Desi and Kara vs the Adult White Dragon

Desi and Kara are dealing with a white dragon that's been terrorizing the Ten Towns. Diplomacy has failed, because it's a white dragon. They've cornered it in its lair: a snowy, wind-swept mountaintop.

5e logic says this encounter is at -2 for the PCs already, but we'll go ahead and add +4 to the dragon for fun, making it a -6 encounter. Uh oh, scary.

Status

• Desi
  • Mana: 1/10
  • Hits taken:
    • Heavy 1
  • Armor hits:
    • Heavy 1
    • Moderate 1
• Kara
  • Mana: 1/10
• Dragon
  • Hits taken:
    • Light 7
    • Moderate 6
    • Heavy 5
  • Legendary resist used: 1/3

Preparation

They are attacking the Hydra in its lair, and are therefore at a disadvantage. However, they've had a chance to prepare. Kara scouted the area, finding large numbers of frozen and skeletal remains scattered about, suitable for reanimation. The lair is large enough for her to find a secluded sniper nest; she does so before Desi begins combat by walking right in and challenging it openly.

Round 1

Desdemona

Desi casts Reanimate, raising three frost wights (CR 3). She then casts Pestilence on the dragon (DC 23).

Dragon

Lair action: freezing fog, 20-ft radius, centered on Desi (she passes the save, mitigating damage entirely).

Dragon uses breath weapon on Desi and the wights.

• Desi soaks at a 30, way more than enough to mitigate to a moderate hit. Her heavy armor mitigates down to zero, suffering a moderate hit.
• Wights are immune.

Dragon burrows 30-ft under the snowy surface.

Kara

Kara uses her psychic focus to enhance her Ranged Weapons skill, gaining advantage. She readies an action to shoot the dragon when it appears.

Round 2

Lair

Jagged ice shards strike Desi and the wights...

But Kara interrupts with a 22 initiative roll!

Kara uses Gravitation to redirect the shards. They miss.

(The shards were going to kill all 3 wights and cause another hit to Desi's armor)

Desi

Desi advances out of the freezing fog with her retinue. She readies to charge when the dragon becomes visible.

Dragon

Ongoing diseases: 3 failures (+6 vs 23). 3 light hits.

Kara fires her plasma rifle, hitting a 30. Heavy damage with a sneak attack! Dragon fails to Soak, but uses legendary resistance to pass instead, suffering a heavy hit.

Desi charges, hitting with a 21, inflicting a heavy hit, plus a light hit from Blood Boil. Dragon fails to mitigate both.

Dragon attacks Desi:

• Bite: 25 vs 21, hit, soak failed. Armor mitigates heavy to light, and suffers a heavy hit.
• Claw 1: 13 vs 21, miss.
• Claw 2: nat 20, critical hit! Armor has no heavy hits left! Desi suffers a heavy hit!

Wights

Wights move into position around the dragon, flanking it.

• Wight A hits! Mitigated to light damage.
• Wight B hits! Mitigated to light damage.
• Wight C misses.

Round 3

Ongoing

Dragon successfully ends Shadow Plague.

Dragon suffers 2 light hits (one rolls over).

Lair

An ice wall forms, protecting the dragon's flanks from the wights.

Desi

The wights use Ice Walk to effortlessly climb the ice wall, finding themselves atop it. They then fall like rag dolls into the dragon's space, as commanded by Desi.

Desi casts Corpse Explosion on Wight B. The explosion strikes wights A and B, causing them to explode as well. All together, the dragon suffers 3 moderate hits from the explosions, and 3 light hits from Blood Boil.

This would be bad, so the dragon attempts to interrupt. Success, on 5 vs 2!

Dragon recharges breath weapon, and breathes in Desi's face for heavy cold damage.

Kara attempts to interrupt, easily doing so at a 21. She uses Time Hop to disappear Desi from reality for a round. The breath weapon does no damage, and the Corpse Explosions still go off.

Dragon

Legendary: uses Detect and notices Kara.

Uses frightful presence on Kara. She would fail on a 2, but this is considered a psychic attack, so she can use a defense mode. She chooses Empty Mind, becoming immune to the attack, but unable to exert mental control or use telepathy.

Kara

Shoots the dragon with a plasma rifle, missing at a 17. Drops down to snow below, absorbing all damage with Absorb Momentum, hides at a 25.

Round 4

Ongoing

Dragon suffers 2 light damage from disease (rolling over into heavy).

Lair

Kara is spotted, and is targeted by a fog cloud. She passes the save against damage.

Kara

Kara draws her plasma blade and charges, using Absorb Momentum to blast her forward (she can gain either extended range, advantage to hit, or bypassing AOOs; she chooses the latter). She attacks, using Hypercognition to gain advantage, hitting at a 26. Mitigation cannot save the dragon. Kara slays it, popping Desi back from the continuum just in time to witness her awesomeness.

After Combat

Desi casts Death Pact on the dragon's corpse to heal her heavy hit.