Today's #WestMarchesWednesday post is about that most popular of all monsters ever- DRAGONS!
So, I may be in the minority here, but I feel like D&D has traditionally done dragons really poorly. Making dragons chromatic or metallic (with colour-coded alignments, no less) and also size-coded and also very fighty but also very magic-y but also very treasure-y has made them kinda of overhyped and complex to run. What I'd like to see them do, for my West Marches game, is be like raid bosses- huge and terrifying optional battles that mean you really have to gear up, and have the right combination of people to beat, otherwise you'll have your butts handed to you. But if you do manage to beat it, there's treasure aplenty, and always, always, choice loot. So you want lots of warning and opportunities to turn back- flaming wagons, gigantic clawed footprints in the mud, incinerated bands of soldiers, devastated townships, whatever it takes to make it suuuuper clear to players that "here be dragons" and they had really better have their act together or they're going to die. For a West Marches game, a big dragon's hoard and challenge might even get a few groups working together for shares, until someone calls "Leeeeeeeroy Jenkins!" and makes a tactically unwise move. The dragons of Thedas aren't always traditional D&D dragons- many would be classed as drakes (four legs no wings) or wyverns (two legs, two wings), although the High Dragons are usually four limbs plus two wings. They don't tend to have spellcasting powers either, making them more of a physical threat, with special attacks and lair actions which can affect large numbers of targets. You'll also want to stock their lair appropriately with treasure, not just piles of coinage (but definitely massive piles of coinage, in some cases, literally too much to carry), but also unique magic items. Dragon lairs are the graveyards of heroes, so they should have some legendary gear, things that have stories behind them, and have been lost for centuries. That might just be a plain +2 longsword, but people will generally have a better connection and a reason to hang the weapon up on a wall rather than just liquidate it for coin if they know this is "Champion of the Fallen, the blade of the Elvhen hero who freed hundreds of his fellow slaves from the Tevinters in the Exalted Age", rather than just the mechanical effects. Some staples of D&D, like harvesting dragon scales to make armour from, and the reputational benefits of being known as a dragonslayer, should definitely be indulged too. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 25 March 2020.
Stormbow
7/5/2020 02:28:41 pm
Another fantastic article on running dragons: http://themonstersknow.com/dragon-tactics-part-1/ Comments are closed.
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