Anti-Dragon Tactics for Wizard

[Laserlight]

I'm running a L1 cleric / L9 divination wizard, mainly support and control spells. Next session we'll go attack a blue dragon in its lair. We've had a chance to research dragons, so we're not blundering in with no idea what to expect. My wizard has higher INT than I do, so I figured I'd tap the Playground: what spells (up to L5) and tactics should I prepare for fighting a dragon?

Our party is a bearbarian (with a dragonslayer sword), draconic fire sorc, assassin, archer ranger, and me, plus five NPC fighters. Potions of Growth are available, but we're in the desert, so no opportunity to buy supplies.

[A Fat Dragon]

If you anticipate that it’s going to be flying a lot, get some of the spells that counter flight. If you’re going to have some defensive abilities, lightning-damage defense would be good. Same with melee attacks, and since a dragon doesn’t have a “ranged” attack, spells like Warding Wind won’t be helpful.

Avoid lightning damage spells, but any other element is typically fine. Just focus on having high-damage, and make sure to Target the dragons weakest stats. It has high Charisma and High Dex If I remember, so Constitution, Intelligence, Strength, and Wisdom are good spells to have, but even still, dragons have typically pretty good stats.

Keep as far away from it as you can, as it has the breath weapon for its only ranged attack, and it’s on a cool down. Once it uses its breath attack, focus more on damage versus defense. If it hasn’t used it yet, focus more on control and defense than damage.

[Blood of Gaea]

Fly would be a big help, especially to your Barbarian. As your party seems very heavy on the damage dealing, and you'll probably be fighting a Dragon with legendary saves, I'd go for mostly damage spells over save-or-suck spells. Defensive spells like a wall could also come in handy, they can provide cover from breath attacks.

[bc56]

Is earthbind a wizard spell? If so, use it. Flying monsters are pains in the butt.

[Aett_Thorn]

Is earthbind a wizard spell? If so, use it. Flying monsters are pains in the butt.

Earthbind is a Str save, and dragons usually have pretty good Str save values. It's a great spell if you can get it to stick, though.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Unfortunately, buffs got hardcore nerfed in 5e, so Protection from Elements is essentially useless, it only affects a single target, touch only, and is Concentration.

You can take a stab at Bigby's Hand (Grasping). It can grapple up to Huge targets, so it should work, has an effective strength of 26 (so it actually has a chance of landing a grapple), and you can't fly while you are being grappled, so it keeps it where the Barbarian can try to take swings at it.

Failing that, whatever support you normally use in combat like Bless. Heroism might be a really good choice to make your party immune to the Fear effect from the Fearful Presence. Check with the GM to see if lightning breath counts as a magical effect, if so Circle of Power might really help mitigate that breath's effect.

Your other problem is that a Blue Dragon has Legendary Resistance, so you can't use Save or Lose effects because even if you get it to land, it can just decide to succeed three times a day. So don't try that, focus on party defense.

Blue Dragon has really high damage output, so be ready for the big heals. You might need to maintain Beacon of Hope for maximized heals to combo with Mass Cure Wounds followed up by a Healing Word on someone who is really hurting.

[MaxWilson]

I'm running a L1 cleric / L9 divination wizard, mainly support and control spells. Next session we'll go attack a blue dragon in its lair. We've had a chance to research dragons, so we're not blundering in with no idea what to expect. My wizard has higher INT than I do, so I figured I'd tap the Playground: what spells (up to L5) and tactics should I prepare for fighting a dragon?

Our party is a bearbarian (with a dragonslayer sword), draconic fire sorc, assassin, archer ranger, and me, plus five NPC fighters. Potions of Growth are available, but we're in the desert, so no opportunity to buy supplies.

Well, what spells do you have in your spellbook? It's not much good advising you to prepare Conjure Elemental and Wall of Force if you actually only know Banishment and Bigby's Hand.

Tell us what you've got and we can maybe advise ways to make you more effective.

[Temperjoke]

Another thought is to take lower level spells that can burn up it's legendary resistances, like Infestation from the XGtE book. Burn up it's guaranteed resistances, then hit it with harder spells that it can't guarantee to resist. Otherwise, your job is probably going to be healing and providing cover as best as you can. Polymorph might be good to take, it can give you more options to fight against the dragon by changing one of your teammates, or yourself for that matter.

