My mostly 6th level party just murdered a juvenile green dragon in 3 rounds. They have been complaining that dragons are anticlimactic in Pathfinder and I wish I could have proved them wrong but I didn't.
How could I have run the encounter better? Also are there any good legal ways to rebuild dragons with class levels or templates that make them better solo's? Im not talking about house-rules here, I mean within the rules.
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Play them smart. A dragon wouldn't fight adventurers indoors. If they invade its home to steal its horde, let the dragon flee outside and wait for the advenuters there. When they come out, the dragon sure as buttons won't land, it will fight from the air, circlestrafing and bombarding the party with spells and its breath weapon, picking of the squishy wizard who will probably have most of the means to defeat it first.
Dragons are extremely intelligent creatures, they should be played that way.
http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/09/11/counter-monkey-circle-strafe/ <-go there for a lengthy rant on the subject.
Dragon fights have 2 problems.
1: solo fights in general are bad for the solo, they just get action advantaged to death.
2: most GMs play them horribly.
Play them smart. A dragon wouldn't fight adventurers indoors. If they invade its home to steal its horde, let the dragon flee outside and wait for the advenuters there. When they come out, the dragon sure as buttons won't land, it will fight from the air, circlestrafing and bombarding the party with spells and its breath weapon, picking of the squishy wizard who will probably have most of the means to defeat it first.
Dragons are extremely intelligent creatures, they should be played that way.
http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/09/11/counter-monkey-circle-strafe/ <-go there for a lengthy rant on the subject.
This green dragon tried to ambush them in the woods because the party druid was herding a colony of spiders out of its woods and it relies on them for food. They noticed the dragon easily with perception so no surprise round. They all beat it on initiative. It got hit with Frost Fall and staggered before it ever got a turn in initiative and when it swooped close enough to breath weapon the druid had a spider hit it with a web that entangled it and brought it out of the sky. When it hit the ground the martials had readied or delayed actions go off to attack it. Everyone saved against it's entangle spell DC, everyone saved against its frightful presence, everyone saved against it's breath weapon. It never even got a full-attack in. Even the cavaliers damn horse was biting it. A horse biting a dragon. WTF?
I feel like I must have done something wrong.
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I would Flyby attack them with dragon breath every round when possible and charge ocassionally on solo opponent.
Adding terrain specific to a dragon seems also the way to go. You could add tree's, few rocks, some difficult terrain. Dragon might even have spell-like traps near his cave and such.
I would imagine that green dragon (green= nature?) would have big camouflage or something.
Sounds like a long series of unfortunate rolls for the dragon to me. Nobody will win a fight if the dice hate them.
Dragon fights have 2 problems.
1: solo fights in general are bad for the solo, they just get action advantaged to death.
2: most GMs play them horribly.
Maybe there is nothing you can do about 1, but I want advice on 2 because I think I'm guilty.
According to the player the horse made his save.
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Well, everyone can be a tactical master after the battle is done.
Best advice would be I guess from me, to use some sort of terrain which fully utilizes all of dragons abilities.
I am just looking at his stats now, and yeah, it's rather nonimpressive.
Entangle + breath weapon is what I would use. He has no cooldown on breath weapon as I see, so he could spam it all the way from air, but then again, it depends what kind of group of PCs is it.
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Welll, One possibility, is to have the dragon tail the party from the air or tree tops.....if necessary have it fly high....wait till the party camps.....and then snatch the wizard or better yet the cleric/druid when they are alone on watch and gas and eat them.....then return for the marital types and pick them off one by one.
yeah the few times I play a dragon, I make sure the dragon doesn't play fair. If it can shape change so much the better....Perhaps you could give the dragon a day job as a waitress in the local tavern, so it can learn all about the adventureres before they come in to raid its lair....and possibly poison them before hand, maybe give it a two part poison...one part they ingest, and a second part they inhale in the lair....
but it can be tough to get around the "action economy" when an enemy gets to do six things in a round to your one thing.
@Malag: First thing I noticed was that he needs better initiative. So I had him try to ambush them hoping for a surprise round, but they all beat his stealth with perception. Then sure enough he went last.
I did entangle like you said but everyone saved so the only good it did was stop them from having a charge line once they got him down to the ground. The breath weapon was pretty effective, I will say that, but since he got staggered right away by the druids Frost Fall he couldn't fly and breathe.
I should have pre-buffed with Shield but like you said, hindsight...
