For a game called "Dungeons & Dragons" there is a shocking lack of both dungeons and dragons
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We asked our DM to avoid using flying enemies after a dragon tpk’d us by breath weaponing and retreating for 30 rounds. Give me a tarasque before you even consider offering me a competent dragon
Off the top of my head:
- Cast Fly yourselves or purchase/acquire some boots of flying
- Elemental resistance or immunity vs the element of dragon’s breath you expect to be meeting, from the Protection From Energy spell or from equippable gear
- If you’re confident in your spell save DC, Hold Monster is a fun one to cast on any flying creatures
- buy a bow and arrow
- better yet, buy a ballista and a mule to tow it around
- buy a couple dozen health potions that you chug furiously on the rounds that you aren’t being breath-attack-strafed
- have the fighter make consecutive grapple checks to Los Tiburon the dragon into the fucking dirt
There are a lot of ways to deal with this, you just have to get creative and maybe set yourselves a short side quest or two to acquire what you need for the real job. Half of the above suggestions can be accomplished by a single tactically minded cleric, and no arcane caster worth his salt isn’t going to know how to fly by level five, wizards that can’t fly generally don’t live very long and sorcerors that can’t fly don’t get laid.
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As someone who has played alot of Call of Cthulhu there is a distinct lack of Cthulhu. But I am presently playing Traveler and let me tell you something - there is A LOT of traveling.
For a game called “GURPS” it certainly is a Generic Universal Role Playing System
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Dragons are pretty high level-threats in D&D, which most players rarely get to fight because most campaigns don’t last that long. Which does make it a bit weird to name the entire franchise after such a rare enemy.
FYI: you can throw a dragon at any party at any time as a non-combat encounter or as a natural disaster they aren’t supposed to be able to fight or control
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Just saying twice over, for good effect, you know?
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I’ve played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
And don’t even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I’ve seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that’s like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying “we’re infested with wolves!”
I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been lied to all this time.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
I’ve always wondered how the term “dungeon” as it’s used in RPGs came to be. a lot of appendix N literature had locations we would now consider dungeons, but were they called that at the time? and then the first RPG dungeon was the literal dungeon under Blackmoor Castle, but very early on we had dungeons that stopped being literal dungeons- didn’t B1 and B2 exclusively have cave “dungeons?” and the Ruined Tower of Zenopus in the first Basic book had underground portions but I think those were caves too!
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FYI: you can throw a dragon at any party at any time as a non-combat encounter or as a natural disaster they aren’t supposed to be able to fight or control
Yeah, my DM threw a young white(I think) dragon at us pretty early in the campaign. It wasn’t meant to be a fight we won, we were only meant to drive it off and possibly have a sidequest type thing to go loot it’s lair later.
It tried to fly away. We teleported into the air after it, and I clung to it’s back and kept dropping divine smites in it until it died. Was fantastic.
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FYI: you can throw a dragon at any party at any time as a non-combat encounter or as a natural disaster they aren’t supposed to be able to fight or control
Good point.
Counterpoint: Many groups have trouble discerning between a regular encounter and an encounter they aren’t supposed to fight.
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I’ve played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
And don’t even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I’ve seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that’s like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying “we’re infested with wolves!”
I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been lied to all this time.
If you compare it with most other rpg:s there’s actually a lot of both dungeons and dragons in DnD.
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I’ve played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
And don’t even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I’ve seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that’s like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying “we’re infested with wolves!”
I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been lied to all this time.
Be the change you want to see
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That sounds like a job for Readied Actions!
(Our DM tried that with the dragon at the end of Icespire Peak, but fortunately my character had a spell that grounds flying enemies and it failed its save. Dragons aren’t nearly as bad when you know they’re coming and have an entire campaign to build your character towards fighting them. Surprise dragons are a nightmare though!)
We kept readying actions! Used cover, avoided grouping up, tried distracting it, begged pleadingly, etc. as well. All that did was cause the dragon to choose two squishies to kill before the others. Prepping would have been an excellent idea, but in our defense, we were very dumb
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Just saying twice over, for good effect, you know?
AND MY AXE.
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I’ve played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
And don’t even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I’ve seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that’s like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying “we’re infested with wolves!”
I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been lied to all this time.
My players have finally encountered a dragon for the first time last week. They managed to resolve the situation peacefully and have taken up a quest to do for the dragon. Currently they are being mogged by a Blob of Annihalation instead. Fun times.
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We kept readying actions! Used cover, avoided grouping up, tried distracting it, begged pleadingly, etc. as well. All that did was cause the dragon to choose two squishies to kill before the others. Prepping would have been an excellent idea, but in our defense, we were very dumb
Ah, the bane of all adventurers: planning. Why waste time with thinky-think when big stick already hit good?
Though our party of three didn’t include any ranged weapon characters (and my druid was the only caster), so we’d have been completely screwed if the dragon didn’t fail a save before I ran out of spell slots. A strength save, so our own “plan” was a stupid gamble that only paid off due to luck.
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I’ve played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
And don’t even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I’ve seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that’s like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying “we’re infested with wolves!”
I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been lied to all this time.
The Dungeon is YOUR MIIIIIND. The Dragons are the friends we made along the way. At least I assume so. I don’t play Dungeons & Dragons, I play Deeandy Fivey.
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No but I always end up in super-debt
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I’ve played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
And don’t even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I’ve seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that’s like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying “we’re infested with wolves!”
I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been lied to all this time.
Caverns and Critters?
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I’ve played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
And don’t even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I’ve seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that’s like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying “we’re infested with wolves!”
I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been lied to all this time.
I started a campaign where, after 20 years of gaming with this group, we were finally going to have a dragon for a big bad. Then my entire country collapsed irl, destroying the game. It’s like the universe abhors actually having dragons in your D&D game.
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I’ve played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
And don’t even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I’ve seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that’s like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying “we’re infested with wolves!”
I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been lied to all this time.
Oubliettes and nebbishes?
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I’ve played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.
But these so-called “dungeons”? No captives. Not even any cells. That’s not a dungeon. that’s a glorified cave.
And don’t even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I’ve seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that’s like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying “we’re infested with wolves!”
I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been lied to all this time.
Funny story, it’s to fix the second half of this complaint that TSR got Dragonlance going
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Ah, the bane of all adventurers: planning. Why waste time with thinky-think when big stick already hit good?
Though our party of three didn’t include any ranged weapon characters (and my druid was the only caster), so we’d have been completely screwed if the dragon didn’t fail a save before I ran out of spell slots. A strength save, so our own “plan” was a stupid gamble that only paid off due to luck.
IMO, you played perfectly. Luck and narrative building are fantastic skills that can tip a campaign in one direction or another, and we simply lacked one of the other. Revel in your superiority!
