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I had to put up a post here because one of my players is most certainly still gloating over the recent defeat of Gottrod, the red dragon in Chapter 4.
Just to give a little background on the character I am talking about, he is a warmage/warmage. Yes, he took the warmage class from Complete Arcana, and then has just taken his first level in the Warmage prestige class from Age of Mortals at 6th level. When he hits things with a spell they hurt. Alot.
Anyway, to set the scene the party has just managed to defeat the umberhulk after a prolonged battle that really beat them down. They met with Celeste and hurried north speak with Jared about the possible entrances to the underdark.
As they past the bottom of the hill before Jareds a few of them saw flashes of light coming from up near the cabin, but they shrugged it off, being that they had met Jared before on a side excursion I took them on and figured he was just throwing up one of his illusions or impress them or was at worst doing something else crazy.
When they crested the top of the hill and saw Jareds hut in flames and him cowering before the assault of a dragon jaws dropped(as did a number of characters since only 1 of the four players had a ride skill).
They rushed forward to protect the old man and managed to draw the dragons attention, peppering him with arrows that were little more then pesky at this point and he swung around in his flight and let loose a gout of flame the washed over most of the party as well as Jared, stopping just before the warmage's feet who quickly cast ice shield upon himself to absorb some of that fire if need be.
As the rest of the party tried to figure out just what to do against a winged foe(none of them are very proficient with ranged weapons) and the cleric threw mass aid over everyone the warmage decided to square off against the dragon. He drew forth his new prize, a metamagic rod of empower, and sent forth a powerful orb of cold, smashing into the dragons chest. The results were frightening, considering the dragons vulnerability to cold, and the freakish amounts of damage the warmage gets to add to his spells due to a high intelligence he did well over 60 damage in a single blow.
Well this certainly got the dragons attention. Unwilling to suffer such a devestating attack again, but also unable to put aside his already wounded pride and flee the dragon swooped down and snatched up the warmage dragging him 30 feet into the air and holding him firmly. The warmage struggled in vain against the powerful creature, narrowly avoiding being bitten but unable to squirm out of the way of a vicious rake of the dragons claws.
But the response to that clawing was something gottrod did not expect. With a bright blue flair of light the ice shield which surrounded the warmage flashed out, engulfing the dragon and knocking him into unconsciousness, sending both him and the warmage plummiting to the ground.
The rest of the party rush over to ensure their deadly but fragile ally was alright. When they lifted the creatures wing they saw him dusting himself off and standing up with just a shake of his head. After the effects of the aid spell wore off he barely had a scratch upon him.
With a grin he looked around at the others and proclaimed 'I can't wait to see the Stormblades again and ask them if they've ever killed a dragon before. If by some freak chance they have I'll have to see how many of them did it by themselves...'
Isn't this why we play this game?! Very cool story, and mega-kudos to your warmage/warmage. Give him a big high five from me.
This is the thing that really gets me ticked: when parties somehow easily defeat a dragon encounter.
The game is named "Dungeons and DRAGONS." Dragon encounters are supposed to be the toughest and most memorable of all encounters, especially at high levels. Dragons are exotic, rare and wonderous...not your garden-of-the-mill gnoll wandering the wilderness.
I've already felt that there were a few too many dragon encounters in the SCAP (I've heard there are even *more* in AoW), and because of this I replaced some of the dragon encounters with other things. I would keep Dhorlot and Hookface, and axe the rest (even Vitriss Bale...that's a TPK waiting to happen).
I've made a few rules for myself when doing (evil) dragon encounters:
1. The dragon's most important goal is to live. Less than half HP and it flees.
2. The party will *never* encounter a dragon of a smaller size than large. A 'small' red dragon? That's just lame.
3. The dragon will use every dirty or clean trick in the game to win, whether that's a black dragon grappling and taking a party member down beneath the water to drown them or a red dragon never touching the ground and using Fly By Attack and Breath Weapon attacks only.
My point? Dragons are supposed to be the toughest and smartest opponents a PC will face...play them that way.
