# Pathfinder 1E Dragon Fight



## Fauchard1520 (Jan 5, 2023)

It's time. After nearly 10 years of IRL play, my group is finally approaching the climax of Monte Cook's "Dragon's Delve." It's the climactic encounter that this guy was (quite literally) made for: 






						Metterak, The Dragon Prince (Elite Great Wyrm Red Dragon) – d20PFSRD
					






					www.d20pfsrd.com
				




It's going to be six level 20 Pathfinders against Metterak, and I want to make it a memorable fight. How would you run The Prince of All Dragons to present a fun, competitive fight? I'm terrified of anticlimax as this legendary big-bad gets buried in high-level action economy. Fight takes place in a vast underground chamber with lava flows on the floor. 

(*Comic for illustrative purposes*.)


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## DrunkonDuty (Friday at 5:21 AM)

Okay, thoughts on the fight.

Firstly that dragon knows 1 level 9 spell, when it's supposed to know 2. (Knowing the same spell twice doesn't do anything, whoever designed that!) So pick it another 9th level spell. Obviously Wish, because that's all the spells in one.

Secondly, swap out improved initiative for a useful feat. Even with the feat it's got a +2, it's going last. Having a -2 and going laster isn't an issue. Weirdly - how about combat reflexes? It's an extra AoO, even if you have 0 (or lower) DEX mod. 

Thirdly - Vital strike does not do this draggy much good. It's really for offsetting those low bonus iterative attacks. Draggy's iterative attacks are all at much the same hit bonus as the main bite. Maybe swap out vital strike for something better. Not sure what off the top of my head. Is there a feat that allows dragons to hover? How about fly-by attack? While on the subject - draggy has empower spell and only one goddam attack spell. What????

Fourthly - draggy has Wish. Draggy, being a literal genius with amazing foresight uses that to set up a Contingency spell. 

Fifthly - draggy's spell selection is a bit naff. Swap out some of them for more useful stuff. Maybe levitate or fly? Lightning bolt. 

Does draggy have any friends? Any cool magic items in the hoard? 

As I'm sure you know, the action economy is your real enemy here. You can cast up to 4 time stops to try to even this out. But time stop doesn't necessarily help you attack and thus kill your opponents. All the buffs and battlefield control are just delaying the enemy while you try to take them down. With only one villain there comes a time you have to stop dancing about and just hit them. You have to be putting PCs down. Also keep in mind, most combats only last 3-4 rounds.

Does draggy have any prior warning? Time to cast a few buffs? If so cast a few.

When combat begins draggy casts time stop on their first go. Gives them, 2-5 rds to cast more buffs

Which buffs??? For my own benefit I'm gonna list them. Just so I can see where this is going. 

*Mage Armour -* always good
*Shield *- always good
*Resist Energy (acid) *nah. superseded by Iron Body
*Resist Energy (lightning)* nah. superseded by Iron Body
*displacement *- good if they don't have true seeing.
*Haste *- always good. cf. action economy
*Stoneskin *-nah. superseded by draggy's innate DR and Iron Body.
*greater invisibility *-  always fun. unless they have true seeing or similar.
f*ire shield (cold.)* - they'll be loaded down with fire resistance. Some cold is gonna help.
*dispel good *- keep it handy to banish the inevitable Solar they will Gate in. Deflection AC and saves bonus if your PCs are good.
*anti magic shell* on the obvious casters. It won't do much but with luck they'll waste an action and a spell slot before they realise they're inside one.
*heal *- if draggy got hurt before their go
*wall of force* to separate the party into two evenly sized bites.
*true seeing *- good but dragon sense alleviate a lot of the benefit from this. Also I don't know how reliant your bunch are on sneaky tricksy stuff.
*spell turning *-it's ok. It will stop one greater dispel magic.
*iron body *- the drop in AC isn't ideal. The reduction in movement isn't good but it doesn't stop you from flying. SPell filaure is a bitch. Only cast just before starting hitting people. All the immunities are nice. As is the bonus to STR. The DR might be useful... how many adamantine weapons do they have? How many dragon bane weapons do they have? How many adamantine dragon bane weapons do they have? Interesting note - a creature with DR of a type automatically has attacks of the same type. So draggy will now have adamantine attacks. Also dragon bane. But not magical by strict RAW.

Not buffs but maybe worthwhile - 
*sympathy *on something on the far side of the deepest lava flow. cast to effect whatever race the obvious fighter is.
*telekinetic sphere* - will take effect after the time stop stops. Is really only good to slow people down. You have to waste standard actions moving them.

Hmm.

So, how's this sound?

General - stay off the ground. Sure flying while under the influence of Iron Body is cheesy. But it's legal. Stay over lava and be prepared to cast dispel magic on fly spells if the opportunity comes up.

