Be flying, use fly-by attack. Use vital strike during the fly-by attack. Target spell casters first with this. Use your spells and breath weapons at range. Basically don't let them get close to you. IF they do lock you down, full attack someone to death.
Some dragons also have spellcasting, and can use those to great effect, especially if their better-than-most-adventurer senses gives them advance notice of their approach.
Use their immunities to great advantage. A dragon immune to fire can hold his breath for a long time, allowing them to swim through lava and ambush enemies or even drag them down into it. Other dragons might use areas rife with their natural element to bog down their enemies and keep them in their home territory.
Another thing... Dragons are dangerous because they're not only physically and magically powerful, they're also (typically) really clever and intelligent. Some of them have minions. Some have access to powerful magical items. Some of the real tough ones have all of the above, AND a bag of chips somewhere in their hoard. :)
Dotted, , , because, reasons.
Cheers all
My 16th level party is about to meet dragons. The only dragon they fought so far was trapped in his lair, and didn't last long...
Dragons are supposed to be very hard opponents, but I need help running them as intelligent as they are... So:
How do you run a CR 16-20 dragon against a highly optimized party?
1. I would have him fight in his enviroment and/or outside. A dragon that can't fly is much easier to deal with.
2. Be prepared to change his stock spells and feats from those given to him.
3. Specific dragons will use different tactics. White dragons at CR 15 are very dangerous in melee, but they lack the spell casting of other dragons.
4. Similar to 3 take the party composition into consideration.
5. Being a dragon does not make a tough fight on its own. A CR 16 dragon vs a APL 16 party is not going to be a tough fight most of the time.
6. I like ambushes. It does not give them the chance to buff up. If the PC's are on the way to kill the dragon he may meet them en route, and the only announcement will be a breath weapon. :)
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The more detail about the dragons you mean to use, and the circumstance of the encounters that are gonna happen, the more suggestions I can provide.
-Nearyn
At that level action economy becomes a big concern. One dragon alone only gets one set of actions compared to multiple sets from the party. Finding ways to either split the party or add minions to the dragon evens this out.
Also - dragons are intelligent and can use spies or scrying to understand an enemy who might come at them. A really cunning dragon might even set up and observe a fight just to discover their tactics and plan accordingly. A teleporting conjurer might well leave themself vulnerable to a teleport trapped area if they use their Dimensional steps ability in every combat and so on.
You might also want to avoid solo BBEG vs party fights. Give the dragon some backup. I am sure those minions don't want to see their meal ticket, I mean boss, die.
The more detail about the dragons you mean to use, and the circumstance of the encounters that are gonna happen, the more suggestions I can provide.
-Nearyn
Not much planned yet...
Homebrew world where each nation/continent have main race... The players all come from human kingdom in humanoid continent... (both have names, but that irrelevant here...)
Far out in the ocean lies dragon continent. Each element/terrain have a number of dragons of varying alignment native to that terrain.
Each dragon type will have minions/cults of various minor races... (Kobolts, dragonnes etc)
Ok, and are the dragons going to invade, or are the players gonna invade the dragon-continent?
-Nearyn
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Much depends upon how hard you want to get. Frankly - it doesn't make a ton of sense that the average 300yr old dragon has no gear.
Have the dragon cast resist engergy on whatever element he's vulnerable to.
Have him wear armor - even just a chain shirt is a big boost in AC.
Have him wear the rings/amulet/cloak etc from his horde.
(Of note though - if you gear him up much, you should likely up his CR by a point or two.)
Have the dragon get a belt to boost his dex, and then take combat reflexes, improved/greater trip. That way if he does go on the ground, he can truly take advantage of his reach and prevent the group from all meleeing him to death.
Take hover and he can just stay 15-20ft above the ground and wreck the group with his reach while remaining safe from standard melee. (Will also cause concealment - very cinematic moment as the dragon's wings cause a dust cloud and snuff out torches etc.)
a CR 16 green dragon have knowledge(local) +31 that should allow it to know more or less what a level 16 party is and can do.
If bad guys get to use knowledge skills like the PCs does.
That way it can use its abbilities to hit there weak spots. And with shield and mage armor AC 44 is not too shappy. Displacement and mirror image can help with gunslingers and that kind og guys and all the stuff that blocks vision is hurting offensive spellcasters.
This is a guy that should be a walk over encounter for a optimized party and it can still be if they get the drop on it but perception +35 dimension door, teleport, invisibility and stealth + +13 suggest that that is not a given.
If they are in the limited wish a fast geas category of players. The Big red can do that as well. And CR 19 is more a good encounter at level 16 if it is one baddie vs. The group.
But generally remember the action economy thing when you make dragon encounters. One big vs. The group is not the best way to make encounters but most of the big dragons can have a summon monster Spell:)
Create concealment -- clouds, fog, darkness, illusions. Breath weapons aren't affected by that, but player counterattacks usually will be. (Maybe not if the players think to use true sight, but clouds and fog will still work even if illusions don't.)
Cast lots of long-duration buffs before the combat. You won't get the chance during it. And have Quickened Spell for extra actions during combat.
Minions, minions, minions.
Terrain that favors the dragon but not puny mortals.
Dispel magic traps. Lots of them.
Even a white dragon should be able to make the leading face of a glacier fall, or perhaps overturn a block of sea or lake ice while people are on it.
OTOH an optimised 16th level party may do the scry-buff-teleport attack. This kills dragons like most other things.
Defensive buffs can be useful, shield, mage armor, etc.
You also can have spells going like displacement, blur, and invisibility making your players roll through three layers of defense before having to see if they hit your monstrous AC.
Then for shiggles and gits make them roll mirror image.