I'm planning a Red Dragon Wyrmling's encounter for my 3rd level group. They are 5 including 2 archers and a Bard.
I took inspiration from a homebrew encounter I found in the internetz, but I want your advice as I'm not sure about the balance.
The encounter will be on a bridge over a 40ft high pit, under the pit there are numerous ropes used by the miners so the players can catch themselves. The other side of the bridge is collapsed. There is also 15 feet under the bridge a cave that goes around to another cave on the other side of the pit (To give the team some cover and tactical tool once they manage to get there).
The Wyrmling will be hiding in the shadow, and his tactic will be to flyby, breath and then hide. If provoked he will start shoving the players over the bridge.
I'm still hesitating to give the Wyrmling spellcasting, like 2 first level spells once a day each : Earth Tremor + Shield ? Cause Fear ? Fog Cloud ?
Is this encounter balanced ? Any advice is welcome :)
PS : Most of the party rolled high on their main stats, and have at least a magical item each (either weapon or protection).
You most definitely have the setting done on this one, so well done on that. Regarding the dragon itself, for a party of 5 3rd level characters an encounter between 1125 and 2000 XP is considered Hard; a Red Dragon Wyrmling awards 1100 XP, so with the stats as-is it is right there at the edge of a Hard encounter. I would argue against giving him spells, as in 5ed Dragons do not really have access to much spells (reds especially). Instead, I'd suggest making it a Whyrmling getting closer to younghood, so making it a in-between state between the stats of the two versions.
You could increase all stats but DEX and WIS by 1, effectively giving him a +1 to almost every relevant roll he might make and scaling the breath to 35 damage (10d6) and CD 15. This should put it in between 1500 and 2000 XP, I think (not an expert on giving XP values tbh), so a harder fight, but still not going into deadly territory.
The party also has ranged damage potential, which is really useful against anything that can fly and considering the battlefield.
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I thought about boosting the dragon's stats, but I'm afraid to tip the balance too much on his side. A 35 (10d6) breath will OHKO any character who fails his save except the raging barbarian.
Did you propose this because you think that it will be easy for the party to beat the Wyrmling in this setting? The other PCs are an EK and a Totem Barbarian btw, the later being useless at long range.
I like the idea to present the dragon a little bit older, it may justify his spellcasting (It's a variant rule in the MM, so they can have access to any spell and use CHA as a spellcasting ability).
I thought about boosting the dragon's stats, but I'm afraid to tip the balance too much on his side. A 35 (10d6) breath will OHKO any character who fails his save except the raging barbarian.
You are welcome :) I didn't take into consideration the actual HP max of the party, so yeah, the 35 damage might be a tad too much :P
Did you propose this because you think that it will be easy for the party to beat the Wyrmling in this setting? The other PCs are an EK and a Totem Barbarian btw, the later being useless at long range.
I was under the impression YOU thought they would have an easy time against him, so that' why I proposed to "pimp" him up a bit ^^ The EK could still do some damage to the dragon, even if it stays at a distance, but yeah ,the barbarian is pretty much useless if the enemy is up there.
I like the idea to present the dragon a little bit older, it may justify his spellcasting (It's a variant rule in the MM, so they can have access to any spell and use CHA as a spellcasting ability).
I was genuinely unaware of that optional rule XD In that case yeah, you can definitely go on and give it a couple of spells to make the encounter a little bit more challenging. Earth Tremor seems like a good choice, and if you want to give it a little more protection either Shield or maybe Bless might be good choices.
Thanks again.
You are very welcome :)
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
So funny, I’m planning a session tomorrow for just about the same number in the party and same level. I was thinking of adding two weak wrymlings. Overkill? I don’t want to murder the party.
Ecognomeics as long as you keep the wyrms grounded mostly. Then I would say yes. Maybe look into the wyrms sleeping when the time comes to meet the party. Just so they have a better option to start the fight. Possibly be in a cave that has a low ceiling so the group can get a chance for more damaging attacks.
