How to Avoid Using
Let’s start with my usual. The list of possible reasons for the good-alignment creature to refuse to join the quest, and basically take over the story.
- The gold dragon is keeping watch of a different evil, and if it goes to solve this problem if will open the door for a worse one. (While both bronze and gold dragons fight evil, I see the difference between them as that the bronze dragon focuses on enemy armies and the line, while the gold dragon fights powerful evil entities, such as eldritch horrors.)
- Place them in a position where they are forced to work with an evil being, either as an ally or for information. Allying with the dragon will require turning in the ally, as the dragon will feel obligated to do it. (You could even have the dragon warn them of this. The dragon understands the necessity, but can’t publicly condone it.)
- With the dragon’s ability to see the future (mentioned as a lair action), the dragon can “sense” that they’ll be more successful without him.
- If the situation requires any type of stealth, you can say that the villain is keeping too close an eye on the dragon for it to come close, even in changed shape. Possibly, the villains have an item or spell that will sense the dragon’s presence. Even without needing stealth, you can say that the dragon’s presence will cause the villain to panic, increasing civilian casualties.
Robbing a Dragon’s Hoard
Gold dragons keep items of immense magical value in their hoards. In our ongoing quest to find interesting opportunities to use dragons, let’s look at how to run a quest in which the heroes have to rob a treasure from a golden dragon.
To begin, as a plot hook, you’ll have to give them a reason to commit the robbery. The obvious is that they need a certain item in order to defeat the enemy, and they learn that the item is in the dragon’s hoard. While a gold dragon might agree to give up a piece of its hoard if absolutely necessary, this comes with the caveat that the dragon will never agree that it’s necessary.
If you prefer, you could give them a prophecy that they must obtain an item from the dragon’s hoard if they wish to win. This has the advantage that they can choose the item. Perhaps have the prophecy specify from which section of the dragon’s hoard chambers, so as to give them only a few items to choose from. Also, tell them that they mustn’t take more than one, unless you want them to do otherwise.
Ideas for protection spells (puzzles) at the end of the article.
Part 2: Pursuit
The obvious consequence of robbing a gold dragon is that they’ll have the gold dragon be chasing after them. I already wrote an article in which low-level adventurers have a high CR red dragon after them, but here I would not suggest as close a pursuit.
If the gold dragon manages to catch up to them, you’ll be stuck between two bad options. Either it will win, and you’ll be stuck between it acting too harsh and not seeming good, or it will lose, and you’ll probably have forced your players to kill a good creature because they won’t see any other option.
In addition, if the dragon pulls its punches at all it might end up seeming weak.
What you can do is use the fact of its presence to force the players to travel via more circuitous routes, to avoid traveling where the dragon can spot them from the air or find them via its minions or allies. These routes should be more dangerous, not significantly longer.
If they wish to enter cities, or other good aligned areas, they’ll have to do so in such a way as to not get caught be any guards that might be loyal to the dragon.
As the first part of this plot was basically a heist, this would be a logical time to continue that theme. If they’re rouge-inclined, they can find a way to sneak past the guards. If they prefer roleplaying, give them disguises, and place them in situations where they have to come up with creative reasons why they’re after adventurer-style objectives.
If necessary, point out to them that if they pick a fight with the guards, they’ll end up with legions of soldiers after them, they’ll have given away their location to the dragon, and/or the people that they hope to meet with won’t want to have anything to do with them. Hopefully, that will be enough to prevent them killing innocents, but it’s always worth being ready to follow through on any threats you make, if necessary.
With that said, you should also do your part and not have the guards look for them too closely. Don’t push them into a fight. If you like, you can say that the guards are smarter than to start a fight they can’t win, if they aren’t absolutely forced to. Let them claim plausible deniability, and they’ll take it. They can always report afterwards, helping to put more pressure on the players.
A fun encounter is to have the dragon almost catch them. Either when they’re in the forest or in the city, have the dragon land near them, and not see them. They have to sneak away without causing a fight. To ensure that they don’t take advantage of this to sneak attack the dragon, let them see allies of the dragon who are around and will join the fight.
You can also discourage them killing the dragon by making it clear that the dragon does a lot of good, and that it would be disastrous for the area if they kill it. While this will help to discourage killing the dragon, it’s most likely not something to rely on.
If they fail to escape the dragon, you can have the dragon’s minion/allies show up and have the players get captured. Then, find a way to let them escape, and your plot is back on track. You won’t be able to get away with this more than once.

Combat Encounter – Final Fight (difficulty 18)
To bring this encounter to a climax, I would suggest the dragon forcing them into a confrontation. One way would be that they’re still going through the woods, and the dragon sets them up to think that it’s burning the forest down around them. (In reality, it or its minions set fire to carefully several small areas, taking precautions that it shouldn’t spread, and used some type of powder to have it let off a lot of smoke.)
As they come out of the forest, they find the dragon waiting for them.
(I’m of the opinion that DM cheating is fine, provided your players don’t find out. With that in mind, if they do go another direction, I might simply tell them that the dragon anticipated it. The dragon is definitely intelligent enough to outthink most people.
You can even have it written down, ready to show them as “proof”. In actuality, the reason it isn’t proof is because you wouldn’t have shown them the note if they hadn’t gone the other way. Note that cheating only works if you never let them know about it, even after the game.)
A trick the dragon might use during the fight. Have the fight take place at the edge of a large lake. The dragon uses its breath weapon on the lake, turning it into a cloud of steam, effectively blinding the players and hiding the dragon. The dragon itself uses scent, which means the steam won’t affect it. (Try to have it use this trick before using its fear aura, or after it wears off.)
