misplaced youth that will lead this wyrmling to the typical evil of black dragons - black dragons are not exactly known for being caring mothers.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I sense a saga in the making! This sounds like the beginning of a misplaced youth that will lead this wyrmling to the typical evil of black dragons - black dragons are not exactly known for being caring mothers.

I don't know any reason to assume that a black dragon's mother is also necessarily a black dragon.

In my world, all dragons are the same species, and their red/black/white/gold/silver nature kicks in based on their dominant personality traits (black = vicious, red = arrogant and controlling, silver = heroic, gold = arrogant and mysterious, white = brutal and stupid, etc.) in a way similar to how crocodile sex is determined by temperature. It's even possible to change colors over time: dragon mothers warn their kids that bad behavior will turn them into a white. You could theoretically turn an ancient red into an ancient silver through a sufficiently life-changing experience (Grinch Who Stole Christmas). Good dragons are relatively rare, maybe 10%, since altruism isn't easy for dragons.

I did this for two reasons: it's easier to maintain critical population density for ONE dragon species than ten (i.e. "why haven't brass dragons died out? no one ever sees one"), and it also leads to more interesting role play if the "good" dragons are good in a complicated way instead of just straight-up opposing evil dragons. If you ask a silver dragon for help killing a red dragon who destroyed your village, you're not unlikely to get a response, "I think it's just dreadful what he did to your nests, but we can't just kill him. After all, he is my brother. Why don't I go talk some sense into him and see if I can get him to pay reparations."

You can approximately imagine it as if humans are spotted owls, good dragons are environmentalists, and evil dragons are capitalists/loggers. Even good dragons don't see humans as equals, but they try to treat them well anyway. Evil dragons think conserving humans is stupid and a waste of time/resources. Some of them (black dragons) even think that hurting humans is fun.

 

[Starfox]

Very cool! I actually do something similar, tough not as succinctly expressed.

You can give dragons different roles in the world without actually changing their game stats in any way. In my Dragonstar campaign, dragons had stopped breeding in the normal way, so all new dragons came from dragon disciples developing into true dragons over time.