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Message: <blockquote data-quote="M8" data-source="post: 5447016" data-attributes="member: 6669161">I'm new to d&d so take this with a grain of salt.I think this is one of those fights which can turn out to be: a pushover, a solid battle or an epic encounter, being determined by the dice rolls.The dragon will deal a certain amount of dmg, based on his avg. dmg output and his aura/tail combo. Making phase 1-2 a solid fight.But in phase 3, if the dragon manages to throw off players into their demise the luck factor takes a HUGE role. If the players have some unlucky dice rolls in this phase, they pretty much die.If only one char survives and manages to slay the dragon and resurrect the other players it might become an epic and memorable fight.If the dragon doesn't manage to throw off enough players, they won't even notice this mechanic. Making it an easy-hard hack&slash.- My two cents::1. The green dragon idea is probably a very good one. The small green dragon catches a falling player, and needs a few turns to bring them back into the battle. Other ideas might be: a druid casts a transform spell that turns them into birds, a shaman summons mystical winds, a djinn has a magical carpet, a wizard is using forcefields to block the edges of the pillar etc..It makes the dragons grab basically a one turn "stun", while they have to wait till they are placed back into the battle. It's not deadly, but still memorable. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />2. The players (or a dead player) could control this npc, or the npc will be able to use his ability only a certain amount of times during the encounter. Or just any given number of turns. Or the dragon kills the npc at a certain point of the fight etc. Which could create a tactical challenge to them.3. The NPC uses a magic item to catch the players, which he drops when he dies, one of the players needs to run there, pick it up, and use it, to be able to win the fight. (A minor action?)4. There are several NPC's, who deal a great amount of (non-existent dmg), to the dragon, which makes him angry, forcing him focus his attention on them first. Once they are all dead or thrown down, the next one to be thrown down are the players. (The npc's deal no real dmg to the dragon, and the dragon gets an "extra" attack to deal with the npc's). Making the NPC's a "turn counter", by the time the NPC's run out, they have to slay the dragon or else.5. In your place I would use a "wing flap" mechanic instead of the grab mechanic.Phase 1&2 as normal, in phase 3 the dragon flies up and lands at a tactically good spot, flaps his wings, to create an air pressure, which pushes the PC's towards the edge (push x, or slide x).There are some obstacles the PC's could hide behind, or if they stay in the middle of the rock pillar, they won't have to worry, or there could be a mechanic which would make the dragon stop this attack. (There is an important thing on the rock pillar the dragon protects, eggs, an artifact etc.)I think this mechanic is better because none of the players would feel they died because of a bad die cast, or that they have been picked out, for uncertain reasons by the DM, but rather, everyone has to endure the wing flap mechanic at the same time (no bias) and come up with a plan to avoid it /survive it. Although all the methods I came up with, needs some sort of "player understanding", if they think this is just a normal hack&slash fight, with no new elements, they might get into trouble.I hope it helps. :-/</blockquote>

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