What Items Could Make An Impossible Dragon Fight Easy?

[Malimar]

Okay, so I'm working on a winter-holiday-themed one-shot adventure, which will be my first time seriously running a 5e game (my first time running any D&D at all since getting hit-and-runned by a car last irl Generic Winter Holiday, so, progress), and I'm not anything like as expert in 5e as I was in 3.5e and PF, so I need some pointers.

Level 4 characters. High-level white dragon shows up to a Generic Winter Holiday Eve ball, uses magic to steal everybody's dance mojo (leaving everybody rhythmically uncoordinated when attempting to dance), and flees with it. (She makes sure not to kill anybody on her way out because if you die, your dance mojo ceases to be, even if she already has it stolen and stored.)

At some point in the night, Saint Usla shows up, the Generic Winter Holiday Gift Deliverer, who drives a flying sleigh pulled by perytons and has a preexisting agenda for the dragon not to accomplish what she wants to accomplish but who is limited in her powers and can't do anything about it herself.

Saint Usla can do three things: she conveys clues, she gives party members Generic Winter Holiday gifts, and she flies the party to near the south pole, where the dragon is doing a ritual powered by the stolen mojo.

The party (after fighting, depending on time, a Young Remorhaz and a pack of Worgs led by a Winter Wolf) arrives at an ice palace (if you're picturing Elsa's crystalline edifice from Frozen 1, you're almost exactly correct), within which the dragon is doing a 24-hour ritual which must be finished by the end of Generic Winter Holiday day and cannot be interrupted.

But the busy dragon is guarded by three undead ice priests. If the party fights through the priests, they can probably get one free shot on the dragon. If they break the item the dragon has the mojo stored in, they might free the mojo, but they also might just make the dragon really mad (and also no longer reluctant to kill anybody).

What I need is:

a.) What gifts did Saint Usla bestow upon the party that would make a CR13 dragon an at-most-challenging fight for a level 4 party that gets a free shot on it and that, if they play their cards right, it is initially reluctant to kill?

Every party member for sure gets a Boots of the Winterlands plus one additional gift.

I'm not certain what-all the party is playing. 5 characters, for sure there's a rogue/artificer who focuses on pranks, there's probably a bard and maybe a wizard, don't know about the last two.

If there's somebody tanky, a White Dragon Scale Mail (possibly with an ad-hoc "if you're trying to stack resistance to cold twice, you also get advantage on saves vs cold") has a useful secondary power that would let me have Usla drop the party off not precisely at the ice palace. A Dragon Slayer Weapon seems obvious if there's somebody for physical DPS. I think the rogue/artificer prankster player could probably do wonders with a Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments, though that's not strictly this-goal-related. I don't have any idea what the probably-bard or maybe-wizard get.

b.) What monster are the undead ice priests? I'm inclined towards mummies, but something to lend them some cold flavor would be nice.

[Kurt Kurageous]

So it looks like you proposed an unwinnable fight and now you want us to come up with ways that will make it not just winnable, but very much so. This invites my first response, "Back off, nuke it from orbit, only way to be sure."

My second response. At the end of the day it comes down to HP. You could nerf the dragon to well below average, you could disadvantage its saves (mojo messed them up?) but you have no way of knowing if your characters will be able to win even then.

And your typically experienced players will look at the situation and say, "Raincheck" because they don't believe they can win. If you try to force them, it gets really bad. And if they die after your force, you won't ever be the DM for them again.

My third. Sphere of Annihilation. Scroll of (greater) Banish (a thing that does not exist). Censer of chromatic dragon nerve gas (another thing that does not exist).

These devices/spells with the others I didn't think of all address the need to win without considering HP. And each could win on its own. If all were given to the party, maybe they'd go, "Hmmm...ok. As long as we get to keeps what we finds!" Because they have three good possible outcomes to one bad one.

[No brains]

Are you sure the dragon has to be CR13? That's adult, right? Are you certain a smaller dragon wouldn't work?

You could simulate a smaller dragon by having the dance mojo ritual drain hp from the dragon. That way the players have a reasonable shot at taking it down.

You could also mitigate the deadliness of the dragon's breath weapon by having that be one of things powering the ritual. If the dragon doesn't use it's breath on its macguffin every time its breath comes up, its ritual might fail.

