I have to narrate a scene and don't need to play the whole battle out, seems like a lot of work as the PCs only need to know who wins and by how much and either result forwards the plot, but I would like it to be generically accurate not just GM fiat in who wins.
It starts Round 1 with an Adult Black Dragon, who also has 1 class level of cleric (Evil, Water as domains) and 1 of Rogue, noticing he's about to be attacked by 2 Greater Air Elementals. He's about 150 feet away from them, he has initiative before them, and they're all 600 feet up. He only had "Bless" up on himself at that point. The elementals have the benefits of Augment Summon. They have 11 rounds left on their duration (dragon doesn't know that).
The skies are clear, the fight should be aerial (that's GM fiat for a reason), and it is a fight to the death (again, for a reason).
In round 6, two Large Lightening Elementals (also with Augment Summon) will arrive to assist the Air Elementals, 8 rounds left on their duration at that point. They'd also have Resist Elements:Acid cast on them from a 6th level caster.
Now I'm not asking for a play by play, if someone wants to go for it but I only added the details so people could make a better guess, but I'm debating the general "who do you think wins the fight" and "generic why's" of how they did it to believably describe to the players.
Edit: The winner doesn't matter, CR's seem close enough, but as the PC's set this up (as part of somethin bigger) yet the Black Dragon was a noteworthy side villian that was respected if not liked I figure he at least deserves to only fall if he'd actually lose the fight on average.
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The dragon wins.
I doubt it will be easy for him, and the twisting, whirling chaos of an aerial battle would make for great imagery, but his breath weapon when it's available, plus the sheer number of attacks he gets, should do for the elementals. He's twice as fast in the air as them, and can therefore choose when he wants to engage. And if the fight happens anywhere near water or a swamp, the dragon can dive into it to escape and strike from ambush when it suits him. Not to mention dropping darkness on himself and letting his Blindsense do the work for targeting. And if the fight isn't to the dragon's taste (bright daylight, no water to hide in), it can flee vastly faster than the elementals can keep up. They're not stupid.
He knows they're summoned (or suspects), point was he doesn't know duration. (Edit: He'd might know minimum starting is 13 rounds for SL7 spell)
Thought they're faster/better fliers than him but don't have bstiary on me. (Partly why I'm on here, can't access PRD from here yet can use Forums).
He knows the caster is both safe, and has retreated.
It's a long story, but if he flees he dies anyway (a bigger, meaner villian will eat his lunch), but if he can wait about 20min he can plunder and maybe live, but he cannot approach the ground for now (high level archer waiting below... won't attack him unless he approaches the town during it's evacuation).
I figured his breath weapon would be his saving grace. That, or his many attacks.
Darkness... don't elementals have dark vision?
Do elmental attacks count as magical? I thougt no, so his DR/magic could help.
He's bascally "trapped" in the air over the location, can flee or descend, but if he survives, he migh live and is definitely adding to his treasure pile.
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Adult black dragon is large, and flies at 200 feet (poor). The elementals fly at 100 feet (perfect). They can outmanoeuvre him, but can't catch him if he tries to stay away. If he knows they're summoned, he just plays keep-away for a couple of minutes. Problem solved.
Awesome... that does give him a huge edge. The towns like a mile by a half mile, that's A Lot of air space for him to manuver in.
Kinda glad he'd likely live. He always had the devils own luck with dice roll.
Would they be able to close with him and attack at all (charge while he's breathing maybe), or will the fight be entirely him untouched?
[I will note he's highly aggresive and very angry at the time, I would imagine he'd risk a few hits to see someting (chemically) burn if he thought he'd still win]
Why would a dragon be afraid of an mortal archer?
Also, if the dragon knows he just needs to wait 20 min, he knowingly could play sky-tag with 4 elementals for that one minute that they would be around, then return to whatever he was doing.
Edit: Ahh, i got Ninja´ed.
... and thanks guys, really happy the numbers supported a good narrative outcome, town got evacuated [not from dragon, from larger threat], but a fun villian lives [and prob gets richer in process]
Would they be able to close with him and attack at all (charge while he's breathing maybe), or will the fight be entirely him untouched?
[I will note he's highly aggresive and very angry at the time, I would imagine he'd risk a few hits to see someting (chemically) burn if he thought he'd still win]
If the elementals spread out to try to catch him, he'd probably take one on for a round in isolation before breaking for the sky again. If they stick close enough to offer mutual support, he has no reason to engage, no matter how angry he is.
Mad,
Note it wasn't archer or mortal archer, it was high level archer
Dragons are cocky, not stupid
He knows the archer is at least L12 (and he's seen enough to suspect more) but only around to protect the evacuation, NOT the town and NOT there specifically to kill him (so if he waits the archer will be leaving)
Chem,
K, sounds good
EWHM,
I'm picturing this as a jet fighting a helicopter, with similiar results
Shoulderpatch, you realise that in the majority of fights between a jet and a helicopter, the helicopter actually wins????
The reason is simple: The helicopter hides between some obstacles (like trees or houses), waits until the jet races past and launches a missile after it, destroying it.
It was a strategy used to great effect in the falkland wars between the british harriers (jets with VTOL capability) and the argentinean Mirage (french made jets).
Shoulderpatch, you realise that in the majority of fights between a jet and a helicopter, the helicopter actually wins????
The reason is simple: The helicopter hides between some obstacles (like trees or houses), waits until the jet races past and launches a missile after it, destroying it.
It was a strategy used to great effect in the falkland wars between the british harriers (jets with VTOL capability) and the argentinean Mirage (french made jets).
Except this time the jet can completely change direction every 6 seconds and the helicopters are armed only with pitifully short ranged (ie melee) weapons.