Dragon Encounters

How to use – basic wyrmling strategy

The wyrmling has a single attack, the ability to fly, and a lot of movement. While with every other red dragon, I suggested that it would wade into their midst and start bashing, I would suggest that the wyrmling would be served best by darting at them, biting, and then retreating. While it will take opportunity attacks, this loss will almost certainly be offset by normal attacks that the players won’t make as a result.

Regarding where to retreat to, the answer is any high area. In addition, if there are areas that are burning, retreating into the flames is great strategy for him. Not only can the melee not reach him there, the ranged will have a harder time seeing him given the flames. Plus, it’s comfortably warm.

Combat Encounters (difficulty 5)

A few quick ideas for making combat against a red dragon wyrmling interesting

With many of these ideas, the dragon either has another objective more important than taking down the PCs, or an area which, if targeted, will be a lot more dangerous to the PCs than if it keeps attacking them. On the other hand, the wyrmling is red. 

I would advise you to give thought to how intelligent you want the dragon to be, and how easily it should be to bait it. If it has the sense to avoid the PCs in favor of the worthwhile targets, the fight will be somewhat harder. (It’s actual intelligence and wisdom is close to average, which means that it’s easy to have it take either position.)

Protect the treasure: The PCs are carrying a crate of treasure, or anything valuable that they need to protect. If they keep carrying it, that will effectively take one of them out of the fight, but if they put it down, the dragon might grab it and leave. Have them see the dragon a turn in advance, but then they have to ward it off.

Protect from flame: A harder variant is where the dragon isn’t after the crate, but instead the item is flammable, as is the terrain around them. They can’t just leave it until after the fight, or the fire will reach it and set it on fire. On the other hand, if the dragon attacks the one carrying it, they’ll also lose it.

(In this case, I’d use multiple objects, and they can decide if to give them all to the same person or not. It will make it easier for you to destroy some of them without feeling too guilty.)

Protect the princess: Similarly, there is one or more non-combatants around that the dragon is targeting. Defending them against a monster that can fly is a headache. (Keep in mind that some of them may die when setting up the adventure. Never launch a battle unless you’re fully okay with all possible consequences, or you’ll just mess yourself up.)

Burning house: The PCs are in a large indoor area. Either before the combat, or at its beginning, the dragon sets part of it on fire. (Possibly with a breath weapon attack targeting them.) They have to keep moving, getting past locked doors, avoiding places where the floor starts to give way from underfoot, and keeping in mind how the flames will move and which areas are especially flammable, so that they don’t get cut off by the fire. *

In running this scenario, I would give them reaching an area as their main goal, not defeating the wyrmling. If their goal is to defeat the wyrmling, they will almost certainly reach an area safe from fire within a round or two, and then the fight will become basic.

* (How the flames will move: Basically, you want to chart out where the air flow can reach, which direction (or directions, as it can change) the wind is blowing, and where the fire will find easily swallowed fuel, such as carpets, clothing, and rotted wood it will spread the most. In addition, areas above the fire, including above and to the sides, are at higher risk, as fire rises. When the fight is taking place over a large area, keep a map for yourself, and jot down where the fire is each turn.)

Burning Ship: Like the burning house, but they’re on a ship. This means that some of their energy will need to be spent on fire control, if they don’t want to win the fight but lose the ship. They might have NPC sailors helping them out, but the sailors are also vulnerable. They can get killed by the dragon.

Dragon and Oil: The dragon starts in a place where, if it breaths fire, it will have disastrous consequences. This isn’t so much a combat encounter, as a different challenge. How do you lure the dragon outside?

Don’t Kill the Dragon: The most unusual of the ideas in this article (and my original idea), the dragon has a parent who will notice if it’s killed. The party needs to retrieve an item carried off by the wyrmling, but if they kill it, they’ll have a huge problem afterwards. The wyrmling, being a red dragon, won’t agree to stop attacking even when it’s obvious that such behavior will get it killed. How do you stop a dragon attacking without killing it?

Note that I have a rule that I mention a lot. Don’t have the villain be trying to accomplish something you don’t dare let succeed. In similar vein, what happens if the players kill the dragon, and then have to deal with the parent hunting after them? What are they supposed to do?

Well, our upcoming dragon adventure is going to be called “fighting an Angry Dragon”. Like all the adventures, it features an adult, and is meant to be played at level 5. See you soon.