Help me party slay a dragon

[ahenobarbi]

My party is on a quest to collect a few artifacts to save a city (and probably a world too). We got to a troll village which has one of the artifacts we have to collect. The village is sacrificing 1 child/week to the dragon to avoid getting destroyed by it.

There are many things we could do to get what we want but knowing my party we will end up making a deal that we will kill the dragon and receive the artifact as a reward.

Some details:

We are in middle of nowhere and won't have time to get more supplies.
We should deal with it in a day. Maybe two. Three would be very troublesome.
The artifact is Bowl of Lathander (or something like that... if you fill it with water it will be imbuned with powerful healing magic capable eve of rising dead). Maybe we could convince trolls to give us some water from the artifact for the fight.
Party:

Me - Tiefling Focused Conjurer 3/ Master Specialist 6 (of relevant feats I have Extend Spell, Sculpt Spell, Greater Spell Focus (Conjuration))
Human Aristocrat 1 / Generalist Wizard 8 (craft-focused)
Human Ranger 4/ Rogue 5 (mediocre archer)
Half-orc were boar (+2 LA, no RHD) Fighter 7/Barbarian 1 (heavy mace & shield... I might convince him to give up shield for the fight. With buffs he can get decent damage and to hit (Like +19/+14 (4d6+1d6(acid)+12))).

I have little info about the dragon (we had to end session before I got to ask questions). I suspect it is Black Adult or Mature Adult, straight from MMI.
My spells known

Level 1
* Benign Transposition
Comprehend Languages
Expeditious Retreat
Feather Fall
* Mage Armor
Masters Touch
Minor Image
Nerveskitter
* Obscuring Mist
* Unseen Servant
* Grease
Ray of Enfeeblement
1 unchosen
Level 2
Alter Self
Blood Boil
* Fog Cloud
* Glitterdust
Heart of Air
Invisibility
Rope Trick
Quick Potion
Create Magic Tatoo
1 Unchosen
Level 3
Arcane Sight
Circle dance
* Dimension Step
Fly
Heart of Water
* Mage Armor, Greater
Magic Weapon, Greater
* Phantom Steed
Ray of Exhaustion
* SM 3
Shrink Item
* Stinking Cloud
Tongues
Level 4
Arcane Eye
Assay Spell Resistance
* Black Tentacles
Celerity
* Dimension Door
Enervation
Heart of Earth
Mirror Image Greater
* Orb of Force
Polymorph
* Solid fog
* SM4
Level 5
* Teleport
* Wall of Stone
Telekinesis
Channeled Life Theft
1 Unchosen

The other wizard has most of this and some more (from my banned schools: Abjuration, Enchantment, Evocation).

[Gwendol]

What is your general plan to trap the dragon long enough to slay it? If it's adult you can use a tanglefoot bag to entangle it, and ground it. If it's older it is also larger and that option is out.

[CaladanMoonblad]

If the circumstances were normal (ie, knew about the type, you could have prepared energy type resistance scrolls to deal with AoE breath attacks)...

... but killing a dragon on the fly?

Martial tactics- spread out, ranged casters keep cover, ambush it when the next child sacrifice is supposed to occur (blindsense 60 ft will be tough to deal however, you might have to let the kid buy it).

The unknown factor is making it harder for you all; even getting a rough description from a previous witness should give you players enough time to start formulating a game plan.

With no dedicated healer in your group... this is a tough fight. Does the Ranger use a CLW wand to help after encounters? He's the only divine caster I see in your setup.

[rockdeworld]

Since others have posted, and will post, let me just suggest instead of slaying the dragon your party save the children and let the dragon destroy the village. Those people are sacrificing children, after all.

[ahenobarbi]

What is your general plan to trap the dragon long enough to slay it? If it's adult you can use a tanglefoot bag to entangle it, and ground it. If it's older it is also larger and that option is out.

Yeah I can't figure how to keep it still while letting us to hurt it. Soild Fog or Wall of Stone probably could hold it still but they would severely limit us.

I could put Cloudkill on top of Solid Fog but it's unlikely to significantly damage the dragon.

Tanglefoot bag would be very nice but it will probably hold it for one round (and we have only one tanglefoot bag).

I don't think I can grapple it. Even Adult has much better grapple modifier than anything we can get.

Me & the other wizard can make the dragon exhausted on round 1. This will slow it down but not enough.

If we can debuff it's saves Earthbind will prevent it from flying.

