Dragon Encounters

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


YOUNG BRASS DRAGON: Battles of Lies and Fire

minions/allies

Combat rating 8

 

1 Young brass dragon (CR 6)

1 Half-ogre (CR 1)

2 Satyrs (CR 1/2)

5 Thri-kreen (CR 1)

 

Combat rating 9

 

1 Young brass dragon (CR 6)

5 Centaurs (CR 2)

 

Combat rating 11

 

1 Young brass dragon (CR 6)

4 Azers (CR 2)

1 Fire elemental (CR 5)

1 Half-red dragon veteran (CR 5)

 

Combat rating 12

 

1 Young brass dragon (CR 6)

2 Mages (CR 6)

2-3 Veterans (CR 3)

How to Use

And so, after twenty-seven articles, we come to the good dragons. As is my typical style for good-alignment monsters, we’ll start with the reasons why the PCs are the ones getting sent on the quest, and why the much more powerful good monster isn’t doing it for them. (Somehow, just saying that it’s because doing so will kill the game never convinces anybody.)

I’m going to give a few reasons that should fit all the young dragons. For the adult and ancient dragons, we’ll need different reasons, which I’ll provide at the beginning of each adult metallic dragon article.

  • Given that it’s a young dragon, it would make sense for it to still be restricted by its parents’ instructions. While it might be on its own, it still meets up with them from time to time, and has to answer to them if it breaks their rules. (While this fits the lawful brass, gold, and silver dragons best, it can be made to fit the others, especially since the parents are the dominant force in the area.)
  • Given that it’s young, it would make sense for it to be frightened of certain areas. It won’t openly admit that it’s frightened, but you should be able to communicate that clearly by the way it questions the players’ decision/need to go there, and by the flimsiness of its excuse for not joining.
  • The size of the dragon might make it too big to accompany them into an indoor or underground area (such as most dungeons). Nor would the dragon want to go somewhere that it can’t fly, as that would leave it too vulnerable.
  • In the particular case of the brass dragon, you could simply have it join them, but be unreliable, flying off frequently when it sees something interesting, or comes up with a better way (or rather, different idea) to achieve the objective. Combine that with an annoying personality (which it has) , and the players might not object to its flying off all that much.

While I’m giving ideas for getting rid of it, that doesn’t mean that you want to get rid of it helping them entirely. It could be fun to fight alongside it once or twice, as long as it happens infrequently. This will be truer as the party levels up, so that it isn’t so much more powerful than them. (I estimate that at level 9 each individual PC will be more powerful than it, and at level 4 a four-player party can equal it, in combination.)

In addition, flying creatures are great for letting the players know what’s going on elsewhere in the world and for making the quest feel significant on kingdom or world scale (by showing them how their actions are causing effects in multiple places, among other ways).

With the brass dragon’s interest in talking, you could also have it give them information that will be relevant to upcoming quests, letting you build the suspense by foreshadowing future plot elements. Even if there is no credible way for the dragon to know it, and no reason why the information should be relevant to the party, the brass dragon is always happy to share rumors. 

Games of Lies

The monster manual tells us that brass dragons who realize that they’re being lied to often treat it as a game, feeding the one lying to them lies of their own. If you’d like to use this in your game, here is how I’d go about it.

(Note: This part is being written for the young brass dragon. Doing it with an adult or ancient brass dragon will play out somewhat differently, and I’ll cover that scenario in the next article.)

The players’ lies

If you want to give your players a reason to lie to them, use the fact that young brass dragons aren’t discreet. In fact, their love of conversation can cause them to get carried away, with the result that confidential information shared with them can quickly become public knowledge.

If you’re running a long-term game, and are open to using the dragon as a repeat character, you can have them learn this the hard way. The first time they share information, they’ll probably be burned, and then they’ll know to disguise the truth the next time.

To keep in fair, roleplay the dragon as sharing with them a wide range of information, to give them forewarning of the dragon’s personality. You could even have the dragon say something like “Whoops, I wasn’t supposed to let people know about that”, if you want an obvious hint.

If the dragon is supposed to be a one-shot character, you might give warning via NPC. Have an NPC who knows that they’re going to be meeting with the dragon warn them that the dragon doesn’t know how to keep secrets, and they should watch what they share with it. (The obvious choice for the NPC to give the warning would be either the NPC that sets them up to meet the dragon, or the one to share the information with the players.)

If you want to be more subtle, you could instead have an NPC tell them about how the dragon blurted out his secret, (perhaps the only way the players know about this NPC is because the dragon told them, against the NPC’s wishes). You could also use the dragon’s personality as your hints, as I did just above, although this makes it likely that they won’t realize in time to protect the information, and the story will instead be about dealing with the consequences.

Problems that can arise from the dragon sharing the information too freely include:

  • The villains hear that the players are after them, thereby letting them set ambushes, or make assassination attempts to get rid of the PCs. This is the easiest result to pull off, as these can easily be turned into part of the game. (In fact, I can see a scenario where the DM expected to pull off such a scenario, and is disappointed that he can’t.)
  • The players let the dragon know about a treasure that they’re seeking, and as a result the villain gets there first. This will frustrate the players, although they can take comfort in the fact that they’ll get it eventually, it will just take a bit longer.
  • Learning that the players are after them causes the villains to run, possibly after setting a trap or two. This idea has to be used sparingly, as it will prolong any adventure, and you’ll probably end up needing to think of some new ideas for the story to keep it from getting dull.
  • Learning the detail of the PCs powers can let them counter those abilities. As keeping their character powers secret will be extremely challenging, this is best used only when they have a special power, perhaps a magical item, that they only use occasionally. Figure out what the weaknesses of the item are, and you’ll know how the villains should attack them.

