Advice for Slaying a Dragon

[Madfellow]

So, I've run into a bit of a snag in my campaign, and I'd like a little advice. My players' characters are level 6 right now, and the current Big Bad is a young adult red dragon (challenge rating 13). I want the party to be able to kill this dragon in the near future, but they won't get the chance to level up (at least not up to level 13) soon enough to challenge it.

I need to give my party some kind of power boost. I was thinking of temporarily granting them a template or two, or some kind of powerful magical MacGuffin. Something you should know, though, they're currently on a fire-aligned plane, which means that cold-aligned magic (a red dragon's weakness) doesn't exist.

Or would it be a better idea to abandon this strategy and come up with some other way for them to defeat the villain?

Any help people can give would be greatly appreciated.

[Telonius]

EDIT: Usual solution is out due to fire plane... Cold magic doesn't work, so Shivering Touch is out.

Is the dragon native to the plane?

[Madfellow]

Yeah, it is, as are the player characters.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Have them find/rescue a friendly NPC. His own party had prepared to destroy the dragon, but were wiped out instead; he's the only survivor. He's more than willing to use the scrolls and wands they'd acquired to help the PCs fight the dragon.

He's a Fire Elf (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfFire) Generalist Wizard 6 with the Elf Wizard 1/3 sub levels, Arcane Mastery, Arcane Disciple: Plant, Two-Weapon Fighting, Craft Wand, and Double Wand Wielder. His spellbook was destroyed by fire and his familiar killed, but he's still got most of the items his party compiled to fight the dragon:
Wand of Protection from Energy (caster level 10, barely enough charges to cover the whole party)
Wand of Barkskin (caster level 9, barely enough charges to cover the whole party)
Wand of Greater Resistance (barely enough charges to cover the whole party)
Wand of Bands of Steel (ten charges, note this will prevent the dragon from flying even if it succeeds on the save)
Wand of Ray of Stupidity (twelve charges)
Scroll of Mass Resist Energy (caster level 11)
two Scrolls of Wall of Thorns
Scroll of Magic Circle Against Evil
Scroll of Dispel Magic (caster level 10)
four Potion of Invisibility
eighteen Tanglefoot Bags

His remaining prepared spells are as follows:
0- Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound, the rest are filled with Read Magic since he can prepare it from memory.
1st- Nerveskitter, Magic Missile
2nd- Glitterdust, Bull's Strength
3rd- Displacement, Haste


A buffed up party, especially with buffs specifically designed for the encounter, should be able to take on an otherwise insurmountable opponent. Give the dragon Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, and Improved Combat Expertise. Its tactics should be to start out flying, breathe as often as it can and buff itself in between, and then charge/land and melee using Improved Combat Expertise to avoid getting hit and make touch attacks to trip opponents with each natural attack. Between Bands of Steel and every PC throwing a Tanglefoot Bag the first round of combat, Ray of Stupidity turning off all of those feats, and the party being initially protected and then extremely resistant to its breath attack, plus a nice Dispel Magic scroll for his buffs, it should be no more complicated than a simple high-HP bruiser fight. The NPC Wizard can shout something to the dragon about having smashed its eggs, which combined with the Wizard's wands severely ruining its day, the dragon should prefer to target the wizard until he dies. Between Displacement and Haste considering the dragon will probably be entangled most of the fight, the Wizard can just focus on kiting the dragon and keeping it debuffed.

[AWiz_Abroad]

What about crafting a "dragonlance" that does 1D6 dex damage? If they can get to lvl 7, the casters should be able to cast enough buffs/flys to get the tank close enough to go medieval on the dragon's posterior.

Fluff of course is that a slightly deranged high-level wizard who likes to slaughter dragons ran into the problem before on the elemental plane of fire managed to plane shift away and gear up before going back into the fray. Unfortunately, before he could go after the red dragons, he ran into a huge fire elemental who laughed at the wizards attempts to stick him with a lance.