You could make the fight a lot more winnable by keeping the dragon in a room where it can't fly away. Working off that, if you want to make the fight nearly free, you could include a magic item that casts Tiny Hut and have the players use that to plug up the dragon's only way out. You could even use/ mess with the 1 minute casting time, turning the encounter from less of a fight into more of a survival situation until the party's invincible bunker pops up.

Hopefully some of this helps.

[J-H]

Something that grants resistance to fear would be great. Frightful Presence DC 14 or run away is pretty rough for 4th level characters. Non-paladins with save boosters or rerolls (artificer, monk, barbarian, fighter) don't have them online yet.

The breath weapon deals 27 damage resisted on average, with a DC 19 Con save to halve it again.

The bite and claw attacks at +11 have at least a 50% chance of hitting any likely PC, and deal collectively 2d10+4d6+18 damage = 43 damage per round, plus legendary actions (wing for 10 average damage, tail for 15 average damage).

A 4th level barbarian with 16 Constitution has roughly 45 hit points. If the dice favor the barbarian, it can take 2 rounds of damage.
Anyone else dies in one round of full melee attacks.

Ways to debuff a dragon, assuming that it fails its save:
Bestow Curse (3rd level)
Contagion (5th level), Slimy Doom or Filth Fever
Mind Whip (2nd level)
Hideous Laughter (1st level)
Phantasmal Force (2nd level)
Slow (3rd level)

You can put these effects on weapons, shields, etc. For example, the Shield of Good Cheer +2: when hit by a melee attack, the wielder of this shield can use his reaction to cast Hideous Laughter at the attacker, DC 16.

A few hits by these will give the party a good chance, but at that point, it's about the magic items the party was handed, not about how they planned and executed a tough win.

[Segev]

What about Buer Hags from Voldo's Guide? They're not undead, but they're wicked fey spellcasters of a witchy nature. Plus you can use the Coven rules; they'd definitely be into 24 hour rituals involving stealing people's happiness/dancing prowess.

If Boots of the Winterlands give cold resistance, thta's a big step towards making a fight with a CR 13 white dragon livable for level 4 PCs. A dragonslayer sword or bow is a must for at least one of them. If there's any real chance of this fight going outside, one of them will need a carpet of flying or a flying mount or something. I would try to make the fight confined to a cavern with a ceiling low enough to shoot anything under it, though. Restricting the dragon's flight will go a long way to making the fight more winnable, so it can't just strafe from out of reach. Buer hags have broom-of-flying equivalents; you could let those be looted, though it means you have to make sure the PCs can deal with flying hags who also might try to strafe from a safe distance. They're more melee-oriented, though, at least. (And some research will reveal they sometimes un-tactically stop in the middle of a fight to eat a freshly-killed corpse, which might be something the PCs could capitalize on.)

A Necklace of Fireballs may actually be too good, but certainly would deal a lot of damage to cold-themed creatures. Bonus points if it's instead a cheesy sweater with a generic holiday tree with colorful ornaments on it that you can pull off as grenades.

[kaervaak]

Consumables!

Give them all potions of invulnerability, speed, heroism, and giant strength. They get all buffed up and go lay the smack down on that dragon.

[Sigreid]

Stealing from an MMO that doesnt exist anymore, magical pouches that generate snowballs that can be thrown that do significant damage. Maybe something like 6d6 and slow the target. After the adventure, without the magic of the season and the south pole they generate normal snowballs at will, regardless of the time of year or temperature, that instantly evaporate after hitting their target.

[False God]

Answer: Have a small child give the dragon a present because clearly all she wanted was a friend.

At least, that's how every christmas story I've ever read with a Grinch goes.

[Ninja Bear]

A few hits by these will give the party a good chance, but at that point, it's about the magic items the party was handed, not about how they planned and executed a tough win.

Agreed -- that's sort of the issue here. I'd consider using Plot Stuff that the players can participate in in order to weaken it as much or more than I would just handing the players gratuitously powerful magic items (though handing off gratuitously powerful magic items of course wouldn't hurt...).

