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<blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 565914" data-attributes="member: 7464">Ok. here's my story (not fair to start these things and not post in 'em).I did this to my party just last week (I'll be adding the tale to my story hour soon).They are exploring the tower of a Vampire Lord, locked in the frozen wastes of the Arctic. Naturally, the VL has some local allies, such as a white dragon he's known for centuries.I hadn't planned on the (12th level) characters encountering it yet, but they zipped quickly though the tower on a beeline for the dragon, encountering it before I had done a proper write-up of that level. I had no notes on the dragon, its age, spells, treasure, nothing.So I flip open the MM and, remembering that whites are the smallest and weakest of dragons, make it &quot;Very Old&quot;Three rounds into the combat I found myself strongly hinting to the player of the cleric that &quot;You have a spell that will help you get though this.&quot; Most of the party was 90% down on HP at that point, and the dragon was almost unharmed (still had 95% of its HP).The player of the cleric, no dunce, slapped a Harm on the dragon, effectively ending the battle (he tends to avoid Harm because it channels Evil energy).So I managed a near TPK, provided the hint to allow the characters to survive, and let them kill a dragon beyond their means. The session ended, and I'm left with the decision on XP and treasure... Less than it should be (because the dragon was rendered not a threat by me, not the players), or more (to make up for my error)?*SIGH*</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MerakSpielman, post: 565914, member: 7464"] Ok. here's my story (not fair to start these things and not post in 'em). I did this to my party just last week (I'll be adding the tale to my story hour soon). They are exploring the tower of a Vampire Lord, locked in the frozen wastes of the Arctic. Naturally, the VL has some local allies, such as a white dragon he's known for centuries. I hadn't planned on the (12th level) characters encountering it yet, but they zipped quickly though the tower on a beeline for the dragon, encountering it before I had done a proper write-up of that level. I had no notes on the dragon, its age, spells, treasure, nothing. So I flip open the MM and, remembering that whites are the smallest and weakest of dragons, make it "Very Old" Three rounds into the combat I found myself strongly hinting to the player of the cleric that "You have a spell that will help you get though this." Most of the party was 90% down on HP at that point, and the dragon was almost unharmed (still had 95% of its HP). The player of the cleric, no dunce, slapped a Harm on the dragon, effectively ending the battle (he tends to avoid Harm because it channels Evil energy). So I managed a near TPK, provided the hint to allow the characters to survive, and let them kill a dragon beyond their means. The session ended, and I'm left with the decision on XP and treasure... Less than it should be (because the dragon was rendered not a threat by me, not the players), or more (to make up for my error)? *SIGH* [/QUOTE]

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