Dragon Encounters

How to Limit the Use of

I already gave several reasons for why the dragon isn’t accompanying them on their quest, or fighting it for them. (Having an NPC accompany the players is generally a mistake. Even more so if it’s more powerful than the players, an thereby stealing the spotlight. [The young bronze dragon is equal to a level 13 PC]).

I’ll rewrite them here, for those that didn’t see that article or want to see it again, but they’re in spoilers for the sake of the people that already read them.

• With the bronze dragon in particular, it may not trust that the players are telling it the whole truth. It will want to investigate, and maybe invite the villains to tell their side of the story so as to make sure it isn’t been suckered into fighting for the wrong side. This will take time that the players might not have, even if they’re willing and able to forgo the element of surprise.

How to Use

The above doesn’t mean that a bronze dragon shouldn’t be used as an ally, it just shouldn’t be accompanying them for more than the occasional brief period. If you like the idea of an alliance, this is a great way to make the world, and the villain, feel larger.

D&D has a problem with large world events. Since everything is seen from the PCs’ perspective, and since it can take the PCs several sessions to clear even a moderate dungeon, all the villain’s plans have to either be affecting a very narrow area (the PCs’ immediate vicinity) or they get reduced to background noise, and not even convincing background noise.

The solution to getting the players interested in the wider world is to give them a stake in it. They should be making decisions that impact the wider world, and their decisions should have an impact on the rest of the game. An alliance with a dragon is a great way to do both.

Making Decisions: Deciding what quest to go on is the obvious one, but that doesn’t work in a campaign, where the DM has a plan in mind.

With the dragon you can give the villain a few extra bases, (which has an extra benefit of making the villain more powerful without messing up or extending the game), and have the players work out which bases the dragon should be attacking/harassing while the players proceed with the most essential part of stopping the villain.

(This should go without saying, but the players are the main characters, and as such will always be carrying out the most important and most difficulty jobs.)

You’ll need to give the players a few options to choose from, and also to be receptive if they come up with other ideas that they prefer. At a minimum, give the villains several different bases with different strengths and levels of importance, along with different descriptions to make them seem more unique.

You can also discuss different ways to attack the caravans (logically, they need to get food from somewhere, and maybe other items), making raids (hit and run attacks), getting allies, etc. Or have them choose between all the above options.

A note of warning: Don’t make this part of the game too significant. The players want to play D&D, not Civilization (or the like). As this isn’t the main part of the game, you can have dragon let them know straight out when they’re making a bad move, or change the plan as needed when it sees that continuing an attack would be suicide. Remember, the players won’t be looking at the information as carefully as they would in Civilization, either.

Rewards: The most obvious thing to have the players gain from this is information. This is a great way to point the players toward the next dungeon, and to feed them information about the plot that you want them to have. The dragon can get the information by noticing movement, or by capturing documents or prisoners.

Players don’t generally consider information to be a reward, so it won’t seem to them like you’re attaching too much significance to something that isn’t part of the main game. At the same time, the influence of having the dragon will be strongly felt.

If the side story goes on long enough, you could also work the dragon’s actions into affecting their part of the story.

• The dragon could be used to draw troops away from a place the players need to enter,
• It could create a diversion to let the players get through a group of enemies and in to the lower levels of a dungeon,
• It could stop enemy reinforcements arriving from elsewhere [possibly giving a time limit in doing so],
• It could finish off an enemy fortress after they killed the boss, thereby saving you from having to keep the number of enemies down to avoid the dungeon dragging out forever.

While you don’t want to have the dragon team up with them directly for very long, or too often, once in a while it can be fun. When you’ve got a big fight that is appropriate for a dragon, go for it.

Combat Encounter (difficulty 11)

To have a challenging encounter where they’re fighting a bronze dragon, have the dragon catch them along a coast, with the tide coming in.

If you don’t already know, let me tell you that the beaches where people go to enjoy themselves are not the typical, average seaside beaches. Most of the places where the water meets the coast are cliffs, or rocky. In such places, the waves come it with force, easily capable of knocking someone off their feet and pulling them under.

Have the dragon catch them crossing such a beach. They went there at low tide, but the tide is now coming in, and they have to get out before that happens. The dragon found out about what they were doing, and chose this setting to corner them and force their surrender.

(Want more detail? One idea is that they went to claim an item from a ghost ship or hidden cave. The dragon doesn’t trust them with said item, and wants them to give it up to him.)

While the dragon can take advantage of the situation by sending its lightning breath into the water near them, thereby causing it to spread more than it normally would (being a line attack), it will gain even more from using its repulsion breath to send them into the water.

Once they’re in the water they’ll have to make STR saves to avoid being sucked away by the undertow (you can let them grab hold of nearby rocks, to make it easier), they’ll risk taking at least minor damage by being flung against nearby rocks, they’ll be at half-speed until they can get free of the water, and they may be knocked prone by the bad footing and have trouble finding the footing to fight back, especially if they can’t cast spells.

If you want to be really nasty, you can have the dragon remain mostly out of range after blocking off the exit to the beach. They can only escape by climbing the cliff, and any that do will be stuck fighting the dragon by themselves, and their companions are busy trying not to drown.

Aside from the combat advantages, the situation is also wonderful for the bronze dragon from a negotiation standpoint. The players are on limited time, while the bronze dragon can wait them out. Even if they get washed away by the tide, the bronze dragon can always fly in and rescue them if he wants to.

Summary – 6 Ways to Use

1. While having a powerful ally is a pain if it accompanies them, it can be wonderful if used to make the world larger. Give the villain extra bases. He seems stronger, and the dragon is helping in a concrete, significant way.
2. Have them plan out a raid on an enemy base in which the dragon will decoy enemies away, or block reinforcements, while the players race to clear the dungeon before the dragon is forced to retreat.
3. If the dragon is involved in the campaign, have it notice important villain activities. It can inform the players, and they can decide whether to react. This is good for supplying information to your players.
4. Combat Encounter: Have the dragon catch them crossing a beach a low tide. If they can’t push defeat the dragon (or come to an agreement with it) before the tide comes in, it doesn’t even have to do anything further to defeat them.
5. Combat Encounter: While the dragon’s lightning breath obviously combines well with coastal waters, repulsion breath might work even better. Knock the PCs into the water, and have them fight the undertow.
6. Combat Encounter: All a hostile bronze dragon has to do is claim the high ground, use its repulsion breath to knock down any PC coming near it, and wait for surrender. Bonus if they have limited time, perhaps because of incoming tide below.