The classic trope of the lone knight against a dragon. Is it doable in D&D? I've never seen it happen. Seems like a suicide mission unless you're talking about a super, high level, overpowered character, but where's the fun in that?
Before writing this, I watched the dragon fight scene in the Disney classic, Sleeping Beauty (1959). It's really the only on-screen visual I could think of that matches this scenario.
- That dragon was black and breathed green fire which had acidic qualities.
- Wondering if this influenced Gary Gygax's version of a black dragon.
- The knight (or was he just a prince?) hit the dragon once on the nose and it sounded like metal.
- The knight (prince) lost his shield to the dragon's breath weapon (saving throw in action?)
- The knight slew the dragon by throwing his sword (which had just been enchanted by a faerie) into it's underbelly.
- B/X will be the system.
- The dragon will be a standard black (7HD).
- The knight will be a 7th level knight as offered by Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, though for all intents and purposes, it is essentially just a regular B/X fighter because none of the knight class features apply here at all, unless the dragon had spell casting capabilities, where-as the knight would be granted a saving throw vs sleep.
- The knight will have four randomly determined magic items including a magic sword, representing time spent adventuring. I rolled shockingly well for these, see below...
- Black dragons have a 20% chance to speak, and thus, cast spells. This dragon is a non-speaker, so, no spells. This alone, makes the dragon much less formidable.
- The breath-weapon will work on a recharge mechanic after the initial use. The rules state there is an equal chance of the dragon using claws/bite as there is of it using it's breath-weapon. Random determination will mean breathing acid on a 4-6 (d6). Maximum 3 times.
The Knight
Str:15(+1) Int:10 Wis:13(+1) Dex:10 Con:12 Cha:11
HP:36 AC:17(plate + shield) Dragon-Breath Save:10 To-Hit:+7 Damage:1d8+2
Magic Items:
- Sword+1 (+3 vs Undead)
- Ring of Wishes (1) (actually rolled this, could be a game changer)
- Potion of Healing
- Boots of Traveling and Leaping (why did OSE rename the Boots of Striding and Springing?) By-the-book these won't help much here, but I might allow advantage on breath-weapon saves or some such thing.
Black Dragon
AC:17 HP:31 To-hit:+6 Damage: 2 claws (1d4+1), 1 bite(2d10), or 1 breath (current HP)
Morale:8 (will check at 16 and 8 hit points)
Round One (assumes no surprise)
- Dragon wins initiative breathes acid.
- Knight makes the save and takes 1/2 damage, 16 points.
- Knight then hits dragon for 9 points.
- Knight HP:20 Dragon HP:22
Round Two
- Initiative is tied, combat will be simultaneous.
- Dragon breathes acid again.
- Knight fails save and dies while striking the dragon for 6 points of damage.
- Knight HP:0 Dragon HP:16
- Dragon wins initiative breathes acid.
- Knight makes save, using the boots, leaps out of the way taking zero damage then hits the dragon for 6 points of damage.
- Knight HP:36 Dragon HP:25
- Dragon wins initiative and chooses 2 claw/1 bite... all three miss!
- At this point the knight could use the ring of wishes any number of ways to win the fight, it's such a game changer that I passed on that for the sake of this exercise. So the knight strikes and hits again for 6 points of damage.
- The dragon passes a morale check, continues the fight.
- Knight HP:36 Dragon HP:16
- Initiative is tied, combat will be simultaneous.
- Dragon breathes acid, knight makes save, jumping away taking zero damage. While jumping, strikes the dragon for 10 points of damage!
- Knight HP:36 Dragon HP:6
- Knight wins initiative and hits the dragon for 8 points of damage, slaying it.
- Knight HP:36 Dragon HP:0
- Simultaneous combat has interesting consequences.
- In either fight, the knight never missed an attack roll, had to roll 10+.
- House ruling the magic boots gave the knight a nice edge, seriously helped by making both saves. This makes sense though, and is probably how these boots would work in sword & sorcery fiction.
- The knight took zero damage in the four round second fight mainly due to the dragon rolling very poorly.
- I initially rolled morale at the end of the third round. The dragon failed and flew away (realistic.) Then I remembered that initiative had to be rolled first, which the knight won, then proceeded to slay the beast. Rolling initiative every round has dynamic effects.
- The ring of wishes could have been used to nullify the dragon-breath, blind the dragon, put it to sleep, etc. Not the best item for this exercise, that's why I didn't use it.
- Great little fight, easy to visualize, quick and dramatic not unlike the scene in Sleeping Beauty.
- Slaying the dragon: 1,250 XP
- 58,000 SP (GP value: 5,800)
- 20 gems (GP value: 2,610)
- 40 pieces of jewelry (GP value: 48,000)
- Total GP value: 56,410. Slightly under the average of 60,000 for a black dragon.
- Total XP: 57,660.
Interesting. I think that without the house rules, the fight will probably go the way of the first scenario ten times out of ten...at least, given equal hit dice/levels of opponents. Dragons don't really NEED to be bigger to be fiercer opponents.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny because my kid asked me just yesterday at what level a PC should be able to take on a red dragon. As he was asking with regard to AD&D, I told him it really depending on the size of the dragon, the situation, and the overall preparedness of the party. However, the ancient worms at 8 points per HD are really quite, quite formidable...few PCs should ever brave battle with such a beast. Certainly not in a casual manner!
[yet another reason for treasure hoards...need to entice those players!]
House rules and/or certain legit magic items definitely make the difference.
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