[Madfellow]

Hey, thanks. This'll help a lot.

[Downysole]

If the party is native to the fire plane, then they're immune to Fire, which is the Dragon's primary strength, even if Cold is his primary weakness. It sounds like the party just has to be able to get past the DC 21 fear check, SR 19, and the mashing that he can give them in direct combat.

Anti-dragon Aura (SC) is a spell the good folks at home can use to help out, and you can cast Remove Fear prophylactically to prevent your tank from running off like a little girl.

After that, it's about restricting the dragon's maneuverability and using its pride as its greatest weakness just like in the old stories.

[Pokonic]

A fun one: get some poison, some nice, strong dex-sapping stuff. Get a dead animal, a cow or a deer is good, and fill it (vi check) with the crap. If the dragon takes the bait ( wisdom check, probably) there's a good chance if the rolls are in your favor for it to be easier to slay.

[Madfellow]

^^Well it's a fire-aligned plane, but it's not the Elemental Plane of Fire.

[Gavinfoxx]

Dust of Sneezing and Choking?

[zorenathres]

though I am unsure what type of campaign you are running, in planescape, they have power keys which allow casters to use their spells on planes that normally nullify/ ban certain types/ schools of magic.

[Ravens_cry]

Get it on the ground.
I think there is a spell called Wingbind that will do the trick.
Now, on the ground a Dragon is hardly defenceless, but they are a lot easier to deal with.

[Madfellow]

That's interesting. Maybe I can get my hands on a planescape book.

[JetThomasBoat]

Have you looked into a harpoon? If you provide the players with some kind magical chain or something, something that will be hard for the dragon to break, they could shove a harpoon in it. If it hits, it'll do some good damage and if the dragon fails a reflex save (good chance of it), it'll be stuck with the harpoon, which will be attached to something, restricting its movement.

[Madfellow]

:smallamused:

[zorenathres]

thankfully, you dont have to get a book...

http://dotd.com/planescape/DM_Guide_to_the_Planes_02.htm

my mistake for not posting a link, & btw, look for spell keys lower down the page, not power keys (they renamed them in 3.5, but i like spell keys better)

[Downysole]

^^Well it's a fire-aligned plane, but it's not the Elemental Plane of Fire.

So, not immune to fire and that 10d10 breath weapon of his. Yeah, that's gonna hurt. They're going to have to be 10th or 11th level before they can hope to take him on without losing a couple party members.

[BRC]

Who are the PC's, I would tailor the macguffins for the party. Maybe give each one a session that will give them a Macguffin that can help.
(These are examples)
For the Fighter, they need to go into the tomb of the fallen hero to get Drakesbane, a +2 Dragonsbane Greatsword that grants resistance to Fire.

For the Wizard, they must venture into the frost caves of Tundorr to find the Winter's Heart, which will make all his spells deal Frost Damage, even on a fire-aligned elemental plane.

For the Rogue they must venture into the seedy underbelly of the city of Shadesport. There a man known as the Ragged King rules over the Court of Thieves. If they perform a task for the Ragged King, he will give the rogue three deadly poisons, which must be applied Via Sneak Attack. One will paralyze the Dragon's wings. The second will quell it's terrible breath (Depriving it of it's breath weapon), the third will cause it's scales to rot and fall off (Lowering it's natural armor).

The Cleric must recover the Amulet of Soothing Burns, which makes their healing magic more effective against damage dealt by flames.

Stuff like that. Give each one a different way to be effective against the dragon/eliminate one or more of it's nastier tricks.

[Medic!]

I'd say set them up with some good terain that offers them some protection from the dragon, then either 1) they happen upon the dragon as it's mopping up a previous attacker, leaving it in a weakened state or 2) have them only have to fight the dragon to a certain benchmark (down to 1/2 hp, or for 5 rounds, etc) at which point the dragon flees/is slain by another creature/the fight is interrupted by an earthquake or what-have-you.