It might also be helpful to know what the dragon's goal here is in trying to steal everyone's dance mojo. Is it going to perform the dreaded Inverse Dragon Dance to counterspell the Not Chinese New Year festival next month, bringing bad luck all year, and so its cutoff is Generic Winter Holiday because it needs to lock in its dancing level before the shops change over their decor the next day?

Idea: Multi-stage battle, centered around the ritual site (a gigantic set of nine square tiles, all of the ones on the perimeter having outward-facing arrows; "select" and "start" buttons are optional). When the party arrives, the dragon is investing Dance Mojo into the ritual site, causing the arrows to light up in fantastic pink, blue, and green. If the party gets the drop on the dragon, they can get an advantage in the first part of the fight as they try to siphon off additional Dance Power in order to get control of the ritual. For the first part, strictly use a dance fight mechanic without direct HP damage (examples here (https://old.reddit.com/r/RPGcreation/comments/p531f1/dance_battle_engine_looking_for_feedback/), here (https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/d-d-dance-off.847774/) -- I'd base things on CON/DEX/CHA and performance rolls)

Second stage: The dragon, enraged, freezes the entire floor with its frost breath. See: party, on ice! Boots of the Winterlands deploy skates. This is now a figure skating competition; the same mechanics can get used for resolution, but players can do different things.

Third stage: The dragon finally attacks directly, being weakened based on how well the party did in the previous two stages. Players with lots of Dance Momentum can stun and delevel during the fight based on flashy dance moves. Players finally win, dragon busts one last move, says something pithy, then crashes down in the center of the ritual site, leaving the party the kings of the dance floor and saviors of Generic Winter Holiday.

[tKUUNK]

Ulsa might offer them

Arrows of Dragon Slaying...

or... a Sleigh of Dragon Arrowing? Bust in the Ice Palace like the dang A-Team.

Why do I feel like this dragon's stealing Dance Mojo for one of those stupid holiday work parties, just to show off to a potential mate?

[Malimar]

You could simulate a smaller dragon by having the dance mojo ritual drain hp from the dragon. That way the players have a reasonable shot at taking it down.
This is a good plan. I was thinking of chopping the dragon's HP down from normal anyway; having a reason for it is sensible.


You could also mitigate the deadliness of the dragon's breath weapon by having that be one of things powering the ritual. If the dragon doesn't use it's breath on its macguffin every time its breath comes up, its ritual might fail.
Ooooooooooooooooooh, yes!


You could make the fight a lot more winnable by keeping the dragon in a room where it can't fly away. Working off that, if you want to make the fight nearly free, you could include a magic item that casts Tiny Hut and have the players use that to plug up the dragon's only way out. You could even use/ mess with the 1 minute casting time, turning the encounter from less of a fight into more of a survival situation until the party's invincible bunker pops up.
If there's any real chance of this fight going outside, one of them will need a carpet of flying or a flying mount or something. I would try to make the fight confined to a cavern with a ceiling low enough to shoot anything under it, though. Restricting the dragon's flight will go a long way to making the fight more winnable, so it can't just strafe from out of reach. Buer hags have broom-of-flying equivalents; you could let those be looted, though it means you have to make sure the PCs can deal with flying hags who also might try to strafe from a safe distance. They're more melee-oriented, though, at least. (And some research will reveal they sometimes un-tactically stop in the middle of a fight to eat a freshly-killed corpse, which might be something the PCs could capitalize on.)
I think the ice palace is not quite dragon-convenient size (it's not her ice palace, exactly), so I think a low enough ceiling can work. And I think if she can't finish the ritual without being close enough to breath weapon on time, she won't fly away, unless the ritual is irrevocably ruined, in which case she'll still fly away if it seems like the party might be able to kill her. She's smart enough to have lived almost 700 years, she's not going to sit around letting adventurers kill her if running away is an option.


Something that grants resistance to fear would be great. Frightful Presence DC 14 or run away is pretty rough for 4th level characters. Non-paladins with save boosters or rerolls (artificer, monk, barbarian, fighter) don't have them online yet.
This is 100% advice I needed, did not take Frightful Presence into account.


