If anyone from my Smite Evil campaign reads this, please leave.
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I've got a campaign with four paladins - archer of Erastil, charging lancer of Ra*, bodyguard glaive-wielder of Shelyn, and reckless sword-wielder of Ragathiel.
*Honestly, I'm not the hugest fan of Egyptian gods on Golarion, but the player wanted it, so I'm working it in.
Next week the party will be confronting an antipaladin (last of four the PCs were combating) who's trying to reach a portal to the Dimension of Dreams. The four antipaladins' gods (Lamashtu, Ghlaunder, Dahak, and Set) have lured Desna into a trap in the Dimension of Dreams, and hope to steal her divinity.
I expect the party to slay the antipaladin right outside the portal, before he's able to finish the ritual to empower the evil gods. But this encounter is meant to set the stage for a dream-heavy arc of the campaign, so when the antipaladin falls, the leaking energy of the portal will manifest as an umbral dragon.
I could have gone for an esoteric dragon, like a nightmare dragon, but with a Ra paladin, I wanted to go for the strong light-vs.-shadow dichotomy. Also, I just played Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, and the Fenrir battle is amazing.
I'm looking for ways to make this encounter a bit more operatic. First, I'd like the villain to monologue a bit, fly overhead and taunt. He's an entity from the dimension of dreams who are going to be causing trouble in the future, and the PCs honestly aren't big at figuring out secrets, so I'm going to spell out the metaplot a bit.
Second, from a tactical standpoint, only one PC is any good at ranged attacks, and the location is the bottom of a grotto, with a storm roiling overhead. I'd prefer to set up dilemmas and give the players a challenge to solve how to beat him, instead of it just being a "surround and full attack" scene.
Third, I want a sort of staged battle, even if it means making up some new rules. Perhaps the first act of the battle is the dragon circling overhead and occasionally dropping a breath weapon. (I'm thinking a lingering cloud of darkness that does damage over time, instead of a single shot.) Once he's hurt enough, he bathes the whole area in shadow and sweeps past in melee, using awesome blow to try to force the party apart. Then at the climax, his physical form dissolves and he somehow attacks them psychically in a nightmare dreamscape.
Any thoughts on how to do this?
The party is 7th level, and I know from experience that four paladins all smiting can punch above their weight pretty well, so I'm honestly shooting for a roughly CR 13 encounter.
Thanks in advance.