So there is this Red Dragon...

[Mark]

Make sure that folks all have some healing potions ready so they can help themselves or others as necessary.

Reach and ranged weapons are vital to your survival.

Get in good with a local temple or lord that would like to see the dragon vanquished and maybe they'd be willing to back you up in some way.

It might be that this is a test to see if the group is smart enough to run away and live to fight another day so don't force the fight if it can be avoided.

Your chances are slim no matter which level the dragon actually is...

 

[Darklone]

Clerics should cast Shield other on the spellcasters, otherwise those are dead dead dead.

 

[MerakSpielman]

If your party actually kills it, we might have to report you to B.A.D.D....

 

[Dougal DeKree]

Clerics should cast Shield other on the spellcasters, otherwise those are dead dead dead.

surely you mean shield of faith? shield would have a range of "personal"...

otherwise, you could always try the old "kobold-corpse filled with poison/acid/whatever nasty" that looks tasty and hide for the time being...

Of course my own reaction would be the spells disappear/expeditious retreat and the run like hell

Dougal

 

[S'mon]

He means 'shield other' - actually doing that while fighting a young adult red is what got Tallarn's PC killed IMC...

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28405&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

He was 8th level AIR, they had 13 PCs and NPCs in the 7th-11th level range to ambush it.

From the Story Hour:
"The next morning, Sigurd ordered the guards to have a statue constructed to poor Arf, then the battered party headed for Pan Charak, reaching the barony after nightfall. There at Castle Brax they consulted with the young Baron Abu Brax, and met a band of five Thrinian Knights come to aid Pan Charak against the hordes of Gaxmoor - and kill the red dragon troubling Carrisqui Town! Aos got on very well with a female member of their company.

Two days later the party departed for Carrisqui Town, along with the Thrinians, reaching Dulleaberg in two days, where Sigurd reported to the Margrave. Then they departed for Carrisqui Town, and the dragon...
At Carrisqui, Sigurd berated the Mayor for his lack of loyalty to the League, and somehow extracted the magical greatsword of Vorloth from him!

30/2/2738: Dragonfight
Lorne, Ori and Orstadt waited hidden beneath the dragon's sacrificial cows in an open field southeast of Carrisqui Town. The others waited in the trees. Lilliana summoned two celestial stewards of Carthea, and beseeched their aid - which was granted with the proviso that Lilliana travel to Imarr and free the city from Overking Tarkane's tyrannical rule!

The red dragon Wormscather was spotted, approaching from the southeast. His fiery breath incinerated most of the cows, but as he landed to feast, the adventurers struck. Ori, struggling with a barbecued cow, got to his feat, only to be flattened by the angry dragon. The Thrinians charged on horseback, but their lances proved ineffective against the dragon's magical Shield. Sigurd flew up to attack from the flank, doing some damage. The party closed in on the dragon - fully thirteen adventurers to face the beast! The celestials dispelled the dragon's protective magics, giving the party the chance to draw blood. It bit, clawed, beat its wings and slapped its tail furiously, injuring many, but Sigurd hacked furiously, while Aos tried to leap on its head, and Xyzzy threw spells. At length the wounded dragon took flight and flapped away. Larius, Lorne and Sigurd followed flying, doing further damage, but at length it outdistanced them, returning badly wounded towards its distant lair. The party had triumphed, and claimed their reward, but the dragon still lived and had best be tracked down before it recovered, or it would go ill for Carrisqui..."

 

[blackshirt5]

Dude, you're at around 4th level, fighting a Young Adult Red Dragon? I'll remember your PCs fondly(can I get some names, I need to fill up the graveyards IMC).

 

[ZSutherland]

If it really is the Youg Adult, yeh you're all toasty, run now or make peace with whatever Gods are in your campaigns pantheon. If it's the smaller one w/ only 4d10 BW, I'd go with the following tactic.

Wait for scaly to go to sleep then have cleric silence, invis, & bull's strength whoever can do the most damage with a melee attack. Sneak up on the sleeping beast and CDG after everyone else has readied an action to launch a ranged attack/spell as soon as he wakes up in the very likely event that he doesn't fail the Fort check against the CDG. Try to take him indoors in a fairly low ceilinged area. You don't have fly but Jump could get you close enough for touch attacks probably. Fan out around in him in a circle relying on ranged attacks. Hope that the hoard yields enough to ress the poor sod who went in first.

If your DM is playing this right, this will be a hard fight, but at the same time, the dragon's gonna be really pissed, too. As such, if he's picking on someone too long, take free actions to toss insults and/or scoop up a bit of his hoard (assuming that's where the fight takes place), which should draw his attention. If this takes place in a dungeon, it might be worth your time to set up some traps throughout the corridors and memorize their locations, then draw his attention with the CDG and flee to a pre-chosen battle ground. Hopefully his bulk and sheer pissiness will cause the traps to hinder him a bit so you're not standing al in a straight line when be BWs behind you in the corridor and will make him that much angrier and more easily distracted when the fight comes.

Absolutely under no circumstances should you attempt to battle him in any area w/o walls and a ceiling. This is suicide. At the same time, don't fight him in such an enclosed space that you can't use your ranged attacks and any reach weapons you have well.

Good luck and happy hunting,
Z

 

[MacMathan]

Hmmm... Good point about Young Adult versus Young or Very Young.
Perhaps I have been mislead a bit If 4d10 is Very Young then maybe we will be okay.
I was worried that it was something like a Young Adult.
Thanks for all of the input.

As a side note how do nets work on a dragon? Do they prevent flight (i.e. all tangled up)?

A bit more info- This fight is something we have been forced into, most of the characters would avoid it if there were not sufficient mitigating factors.
We are also pretty much refugees from the wars in Tenh so we don't have access to a city or shop area right now to get most supplies.
The party will have to do with the equipment we have been able to scrounge up and what skills we have.

The upside is it looks like we may have been able to RP our way into an alliance with some local orcs who would like to be rid of the Dragon too. -

 

[Nightfall]

Depends on the nets...and the age of the dragon. A young red dragon, probably netable. A young adult, not so much of a chance...

 

[Jshock_75]

Wait for scaly to go to sleep then have cleric silence, invis, & bull's strength whoever can do the most damage with a melee attack. Sneak up on the sleeping beast and CDG after everyone else has readied an action to launch a ranged attack/spell as soon as he wakes up in the very likely event that he doesn't fail the Fort check against the CDG. Try to take him indoors in a fairly low ceilinged area. You don't have fly but Jump could get you close enough for touch attacks probably. Fan out around in him in a circle relying on ranged attacks. Hope that the hoard yields enough to ress the poor sod who went in first.

Sound tactic, except for one thing... I beleive dragons have Scent. Not that I think Invis is useful in this situation anyway (since the dragon's asleep), but even if it couldn't see you coming, it could certainly smell you. Unfourunatley, I can only think of one remedy for this, and it involves dragon doo...