Whenever I've set dragons up against an under-leveled party I'd also play heavier into the RP of the dragon than the crunch, blowing his breathweapon as a flourish/show-off in the first round without really hitting anyone or using attacks to display his strength and majesty as opposed to full-attacking a PC. A little arrogance goes a long way!

Ultimately it depends on your group and their style. If they enjoy questing for specific items/abilities and playing their pre-determined roles, tailor-making some macguffins is absolutely the way to go. If they are the type of group that likes a challenge, see what they come up with and find a way to reward their efforts.

[Fouredged Sword]

One cool idea would be red dragon scale tower shields and +1 dragon bane outsider (fire) bane harpoons. As the dragon is native to a plane other than the prime material it is an outsider, and it has the fire subtype already.

These +3 weapons deal +4d6+1 damage and are +5 to hit to fire dragons native to plains other than the prime material. Once hit the dragon will be locked down by the harpoon.

The shields are immune to fire damage and a readied action to use the shield for cover will completely block breath attacks.

[Madfellow]

Ooh, spiffy.

[Kelb_Panthera]

One cool idea would be red dragon scale tower shields and +1 dragon bane outsider (fire) bane harpoons. As the dragon is native to a plane other than the prime material it is an outsider, and it has the fire subtype already.

These +3 weapons deal +4d6+1 damage and are +5 to hit to fire dragons native to plains other than the prime material. Once hit the dragon will be locked down by the harpoon.

The shields are immune to fire damage and a readied action to use the shield for cover will completely block breath attacks.

Point of order: just because a creature is native to an outer plane does not mean it is an outsider. All being on a plane that isn't your native plane gets you is the extraplanar subtype, and the OP already said that this dragon was on its native plane. However, if you replace outsider bane with frost, it should work just as well. IIRC, being on a fire dominant plane may prevent a spellcaster from casting (cold) spells, but that doesn't mean that a frost weapon won't work.

@the OP: I'm sorry sir, but I'm personally of the opinion that if your party doesn't make at least level 9 before they face this beast, the only thing they need bother to bring is ketchup. They will be tasty indeed.

[Madfellow]

That's why I was considering temporarily granting them templates (possibly half-celestial, via divine intervention). The idea I've been working with so far is that after the dragon lays waste to the kingdom, the party goes on a quest to the temple of the paladin's patron deity, overcoming many obstacles along the way. Once they get to the temple, the deity grants them the half-celestial template, and a staff with 50 charges of the following spells:

Barkskin
Resist Energy
Protection from Evil
Invisibility
Haste
Bull's Strength
Cat's Grace
Remove Fear
Cure Serious Wounds

The party's warlock and rogue each have ranks in Use Magic Device, and this staff has a lower check DC than other staffs. After the dragon is killed, the templates and the staff both disappear.

I also like the idea of poisoned dragon-bane weapons, and will include them as well. So what do you think? Does this sound workable?

[Mnemnosyne]

A potential replacement for Shivering Touch is Lahm's finger darts (98 Vile Darkness). No saving throw, and it's basically magic missile that does 1d4 dex damage instead of force damage. Costs the caster 1 point of strength damage for each dart fired, and the darts are literally the caster's fingers - if he fires more than 3 darts from the same hand, the hand is useless (apparently having just thumb and one finger is still good enough though). It doesn't do 3d6 damage in one hit, (although at 13+ it does 5d4) but that just makes it a little less silly powerful than shivering touch.

Since it's a Corrupt spell, any prepared caster can use it, they just need to get a hold of a copy so they can start preparing it. If they use this, make sure to scrupulously watch the caster's encumbrance as his strength drops, since that's the only reason strength is likely to matter to any caster at all.

[Fouredged Sword]

For a template like effect, consider an alignment to the plane of fire. Fire immunity will go a long way to keeping them alive. A gold dragon could preform the ritual, or any powerful enough spellcaster.

