D&D 5E Young dragons, lair actions and CR

[Li Shenron]

I have finally started playing D&D 5e with my children. Talking about breeding your own gaming group as the only way to have a stable one these days

Anyway, after a one-shot introductory adventure (conversion of "A dark and stormy knight" from 3e), in the second session we started a longer adventure (conversion of "Horror on the hill" from BD&D), the final encounter of which can be a young red dragon!

So I am trying to make some considerations in advance related to the dragon. I want them to find it, because after they finished their first adventure my children immediately asked "so this was the dungeon, but where is the dragon?" Naturally I'll have to use the weakest option i.e. Wyrmling, which is anyway going to be very tough on its own: it's CR 4 and 1100XP, so assuming they'll be 3rd level when they get there, it's already (albeit barely) a "Hard" encounter according to the DMG.

One thing that isn't clear yet, is whether a dragon this young should be using lair actions. I don't know for sure if a wyrmling doesn't have lair actions at all, can have lair actions (but they aren't included in the CR and XP, which should be increased) or should have lair actions (included in the CR and XP).

I am confused by some mildly conflicting information here:

(a) lair actions are not written inside the stat block but instead presented in the "A dragon's lair" section for each dragon type, so they look like they apply to all dragons of such type
(b) regional effects in the same section explicitly mentions legendary creatures, while lair actions don't
(c) the MM introduction mentions lair actions only in the context of legendary creatures, and only Adult and Ancient dragons have legendary actions
(d) someone pointed out that there are monsters with lair actions but not legendary actions (although I couldn't quickly find an example in the MM)

So (a) and (b) seem to suggest all dragons have lair actions but (c) suggests only the legendary ones. Maybe there was a Sage Advice to clarify?

Using lair actions would be very cool, but I wouldn't want to make the encounter even harder, so if it's not counted into the current CR/XP, I'll skip it. Or maybe I'll just use the "drop prone" effect, but not the lava damage which sounds quite high for CR 4 to me.

 

[Tormyr]

The lair actions in the MM are considered to be for "legendary" dragons. Generally this means Ancient and maybe Adult dragons. The dragon lair actions would be way too much for a low level party, but you can always make lair actions for any other creatures while they are in their homes (such as kobolds setting off traps for a kobold chief).

Lair actions do add to a creatures CR if they add damage or healing. In your particular case, the dragon might run away after taking too much damage, have weak lair actions, or have some extra hp to fit in with what you want. As this is a red dragon wyrmling, you could have some lava or other fire effect that triggers as a lair action, but it would need to be turned way down from what is in the MM.

 

[jasper]

Only Adult plus have lair actions. Don't do lair actions for wyrmlings. I made this mistake during Sunless.

 

[tardigrade]

Worth remembering that nonviolent dragon encounters are possible, and might be the easiest way to have a memorable dragon interaction at low level. Greens like 'living hoards' of pet artists and bards etc, for example.

That said, I just ran Tower of the Mad Mage from DMs Guild for my group last week, which (spoiler) includes a young in the finale. I did my best to telegraph the possibility of non-combat solutions the whole way through but the murderhobos still deliberated a straight fight for a worryingly long time before fleeing. :/

 

[Quickleaf]

One of my favorite lines from the 5e DMG about tiers of play mentions (paraphrasing) "...if the low-level characters encounter a dragon, it will be a wyrmling struggling to find its place in the world, much like the characters themselves."

I think that's a brilliant starting point for how to portray a wyrmling.

While the MM's magma, tremors, and volcanic gas Lair Actions are over the top (and involved DCs/damage too extreme for low-level PCs), no reason you can't improvise some toned down ones for your game.

For example, maybe there's a mine the red dragon wyrmling is in the process of taking over? So it's "lair actions" might include things like sending mine carts full of breath-ignited flaming coals down the tracks.... squeak-roaring to frighten up bat swarms... causing old oil lamps to suddenly light on fire...

I often homebrew lair actions that feel apropos to the monster involved. And just as often they have more to do with atmosphere/unique nature of the monster/interesting terrain than direct offense.

 

[Anakzar]

Personally I would go with a young dragon if they are very tactical or 2 Wyrmlings at that level. One wyrmling is going to die fast and unless you can hit more than one with the breath they will not be hurt all that much.

Or better yet make up your own dragon with stats between the Young and wyrmling. So you can truly challenge them and make the encounter memorable. You could also have a trap that the dragon has set up... just a dead fall type that it sets off with a roar when the PCs confronting it. (not super damage just 2d6 or so just to give them some thing to think about)

IF going with an older wyrmling, bump it up a bit in HPs maybe in the 90s-low100s and give it multi attack at least two, one claw and one bite. Keep the bite damage the same as wyrmling but +8 to hit and adding in a claw attack or two hit 7 (1d6+4). The breath is enough damage but maybe increase the area to 20foot cone. Otherwise same stats as wyrmling.

 

[jgsugden]

RAW: They only get Lair actions as the book describes: just the big'uns get em.

RAF (Rules as Fun): I always make dragons special. Every dragon will interact with their environment in some way that makes the encounter special. Black dragons coming out of water, white dragons attacking on frozen land that is so slippery (and when the ice breaks... pcs fall into freezing water that dragons refreeze with their breath....), red dragons melting rock or metal ceilings with their breath to drip down on PCs, lightning breath from a blue can interact with a variety of surfaces in interesting ways - and I loved the green dragon that had a bunch of small tubes carved into his lair so he could breath his gas into any chamber at any point in time from his central room... or lives in a place where there are naturally poisonous gases at all times...

 

[Erich the Fuzzy]

There is a young dragon with lair actions in Candlekeep Mysteries (not a spoiler, as I'm not saying what kind of dragon or which of the 17 adventures it's in) and it's mentioned that the room it's in counts as its lair so it gets its lair actoins. It doesn't seem to imply that it's special or unusual for this young dragon to have lair actions, so it doesn't read like "specific beats general".

And the adventure was developed & edited by Chris Perkins in a book with Jeremy Crawford credited for rules development, so it doesn't get any more official than that.

Also, hags get lair actions in Volo's Guide to Monsters, and Merrenoloths (CR 3) have them in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and neither of them is legendary or has legendary actions. So there are many precedents for non-legendary creatures to have lair actions.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Legendary creatures are creatures with Legendary Actions. Regional effects and Lair Actions for dragons are confined to Legendary dragons. Only adult and ancient dragons are Legendary, so only they have Lair Actions or regional effects.

 

[Erich the Fuzzy]

Legendary creatures are creatures with Legendary Actions. Regional effects and Lair Actions for dragons are confined to Legendary dragons. Only adult and ancient dragons are Legendary, so only they have Lair Actions or regional effects.

That's not what the Monster Manual says. It says regional effects go with legendary dragons, but it does not mention legendary when describing lairs or lair actions, it only says "A [colour] Dragon's Lair" and "the dragon takes a lair action". See MM pages 89, 92, 95-6, 99, 102-3, 106, 109, 112, 114-5 and 118.

Also look at page 140 of Candlekeep Mysteries for an example of a young dragon with "lair actions as described in the Monster Manual".

MM page 11 attributes lair actions to legendary creatures but does not say that ONLY legendary creatures can have them. Hence hags & merrenoloths who have lair but not legendary actions.