First off If you're playing the Dargos game, please refrain from reading this.
I'm looking for some tactics to use against a dragon and a band of his humanoid minions/allies. They are holed up in a large cavern on the edge of a marsh.
The dragon is like this one: Old Black Dragon
The group of minions are believed to be 5 well equipped characters of diverse adventuring types all around level 10, precise makeup unknown to my group but they have a good balance of classes/races. Both dragon and minions almost certainly know that they are about to be attacked within the week, and have the means to prepare some nasty surprises.
My group of is a more experienced group (Level 12-13) looking to off the dragon. We have my level 13 human evoker, a level 12 elven cleric/tank, a dwarf TWF rogue 12, a human archer ranger/rogue 12, and a human TWF barbarian 12.
So far I've got the following for tactics:
A) employing prying eyes to scout the expansive lair
B) setting a fire at the outside of the cave to try to smoke them out.
C) attacking under cover of invisibility spells (from a wand) to try to get first blood.
I'm interested in hearing your ideas for what else the party can do to ensure victory. I'm particularly interested in tactics that seem rational from a story perspective rather than simply arbitrary combination of spells/feats/equipment which are effective against dragons or characters.
They are holed up in a large cavern on the edge of a marsh
Divert the marsh water into the cave.
Rig giant boulders to push onto anyone coming out of the mouth of the cave.
If your Evoker is a risk taker, he can always Magic Jar then have a rogue stealth in with the focus. Once he's in range, the Evoker takes over the bodies of one of the dragons comrades and have him "turn" on his buddies. Also should get an extra bonus of getting a peek in their lair. The Evoker should cast Message to keep in contact with the Rogue, and after contact is broken (and he's hopefully caused all the devastation he can), the rogue sneaks back with the focus to get him back into his body. Risky, but capable of massively turning the tide if it works.
Perhaps combine the Magic Jar trick with a frontal assault to keep them distracted while the Evoker is causing mayhem/giving off the enemies position.
All i can think of this late. If you only had a druid I could come up with a whole mess more...
Given the choleric tempers and cruel disposition of Black Dragons, the PCs will likely have no end of potential allies, assuming those allies can muster the courage to tackle the Dragon. Other Black Dragons might be perfectly willing to help out, especially a young, ambitious Black hoping to claim the Old Black's territory for herself.
Alternatively, get your casters to get in contact with the Planes. A Shaitan Genie willing to be a body-guard could be a handy backup for the PCs, able to use her elemental earth powers to create instant barricades or slip through the ground or walls to pop up and flank the enemy, or failing that, scout out the cave for the PCs. After all, how many people expect to have the walls hiding their enemies.
[Witless Minion A] "Uh ... Bob ... did that wall just grow a face and a pair of boobs or am I seeing things?"
[Witless Minion B] "I told you not to use yellow-spot grass for pipeweed..."
Back at the camp:
[Shaitan] "Yeah, they're idiots. Doors are wood, they've got scythe-traps at the main entrance, there are secret passageways here, here and here, and the Dragon has a couple of Lizardfolk slaves who would be more than willing to try to get some revenge if you could just distract the Dragon long enough for them to stick a spear or three into it's heart."
[Cleric] "Alright, that's great, let's just mark that down on the map. Are you sure you can't be persuaded to stick around and help us?"
[Shaitan] "Not for all the gems in the Sparkling Abyss. That Dragon's bigger than anything I've ever seen and meaner too. Watch yourselves in there, not too many summoners like you out there."
Furthermore, the PCs as written up could concieveably send in Familiars with a ring of Invisibility, the Dwarf with Water-Breathing, Ring of Invisibilty or some other camoflage to scout out the area. Local Druids who are tired of being pushed out of their territory could give the PCs access to information on their enemies via Talk with Animals/Plants, PCs could come across family members of the Dragon's minions who are desperately trying to find out why their loved ones would side with a Evil Dragon, 'fired' minions, horribly scarred by fang or acid (or blade, if the Dragon gets it's favourite minion to slay failures) who are more than willing to help the players out for revenge.
Hell, 'Crazy Old Hermit' also works. He might just be a 2nd level Expert that makes a mean puddle-slug stew, but if he's lived all his life in the area, he could give the PCs vital clues about places where 'the water just seems to go right down, like there's a big old crack in the ground' or 'damn hooligans in the cave, keep stomping around like they're the ugly Lizard itself! Big fellas, black armor looks more like spikes than plates, led by this ugly, skinny fella with bright red tattoos on his face and a mangy-looking coyote at his heels."
If your Evoker is a risk taker, he can always Magic Jar then have a rogue stealth in with the focus. Once he's in range, the Evoker takes over the bodies of one of the dragons comrades and have him "turn" on his buddies.
Hmmm... that is tempting, even with necromancy as an opposition school. I'll list that in the Plan B column.