If your players are skilled enough to be able to escape from difficult situations, you can have a half-circle of archers surrounding them together with the dragon, or have the dragon give a signal and a net that was buried under their feet rises up and entangles them. This will obviously make the fight a lot harder.
A typical way to end the fight is to have the villain suddenly reveal himself after both the dragon and the players are low on HP, perhaps seeing an opportunity to take out both his enemies, and the players and dragon can team up against him.
Other ways to avoid the dragon being killed are to have an NPC, preferably one that they already know and like, show up to intercede on behalf of the dragon. They can point out the damage that will happen to the area if the dragon is no longer there to defend it, and other good deeds the dragon does.
You could also give the players a magic item that they can use to imprison the dragon once it’s already low on HP. Hopefully, having a non-lethal way to get rid of their foe will remove their motivation to kill him. If you want to make sure, use the NPC to ask for mercy and remind them of the object, or give them a bonus if they use the item. (Perhaps having a powerful prisoner powers up the item and gives them a power they can then use.)
Protections a gold dragon might have on its hoard: (Note: gold dragons are highly magical.)
Puzzle 1: Magical Guards.
Since the dragon has the magical skill, give it a collection of construct guards. Such guards can be given spells to summon the dragon as soon as they see an intruder.
The weakness of the guards is that they’ll only do what they’ve been told to do, which means that they might investigate noise, but they won’t trigger the alarm if they don’t lay eyes on the intruders.
It also means that they’ll behave in a predictable manner, not deviating from their position or patrol route until given reason, and responding the noise exactly the save each time. The rouges and other stealth classes should be able to lead them in circles, while their fellows slip past.
Combine these guards with gaps that they need to cross, locked doors, and other mundane obstacles. Provide hiding places, such as statues and decorative vases to make it easier, use large wide-open spaces to make it harder.
(Note: The guards have been enchanted to be immune to Illusion spells, although other magic works fine.)
Puzzle 2: Invisible Walls.
A certain section of the gold dragon’s lair is a small maze of invisible walls. The walls shift from time to time, so that you can’t simply use a memorized route to get through the room.
Touching the walls gives you a minor amount of lighting damage, and this applies even if you touch it indirectly (such as with a stick), and even if you throw something at the walls. (the lightning shoots out and hits you).
The dragon uses its glimpse the future lair action to get through the room.
Solution: Put braziers of incense throughout the rooms of the lair. Light one of those and fire, and it will release a lot of smoke, which of course won’t go through the invisible walls. As the smoke is insubstantial, and was never touched by the PCs, it won’t trigger the lightning effect.
(Note: The walls have been enchanted to be immune to divination spells, although other magic works fine.)
Puzzle 3: Sinking floor.
A room with a large red tile floor. each step taken on the floor causes the floor to drop by a foot. (Stepping on something placed on the floor counts as stepping on the floor, because covering the floor with your shirt just seems too obvious. Besides, most characters wear shoes.)
A single person can cross the floor and then pull themselves up on the far end, but there’s no way that four people will make it. Put a line of perpetually burning candles right after the line, to burn through grappling hooks and make it impossible for PCs to pull themselves up. (The gold dragon is immune to fire, of course.)
Finally, the room has an antimagic against conjuration magic (other types still work), so that they can’t use magic to fly, teleport, cling to the walls, or any obvious solution.
I’m considering a second stage, with a blue floor that rises with each step. Take too long, or have more than 1-2 people, and the floor will reach the ceiling and make traveling impossible.
Solution: It’s been suggested to me that if going the other way causes the floor to move in the opposite direction, then the strongest PC could carry the rest across one at a time. Taking a door off its hinges and having two PCs hold it on their shoulders should work. Dancing in a circle while slowly advancing might, but I doubt they’ll think of that.
Puzzle 4: Gas filled case.
An item that they want to steal, locked in a glass case. The glass case also contains an invisible gas that is highly flammable. There are two braziers burning nearby, enchanted so that they can’t be put out. Even assuming that the players know about the gas beforehand, it won’t be easy to get out.
Solution: The best solution I was given is to cover up the flames. If they have any wall spells (wall of water, wall of ice, wall of force, etc.’) they can of course use that. Otherwise, place decorative fountains in a nearby room. The braziers can be filled with water, and while it won’t put out the fire, it will block the gas from reaching it.
Also, it’s possible the flame might destroy the object inside the case. Or not. Depends on how forgiving you want to be.
Puzzle 5: Sinking Case
How do you steal an object from a glass case when the casing will drop into a basement the second it detects intrusion?
Solution: I wasn’t able to find a solution to this puzzle. I suggest putting a second, optional treasure into this case and then letting me know how you players get it out. I imagine they will. Players are endlessly inventive when it comes to treasure.
Summary – 6 Ways to Use
- Gold dragons collect magical items. Let the adult gold dragon have a magic item they really need. As the dragon won’t agree that the need is strong enough, they’ll have to distract the dragon and/or get past its spells so they can steal it.
- The adult gold dragon accuses them of a crime, (perhaps because they were framed). As nobody wants to cross the dragon, they’ll have to sneak around cities from then on, and make sure to avoid the guards.
- The adult gold dragon is after a villain that they know is repentant, and whom they need or owe. They’ll have to find a way to sneak the ex-villain past the dragon, possibly sneaking past the dragon to get to the villain first.
- Have the adult gold dragon be occupied elsewhere, and not available to help the players on their quest, but willing to give them advice. It can see the future, so it knows some of what they need to know, but seeing the future is inexact.
- When an adult gold dragon is after someone, it might set a trap by having minions set smoky fires at different places, so they think the dragon’s burning down the forest and flee into the dragon’s waiting claws.
The adult gold dragon can use its fire breath on a lake to create a cloud of mist. This will blind the players, but not the dragon, who is able to hunt through scent
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