In addition, or instead, of the players lying to the dragon, they can embellish the truth instead. If they tell the tale of their deeds properly, making it into an enthralling saga, the dragon might be inclined to forgive them their lies, or to treat it as part of the story. If you like this idea, you can suggest it to them via NPC.

The Dragon’s Lies

The Monster Manual tells us that brass dragons retaliate against lies with lies of their own. The problem with this, especially against PCs (who are always walking into danger), is that telling lies that could have disastrous consequences and get people killed feels evil, not something that a good creature should do.

You’d be best off replacing outright lies with lies of omission. The dragon is insulted by the players’ lies, and it keeps back certain information about villain capabilities, terrain hazards, or the like from them. Ideally, this should be information that they could conceivably survive without, (or that the dragon assumes that they could survive without).

Instead of lying, you could have the dragon give the information in a riddle-like manner. While not strictly true to the Monster Manual flavor text, this is behavior that should appeal to the brass dragon. It’s much more fun to have secrets when the person you’re talking to knows that you have secrets.

3 quick ways to create these types of riddles:

  1. Change one of the rules that people would expect in D&D. For example, placing a white (artic) dragon in the desert will let you give clues such as “A hunter of ice amid the sands.” Since it’s known that white dragons don’t generally live in the desert, your players probably won’t guess the truth.
  2. Place two different monsters (or spells, or effects) in the same place. That will allow you to refer to them interchangeably, possibly even in the same sentence, and since your players won’t be expecting the sentence to refer to two different monsters, they won’t guess what you’re referring to.
  3. Allude to critical information in a round-about way. For example, if the valley is safe only during the day, you could refer to the monsters as the blind hunters, as they hunt at a time when people are blind. (Meaning, they hunt the blind.) You could also call it the sun foes, the dark valley, valley of the moon, and similar. (The players might guess the answer, but arguably them having a chance is part of the fun.)

Combat Encounter (difficulty 7)

(I’m not going to give the same number of combat encounters for the good dragons as for the evil ones. I doubt they get used for combat all that often, and as such it would be pointless. However, one of my goals in this blog is to give each monster at least one combat encounter.)

The brass dragon is not a creature that is especially interested in combat. As such, one of the first things he’ll do in a combat will be to scramble for cover. He’ll duck behind wagons, or fly behind houses.

That doesn’t mean that he won’t fight back at all, however. He can fight back fiercely; he’ll do it by readying actions. If they approach the wagon to circle behind, he’ll fling the wagon onto them. If they approach through the house, he’ll knock out its central pillar. And if they go around, they’ll circle the house, and have just enough time to wonder where the dragon went before the chimney is thrown off the roof and onto them.

Follow up these moves with the dragon’s breath weapon. The only thing worse than being trapped under a wagon, chimney, or rubble is being trapped under them while they’re on fire. Alternatively, the sleep effect can be used to stop them getting free, while the fact that they’re trapped stops their companions from wakening them easily.

(The difficulty of this fight could be greatly increased by giving the dragon allies/minions. I’d suggest archers [aaracockra, scout, and veterans are all good choices] except that the players can force the dragon’s hand by threatening to kill a captive. [The cost of using a good-alignment creature]. As such, you might prefer expandable minions. Perhaps take the skeleton stat block, and turn them into constructs. Mephits should also work nicely.)

Should the players try to leave, the speed of the dragon’s flight movement will let it follow easily, and its burrowing movement will let it keep sight of them. It will attack with its breath weapon when available, and possibly by taking advantage of terrain to occasionally tip large items (wagons, houses, and the like) onto them. (Although it might worry about damaging others’ property, and hurting bystanders).

All of this isn’t intended to win the fight, however. The dragon is buying time, and keeping them busy, until the city guard arrives. Like I said before, the brass dragon doesn’t really care to win battles.

P.S Roleplay this battle, or any other battle using a brass dragon, with constant chatter. Have him be calling out to the players with unrelated “By the way-” comments mid-battle, as well as commentary on their fighting and anything else you can think of, the more ridiculous for battle, the better.

Summary. Six Ways to Use

  1. The brass dragon is easily distracted, making it easy to separate from the players in an open-air campaign. (The dragon also won’t go into dungeons where it can’t fly.) Have them meet up only once in a while, when you want a big battle.
  2. The fact that the dragon is so talkative means that you can give them background info on people they might meet and the like, and also keep them updated on what is going on in the rest of the world.
  3. The brass dragon is indiscreet, so assume that anything they share with it finds its way into the villain’s ears, sooner or later. They’ll need to learn to be careful with what they tell it.
  4. If the dragon becomes irritated at them (perhaps for lying, or holding back info), it will be cagey about its own info, perhaps hinting to specific dangers instead of warning them outright.
  5. In a fight, the dragon will dodge away from the players, hiding behind wagons and houses and readying actions to push them onto the PCs if they come near. If they leave, it will hit-and-run with its breath weapon.
  6. In any fight, the young brass dragon will fight defensively, and try to buy time until city guards or other allies come to help it.


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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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