How Would You Have Run This?

[cranewings]

So, in last nights game, the party bit off more than they could chew. With the help of close to a dozen archers, they drove a dragon away from their keep. The party is 4th level. The Dragon is actually a fairy. It has pretty average stats for a CR 7, with only two melee attacks: Wings Smash and Bite, though both do a lot of damage, and it has spell casting like a 7th level sorcerer.

Anyway, they take three of their archers with them. The party is not at all equipped for ranged combat. They even talk about it before they leave. The barbarian has a spear to throw, the paladin some javelins, the monk has nothing, and they have a gunslinger with a musket. The paladin has a masterwork +2 strength long bow, but he never uses it and the play doesn't want to.

So they talk to the dragon one night, and then come back the next day to kill him at his lair, after tracking him to his home. It meets them invisible and after talking smack, shoots a 7 dice lightning bolt down their line and flies up into the air. The barbarian and monk try to run up on him, so he sleet storms them and then proceeds to start pooping lightning bolts on the paladin and gunslinger, dropping both.

The monk runs out the far side of the sleet storm, the barbarian out the way he came. No communication. All the mooks with long bows were killed by the first spell. The monk, on his turn, not wanting to run back through the sleet, decides to run up the mountain trail. A round or two later, he finds himself well above the fight, looking down on the dragon who is killing all his teammates. So the monk does what any self respecting monk would do. He dives onto the dragon.

The dragon stays in the air but after grappling rolls, can't shake the monk. To get away from the still up barbarian and not sure what was happening, it flies out over the lower mountain and is about 100' up.

The monk gets a bright idea, and climbs to the dragon's head and starts jerking it down. The dragon still can't shake the monk and starts uncontrollably diving for the ground. It finally shakes the monk, I rule at 20' from the ground, but they were already falling and the monk was badly hurt, at only 6 health, so he died there.

The dragon fails its control roll. On the fly, I just decided it needed a 15 at least to gain control with only 20 feet left before the ground, and so I rolled an 11. The dragon slams for 10d6 damage, surviving with 11 HP. About this time, the barbarian runs up to it, mostly unhurt, survives another lightning bolt. The dragon started to fly up, but under the trees and with only one move action, I ruled the barbarian could hit it if he made a DC 15 jump check, which he did, and so he cut it down. With healing potions on hand, he saves the gunslinger and paladin, but the monk died (refusing a crappy reincarnation at the hands of a local druid).

How would you have done it?

[Beebs]

That sounds epic.

The monk died in the most heroically monk-ish way possible, saved the rest of his party and gave the barbarian the opportunity to defeat the dragon.

But, his death, and the near deaths of everyone else probably taught the survivors something about flying enemies, and they'll perhaps be more prepared next time.

Great work IMHO. I think your ad-libbing rules-wise regarding leaping off a cliff/grappling flyers, jumping attacks, etc. really upped the cinematic factor!

[wraithstrike]

I not have the dragon roll to shake the monk off. I would have the monk roll to hold on.

I take that back. If the dragon was legitimately grappled I would have made both of them roll like normal. I might have made the dragon make fly checks also. If the dragon was immune to lighting I would have hit the monk by making the bolt pass through its own square.

If it still got to the part where the dragon was on the ground I would have tried to fly first, and use lightening bolt second so that barbarian would not get a decent shot at the hurt dragon.

If the barbarian ever goes for a ranged weapon I would make the dragon run away. It would return later though.

[Alex Head]

This sounds great to me! You played it fair, but weren't afraid to let your players feel like heroes.

Could the dragon have made some more "tactical" decisions? sure. But that's not what the game's about, in my opinion - the battle was already challenging enough and letting the monster start acting like its General Patton would have taken away from the fun.

I think it sounds like you did a bang-up job.

[A highly regarded expert]

I'm always surprised at the number of players who simply refuse to carry ranged weapons, or ranged characters who won't carry melee weapons.

I won't even start on covering damage types.

