Draconic Combat Tactics: How to Fight as a Blue Dragon in D&D
Now it’s time to die,
Burning in my brain,
I can feel the flames…”
For those of you who’ve stuck around since the beginning, I’ve spoken at length about the fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I’ve been running since the start of lockdown. It’s entitled The Draconomachy, being best described as a Theros-centred adaptation of 5E’s first official campaign, Tyranny of Dragons (with a healthy dose of 300 and Homeric literature to boot). As you can probably imagine from all of that, I’ve been throwing a lot of dragons at my party for them to fight — from the miserably-fated Derriphan to the thoroughly vile Zakharaea.
In the short term, there’ll be three more dragons for them to fight against as the campaign starts to step up. One of them just so happens to be a blue dragon — a desert-dwelling monster, one far more powerful than the hapless Derriphan, and one who knows how to keep the battle on his terms. Thus was I inspired to write about how I intend to play this new foe in the coming wars.
First things first, an elaboration on just what a blue dragon actually is. It is a type of chromatic dragon (i.e. an evil one) that, rather unlike the fire-breathing red monster that is far more well known, exhales bolts of lightning. An adult blue dragon can shoot such a bolt out to a distance of 90 feet (or 28 metres in metric), and an ancient one can electrocute things from as far away as 120ft (37m). It might not seem like a lot, but in D&D terms, that’s practically sniping distance. And according to the Monster Manual itself, a cold-hearted sniper is precisely the manner in which a blue dragon fights:
“A blue dragon is a patient and methodical combatant. When fighting on its own terms, it turns combat into an extended affair of hours or even days, attacking from a distance with volleys of lightning, then flying well out of harm’s reach as it waits to attack again.”
Snipers stalk their prey, selecting their targets with meticulous precision as they await an opportune moment to strike. That moment is heralded only by a puff of red fog as their target perishes, the heart-wrenching crack-bang of the gunshot sounding as the enemy collapses to the ground. Or, in the case of our blue dragon, who we will name Tamborus for the sake of this battle, the crack-bang of a lightning bolt roasting them alive.
With an Intelligence ability score of 16 and a Wisdom score of 15, it is safe to presume that Tamborus is a genius tactician. Thus he would know a) when to strike, and b) who to strike out against to maximise damage. Blowing away the bard is all well and good, but it won’t do much about the wizard hurling fireballs at you like flak shells, nor the cleric who’s keeping everybody alive with healing magic. And Tamborus must pick his targets carefully, for his breath weapon lacks an area of effect — unlike a red dragon’s cone of fire, which allows it to strafe a large cluster of foes like a dive bomber.
Fortunately for him, Tamborus not only has a distinct height advantage against his foes, able to fly well out of bow and spell range, he also has a keen eye — his Perception stat is +12, and his passive Perception is 22. Not to mention, he can make a Perception check as a legendary action. In other words, there’s not much going on that he won’t pick upon immediately. So Tamborus conducts recon from up high, getting a clear picture of who he’s up against.
Sure enough, down in the wind-blasted crags, he spots a party of five. He notices Mireen, a human wizard; Merry, a tabaxi bard; Rust, a warforged cleric; Koal, a kobold barbarian; and Firahel, a wood elf ranger.
Out of this rag-tag strike force, Tamborus instantly identifies Mireen, Rust and Firahel as the greatest threats. Mireen can effortlessly outrange him with her potent magicks, and keep a firm distance between him and herself with magical flight and a boost to her speed. Firahel can likewise shoot him down with her longbow; what’s more, Firahel is an elf, and thus she doesn’t sleep, making her the likeliest candidate for a night watch. Finally, Rust can keep the party alive for a little longer.
As the party prepares for battle upon sighting a dragon, Tamborus compares their strengths and weaknesses. Mireen is a glass cannon: she can hit hard, but can’t afford to take a thumping herself. So is Firahel, though less extremely so. Rust is tough, but his metal armour and body makes an excellent conductor for lightning. Merry can debilitate Tamborus with her enchantment and mind manipulation magic, but that’s just about all she can do — and Tamborus can laugh off her worst with his Legendary Resistance. Koal is an axe-swinging juggernaut on the ground, but has no chance of hitting the dragon when he’s airborne.