Ways to debuff a dragon, assuming that it fails its save:
Bestow Curse (3rd level)
Contagion (5th level), Slimy Doom or Filth Fever
Mind Whip (2nd level)
Hideous Laughter (1st level)
Phantasmal Force (2nd level)
Slow (3rd level)

You can put these effects on weapons, shields, etc. For example, the Shield of Good Cheer +2: when hit by a melee attack, the wielder of this shield can use his reaction to cast Hideous Laughter at the attacker, DC 16.
Good thinking.


A few hits by these will give the party a good chance, but at that point, it's about the magic items the party was handed, not about how they planned and executed a tough win.
Agreed -- that's sort of the issue here. I'd consider using Plot Stuff that the players can participate in in order to weaken it as much or more than I would just handing the players gratuitously powerful magic items (though handing off gratuitously powerful magic items of course wouldn't hurt...).
True, but I'm ok with it.


What about Buer Hags from Voldo's Guide? They're not undead, but they're wicked fey spellcasters of a witchy nature. Plus you can use the Coven rules; they'd definitely be into 24 hour rituals involving stealing people's happiness/dancing prowess.
I'll investigate this possibility, thanks!


If Boots of the Winterlands give cold resistance, thta's a big step towards making a fight with a CR 13 white dragon livable for level 4 PCs. A dragonslayer sword or bow is a must for at least one of them.
My thoughts exactly.


A Necklace of Fireballs may actually be too good, but certainly would deal a lot of damage to cold-themed creatures. Bonus points if it's instead a cheesy sweater with a generic holiday tree with colorful ornaments on it that you can pull off as grenades.
I like that take on the Necklace of Fireballs.

I wonder what excuse I could use to give the dragon fire vulnerability?


Consumables!

Give them all potions of invulnerability, speed, heroism, and giant strength. They get all buffed up and go lay the smack down on that dragon.
Doesn't seem entirely like the sort of thing Saint Usla would give as a gift, but she happens to leave a stock of potions unattended... if the party is naughty enough to yoink, then they get the potions; if the party is nice enough not to yoink, it turns out to be a secret test of character and they get something even better.


Stealing from an MMO that doesnt exist anymore, magical pouches that generate snowballs that can be thrown that do significant damage. Maybe something like 6d6 and slow the target. After the adventure, without the magic of the season and the south pole they generate normal snowballs at will, regardless of the time of year or temperature, that instantly evaporate after hitting their target.
Hehe, cute. Seems slightly unthematic to use magic snowballs on a cold dragon, but I like it enough that that might be fine.


Answer: Have a small child give the dragon a present because clearly all she wanted was a friend.

At least, that's how every christmas story I've ever read with a Grinch goes.
Oh, yeah, negotiating with the dragon is absolutely on the table.


It might also be helpful to know what the dragon's goal here is in trying to steal everyone's dance mojo. Is it going to perform the dreaded Inverse Dragon Dance to counterspell the Not Chinese New Year festival next month, bringing bad luck all year, and so its cutoff is Generic Winter Holiday because it needs to lock in its dancing level before the shops change over their decor the next day?
Short version: this whole other guy did a permanent global complete flood 600 years ago. Various groups survived the flood (or didn't) in various ways -- gnomes and dwarves got together and built a fleet of submarines, drow up and moved their whole civilization to the Plane of Shadow, mind flayers started ceremophosising tritons instead of humans, etc. Global flood got undone over the past 50 years. It's turning out that the way an ice-dwelling south pole civilization survived was to freeze their whole civilization in a tremendous block of ice. Dragon wants to unfreeze said civilization.

The cutoff is Generic Winter Holiday because Generic Winter Holiday was sacred to the ice guys first (before the sun god laid claim to it as the ostensible birthday of the universe), and ice magic is at its ritual peak on this day.


Idea: Multi-stage battle, centered around the ritual site (a gigantic set of nine square tiles, all of the ones on the perimeter having outward-facing arrows; "select" and "start" buttons are optional). When the party arrives, the dragon is investing Dance Mojo into the ritual site, causing the arrows to light up in fantastic pink, blue, and green. If the party gets the drop on the dragon, they can get an advantage in the first part of the fight as they try to siphon off additional Dance Power in order to get control of the ritual. For the first part, strictly use a dance fight mechanic without direct HP damage (examples here (https://old.reddit.com/r/RPGcreation/comments/p531f1/dance_battle_engine_looking_for_feedback/), here (https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/d-d-dance-off.847774/) -- I'd base things on CON/DEX/CHA and performance rolls)

Second stage: The dragon, enraged, freezes the entire floor with its frost breath. See: party, on ice! Boots of the Winterlands deploy skates. This is now a figure skating competition; the same mechanics can get used for resolution, but players can do different things.

