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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 2723146" data-attributes="member: 19675">If I earn a .pdf, I'll take whatever you wish to award me.I was shaped by a dragon encounter run by a novice DM back in 1979 or so.  He put a HARD asleep on its hoard in the second room of a dungeon.  The party was 1st level, I was the Paladin.I instantly pegged the DM as an idiot, so I played along with disgust- you want to be a killer DM, BRING IT ON!  My Paladin strode up the hoard, climbed onto its head, straddling its neck, then drew his longsword and his dagger.  He then stabbed the beast in its eye with his longsword, and using the now-lodged blade as a handle proceeded to stab away with his dagger.The rest of the party was dumbfounded...but joined in.  Some dwarves wandered in and joined in the fray as well.  The party and the dwarves did some damage...but it was the Paladin who did the most, holding onto the blade like a medieval rodeo cowboy, stabbing away with a 4" piece of metal.  He even got the coup-de-grace as well...That was the LAST time that guy had me at his table- I couldn't believe that something so potentially epic had happened so cheaply.Unless it is sick or insane, a dragon will use every bit of intellect it has.  It will use tactics and spells to best effect.  It should be as tough an opponent as any lich or avatar.  As a creature with flying, it will think in 3 dimensions, not 2.  As such, any dragon encounter should involve at least as much forethought as the rest of your adventure.  It should be EPIC.  Players should have a genuine fear that their PCs will not survive the encounter.  They should consider retreat at least once.When last I ran a dragon in lair encounter, it had an illusion over its body that made it appear to be asleep whenever it was on its hoard, regardless of its actual wakeful state.  Thus, when the party approached, the dragon was already thinking ahead...The first thing it did was use its powerful tail to sweep a large portion of its horde, wavelike, towards the party.  Several were overwhelmed and knocked over...only the strongest remained standing on the front line.  Then he breathed flame at the swamped PCs, heating and even slagging some of the metal.  He then repeated the tail sweep and accentuated it with flapping wings...those not further buried were blinded by dust and gravel.  It continued flicking and kicking coins while it breathed flames and thought about its spell selections...Lightning bolt cast on a PC in metal armor standing in a conductive medium like a stack of gold?  Electrical Fireball.Rock to Mud cast on an area underneath someone already weighed down by 100's of lbs of treasure?  Brutal.Then, just when they thought they had it figured out, it used polymorph to change its shape and outflank them, and attacked from behind.The party did not win...but instead of being snacks, they were forced into servitude for a time.Another encounter in another campaign had a blue dragon coming up out of the clouds from underneath the party's sky-galleon, grabbing on, and attacking around the sides (like a housecat wrapping itself around your arm or foot)...then dropping off into the clouds and attacking from another direction.  The dragon's hit-and-run tactics had them completely in disarray until the mage got in a lucky shot with a spell and the dragon failed its save.Another red dragon attacked from the air...and never closed to within 500 yards after an initial strafing run with its breath.  First, it used an illusion to appear to be flying along the King's Highway towards the party from the North.  Then, as the party attacked the illusion, it strafed them from the South.  Then it either cast spells on them, or dropped boulders on them like a (very big) seagull.  Eventually, it figured out that the party wasn't fun (meaning: wasn't an easy meal), so it just wandered off...unscathed...looking for cattle.</blockquote>

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