Past that you just have to overcome the 19HD of angry dragon. That can be done with flying mounts, tanglefoot bags and dragonbane arrows. Put it on the ground and kite it to death.

[Madfellow]

A young adult red dragon is large enough that tanglefoot bags don't work on it.

[dantiesilva]

Mount, lance, Mounted combat tree.

For rogue Invisibilty Sneak attack, don't know what they have for feats but if they knew a dragon was on the way I'm sure he took the feat to bypass NA of a dragon in Dracominica

[killianh]

give them a custom artefact that grants the following to the party for 1 minute with only 1 use ever:

Improved evasion (save on the breath attack and take no damage)
Backstepping (make a 5ft step when hit (helps with those dragon full attacks)
1 use disintegration rays to each party member(dragon touch AC sucks usually) CL 11 (22d6 or 3d6 if save is made)

The protections from the attacks and breath weapon when combined with the extra damage from the rays (assuming any work against the dragon's Fortitude save) should be enough of a help. If you think they might have trouble actually hitting then let the melee guys have a round or two of touch AC hits instead of regular AC.

All be told though I've been in a group that completely destroyed a Gold dragon of the same level at ECL 6 though we had a party of 6

[elpollo]

Perhaps the obvious question, but why don't you just make the dragon weaker? Surely it's more fun for the players to beat a difficult encounter through their own capabilities than to beat an impossible encounter because the DM threw them some magical MacGuffin or NPC. Bump it down to a juvenile, increase its size to huge again with no stat changes if you must, and bam! CR 10, within the realms of what the party should be able to handle. If that's still too much drop another hit die or two and lower the breath weapon damage by 1d10. If the party hasn't fought it before (and seeing as they're all still alive I would assume this is the case) they'll never know.

[Telonius]

Oh, can't believe it took me this long to think of this ... an Energy Substitution version of Shivering Touch would work just as well. Acidic Touch, Sonic Touch, Electric Touch would be candidates.

[Diarmuid]

I'll ask this question...why is it so imperative that the PC's slay this dragon so soon? Did they zig when you expected to zag and that created this disparity in the party level vs the threat of this dragon?

That staff you're considering seems pretty beefy, especially at full charges and with a high enough CL to make the min/lvl buffs really worthwhile. At the very least I would make the spells cost their spell level in charges to make it somewhat reasonable.

A better macguffin might simply be one that reduces the dragons power like so many video games have used. Make using it a ranged touch, no save reduction (whether you just give flat penalties to all rolls, reduce age cat, or simply remove certain key abilities for a random amount of time is up to you).

Something interesting to me might be a wand that reduces the age cat for 1d4 rounds, with a reuse timer of 1d4-1 rounds. This doesnt simply hand them the win and adds a nice random component.

Another option might be a similar wand that suppresses the dragons abilities:
1d6
1: Flight
2: Fear
3: Breath
4: Spells
5: SR
6: Caster's Choice

Each one would last a random number of rounds, the reuse timer is probably unnecessary here, but I would give it a set amount of charges which puts a bit of a clock on the fight.

[Madfellow]

Diarmuid, elpollo, you guys raise valid questions. Basically, I wanted the current story arc to have a nice climactic conclusion, and killing the current Big Bad I figured would be the best way to do that. I'm also thinking in the long term here. They get a taste of power now, and later on in the campaign the party will encounter similarly powerful creatures but will be high enough level to defeat them without outside help, which will make them feel more powerful as characters.

This dragon is a young adult because it's a Xorvinthaal dragon, and Xorvinthaal has a minimum age requirement. This party actually has fought it once before; it was shapechanged into a humanoid form and using weapons and armor it wasn't proficient with, giving it massive penalties to its attack rolls, and it ran away from the fight after getting down to half HP. They don't even know it's a dragon yet. :smallbiggrin: For the final fight, though, I wanted this dragon to be at its full power.

What book is Shivering Touch in?

[Downysole]

What book is Shivering Touch in?

