Draconic Combat Tactics: How to Play a White Dragon Against Your D&D Party
Last week I showcased a short battle between an adult blue dragon and a hapless group of imaginary players — which resulted in the players being brutally slaughtered. Turns out throwing a giant, lightning-breathing flying desert lizard at them doesn’t end well. So in today’s session, I will be doing something totally different. Today I will throw a giant, ice-breathing flying snow lizard at another party.
But Harry, how does this lizard differ from the first lizard? For one, a white dragon lives in the opposite climate to its blue counterpart. Blues love deserts and badlands, while whites are most at home in frozen plains, glaciers and alpine forests. In the former two there’s a little bit of overlap as far as terrain goes — ice crags are just as good places for a dragon to hide as sandstone ones, except they’re a lot colder.
Where the real, tangible differences lie are the dragons themselves. Blue dragons are quick-thinking and patient, using illusion and stealth to get the upper hand before striking with swift precision. A white dragon’s idea of defeating a powerful foe is rather more straightforward — breathe on it and then claw at it until it stops flailing about.
According to the Monster Manual, adult white dragons have an Intelligence stat of 8, and a Wisdom stat of 12 — a stat of 10 represents the average Joe. White dragons aren’t great innovators, and military geniuses among them are few and far between at best. What they do know, however, they know in great detail, as is pointed out:
“Though only moderately intelligent, white dragons have extraordinary memories. They recall every slight and defeat, and have been known to conduct malicious vendettas against creatures that have offended them.”
Aside from fuelling their vicious, bestial personalities, the white dragon’s eidetic memory represents an interesting facet about it in the tactical field. Merothrax, our guinea pig for today, doesn’t just remember how Bingusbongus the Half-Orc Fighter laughed at him and called him a turkey-necked pansy — he also remembers what weapon Bingusbongus had (a shovel), how he moved in a fight, what he did in reaction to Merothrax’s movements and attacks, and what colour his armour was (purple).
Unfortunately for the party of four that have just wandered into Merothrax’s hunting grounds, one of them just so happens to be a half-orc fighter — Doof McMurder. Doof is accompanied by a bugbear warlock named Wumbo, and two goblins — Turnip and Zapad — a ranger and a rogue respectively.
With his keen hearing, having a passive Perception of 21, Merothrax can hear Zapad complaining about how his feet are soaked from a boot-full of snow — and the resonant crack of Doof smacking him about the head, ordering him to shut up and keep marching. As the best-acquainted with this part of the world, Turnip is leading them through an icy ravine onto a frozen lake, this being the fastest route to the nearest settlement they can dump their latest ivory haul, which is what has caught Merothrax’s attention to start with:
“White dragons love the cold sparkle of ice and favor treasure with similar qualities, particularly diamonds. However, in their remote arctic climes, the treasure hoards of white dragons more often contain walrus and mammoth tusk ivory, whale-bone sculptures, figureheads from ships, furs, and magic items seized from overly bold adventurers.”
As they march onto the lake, the white dragon decides this is the best place to strike. He makes a Dexterity (Stealth) check to creep up on them from behind and erase them with a blast of ice breath, and he earns himself a comfortable 23 on his check.
The only person who realises that there’s something descending upon them is Zapad, who with the Observant feat has a passive Perception of 24. As he continues grumbling out of Doof’s earshot about his sodden feet, he glances down and notices a darkening shadow enveloping the party. Immediately his eyes widen and he spins around to the source of the shadow — only to squint as he notices the creature silhouetted against the blinding sun.
So that Zapad can determine what it is, DM calls for a Wisdom (Perception) check with disadvantage. First roll is a 18, which easily clears the dice check threshold (DC) of 15 … but the second is a natural 1. In other words, Zapad knows that something is swooping down, but hasn’t got a clue what it might be.
Curious to see what the goblin is whimpering about now, Doof does the same, making a Perception check. He hauls in a less-than-terrible 16 on his lowest roll, which means he knows for certain just how horribly boned his companions are about to be. All the faff has given Merothrax the time he needs to get in the first dig. He elects to use his Cold Breath — he exhales a blast of freezing air laced with razor-sharp ice shards.