Tamborus has chosen his target. He begins his dive, careening towards the party with a well-executed dash action. The party prepares to fight back. Mireen gets her first shot off — a fireball to the dragon’s face. The fireball surges through the air as the dragon grins.
Then, much to her surprise, the fireball phases through an illusion. Her head snaps around to address a rocky outcrop that definitely wasn’t there before. And it appears to be moving. In that split second, she realises — with horror on her face — that the Monster Manual also confirms that Tamborus is an ambush predator:
“When it hunts, a blue dragon buries itself in the desert sand so that only the horn on its nose pokes above the surface, appearing to be an outcropping of stone. When prey draws near, the dragon rises up, sand pouring from its wings like an avalanche as it attacks.”
Now it’s Tamborus’ time to shine on the initiative count. Predictably enough, his first target is the wizard. He splits his maw wide and unleashes a blast of sparking electricity. Mireen beanses the Dexterity saving throw and eats 67 points of lightning damage — one more than she has in hit points. Ouch.
One down, four to go. Tamborus unleashes a wing attack as one of his legendary actions. In an instant he is catapulted forty feet (12m) back into the sky, well out of Koal’s axe range. So far he’s used 10 feet of his movement to burrow out of the ground in his ambush, and uses the remaining 70 to fly behind a hoodoo. Worse still, his wing attack has thrown up a huge cloud of dust. All of a sudden the party finds itself buffeted by the cloud — the DM calls upon a DC 19 Constitution saving throw. Rust and Koal succeed. Merry and Firahel fail and are blinded by the dust.
His turn is complete — and in that time, the effects of his ambush have been devastating. The party’s heaviest hitter has been TKO’d and is in death saves, the other two have been blinded, and Tamborus is out of line of sight. Firahel and Merry stumble out of the cloud as they desperately try to rub the dust from their eyes, while Rust, unable to see through the cloud to find out where the dragon went, uses his action to stabilise Mireen before dragging them out of the cloud. Koal stands guard as he scans the area for the dragon, but he too can’t work out where it’s gone.
Meanwhile Tamborus waits atop the hoodoo with the patience of stone. He has already picked out his next target. He makes a Stealth check and gets 23 — well above his target’s passive perception score. Not that she could do much to see him anyway.
His turn to act has come. Tamborus uses 50 feet of movement to rush his quarry. He makes a Strength check to grapple, contested with hers — 25 vs. 11. He wins.
Koal looks around just in time to watch as the blue dragon snatches up Firahel in his mouth and carries her into the sky, using another wing attack to push himself further upward. The dust cloud is blown away this time, giving Rust the nightmarish vision of his ally being carried off like a rabbit in a hawk’s clutches. Once again Tamborus is 80 feet in the air. Rust acts quickly, firing off a guiding bolt to strike the dragon — he hits! Tamborus takes 17 points of radiant damage and must make a Strength saving throw to maintain his grip on Firahel. One use of Legendary Resistance to succeed automatically, and for a creature that has 225 hit points, a mere 17 is utterly inconsequential. Merry tries to use Dissonant Whispers to the same effect, but Tamborus succeeds on the Intelligence saving throw with a cozy unnatural 20.
Firahel tries to escape Tamborus’ grasp, but with a Strength score of merely 9, there’s no way she’s getting out of that without a crit 20. The dice do not favour her today. Tamborus’ turn comes back with a vengeance. He uses his action to dash upward, reaching a lofty height of 240 feet (73m). His bonus interaction is, quite simply, to open his mouth. The rest of the group can only watch as their ranger plummets to the ground, taking 75 points of falling damage upon striking the crag below.
With Firahel now a crimson smear on the side of a cliff, the party is down to three members. Only Merry and Rust are left as threats for Tamborus to dispatch, and Merry just singled herself out as the main target with a well-aimed arrow. Even with disadvantage at long range, she scores a 19 — the dragon’s exact armour class. His lightning breath is still recharging (no pun intended), so Tamborus elects to use another trick up his scaly sleeve.