So I guess Solid Fog + Cloudkill to trap it for a while & reduce it's Fort save. A few rounds of preparation for our non-magical friends, arcanists ready actions. When Dragon gets out of the fog each arcaninst casts Ray of exaustion, then on their own round they cast enervations, then celerity & earthbind (if first earthbind lands the other caster might follow with another enervation).


If the circumstances were normal (ie, knew about the type, you could have prepared energy type resistance scrolls to deal with AoE breath attacks)...

... but killing a dragon on the fly?

Martial tactics- spread out, ranged casters keep cover, ambush it when the next child sacrifice is supposed to occur (blindsense 60 ft will be tough to deal however, you might have to let the kid buy it).

The unknown factor is making it harder for you all; even getting a rough description from a previous witness should give you players enough time to start formulating a game plan.

With no dedicated healer in your group... this is a tough fight. Does the Ranger use a CLW wand to help after encounters? He's the only divine caster I see in your setup.

We had rough description, that's why I think it's black adult or mature adult. We will get more info on the session we fight the dragon so we should have proper energy resistances up.

We use wands of lesser vigor to heal.


Since others have posted, and will post, let me just suggest instead of slaying the dragon your party save the children and let the dragon destroy the village. Those people are sacrificing children, after all.

I like the plan :smallamused: I'm just worried the dragon will take that shiny artifact we need and we'll have to kill the dragon anyways :/

[Gwendol]

DON'T grapple the dragon!

The thing is that if you can successfully throw the tanglefoot bag while in flight the dragon will fall to the ground (provided it fails the DC15 ref save).

Other than that you will need some nasty spellcombo to keep it locked down:
nauseated+entangled (cloud of bewilderment + web, or better evanders black tentacles come to mind).

[Krobar]

I take it nobody has Shivering Touch (Cleric 3, Sor/Wiz 3) and Assay Resistance (Cleric 4, Sor/Wiz 4)?

[ahenobarbi]

I take it nobody has Shivering Touch (Cleric 3, Sor/Wiz 3) and Assay Resistance (Cleric 4, Sor/Wiz 4)?

*Cough* I know the combo but I consider it kind of last-resort. I think it would spoil fun for others.

[PurpleSocks]

Okay, how are they sacrificing children to the dragon?

Is it on an altar with a ceremonial knife? or are they just tying a kid to a stick to let the dragon eat it?

Assuming the dragon is eating the child here's an ethically bad option,

1. Pump the child with an ingestion based poison, if your DM's reasonable they might up the save DC if you use a really massive dose.

2. Get your craft basd wizard to trap the crap out of were the child is, everything you can think of, magical traps, explosive runes, and fullisade of darts.

3. Get some nets, web's, ropes, chains, whatever you can use to stop that dragon from getting away when it realises whats going on.

4. Run at it and **** it with sticks while it struggles in your net things.

Effectively turn the child sacrifice into a ridiculous huge dose of poison, sitting on top of the biggest semi-magical landmine you can create, with nets on standby to stop it from fleeing.

And yeah, you'll probably take an alignment drop for this.

[ahenobarbi]

Okay, how are they sacrificing children to the dragon?

I didn't get to ask specifics =_= I think they leave the kid bound and let the dragon eat it (or more likely take it away to kill it and let the corpse rot a bit - MM says Black Dragons prefer their meat this way).

So poison probably will not work. But the rest of your ideas is inspiring.

@Gwendol
I'm not going to grapple the dragon. But if Black tentacles or Giatic Croc could do it then the dragon wouldn't move. Bu it has too big grapple modifier to make such an attempt reasonable.

[Krobar]

*Cough* I know the combo but I consider it kind of last-resort. I think it would spoil fun for others.

I get that.

You're looking at around AC 27-29, touch AC around 8-9, 200-250 hp, and SR 18-21.

You'll probably still want to hit him with Assay Resistance right off the bat, so that other magics have a much better chance to affect him. Now your casters can use whatever spells they have that they can use.

Some buffs on the fighter will help (maybe Bulls Strength & Haste), then hope he can whittle those HP down a bit in a couple of rounds. Does your arcane caster have arcane strike? That can help a bit too if he ever melees.

You'll want to protect yourselves from the breath weapons, obviously. And as long as you can hit it often enough you'll probably disrupt any spells it can cast, so that leaves melee - I would go with Stoneskin for everybody.

Finally, hold the Shivering Touch for a last resort, but if you're not beating the **** out of him by the 3rd or 4th round, or it looks like he'll get away, hit him with the Shivering Touch.

[Sudain]

Can you group your spells according to role?

Blocks LoS

Blocks LoE

Movement Enchantment

Damage

Etc...