Although last session was very good,
it was also an example of everything that can be wrong with D&D. Especially
at high level.
The party had an unexpected encounter
with an adult white dragon, mounted by a necromancer. Just the phrase itself
transpires of “awesome”, but mechanically I have to say it was far from that.
First and foremost, when you reach a level where you can have fast paced air
battles, it means the grid becomes useless. It’s a big headache for a DM to
keep track of “who is where”. With a dragon flying at 200 ft per round, and a pegasus
at 120 ft, even if the mage wasn’t knocked out at the beginning of the combat,
there wouldn’t be much the other members could do.
But “the mage being knocked out” is
actually the real problem in all of this. As a DM I hate to use resources
(spells, abilities, whatever) that throw the characters away from the game. I
always disliked “save or die” spells, as well as “lock and don’t blink”. And
the problem with most D&D magic is exactly that. Either you:
a) just cast fireball after fireball;
b) use something you know is harmless,
and therefore pointless;
c) drop an A-bomb that automatically
calls for “Strike! You’re out of the game”.
It’s not possible to house rule this
reality, because it would mean having to change all the spells one by one, probably
rending most of them useless.
Philosophical problems aside, I’m
having a blast portraying the changes in behavior of the pegasus while roaming
in draconic territory. “Let me eat this. Let me eat that. What does it taste
like?” MOST. EPIC. ANIMAL. COMPANION. EVER! =D
