E6 3.X - How To Slay Your Dragon

[CreganTur]

I'm going to be running an E6 game soon. The ultimate goal in the 2nd act is for the heroes to be faced with the task of dealing with an Adult Red Dragon (CR 14).

Part of my plan is to drop in some very special items that they will ultimately be able to use to defeat the dragon. In this case defeat either means
1) find a way to actually kill it
2) drive it off so it will never come back

I know my players are going to prefer the idea of killing it.

My main big idea is providing the team with some higher level spells that can be cast using the ritual magic rules. There will be a number of magic wielding NPCs they can call on for help (most will be lower than 6th level, though).

What spells would be good for a fight like this?

The mythic version of Enervate from Pathfinder looks like an intriguing idea. I could also beef it up with a metamagic feat or two so it packs a bigger punch.

What other suggestions can you guys offer?

[AvatarVecna]

If you can find some decent Fort save debuffs, this is basically the idea behind Slaying Arrows. My basic idea is using a Spell-Storing Arrow (storing Bestow Curse), then using True Strike to make sure it hits. Then, use True Strike to make sure that your Greater Slaying Arrow hits, and it could be done.

Alternatively, a Ranger who's a dragon-slayer can launch a few volleys of +1 Dragonbane Cold arrows from their +1 Composite Longbow of Force; if they've got Rapid Shot, Knowledge Devotion, Collector of Stories, Improved Critical, and so on will make this all much easier.

[gorfnab]

What spells would be good for a fight like this?

Spectral Hand + Shivering Touch (Frostburn) should take care of the Adult Red Dragon.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Spectral Hand + Shivering Touch (Frostburn) should take care of the Adult Red Dragon.

Depending on how far into the endless 6th level they've been, might even be able to afford a lesser metamagic rod of empower to make almost certain the shivering touch does the job.

Beyond that, maybe some figments of the party to flush out the dragon (if they have to fight it in its lair) and get it to waste its breath weapon, then rush in and get the shivering touch off before the breath weapon re-charges.

A 6th level druid or cleric can give mass energy resist (fire) to the party, but it won't be enough to survive still (with a +1 CL buff from....somewhere and a really good turn check for +4 levels on Divine Spell Power, a cleric has a teensy chance of giving fire resist 30 by achieving CL 11...unlikely, though...and still probably not enough).

EDIT: I just realized, shivering touch is a cold spell, and does dex damage, which means...ARGUABLY....


Fire Subtype

A creature with the fire subtype has immunity to fire. It has vulnerability to cold, which means it takes half again as much (+50%) damage as normal from cold, regardless of whether a saving throw is allowed, or if the save is a success or failure.

<Pokemon announcer>It's super-effective!</Pokemon announcer>

Kind of a blatant cheesing of the rules (as is using Shivering Touch at all), but....when a level 6 party has to fight a CR 14 dragon (so probably more like CR 15 in reality -- dragons are intentionally under-CR'd)...the gloves come off.

(I know DM is willing to give them high level spell items, but it's WAY more fun to figure out how they can actually beat it w/ level 3 and lower spells)

[Seerow]

I think the harder part is going to be surviving the dragon. Unless you are alpha striking the dragon in the surprise round, he's going to get a turn, and that turn is going to result in half the party dead unless you're prepared.


A high CL resist energy is a no-brainer, though hard to get ahold of depending on specific game rules. If that's not available, a protection from energy is good to start with to absorb the first breath weapon.

Besides that, you're straight up not getting enough AC to make a CR14 dragon miss unless these characters are swimming in gold. So they're going to need some form of miss chance. Blink, Blur, Displacement, and Mirror Image are all low level buff spells that will make it harder for the Dragon to hit you with his melee attacks. They're generally a good idea, but when fighting something that can power attack for 15-20 and still have no chance of missing you with 7 attacks per round, it is practically mandatory.

Besides that, the players are also likely going to come out ahead spreading out and keeping mobile to keep the dragon from getting full attacks if at all possible.



For actually killing the Dragon, others have made good suggestions. You generally want to be relying on touch attacks (and hope the Dragon doesn't use his casting for Scintillating Scales or whatever it is that turns his natural armor into touch AC), and Shivering Touch is the go-to attack for anything not immune to cold.

[Taelas]

It has the [cold] descriptor, but it doesn't do cold damage. As you noted, it does Dex damage. So there's no way to interpret the rules in that manner.