Tamborus waves his claw, and all of a sudden a raging storm sphere manifests around the party, encompassing them with reverberating winds. Then Merry is struck by a lightning bolt from the centre of the storm. It’s not as lethal as the bolt that took Mireen out of the fight, but being electrocuted for 13 points of damage still isn’t pleasant.
Rust attempts to land another guiding bolt on the dragon, but flubs the attack roll. Merry too attempts to psyke their foe, but Tamborus’ will is strong. Koal can attack the dragon with nothing but harsh language. Tamborus returns, hits Merry with another bolt from the storm for a far nastier 20 points of damage, then his jaws part. Lightning crackles and resonates before exploding from betwixt his lips, aiming for Rust. Rust makes his Dexterity saving throw — and succeeds with a crit 20! No damage taken.
Tamborus pauses, his draconic intellect whirring as he ponders his next move. Koal and Rust are still healthy. Merry has taken heavy damage from the storm sphere — he makes a Perception check to assess how badly Merry is injured, and learns that she has just 37 hit points remaining.
He weighs his options. If he charges now, he puts himself at risk of permanent injury against Koal’s vicious axeblade and Rust’s mace. But he has already taken a chunk out of Merry with his storm sphere. He could commit fully and easily take out one more party member at great personal risk. Or he could retreat temporarily and give the party a moment’s reprieve before he recharges his lightning breath and dashes in once more.
He elects for the former — but before doing so, he sets off his Frightful Presence, the psychological weapon he’s been saving for this precise moment. Everyone makes a Wisdom saving throw. Merry succeeds, but Rust and Koal fail. Neither can charge towards him while afflicted with dragonfear, but Tamborus knows the clock is ticking. Thus he swoops towards Merry and tears into her with his three primary attacks: one bite and two swipes of his claws. With a +12 to attack, he has no trouble exceeding her armour class (AC), and after a bite followed through with a razor-sharp haymaker, Merry is down. He uses his last attack that turn to rend her further, causing her to fail one of her death saves, before striking fast and hard with two legendary tail attacks to pluck her from the mortal coil.
Rust recovers from his dragonfear just in time to witness the death of a second party member. Mireen is still comatose, with Koal having used his turn to carry her to safety. But Tamborus is still present on the battlefield. Lacking in ranged attacks and being menaced by a dragon, Rust charges with his mace.
Just as Koal recovers, succeeding on his saving throw against Tamborus’ Frightful Presence, he witnesses Rust taking the dragon head on. The two are surprisingly evenly matched: Rust has an AC of 20 and +13 to attack with his mace, one more than Tamborus has. Both have taken some real nicks, though the dragon rests easy knowing that a mace isn’t nearly as lethal as a battleaxe. But Koal is on the move and charging.
Thus Tamborus gets in one more dig with his tail attack, before unleashing his wing attack and flying off into the sky. He returns to the safety of the air to recharge his lightning breath before dive-bombing Rust once more. This time Rust fails his Dexterity save. Badly. In the ground scuffle he got knocked down from 101 hit points to a meagre 59 — and Tamborus’ breath weapon hits him for 68, well and truly putting the cleric into the dirt.
With only Koal remaining out of five, and posing little to no threat to the airborne dragon at that, it is now only a matter of time before Tamborus wears down Koal to the point of death. The battle has been won with a comprehensive TPK, the victorious Tamborus adds their belongings to his treasure hoard, and leaves their bodies for the vultures — except for Mireen. The scrawny wizard will suffice as a snack for the trip home.
Hopefully that mock battle has given DMs some insight into how an adult blue dragon can think quickly, how it assesses its targets, and how it executes its plan. The blue dragons are cunning, ruthless and above all precise — just like a sniper. Hopefully Grexes, Deniz, Sulturim and Eld do better than that quintet when they face Tamborus in The Draconomachy.
Oh, and if you’re interested in playing Tamborus specifically, here’s his statblock, straight from D&D Beyond:
Thank you all for your time, and I shall see you next week.
~ Harry