[Dosgamer]

You say the dragon was actually a fairy. Was its type fey then instead of dragon? Was it evil? The paladin could have used smite evil (throwing javelins first and bow as a last resort) I would think. Also, I don't know much about the class mechanics of gunslingers, but I thought they used ranged touch attacks? Dragons typically have poor touch AC's, so the gunslinger should have been going to town on the dragon as well I would think.

But that has nothing to do with how you ran the encounter. It sounds like you did a bang up job to me. The only thing I noted was the DC to make a vertical jump. It's typically DC 4 per vertical foot. So a 5 foot vertical jump is DC 20 (and that's with a running start). If the dragon was in the third vertical square (1st being ground level) the barbarian would need an Acrobatics DC 20 to leap 5 feet into the air and hit it. For all the rest I say "well done!" /salute

[st00ji]

i might have given the monk a chance to survive the fall, though it was a pretty heroic way to go down.

otherwise it sounds awesome to me. they took on a +3 challenge under equipped and came through, hopefully they learned something from it.

can i play in your game? :P

[cranewings]

Thanks all.

Dosgamer wrote:

You say the dragon was actually a fairy. Was its type fey then instead of dragon? Was it evil? The paladin could have used smite evil (throwing javelins first and bow as a last resort) I would think. Also, I don't know much about the class mechanics of gunslingers, but I thought they used ranged touch attacks? Dragons typically have poor touch AC's, so the gunslinger should have been going to town on the dragon as well I would think.

It's type was fairy. It didn't have DR, but if you didn't give the killing blow with cold iron, it would respawn a day later. They didn't have it for the first fight. They got it before they left.

The dragon was casting lightning bolt from too far away for javalins to do well. The gunslinger was doing very consistent damage. He has a musket that is tricked out with Far Shot and other powers to reduce range penalties. Unfortunately, a d12+4 once a round from one character isn't enough. They aren't really power gamers and make odd decisions. I've told them rarely I've seen a character with a con under 12 live. I guess he took my challenge there and made his little high elf with strength and constitution both dumped. He has 22 HP at 4th level. Once he got focused on with 7d6 lightning, he couldn't stand long.

Dosgamer wrote:

But that has nothing to do with how you ran the encounter. It sounds like you did a bang up job to me. The only thing I noted was the DC to make a vertical jump. It's typically DC 4 per vertical foot. So a 5 foot vertical jump is DC 20 (and that's with a running start). If the dragon was in the third vertical square (1st being ground level) the barbarian would need an Acrobatics DC 20 to leap 5 feet into the air and hit it. For all the rest I say "well done!" /salute

It is hard to decide how far creatures will be by the point in the round they get hit. It usually let any narratively consistent description of movement overrule RAW. "I move." "I get in the way." is fair. If the dragon could make its full move on its turn, even though the barbarian was running to him, they would never have caught it. I have mixed feelings about it. Basically simultaneous movement REALLY benefits fighters.

[Dosgamer]

Narrative descriptions and fun encounters are the right call every time in my book. Giving PC's the benefit of the doubt and letting them make heroic attempts are the things that players will remember years from now. /salute!

[Madclaw]

I don't mean to short change your decision on the monk's death. But if the player is playing a straight monk and is 4th level he has slow fall 20 feet. The falling damage wouldn't have killed him.

[CrackedOzy]

Madclaw wrote:

I don't mean to short change your decision on the monk's death. But if the player is playing a straight monk and is 4th level he has slow fall 20 feet. The falling damage wouldn't have killed him.

Slow Fall (Ex)

At 4th level or higher, a monk within arm's reach of a wall can use it to slow his descent. When first gaining this ability, he takes damage as if the fall were 20 feet shorter than it actually is. The monk's ability to slow his fall (that is, to reduce the effective distance of the fall when next to a wall) improves with his monk level until at 20th level he can use a nearby wall to slow his descent and fall any distance without harm.

[cranewings]

The monk fell 100'. He just happened to be in contact with the dragon for the first 80.

[Madclaw]

You're correct. I always forget that part of the slow fall ability.