[EvilAnagram]

Another thought is to take lower level spells that can burn up it's legendary resistances, like Infestation from the XGtE book. Burn up it's guaranteed resistances, then hit it with harder spells that it can't guarantee to resist. Otherwise, your job is probably going to be healing and providing cover as best as you can. Polymorph might be good to take, it can give you more options to fight against the dragon by changing one of your teammates, or yourself for that matter.

Going off of this, Tasha's Hideous Laughter is level 1, will knock them prone, and it hits a Wisdom save.

[Laserlight]

Is earthbind a wizard spell? If so, use it. Flying monsters are pains in the butt.

Good idea. It'll probably bounce off Legendary Resistance but it's only an L2 slot. And the range is 300ft, which makes my fragile little gnome happy.

[Laserlight]

Well, what spells do you have in your spellbook? It's not much good advising you to prepare Conjure Elemental and Wall of Force if you actually only know Banishment and Bigby's Hand.

Tell us what you've got and we can maybe advise ways to make you more effective.

I just leveled up so I get two spells, which haven't been selected. I also just, ah, inherited a spellbook from a wizard who was capable of L9 spells; I don't know the contents but I gather there's quite a few in there.

[Osrogue]

Confusion can ground dragons and negate their turn, but it is dependent on the RNG gods.

[Deathtongue]

If you trust in your party's ability to catch up to the dragon to do damage, use Ray of Enfeeblement repeatedly. It's a concentration spell, so unfortunately you can't use it with other buffs, but it will give you a huge amount of breathing room even if it keeps doing Legendary Saves. The only downside is that dragons have pretty high ACs, so you only have about a 50/50 chance of making the ranged spell attack without assistance. If you're thinking about using Familiars/Tiny Servants/bought griffons/etc. for the Assist action, now's the time to use it.

If your party is melee-heavy and you're not fighting in a confined space, you're going to want to pack an upcasted Fly or three if they don't have that covered. Try to get it on before combat starts. You'll probably end up losing concentration on it after/if you get breathed on, so keep a healthy distance away from the other targets, preferably making it so that the dragon can only target you with a breath. But don't get too far away in case you need to re-cast it. Absorb Elements is a must, even if you have to cast it out of a higher-level slot.

If it looks like someone is about to drop out of the fight (and it's not you), target them with a Polymorph if you think it's okay to drop Fly. Giant Ape is preferred since they can still attack from the backlines with very decent damage while still having enough of a HP stack to stand up.

Dragons uniformly have awful intelligence saves (and checks) for how strong they are for their CR. If you're able to drain their Legendary Saves through some other method (monk's stunning strike, Sleet Storm, non-PHB poisoned weapons, etc.) a Phantasmal Force or Enemies Abound or Synaptic Static can push you to victory.

Damage is king in 5E D&D, especially against monsters with Legendary Saves, so your job is to enable the frontline to do the mega-damage they need to do to achieve victory. A properly built Barbarian or Paladin 8-10 can two-shot a young dragon if they have Haste up.

This means that if someone in the party goes down, so long as the rest of the party is able to still damage the dragon it's preferable for you to bite it than anyone else in the party unless your wizard is specced for dealing damage -- and I'm assuming a Diviner Wizard isn't. Sorry, it is how it is.

[Jaelommiss]

I'm going to outline what I, as a DM, see as the relevant information in the Adult Blue Dragon's stat block and how I'd run it if I were your DM. Blue dragons have a burrow speed (30 ft. for adults). They typically live in deserts, so it's almost certain that it will have abundant sand to burrow through. They are also massively intelligent (16 Int) and have hundreds of years of experience dealing with pesky monkeys with delusions of grandeur. It is smart enough to know that no one would challenge a dragon unless they thought they could win, so expect it to take you seriously from the start. The MM states that "blue dragons covet valuable and talented creatures whose service reinforces their sense of superiority." Expect many servants, some of whom will be magically active and rival your own power.

