hitmahip's page

I had a situation like this not too long ago.

My players fought a Graveknight and, after two characters were dropped, I made a narrative declaration that the graveknight defeated the party and took them captive. This is worked because the graveknight actually could use the players as hostages, and led to a fun “escape captivity” adventure.

This may not work as your “get out of jail free” card with a young Black Dragon… though this Young Black Dragon may have a more powerful “master” who might intervene.

Honestly, this fight is simply going to take a lot of preparation, understanding, and luck to win. The AC25 alone means your players are going to be missing over 50% of their attacks. That is going to lead to frustration where the players don’t feel like they are dealing enough damage so they “hail marry” second and third actions into attacks that also miss.

So then they’ll be standing there and getting slammed by +19 attacks which are gonna crit most of the time.

The dice need to come down in favor of the players, and “pray to the dice gods” is not a good strategy. Unless you have an incredibly disciplined group who can do research on the dragon to give them an edge AND EXECUTE on a well-crafted plan (note the plan needs to be WELL CRAFTED and WELL EXECUTED), things will not go well. Straight rolls, no crazy good luck or bad luck on either side, your party is probably gonna get killed.

The simplest solution is to give your players an ally that also hates this Black Dragon. Some burly high HP creature that can take a lot of the hits and die about mid-way through the fight. This will allow your players to put some damage into the Black Dragon so when their NPC tank drops, killing the dragon before it starts killing them won’t be totally out of reach.

Thanks all for the excellent advice.

In regards to the environment they're in a subterranean lair beneath a swamp with a giant mushroom forest between them and the dragon.
I've been thinking as to how this environment can be of benefit to both the dragon and the party.
I was thinking of giving the party concealment from the dragon while beneath the mushrooms and that the dragon won't be able to land initially due to the terrain. This will eat up at least one action each turn in which the dragon has to fly.

For the cost of an action the players can burrow into the depths of mushroom for total concealment. However this close to mushroom releases noxious gases resulting them to be sickened as per stinking cloud DC15 (one of the dragons spells that it then won't cast)

Eventually the dragon will get sick of the mushrooms and start ripping them up, 2 action to do so. This will reduce the cover for the players and allow the dragon to land. Areas of toxic cloud will start to permeate the area. Not sure how long it should hang around for. I was thinking 1d4 rounds.

In this way I can stage the combat in two stages. Aerial dragon that they have some cover against vs ground dragon that is injured.

I think i'll also take the recommendation to reduce the AC and its attack bonus and increase its HP.

Thoughts? Again, thank you for the excellent advice.

Thanks all for the excellent advice.

In regards to the environment they're in a subterranean lair beneath a swamp with a giant mushroom forest between them and the dragon.
I've been thinking as to how this environment can be of benefit to both the dragon and the party.
I was thinking of giving the party concealment from the dragon while beneath the mushrooms and that the dragon won't be able to land initially due to the terrain. This will eat up at least one action each turn in which the dragon has to fly.

For the cost of an action the players can burrow into the depths of mushroom for total concealment. However this close to mushroom releases noxious gases resulting them to be sickened as per stinking cloud DC15 (one of the dragons spells that it then won't cast)

Eventually the dragon will get sick of the mushrooms and start ripping them up, 2 action to do so. This will reduce the cover for the players and allow the dragon to land. Areas of toxic cloud will start to permeate the area. Not sure how long it should hang around for. I was thinking 1d4 rounds.

In this way I can stage the combat in two stages. Aerial dragon that they have some cover against vs ground dragon that is injured.

I think i'll also take the recommendation to reduce the AC and its attack bonus and increase its HP.

Thoughts? Again, thank you for the excellent advice.

Assuming they play intelligently? Shouldn't be a problem.

Oh dear....

I've a party of 5 lvl 4 characters. Barbarian, Warpriest, Fighter, Wizard and Investigator. They're about to go up against a level 7 young adult black dragon (spell caster variant).

It's listed by experience as between moderate and severe for a party of their size but I'm concerned that it might just TPK them given it's to hit bonus, AC and various offensive abilities.

Have I given them too much to handle?

Thanks for the ideas, they've helped a lot.

I think I'm gonna go with Dudemeister's suggestion - I like it a lot. I've already had the players dress up as zombies vs reefclaws in a previous encounter (which they enjoyed much more than I expected) and I think the hex system with its various skill options would make a great interactive experience.

The other thing I was thinking would be to add terrain bonuses.

1)Travel by road is 2 hexes/4 hours of movement but high chance of ambushes.

2) Travel through dense forest is one hex/8 hours but with a bonus to stealth checks.

3) Highland, mountainous regions one hex / 8 hours but with a perception out to 3 or 4 hexes (haven't decided which).

Again thanks for all the help.

Hi all, was looking for some ideas/advice.

The setting is this: the intrepid party have the artefact of doom which they are meant to be getting to the Lord High Know It All for some advice on how to destroy it before it destroys the world.

Unfortunately they've been distracted by shiny things/troll slaying which has allowed the forces of evil to hunt them down. They've just defeated a determined band of mercenaries and now know that they are the quarry.

They are in the wilderness. There are numerous enemy groups in the area hunting for them.

I could play it as a survival check a la stealth/perception with the ranger's survival vs. the enemy's survival but I was hoping for something a little more dynamic/tactical and something that would give the group a sense of achievement when they slip from the enemy's desperate grasp.

Any and all ideas welcomed and worshiped.