Dragon in A Gathering of Winds

[Jay Walsh 53]

This will be the first dragon in the adventure path and I am worried that it will be a pushover for 6 PCs plus a cohort. What are people's experiences with the Ilithane encounter at the beginning?

Thanks

JAson

[Pop'N'Fresh]

I ran this encounter in Pathfinder with 5 PC's. The PC's were all 10th level and included a paladin, a rogue/sorcerer/arcane trickster, a cleric, a barbarian, and a wizard/fighter.

The group started to search around the cairn entrance and started approaching the copse of trees that Ilthane was hiding in when she sprung up to attack.

I actually had to pull some punches as my group's ranged abilities were pretty lacking. I used the Pathfinder stats for Ilthane as a mature adult black dragon (CR 12) and just gave her breath weapon the poisonous fumes ability.

She could have easily wiped the floor with the group if she flew for the entire encounter.

[Jay Walsh 53]

Pop'N'Fresh wrote:

I ran this encounter in Pathfinder with 5 PC's. The PC's were all 10th level and included a paladin, a rogue/sorcerer/arcane trickster, a cleric, a barbarian, and a wizard/fighter.

The group started to search around the cairn entrance and started approaching the copse of trees that Ilthane was hiding in when she sprung up to attack.

I actually had to pull some punches as my group's ranged abilities were pretty lacking. I used the Pathfinder stats for Ilthane as a mature adult black dragon (CR 12) and just gave her breath weapon the poisonous fumes ability.

She could have easily wiped the floor with the group if she flew for the entire encounter.

My party has amazing ranged abilities and are two level 11 and four level 10, plus a level 7 cohort. We are playing in 3.5. I worry that the dragon will be a pushover.

[Dennis Harry]

Give Ilthane more hit points or maybe pick up some feats from the Draconomicon for Ilthane.

[TheWhiteknife]

Yeah, you are probably going to want to pump her up a little bit due to the fact that she is going to be way behind in the action economy. I had the same problem running for a group that ranged from 6-8 characters. Be ready to pump every single encounter.

[wraithstrike]

I would give her a CR 9 cohort to back her up, and have her buff before she attacks. The cohort can be a caster, any will do, if you want to really push the party.

[Jay Walsh 53]

wraithstrike wrote:

I would give her a CR 9 cohort to back her up, and have her buff before she attacks. The cohort can be a caster, any will do, if you want to really push the party.

Well its done.

I left the dragon as is at it was a close fight. The Bard's cohort presented herself as a target that was ripped apart by the dragon going from full to -8 in a single round. The bard staying in character picked her up and dimension door away from the fight, holding her in his arms. The ranger took the full furry of the beasts attacks in the last round with 3 of the 6 hitting due to some bad rolls. The 3 attacks alone left her with 14 hp. If anymore had of hit she would be dead. The AC 31 was the key. The Pal was so paranoid that he kept using max combat expertise and was never able to hit the dragon.

All in all a good encounter.