My party took him out last night. They were helped quite a bit by Jared's bard song and his major image of Dhorlot swooping down, which made Gottrod take evasive action within melee range of the ground for a round. (I decided that Jared would know of the rivalry between Dhorlot & Gottrod and use it to make a more believable illusion. It also gave a clue to the party about the Black being around somewhere, although they haven't picked up on it much...) After a round of melee attacks, they were able to weaken him sufficiently to finish him off with spells and archery.
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The fight with Gottrod was a lucky one for my PC's but in alot of ways it was the dragons anger over the fight with Dhorlat(?) and his overconfidence at the humans that was his downfall. The warmage in the party normally saves his stronger spells because he knows that hitting something hard like that draws attention that he can't survive with his HP(at level 6 he has like 30). But in this case Gottrod had dropped Jared and one of the other members of the party to near death with his first breath attack and he knew that if he didn't do something they were going to die.
He fully expected to be taken out in the next round, either through the dragon directing his wrath upon him or simply by having the dragon scoop him up and fly him high into the air and drop him. But he also knew that this would give the rest of the party a chance to either escape or regroup. It was a heroic action and I always saw that as what the game was about more then the namesake creatures.
In game context had Gottrod's pride not been so great that he felt he could easily crush the one foe who seemed to be able to effectively harm him before wiping out the rest of the pests with little more injury to himself he would have fled. Had he somehow survived the first blast from the ice shield he would have given up that pride and fled to survive. But the blast was a lucky one and came when the dragon thought he had the advantage again so it caught him by suprise.
Dragons are wise and powerful but that breeds arogance and I think its often beyond the wyrms grasp that they could fall before a group of humans and that is what gives the adventurers their chance.
Hrm. My last group of players for this campaign had quite a bit of trouble with the dragon encounters. Gottrod cooked the party from the sky and it took some very clever tactics to take him down, Dhorlot, well, they never fought him. They did... well, I won't bother mentioning it, their methods were unconventional. But the Dracolich? Multiple party deaths. Hookface? They ran like little girls. Moltenwing? He disintigrated 2 party members in a single round. I don't know about everyone else, but I think that properly played, the dragon encounters in SCAP are quite the challenge.
This is the thing that really gets me ticked: when parties somehow easily defeat a dragon encounter.
The game is named "Dungeons and DRAGONS." Dragon encounters are supposed to be the toughest and most memorable of all encounters, especially at high levels. Dragons are exotic, rare and wonderous...not your garden-of-the-mill gnoll wandering the wilderness.
I've already felt that there were a few too many dragon encounters in the SCAP (I've heard there are even *more* in AoW), and because of this I replaced some of the dragon encounters with other things. I would keep Dhorlot and Hookface, and axe the rest (even Vitriss Bale...that's a TPK waiting to happen).
I've made a few rules for myself when doing (evil) dragon encounters:
1. The dragon's most important goal is to live. Less than half HP and it flees.
2. The party will *never* encounter a dragon of a smaller size than large. A 'small' red dragon? That's just lame.
3. The dragon will use every dirty or clean trick in the game to win, whether that's a black dragon grappling and taking a party member down beneath the water to drown them or a red dragon never touching the ground and using Fly By Attack and Breath Weapon attacks only.My point? Dragons are supposed to be the toughest and smartest opponents a PC will face...play them that way.
I tend to play them the same and few other foes. My players know that every fight I don’t pull punches but with dragons – and certain other powerful creatures – I will use every trick in the book to kill them. Especially considering the party is large 4 to 8 people each session. I’ll post my players encounter with Gottorod later (at work and don’t have it) but the only thing Gottorod did was flyby/breath weapon. Since only two characters had any range capability (sorcerer and archery-ranger) and the sorcerer’s spells were mostly fire based and therefore usefulness. They knew they were going to die unless they did something to bring the dragon down where they could hack at it.
Other foes which are super-intelligent like, for example, the mage from Maure’s castle (name escapes me) I always use DM information to make up for the fact that I can’t play someone with a 25 INT score. So I use the DM info to make it seem like I do. For example he knows what tactics/spells he the party likes to use and counters that strength as best he can and exploits their weakness.