Play them smart. A dragon wouldn't fight adventurers indoors. If they invade its home to steal its horde, let the dragon flee outside and wait for the advenuters there. When they come out, the dragon sure as buttons won't land, it will fight from the air, circlestrafing and bombarding the party with spells and its breath weapon, picking of the squishy wizard who will probably have most of the means to defeat it first.
Dragons are extremely intelligent creatures, they should be played that way.
Spoony Rant linkified <-go there for a lengthy rant on the subject.
This! So much this. In my earlier days of GMing I would play dragons bassackwards, and they'd get destroyed. A dragon isn't going to meet adventuring parties where they live. He (or she) is going to use every tactical advantage at his disposal, and more than likely flee if things turn sour. It only took me a couple failed dragon encounters to realize a dragon is never going to play fair, and they're going to let their magic and breath weapons deal damage from afar before they ever try and go toe to toe with any group.
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Personally I always apply the Advanced & Giant templates to dragons and never throw a dragon at a party unless it's CR is at least 2-4 higher than the APL.
Also, don't be afraid to fudge the dice a little in the dragon's favor here and there. Players want the fight to be difficult, killing a dragon two turns in to the fight is unsatisfactory for everyone.
Everyone saved against it's entangle spell DC, everyone saved against its frightful presence, everyone saved against it's breath weapon.
That sounds mighty suspicious to me.......
Roughly 20 or so saves, all made. How often do the members of your group fail their saves?
The problem might not have been the encounter.
Personally I always apply the Advanced & Giant templates to dragons and never throw a dragon at a party unless it's CR is at least 2-4 higher than the APL.
Also, don't be afraid to fudge the dice a little in the dragon's favor here and there. Players want the fight to be difficult, killing a dragon two turns in to the fight is unsatisfactory for everyone.
So you think the advanced template is worth it for the CR bump? This is one of the things I was wondering.
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Well, I just had an APL 7 party slay a young adult green. They also had luck and Plot Twist cards on their side. Still....
0. A dragon should always be an 'Epic' encounter.
1. Assume the dragon knows where the party are.
2. Before really engaging the group, fly over ahead at the maximum height that still allows it's frightful presence to thin the herd...
3. All spells of a lengthy duration are cast in advance (like shield)
4. Use entangle before combat to tie the top DPR in place
5. Flyby Attack with the breath weapon on different targets each round.
6. Once they're down on hp pick on a PC and attack him in melee.
From a story point of view of course, you want the party to be scared s***less, but win (or flee). A difficult thing to judge. You don't want to look like you engineered a TPK....
Cheers
Mark
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What I've found with dragons is that a party who *knows* about the dragon (perhaps they're hunting it) and goes in *ready* is pretty much going to make short work of the dragon.
That said, dragons are VERY perceptive, so generally it's unlikely that a party will stumble upon a dragon without it knowing they're there - in other words, the dragon typically should get the jump on an unprepared party.
In the case of a juvenile green dragon which has just learned about adventurers poaching its spider herd, there are a few approaches it might take to gain advantage:
Attack the party at night - the dragon has 120' darkvision, meaning it can see the party when they can't see it. If it waits until they camp, it can get the whole group in its acid cone as a surprise round (and remember, if it observes the camp from 120', the watch has a hefty -12 penalty to hear the dragon out in the woods.
The dragon also likely knows the terrain, so it may know that at some point the party will be crossing a wide river (or lake, or whatever) and it could then attack from underwater: a lower-level party attacked by a green dragon on the water has some big problems (like the dragon getting improved cover by attacking from the water - mage armor, shield and improved cover will give the dragon a 39 AC!)
If it could combine the two - attack the party while it's crossing water AT night... hmmm.
Scenario: a juvenile green dragon, having learned of a group of adventurers interfering with its spider herd, does some nighttime recon. The party doesn't know that they're camping about 100 yards from a wide, sluggish river, but the dragon does. It commands some locals (they fear the dragon) to lure the party to the river, where there is a small barge (perhaps a local dryad is asked to do this, who does so out of fear of the dragon; any charming fey being would do, ideally one who can bluff): adventurers, never saying no to adventure, decamp and set off on a nighttime river crossing. The green dragon, slipping into the water, arises (maintaining improved cover) and opens combat with a cone of acid enveloping the barge (including its hapless accomplice), exposing to party also to its 120' aura of frightful presence (DC 17 will save). Roll initiative...
