Dragon Encounters

Dnd’s silver dragon wyrmling is weak, but can really hamper movement. Here are four separate encounters built around that.

How to Use – Silver Dragon Wyrmling Tactics

The best way to use any wyrmling, tactically, is for it to hit them with its breath weapon when available, then use its movement speed to get around the corner or otherwise out of sight. When its breath weapon isn’t available, it will continue evading. Even if its breath weapon only hits one PC each time, this will be far deadlier than anything else it can do.

If it can’t evade, in the silver dragon’s case it will try to negotiate/persuade the characters, and maybe attack the ones it considers too evil to possibly persuade. If there are several, it will choose the one who can’t hit it with attacks of opportunity (archer or mage) when it flies away each turn.

This is not my recommended combat encounter. The first is frustrating, the second boring.

 

Combat Encounter 1 – Escape the Flooding Tower (difficulty 3)

 

The silver dragon’s paralyze option, in addition to rendering a target helpless, also prevents them from moving. I already started exploring this in my young and adult silver dragon articles, but third time’s the charm.

I prefer to set my encounters in the type of area that the monster in question is likely to be encountered in, and otherwise as basic an area as possible. (Meaning a place you’d expect to find in that area, not meaning somewhere flat and boring.) I guess after 39 dragons I’m feeling a little burned out. Whatever. I’m going to do something more fantastical, and at the end I’ll give a few other combat encounters that are a little less fantastic.

Location Description – Flooding Tower

I’m going to place the adventure in a tall tower building, into which water is rapidly pouring in. This could be a small dungeon in which the players reached the bottom, and now they have to scramble to escape with their treasure. This could be a tower that is enchanted to flood if intruders enter, as an extreme anti-theft measure. (In one Disney movie, the tower is on a dragon turtle’s back, and the turtle decided to dive.)

The players have to race to climb the rooms before the flood waters trap them and they drown. To make this more challenging, give each room a few levers, each of which unlocks one of the ways up. They only have to pull one lever per room, but since the door unlocked isn’t the one closest to the lever, it might make sense to split up and pull several.

This will also prevent them from simply rising by letting the water carry them. To prevent the players from doing that, with one person on each side of the room, put the exits not immediately adjacent to any of the levers, and consider adding a few fences that will get in the way if they plan to swim from the lever to the nearest opening.

You can also head this off by putting the levers where they’ll have to swim down a bit before rising again, and by finding excuses to let the water pick up objects that will block them, or in which they’ll get tangled up and not be able swim.

The Wyrmling’s tactics:

Assuming the dragon isn’t evil, it’s challenging them because it doesn’t agree that they should keep an item that they took. If they give it up, the dragon will go from foe to friend. You don’t even have to make it a quest item. No player will ever agree to give up a nice treasure, especially when they’ll be giving in to force.

Paralyze Breath

The dragon has a few strategies to stop them. The most basic is paralyze. This will mess up their timing, slowing down or stopping someone that was supposed to pull a lever. If he doesn’t shake off the paralysis fast, they might have to send someone down to grab him and pull him up so he doesn’t drown.

Physical Attacks

The next thing he can do is drop stuff on them. Apart from a minor amount of damage, if the item is big enough it can knock them back down a staircase. Even worse will be if the dragon can find a net, or a large enough piece of fabric to tangle them up. (curtains, tablecloths, bedding, or similar).

Then comes using its action to push, either sending over the side of a narrow walkway or tumbling down stairs. The second can also be accomplished by using the push action to trip. This also lets the dragon retreat without taking an opportunity attack. That said, the dragon should retreat even if the action fails. Staying and getting hit will be worse.

Cold Breath

The dragon has one final way to attack, in the form of its cold breath. Cold metal sticks to skin, so if the dragon hits something metal that the PCs are likely to touch, such as a railing or door handle, it will become a brief but effective restraining trap. Getting free should take an action, a save, and a few lost points of HP, or someone could free them by dumping water on them (if they think of it).

The cold breath could theoretically also be used to jam a door, by freezing the water around it to jam it, but you’ll have to come up with a reason that the door is wet.

Defense Tactics

The dragon will try to end its turns where corners of the room or balconies are blocking sight of it. Failing that, it should at least try to be out of melee reach of any PCs, to avoid getting grappled.

This strategy means that the dragon will not be attacking every turn, and may not attack for several turns in a row. This is okay, and you shouldn’t let impatience push you into becoming careless with the dragon. (If they taunt it that might be different. That’s a tactical move on their part, and deserves a chance to work, if you think they did it effectively.)

Personality wise, the dragon will most likely spend these not-attacking turns on trying to persuade them to surrender. It will do this by appealing to their better nature, and by trying to persuade them that it’s the smarter move, not with threats. Roleplay this with brief appeals each round. Don’t let yourself get begged down in an endless debate that will bore half your players.

