Combat rating 1
1 Brass dragon wyrmling (CR 1)
2 Aaracockra (CR 1/4)
Combat rating 2
1 Brass dragon wyrmling (CR 1)
2 Satyrs (CR 1/2)
Combat rating 3
1 Brass dragon wyrmling (CR 1)
3 Thri-kreen (CR 1)
Combat rating 3
1 Brass dragon wyrmling (CR 1)
1 Animated armor (CR 1)
6 Guards (CR 1/8)
1 Scout (CR 1/2)
How to Use – Friendly
When I came to the first chromatic dragon wyrmling, I spoke out against using wyrmlings. I argued that dragons should feel like a formidable enemy, and that wyrmlings as villains make dragons feel weak. I should have added a caveat. That applies only when the wyrmlings are hostile.
There are several ways to bring a good wyrmling into the story on the side of the PCs. Saying it left home to seek adventure feels too grown-up for a wyrmling, more appropriate for a young dragon. I would suggest instead a scenario where the wyrmling was kidnapped, perhaps as extortion against its parents, perhaps by black alchemists looking to dissect it, or perhaps because it overheard something the villain didn’t want known.
An option I would caution against is having the PCs adopt it after the death of its parents. This pretty much forces you to let it become a permanent party member. NPCs tend to be more popular when they come in from time to time.
With that said, let’s look into a scenario or two for using it.
Combat Encounter 1: Jailbreak (difficulty varies)
The dragon waited until only one or two jailers were left to guard it, and then hit the jailers with its sleep breath. Unfortunately, it wasn’t able to get out of its cage, and its attempt to melt the metal resulted in part of the wall getting lit on fire. The wall is close to collapsing, and when it does, it will fall on the jailer[s] and wake them up.
(If you prefer, you could say that the jailers are in danger of developing a temporary immunity due to repeated use, or that they’ve been asleep for a while and their hunger will soon wake them.
The jailer[s] should be too strong for the party to fight, as well. The question is, how can they use this temporary reprieve to get the upper hand?
Combat Encounter 2: Rescue From the Inferno
Version 1 (difficulty 3): A more difficult scenario is one where the dragon doesn’t trust the PCs. It’s set the house on fire, and ducked for cover as soon as it saw the PCs. The players only have a limited about of time to get the dragon out of the house before the fire reaches explosives that are in the basement and sets them off, which will kill the dragon.
Version 2 (difficulty 2): If trying to save an enemy that is trying to kill them isn’t appealing to you, you could instead give them an object that they’re trying to obtain before the house goes up in flames.
The object could be in the dragon’s claws, in which case they have to chase down the dragon while it tries to run and hide from them. I would prepare a few hiding places, to see if you can trick them, and also several narrow and/or high-up areas. If the dragon hides, have noise made by the dragon give away the hiding place after a round or two, so that the players don’t get frustrated. The delay will cost them, however, as the fire is growing steadily bigger.
Version 3 (difficulty 2): If the object is inside the house, I’d suggest having an obstacle like a locked door. Breaking it down will be risky, as the house has been weakened by the fire and this might cause the upper floor to collapse.
Picking the lock will be tricky, as the smoke is obscuring the area of the lock, or the floor around the door is burning (which is also another way to make breaking down the door difficult, both because the fire will do damage and because the floor might collapse. You can use this in addition to the weak ceiling, or instead).
The dragon has a key to the lock around his neck, if they can get it.
You might also want to give them the promise of a reward if they can avoid killing the dragon, and/or a threat of vengeance if they do kill it. In addition to giving them an extra challenge, in that they need to take down the dragon without killing it, this might also help prevent a quarrel between players as to whether killing the dragon is justified or not.
(While it might seem that I gave three versions of the same thing, they’re a descending order of challenge. In the first, killing the dragon is an outright loss. In the second, it’s a bonus objective. In the third, even fighting the dragon is optional, as they might prefer pick the lock or break down the door in spite of the difficulty/risk.)
You could instead use the dragon as hit-and-run attacker, while they navigate their way through the house. Burning houses have any number of natural obstacles, from weak/collapsing floors, burning rooms, piles of [possibly flaming] rubble, unstable stairs, locked doors, and more.
The Dragon’s Fighting Style: The dragon knows that it’s weak, and there is no reason it should feel compelled to go toe-to-toe with them when that will get it killed fast. As mentioned above, I’d try to scatter hiding places around the various rooms. The wyrmling will move from hiding place to hiding place, and attempt to hit the PCs with one of its breath weapons whenever they’re available.
The other difficulty in taking down the dragon will be if you have the dragon favor narrow spaces to hide in. Not only will this mean that only one PC at a time can take on the dragon, it also will allow the dragon to knock the PC out with sleep breath and drag him somewhere that the other players will have a hard time reaching, and therefore a hard time waking him up.
(I’m assuming that the dragon won’t have to use an action to grapple someone who’s asleep, as he can’t resist. It will instead be like moving an object, which shouldn’t take a full action. If you disagree with me, you’ll probably want to use the fire breath instead, unless you’re in the rare situation where other PCs aren’t nearby to immediately wake up the PC put to sleep.)
Lastly, I will mention that you don’t have to restrict yourself to a single wyrmling. While dragons are generally solitary creatures (as least as regards to other dragons), there is no reason that should apply to wyrmlings, especially good-alignment wyrmlings. Creatures that hatch from eggs tend to have a number of babies at a time.
Summary – Six Ways to Use
- Have the dragon be kidnapped, and now the players have to reunite it with its paretns. This gives an interesting ally for 1-2 fights, and an easy way to get rid of it when you get tired of having the team-up.
- Have them walk in on a scenario where the dragon has put a powerful enemy to sleep. As soon as the dragon is gone for any length of time, it will get up and start to chase. What to do?
- Combat scenario: The dragon, panicked, set the house on fire. There are explosives below, so they have to get the dragon out before it’s too late. The dragon is doesn’t trust them, so they’ll have to subdue it forcefully, but not lethally.
- A brass wyrmling, who thinks that PCs are hostile, will hide in a hard-to-reach, high-up, narrow area, where it’s sleep breath will cause any PC to reach for it to fall down. Can they rescue the dragon, or retrieve the item it’s holding?
- Use the dragon as a hit-and-run attacker, while they go through a burning house. Burning houses contain many obstacles (weakened floors, burning rubble, jammed doors) and the dragon has the intelligence to wait for the right moment.
- Unlike every other dragon, metallic wyrmlings can fight together. Creatures that lay eggs often have multiple young at once, and wyrmlings aren’t old enough to have gone their separate ways yet.
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