Frostburn.

[BRC]

Diarmuid, elpollo, you guys raise valid questions. Basically, I wanted the current story arc to have a nice climactic conclusion, and killing the current Big Bad I think would be the best way to do that. I'm also thinking in the long term here. They get a taste of power now, and later on in the campaign the party will encounter similarly powerful creatures but will be high enough level to defeat them without outside help, which will make them feel more powerful as characters.

This dragon is a young adult because it's a Xorvinthaal dragon, and Xorvinthaal has a minimum age requirement. This party actually has fought it once before; it was shapechanged into a humanoid form and using weapons and armor it wasn't proficient with, giving it massive penalties to its attack rolls, and it ran away from the fight after getting down to half HP. They don't even know it's a dragon yet. :smallbiggrin: For the final fight, though, I wanted this dragon to be at its full power.

What book is Shivering Touch in?
Who are your PC's? What you do will depend in the characters you're trying to boost.

[Madfellow]

A barbarian, rogue, warlock, paladin, and ranger.

[Gavinfoxx]

So you want to put a bunch of Tier 4's and a Tier 5 against a dragon well above their encounter level, and give them a deus ex machina item so they don't wipe?

...Why is this supposed to be a good idea, again?

[Madfellow]

It's not a deus ex machina, I'm going to make them earn it.

[Gavinfoxx]

Yea, but it will still be mostly 'the item wins the fight' rather than 'the characters win the fight'...

[Madfellow]

The staff I have designed at the moment is for buffs before the fight and healing during it. And the dragon-bane weapons just give them a bit of an edge. They're still swinging their axes and firing their bows and whatnot. They're not just spraying it with anti-dragon spray.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I agree with the op that this isn't a full deus ex machina he's contemplating, but it is a partial. A partial deus ex is a controversial move. Some people will call it border-line or even full-blown rail-roading. Others have no problem with it. If you don't already know, you should find out which side of this your players fall on.

I still think your players are doomed anyway.

[Madfellow]

Alright, then I guess I'll come up with something else. Thanks for the advice.

[Manly Man]

If the dragon is underground, have everyone who can read a scroll or use a wand cast Stone Shape on the ceiling to form large spikes, and then Soften Earth just at the base of the spikes so that it falls. Rocks fall, BBEG dies. Even if that doesn't kill it outright, it still ought to make the fight something that they'd actually have a chance with.

[Kelb_Panthera]

If the dragon is underground, have everyone who can read a scroll or use a wand cast Stone Shape on the ceiling to form large spikes, and then Soften Earth just at the base of the spikes so that it falls. Rocks fall, BBEG dies. Even if that doesn't kill it outright, it still ought to make the fight something that they'd actually have a chance with.

This is a prime example of outside the box thinking.

I heartily approve. :smallbiggrin:

[Manly Man]

I grew up on AD&D. You kinda had to do that sort of thing.

The best part is that none of those spels are beyond their character levels either. Stone Shape is a level 3, and Soften Earth is a level 2, I think. It might be backwards, but it's viable.

[Downysole]

Certainly, putting the Dragon through the ringer before the fight is a good way to get on even ground. Dropping his hit points by first pounding it with its surroundings is always a good idea.

But the result is that you're basically lowering the challenge rating for the party. If that's cool with you, then more power to you.

[silverwolfer]

have some wise old wizard give them all high level buffs....or some sort of quest for some sort of artifact that ddoes major damage..


those are your usual archtypes

[Madfellow]

Sadly, the dragon won't be underground any time soon.

However, in the last session the party did surprise me with just how effective they could be against this thing. The warlock has earthen grasp and the ranger has the natural bond feat, improving her wolf animal companion (while also making it one size category larger). First the warlock got a successful grapple with the earthen grasp, and then the wolf succeeded on a trip. And then the entire party had the dragon flanked. It was actually pretty brutal.

[Gavinfoxx]

The party will need access to Earthbind, or whatever other spells can possibly ground the Dragon...

