What do you do when the rules don't allow something?

[roguerouge]

If you're at the level to fight dragons, you really ought to have the resources to fly. If they, for some reason, don't have that ability, let the wizard craft an item.

 

[Dykstrav]

If you're at the level to fight dragons, you really ought to have the resources to fly. If they, for some reason, don't have that ability, let the wizard craft an item.

4E has dragons spread all across the spectrum of levels. A young white dragon is only a level 3 solo--which means that a 1st-level party of adventurers could take it on as a viable challenge. In the first adventure I ran for my new 4E campaign, I used the wyrmlings from draconomicon, which can be even lower in level. The white wyrmling in that is a level 1 elite, so you could theoretically have a dragon and some kobolds as a level 1 encounter.

 

[Jack99]

Not everything you run into is meant to be a "level-appropriate" encounter.

You missed the point. Again. It was a simple question caused by Derren's obvious love for dragons in D&D. Nothing else.

But, just to clarify something. I was running non-level-appropriate encounters around 1990 and I still do. Because yes, you can do that in 4e too. Just like every other edition of D&D. In fact, 4e is much better suited to do it, IMO. Because it at least gives the players a chance to (try to) run.