Pre-pre-fight. A contingency. Me, I play a lot of buff/de-buff. So I'd contingency a greater dispel magic to counter spell any greater dispel magic cast on me. If you use the identical spell as a counter spell it automatically succeeds. Another option is Heal if reduced below half hit points.

Pre-fight - whatever long term (anything with a duration of 1 minute/level or more) buffs you can justify.

Round 1 - automatic - dragon fear
I'd use the round to cast some buffs and move next to the enemy casters. So: Time Stop (haste, iron body. Chance allowing - wall of of force to separate fighters from casters, spell turning, greater dispel magic on the juiciest looking target.) In between casting spells draggy moves around the battle field so they can reach the casters when the time stop ends. Then cast a quickened spell. Shield (5th level slot)? Dispel good (9th level slot)?  How about Pyrotechnics (5th level slot) to fill the space with smoke thereby giving everyone except draggy a miss chance. How many people memorise gust of wind? More I think about it, the more I like pyrotechnics.

Round 2 - is draggy still alive? Honestly, I suspect not. 
But if yes - 
automatic - dragon fear - the Great Terror ability means PCs have to save twice before becoming immune to it.
need more spells? Time Stop! Maybe Telekinetic sphere on 2-5 schmoes. This will at least start wasting all the casters actions casting dispel magic. Then a quickened spell. Quickened dispel good if a damn solar has shown up. Quickened fire shield (cold.) (8th level slot.) 

Are there casters in melee range? smack the crap out of the casters. Just go all out attacks. Maximise your bite attacks, that's the one with improved critical. Don't forget you've got cleave. You can cast a quickened spell as well as attack. I'd go with fire shield but you might need true strike. Or an empowered lightning bolt. (8th level slot.)

Are the fighter types getting close? Torrent of flames to bull rush everyone away. Maybe do some fire damage but I wouldn't bet on it. Melt stone might be able to slow them down. 1 foot deep liquid counts as rough terrain. 

Round 3
dragon fear should be played out by now. People are either running already or immune.

Honestly, by this point you better start hitting people. Add in a quickened empowered attack spell.


Hope some of this help, Claire. Good luck. I hope draggy lasts into round 4.


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## Fauchard1520 (Friday at 7:31 PM)

DrunkonDuty said:


> Okay, thoughts on the fight.
> 
> Firstly that dragon knows 1 level 9 spell, when it's supposed to know 2.



The notes in the actual module tell me to "pick another 9th level spell you think is useful. Funny that they didn't leave that same note in the PFSRD version. 

Any dang way, thanks for the assist! It'll be at least a few months before this fight hits, but I want to start wrapping my head around it now. Didn't buy that Colossal Red Dragon mini for nothing!


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## Alzrius (Friday at 10:24 PM)

A few minor points to add to what's already been said:

That _limited wish_ spell should be utilized as a sort of anti-disaster protocol; it's the sort of thing that you bust out when you're in a bad situation with no other way to counter it (or, at the very least, to mimic a _heal_ spell if you need some hit points back).

Also, as impressive as those stats are, I can't help but notice this guy has _no gear at all._ Sure, it would have to be fire-proofed, but I've always shaken my head at dragons having these huge hoards filled with magical treasures, and yet they never seem to use any of them in a fight. Figure out what this guy's treasure looks like, and have him put the good stuff to actual use.

Finally, while he has no _summon_ abilities whatsoever, there should probably be some minions of some sort involved. Most "solo" boss monsters get screwed over via the action economy, and while the dragon in your comic shrugs it off, the fact of the matter is that a single _slow_ spell can cripple a boss monster that has no support (albeit only if it gets past his SR and he then fails his save).


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## DrunkonDuty (Saturday at 12:42 AM)

You're welcome.  

Since I'm sitting around on a Saturday morning with not much to do I thought I'd add a few thinks. What can I say? It's a fun though exercise.

It occurred to me that wish can also be used to cast permanency. Don't worry about costs - draggy has that nifty ability to ignore those. So draggy should have all the good options (resistance, arcane sight, see invisible, greater magic fang (+5 hit and damage), tongues.) 

Plus a few permanent lair defences like teleport trap (set to the lava, obviously, this will effect anyone trying to teleport/dim door to a point inside the lair, even if they're already inside the lair.) 

Alarm (there's that excuse for pre-fight buffing, cast soooo many buffs.)

mage's private sanctum to prevent scrying, 

walls of stone with phase doors to create a secure inner fortress. 

Hell, draggy can have their own demi-plane. They'll need to use wish to enter it though... or a contingency plane shift. 

Also the lair can be covered in all manner of Symbols. Like, almost all of them. They offer saves and draggy's spell DC is only average. But everyone fails on a 1.