Third stage: The dragon finally attacks directly, being weakened based on how well the party did in the previous two stages. Players with lots of Dance Momentum can stun and delevel during the fight based on flashy dance moves. Players finally win, dragon busts one last move, says something pithy, then crashes down in the center of the ritual site, leaving the party the kings of the dance floor and saviors of Generic Winter Holiday.
My first reaction was ":smallconfused::smallyuk::smallmad: not doing a DDR boss fight", but then I came to realize that, unserious though this suggestion may have been, elements of it might have merit. I'll think about it.

[Segev]

Short version: this whole other guy did a permanent global complete flood 600 years ago. Various groups survived the flood (or didn't) in various ways -- gnomes and dwarves got together and built a fleet of submarines, drow up and moved their whole civilization to the Plane of Shadow, mind flayers started ceremophosising tritons instead of humans, etc. Global flood got undone over the past 50 years. It's turning out that the way an ice-dwelling south pole civilization survived was to freeze their whole civilization in a tremendous block of ice. Dragon wants to unfreeze said civilization.

The cutoff is Generic Winter Holiday because Generic Winter Holiday was sacred to the ice guys first (before the sun god laid claim to it as the ostensible birthday of the universe), and ice magic is at its ritual peak on this day.

So... if the party thwarts her plan, they doom a civilization? Yikes.

[da newt]

Some random thoughts:

The Dragon is very old - so old it has grown weak. The dance mojo is needed to revitalize it - rejuvenate it - etc

If this is a one shot, there is no need to worry about the impacts of giving the PCs crazy OP items, but if these PCs will continue to exist then some sort of consumable, 3 uses only or similar ought to be factored in.

"Dragon wants to unfreeze said civilization." - taken at face value this statement would make the dragon the good guy - or is this an explicitly evil civilization so corrupted that every single member of the settlement deserves to be frozen forever?

Ulsa could allow each PC to borrow a Pteryton mount. Each PC gets a holiday cookie that contains a Heal spell.

Why are your PCs level 4? Maybe allow them to be an appropriate level for the challenge you have planned?

[Gtdead]

Make the Dragon of the Green variety and rule that the food gives the benefits of Heroes' Feast. That should help with the Dragon fight, although the physical damage is still going to be high.

[Malimar]

So... if the party thwarts her plan, they doom a civilization? Yikes.

"Dragon wants to unfreeze said civilization." - taken at face value this statement would make the dragon the good guy - or is this an explicitly evil civilization so corrupted that every single member of the settlement deserves to be frozen forever?
The frozen civilzation trends evil, yes, but not every frozen person is evil, right. Wouldn't be a Malimar game without your recommended daily dose of moral ambiguity! Which, yes, is not a traditional Generic Winter Holiday thing, but the party finding a way to get the dragon what she wants while still getting their dance mojo back would be best-case scenario, yes.


If this is a one shot, there is no need to worry about the impacts of giving the PCs crazy OP items, but if these PCs will continue to exist then some sort of consumable, 3 uses only or similar ought to be factored in.
Freedom to monty haul is one of the benefits of doing it as a one-shot, yes.


Ulsa could allow each PC to borrow a Pteryton mount. Each PC gets a holiday cookie that contains a Heal spell.
Hmm, perhaps.


Why are your PCs level 4? Maybe allow them to be an appropriate level for the challenge you have planned?
I guess I neglected to mention the holiday ball at the beginning is at a school. They're teenagers, students. 4 is already generous.


Make the Dragon of the Green variety and rule that the food gives the benefits of Heroes' Feast. That should help with the Dragon fight, although the physical damage is still going to be high.
Making the food at the ball count as a Heroes' Feast under Usla's blessing is a good notion, that helps with the fear issue.

[Derges]

I wouldn't put a party of level 4s up against a cr13. Even if you stack the deck enough with magic items so they mitigate the chances of getting one shot it won't feel like they've done anything.

