Dragon Encounters

How to use

As monsters go, the white dragon wyrmling is potentially pretty powerful for his CR 2 level. His breath weapon does 22 damage on average, which will knock out almost any PC of the matching level if they fail their save. Their chances of making the save are only just over 50% without CON save proficiency, and just under two out of three with.

Given this strength, I would say you could provide a challenging encounter for a level three party with just two of them, and that three of them would be enough to challenge the party at level 4, and maybe even at level 5. (A normal rate for a CR 2 would be 3-4 of them at level 3, and at least triple for level 5.)

The flip side to this strong attack is that the wyrmling can only use it once in three turns, on average, and while it is an area effect, the size of the cone is limited. The other weakness the wyrmling has to contend with are that while its AC and HP are okay for its level, they aren’t amazing, and this means that losing initiative can cost it the battle.

How can we help it out? The first thing we have to do is keep the wyrmlings away from each other. Your players almost certainly have area-of-effect spells, especially if they’ve hit level 3 or 5, and putting the dragons together is just asking for a quick TMK (total monster kill). Dragons are territorial, so give each of the baby dragons a corner of the area that is only his, and that he won’t think of letting his siblings near.

Aside from that, here are various other elements to add to the battle:

Combat Encounter (difficulty 3)

Minions: Not something I normally spend time on in this blog, but I want to mention them here. Minions will raise the difficulty in several way. They’ll stop any melee from just walking up to the dragon, of course, but they’ll also force the spellcasters to choose which of multiple targets to prioritize, and they might force your players to group together to attack the same target, or to protect the spellcasters.

While minions will make almost any fight more fun, keep in mind how powerful the dragon is, especially if your players are new to the game, or you are to DMing.

Basic Obstacles

Dark corners: It is possible that when the wyrmling sees the PCs coming, it will retreat into a dark corner. This is something you can have it do before rolling initiative.

Once it does so, it might be out of range of the players’ darkvision, and the players will have to figure out how to approach so as not to give the dragon the first turn, through using up their turn for movement. Also, the dragon might have readied an action. The problem the players face is even difficult if the dragon darted around the corner.

When using this strategy, it might be a good idea to introduce some type of time limit before the battle. This doesn’t have to be a time limit where they only have a few rounds to win, you could give them several hours (1 hour = 600 rounds), but make it clear that they have to win and leave before the parents come back, or before the blizzard hits, or in time to return to shelter before nightfall.

 This is to stop both sides waiting each other out, which will kill the game.

If you like, you can take this even further by making the area into a small maze. This is mostly appropriate for when you’re using multiple wyrmlings, and players with experience.

Boulders/obstacles: The idea is that the area in which they’re fighting is narrow, and partly blocked off by a large boulder frozen in place, or its equivalent.

What this means is that they can only pass through one at a time, that they have to make a climb check [athletics or acrobatics] to do so, and that they can’t attack the dragon without doing so.

The dragon has three choices:

• Stay back until its breath weapon recharges, then strafe them and retreat the same turn.
• Fly out each turn to attack with its bite, and then fly back. This assumes that they’re close enough for it to work, and that the dragon can survive the attacks of opportunities. Once its health drops low, you should have the dragon stop coming out.
• The dragon hangs back, except when its breath weapon is available, but it readies an action to attack anyone coming over the boulder. This has a good chance of sending them toppling back down if they get hit and don’t make a save to keep their balance. (DEX, presumably.)

For extra difficulty, you can replace the boulder with a fallen metal statue. Cold metal causes bare skin that touches it to stick to it, which means that they might have to figure out a way to climb it without touching it. Also, they might accidently touch it when the dragon knocks them down.

Small islands: The fight takes place in the middle of a small lake, either natural or formed from fighting inside a small aqueduct or similar space that’s been blocked up. Like in the last scenario, the players are trying to make their way to the dragon, but the islands force them to clump up if they want to cross as fast as possible without going in the water.