Zapad makes his roll with confidence, landing on an 18. It doesn’t meet the DC of 19, but it doesn’ t matter. After all, since he’s a rogue, his Evasion lets him take only half damage from a dragon’s breath — right? Well, it would if the cold breath called upon a Dexterity save. No, Merothrax’s unique breath weapon demands a Constitution saving throw. As he receives an unpleasant 52 points of cold damage, Zapad gets exactly three femtoseconds to regret making Constitution his dump stat before the glasslike ice shards rip his carcass to shreds. Wumbo, having a similarly lousy health pool, also finds himself being reduced to a bloodstained Azuma Makoto classic.
Though reduced to half their numbers immediately, both Doof and Turnip are made of sterner stuff, taking a less-than-deadly 26 points of cold damage. If Doof can wolf down a bowl of Obaya Uday’s Snakemeat and Blood Pepper Vindaloo and only destroy two chamberpots afterwards, this dragon won’t even faze him.
Turnip, however, has bigger problems than a dodgy curry. Initiative has been rolled, and he’s close to the bottom of the pecking order — just before Merothrax. Doof, however, has had a cracking roll of a natural 20 and thus gets in the first few wallops. He rolls to attack and earns himself an unnatural 20, easily clearing Merothrax’s armour class (AC) of 18, and strikes with his greataxe for a neat 17 points of slashing damage.
There’s just one small but nonetheless ever-so-crucial problem — as he strikes, Doof finds himself overtaken by an overwhelming chill. Merothrax’s armoured scales seem to shimmer and lash out at the half-orc, and he takes an automatic 20 points of cold damage. Wait, what? What gives?
Remember how dragons can be innate spellcasters? Well, Merothrax did some remembering from his first encounter with Bingusbongus and recalled how he favoured melee over all else. So Merothrax has evolved a nasty magic trick for anyone who thinks they can out-pummel him:
A protective magical force surrounds [him], manifesting as a spectral frost ... [Merothrax] gain(s) 5 temporary hit points for the duration. If a creature hits [him] with a melee attack while [he has] these hit points, the creature takes 5 cold damage.
Merothrax innately has Armour of Agathys, a first-level spell, to cast at 4th-level. His icy armour thus grants him an extra 20 hit points on top of his existing 220 — and when someone gives him a good whack, they themselves take 20 points of damage. Perfect innate spell for a draconic brawler whose modus operandi equates to beating the bejesus out of everything that looks like it might be edible.
Speaking of beatings, Merothrax lets Doof flub his next attack roll with a less than stellar 17 before delivering a powerful tail attack, battering the half-orc for 19 points of bludgeoning damage with a legendary action. He then turns his attention to the quivering goblin ranger and glowers at him with his Frightful Presence. Both Doof and Turnip fail their Wisdom saves miserably.
Merothrax grins at the goblin as his jaws part, the ranger knowing all too well he’s about to be screwed harder than a tool company in the midst of an economic crash. And sure enough, with 19 points of piercing, 6 points of cold, and 27 points of slashing damage from all three of Merothrax’s attacks, Turnip is slam-dunked into the ice.
Badly wounded by the dragon, but still fighting strong, Doof decides to resolve the impending TPK the only way he knows how: cheesing it as quickly as he possibly can. He uses his action to Disengage before turning tail and running for his life back to the forest. In an apparent show of mercy, Merothrax decides to let the puny half-orc live. He’s got what he wants — the ivory haul — and he’s even got some snacks out of it in the form of the bugbear and the other goblin, both of whom have failed their death saves and will need new character sheets. And a good predator never overhunts, especially since Merothrax knows that vengeful adventurers bring more food and treasure right to him.
While the rest of the party is angrily cursing out Doof for his cowardice, Merothrax scoops up his loot and takes off. Tonight will be a good night.
Hopefully this swift and savage battle has given you, the DM, an idea of how a white dragon hunts and operates through the course of an encounter — as it was intended. And as with Tamborus last week, here is a stat block from D&D Beyond if you wanted to incorporate Merothrax specifically:
Thank you all for reading, and I will see you all tomorrow. I’ve got something interesting planned, so keep your eyes open…
~ Harry