How to Use – Combat Encounters (difficulty 27)
This article will be a look at some enchantments the gold dragon might have on its lair, and how it might use its lair actions to turn itself from powerful to lethal.
The dragon has no need of stairs or access ramps to reach its home. In fact, any cliffs will have had their outcroppings either smoother away, or loosened to the point where they won’t hold a person’s weight. In addition, the dragon will have tanks of water positioned where they can be opened to release a wave that will push back any attackers.
In order to allow people to come near him, the dragon will have established several large circles in the ground. When someone steps on one and gives the proper command, the circle will rise until the people are on the height of the entrance to the dragon’s lair. If they have to fight the dragon from that position, it will be a very interesting battle.
A variant: Instead of having parts of the ground rise, you could have them meet the dragon on a large open platform, and have the ground start to sink in all but a few areas. With any luck, the players will try to beat the trap by grabbing hold of various “Safe” areas, and not realize that they’ve messed themselves up by splitting up.
Similarly, you could have all the floor except the flagstones that they’re standing on sink, and have those flagstones start moving around in random directions. It would make coordinating themselves almost impossible.
Dream Realm: The Monster Manual gives the gold dragon a lair action in which it can banish a target of its choice to the dream realm for a round, provided they fail a save. This is obviously meant to temporarily knock a PC out of the battle. There is a different way to use it, however. Have the dragon target itself.
As far as I can determine, the creature in the dream realm is still fully conscious and capable, it’s simply in another location. As such, there does not seem to be any reason why the dragon’s breath weapon shouldn’t be able to recharge while in the dream realm, nor why the dragon shouldn’t roll to end ongoing spells that give a save every turn.
Also targeting itself means that it will definitely take effect, as any creature can choose to fail a save.
(There would be some logic to say that the gold dragon could ready an action while in the dream realm, to attack the PC closest to itself as it comes out. This would mean that going to the dream realm would protect it for a turn, while only costing it the legendary actions. [Players sent to the dream realm could to the same, if they thought of it, but that’s unlikely.] This feels like an OP rule lawyering, and I probably wouldn’t use this idea.)
A third move is to release a sleeping gas at some point in the combat, while simultaneously sealing the exits. The dragon can duck out to the dream realm to get fresh air, and the players can’t.
The big weakness is that the dragon will reappear in the same area, and the players will figure this out and get ready to pounce on it as it disappears. In addition, breaks during the battle kill the tension.
I might suggest solving this by saying that the dragon has a realistic statue of itself, and the dragon’s allies will use smoke and mirrors to give the players a brief glimpse of it when the dragon disappears. This should lead the players to think that the dragon is teleporting around.
Dream Realm 2: When using on a PC, I would use a readied action or wing attack to move as soon as the PC’s banished. This will give the other players a round to follow the dragon across a bridge or into a room, and the dragon can then use its breath weapon or another wing attack to take down the bridge or drop a portcullis, making it hard for the banished PC to rejoin the others even after returning.
Another trick would be to destroy the floor under the banished PC, so that when he returns, he finds himself falling. Use this trick second, both because the first trick won’t work once the players know that the banishment is temporary, and because this trick is more fair and more fun once they know that banishing is possible.
Seeing the future: This isn’t as easy to game, but it can be used to let the dragon navigate around invisible walls, or whatever other obstructions you can think of to add to the dragon’s base. In addition, it gives you the ability to add crossbow bolts or other traps without making them follow predictable patterns. The dragon can use this ability to navigate around said traps.
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