Attack-Tactics for dragons

Attack Tactics for dragons

Updated: October, 12th, 1997

Sometime ago, I happened to roll an Undead dragon in his lair as random encounter. I hadn't set anything up, no cave layout, no tactics, no attack routines, just rolled the dice.
Since this solution was highly unsatisfying, I decided (after mangling my group just a little bit), to delve a bit deeper into the matter of dragon Combat Routines.
At the beginning of September '97, I became member of the RMSS mailing list and was very surprised, that one of the thread concernend the encounter of a dragon and the ensuing battle (mostly from the tactical point of view).
That moment, I decided to provide a tactical survey about dragon combat.

So here it is:

General Comments about dragon tactics and attack patterns
Attack routines from Elemental Companion, Creatures & Monsters, Creatures &Treasures I-III, Shadow World Master Atlas, etc.
General use of spells for dragons
Use of the dragon's special spell lists

General comments about dragons As we all know, dragons are pretty impressive opponents, heavily armored, heavily armed and capable of an aweful lot of spells.
Most of these spells are common to any dragon, you might encounter, while the specialized spell-abilities of most dragons follow the same guidelines.
Thus it is necessary to divide the dragon's tactical actions into parts.
I'll address these points in the following paragraphs.

Note:: The material found here is partly taken form Creatures & Monsters (RMSS), the Shadow World Master Atlas, the Elemental Companion.

Concerning the general attack patterns of dragons it is important to remember that their airborn attack patterns have multiple uses.

So could a dragon just as easily grab an opponent and carry him into the air as it could just shred him with its claws. Carrying the enemy away has the advantage of dropping him from great heigths. This should kill the opponent and would shock the other attackers into disarray, when they're desperately trying to save their falling comrade from certain death. Of course, a Paladin with a Sword of Slaying dragons is an unwise choice for such an endevaour.
Bashing a foe with its tail (even if the foe is sitting on a War Elephant) is a good idea, but landing on a group of adventurers without spears or lances should do the trick just as well.
Just as an airplane's strafing run causes damage to a large number of enemies, the dragon's attack should not only attack one single character but several targets.
The dragon's tail, for example, is as thick as an old oak, flexible as a snake and tough as stone.
One could safley assume one third of the dragon to be the tail. This would leave a mature Fire dragon (ca. 20 meters body length) with about 6.7 meters tail. Even if he would swing this tail only 22.5 degrees to the left and the right (creating a 45 degree arc of attack), it covers an area of more than 17.5 square meters !!!
These numbers should give you an impression, how enormous the attacks of a tail-bashing dragon are.
A dragon's breath is another matter that has to be dealt with in a completely different manner when airborn.
A Breath weapon attack takes, say 3 seconds. Should the aforementioned Fire dragon move at x3 pace and a BMR of 200 feet, he could travel 180', about 60 meters in the time he breathes fire. Fire Drakes employ a Fire cone of 300' length and 100'R at its base (EC. p.72).
Moving 180 feet, the dragon could ignite an area of 100' x 280' =28000 square feet or 3100+ square meters in one single run.
Should you decide that a dragon's breath takes even longer than three seconds, the devastation only increases.
The rise of temperature, the lack of oxygen, the overall damage dealt to the adventurer's equipment, all that needs to be taken into account when fighting a dragon.
Thus, it is absolutely necessary to play a dragon to its maximum and take into account all physically probable elements.
When a dragon beats its wings not to fly but to create a whirlwind (a cone of about 50' / 100' / 200' length and just as broad at the cone's base depending on the age and size of the dragon), all maneuvers in the area of effect are a -75.

GM Note:
It depends on the GM's decision, whether the whirlwind is an attack or a movement maneuver. Should you declare it a MM, the dragon could attack and create a whirlwind in one single round, enabling the dragon to be even deadlier.

Even a wounded dragon is a real danger to it's attacker.
It's caustic blood is poisonous (5H reduction poison) and everyone exposed to the blood is exposed to a point-blank Fireball +50 with Acid Criticals.
This should happen to every attacker attacking in melee achieving a critical and

causing bleeding damage
hitting the dragon's belly (critical or Strategic Targeting)
using armor cutting weapons
using slaying weapons

GM Note:: A dragon bleeding from several wounds (20+ hits per round) which is flying over an attacker could spray him with blood as well, causing some hits and ruining a lot of equipment.

Note:: I am aware that this sounds very drastic, since almost any attack would cause a spray of blood hurting the attacker more than the dragon. This rule does have its reason though.
Almost every book I read about combating dragons detailed that only those armored with dragon armor (or shields of dragon scales) or massive spells can attack a dragon without being burned by its blood (The Sigfrid story from northern Europe is an exception to this rule, there the hero bathes in a dragon's blood to recieve a dragon's toughness for his skin).

Dragons are well known for their extraordinary senses.
The posess perfect Nightvision and Darkvision or perfect Infravision (depending on the rules you use).
Thus they should either be able to see everything even in complete darkness, or they could see everything emitting infrared light (including a character using a normal Invisibility spell).

Illusions are pretty useless against dragon's since they recieve an RR at half their level against ste level of the illusion to determine whether it's an illusion or not. This is more than any other living creature ever gets against an illusion (refer to I.C.E.s view of illusions in Rolemaster or some house rules [Both articles were copied from The House of Rules, reformated and edited to fit my layout.]).
Their immunity to natural elements (fire, light, air, ice and water) is well known.
I treat this as a constant Lightarmor, Heatarmor, Coldarmor, Lightningarmor, Firearmor, Icearmor from Elemental Shields, Spell Law 13.1
Furthermore, the dragon emits the well-known and dreaded Dragon Fear (RMC II, 5.1).

