D&D 5E PCs As Dragons?

[Zardnaar]

I have an adventure for Saturday where the PCs have to get into the Dread Dragon Temple (Quests of Doom Volume 2)

The adventure is for level 5-7 my current party is 5 members with higher ability scores than the default array, and there is a +1 dagger and a staff of striking in the party for magic weapons. They are all dex based.

Party Composition

Shadowdancer Monk
Battlemaster Fighter
Light Clerics
Mastermind Rogue
Hunter Ranger (bow+sharpshooter)


Dread Dragon temple is a carving on the side of a mountain except it it 15 miles long. Inside is a staff along with various magic items (+1 short sword, +1 Greatsword, +2 shield), and a Dragon staff where it turns the PCs into Dragons for up to a week. I think they are young Dragons of whatever colour they like (its not that clear).

The big bad at the end is when they leave the temple an adult blue dragon swoops in. The idea is 5 young Dragons vs 1 adult blue, see who wins. I can see this going very easily for them or very badly not sure which but the overall concept is fairly cool/epic.

I might also sex the temple up make it a remnant of one of my ancient empires and it may be a temple of Tiamat or Ao. There are Dragon eggs of all colours inside as well.

So is the basic idea alright or maybe add some encounters and run it later around level 7? Another adventure I have is a jungle expedition so I was thinking of adding a small hook where the PCs go and investigate a magic portal that can send them to the equivalent of Venezuela circa 1700 AD.

 

[Xeviat]

Are you looking for advice on what would be appropriate challenges for 4 young dragons?


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[Zardnaar]

Are you looking for advice on what would be appropriate challenges for 4 young dragons?


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5. And if it is a good idea as well.

 

[Lanliss]

My only question is how a Dragon is using a bow. That aside, sounds fun. Watch out for Dragon tactics though. They might all just fly around spitting their breath weapons at your big one, making sure to stay far enough apart that Biggie can only get one of them at a time in his. Really, since a single young Dragon, theoretically, could take on an adult 1 on 1, it might be a bit easy. Of course, that is just a gut feeling, no number crunching involved. Maybe try a mated pair of adult dragons, to offset the numbers? Twice the breath weapon, twice the claws, twice the targets, make it a bit less of a good idea to nova all over one of them.

 

[Zardnaar]

My only question is how a Dragon is using a bow. That aside, sounds fun. Watch out for Dragon tactics though. They might all just fly around spitting their breath weapons at your big one, making sure to stay far enough apart that Biggie can only get one of them at a time in his. Really, since a single young Dragon, theoretically, could take on an adult 1 on 1, it might be a bit easy. Of course, that is just a gut feeling, no number crunching involved. Maybe try a mated pair of adult dragons, to offset the numbers? Twice the breath weapon, twice the claws, twice the targets, make it a bit less of a good idea to nova all over one of them.

I'm not worried if they do this.

 

[Lanliss]

I'm not worried if they do this.

Fair enough then, it should be fine. Mechanical bits aside, seems like fun. Just remember to have maybe 2 copies of the stats for each young Dragon type. They probably won't all pick the same one, but that doesn't mean they will all pick different ones, and it might get a bit annoying to pass the MM around the whole time.

 

[ccs]

It sounds like a great idea to me.

So does making it a temple of Tiamat. If you do that? I'd further dress it up as a series of 5 initial temples, each dedicated to one color of chromatic dragon. Each temple having 1/6th of the total loot in it. Including an obvious & lootable magic gem (maybe the eyes or heart of a statue of each particular dragon type?).

The final temple would be to Tiamat herself, include the last of the treasure. and a magic staff - with 5 spaces that obviously are meant to hold gems.....

5 players, 5 gems, Tiamat has 5 heads, hmmm....


On delaying this a few lvs/running the jungle adventure;
I'd do the jungle adventure 1st. Have the portal transport the PCs back in time to the jungle areas equivalent of 1700s Venezuela (IE; a very long time ago based on the worlds current year). Do whatever there. While there? Have them learn of the temple. Maybe it's even an active site! Sadly they don't get a chance to attack/investigate it before they shift back to the modern day. But they now know where it is! And they know it's full of loot!
Getting there in the modern day, they find that it's been sealed shut.
Not that that should stop PCs. Or give them pause to consider NOT opening it.

However.... Breaking the seal sends an alert to those who don't want this ancient site opened. Namely the metallic dragons! And they send a Bronze/Copper/Silver/Brass/Gold dragon (whichever you think would be the coolest) to kill whatever comes out of the temple.

Why does the good dragon show up at the end? Travel time.
Why doesn't it go in & deal with the PCs earlier? Can't. Mystically barred from entering the domain of Tiamat.
Why's it fight the PCs to the death? Because it's not interested in negotiating with agents of chromatic evil. If the players protest that they are in fact not evil/not serving Tiamat? It simply doesn't believe them. (the Persuasion roll DC for the party should be about 2pts higher than the max they could possibly achieve ) Especially not if they reveal their true colors (so to speak) by transforming into young chromatic dragons! Besides, how often do players get to fight & kill metallic dragons? That's a lot cooler than yet another big blue, etc.

And if they survive, now the PCs are involved in something larger than just themselves. They've allowed Tiamat reentry into the world. They've earned the animosity of good dragons. And they're enjoying the blessings of Tiamat.


Edit: Ooh, an afterthought! During that week they're turned into dragons? You should have them go attack a little town called Greenest!

 

[Sunseeker]

Having turned my players into the most absurd rule-breaking of draconic monstrosities over my last year-long campaign I have some thoughts:

Your players will typically wind up with lower AC and higher HP. Will this balance out? That's really a dice issue. If players happen to choose the "right" dragon, ie: a blue or brass dragon and get lightning immunity it'll make some of them very tanky in the face of your Big Blue Baddy. Damage will increase slightly due to, more than likely, higher than before physical stats. (personally, I'd let them keep their mental stats during the transformation) Casters will be at a distinct advantage with better mental and physical scores, as well as better saves. I'd give your Big Blue Baddy some casting of their own, anything that is "half on a save" will help put the hurt on the party, ideally some spells that will diversify Big Blue's damage capabilities (acid, poison, fire, etc...)

If your players use "dragon tactics" the simple solution is to focus fire and make generous use of Legendary Actions on the Adult to punish them outside of Big Blue's turn. Kiting is a very real possibility and Big Blue should be run smart enough not to fall for it. The players should have some kind of goal that they need to get past Big Blue for to ensure that they don't simply just run around at max range.

As for "properly using their weapons", dragons have fully dexterous hands, so if the dragon-PC retains the knowledge of how to use a bow it may seem silly, but there's no reason they couldn't shoot it.

 

[Lanliss]

As for "properly using their weapons", dragons have fully dexterous hands, so if the dragon-PC retains the knowledge of how to use a bow it may seem silly, but there's no reason they couldn't shoot it.

Now I am just imagining a 20 foot long Dragon holding a tiny bow in its claws, firing arrows with little *Plink* noises.

 

[Sunseeker]

Now I am just imagining a 20 foot long Dragon holding a tiny bow in its claws, firing arrows with little *Plink* noises.

I added a size-scaling property to some certain weapons for my players. So giant dragons got giant bows. It was kinda epic. Most players went beast-mode though.