With 6 PCs, keep in mind that the ECL of the group is 8+, so a CR 10 dragon is only a couple of CR's higher. You definitely don't want to sell yourself short when running a dragon encounter. In my opinion they should be pretty memorable.
I suggest a dragon of at least CR 11 or 12 for your group. Also, take the time to make the dragon's hoard and then make sure the dragon is using those items to its best advantage. Potions of healing or even scrolls will be helpful. A scroll of Healing is also a great equalizer if your think the PCs will cut through the dragons hit points too fast.
Given that there are so many PCs and only the one monster, perhaps providing the dragon with one or more allies can keep everyone busy and distracted. Even a group of low-level minions, such as kobolds could provide distraction and healing, buffing, etc. to the dragon as opposed to the group ganging up on the dragon if it were by itself.
Feel free to give the dragon maximum hit points and look for places to swap out feats or spells that might better suit your needs. Finally, don't discount terrain or traps in the area that might give your dragon an advantage. A silver dragon is immune to acid and cold, so areas or pools that deal this kind of damage will hinder PCs without giving the dragon pause.
Good luck.
Single monster encounters are not a good idea in most cases. Especially with a larger group. With 6 pcs it should never even be a consideration. Dragons can have mates, they can have whelps. Design the encounter around a group of dragons, or a dragon and followers/allies. It takes a huge amount of planning and careful design of the encounter (besides the monster itself) to make a single monster encounter be both exciting and not a party wipe. If you have to ask the question, you probably should not be doing it.
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The dragon's best advantage in the scenario as you presented is that it can basically choose to fight them whenever it wants.
It should definately take fly by attack and make good use of its breath weapons. "stand and fight" should Not be in this guys vocabulary.
He needs to land, blow breath, and run away. it doesn't matter if they save or fail, he is slowly wittling down their resources.
Flyby, bite, and just fly right away. Let it do this a few times throughout the day. Sprinkle in other encounters to worry the PC's. (they never know when the dragon will show up).
Plan the "final battle" to take place when they are already in combat. Something 2-3 CR's lower than they are that the dragon can land just near the middle or end of the fight and intrude on. This way the PC's are weakened (but not dead) and have to fight the dragon when less than full strength. This lets them have an "epic battle" that doesn't require you to worry about buffing the dragon. Its been bugging them all day and they'll be super worried abouut their resources and such since they've also been doing other things. (like fighting the whatever you throw at them all day).
It doesn't have to be one hard encounter to be memorable. Its the worry that the PC's will die that creates the memory.. guerilla tactics by the dragon and a climactic fight even as they are fighting something else will keep the dragon in their memories for a long time. ;)
Just a few thoughts.
-S
The dragon's best advantage in the scenario as you presented is that it can basically choose to fight them whenever it wants.
It should definately take fly by attack and make good use of its breath weapons. "stand and fight" should Not be in this guys vocabulary.
He needs to land, blow breath, and run away. it doesn't matter if they save or fail, he is slowly wittling down their resources.
Flyby, bite, and just fly right away. Let it do this a few times throughout the day. Sprinkle in other encounters to worry the PC's. (they never know when the dragon will show up).
Plan the "final battle" to take place when they are already in combat. Something 2-3 CR's lower than they are that the dragon can land just near the middle or end of the fight and intrude on. This way the PC's are weakened (but not dead) and have to fight the dragon when less than full strength. This lets them have an "epic battle" that doesn't require you to worry about buffing the dragon. Its been bugging them all day and they'll be super worried abouut their resources and such since they've also been doing other things. (like fighting the whatever you throw at them all day).
It doesn't have to be one hard encounter to be memorable. Its the worry that the PC's will die that creates the memory.. guerilla tactics by the dragon and a climactic fight even as they are fighting something else will keep the dragon in their memories for a long time. ;)
Just a few thoughts.
-S
Yes, very yes.
More so if they are in combat with something immune to cold damage, so the dragon blasts the party, and then they still have to fight the unharmed original encounter. I recommend Ice trolls for this. they have the bonus of forcing the party to expend some of their fire attacks to put these guys down.
If you're not going to use Paralyzing Breath (the Dragon's most potent weapon), then you should replace it with something else that you don't mind using, otherwise you're needlessly reducing the Dragon's combat effectiveness.
Since you need to up the CR of the baddie anyway, two dragons up the CR by 2, which is where you need it to be anyway. Dragon Baddie calls in favor from a nearby Dragon, for example, or another equal CR creature. The additional creature doesn't even need to be an "ally" of the Dragon, just some random baddie that happens to be/live in the area that the Dragon can lead to the party.
