Call me old school but I believe that Dragons should be feared and revered. When the PCs face a Dragon they should be scared. There should be no smug air of confidence. Any time a Dragon is part of the combat there should be a very real chance that PCs will die. However, very few DMs seem to hold this belief any more. It seems that Dragons have become the standard go-to villain for many adventures, especially low-level adventures. Just look at a random sampling of LFR (Living Forgotten Realms) adventures and D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. From where I’m sitting this amounts to nothing more than Dragon abuse. Stop throwing Dragons at every party!
Dragons were originally some of the most powerful, dangerous and feared creatures in the game of D&D. When you faced a Dragon you knew it would be an epic battle. The Dragon was the big bad guy at the end of a long quest. It was the master that all of the other villains served. The idea that a level 1 party would ever fight and hope to defeat a Dragon was absurd. No one ever thought to try it because it was a crazy idea.
Yet over the years Wizards of the Coast (and TSR before them) felt an obligation to give DMs stats for Dragons at all stages of their life-cycle. This meant that PCs could face smaller, weaker Dragons and have a reasonable chance at victory. What most DMs forgot was that just because they had low-level Dragons in their Monster Manual didn’t mean that they had to use them. Dragons have always been among the rarest monsters in the book, so the likelihood of even finding and fighting one was still rare.
As a DM, I like Dragons. I like they raw power they represent and the multitude of options they have to eliminate threats. They scheme, plan, plot and use their superior intellect to the best of their ability. They often employ minions and henchmen to act as go-betweens, scouts and guards. Rarely will a party find a Dragon completely alone, especially in his liar. But as cools as Dragons are, I know that they have to be used in moderation. Overusing them is nothing more than abuse.
My plea to all DMs is to suppress your desire to make every major villain a Dragon. Hold the Dragons back for special occasions and important story arcs. Given the rarity of Dragons PCs shouldn’t see more than one in their lifetime. If they do, they should never see more than one at each tier of play. In fact, a Dragon that faces the party at heroic tier will likely flee before being killed and eventually battle them again at paragon tier when both the PCs and the Dragon are more powerful.
Dragons need to be withheld. As tempting as it might seem to pit a party against a Dragon early in their adventuring career, DMs must resist this urge. By keeping Dragons out of the mix and more importantly out of combat, the PCs will better understand just how rare these creatures really are.
Just because there are rules and mechanics to create a balanced encounter that includes a Dragon doesn’t mean that you should include a Dragon. In fact I beg DMs not to do so until the PCs are ready for it. Perhaps an example from my very own gaming table will illustrate my point and reinforce the value of doing so.
The Warlord made a quick monster knowledge check and then humbled himself before the Dragon, appealing to the creature’s ego and greed. As compensation for disturbing the Dragon, the Warlord offered his most powerful magic item (an Amulet of Protection +2) and all of the party’s gold in exchange for letting us go unharmed. A few Diplomacy checks later and the Green Dragon accepted the offer. The party fled as fast as they could, considering the exchange more than fair since we suffered no casualties.
After the encounter was completed the DM asked us why we didn’t just fight the Dragon. We explained that we had no way to gauge the Dragon’s power and considering their rarity we assumed it was pretty tough. It turned out that the Dragon was a level 6 monster and probably something we could have defeated, but none of the players even thought to try fighting. Our experience (both in and out of character) trumped the encounter’s mechanics. So even though the DM wasn’t trying to make us fight foe we couldn’t defeat, we didn’t know that. And even if we did, I think the idea of role-playing made a lot more sense then having them fight the Dragon.
The players all agreed that until we hit paragon tier, fighting a Dragon wasn’t a very good idea. Months later upon reaching paragon, the DM presented us with an opportunity to return and fight the Green Dragon. The resulting battle was huge and the victory ended a long-term story arc for the party. Those PCs are now approaching the epic tier and in all that time they only ever encountered the one Dragon. During their travels they’ve never even heard whispers of other Dragons. That’s how rare these creatures are, or should be.
If you ignore my earlier plea and continuing to abuse Dragons they become commonplace. The idea that Dragons are everywhere is incredibly silly to me, but I know that some people do indeed play in this kind of world. Some players enjoy playing in a campaign where they fight Dragons all the time. I’ll admit that defeating a Dragon is pretty cool, but if I fight one (or more) every level it’s bound to cheapen the experience.
Think about it, if you fought ten or more Dragons as you progress through the heroic tier, would a paragon level Dragon seem powerful and scary? Probably not. You’d yawn as you realize that you’re facing yet another Dragon. DMs who throw Dragons at you all the time belittle their camping and rob the players of the thrilling experience that slaying a Dragon should bring.
The only exception that I can think of for a campaign that has multiple Dragons in it is if the party intentionally goes looking for them. If they are a party of would-be Dragon slayers then this is a possible exception to the one Dragon per tier rule. I see this kind of campaign being rich in role-playing since anyone who deliberately seeks out Dragons (plural – more than one) must have some pretty heavy emotional baggage or a loose screw in the head. But outside of this unique campaign exception, Dragons should continue to be exceptionally rare in all campaign.
Are you abusing Dragons? Do you find that the players still enjoy fighting Dragons after seeing them all the time? As players do you want to fight Dragons over and over again? Do you feel that facing more than one Dragon per tier cheapens the awe that Dragons should inspire? What about those who have played in Dragon slayer campaigns, did fighting Dragons eventually get boring? Let us know where you stand on Dragon abuse.
