(3.5)druids and dealing with dragons

[Tyrantsbane]

Hey so running in a campaign dealing mostly with dragons. Been in 3 fights against elder dragons and it has been a harrowing experience.

I am a level 16 NE human druid. Mainly focused on casting and shifting. I have mainly getting by with cryohydra wild shape and companion with venom fire. Seems to have some dwindling effectiveness.

Was looking for some spell and wild shape suggestions or tips to improve my output.

And don't worry about cheese as this is a optimized party.

[Flickerdart]

How were the dragons played? It's probably not in your best interest to stand toe to toe with a dragon built as a bruiser, but catching up to a dragon focused on spells and breath weapons and caving in its stupid dragon face is a legitimate tactic, especially since you can be Huge. If the season is right, Control Weather works wonders in grounding the flying lizards.

Can you retrain levels? Some Planar Shepherd would help you out a lot.

[Gavinfoxx]

Try a flying form, and also get immunity to the appropriate energy...

Here's a pretty optimized, item-free Druid, uh, Document:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17bYfVxcXM8uKmxtQAOHgKN7MNchvqcMw31R-k-NPrTw/edit?authkey=CLWf4ugH&authkey=CLWf4ugH

It's got some good ideas for ya, most likely. It assumed access to Wish Economy for the inherent bonuses.

An Enlarged Person Celestial Dragonhawk is a solid form...

[Phelix-Mu]

Consider using metamagic rod of elemental substitution to switch up the venomfire energy type. Can be particularly effective if you can manage it partway through the combat, though this can be expensive action-wise if you are engaged in melee.

Older/more advanced dragons can afford to use some extreme optimization of their own. Try to have someone in the party get off the biggest dispel-type effect they can manage early on, especially if the dragon is using items that you could target. Many dragon's don't have a caster level equal to HD, as far as I know, so they might be easier to dispel than you might think.

Anything more specific would require more knowledge about how the dragons are run (guessing they were each different), or more about your character.

[Tyrantsbane]

Sorry. Made the post and went to sleep.

Dealing with chromatic dragons. Fought a blue, a red and a green so far. Have a white coming up in the near future and I am sure a black dragon as the overall a arch nemesis.

I just hit 16 so haven't taken that level yet. So I could take planar Shepard 1.

Party consists of a warlock, arcane archer, and a hexblade.

10 10 16 10 23 8. For stats. Natural spell, improved toughness, fire elemental born (flavor feat), assume supernatural ability, frozen wild shape. All I can remember ATM without my sheet in front of me

[Tyrantsbane]

Bump. Seeing if anyone has more ideas

[ShriekingDrake]

Downdraft from the SC is a good option for grounding the dragon. This would enable some of your non-flying party members to get in on the action.

Master Air from SC can get some of you flying.

Using Phantom Stag from SC will give you fantastic speed and aerial mobility.

Amazingly enough, with the right buffs to you, Kelpstrand can give you a fighting chance to grapple a dragon.

Call Avalanche on top of a dragon can be, at least, distracting, if not severely disrupting.

Good luck.