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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 2233440" data-attributes="member: 4937">Being wimpy wasn't really thier problem.   There problem was that either you defeated one easily, or you had a TPK.   There wasn't much in between.   As a DM, using dragons was always tough, because you knew that if your party was capable of facing it, it would probably be a cake walk, and if not you'd like kill off the entire party.The thing that amazes me in that statement is the 'only'.   If you'll go back and look at my list, you'll see that this exactly fits into one of the problems that I pointed out with 1st edition.   Simply put, a monster with 88 hit points was one of the toughest enemies in the game and in fact, there weren't all that many any non-unique monsters with more than 88 hit points - and certainly not in the original Monster Manual.  Keep in mind that the the dragon's 1st edition 12th level fighter opponent probably only had about 65 hit points, and the 1st edition 12th level thief would have probably had no more than about 40.  The magic-user probably had less than that.  Keeping that in mind, exactly what is going to happen when a dragon with 88 hit points and a cone breath weapon breaths on the typical PC party?   Even if everyone in the party makes thier save - unlikely considering that even 12th level characters might need to roll 10 or better to do so versus breath weapons - probably only the fighters are left alive and they have lost 2/3rd's of thier hit points.   And remember, unlike latter edition dragon's, 1st edition dragons could only breath 3 times per day, but they could breath every round if they choose to.Believe me, you don't know the half of it.</blockquote>

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