I can also give a 5 hour class on the matter if you're interested.
this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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I've played the Lost Mine of Phandelver beginner box campaign for 5e twice. Both times, I ran the dragon that appears in it by adapting this guide. It turns what would otherwise be a very dry and boring encounter in a very enclosed space into something that absolutely terrifies the players.
Having checked out that comment: Yes, that's absolutely the correct way to run your dragons! Making use of that intelligence of theirs, using every tool at their disposal, is the difference between a forgettable one-off piece of the day, and an encounter with the king or queen of fantasy itself, personified.
Of all monsters that you absolutely must not disrespect, either as a player when you encounter them or as a DM doing worldbuilding and running an encounter, it's the dragons. They're some of the only monsters that I will allow to go no-holds-barred against players, because even if a dragon does kill a player: If they do it with enough style, strategy and awe? Then that PC can live on in heroic infamy, possibly become a defining part of the party's story. The PCs see one and know it's time to bring their A-game, and if they win, they know that they seriously earned it. There's no way you can get that kind of impact by just slinging your dragon into melee with the fighter and watching its' HP tick down as the Action Economy takes effect.