GM Note:
The dragon can emit this fear at any desired level. I use the dragon's level but that may be too high a level for some GMs. Thus you could use other levels (e.g. 1/2 the dragon's level, etc.).

Physical attack patterns

In Flight
	Use breath weapon (if able) and
	Create a whirlwind (-75 to MM and missile attacks) by flapping its wings when close to the ground and rapidly coming to a stop
If diving on a target use one of the following (additional) options:
Horn attack; roll each critical twice and add the results	Claw Attack (use HGr table when attempting to grab a smaller foe)
Tail-Bash Attack (use HCr table, when attempting to land on a foe)	Create a whirlwind (-75 to MM and missile attacks) by flapping its wings at the end of a dive to rapidly stop

On the ground or in water
	Use breath weapon (if able) and one Claw or Bash attack	Horn attack and one Claw or Bash attack
	Bite attack and one Claw or Bash attack	Two Claw attacks and one Bash attack
	Create a whirlwind (-75 to MM and missile attacks) by flapping its wings. When not lifting up, the wing- movement causes the dragon to present its underbelly to the opponents

General use of spells Since dragon's are capable of casting this list up to their level, most spell list descriptions are divided into three parts, for young (around level 10), mature (around level 30) and old dragons (level 50+).

Hearthfires (RMC VII, 8.9.3) This spell list is pretty straightforward.
Any dragon in posession of this spell list has a Lairguard spell activated for its lair.
All other spells on this list are additions to the dragon's offensive and defensive capabilities and should be used appropriately.

Spirit Mastery

Young dragons
Sleep X, Lord Sleep, Suggestion and Master of Kind are the most effective spells. The first two cause the attackers to fall into sleep (and if you use rules similar to Repel Undead, then you can greatly influence the target's RR) and the other two spells could be used to compel the target's to drop their weapons, run away, take a bath, etc.
Mature dragons
The various Word of XX spells are the most effective spells between 10th and 30th level on this list. Their main drawback is the lack of range (only 50') which is something of a security risk for a dragon.
Especially effective among these spells is the Word of Discord which should cancel all teamwork abilities in a group quite easily.
Phrase and Mass Word are effective as well when combined with the appropriate Words.
Old dragons
Spirit Mastery is not very effective unless combined with Lord Sleep since the usable spells are restricted to 10th level and lower.

Spell Reins The various Spell Hold spells are really effective in combat, since maneuverability is the most important factor in fighting a dragon. When a mage's attack spells are delayed and he can't travel more then 20' per round unless he loses the spell on a possibly friendly target in range, the dragon could easily fry him from a distance.

Young dragons
Reverse spells is quite usable, since the most attacking spells are of 10th or lower level. Only a high level mage would try stronger spells due to the higher risk of ESF.
Mature dragons
For mature dragon's the higher level Spell Hold spells can come really handy since the time the spells are dleayed significally hamper the mage's offensive abilities.
Old dragons
Reversal Ture is the thing. An instantaneous spell of 50th level effectivity a 100'R area of effect and a Class I spell for most old dragons, what could a dragon want more ????

Dispelling Ways

Young dragons
The various Cancel XXX or Dispell XXX spells are not eithour their use, the duration of the spells (concentration) hamper it's effectiveity somewhat when used in turn-based combat systems.
Mature dragons
Unessence, Unmentalism, Unchanneling are not very useful since they take the normal casting time. This can cause complication when facing a larger number of opponents.
Cancel True has the same limitations as the other Cancel XXX spells but is somewhat more effective.
The various Dispell spells are limited due to their duration as well (at least in turn based combat systems).
Old dragons
See above statements.

Essence's Perceptions All spells on this list are pretty much worthless in combat. Before combat, after having found the intruders (without them having found the dragon, they can be used to determine the attacker's tactic, eavesdrop their conversations and scare the hell out of them when the dragon counters their every move before they even did it.
Since the Presence spell range is multiplied by the dragon's level, this spell is really very effective to determine advancing creatures (600'+ for an old dragon).

Specialized spell lists for the various dragons The discussion of spell lists is (if appropriate) divided into a section for the Elemental Companion and a section for Spell Law.

Dragon Type
Aether Drake	Heat Drake	Nether Drake
Air Drake	Inertia Drake	Nexus Drake
Chaos Drake		Plasma Drake
Cold Drake		Sea Drake
Dark Drake		Spirit Drake
Earth Drake		Time Drake
Electrical Drake		Vacid Drake
Fire Drake		Vibration Drake
Gas Drake	Ice Drake	Water Drake
Gravity Drake	Light Drake	Wind Drake

Aether Drake spell lists Etheral Mastery

Young dragons
Shift and Etheral Vision are quite useful.
Mature dragons
Planar Displacement is really fun to cast against the normal non- or semi-spell user.
Old dragons
DISJUNCTION, although it would be a shame to try something like that within the dragon's lair.

Invisible Ways All Invisibility or Unseen spells are great for any kind of protective barrier the dragon has set up.
Every now and then, it enchants another wall, boulder, etc. to become invisible. Thus a glear shot against the dragon could become much more difficult. Most of all, since the dragon can see the objects much more easily than any other non-spell user.