That’s not to detract from your warmage’s victory. Sometimes fate takes a hand and uber big-bads go down fast. But if the warmage is trivialising battles constantly you may want to deal with that.
Either way certainly sounds like a fun and memorable battle.
(from my personal game log - battle with Gottorod.)
Several hours after dawn on their third day of travel, Rieanna spotted a flash of bright light above one of the hills. But she was distracted (engrossed in her diamond ring) and failed to inform the rest of the group. A few moments later a column of smoke – that everyone could see – came from the same direction. The band rode their mounts towards it.
The company came upon a scenic alpine meadow. In its centre sat a thatch hut surrounded by a low wooden fence crudely painted to look as if it were made of brick and mortar. Four thick posts had been driven into the ground at each corner of the fence, and a mixture of wood and fabric had been strung between them to form an unconvincing simulation of a stone tower. Here and there tufts of straw poked out of gaps in the walls of these ‘towers.’
As they gazed at the strange sight, something far stranger and much more alarming suddenly drew their attention. With a whoosh of crimson wings, what was unmistakably a smallish (if one considered an elephant small) dragon soared over the ridge west of the hut, bearing down on it quickly. Just then, an old man dressed in tattered robes and carrying a silver rod ran from the hut, heading towards the party.
Gravil, guessing that the old man was the Jared they were looking for, spurred his riding horse forward, trying to reach him before the dragon did. Behind and above him, he could hear the voices of Claudia and Gerodin raised in incantation. No doubt they were preparing themselves for the horrific battle that would come if the dragon was intent on this particular prey. Just as Gravil reached the man, “Are you Jared?” the thri-kreen shouted, “What is going on here?”
“It is fortuitous that you have arrived my knights!” the old man shouted, “The beast means to raze our fair kingdom! Onward my soldiers! Onward for Anduria!” He then raised his silver rod with a flourish, and in the blink of an eye his weather-stained garments became beautiful robes, rich enough for a king, and indeed a golden crown now sat upon his brow. Gravil thought to himself dryly, “Wonderful. He’s mad.” Gravil grabbed the old-man and threw him behind him on the horse and tried to get away from the wyrm. Unfortunately the dragon moved faster than the rest of Gravil’s compatriots as he swooped by temporarily ignoring Gravil and Jared.
Gotrrod, for that was the dragon’s name, watched the scene below him with calm disdain. He didn’t know who these other humans were, only that they were interfering with his immediate goals. So be it, they could all roast together. Still, they did appear to be a well-armed lot and there was no sense taking unnecessary risks. He stayed about 30 feet in the air as he flew past his prey on towards the closely clustered group. His great wings churning up great clouds of dust on the ground, and he began to take in a breath and flames licked at his maw.
The red swept over Claudia’s position and belched a great gout of liquid fire. There was nothing any of them could do. Their mounts were instantly roasted beneath them. Claudia could feel her skin blistering and her hair smouldering. She nearly collapsed from the sheer pain, but stayed on her feet, and for a moment, she had a clear view of the beast directly over her. Only Rieanna managed to leap away and avoid the full impact of the blast. Polguz immediately dropped to the ground, rolling over and over to try and extinguish the flames. He quickly pulled a healing elixir from his belt, quaffing its contents to staunch his pain. Gerodin had feebly attempted to hide behind his great shield for what little good it could do. Herself, she was almost completely roasted with excruciating burns covering most of her body. But by sheer effort of will the group managed to survive as the dragon flew on behind them. They would not die just yet but they also knew a second blast would kill them outright.
Everyone drank a potion or received a jolt from one of Gerodin’s healing wand. Neither healed them fully but it did alleviate the pain enough for them to think. They watched the dragon continue on its way. Each holding a small hope that perhaps it was done and would fly on. But that small hope was dashed as the mighty red did a wing-over and started to return to the fray.
