Good minion for an ancient black dragon?

[Captain Morgan]

I'm running a level 17 fungal ancient black dragon against a 5 person party today. The XP adjustment is 30. Making the dragon stronger isn't an option.

So I'm trying to figure out what minion(s) to add. Am obvious answer was a level 13 dragonscarred dead, but the PCs will probably start about 300 feet away across water from the dragon and that particular creature has very short range.

This is taking place in a Blighted forest, so plants and Fey are especially appropriate. She's part of a command structure so she could boss some fey around. I need something that makes sense mechanically and narratively. Maybe a viper vine stationed over by the PCs? I dunno.

[Terevalis Unctio of House Mysti]

What about swampy dinos like spinosaurus?

[Seisho]

make a bunch of black scaled kobolds, they can have equipment and magic as appropriate for their roles (given out by the dragon)

or since its a fungal dragon try fungus leshies, they feel probably pretty at home close to the dragon

bogs and swamps are also valid for several kinds of hags, maybe theres a coven which works for the dragon (or even control him (?))

smaller dragons (the brood of the big one) would probably also thematically fitting

depending on the dragon and his personality he could have bound a fiend (or multiple ones) to keep the usual mortal adventureres from its hoard

hope this gives you some inspiration

[NECR0G1ANT]

Assuming you have a level 14 party and this is a Severe encounter, I recommend any the following, with either weak or elite adjustments:

Peluda
Adult Black Dragon
Isqulug
Catoblepas
Jotund Troll
Brughadatch
Doblaglub

These are all swamp monsters, from levels 10 to 14. Add the fungal template where appropriate.

[Captain Morgan]

5th player couldn't make it, so I ran her solo. Boy howdy was it an exciting one. It looked really bad. The dragon cast finger of death on the little cleric, and she critically failed. Used a hero point, rolled again, got another critical failure. Character died, player signed off to go to bed. But! I realized in the middle of the next round that the dragon had been dazzled by the Oracle, giving her a 20% miss chance on all targeted effects. Rolled it retroactively, got a miss, and we called the cleric back in to finish the fight.

They almost had it, but then the dragon dimension doored away. We will see how round 2 goes... That will be a good opportunity to use these minions y'all suggested. ^_^ They will probably be 15 when they face her again, so I will have a little more flexibility in my XP budget.

My big take away is don't sleep on dazzled.

[Malk_Content]

For advice on this in general, GMs dont always think you need to add more creatures to the budget! Some well spent xp on hazards will make the encounter pop AND a baddie who lives there will already know how to utilize that.

An example for the swamp. Poisonous gas regularly bubbles up through the swamp. Use 2d10 to get a grid coordinate for where the 15x15 area of gas will pop out each round. The dragon who lives there knows the signs of an impending gas eruption (a change of smell and smaller bubbles at the surface) and gets 1 free seek each round to identify it.

[lemeres]

Graveknights could work.

If they have the right element, they are immune to acid, so they can fight in and delay creatures for the breath weapon. The dragon doesn't have to worry about accidentally damaging them.

Additionally, their rejuvenation could make them into good toys for the dragon. They don't stay dead, but a bored dragon can smash them enough times that it is effective torture. The dragon can smash them at any time for amusement or when displeased, but it doesn't make them lose the minion entirely.

[Errant Mercenary]

Boggards and Frogemoths, since they are also swamp dwellers?