For a game called 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons, there sure aren't nearly as many dragons as a new player might expect. However, there's a pretty good reason for this: dragons are incredibly deadly. Granted, releases like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fizban's Treasury of Dragons have introduced a number of dragon-related stat blocks that lower level PCs (player characters) and players can reasona🎃bly interact with.
That being said, the original dragons found in the Monster Manual are more likely to lead to a TPK (total party kill) than 95 percent of other monsters. This is due to the combination of a dragon's party-wide debuff called frightful presence, flying speed, and devastating breath weapon that can wipe out a whole group of adventurers in one go if they're unlucky. Consequently, it's a good idea to have a game plan if you're looking at facing down any dragons. Here are a few tips that might just let you encounter a dragon without forfeiting your character's life.
6 Be Humble
The first thing to know about dragons is that they're supremely arrogant. After all, they are some of the most powerful creatures in all of creation. Fully grown dragons are capable of bringing entire civilizations to heel, so they're likely to regard a party of adventurers as nothing more than meddling insects if you're lucky, or a fortuitous snack if you're not.
Considering all of this, the first step of surviving a dragon encounter is by avoiding combat in the first place. Play to the dragon's pride by calling it grand names, regaling it with tales of its majesty, or offering it a prize of gold or magic items to add to its unmatched hoard. Dragons are intelligent creatures that can find a use for a party of adventurers, so it's a good idea to convince the dragon of your usefulness before it decides your character is best used as a hot meal.
5 Don't Group Together
The primary strength of dragons is their AoE (area of effect) breath weapon attack which triggers characters caught by it to make a Dexterity saving throw or take heavy elemental damage of the dragon's type. This damage is reduced by half on a successful save, but taking half damage will still amount to you missing a large amount of your hit points. As a result, an entire party that gets caught in a dragon's breath weapon has a slim chance of victory even if they all save.
The only true way to beat a dragon's breath weapon is by preventing the dragon from catching the whole party with it. While it's normally important to not split the party in virtually all situations, fighting dragons is one of few encounters where this isn't the case. It's also worth mentioning that features such as evasion on Rogues as well as spells like Absorb Elements can be incredibly helpful for surviving a dragon's breath weapon, so try to get the dragon to use its breath weapon on characters who have protection from it.
4 🍌 Equip Ranged Weapons
One of the most annoying things about dragons is that smart ones will never fight you toe to toe. Instead, they'll keep to the skies, raining down destruction on your party with their breath weapon each time it recharges. Furthermore, spells that can disable flying creatures such as Hold Monster will be largely useless due to most dragons having access to Legendary Resistance: a feature they can use to automatically succeed a certain number of times per day on saving throws that they've already failed.
In other words, any intelligent dragon you face will likely have to be dealt with at range. As a result, every character in the party will need 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:access to a ranged attack in order to consistently deal damage. Unfortunately, strength-based classes, including Fighters, Barbarians, and Paladins, will see their damage suffer heavily while they're unable to deal damage in melee. If your party has multiple such members, it can be important to come up with a plan to get these characters in melee range of the dragon by means of magic, the environment, or anything else your adventuring party can come up with.
3 Prepare For The Frig✱htened Condition ෴
We've talked about the dragon's breath weapon and its flying speed, so it's only natural that we also speak on its Frightful Presence ability. In case you're unaware, the frightened condition is one of the most debilitating conditions in the game due to frightened creatures having disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks while the source of their fear remains in sight. On top of that, frightened creatures also can't willingly move closer to the source of their fear.
It's important to accept that a party will be incapable of defeating a dragon while a majority of their members remained frightened of it. With this knowledge in hand, we know that in order to defeat the dragon, the party must find a way to overcome the frightened condition. Unfortunately, the best spell for dealing with the frightened condition, Protection from Good and Evil, doesn't work against dragons. In fact, the best answer to Frightful Presence is only found in the tenth level Paladin feature Aura of Courage, which makes the Paladin and allies within ten feet immune to the frightened condition. In case you don't have a high level Paladin in your party, the Bless spell and magic items, such as the Potion of Advantage or the Potion of Heroism, do provide an added chance of succeeding the saving throw.
2 🎃 ꦏ Bring A Silver Bullet
You wouldn't go to fight werewolves without a silvered weapon. The same should apply for dragons, though silver isn't exactly the answer you're looking for here. Instead, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:magic items 🐈like Arrows of Dragon Slaying, a Dragon Slayer weapon, Dragon Scale Mail, or simply Potions of Resistance for the whole party against whatever breath weapon type the dragon uses wil🧔l serve you quite well.
Dragons are powerful enough of enemies that they warrant due preparation before going to combat with. Don't deprive your party members the added guarantee of success that these kinds of items deliver. Of course, it isn't always possible to load up on silver bullets due to story reasons, DM (dungeon master) preference, and other issues you might encounter. However, many DMs will be ecstatic to see players take the initiative of buying specific items to prepare for a fight.
1 Devise An Escap𒆙e Plan
Last but not least, we ought to consider the fact that the dice are cruel gods. As cruel as the dice might be though, dragons can be even crueler. While the DM can be counted on to provide deus ex machina saves in some instances of TPKs, dragon fights are rarely one of them. After all, the game is called Dungeons & Dragons. If rolling poorly against the titular villain of the game doesn't kill your party, it may beg the question of whether anything is capable of truly killing your characters.
Nothing takes the fun out of D&D like realizing there's no risk of character death involved. For all these reasons and more, devising an escape plan is paramount for any well-prepared party. No matter how well you prepare, sometimes the dice will simply refuse to grant you victory. These are the kinds of times when it's good to have a Wizard with Teleport waiting standing at the ready. This is a great option for high level parties, but low level parties can devise great escape plans too. If nothing else, your characters can roll dice to decide who plays the bait while everyone else runs for the hills. A bad plan is better than no plan, right?