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.

  • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
    10·
    2 days ago

    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

    • neatchee@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      9·
      2 days ago

      This implies the existence of incompetent dragons and I really want my DM to have us fight one

      • mesa@piefed.socialEnglish
        5·
        1 day ago

        I play dragons like “vainqueur the dragon” aka very full of themselves and won’t actually listen to anything the players say. Its hilarious because its made to frustrate the players as much as possible. Getting a dragon to do anything is a monumental task.

        MINNON!

    • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
      7·
      1 day ago

      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.

    • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      24 hours ago

      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!)

      • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        1 day ago

        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

        • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          18 hours ago

          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.

          • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            18 hours ago

            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!