Polguz was the first to come to his senses and yelled “scatter!” and so they did. Gerodin girded himself with a fire protection spell as he continued to do his best to heal his own wounds and those of his allies. And then the dragon was on them again.
Gravil felt helpless. The situation was dire. With the exception of Rie and Claudia none of them could fight effectively at range. And Claudia, much like all evokers to have ever lived, loved the destructive power of fire. Most of her most deadly spells would be useless against this particular foe. She had however launched Amberblue into the air. What he could do he wasn’t sure but he had been a very helpful ally so far. Gravil realised he had to bring the dragon down somehow. He handed the reigns over to the old man and told him to head for the dragon as he stood up on the back of the moving horse balancing precariously.
The dragon passed over his friends using his jaws to send Gerodin reeling. He didn’t have his flame ready or he chose not to use it. They all hoped it was the former. He then continued on passing over Gravil and intending to ignore him as well. This was the red’s first mistake.
Gravil leapt from the back of the horse and managed to latch on with all 6 of his appendages on the dragon’s left wing. The wings looked delicate but they were tougher than they seemed and he had hoped to do enough damage to the membrane to hinder the dragon’s ability to fly somewhat. However the sheer surprise and ferocity of the attack unbalanced the dragon who went crashing into the ground sliding into the hermit’s walled hut destroying the flimsy wall. Gotrrod left a great trench behind him.
Just then, they all heard the old man shouting something from the middle of the field, and it took them all a moment to realize that he was … reciting poetry.
“And lo! The brave knights of Anduria fair,
Faced the dragon, far from its lair.
They weaved their magic to defend their home,
To teach the beast no more to roam!”
Strangely enough, the entire group began to feel … inspired. Though the man’s words were nonsense, something about them stirred the warrior in them all. They began to feel that indeed they would defeat this dragon and defend their … kingdom? As a group of ants they swarmed the dragon. Amberblue who had been placed by Claudia at the extreme range of his spell abilities was commanded to entangle the wyrm. This he did. The grass and shrubs became alive and grabbed a hold of the dragon’s clawed feet and his great tail in an attempt to keep him stuck fast to the ground. However he also caught Gravil and Polguz in its area of effect as they had entered melee with the beast. Claudia followed up with a volley of magic missiles. Rie still hurt from the fire blast, focused through the pain and took precise aim with her bow. She understood what Gravil was doing and attempted to hurt the already damaged wing. She muttered a prayer before unleashing a single arrow from Flamecaster. The arrow struck true causing minimal damage but leaving a large rent in the dragon’s wing (OCC: Critical hit on the critical table impeded but did not stop the dragon’s ability to fly).
Gotrrod was furious! These insects had actually caused him pain! How dare they?! Well, he would show them the error of their audacity. He would scorch the earth for miles around and their bones as well. He could hear the sounds of spell weaving again, and the others began to pound on his crimson hide. The puny creature was not going to get a chance to hurt him anymore. He lashed out at them with claw, tooth, wings and tail before beating his wings furiously, Gotrrod easily broke free of the entangling spell and began winging his way above the meadow. His belly-fire was ready and he would soon incinerate them all.
“A new warrior took up the fight,
A dwarf whose hammer was moaning for a fight.
Though battered and beaten by the dragon’s ire,
He would not succumb to the burning fire.”
Jared’s song rang out clear, causing all who heard it to hesitate for an instant. Gerodin’s heart began to swell with pride. Yes, he was indeed the bearer of Bloodcrier and a chosen of Moradin. He would not succumb. With another roar, he leaped at the wyrm, his warhammer whirling so fast as to appear as nothing but a blur. Gotrrod did not retreat, but met him head-on, ripping and tearing into the dwarf with renewed fury. Blood flew in fountains, though from whom, it was unclear.
Amberblue deactivated the entangling spell as Gotrrod began to slowly ascend into the sky freeing his mother’s allies.
