Cleric Spells for Dragon Slaying

[Azten]

As the title says, I'm seeking advice on what spells I should prepare. I'm an 8th battle cleric of Torag with 20 wisdom, as well as an Oread.

Our party is as follws: Oread Cleric, Dwarven Monk, Wayang Oracle(Dark Tapestry) and a Halfling Sorcerer(Wild/Crossblooded)/Ninja/Arcane Trickster.

We know it's a large black dragon, since we encountered it before and it slaughtered our frontliners at the time(A fighter and an Inquisitor).

One spell IS know has a low chance of working on the dragon is Terrible Remorse(I need to roll a 14 to get through it's SR).

Thoughts and suggestions?

[Pupsocket]

First off, Terrible Remorse has been errata'ed into something not horribly broken: A succeful save ends the spell after one round of being staggered.

Other than the obvious Protection from Energy, you should probably look into some sort of flight, so you can engage it in melee.

The actual plan should be to quest for aid or items, because it's going to murder you all.

[Azten]

We're in the World's Largest Dungeon, so questing isn't going to help much. I expect someone will die, yes, but hopefully we can still kill it.

Well, Terrible Remorse is off the list now...

With our oracle casting Black Tentacles, I might just pop Freedom of Movement on the Monk. It's an idea at least.

Are there any spells that give you proficiency in a weapon?

[InsaneFox]

Azten wrote:

We're in the World's Largest Dungeon, so questing isn't going to help much. I expect someone will die, yes, but hopefully we can still kill it.

Well, Terrible Remorse is off the list now...

With our oracle casting Black Tentacles, I might just pop Freedom of Movement on the Monk. It's an idea at least.

Are there any spells that give you proficiency in a weapon?

Bestow Weapon Proficiency.

[EWHM]

Calm emotions and lots of summoned lantern archons. Get the wizard to crank a bunch out too. Haste and prayer them too if you like. They go against touch ac, ignore DR and have surprising durability. Calm emotions is for the dragon fear aura.

[Kayerloth]

What sort of environment is the dragon lair? I'm guessing it's not outdoors since you mention the World's Largest Dungeon. Large underground cavern/lake? If concerned about being Grappled and getting pulled underwater => Waterbreathing and/or Freedom of Action.

Curious why the interest in gaining a specific weapon proficiency ... find a dragon bane weapon or something?

Seems to me light conditions (underground+darkness+obscuring mist) plus its Blindsense and the potential to need to fight or survive underwater could be the worst situations you might have to deal with (beyond the fact its a tough mother to fight straight up for an APL 8 party).

@EWHM How are you using Calm Emotions? I get that it will suppress the Fear aura effect but won't it also prevent them from attacking? Wouldn't Remove Fear be a better choice for that?

[EWHM]

You're right that remove fear would probably be a better bet.

[Azten]

From what Ican remember, the lair itself is nothing more than a large room.

We've been told we can summon into the dungeon, but.. they don't leave when the spells ends. For this reason, we've been avoiding conjuring monster to fight at our side.

We don't have a wizard or Haste.

Finally, I've been holding onto a Holy Greatsword for a while even though I can't normally use it. Since it's going to hit me anyway, I'm planning on using it instead of my Warhammer and Shield.

[Vazt]

I thinks his is a tough fight with what you have to work with. You'll need daylight to counter darkness, something to prevent fear, and some way to ground it. I would summon the heck out of flying creatures and maybe lesser planar ally a bralani to help. Blessing of fervor will help out.

[Kayerloth]

Well ...

Do you mean literally just a very spacious rectangular box of a room?
If that's the case can you enter and exit the room relatively freely? Any nearby 5 foot wide hallways where he'd be squeezed if he entered? Find a battleground you like and draw him there, get him out of the big box and into a little one. Play hit and run till he chases.

Spells:
Divine Power (for you), Blessing of Fervor, Daylight, Resist and/or Protection from Acid, Remove Fear

Resist Fire and or Ice depending on which, if any, of the Walls your party plans on using.

Glyph of Warding, lay it one or more times between his lair and the battleground. More damage you can do while not exposed the better. Explosive Runes available at all?

Dispel Magic, he could buff himself by +4 to AC 32 (or better if he has any items) with Mage Armor assuming your GM doesn't change him from the bestiary entry.

If he sets Alarm spells, trigger them and retreat ... repeat till he's tired of checking things out for 'false alarms'.

What sort of buffs and barrier spells does the sorcerer have? Heroism, Wall of Fire or Wall of Ice? Wall of Fire will burn away (within the area it does damage) any Obscuring Mist the dragon might use. Wall of Ice can give him choices -> get frosty busting walls or squeezed by narrowed halls or lowered ceilings.

[Magda Luckbender]

You said that Summoned Monsters don't leave, which is weird but you can turn to your advantage. Both casters can summon multiple Lantern Archons, which can then engage the dragon, carefully avoiding fireball formation. It will destroy them all, but will take a lot of damage doing so.

Can the dragon rapidly heal its wounds? If not, the above tactic can wear it down over a few days.

Also, a single Lantern Archon can cast Aid on the entire party, giving you all an extra d8+3 HP right before you fight the dragon. Combine this with lots of buffs, acid resistance, the other tactics mentioned above, and more summoned creatures, and you might have a chance.

[Reynard_the_fox]

Azten wrote:

We've been told we can summon into the dungeon, but.. they don't leave when the spells ends. For this reason, we've been avoiding conjuring monster to fight at our side.

Uh... I might be missing something, but leading an army of summoned critters to fight a black dragon sounds pretty bad@ss to me. I can see it now - the dragon is lazing around in his cave, when all of a sudden 50 Lantern Archons pour in to the sound of "Ride of the Valkyries." Your party comes riding in on a chariot towed by 8 Hound Archons, and start hurling spells and arrows at the dragon...

[Azten]

We killed it. Third round.

I largely underestimated the power of our preperations. I thank everyone for the advice they gave.

[Reynard_the_fox]

Azten wrote:

We killed it. Third round.

I largely underestimated the power of our preperations. I thank everyone for the advice they gave.

Give us a play-by-play! :D

[Azten]

So we made our way back to the part of the dungeon the dragon is and have started casting our buffing spells and drinking our potions(enlarge person for me and the monk) when a gelatinos cude makes it's presence known. We defeat it without taking any damage(Communal Resst Energy is truly great if you know what's about to come). I did get paralyzed though fr a minute.

The cube defeated, we head into the large room the dragon has made it's own, only to find that there is no dragon. The monk and I move into the room to look at the hoard... when the dragon comes in through the second door(which is a mere 15ft from the first) and puts our Oracle and Sorceress in danger.

Intiative is rolled: Dragon, Sorceress, Me, Monk, Oracle.

I crit for 65 on my second attack, and around 30 on a normal hit fr my third. The monk does the same. On my second attack of the third round it dies. We tore this thing to pieces in a complete reversal of when the party originally met it. Then I remembered I was trained in Craft(Armorsmithing)!

Congratulations are in order for the player of our Oracle. This was his first dragon ever and he survived only slightly tail slapped!

[Reynard_the_fox]

Wow! Guess heaven hath no fury like a fully-buffed up Cleric. Just watch out for the surprise encounter just after all the buffs have run down and you're out of spells for the day. ;)