Flooding Tower Map

You will need a rough map for this scenario. I would recommend a separate map for each floor. The map doesn’t need to be complicated, however.

A large grid of squares of hexes, with a few symbols to denote features of interest should work. At the side of the map, put a key, letting them know that spirals are staircases and diamond chains or ropes (for example), and add a few small numbers on the map to denote heights. Don’t change the meaning of symbols between rooms.

Flooding Tower Room Descriptions

When you describe the room, avoid long descriptions that won’t be listened to. Instead, give the name of the room in a few words (personal library, large sitting room, etc.’.) as you describe stuff they need to know, such as the heights and distances, you’ll throw in a few more description words, such as saying that a spiral staircase tiled with light yellow marble and red carpeting rises from this part of the room.

Here are a few features you can use to build the rooms. I would probably use two features on the first room, and then use two old features and one new one on each subsequent room, changing up this pattern just enough to not seem routine. The entire adventure shouldn’t be more than 3-5 rooms.

Here are ideas for the features of the rooms:

• Large items to stand on, with the possibility of jumping from one to another, or using them to get past obstacles. Once they get used to this idea, you could move on to objects that they could pile up to climb on, such as tables. (I like this idea for the bottom room, largely because large barrels standing up feel like something you’d find in a basement).
• Staircases are an obvious way to rise, with spiral staircases being a bit easier to place in a map. To avoid them making it too easy, you can have parts of them be missing, blocked by rubble, or with a missing foundation making them unsteady. The last could mean that have to spend extra movement climbing carefully, requiring a DEX save to avoid collapsing, and/or not being able to more than one PC at a time.
• Catwalks are an obvious feature of this dungeon. While they won’t help move up directly, they give means to move between staircases or similar, and they’re easy to get knocked off of. A harder form of this would be an exposed beam, perhaps because of damage. Lacking room, the PC has to climb hand over hand from under or perhaps swing off them, which limits them to half speed.
• Ropes for climbing are an obvious feature. (This can also be anything else that can be climbed, such as curtains.) They come with the weakness of not necessarily being strong enough to be climbed by multiple PCs at once, and some of them might only be able to be climbed by the lighter members. (The ones without heavy armor).
• Other places to climb, such as pocked marked walls or walls thick with ivy or decorations. These might require proficiency in climbing to use successfully, and like the above are meant for some PCs to ascend to where they can help the others. Places to climb can also be created, by triggering collapses.
• Shorter ropes, while not accessible until players are already high up, can be used to swing from. This will require high DEX and/or acrobatics. Combine with the previous ideas for a setup where the DEX members go ahead, so as to be able to let down ropes or provide other aid to the rest. With that in mind –
• Floating objects, or objects that can be made to float, such as doors that can be taken off their hinges. This will give the PCs places to stand, allowing them to fire arrows and cast spells much more easily than they would be able to otherwise.

 

When setting up the dungeon, make sure to provide enough freedom of movement to allow multiple ways to escape, and be open to your players coming up with other ideas. If there’s only one way, it will be blocked by the wyrmling too easily.

 

Combat Encounter 1.5 – Flooding tower / ally variant (difficulty varies)

 

To make this a battleground that fits the dragon better, switch the tower into a set of caves one atop another. The enemy can cast a massive heat spell, causing the snow on the nearby mountains to start melting, and providing an excuse for the rising water.

While you could play this as a different story with which to set up the previous combat encounter, it feels to me that this doesn’t fit the silver dragon, whose element is cold and wouldn’t want to destroy his own environment. Therefore, I prefer this one for a scenario where the players are working with the dragon.

Running the Scenario: A lot of this scenario works like the previous one. Unlike the previous one, the players have a dragon ally that can fly and occasionally paralyze enemies. This means that you can make the path to the exit a bit harder, and only provide a single exit. I would still scatter extra areas to stand and to climb, to give the players more choice.

Place the enemies will be in the players’ way, blocking areas that they need to move past. Be aware of using a single enemy, as that will be too easy to knock over the side or to paralyze.

Be careful of using too many enemies. This course is timed, and a single enemy that doesn’t fall fast enough can really mess your players up, especially if you let them push and/or trip the PCs. Enemies that are standing out of the way can also mess up the players by shooting them or advancing on them.

 

Combat Encounter 2: Chased Down the Cave’s Length – Ally Mode (difficulty varies)

 

For a battle using the dragon as an ally, the fact that the silver dragon can paralyzes allows for a very interesting battle, one in which the players are strongly outmatched and still win.