Like the aforementioned Bands of Steel!

[Madfellow]

Well red dragons prefer to fight on the ground anyway, and they don't like to use their fire breath because it risks destroying any treasure they could loot from their victims.

[hoverfrog]

I second (third, whatever) the call for an ally to help them out. Alternatively have them stumble on the charred remains of a party hunting the dragon. Among their remains are such things as scrolls of Wall of Frost, Fire Shield (Frost variant), Ice Storm, etc, Arrows +1 Bane vs Dragons. Maybe a Wand of Obscuring Mist that make targeting the party with breathe weapons difficult and force the dragon to engage close up. How about special one shot gems of mirror image (or other custom item) that give the party a real boost but they don't get to keep for the next boss fight.

Most of the items should be consumables so as not to unbalance the party or weak items that they can use intelligently.

[Gavinfoxx]

Well red dragons prefer to fight on the ground anyway, and they don't like to use their fire breath because it risks destroying any treasure they could loot from their victims.

Where the heck are you getting all of THAT?!

That makes absolutely no sense, and I don't think it follows any fluff from... anywhere...

[Kelb_Panthera]

Sadly, the dragon won't be underground any time soon.

However, in the last session the party did surprise me with just how effective they could be against this thing. The warlock has earthen grasp and the ranger has the natural bond feat, improving her wolf animal companion (while also making it one size category larger). First the warlock got a successful grapple with the earthen grasp, and then the wolf succeeded on a trip. And then the entire party had the dragon flanked. It was actually pretty brutal.

If it was as bad as all that, why is it they don't already know he's a dragon? Reds are some of the most vainglorious of all dragonkind. I'm a fairly modest and level-headed kinda guy, and I'd certainly've stopped pulling my punches if a group of upstarts embarrased me like that.

[Madfellow]

^^The red dragon entries in the monster manual and the draconomicon, for your information.

^By the time she got out of the grapple and back on her feet, they'd done enough damage that it was a smarter move for her to cut her losses and retreat. Besides, the backstory I have for this character is that her strategy in the game of Xorvinthaal is to do most of her dealings in her disguised, humanoid form so her competition doesn't know what she's up to.

[Manly Man]

Where the heck are you getting all of THAT?!

That makes absolutely no sense, and I don't think it follows any fluff from... anywhere...

Actually, he's right about the breath. If they looks like a bunch of folks who are really way out of their league, the dragons will breathe on them, unless they spot something valuable, in which case they'll beat the enemy to death.

[Diarmuid]

Sadly, the dragon won't be underground any time soon.

However, in the last session the party did surprise me with just how effective they could be against this thing. The warlock has earthen grasp and the ranger has the natural bond feat, improving her wolf animal companion (while also making it one size category larger). First the warlock got a successful grapple with the earthen grasp, and then the wolf succeeded on a trip. And then the entire party had the dragon flanked. It was actually pretty brutal.

Bolded above for relevance.

There is no chance the Warlock successfully grappled a young adult red dragon with Earthen Grasp. His CL is 6, the arm has an 18 Strength, for a total of +10 Grapple mod. Best posslbe Grapple being a 30. A young adult's grapple mod is +37.

There's a reason this thing should be trouncing your party, you playing it poorly does not mean they should be beating it.

[Madfellow]

As I said, at the time the dragon was shapechanged and had massive penalties to its rolls. I'm not saying they'd be able to do the same thing against a dragon at full strength, I'm just saying that they can surprise me sometimes. Nor am I saying I expect them to beat a CR 13 monster on their own. That's why I started this thread in the first place. Now if the general consensus is that this is a bad idea, as I said, I'll come up with something else.

[Diarmuid]

Ah, I misunderstood. I thought perhaps since your original post that the party had actually encountered the dragon in true form and what you mentioned had actually transpired.