Dragon uses cover from the water, ability to attack using flybys out of the darkness, and so on, making the party use mostly readied actions to try to combat it, and using its breath weapon from the improved cover of the water whenever it recharges. Prior to attacking, it has cast mage armor and shield, so it's running a AC of 31, 35 if it full attacks with cover from the water (adjacent to the boat) and 39 when it attacks with improved cover from the water (discharging its breath weapon).
It's a dangerous encounter, with the added bonus that at least one character will likely spend actions protecting the dryad (or whatever).
That said, dragons are VERY perceptive, so generally it's unlikely that a party will stumble upon a dragon without it knowing they're there - in other words, the dragon typically should get the jump on an unprepared party.In the case of a juvenile green dragon which has just learned about adventurers poaching its spider herd, there are a few approaches it might take to gain advantage:
(and remember, if it observes the camp from 120', the watch has a hefty -12 penalty to hear the dragon out in the woods.
That's it. That's what I did wrong. I didn't factor the penalty for distance into their perception checks. There should have been a surprise round. I knew I did something wrong.
I still have to read through the rest of your post but that jumped right out at me.
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First of all, I'm pretty much certain you made a mistake on the perception rules. Did you include the higher difficulty for increased range? It's +1/10ft.
Since entangle has a range of 840ft for your dragon, you don't need to worry about that. The range limit for the first entangle attack lies in the perception of the dragon.
Since the Juvenile green has +20 perception, it can get +30 by taking ten on perception, so since the dc for detecting a visible creature (which he would need to do to target them with entangle ) is 0. This means, he can aim his entangle at them from 300ft distance. Assuming he took 10 on his stealth check, your PCs would have to beat a Perception DC of 51 to notice him before he got his entangle off.
With the sniping Rules, he can continue this tactic as long as he wants. Multiple entangle spells in the same area stack, so maybe your PCs can beat the DC13 once per round, but what about 5 times?
For added fun, you can employ the same tactic with a few charm person spells, albeit the range for that is only 50 feet, so the perception DC for your PCs will decrease to 26 that way.
Then, switch out one of the feats (I recommend greater cleave) for flyby attack. On the following rounds on his init, he can fly in from as much as 130 feet, use his breath weapon, break away in a 45° angle and get about 120 feet of distance between himself and the group. For added evilness, have him fly away so low that it breaks line of sight for the casters, so they can't directly attack him on their turn. The PCs have only limited movement compared to the dragon, especially if they want to keep the spiders with them. So he can move around and has no problem finding them, but they have to check again every time to see him approaching, if you fly at half speed to use stealth between the treetops.
On top of that, with ghost sound at will, he can have the sound of his own roar come from any point he chooses for 11 rounds with only one casting. If he is feeling mean, he spends 2 or 3 rounds, setting those noises up in different directions from the group. Since they will most probably use their turn to ready an action for attacking it once it comes in sight, they will not be able to buff up.
If the dragon naturally preys on the spiders, they should probably be afraid of that sound, so the druids turn gets spent trying to calm them down, since they are definately NOT combat trained.
Additionally, did you let the druid roll his handle animal to push the spider to web the dragon? Because once again, it is NOT combat trained and I'd say this is unnatural behaviour for it.
If all of that fails and in the situation you described:
Imagine you are an intelligent being, trying to mount a suprise attack on a big group of enemys. You fail to surprise them, they bloody your nose with a big spell. How would you NOT use your awesome fly speed of 200ft per round to escape from them and kick their butts another time? THEY are in YOUR forrest. THEY have to leave, YOU don't. THEY have to sleep, YOU do too, but they don't know WHEN you will be. Depending on how big the forest is, let the martials sleep in armor for some nights, wake them up from time to time, make them tired and anxious, THEN go for the kill.
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Just FYI Frightful Presence does not make you run away.Also you can't use a breath weapon every round.
I'm going to have to agree with the OP. Dragons are by far and away the least deadly monsters for their CR in the game. Their physical attacks do little damage, their DR is pointless, they have too few HP's and their spellcasting is weak.
There's a lot of stuff said about how a PC party should never be able to creep up on a Dragon because it is soooo much more intelligent and wise than the PC's. Up until the point that you look at the Wisdom and Intelligence scores and find that the PC's are actually way more intelligent and wise than dragons. Dragons do not get some supernatural ability that allows them to be always prepared for anything. So why do people say they do? If you are basing this super prepared ability on stats on the page then you should also allow players to have supernatural prep abilities because their stats are if anything going to be better than the dragon. In short, Dragons are not Batman, stop pretending they are.
