Dragonlance Stating Dragonlance's Dragon Overlords

[WolfWhale]

Hey all,

I'm currently running an epic level Dragonlance campaign and intend to cap the campaign with a battle between my players and one of the Dragon Overlords. I'm looking to create a stronger version of an Ancient Dragon, more akin to Tiamat in power (RoT). The issue I'm having is that simply beefing up the stats feels less than satisfying and using Tiamat's stats wouldn't work since what makes her so deadly is her multiple breath weapons.

I've been toying with giving them spellcasting but allowing them the full progression a full caster gets, though that feels like a pretty flat way to up their power as well.

Have any of you got any more...novel ideas to make a Dragon Overlord more threatening? Or have you found any statblocks for them elsewhere?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[BookBarbarian]

Is it too easy to just take the Tiamat block, but limit it to one type breath weapon?

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

Sounds like you are probably doing something similar to myself. Price of Courage, perhaps?;P

Personally, I wouldn't have had the game go to epic levels, but instead have the fight take place around the 15th level mark, so an Ancient Red Dragon reskinned to whichever color overlord you need would have worked. Dragonlance as a world kind of feels on the whole a lower powered world, in that most of the important NPC'S are maybe 15th or so at best, though as I can understand the fun of running a higher powered game, I have a few suggestions.

The quick and easy option would be to reskinned tiamat with only one head. Another option, and a more setting lore friendly option would be to increase their difficulty through not just buffing the dragon, but also their minions and other factors. The Skull Totem is an element of the Overlords that should not be ignored. For starters, it buffs them, and makes them larger in size. Play off this. Maybe they have Tiamat's stats while their totem exists AND casting like a full caster normally. Make the destruction of the totem a potential weakness for the party to exploit (the totem is also capable of defending itself). If you are running Price of Courage, in the section where it talks about the final encounter ' stat block, the Dragon has enhanced himself not just with a totem, but also runic engravings on his scales. You could consider giving him buffs or abilities thst play off this. Why would an incredibly powerful dragon allow himself to be weak to fire or frost damage, for example? Maybe he's got contingency runes in place? Hell, give the DRAGON epic bokns in the form of runes. The overlords were ALL intelligent and powerful casters in the books. Likewise, they should have minions. They could create dragonspawn, or vassals (look at the half dragon monster for a good example) by granting them scales. Give the players a morale quandary by having an allied NPC become corrupted by him (they could force those with their scales on them to do their bidding against their will). Make this individual guard their very totem!

Basically go all out if he is your final boss. Make the fight unfair, and give the players options to weaken him (i.e. casting dispelled Magix on the runes, destroying the totem, finding another dragon as an ally, etc.).

 

[Coroc]

Give more legendary Actions, and make the mrecharge better, Beef up only hitpoints nothing else and do not be shy with it.

With such an Opponent, Play it like a superintelligent foe, not like a stupid thrash mob.

In game the Dragon not only has superior physical stats but it is also wiser more intelligent and charismatic than the PCs can hope to ever be. It will anticipate some of the Partys moves, it will use mundane and Magic precautions and it will make best use of any battlefield, preferable by flying.

 

[Sunseeker]

There's an even math applied to all dragons moving from Adult to Ancient status. When I made my Legendary Dragons, I mathed out those numbers (+4STR, +4CON, +2 to one mental stat, +2 to another mental stat, +1 to remaining mental stat) and then doubled them and reapplied to them the Ancient Dragon stats.
I then increased it by one size category (which doesn't technically exist in 5E), but it's 5x5/Colossal.
I added an additional immunity based on whatever secondary theme the dragon had going for it.
I gave them full Sorcerer casting (but no class features) AND gave them a full progression in a secondary class appropriate to their theme.
I upped their Legendary Resistance & Legendary Actions to 5/day and doubled all their damage dice (including breaths).

The secondary class is their primary form of combat. So a Legendary Dragon Barbarian fights up close and hits like a truck. But a Legendary Dragon Druid summons minions, while a Legendary Dragon Monk (arguably my favorite build) is a hit-and-run skirmisher.

I made some 30 of these things as part of my Dragon campaign. It's a "yes it has stats, in theory you can kill it" in practice it was a terrifying fight for players.
My favorite was my conversion of Calastryx to 5E. Hydra+Dragon=pain.
-Each head gets it's own turn, with full Breath & Multiattack options.
-Gains a new head after every 50 points of damage, unless part of that 50 points was acid (it's immune to fire) and gains 10HP.
-2 Legendary Resistance per head.
-Unlimited Legendary Actions (but only one per round).

 

[Irda Ranger]

For the Dragon Overlords, I think the key to really make them different is to focus on their Legendary Lairs. Treat the regions around their lair as being enemies in themselves. Each one would be unique, of course, but Malystryx's lair should spawn fire elementals and magmal entities. Maybe within her Lair she can freely Counterspell fire magic without using a spell slot, or even redirect it to another target. As legendary actions she can cause the ground to crack open and spill lava. And so forth.

And obviously the other Overlords would have different powers. Onysablet should be able to Entangle at will, or maybe even Control Water at will. Khellendros would always have a Call Lightning spell in effect that cannot be Dispelled or disrupted via Concentration. And so forth.