Soloing a Dragon

[tankiller]

Hello EN World,

In the past you have helped me greatly as a player and now I come to you as a DM. I am running a 1 player party and I wanted to use a dragon.

This is for a one shot campaign. The player is a Vow of Poverty lv10 Goliath Monk, as well as being an experienced player so I have faith that he can handle it.

The basic plot of the story is that the players rival from his training days at the monastery has put together an adventuring party and is raiding monastery to obtain a valuable dragon related artifact that belonged to the monastery's founder who was a half-dragon. The player's goal is find and obtain the artifact before his rival and to defeat the rival to save the monastery. To find the artifact you must complete a series of challenges, each of which will be guarded by one of his rivals party members that are trying to figure out how to pass it and all except for the final challenge can be completed in any order, the last of which is to battle a dragon statue that will animate.

I have been toying with Gold, Silver and Bronze dragons (I want a lawful non-evil Dragon) of the young or very young variety depending on which one I use, but I'm not sure what would be appropriate for a 1v1 dragon combat. I was wondering what you all thought would be an appropriate challenge. I want the dragon to be beatable but still put up a challenge. My player will also have access to Heal Potions so he should be able to stay at full health in between encounters.

Thank you ahead of time for your help.

 

[Dandu]

Can the dragon fly?

 

[tankiller]

Can the dragon fly?

The encounter takes place in a room that is 60ftx60Ft with a 50ft ceiling. So yes it has the room to fly but to avoid a one sided battle I will try to avoid having him fly.

 

[Dandu]

Very good idea.

I think you might want to try for a CR 7-8 dragon.

 

[James the Newbie]

. So yes it has the room to fly but to avoid a one sided battle I will try to avoid having him fly.

I think loosing flight would reduce the CR by 1 for a dragon, who benafits slightly from such things

Try having one of its wings clipped, that way it could use its wings, but there is a good reason it cant fly

 

[Dandu]

It couldn't fly if it wanted to; there's not enough room for a dragon to maneuver if I remember the flight rules correctly.

Also, I think younger dragons don't necessarily get flight either.

 

[tankiller]

I think I'm going to go with a young silver dragon for the encounter. The CR7 seems about right for the encounter and the monastery is in the mountains so it fits thematically as well. Depending on how well the Monk does I might buff or nerf him but this is a good start. Thank you for the help.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I think I'm going to go with a young silver dragon for the encounter. The CR7 seems about right for the encounter and the monastery is in the mountains so it fits thematically as well. Depending on how well the Monk does I might buff or nerf him but this is a good start. Thank you for the help.

I know you mentioned animating a dragon statue. An alternate suggestion, since based off a Silver Dragon, you could Roleplay the beginning of the encounter with the dragon using the Alternate Form ability to assume the form of a humanoid- a frail old man, an attractive woman, a king, a sage, a child, etc. Lets the dragon try to catch the Monk by surprise.