If you compare an ancient Gold to a Balor or Pit Fiend then it's obvious who wins. The Fiends win every time because they are more adaptable, have better defences and better attacks. Plus the Pit Fiend is also more Wise and Intelligent so it too should get the fabled "Dragon Batman" powers too.
Sorry guys, dragons suck...
dragons suck...
in a deep breath and then breath all kinds of fire(acid, lightning, poisonous gas) on you!
Well, uber-super-mighty demons like balors should be about as epic as dragons. You should never slay either of them for breakfast, if you're not plaing an epic level campaign.
First of all, I'm pretty much certain you made a mistake on the perception rules. Did you include the higher difficulty for increased range? It's +1/10ft.
Since entangle has a range of 840ft for your dragon, you don't need to worry about that. The range limit for the first entangle attack lies in the perception of the dragon.
Since the Juvenile green has +20 perception, it can get +30 by taking ten on perception, so since the dc for detecting a visible creature (which he would need to do to target them with entangle ) is 0. This means, he can aim his entangle at them from 300ft distance. Assuming he took 10 on his stealth check, your PCs would have to beat a Perception DC of 51 to notice him before he got his entangle off.
With the sniping Rules, he can continue this tactic as long as he wants. Multiple entangle spells in the same area stack, so maybe your PCs can beat the DC13 once per round, but what about 5 times?
For added fun, you can employ the same tactic with a few charm person spells, albeit the range for that is only 50 feet, so the perception DC for your PCs will decrease to 26 that way.
Then, switch out one of the feats (I recommend greater cleave) for flyby attack. On the following rounds on his init, he can fly in from as much as 130 feet, use his breath weapon, break away in a 45° angle and get about 120 feet of distance between himself and the group. For added evilness, have him fly away so low that it breaks line of sight for the casters, so they can't directly attack him on their turn. The PCs have only limited movement compared to the dragon, especially if they want to keep the spiders with them. So he can move around and has no problem finding them, but they have to check again every time to see him approaching, if you fly at half speed to use stealth between the treetops.
On top of that, with ghost sound at will, he can have the sound of his own roar come from any point he chooses for 11 rounds with only one casting. If he is feeling mean, he spends 2 or 3 rounds, setting those...
Great post, I wish I had read this before I ran the encounter.
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sorry, FoC, I gotta disagree with the last statement somewhat. Young dragons do suck, but as they get older, even the weakest of their kind can be a very effective opponent.
I do agree that they really are not the end all be all of uber encounters, nor are they "all knowing", but they can be quite deadly, especially when they can take to the air and have not only their breath weapon but spell casting capability as well. Nothing quite like an invisible dragon to put the fear of the gods into a PC.
Grimmy, with this last encounter, you have just laid the foundations for a truly epic future dragon encounter. The next time they encounter a dragon, they will very likely underestimate it's abilities and then watch the realization dawn on the players' faces as it becomes clear they could be in some serious crap ... just give them time to level up a couple times first so you get into the Adult and older age categories for the dragon.
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Well, i agree with the dragons defenders and with FallofCamelot.
Many times the characters ARE more intelligent and wise as dragons, but i also agree that dragons should be played like the intelligent creatures they are, like all intelligent creatures in the Bestiary. No super powers, just guile.
Dragons are amongst the beasts that have minions not just to defend their lairs and cult it`s personality. They are there to assess the strengths and weakness of the enemy - like every intelligent creature with minions should do - An intelligent orc lord should have the same idea. But, unlike the orc lord, dragons have many way to prepare denselves for an upcoming battle.
I had never an anticlimatic dragon fight, but so is true to all big bosses i used - if they lead, they are bright.
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And when your pcs make a long term home they don't have a super plan ready? Int 14 is high enough especially with all the skills they have.
The dragon can't normally fail his fly skill test to stay flying for moving less than half. it's only dc 10. The web has to be anchored to something to even do that which the monster rule doesn't say it can do (the Dragon auto sees the other mode) It also has a max range of 50'. Bringing a flying creature down is really hard.
Do what my GM in another game did to me a while ago.
My Black Crusade CHar has a terrible habit of challenging everybody to a duel who as much as looks at him the wrong way.
This one time, the Dice where REALLY against me (I rolled 94, 100, 97, 100 IN A ROW on a d100) and I got my ass handed to me big time (including losing an arm). After the fight, on the way home, my gm told me: You remember that guy you completely skewered some levels back? Yea, aside from the better weapon I used the same stats on this guy just now...
