Attacking a shadow dragon lair [3.P]

[JadePhoenix]

My group needs to break into a shadow dragon lair (a cave in a marsh) to rescue a noble's daughter. We know a family of shadow dragons live there - at least two Large dragons and I'm guessing a Huge dragon as well. Oh, the marsh is filled with the undead corpses of those who tried to reach the cave. Oh, the guy who kidnaped the noble's daughter? A necromancer (looks like a Dread Necromancer due to the touch attack and DR). We don't have a lot of time for preparations (a few hours at most) and even if we manage to find magical items in town, they can't cost more than 800gp.
I don't really think we have much of a chance. My best bet was to summon flying mounts for us, so we could avoid the undead army, but that's basically painting a big target on us, the Large dragons would slaughter us during airborne combat.
Can you guys help me here?
My party consists of:
- Elf Synthesist 8 (me)
- Elan Warlock 7/Thayan Gladiator 1
- Human Paladin 4/Child of Khyber 4
- Half-elf Mystic Ranger 5/Assassin 3/Jade Phoenix Mage 1
- Human Bard 8
- Aasimar Hexblade 4/Binder 3/Knight of the Sacred Seal 1
We use 3.5 rules with Pathfinder elements (such as the Summoner class). Any help would be apreciated, I really don't know if we can do this.

[Gwendol]

Don't dragons have rather poor maneuverability when airborn? I'd work from there. Anything Large or smaller is vulnerable to tanglefoot bags, which if thrown from above can have "infinite" reach.

[JadePhoenix]

Don't dragons have rather poor maneuverability when airborn? I'd work from there. Anything Large or smaller is vulnerable to tanglefoot bags, which if thrown from above can have "infinite" reach.

Hm, it might buy a round for us. DC 15 is very low, but it's worth a shot anyway. Thanks a lot!

[candycorn]

Advice? Let that one go. Shadow dragons are among the nastiest of the dragons. Even with poor maneuverability, they'll have double or more your speed, giving them plenty of extra movement to come around. They'll be able to stay out of your range, and neg level anyone without death ward. Worse, if it's not bright daylight, you'll never even be able to see them do this.

There are a lot of dragons you can cheese it up with... But shadow dragons are a very bad lot to mess with.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah. Don't bite on this plot hook if you can avoid it, because you will lose unless the DM decides to just throw the fight. One Large Shadow Dragon is, at minimum, CR13 (Adult), and the lowest-CR Huge Shadow Dragon is CR18 all by itself. You're a party of level 8 characters. And we haven't even included the Dread Necro or his minions.

[JadePhoenix]

Yeah. Don't bite on this plot hook if you can avoid it, because you will lose unless the DM decides to just throw the fight. One Large Shadow Dragon is, at minimum, CR13 (Adult), and the lowest-CR Huge Shadow Dragon is CR18 all by itself. You're a party of level 8 characters. And we haven't even included the Dread Necro or his minions.

Wow, I didn't know the CR was that high!! :smalleek:
Maybe if we find a way to get the dragons out of the cave and then we sneak into it to take care of the necromancer?

[nedz]

One option is to stealth in, rescue the princess, and get out as fast as possible. Your chance of pulling this off is probably about 10%.

A better plan would be to draw out the Dragons first. This is likely to be hard.

Disguising your selves as undead might work since undead are expected to be around, but this should be combined with stealth.

[Spuddles]

If you can't deathward the entire party, expect a minimum of 1 negative level every 1d4 rounds for everyone caught in the breath weapon of a large dragon, and two for every 1d4 rounds of a huge dragon.

You guys are so hosed. With preparation, it may have been possible. Maybe.


One option is to stealth in, rescue the princess, and get out as fast as possible. Your chance of pulling this off is probably about 10%.

A better plan would be to draw out the Dragons first. This is likely to be hard.

Disguising your selves as undead might work since undead are expected to be around, but this should be combined with stealth.

Very doable if you have an adequate amount of hide from undead and hide from dragon spells available. Getting scrolls of the latter is rather prohibitive, though.