lvl 4 pc's VS a Dracolich

[Darth_Versity]

So, for my E6 game i'm going to have the pc's face against a Very Young Red Dracolich when they are at lvl 4. Its CR 8, but the pc's will be well equipped to fight undead as that is the theme for this half of the game.

Now my players will be slightly stronger than the average lvl 4's as they get +10 hp at 1st level and they only level up when I say but still gain xp to buy bonus feats. I expect that by the time we reach this point they'll have +2-3 bonus feats already. Howeverthey will only be low-mid op.

So my question is, would 5-6 lvl 4 pc's with 3-4 bonus feats each be able to defeat a CR 8 Very Young Red Dracolich?

[Jack Zander]

That depends entirely on the party. What kinds of characters are your players playing?

[Darth_Versity]

Characters are still being made but I know that there will be a lesser Aasimar Paladin going into hunter of the dead and another player wants to be a Warblade

[Venser]

No,they will die.
Even a very young dracolich can fly,has good SR,has paralyzing gaze,casts spells,deals extra cold damage and can paralyze with each hit.
It is simply too much for level 4 characters.

[CTrees]

No,they will die.
Even a very young dracolich can fly,has good SR,has paralyzing gaze,casts spells,deals extra cold damage and can paralyze with each hit.
It is simply too much for level 4 characters.

It's possible to play it very, very dumb (demons have SLAs and SU abilities? nah, don't need to use those), but even then... this seems like a stretch to me, unless the party is fairly well optimized.

[Chess435]

I'd toss the party a bit of NPC assistance to keep the dracolich busy for a couple rounds. Flight is still problematic though, so maybe toss your party's caster a couple scrolls of fly in some random loot.

[Darth_Versity]

Well the fight will take place with a small army of humanoids vs a small army of undead led by the dragon. They will have several days (possibly even a couple of weeks) to prepare and they know exactly what they'll be fighting.

With plenty of time to ready and prepare would you still say they have little chance?

I've already statted the dragon. He has about 75 hp and DR 5/Blud. His SR 16 could prove real nasty but only AC 20. The biggest threat would be his paralysing touch/gaze.

[Chess435]

If the player can come up with some decent countermeasures to fight the dragon, they stand a very reasonable chance of beating it. Be warned, there may be a character death or two though, especially if the thing gets to full attack.

[Jack Zander]

It is possible to tone down the intelligence and tactics of the dragon for it to be beatable. I sent two CR 4 Forest Drakes at 3 level 3 players our last session and they managed alright. The party was on an airship with a single cannon, and the drake's tactics were to stay away from the ship, fly parallel to it, and blast it with their breath weapons. This meant that the party was only being attacked once every other round as they waited for their breath to recharge, and the pilot was granting the party improved evasion with a successful skill check. The drakes only closed into melee when they were down to their last 10 hp, so they typically got a single full attack and then died. And even though it couldn't be fired as often as the drakes were breathing acid clouds at them, that cannon dealt 6d6 damage on a hit. Owch!

So really what I'm saying is its all about the environment you put the encounter in, and the tactics the dragon uses. In an open field, with full range of abilities, the party is probably gonna have a TPK.