Young Red Dragon

Large dragon, chaotic evil

Armor Class: 18; natural armor
Hit Points: 178; 17d10 + 85
Speed: 40 ft., climb 40 ft., fly 80 ft.

STR +6
DEX 0
CON +5
INT +2
WIS 0
CHA +4

Saving Throws: Dex +4, Con +9, Wis +4, Cha +8
Skills: Perception +8, Stealth +4
Damage Immunities: fire
Senses: blindsight 30 ft., darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages: Common, Draconic

Challenge 10 5,900 XP · Proficiency +4

Actions

Multiattack

The dragon makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.

Bite

Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) fire damage.

Claw

Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d6 + 6) slashing damage.

Fire Breath (Recharge 5–6)

The dragon exhales fire in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 56 (16d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

How to run it

Fire Breath is 16d6 in a 30-foot cone at DC 17, which averages 56 and will drop most level 8 characters who fail. It recharges on a 5 or 6, so expect it two or three times in a fight. Everything else the dragon does is filler between breaths.

It flies at 80 feet with blindsight 30 and darkvision 120. A young red dragon that stands on the ground trading greatsword blows is being played as a large lizard. It should breathe, fly out of reach, and come back when the breath recharges.

Building the encounter

One young red dragon is a hard fight for a party of four at level 8 and a deadly one at level 6. It is the first dragon most parties fight and it should feel like it.

It needs airspace. A cavern with a high ceiling, a mountainside, a ruined tower. Fighting one indoors with a ten-foot ceiling removes its flight and turns a memorable encounter into a damage race it will lose.

What to pair it with

Kobolds, or a cult that worships it. Anything that occupies the party's action economy while the dragon controls the range.

Its lair is the real partner. A young dragon has no lair actions, so terrain has to do that job: chasms, unstable ground, a hoard it will defend rather than abandon.

Reskins

It reskins less well than most, because a dragon is a dragon and players know what they are looking at. Changing the damage type is the natural move: the same stat block with cold, lightning or acid is a different dragon entirely.

If you want it to be something other than a dragon, the shape is a flying artillery piece with a heavy melee fallback, which also describes a wyvern-like thing, a bound elemental, or a war construct.

Commonly played wrong

Recharge 5 to 6 means rolling a d6 at the start of each of its turns, not waiting a fixed number of rounds. Some fights get two breaths back to back, and that is correct.

It has fire immunity, not resistance, and a bite that adds fire damage. Parties who lean on fire spells against a red dragon are doing nothing, which is the sort of thing worth letting them discover through a scorch mark on the walls rather than mid-combat.

Compared to others at this CR

At CR 10 the young red dragon is the benchmark. 178 hit points, AC 18, three attacks and an area attack that can end the fight in one round.

Against its adult version seven CRs higher, this is the same creature without legendary actions or lair actions, which is a much larger gap than the hit point difference suggests. A young dragon is a hard fight; an adult is a different category of problem.

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