Instead, I'd look at either an alternate creature of appropriate CR skinned as a dragon or using scaling to lower the dragon you want to a reasonable level (this can still be deadly+ to enable high powered items just not stupid). I'm unsure of the rules here so I'll be careful but a certain tools site that deals with 5e has inbuilt monster scaling in its bestiary.

[Lord Vukodlak]

A wand that can cast irresistible dance, because the dragon stole everyone’s mojo it gets no save and the duration is permanent.
So the dragon can either dance it’s self to death or return everyone’s mojo.

[ATHATH]

If this is a one-shot and you want to use high CR enemies like mummies, bheur hags, and white dragons... Why not just increase the level that the part will start the one-shot at? Is there any particular reason you need to start at 4th level?

[Malimar]

If this is a one-shot and you want to use high CR enemies like mummies, bheur hags, and white dragons... Why not just increase the level that the part will start the one-shot at? Is there any particular reason you need to start at 4th level?
I guess I didn't mention that the Generic Winter Holiday Eve ball takes place at a school. The characters are students, teenagers. 4 is already generous.

(Especially for this setting, where under 3.5/PF I operated under rules derived from "Calibrating Your Expectations", limiting starting characters to 5 if they're already highly experienced adventurers -- rules which I have discarded because by my analysis 5e is, or at least is intended to be, a generally lower-powered, slower-progression system than 3.5/PF.)

[Segev]

If this is a one-shot and you want to use high CR enemies like mummies, bheur hags, and white dragons... Why not just increase the level that the part will start the one-shot at? Is there any particular reason you need to start at 4th level?

It sounds like "low level, but with items to make up for it" is part of the theme/fun for this adventure, in Malimar's mind.

If you want the moral ambiguity to be a real thing for the game, you should make sure to have ways for the party to learn what the dragon is up to and why, long enough before the climax that they have some reasonable chance to come up with possible solutions.

[Malimar]

It sounds like "low level, but with items to make up for it" is part of the theme/fun for this adventure, in Malimar's mind.
Yes, absolutely, that too.


If you want the moral ambiguity to be a real thing for the game, you should make sure to have ways for the party to learn what the dragon is up to and why, long enough before the climax that they have some reasonable chance to come up with possible solutions.
Very good point.

EDIT: Which probably means I need to have an alternate power source available on hand to power the unfreezing ritual so the mojo can be released. (Although "just let her consume our mojo" is an available option, I guess.) One that an adult white dragon wouldn't be able to access but five teenagers would. Gotta be something locked behind diplomacy, probably.

[Segev]

EDIT: Which probably means I need to have an alternate power source available on hand to power the unfreezing ritual so the mojo can be released. (Although "just let her consume our mojo" is an available option, I guess.) One that an adult white dragon wouldn't be able to access but five teenagers would. Gotta be something locked behind diplomacy, probably.

You've got an ice dragon and three undead or ice hags, all of which are probably pretty cold-hearted. The ice dragon's efforts to save this civilization may be the last dregs of kindness and positive memories she's got. But she's probably pretty bitter. Bitter cold, too.

Maybe some teens have something heartwarming that can thaw things out. If you can develop some relationships of the PCs with the NPC teens and teachers, maybe create some tension that's extant between them and some of the NPCs that is sad due to a happier past of friendship or family, you can arrange a few instances and "Generic Holiday Spirit" lessons. Don't be too heavy-handed about it, but put the opportunities there if they want to embrace it. Have the hags, if you use them, be utterly revolted by that kind of thing, but give the kids some history on the hags that could point to something they would cherish or protect, and defeating them CAN be done, perhaps, by the right act of heartwarming kindness, literally melting her heart.

Something similar done for the dragon might let the dragon have the heat mojo to melt the ice, herself, without the dance mojo.



Alternatively, moving the whole dance to the site might let the collected teens dance away the ice without losing their mojo.

[Sigreid]

Got another goofy idea for you. Toy soldiers that will only let them beat the dragon if they have a decent strategy. i.e. they have to arrange and command their troops for the battle.

[KorvinStarmast]

Something that grants resistance to fear would be great.

Heroes' feast.