If you do use Paralyzing Breath, then having the Dragon open with it, while flying, then dropping a large tree on those who fail their save (in order to further delay the targets + damage) would be a good tactic.
As for the spells, Mage Armor and Shield should up the Dragon's AC by 8, which should help it survive combat. A well placed obscuring mist can also temporarily neutralize those pesky archers/chargers. Silent Image could also be used to set up an ambush.
If appropriate for the terrain, triggering an avalanche or smashing a frozen, snow covered lake or river (that the PC are crossing) would make for a nasty surprise that will damage/separate the characters.
Also, don't forget a Dragon is certainly going to use any "treasure" that it might have to best effect.
Good Luck with the encounter.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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As Selgard says, play the dragon smooth. Hit them with the breath weapon and take off. Have it circle the party at half a mile up. Have it trick them into other fights then hit them with the breath weapon while they are fighting the other creature. If they are archer heavy have it stay out of archery range until it's actually attacking. Give it flyby and have it disarm the archer's bows (it can pick up the disarmed bow and take it). Hopefully they have backups ;)
In other words, just harry them until they really hate it then have them face it off when they get to their ultimate destination. Unless they have some way to pin it down the dragon can control the when and where of their encounters.
Like every one has said. Make it memorable. I like the idea of dragging the battle out a little. Have the dragon fly by attack them and keep on them. It won't kill the players but it will keep them on their toes. I also like the idea of using the polymorph for the final battle, so that you can get in close without having to fight to get there. Let them come across a paladin who is traveling in the same direction. They may see it as you throwing them a bone to help with the dragon. You could also just be a small animal that skidders across the road as the players come near. Once you have them all bundled up in close to you, dragonize and full attack their screaming heads off.
Concur that a fight against a single enemy at APL + 2 doesn't seem to represent the challenge you are looking for. Concur that the main thing the dragon has going for it is paralysis. If you don't want to use that I'd try something else entirely.
If you do run the fight with the stats stated, I'm going to disagree with some of the above. The dragon's defenses are not very impressive. Its relying on its flight to keep attackers away. Two ranged focus PCs are going to work bloody havoc on it as it flies in and flies away. I just don't see hit and run tactics working.
Frankly its only chance would seem to me to attack out of ambush, try the paralysis and quickly rip up the archers with full attacks while it hovers out of range of the melee. However its chance of taking someone out in 1 round seems pretty low. As you say if the cleric makes its save the dragon is going to struggle.
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As Selgard says, play the dragon smooth. Hit them with the breath weapon and take off. Have it circle the party at half a mile up. Have it trick them into other fights then hit them with the breath weapon while they are fighting the other creature. If they are archer heavy have it stay out of archery range until it's actually attacking. Give it flyby and have it disarm the archer's bows (it can pick up the disarmed bow and take it). Hopefully they have backups ;)
In other words, just harry them until they really hate it then have them face it off when they get to their ultimate destination. Unless they have some way to pin it down the dragon can control the when and where of their encounters.
This is the way to go. Instead of one big fight it is several smaller fights with other opponents and the dragon jumps down to make the fight tougher and runs off before the PCs can adequately respond.
In this race to a site the amount of time before anyone reaches the site can help here. If you have a few days then the dragon can harry them for days while sending other oppnents their way. That diplomacy +17 can help him recruit allies on the fly, maybe with enticement from some of the treasure from his hoard. The ability to take any form could also let him set up an ambush where he is hidden in a group of weak opponents and then boom! Dragon out of nowhere.
I assume that he has a reason to fight them instead of just bolting for the site. He does have a fly speed of 200 and at 7th level that is hard for pcs to match over non combat time.
True Strike is self only.
As is shield.
True Strike is self only.
She could true strike herself while she circles around for another pass if really needed.
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Have the dragon fly high up in plain view. If they use fly to come after her then the dispel magic scroll will be useful. In any case the dragon can use its movement to stay well ahead. If one or two characters separate far enough from the group then she attacks them.
She can also wait for another combat with an unrelated foe and come it to attack. Like others have said the dragon does not get enough actions to make it interesting.
Ideally you should let the characters have a couple days with no dragon. She knows where they are going and can fly ahead using her very superior speed. She can use that time to set up several attacks (lets say 4).
During the first 3 she might swoop in for a round and drop her breath weapon and fly away. This should get the players to waste daily resources (spells and channeling). Use of paralyzing breath is nice here as it makes the first 3 fights tougher.
During the last fight she will try to put the hurt on them. She will have allies in this fight too. When she swoops down she will stay and try to make a real fight of it. She should open with paralyzing breath and throw down.