First and foremost, we need to understand the dragon's goals. Top priority is preserving its own life. It will abandon its hoard and lair and minions to achieve this. It also won't engage you without at least two prepared escape routes. Second is maintaining its hoard and lair. It might actually let you steal its three hundred pounds of coin if only because it makes you easy to run down in the desert. It could bury its wealth miles away from its lair if it wants to be cautious. Third, it will probably want to punish you for daring to invade its land and thinking yourselves its equal. Fourth is maintaining its followers, because good labour is hard to find.

It's almost certainly going to know that you are moving through its desert. It will have seen you from the skies while hunting, smelled your sweat on the wind or its underlings will have reported on you. Expect it to send out some of its most trusted servants to find out who you are and what you want. You might be able to convince them that you are there to offer tribute, but keep in mind that this dragon is experienced. Someone has tried this deception before, and there is a plan in place to weaken you before you meet the dragon. Most likely you will be disarmed or will meet the dragon individually. The dragon will probably pull all of his minions back to his lair as soon as he hears that a heavily armed band is approaching. The envoy sent to meet you will most likely take you on a long, circuitous route back to the lair to buy time to prepare defenses.

Let's say you butcher the envoy. There is a good chance that either someone is watching from a distance or one of them will get off a Sending spell before dying. The dragon will know you are coming and have time to prepare. The entrances to the lair are likely hidden, other than one or two trapped passages that are in clear view. I expect that they would be dead ends that are designed to cave in (possibly activated by the dragon's followers after they see you enter). Being crushed under dozens of tonnes of sand is almost as embarrassing an end for an adventurer as slowly suffocating in a sealed cave. Digging back out will be a chore and probably leave you Exhausted. The dragon might be waiting for you there and fire its breath weapon through the narrow exit you have dug, catching several of the party all at once. It also might try to collapse your tunnel on you. Worse, the dragon could burrow to the closest of you while you are buried, butcher you while you are separated from your allies by several feet of sand, and move down the line to take you out one by one. If it leaves you half buried while it does this your melee types won't even have the option to fight back while it attacks with its reach. If it's any consolation, those furthest from the dragon might have suffocated before it can shred them.

Let's say you avoid those traps and manage to find a real entrance.

Depending on the size and harshness of the desert, you might have pack animals and wagons for water and supplies. Expect them to be pillaged and destroyed after you enter the lair. The dragon (who has moved his wealth by now) could simply evacuate the lair and wait for the harsh desert to claim you. Having a level of cleric lets you deal with water, but I highly doubt that the ranger will be comfortable venturing off by himself to go hunting. Bringing a band of ten people hunting it almost certain to scare off the already sparse wildlife. No matter how much food you have, it is still a limited resource without either a druid or a level five cleric. If the dragon just wait for a while you will need to retreat. Referring back to the dragon's goals, this 1) preserves its life, 2) protects its hoard, and 4) maintains its followers. Getting revenge on you would be nice, but it's not necessary.

If you stay, the dragon is going to conduct some reconnaissance sorties. It will fly out from its backup lair to observe you. If you split up during the day, it will attack the weaker group. If you don't have enough people keeping watch at night, it will strike. It will probably dance around at the edge of your archer's range to bait you into wasting ammo. At night it might burrow up under you, grapple someone who is still asleep, and burrow back down with them. I highly doubt that any of you can take a dragon 1v1 while half asleep and buried in sand.

Let's say that somehow you catch the dragon in its lair.

First, it will have pulled its minions back to it. Don't expect to face six manageable chunks of enemies in waves with a pair of one hour rest breaks interspersed. The dragon knows that it is stronger with all of its allies together, and will bring them all back to a place that they have enough space to all engage you at once. There will be a single entryway from the rest of the lair, and cover (pillars, furniture, etc.) will have been set up. It's impossible to know what your DM will be using for servants, so I can't comment on what sort of strategy to expect from them. Don't expect this to be a balanced fight. Mostly likely an entire adventuring day's worth of enemies will be presented all at once. If any of its followers are able to, the dragon will have it cast Detect Magic when you appear. It will tell its allies what magical capabilities it detected on your party, and they will react accordingly. If you seem to have prebuffed or have enough magic to be threatening, the entire group will fall back to a second location. The dragon will collapse the tunnel behind its followers to buy them time before taking an alternate route (probably a passage higher up in the chamber that will be hard to climb to). The secondary location will be prepared similarly to the first. There is a reasonable chance that the dragon will smell its dead kin on the barbarian's Dragonslayer, so we can expect the dragon to do everything possible to either avoid or kill him.

