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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 7298564" data-attributes="member: 6801845">I just had an encounter with a level 20 party, and they were worried.&nbsp; How?&nbsp; Well, I did add some levels of sorcerer to the dragon but don't underestimate the power of an ancient dragon. The tactics were simple - the dragon knew they were coming so he didn't play stupid.&nbsp; He created cover (low-hanging clouds of smoke) sent in some minions to distract the party and then used his fire breath.&nbsp; Between fear (which many people had no chance of succeeding at) preventing the melee types from getting closer and legendary actions (wing buffet) to keep the party from swarming him he focused on one individual at a time, getting as many people as he could with his breath weapons when they recharged.&nbsp; Just because he's &quot;king of the hill&quot; doesn't mean he's an idiot who is going to go toe-to-toe with the raging barbarian if he has a choice.Admittedly the party didn't know exactly what they were going to face and only a couple of the people had fire resistance. There was no paladin fear-suppression aura.&nbsp; The added levels of sorcerer along with the Luck feat, legendary saves and counterspell were also there but honestly I didn't even use those abilities.The difficulty is going to vary dramatically by party; a paladin could have suppressed fear, archers could have pegged him from a distance.&nbsp; But at that point I would have just changed my tactics.&nbsp; Fly by using reach to attack, grab the paladin and toss him somewhere out of the way or just let them clump up so I can breath on them all from 90 feet away and then get somewhere I can't be seen or targeted.Don't listen to the naysayers, if you just run any monster as a big bag of hit points that does nothing to take advantage of their strengths, fights will be boring.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 7298564, member: 6801845"] I just had an encounter with a level 20 party, and they were worried. How? Well, I did add some levels of sorcerer to the dragon but don't underestimate the power of an ancient dragon. The tactics were simple - the dragon knew they were coming so he didn't play stupid. He created cover (low-hanging clouds of smoke) sent in some minions to distract the party and then used his fire breath. Between fear (which many people had no chance of succeeding at) preventing the melee types from getting closer and legendary actions (wing buffet) to keep the party from swarming him he focused on one individual at a time, getting as many people as he could with his breath weapons when they recharged. Just because he's "king of the hill" doesn't mean he's an idiot who is going to go toe-to-toe with the raging barbarian if he has a choice. Admittedly the party didn't know exactly what they were going to face and only a couple of the people had fire resistance. There was no paladin fear-suppression aura. The added levels of sorcerer along with the Luck feat, legendary saves and counterspell were also there but honestly I didn't even use those abilities. The difficulty is going to vary dramatically by party; a paladin could have suppressed fear, archers could have pegged him from a distance. But at that point I would have just changed my tactics. Fly by using reach to attack, grab the paladin and toss him somewhere out of the way or just let them clump up so I can breath on them all from 90 feet away and then get somewhere I can't be seen or targeted. Don't listen to the naysayers, if you just run any monster as a big bag of hit points that does nothing to take advantage of their strengths, fights will be boring. [/QUOTE]

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