Wait some levels and throw another dragon at them, think it through beforehand or even open a thread on the board and then spank those arrogant PCs, it's what they deserve for underestimating dragons ;)
On top of that, you used a juvenile dragon and they killed it. Angry mommy much? Just have the mother of your green youngster show up some time later at their home town, if the have one, and demand the PCs being handed over for justice. Most probably, the townspeople will happily agree if that means the dragon does NOT kill them all.
In town, the PCs can not fight the dragon, because they would endanger way to many innocents (assumed they are good-ish aligned)
The dragon can then send them on a quest to procure aa wish-item to resurrect its offspring or somthing.
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I've only pitted one dragon against my Pathfinder parties (so far), and it was epic, but because the dragon played smart on its home turf (albeit a v3.5 shadow dragon on the shadow plane, playing hit and run from the shadows). It never landed, strafed with spells and abilities from maximum range, and would use superior size for combat maneuvers rather than trying to hit ACs that may be a challenge. It was patient enough, and smart enough, to wait until shorter lived spells (round per level) wore off before resuming the attack.
Note, since players got stronger between editions and dragons didn't, I ran the adventure a CR higher than the party level.
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I generally do 2 things with what I consider my solo monsters. Multiply the HP's by the number of party members and give them 2 activations, 1 on its iniative and 1 after 1/2 the party has gone.
Basically what 4th edition came up with.
Also, reread what dragons can actually do. About a year ago I was running my Against the Giants campaign and the party (5 lvl 15s at the time) fought 2 Wyrm Whites. They had all kinds of problems with the endless walls of ice cutting the party off from each other and the blizzard condtions that they couldn't see in but the dragons could. The Great Wyrm Red at the end of the campaign was even nastier.
Mmmm I have to admit that I did not read the whole thread.
First, my favorite aerial attack is to drop a dumpster of river cobbles from beyond the party's reach. OK, some are going to miss but a rain of half to 2 killo stones is going to leave a mark. So you kill the spiders, you get the damn horse. I use trebochet damage.
You can do something similar at night, messing with the spell casters getting any sleep so they can't recover spells. Barrels of oil and a forest fire work fine here, especially if the party goes for the high ground.
Second, dragons rarely live without minions, friends, or worshippers nearby. How many modules have the hairy humanoids worshipping a devil, demon, dragon, or even a mage?
So, after the dragon has softened them up with aerial bombardment and artillery fire, the scout infantry close in to constantly harrass the party. Oh, and they smell roasting horse as they eat iron rations. If you really want to rub it in, drop the horse's head on top of the mage for 3d4 damage (medium soft target hitting a soft target) just for show.
When the party decides to leave, the ground infantry has set up ambush points so the dragon can use its chemical weapons.
You get the idea . . . . .
My mostly 6th level party just murdered a juvenile green dragon in 3 rounds. They have been complaining that dragons are anticlimactic in Pathfinder and I wish I could have proved them wrong but I didn't.
How could I have run the encounter better? Also are there any good legal ways to rebuild dragons with class levels or templates that make them better solo's? Im not talking about house-rules here, I mean within the rules.
With the dragon's spell likes and spell choices i can only assume it's main tactic is entangle from 800 feet above the party then drop summoned ponies on them.
Just FYI Frightful Presence does not make you run away.
I think <5 HD it does.
I think <5 HD it does.Just FYI Frightful Presence does not make you run away.
Less than or equal to 4 HD it is panicked if it fails the save.
Edit: Incidentally one of my groups has strongly considered houseruling the frightful presence: shaken for 1d6 rounds if you make the save, frightened if you don't, panicked if you are 4HD or less and fail the save. We found it very, very strange that an ability called "frightful" presence, at no point actually conferred the frightened condition.
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OK splitting hairs here a little. Sure you are panicked if you are less than 4 hit dice but frankly if any creature turned up that was 5 challenge ratings (at least) higher than me I'd be running away anyway. This would have nothing to do with frightful presence.
I want Dragons to be tough, I really do, but honestly there's nothing special about them stats wise. I don't use weaksauce dragons if I can help it. If I feel the need for some scaly activity then that's when I crack out the Linnorms. Now that's a Dragon!
two quick notes and a big suggestion.
