Dragon Encounters

Combat scenarios for every monster, allowing them to utilize their combat potential to the fullest for the first time ever.


ANCIENT RED DRAGON: HOW TO FIGHT WITH FIRE

minions/allies

Combat rating 26

 

1 ancient red dragon (CR 24)

2 Tyrannosaurus rexes (CR 8)

1 Medusa (CR 6)

2 Yuan-ti (CR 7)

 

Combat rating 27

 

1 ancient red dragon (CR 24)

3 Bone devils (CR 9)

1 Erinyes (CR 12)

 

Combat rating 28

 

1 ancient red dragon (CR 24)

1 Maralith (CR 16)

2 Grey slaads (CR 9)

1 Death slaad (CR 10)

 

Combat rating 29

 

1 ancient red dragon (CR 24)

3 Efreet (CR 11)

1 Iron golem (CR 16)

How to use – Combat Encounters (difficulty 25)

While the red dragon is known to despise strategies as tools of the feeble, an ancient red dragon is old enough to know that they’re sometimes a necessary evil. Either that, or it’s grown tired of fighting off fools, and decided to just crush them. Either way, here are few lair defenses that a red dragon, in particular an ancient red dragon, might use.

Flaming Avalanche: The dragon will set up an avalanche to release on PCs climbing up to its lair. In addition to boulders, the avalanche also contains barrels of oil, which smash on the way down. The oil both coats the boulders, and some of it continues down, to potentially coat the PCs.

The dragon releases the avalanche with a tail attack [legendary action], and before the avalanche even reaches the PCs follows it up with its breath weapon (on its turn.) The rubble is flaming by the time it hits the PCs.

Melting lead: The dragon has the ceiling, and perhaps the walls and floor, of [a part of] its lair coated in a generous coating of lead or tin. These metals have low melting points, which means that the metal might well drip onto the PCs, both inflicting extra damage (I would think, a lot of extra damage) and trapping them in place.

Barrels of steam: This idea is barrels (or a different container shape, if you think that’s better) filled with water. The players advance, and stand among the barrels. When the dragon hits the PCs with its breath weapon, it heats up the water in the barrels, which eventually rupture (pressure from within, as steam takes up more space than water).

In addition to the PCs taking damage from the scalding hot steam, it will obscure visibility in the area, rendering the PCs blinded. The dragon, on the other hand, has blindsight.

If you like, you could also have the water in the containers be poisoned. The PCs can hardly help but breathe it in under the circumstances. The dragon does not have any immunity to poison, but it does have amazing CON save bonuses. (You could also pack the barrels with explosives instead, which is what I did for the blue dragon. Here, however, where we’re fighting with a fire breathing dragon in the first place, that seems boring.)

Collapsing the cavern: Like by the blue dragon, the red dragon can collapse its cavern (or one of its caverns. Give it a cave system) onto the PCs to trap them and attack them one by one as they dig their way out. Unlike the blue dragon, the red dragon will just do it directly, attacking the pillar, collapsing the cavern on itself as well as on the PCs, and using its burrowing movement to dig itself out.

All of the dragon’s lair actions will work well here, to make the situation more lethal.

One of the dragon’s lair actions let it cause magma to spout up in a fountain. Have the magma hit them while they’re still digging their way out. The fact that they’re covered by broken rock shouldn’t help, as magma is a liquid.

(Unfortunately, the rules about the dragon being able to see it will mean that you can only use it when they reach the very edge of the collapsed pile, unless you want the dragon to dig down. I suppose the magma could prevent them from climbing up, and collapse the place the dragon dug. This one would be a lot more fun if you took out the rule about the dragon having to see the area.)

Noxious gasses will definitely spread through the cracks. They’ll give the dragon a chance to fight the one who already escaped, while slowing down the others escape, or to attack them while they’re still digging out [discussed below].

Tremors will undo anything the players did to try to dig out. Even without any practical uses, they’ll frustrate the players if you do it often enough. (I left it for last, as it has the least utility in a game, where you don’t want to frustrate your players beyond a certain measure.)

In addition to all this, the dragon can land on the rubble to try to crush them, or spill boiling liquids over the areas where they are.

Burning Forest: Unlike the other ideas, this one isn’t meant for the dragon’s lair, but rather for when they meet the dragon in the wild. (Although you can use it as they approach the dragon’s lair, or as they leave it if the dragon is still alive.)

The PCs are in a forest. If this is near the dragon’s lair, a dead forest might be even better. (A ghost town will work as well). The dragon sets the area on fire around them, then on the following turn activates its fear. As they try to flee, it flies in circles around them. As long as at least one of them is under the effects of fear, this will effectively block them from getting out.



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About Me

I’ve been a DM since I was about 10 years old. (Not of D&D, admittedly, but still.) After growing bored of fights that were all the same, dungeons heavily populated by one monster type, and a general shortage of ideas, I figured I’d embark on my own trip through the Monster Manual, one monster at a time. Feel free to join the quest.

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