does this tip the balance?

[big teej]

greetings playgrounders,

two of my players are rolling up new characters (a cleric and a bard, both gnomes)

and they plan on taking dire badgers as mounts, and giving them barding equiviliant to a breastplate for + 8 AC

the rest of the party consists of.....
a Human paladin
a Dwarf Fighter
half-elf ranger - deceased (is now aforementioned cleric)
Human Barbarian
Half - elf ranger - deceased (is now aforementioned bard)
Human Ranger


everyone is level 4 (and I plan for them to hit level 5 before this)

they're hunting a dragon, the dragon is a juvie... I think (don't have my book hand, whatever the CR8 age group is) its blue.

up until I was informed about the badgers, I was convinced this was going to be a TPK or close enough to it that we'd have to retcon a dream sequence.


do the two very angry badgers help tip the balance any?

for those curious, the op level is.... "hyper low" (party druid = less contributing than party fighter)

[Yora]

I don't think they make much of a difference. You allready have a party of 6 and the dire badgers only have 28 hp, AC 16, and deal 1d4+2 damage.
Even if you use them as cannon fodder to occupy the dragon, I think he'll chew through them in 2 or 3 rounds.
If the PCs can't take the dragon on their own, the badgers won't make the difference.

If you don't want the players to be defeated, make the dragon a size smaller.

But I'm actually not so sure it will kill them. The +23 to attack and AC 23 is a bit tough and 8d8 breath weapon is not just a little sting, but thankfully a blue dragon has only a line attack with his breath, so if they spread out he can only hit one of them with his breath instead of half the party. And if they know they are going against a blue dragon, they should try a way to get some lightning protection for their most threatening looking warriors.

[big teej]

I don't think they make much of a difference. You allready have a party of 6 and the dire badgers only have 28 hp, AC 16, and deal 1d4+2 damage.
Even if you use them as cannon fodder to occupy the dragon, I think he'll chew through them in 2 or 3 rounds.
If the PCs can't take the dragon on their own, the badgers won't make the difference.

If you don't want the players to be defeated, make the dragon a size smaller.

But I'm actually not so sure it will kill them. The +23 to attack and AC 23 is a bit tough and 8d8 breath weapon is not just a little sting, but thankfully a blue dragon has only a line attack with his breath, so if they spread out he can only hit one of them with his breath instead of half the party. And if they know they are going against a blue dragon, they should try a way to get some lightning protection for their most threatening looking warriors.

not to sound snarky (because I really don't)
but I did mention that the gnomes plan on putting barding onto the badgers, giving them an effective AC of 24.... wait....

that doesn't sound right
-needs to check numbers-


also, they've been in transit to the mountians for almost 3 weeks (in game) and its a 4 week trip, furthermore, they passed on the opportunity to try and pick up any anti-eletric gear.

and even if they had thought of it, I don't think they had the money for it.

(I realized slightly too late that they were woefully behind wbl, the dragon's hoard is meant to help put them back on track)

[nedz]

It depends upon how competant your players are. A solid experienced group would probably defeat the CR 8 Dragon, inexperienced or unlucky players might not.
This is more important than the OP level.

Ed sp

[Chilingsworth]

If you have a 5th level cleric, then you have access to mass energy resistance (3rd level cleric spell, from spell compendium.) That will give everyone at least alittle electricity reistance. Even if the cleric is only 4th level, then you can give a couple of party members regular energy resistance (2nd level cleric spell,) to protect your important characters.

Also, you said something about "the party druid is out performed by the fighter," but in your character list, I saw no druid mentioned.

In any case, what will tip the balance is the addition of two spellcasters to the party. The dire badgers will be of little consequence in comparision.

[big teej]

If you have a 5th level cleric, then you have access to mass energy resistance (3rd level cleric spell, from spell compendium.) That will give everyone at least alittle electricity reistance. Even if the cleric is only 4th level, then you can give a couple of party members regular energy resistance (2nd level cleric spell,) to protect your important characters.

Also, you said something about "the party druid is out performed by the fighter," but in your character list, I saw no druid mentioned.

In any case, what will tip the balance is the addition of two spellcasters to the party. The dire badgers will be of little consequence in comparision.

we don't have access to the spell compendium
also: the druid thing was me being scatter brained
we DO have a druid, the player and the character however, are on indefinite hiatus, and thus I didn't include them in the list.

however, my example of the op level still stands.

RE: two spellcasters
this may sound cruel and mean, but I honestly am not assuming the bard will contribute at all. given player history.

the cleric I expect to be extremely productive, and, given that the player is intelligent and imaginative, I expect the cleric to start to challenge the groups perception on class power.

[Greenish]

But I'm actually not so sure it will kill them. The +23 to attack

CR 8 blue dragon is a juvenile with "only" +18 to attack.

not to sound snarky (because I really don't)
but I did mention that the gnomes plan on putting barding onto the badgers, giving them an effective AC of 24.... wait....

Dire Badger with a breastplate would have AC 21: 10 + 3 (dex) + 3 (nat) +5 (barding). The dragon will not find them difficult to attack.


I do wonder why you're tossing a CR = APL+3 dragon at a party not quite at the top of their game.