Gotrrod wheeled about to confront Polguz. Polguz knew what was coming, and tried to bring his blade up to fend off the assault, but it was like holding out a twig to stop a charging bull. With teeth and claws the dragon tore into the warrior, like a cat pouncing upon a mouse. As Polguz was thrown backwards, the wyrm followed up with a tremendous swipe of its tail. The dragon moved with feline grace, leaping forward with blinding speed. Its fangs flashed, snapping repeatedly at Gerodin and Gravil, while it buffeted Polguz with its sail-like wings. Its tail lashed like a whip, snapping into the dwarf as he staggered under the brutal assault before taking to the sky once more.
They all heard the dragon take in a great breath and they knew what this meant.
Then, Gravil heard Jared’s voice again calling out from the middle of the field.
“Like an angel of light,
The mantis warrior took flight.
He looked into the dragon’s maw,
And his own death he foresaw.”
“He was struck from the sky,
And at the dark shore he did lie.
But he rose from the ground,
And his great battle cry did sound.”
“The battle was not done,
He would not stop till ‘twas won.
So once more he did leap,
And this time the dragon would die!”
Gravil felt himself stirred by the old fool’s nonsensical words. Beyond that, he felt stronger some how, and fearless. Heroic even. He felt those words to be true, portentous. He would indeed win victory this day!
With the old man’s words still ringing in his ears Gravil launched himself onto the roof of the thatched hut and then leaped once more on the back of the great dragon before it could fly out of reach. Gotrrod’s neck whipped about like a coiled viper and it struck at him, clamping down across his ribs and opening up new and terrible holes in his exoskeleton. Undaunted Gravil continued to cling on. Gravil knew he couldn’t use the same trick twice and he could see the flames licking at the beast’s maw and the smell of brimstone. As he clambered up its back he beat furiously on the things spine hoping to find a weak spot perhaps to land a killing blow. But it was all too little avail.
Desperate, Rie drew her bow string back and lined up a shot, firing it almost blindly into the billowing dust storm caused by the dragon’s second take off. She was stunned to hear an answering screech from the dragon. She had actually hit it!
Cluadia followed up with more magic missiles to bring the red down. But the creature was still too strong for that. Still, it obviously felt pain from the attack, as it roared in rage. Then they all heard the sharp intake of breath and they all saw the fire begin to well up in the dragon’s mouth and the dragon seemed to smile at them. All seemed lost. Another blast would kill them all.
From the ground both Polguz and Gerodin watched Gravil’s’ noble, if perhaps futile, attack. They tried to aid the monk in the only way they could. Gerodin hurled a stone from his sling and Polguz sunk a quarrel into the beast’s underbelly. But the juggernaut that was the red dragon kept on coming.
Then from out of nowhere a blue streak launched through the air. It was Amberblue who was ridiculously tiny in comparison to his red cousin. The little dragon wouldn’t let his mother or her friends down. These were the people who had saved him from the vampire’s cruel japes and caresses. He flew as hard as he could into the belly of the beast. As Gotrrod turned his attention one last time towards the party, he paid the tiny dragon no heed whatsoever.
This was his second mistake.
As the faerie dragon struck hard into his belly Gotrrod’s eyes flew open in shocked surprise as the tiny missile that was Amberblue struck him hard in mid-air. A small wisp of flame and smoke escaped Gotrrod’s mouth as he breathed his last and plummeted to the ground never again to take to the air.
In mine, the Swashbuckler managed to jump on his back before he lifted off (after toasting the mounts) the first time he landed. After a couple of passes, some critical burn injuries and one dead paladin (they cannot seem to use cover), she managed to score a critical hit to the wing and they both crashed to the ground. It was just a matter of two rounds after that.
Gottrod fell to the Druid in my group - as nearly all the big bad creatures do. Callis Dewtreader just started summoning from his highest level spells on down, with anything and everything that could fly, then flipped to Call Lightning and the like. The rest of the group did include an Elven Ranger with the archery focus, and at that time, a Wizard with some decent ranged attacks, but although it wasn't easy, they managed to win.
Gottrod is now a fashionable set of dragonhide armor that Callis is wearing. (I can't wait for Hookface to see it).