[Eurus]

Having the stolen mojo debuff the dragon sounds very funny. My first thought is that the dragon has so much mojo that they can only battle by dance-fighting...

[Sigreid]

I don't know. Whatever you wind up doing, I think it needs to end with the Dragon learning the real meaning of the season and the real victory being the friends we made along the way.

[Forevaxp]

If I remember correctly, the Wyrm rune from SKT is pretty potent against dragons

[Malimar]

We're looking at PCs are a prankster rogue/artificer, college of glamour bard, wizard, druid, and ???. Any specifically caster-focused items that would make sense here?


You've got an ice dragon and three undead or ice hags, all of which are probably pretty cold-hearted. The ice dragon's efforts to save this civilization may be the last dregs of kindness and positive memories she's got. But she's probably pretty bitter. Bitter cold, too.

Maybe some teens have something heartwarming that can thaw things out. If you can develop some relationships of the PCs with the NPC teens and teachers, maybe create some tension that's extant between them and some of the NPCs that is sad due to a happier past of friendship or family, you can arrange a few instances and "Generic Holiday Spirit" lessons. Don't be too heavy-handed about it, but put the opportunities there if they want to embrace it. Have the hags, if you use them, be utterly revolted by that kind of thing, but give the kids some history on the hags that could point to something they would cherish or protect, and defeating them CAN be done, perhaps, by the right act of heartwarming kindness, literally melting her heart.

Something similar done for the dragon might let the dragon have the heat mojo to melt the ice, herself, without the dance mojo.

Alternatively, moving the whole dance to the site might let the collected teens dance away the ice without losing their mojo.
This would all be perfect for the traditional seasonal media pastiche I'm kind of going for. It might be a little hard for me personally (not being good at emotions) to get meaningful enough RP in within the limited time of a one-shot. But I can throw together a few personality traits for a couple classmates. I've got one I know is a bard, they could be dance-focused and heartbroken to lose their mojo.

I'll try to make it subtle but clear to the PCs that they can go either the traditional D&D violence route or the traditional Winter Holiday media heartwarming route and either way is equally fine with me.


Got another goofy idea for you. Toy soldiers that will only let them beat the dragon if they have a decent strategy. i.e. they have to arrange and command their troops for the battle.
Oooh, cute. I don't know if I can slide that in here, but I need to make a note of it in case I run another Generic Winter Holiday one-shot next year.


Heroes' feast.
I liked the suggestion somebody had upthread that the hors d'ouvres at the Ball count retroactively as a Heroes' Feast with Usla's blessing.


If I remember correctly, the Wyrm rune from SKT is pretty potent against dragons
Ooh, nice find. Especially if I make the call that stacking resistance to thing + resistance to thing = resistance to thing + advantage on saves vs thing.

[Kane0]

Party member 1: wand of heightened earthbind

Party member 2: amulet of warding wind (protects self and those within 5' of clouds and breath attacks at the cost of being deafened while active)

Party member 3: quiver of dragonslaying arrows

Party member 4: something to help the dragonslaying arrow-user land their shots, like a melee weapon that can grant advantage to hit on a target struck (with a number of charges)

Party membet 5: handful of 'grenades' that effectively cast slow on targets within area when thrown (one dragon attack per turn is much more survivable)

Party member 6: bonded rings of friendship. As long as the wearers of the two rings can see each other they have advantage on saves vs fear (counters fright pres but not on everyone)

[Malimar]

It went adequately! (https://luduscarcerum.blogspot.com/2021/12/how-dragon-stole-driftmas.html)

I had previously assessed CR as being wonky in 5e, based on having played a few 5e campaigns but never DMed it, but I didn't trust that assessment and instead trusted the CR system to work as advertised -- but turns out I was right, a level 4 party has decent odds against a CR13 fight even without the deck stacked in their favor: the party came perilously close to defeating the dragon the first time she showed up, without Saint Usla's gifts (but with the dragon being careful not to kill anybody because if you kill somebody their dance mojo also dies, and she needed all the mojo). With the gifts, the fight was a cakewalk, which was working as intended.

[Segev]

Yeah, what would make it difficult is the ease the dragon would have KOing PCs of 4th level. If she's being careful not to, that makes it a lot less challenging for the PCs.