When the fighting starts, the dragon will play to its strengths. Expect it to open up with a Frightening Presence. A DC 17 Wisdom save that imposes disadvantge on attacks and stops people from getting closer is brutal if it keeps you stuck in the tunnel that led you here. Later on it will shoot lightning over its allies' heads from a raised balcony at the start of the fight. If it fails to recharge its breath weapon, it will swoop down to the area that its allies are BEST handling the fight and focus its entire multiattack on dropping and outright slaying one character. It will use the remainder of its movement to get out of melee reach, likely heading to another balcony if possible. It will actively command its men as it sees fit. If one of your spellcasters is being a nuisance, it will direct force towards them to either break concentration and prevent healing. It will then confirm the kill, or at least command its followers to do so. The dragon will try to avoid exposing itself to serious harm while it has allies.

If all of the dragon's allies are slain, it will assess the battlefield and either fall back or engage you directly. If it falls back, it'll take a short rest and come hunting for you. In either case, it will not engage you directly. It will make heavy use of its burrow speed. At the start of its turn it will surface, then use either multiattack or a breath weapon, and then burrow back down. The entire floor of its lair will be sandy to enable to tactic. If it notices that the party has buffed (barbarian rage, cleric bless, etc.), it will pull back for a few minutes to allow your buffs to expire. As with its nighttime ambushes, it will likely grapple an individual and drag them down into the ground to fight them alone. If you still have the dragonslayer (this will be a priority for it), expect it to stay underground until its breath weapon recharges and only surface at a distance. Even when it gives you breaks between assaults, do not expect to get enough time to take any sort of rest unless you can cast Rope Trick.

By the end of this, there is a very significant chance that the party will be dragon chow. It can utilize unconventional tactics that are extremely difficult to counter. It breaks many of the conventions of D&D combat. It is underhanded, and will use any opportunity you give it. It will slay downed characters to ensure that they stay down. It is smart and experienced enough to recognize almost anything your try to do. Worst of all, it is fighting on its home turf. This is an area designed for conflict and defense no less that a medieval castle. It's a home, but it's a home that houses enough wealth to create a nation.



I know that you asked for advice with spell selection. Unfortunately, I don't know what spells you have or how your party fights. Hopefully you will be able to figure out what works best now that you understand some of the problems you will need to overcome.

[Specter]

- Do your best not to be in a line. The best strategy is probably to try to surround the dragon.
- Anyone who doesn't need to be in melee shouldn't. The dragon can kill any frail character in one turn, with or without legendary actions.
- If the ranger has Protection from Energy, he should use it on you and you should use it on him. Assassin has evasion and the others will take damage more happily.
- Stay close to the Paladin until the dragon uses his Frightening Presence.

[Angelalex242]

Fun reminder: A dragon's breath weapon is a /con/ save. Not a dex save. Evasion does nobody any good in a dragon fight.

As for how I fight dragons?

Well, I'm in the junior Dragonlance game, and we've got a Silver Dragon on our team. Amazing how much that evens the playing field, even if the Blue is older.

[EvilAnagram]

Fun reminder: A dragon's breath weapon is a /con/ save. Not a dex save. Evasion does nobody any good in a dragon fight.

As for how I fight dragons?

Well, I'm in the junior Dragonlance game, and we've got a Silver Dragon on our team. Amazing how much that evens the playing field, even if the Blue is older.

This is not true. Different dragons have different saves for their breath. Fire, acid, and the lightning breaths are usually Dexterity. Poison and cold are Constitution.

[Laserlight]

- Stay close to the Paladin until the dragon uses his Frightening Presence.

If we had a paladin, this would be good. Since we don't, I don't have any great ideas of what to do about Frightening Presence.

We do have some NPCs along, and I don't know what their abilities are.
The NPCs are Hekaton and his four guards, and the dragon is who you would expect it to be if you've been through SKT

[Specter]

If we had a paladin, this would be good. Since we don't, I don't have any great ideas of what to do about Frightening Presence.

We do have some NPCs along, and I don't know what their abilities are.
The NPCs are Hekaton and his four guards, and the dragon is who you would expect it to be if you've been through SKT

Man, I totally misread ya.