In summary my next campaign will feature a massive plot by Dragons to regain full dominion over the lesser races. It will be sort of a political thriller where the Dragons are doing their usual thing, walking about in human form and pulling the strings of populations. Going to attempt to have a dragon infiltrate the party as well.
The party will start most likely at level 6 by the time the current campaign is done. So my question is that while obviously at some point they will have to fight a dragon, how many encounters is too many? I am not planning on very much dragon action until midway through but still. How much is too much?
I'm planning on introducing 50 dragons into my world depending on the actions of my players. For your idea, I'd have 10, one for each color respectively. This way they can champion or put down any of the political motives and watch as the alliances form and break. By this, you'd have 10 actors, and you can imply or show that there is a much larger population through other means.
Where I am at now is how to present the Dragon hierarchy, I am leaning towards Ferrous Dragons from older editions where the Iron Dragons main goal is to rule over the lesser races and thus have the other Ferrous dragons, chromium, cobault, tungsten etc at their side with Graughlathor as the BBEG.
I'm debating if I want other types of Dragons involved or if the party does seek them out, for help lets say, they can just be indifferent and no willing to spill precious Dragon blood for mortals.
I guess I want to be able to space out the Dragon encounters to where if the party actually fights them it isn't just a 'Dragon of the week' deal and have every fight feel epic and possibly tpk worthy
Shoot for one dragon encounter at every reasonable level break. So don't have one until level 5ish, then don't have them fight another until around level 9ish. After that, if they fight more that's totally up to you.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
By the time the current campaign is over (provided they don't die) every member will be level 5 or 6 to start this campaign. I know I don't want the Dragons out front, I want it to be a twist after they spend a good deal of time on who they think will be the main villain, while building up a gallery of defeated villains I can use as comebacks anytime.
Plotting it out by level is a really good idea though and I like it a lot. Although my group of 7 players are a bit ballsy and even if I design an encounter to be able to be solved peacefully they will probably egg the dragon into fighting them. I'm still in the process of fleshing out the Dragon NPC's, what their roles in the plot is, and how they would react to the party.
Do remember that your dragons don't have to fight your players, even over a few silly insults. If fighting the party would run counter to the plan the dragons have concocted, then there's no shame in just leaving or making their minions handle their grunt-work.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Heck, don't forget the possibility of a dragon befriending the party, asking them to do a favor, and then the players finding out they just did something terrible.
The hierarchy would probably be akin to the "strongest in rule" concept. With the stronger dragons subjugating the weaker, and it pyramids upward to the pinnacle Dragon. This pinnacle dragon can be either rather intelligent or strong, depending on the theme you want to play.
I also agree with the milestone event approach to the dragon encounters. Treat them like the season finale of a tv show, the episode ends with the battle, and the next arc starts with the results of that battle. Sometimes the players will see an immediate ramification, sometimes it'll be a subtle shift that they won't realize until much later.
I for sure have an Iron Dragon NPC in mind to attempt and infiltrate the party just to backstab them. The Dragons are currently watching the party with their current world altering campaign, ready to step in should the party fail.
I am planning on using Grauglathor for the BBEG because he is supposed to be the supreme ruler of the Ferrous Dragons and a demi god type of sorts. I am just trying to avoid a War of the Dragons type scenario. Although with the logic of the dragons in wanting to rule I could see the party, or some of them being torn between trying to fight the dragons or join them.
My general rule is not as many as the D&D film, since that's too many, but not so few as to have you and the players asking "why are there no dragons in a game called 'dungeons & dragons' ?"
So somewhere between 'a few' and 'several' but not as many as 'a lot'
Sorry that's vague, your mileage and campaign might vary, basically dragons exist and are cool so use them, but don't over use them to the point where they become 'just another dragon'. Each dragon should be unique like a player character.
In summary my next campaign will feature a massive plot by Dragons to regain full dominion over the lesser races. It will be sort of a political thriller where the Dragons are doing their usual thing, walking about in human form and pulling the strings of populations. Going to attempt to have a dragon infiltrate the party as well.
The party will start most likely at level 6 by the time the current campaign is done. So my question is that while obviously at some point they will have to fight a dragon, how many encounters is too many? I am not planning on very much dragon action until midway through but still. How much is too much?
I'm planning on introducing 50 dragons into my world depending on the actions of my players. For your idea, I'd have 10, one for each color respectively. This way they can champion or put down any of the political motives and watch as the alliances form and break. By this, you'd have 10 actors, and you can imply or show that there is a much larger population through other means.
Where I am at now is how to present the Dragon hierarchy, I am leaning towards Ferrous Dragons from older editions where the Iron Dragons main goal is to rule over the lesser races and thus have the other Ferrous dragons, chromium, cobault, tungsten etc at their side with Graughlathor as the BBEG.
I'm debating if I want other types of Dragons involved or if the party does seek them out, for help lets say, they can just be indifferent and no willing to spill precious Dragon blood for mortals.
I guess I want to be able to space out the Dragon encounters to where if the party actually fights them it isn't just a 'Dragon of the week' deal and have every fight feel epic and possibly tpk worthy
Shoot for one dragon encounter at every reasonable level break. So don't have one until level 5ish, then don't have them fight another until around level 9ish. After that, if they fight more that's totally up to you.
By the time the current campaign is over (provided they don't die) every member will be level 5 or 6 to start this campaign. I know I don't want the Dragons out front, I want it to be a twist after they spend a good deal of time on who they think will be the main villain, while building up a gallery of defeated villains I can use as comebacks anytime.
Plotting it out by level is a really good idea though and I like it a lot. Although my group of 7 players are a bit ballsy and even if I design an encounter to be able to be solved peacefully they will probably egg the dragon into fighting them. I'm still in the process of fleshing out the Dragon NPC's, what their roles in the plot is, and how they would react to the party.
Do remember that your dragons don't have to fight your players, even over a few silly insults. If fighting the party would run counter to the plan the dragons have concocted, then there's no shame in just leaving or making their minions handle their grunt-work.
Heck, don't forget the possibility of a dragon befriending the party, asking them to do a favor, and then the players finding out they just did something terrible.
The hierarchy would probably be akin to the "strongest in rule" concept. With the stronger dragons subjugating the weaker, and it pyramids upward to the pinnacle Dragon. This pinnacle dragon can be either rather intelligent or strong, depending on the theme you want to play.
I also agree with the milestone event approach to the dragon encounters. Treat them like the season finale of a tv show, the episode ends with the battle, and the next arc starts with the results of that battle. Sometimes the players will see an immediate ramification, sometimes it'll be a subtle shift that they won't realize until much later.
I for sure have an Iron Dragon NPC in mind to attempt and infiltrate the party just to backstab them. The Dragons are currently watching the party with their current world altering campaign, ready to step in should the party fail.
I am planning on using Grauglathor for the BBEG because he is supposed to be the supreme ruler of the Ferrous Dragons and a demi god type of sorts. I am just trying to avoid a War of the Dragons type scenario. Although with the logic of the dragons in wanting to rule I could see the party, or some of them being torn between trying to fight the dragons or join them.
My general rule is not as many as the D&D film, since that's too many, but not so few as to have you and the players asking "why are there no dragons in a game called 'dungeons & dragons' ?"
So somewhere between 'a few' and 'several' but not as many as 'a lot'
Sorry that's vague, your mileage and campaign might vary, basically dragons exist and are cool so use them, but don't over use them to the point where they become 'just another dragon'. Each dragon should be unique like a player character.
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Hell yeah, I dig it
You should have one for each color for the stronger dragons (Ancient, Adult) and have the young and wyrmlings as minions.
what is "too many dragons" i do not understand these words