Speaking from lots of this kind of experience (as a player), having a DM throw stuff at you that's way beyond your paygrade and giving you NPC's or trinkets or whatnot that are the only reason you made it through cheapens the victories. Now, I had a GM that did this a lot and it certainly got stale. If it's just a singular thing, and you can create some kind of circumstance where the PC's "earn" the buffs or items then it shouldnt be as bad...but you have to think to yourself...if these powerful items exist, or there are powerful casters around to help...why arent they just killing the dragon themselves?

[Slipperychicken]

Where the heck are you getting all of THAT?!

That makes absolutely no sense, and I don't think it follows any fluff from... anywhere...

On a natural 1 on a save, randomly-rolled objects on your person take damage. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#itemsSurvivingafteraSavingTh row) A powerful dragon would expect to roast any items affected by its breath weapon. Thing is, no-one ever uses that rule because it's crazy. Kind of like Multiclass XP penalties, and Massive Damage...

And it makes perfect sense. You think that your wooden club is immune to fire? Do you think your shield is immune to acid? Those things are given hardness and hp for a reason :smallamused:

[Doxkid]

1-Why? Why are they dealing with it NOW instead of 'In two weeks' and why is it letting itself be dealt with NOW instead of 'never'? Dragons aren't typically the type to repeat lethal (or nearly lethal) mistakes (which is why they can live for thousands of years). If the party can get it to half and make it run off with it's tail dragging, they've won for a good while; long enough to level up a few times and pick up swag that they really earned.

2-Does the dragon have any goals they could take advantage of? Or any minions? Would it be possible for them to stop it in its tracks for a while by screwing it's plans up instead of trying to beat down on something that, if it really comes down to it(and is played competently), would decide that a new shiny bauble is not at all worth being turned into a belt?

3-Do you use puzzles? This is a classic setup for a puzzle solving fight; depending on the dragon's tactics and intelligence so far, you can arrange for it to be somewhere that could either make it stronger or remove it from being a threat (which allows you to bring it back later, when battling it would actually be a fair fight).

Once there, set the party to usurp its control over whatever, reverse the rune scheme it's using, seal the tunnel it was in, release the enraged X it was trying to Y, or what have you; if the dragon has had minions so far have them fight those during this ritual.
----
Boosting the party's power is, in my opinion, usually not the best idea. Neither is outright weakening an enemy so the party can stomp it.

Which...is why encounters have a listed challenge rating. So you know what level a party would need to be to stop it, using brute force.

[Madfellow]

1) I explained my motives for this fight earlier in the thread, but it's not an absolute necessity.

2) The dragon currently controls multiple tribes of orcs and a couple cities of other humanoids, and is leading an invasion of the PCs' home kingdom.

3) Yeah, I've been known to employ a few puzzles.

Given that multiple people have given me that advice so far, I think I'm going to take a different tactic. Thank you, everyone, for your help. :smallbiggrin:

[Kelb_Panthera]

1) I explained my motives for this fight earlier in the thread, but it's not an absolute necessity.

2) The dragon currently controls multiple tribes of orcs and a couple cities of other humanoids, and is leading an invasion of the PCs' home kingdom.

3) Yeah, I've been known to employ a few puzzles.

Given that multiple people have given me that advice so far, I think I'm going to take a different tactic. Thank you, everyone, for your help. :smallbiggrin:

You're very welcome. Also, hooray for the party being no-longer doomed.

[hoverfrog]

If the dragon has tribes under his control then it would be appropriate to send minions to deal with them if they are a threat. If they are fire based this could be a reason to arm the minions with ice based weapons which would have the unintended effect of arming the party for when they eventually do face the dragon.

An elite force of half orc barbarians and shamans, kobold sorcerers, together with bugbear and ogre muscle should be enough to deal with the threat of adventurers. Particularly if they are led by the half dragon ranger son of the evil dragon.

That allows you to foreshadow the dragon part of your story in without giving it away entirely. Maybe the dragon has several half dragon children eager to serve as his lieutenants.