I would personally keep the water somewhat shallow, up to their knees or waist instead of other their heads. This will make it a bit easier, (preferable at these low levels), and will give them more options.

To make them reluctant to go in the water, I would do one of the following: Places in the water where there are holes, which if they step in will plunge them over their heads; trip wires that will make them fall; or place hostile monsters/fish that will attack them if they enter.

(The only suitable monster in the Monster Manual is swarms of quippers, but if you’re opened to minor homebrewing, you could use the shark or the crocodile. The shark works as is, with only its identity needing to be changed from ocean predator to a fish that’s home in shallow water, such as a barracuda. The crocodile would need its ability to be on land removed as well.)

You could also place trees or other items that could be used as impromptu bridges on the islands as well, to give the players more options to work with.

I could suggest chasms instead of water as a harder option, and the players would have to cross via raised platforms, but I feel that would be unnecessarily lethal for low-level players.

Less Basic Obstacles

(These ideas are minor traps that would have had to be set by villains using the wyrmlings, or by the wyrmling’s parents.)

Hung Boulders: Along the top of the indoor area that they’re fighting in, there is at least a small ledge. One or more boulders were placed along that ledge, and then frozen with water to keep them in place. This could have been done by the wyrmling’s parents, or a villain using the wyrmling could have persuaded the wyrmling to do it.

Once frozen in place, the cold that the wyrmling occasionally breaths out should keep the area cold enough to keep the ice frozen.

The idea is that if the players use a fire spell, it will thaw out the ice and cause the boulder to fall. A sufficiently destructive area-of-effect spell, such as Thunderwave or Shatter, might do so as well. With luck, and if the boulder is set at the right places (corners, or right in front of obstacles) the boulder will crash into the invading PCs.

Another potential effect of the boulders is if they form obstacles, similar to the boulder obstacles mentioned above. In addition, these boulders might end up between PCs, cutting them off from each other. It is also possible for the boulders to end up at the side of the passage, where they might not block it, so don’t feel that you can’t use them for damage requires using them this way also.

Ice Dam: If the fight takes place in an area where water sometimes flows, such as an underground stream, adequate, or sewer, you could have the water be blocked. Someone gathered an amount of wood or brush, placed it in the middle of the stream, and then used the breath weapon of the white dragon to freeze it in place, along with the water around it. If it was made by the parents, perhaps they meant to make a dragon-sized swimming pool.

Like with the frozen boulders, keeping the wyrmling in the area should keep the surrounding temperature cold enough to keep it frozen.

The problem comes when the players use some effect or spell to breach it, at which point they have a small tidal wave coming at them to knock them off their feet and send them all the way back, in a disorganized manner. Even a white wyrmling should be able to realize that this is too good an opportunity to pass up on, and will attack. Or, you can say that it got mad that they ruined its pool.

6 Ways to Use

1. The white wyrmling can deliver a devastating amount of damage for its level, using its breath weapon. Have it be hiding in a dark corner, with whoever approaches the other first loses. And give the players a time limit until the parents return.
2. Place a large boulder where it will be blocking the tunnel. If the players try to climb the boulder, it will have an action readied to bite them as they reach the top, and hopefully send them sliding back down. It will fly out only to use its breath weapon.
3. Have the area be mostly flooded, with a few “Islands” poking out of the water. If the players travel via the islands, they’ll be bunched up and prime targets for the breath weapon. On the other hand, there are deep holes or dangerous fish in the water.
4. If there is any water on the ground, the dragon’s breath will have long ago turned it to ice. Given that the dragon will always dart around, and have to be chased, movement will be… interesting.
5. Basic trap: Have an enemy or the dragon’s parents use the cold breath to stick boulders to a narrow ledge close to the ceiling. When the players cast fire magic (or certain other kinds) they get cut off from each other. Also, they go squish.
6. Basic trap, have an enemy or the dragon’s parents use the cold breath plus brush to create a primitive dam across a river. When the players cast fire magic (or certain other kinds), they break the dam and get hit by a tidal wave.