View Comments (18)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1 2 3 Next »My rule of thumb: 1 dragon per tier, max. Unless the campaign has a dragon as the BBEG, still maybe only 2 or 3 encounters with him.
Abuse more dragons.
Take out the dragons and then you had might as well take out the dungeons.
Dragons are the apex predator of the game. The reason we go dungeon-delving. They are the primary repository of gold and treasure. They are the scariest creatures in the game, and a source of many great TPKs, and when handled properly they still remain a serious and dire threat to an adventuring party.
@d20sforlife
It sounds like you and I are on exactly the same page. I’m not saying remove Dragons from D&D entirely, just make sure when you do use them they have a huge impact. Once per tier seems like a good balance.
@Dyson Logos
You qualified your comment by saying "when handled properly." Therein lies the point of my argument. Most DMs aren't using Dragons properly. They're making them as common as orcs, kobolds and skeletons. If you're going to use them, use them properly -- as powerful creatures with hordes of treasure. If you just keep throwing Dragons at your party without handling these creatures properly then you diminish their importance to the game. Stop the abuse!
I am very lucky that I play with a group who reveres fights with Dragons. In our retired campaign, my 26th level Rogue-Sorcerer only fought 3 dragons. The first one was in the Moathouse in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, Ashardalon on the plane of Positive Energy, and a two-headed Ancient Red Dragon on the Astral Plane. In all three instances we ran like crazy, and coming close to death every time.
They should be feared. And should remain that way. You are right that the WOW! is diminishing from the game.
Remember the Daragonlance series was based on the return of the Dragons in the world of Krynn. That was awe inspiring!
I agree dragons should be fearful encounters, but I disagree with making them too rare. PCs at any level get a thrill fighting a dragon, and as an introductory adventure to a group containing several new-to-D&D Players, I droppped a nice youngling White Dragon on them. As a Level 4 Solo with a few kobold minions mixed in to hassle the caster type, it was one heck of a fight, and very memorable for the newbie players.
Of course, the next dragon encounter was something far more nasty, and was meant to be instructive as to just how lucky the heroes were to encounter that youngling white. The adventurers stumbled into an adult gray dragon's hunting ground, and after some nerve racking negotiations (skill challenge) and a hefty bribe, the party felt thrilled to be high-tailing it out of its lands - it gave them the old western line "be outta here by dawn... or else!". It definitely helped to re-establish the fear of dragons, and wiped out that smugness you talked about very quickly!
I am also of the opinion that dragons should be held in particularly high esteem in campaigns. If you are going to use them frequently then I think most of those times should be for role play. There is a massive amount of situations and variants on encounters that can be created and used. It would be a waste of those resources to focus too much on dragons, in my opinion. I love mixing up encounters and just finding reasons to throw creatures from all over into the campaign I'm running.
I always kind of felt bad for the dragon in Dragon Slayers, And Proud of It! I don't know why, I always just did.
I have always used dragons sparingly and not always as the BBED. In my current campaign, the dragons were a part of the creation mythology of the world. Some were corrupted by power and fell from grace.
Right at the moment, I have a Black Dragon in the campaign that the characters ran into early on, they didn't defeat them but did foil his plans, and so he now has a grudge against the party and has been working long and hard behind the scenes to get back at them. It will take some time before the players figure this out, though. But that is the one and only dragon the players have run into. It will be interesting when they figure it out, though, because they will not be able to defeat him overtly and will have to negotiate and play at the game of houses. I figure once they get up to high paragon or beginning epic they will eventually come head to head. (Right at the moment the dragon has been polymorphed into humanoid form to attain his goals against the party and looks like a large humanoid with obsidian skin. They have seen this, but they did not get close enough to see that the 'skin" is actually composed of tiny black shinny scales. Yeah, it might not be rules appropriate, but it works for the party.
I have made the counter argument just recently. In my 10 years of playing d&d I have only ever slayed one dragon. I have run only a handful of dragon encounters but only have fought 2 or 3 and lived through one. I understand the build up for the dragons but the game is Dungeons and Dragons. If you go through a dungeon every other week why not fight a dragon every once in a while. Now I do agree it should not be every game but I hate the level thought that, “we are first level we need to pay our dues and fight goblins.” That’s hog wash every level has the chance to be exciting and heroic. Break the mold, have the party fight a dragon at first and then ride the fame or consequences of their actions. At the moment I am running a gith yanki invasion in Eberron. It going to be a wild ride with lots of dragons. The first day the party fought and killed a dragon and when they saw it the first words out of their mouth was, “WTF a dragon at first!” Well they slayed it and it was a tremendous way to start a game. So yes don’t use dragons all the time in every game because the game would get duel but really how many times have you started at first and killed a tone of goblins and kobolds.
Conccur, Dragons should be held very high for the adventuring party, and I think that they could be faced in different leves, they do add the "omg please let it be 17or+ I roll or i am dead..." and they have this way of making things simply awesome!
So agreed, haven't throw any dragons at my players but will definetly think twice before doing so, specially to the point of making dragon encounters boring that... indeed is blasphemy... In my opinion :D.
Regards
Dragons.... All dragons, or just living? Fettered Dracholiches have made 2 appearances alone.
And, throwing this out there for dragons in general, what do you all say to "Ongoing Damage (No Save)" in their breath attacks? Ehh?