Note 1: A dragon should almost NEVER be a solo encounter. I would not use anything less than a Juvenile dragon for a level 6 group. At that level I expect a dragon to still be with its "family" as in a pair of juveniles or have a sub territory in its parent territory. even evil dragons raise their young. If not I would expect the dragon to have some sort of minions, even in the form of drakes, spiders, kobolds or SOMETHING else that the dragon has bent to its will even temporarily.
Note 2: remember to use the environment. Even if its alone it should be able to use its terrain to full advantage. make sure you take advantage of perception rules, maybe change a few feats and give the dragon ambushing the players in its own forest the benefit of fully setting up the encounter.
SUGGESTION:
even a dragon with an average 10 intelligence should be smart, maybe even smarter than you as the GM. thus dont just play the dragon on the fly. anytime you plan to run a dragon encounter even if the entire encounter popped up half way through the game session take a few minutes to run the scenario through your head or talk it over with a friend to give the dragon a good game plan. also dont be afraid to make minor retroactive changes on the fly... need to stretch the fight, max out his hitpoints, need to make more attacks of opportunity, assume he has combat reflexes instead of power attack.
its not that you want the dragon to TPK the party, you simply want it to be an epic battle where the party feels in fear of its safety, cheating a little to this end is not a bad thing as it increases fun.
Bonus suggestion:
Dont be afraid to have the dragon run away to lick its wounds and prepare a better attack against the party with a better knowlage of their tactics and abilities.
OK, so does one of the siblings of the dragon come and knock on the door, I mean push the fireplace over?
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Do you have 6 players or 4?
Take APL and add +1 if you have 6 players.
(optional) If you're playing very high magical wealth/equipment or very high ability score arrays add another +1.)
For a challenge, take that result and add +1.
Finally, take that result as your APL baseline and create encounters that are hard, challenging and epic by adding a final +1, +2, or +3 to that.
Scenario:
6 sixth level players APL=7
High power players = APL8
Rest Hard to = CR9
Reset Challenging to = 10
Reset Epic to =11
Go to bestiary p96 and select two young green dragons (not juvenile) for a CR 10 total for the two. Or select the adult green dragon CR12 but expect at least 1-2 casulaties.
Good luck.
-Pax
and don't forget the +5 Full Plate of Comfort!
Do you have 6 players or 4?
Take APL and add +1 if you have 6 players.
(optional) If you're playing very high magical wealth/equipment or very high ability score arrays add another +1.)
For a challenge, take that result and add +1.
Finally, take that result as your APL baseline and create encounters that are hard, challenging and epic by adding a final +1, +2, or +3 to that.Scenario:
6 sixth level players APL=7
High power players = APL8
Rest Hard to = CR9
Reset Challenging to = 10
Reset Epic to =11Go to bestiary p96 and select two young green dragons (not juvenile) for a CR 10 total for the two. Or select the adult green dragon CR12 but expect at least 1-2 casulaties.
Good luck.
-Pax
It was 4 players with 20 pt buy. Gear is pulling ahead of WBL due to crafting but probably not enough to warrant APL bump I don't think (I have to audit pretty soon to be sure). There were two animal companions (druid and cavalier) and a cohort in the picture. Also because of the scenario there was a [i]herd[/] of giant spiders but they did scatter almost immediately, after hurling a couple of parting webs in the first round.
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Could you post the build of the juvenile green dragon? I'm having a hard time believing four players can curb-stomp a CR 9 encounter in three rounds.
Spoony is wrong about a few things about dragons, as far as Pathfinder goes at least, but his main philosophy of playing the dragon smart should come into this; if your dragon didn't think he could win, he should never have engaged.
I would also recommend mixing up the spell selection. Not every green dragon needs silent image and summon monster I; going with vanish and mage armour would have likely given them more pause, and allowed the dragon to beat a retreat (although at his caster level vanish would have lasted only one round).
One other thing is to keep an idea of how much loot even a juvenile dragon is likely to have. "Treasure: triple" is something worth considering; if you were giving the party some loot as a result of this fight, let the dragon use some of it. Let the dragon prebuff with some stuff (protection from arrows and blur are both things it could have on it from scrolls), because letting the dragon go in naked is grounds for reducing the CR in my opinion.
I just used the sample juvee green from d20pfsrd.
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What was the terrain like? Woodland stride and waterbreathing are both advantages that PCs will not typically have. When not flying in the air, being underwater or in dense foliage would be a good defensive measure. The foliage also helps with the dragon's at will entangle, a move which costs the dragon literally nothing to have up all the time. If the PCs were on the ground, they should be dealing at least with difficult terrain.