The Cave Encounter:

Put the players and dragon up against a number of enemies equal to their number, and with a CR matching their level. While this would normally be impossible, the silver dragon is going to be slowing them down, by constantly paralyzing them. The area will also be one which will allow the players easy movement.

The Underground Enemies:

To make this battle possible, choose a single monster type for all the enemies. The enemies should be strictly melee, not intelligent or faster than the players. Avoid CON save proficiency and immunity to paralyze.

Start with the enemies clustered together. On later turns you might have the players control the dragon’s turns, but for the first turn override them and paralyze, to establish the battle strategy.

The players might have the dragon use its bite on the turns it can’t use its breath weapon. I would allow at first, but have the dragon refuse to continue in melee after taking significant damage. You can give cowardice or strategy as the reason, and hopefully they’ll accept it.

If they choose to use the dragon’s cold breath instead of paralyze, you’ll have to let them. At the end, it might even make sense, and speed up the end of the fight.

The Undergound Area – Description

To prevent the players from being overwhelmed, you’ll want a large area that they can move down. The prevent them from hit and running endlessly, you will want to put some limit on the size. I would estimate a length of 150-200 feet, and a width of 20-30, to prevent them from going in circles.

You can shift up the terrain with pits, obstacles, catwalks, and similar, but make sure to give at least one means of access that can’t be blocked or destroyed easily. Ideally, put one at each end, or the players will lure the monsters into a dead end, and then get a free round of blasting them from a distance as they back up to go around. This can be fun once or twice, but you don’t want it to happen endlessly.

You probably don’t want to make it too mazelike, or to provide a pit or barrier that splits the area in two for a large length, as this can allow the players to lead the enemies down one side and back up the other. Worse, it can cause them to try to do this, and end up caught between two enemies, killing them.

Finally, consider adjusting the terrain down a length at least a little, to keep the fight interesting. You can give the players some features that they can use to harass the enemies, such as pillars they can bring down on them (possibly collapsing part of the roof in the process), items they can drop from high up, barrels they can roll or spill, etc.’.

Vary what they have to use as they move down.

 

Combat Encounter 2.5: Chasing Down the Cave’s Length – Enemy Mode (difficulty 3)

 

The cave scenario mentioned also works for a scenario where the players are the ones chasing. In this scenario, there is an enemy that is holding something of value to the players, and the players have to capture him before he escapes.

To keep the chase challenging while also not making it too easy for the enemy to escape, I suggest tying to challenge to a time limit rather than the amount of distance the enemy has to cover.

You might give the enemy a movement handicap, leaving him unable to go more than 20-25 feet a turn. As such, he doesn’t want to leave the cave, as that will simply lead to the players being able to hunt him down in an open area.

(Doing otherwise will mean that if he gets one good opportunity to pull ahead, he’s pretty much escaped. Even without that, any PC who falls behind is out of the fight.)

On the flip side, give him more places to dodge to than when the players were the ones running. Place catwalks on both sides of the cave; let him swing on a rope from one to the other, or to an alcove that’s blocked from the players’ sight, let him dodge behind boxes and bring them down behind him; find a way to let him circle behind the players at least once, and see what else you can think of.

This scenario also allows for the dragon to turn out not to be evil. I already mentioned that I don’t like the idea of the silver dragon having to be evil. Now you don’t have to go that way either. Say that the dragon was hoodwinked by the one their chasing, and bringing him down will let them uncover evidence, thereby letting the scenario end with the dragon changing sides.

 

Summary: Six Ways to Use

 

1. The silver dragon wyrmling’s greatest power is the ability to paralyze. Combine this with a situation where the players need to keep moving, such as a series of caves filling with water, which the players have to keep ahead of.
2. The silver dragon wyrmling’s best chances are to set up the players to take a fall, maybe by freezing water where the ice will slip them, maybe by taking an action to push when they’re near a fall, then capitalizing on the chaos.
3. Combat Scenario: The silver dragon wyrmling’ss opposing the players as they try to take down a thief before reinforcements arrive. The thief has the wyrmling convinced of his innocence, and the wyrmling’s slowing the players.
4. Combat Scenario: The silver dragon wyrmling is helping the players, but the enemies are still too strong for the party. They’ll need to use the dragon’s paralyze, and keep moving, to avoid having to fight several strong enemies at once.
5. Combat Maze Scenario: The party, aided by a silver dragon wyrmling, has to climb via ropes, climbing, jumping across stairways, and using other means. The cultists at the top are activating a ritual, and the enemies are too strong to fight past fast.
6. Frozen water expands, so if there are barrels on a shelf near the PCs as the dragon uses its breath weapon, it might cause them to topple over, doing damage or make the floor slippery or mud. I’d let a single PC take a turn, then the barrels fall.