To give you a feedback, this encounter ended up being one of the most epic fights my players had. We had one PK, but the battle will never be forgotten. Especially the moment where the EK wrestled the Wyrmling in the air then to the ground where both of them took massive damage :D
I kept the Wyrmling's basic stats, but buffed his HP and gave him Shield+Cause fear once a day :)
Hi guys,
I'm planning a Red Dragon Wyrmling's encounter for my 3rd level group. They are 5 including 2 archers and a Bard.
I took inspiration from a homebrew encounter I found in the internetz, but I want your advice as I'm not sure about the balance.
The encounter will be on a bridge over a 40ft high pit, under the pit there are numerous ropes used by the miners so the players can catch themselves. The other side of the bridge is collapsed. There is also 15 feet under the bridge a cave that goes around to another cave on the other side of the pit (To give the team some cover and tactical tool once they manage to get there).
The Wyrmling will be hiding in the shadow, and his tactic will be to flyby, breath and then hide. If provoked he will start shoving the players over the bridge.
I'm still hesitating to give the Wyrmling spellcasting, like 2 first level spells once a day each : Earth Tremor + Shield ? Cause Fear ? Fog Cloud ?
Is this encounter balanced ? Any advice is welcome :)
PS : Most of the party rolled high on their main stats, and have at least a magical item each (either weapon or protection).
Thank you in advance.
D.
Hi Darkruler o/
You most definitely have the setting done on this one, so well done on that.
Regarding the dragon itself, for a party of 5 3rd level characters an encounter between 1125 and 2000 XP is considered Hard; a Red Dragon Wyrmling awards 1100 XP, so with the stats as-is it is right there at the edge of a Hard encounter.
I would argue against giving him spells, as in 5ed Dragons do not really have access to much spells (reds especially). Instead, I'd suggest making it a Whyrmling getting closer to younghood, so making it a in-between state between the stats of the two versions.
You could increase all stats but DEX and WIS by 1, effectively giving him a +1 to almost every relevant roll he might make and scaling the breath to 35 damage (10d6) and CD 15.
This should put it in between 1500 and 2000 XP, I think (not an expert on giving XP values tbh), so a harder fight, but still not going into deadly territory.
The party also has ranged damage potential, which is really useful against anything that can fly and considering the battlefield.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Thanks for the reply LeK.
I thought about boosting the dragon's stats, but I'm afraid to tip the balance too much on his side. A 35 (10d6) breath will OHKO any character who fails his save except the raging barbarian.
Did you propose this because you think that it will be easy for the party to beat the Wyrmling in this setting? The other PCs are an EK and a Totem Barbarian btw, the later being useless at long range.
I like the idea to present the dragon a little bit older, it may justify his spellcasting (It's a variant rule in the MM, so they can have access to any spell and use CHA as a spellcasting ability).
Thanks again.
D.
I didn't take into consideration the actual HP max of the party, so yeah, the 35 damage might be a tad too much :P
The EK could still do some damage to the dragon, even if it stays at a distance, but yeah ,the barbarian is pretty much useless if the enemy is up there.
In that case yeah, you can definitely go on and give it a couple of spells to make the encounter a little bit more challenging. Earth Tremor seems like a good choice, and if you want to give it a little more protection either Shield or maybe Bless might be good choices.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
A little bump. I have my session tomorrow, so any advice is much appreciated :)
So funny, I’m planning a session tomorrow for just about the same number in the party and same level. I was thinking of adding two weak wrymlings. Overkill? I don’t want to murder the party.
Ecognomeics as long as you keep the wyrms grounded mostly. Then I would say yes. Maybe look into the wyrms sleeping when the time comes to meet the party. Just so they have a better option to start the fight. Possibly be in a cave that has a low ceiling so the group can get a chance for more damaging attacks.
To give you a feedback, this encounter ended up being one of the most epic fights my players had. We had one PK, but the battle will never be forgotten. Especially the moment where the EK wrestled the Wyrmling in the air then to the ground where both of them took massive damage :D
I kept the Wyrmling's basic stats, but buffed his HP and gave him Shield+Cause fear once a day :)
Good luck for your encounter Ecognomeics !
Is that 1100-2000 per character?
Amazing. That's some great strategy and RPing there. Do you award inspiration?
Edit: I didn't realize that this was a five-year-old thread.