How to Run a Dragon Encounter?

[Gemini Lupus]

Greetings Playgrounders!

So, I was wondering the best way to run a Dragon encounter effectively, with great tension, but still make it so that the PC's have a reasonable chance to win. I know that any Dragon encounter could very easily turn into a TPK, but that's not my purpose here. Nor do I want the Dragon to be a pushover. I want a good, tense fight, that at the end of it the Dragon is slain and the PC's are glad to be alive. So, how do I go about doing this?

Note: This question could be applied more broadly, any advice you have on running encounters with other creatures are welcome. Giants, Displacer Cats, Final Bosses, the Tarrasque, etc...

[ZamielVanWeber]

Have some tactics/coubter to common tactics your PCs uaed prepared aheadbof time. Sragona are normally very intelligent so off the wall tactics are something your PCs should be using.

[WhamBamSam]

What builds do your PCs have? What kind of dragon are they fighting? Does the dragon know they're coming for it?

I wrote a bit on dragon encounters in my Dragon Handbook (link in my sig), and have a few sample encounters in there as well, though those are probably the weaker sections of the guide. The general advice is a little on the obvious side, and the encounters could probably all be optimized a little better. Still, it might be worth a look.