Unhallow. nothing stopping draggy from using this. Either place in a choke point and link dimensional anchor to it. Or place it somewhere for draggy to make a last stand and link protection from energy (cold or sonic) to it.

Speaking of spells. Let's look at draggy's spell list.

As I mentioned in my first post I'm big on buffing. So I'm going to emphasise it as a strategy.  (I know it's not the only way to go. But it's the best way.) Also, draggy doesn't have have high enough spell DCs to make spells that give saves much use.

level 1 - all good choices. You can swap out alarm for bless. I mean, it's cheesy for draggy to have to use wish to cast alarm but since they only do it once century or so, so why not? Bless is +1 morale bonus to hit.

level 2 - misdirection is pointless. I get it, draggy is meant to use it to hide their hoard. Well, they have a demi-plane for that now. Take Bull's Strength instead. +2 hit and damage. Alter self is only good for draggy to infiltrate humanoid society. Does draggy even care about that? If yes keep it. If not... mirror image is always cute. Or Bear's Endurance for moar hp (58hp.) 

Level 3 - displacement - does everything greater invisibility does and less. Get rid of it. Draggy has quickened spell and needs something useful to do with it so I suggest lightning bolt. Quickened lightning bolt is a level 7 slot, they've got plenty of those. Tongues, once again, is only cast once a century or so using a wish. Try Prayer instead. +1 hit, damage, and saves.

level 4 - Stoneskin is pointless.  Death ward is good as level drain is one of the few things that iron body doesn't protect against. Neutralise Poison is redundant - draggy has heal. Freedom of movement is nice but probably not necessary for draggy; not much gonna slow them down. Black Tentacles is cute but probably not stopping anybody (CMB of +24). I'm gonna suggest freedom of movement, just in case. Oh! Just thought of enervation. The PCs will be loaded down with fire protection but will they have negative energy protection? Plus it can be quickened for a level 8 slot.

Level 5 - greater command is crap. Everything else is good. Cloudkill is cute. CON damage is always fun. And it can be cast during time stop to take effect after the time starts again. Unless everyone is immune to poison.  Teleport. I assume this isn't the sort of campaign where the villain escapes to come back another day. But if it is teleport is your friend. 

Level 6 - all good. 

Level 7 - mass hold person is a waste of space. It's DC is 23, piddling to these guys. Banishment. Dispel Good may not work, so this might be handy. Teleport greater for running away. Restoration greater in case the tricky buggers sneak anything nasty past your defenses. Otherwise good.

Level 8 - iron body is great. sympathy can be funny but the DC is only 24. Also is blocked by a simple protection from evil. replacements: Protection from spells if you feel draggy's saves aren't up to scratch. Dimensional lock is good for stopping them doing all that tricky extra dimensional movement stuff. Horrid wilting is ok. 19d6 damage, untyped so no DR. Greater spell immunity to be immune to 4 spells of 8th level or lower. (which 4 spells... polar ray? temporal stasis? polymorph any object? trap the soul?) 

Level 9 - times stop and wish are good.

So to re-visit all those buffs I hope draggy has in place: they should have the following increases: +13 attack, +11 damage (+13 for the bite);* magic, adamantine and dragon bane attacks;+13AC ** (only +9 vs. non-good opponents); +6 saves/+7 reflex saves (only +2/+3 vs. non-good opponents) DR 15 or 20. Starting to look solid.

Another tactic that has occurred to me: the crush ability is a good way to pin a caster or 2. Casters who are pinned and taking damage aren't doing much. So on draggy's second action it might be worth using this instead of all the attacks. Which is better is going to depend on the situation.

Mage's Disjunction is gonna screw you if you fail a will save. Resistance, Prayer and Dispel Good should make draggy's will saves +31. Wish can be used retroactively to give you a re-roll. This should be sufficient to resist it.

I mentioned above about swapping out the vital strike feats . That gives you back 3 feats. Fly-by attack is important. Do you allow the leadership feat? If so give this guy a 20th level follower. Someone who can cast spells. If you allow PC classes then a bard or wizard who can ride on him. A dragon born obviously. Or a CR 22 dragon. Technically 'dragon' is not a PC class. If you've already got fly-by attack and combat reflexes why not add dodge and whirlwind attack to the mix? Not awesome but it allows draggy to use a bite attack on everyone in range if they're getting mobbed. And another +1AC. But if you allow leadership, take leadership.

* greater magic fang,  bless, bull's strength, prayer, iron body, haste. 
** shield, mage armour, dispel good, haste.

And to emphasise what Alzrius said: draggy should use any magic items they can.

Woo. I have literally spent my whole morning on this. Thanks! I've enjoyed it. Now I must away to my urban fantasy game.  




Fauchard1520 said:


> Didn't buy that Colossal Red Dragon mini for nothing!




That's a hell of a mini. Hell, it's a maxi.


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