Young Silver Dragon

A young silver dragon on the party's side is a polite knight in scale that wants to know everyone's name before the fight starts. Lawful Good, History +6, Charisma 19, fluent in Common and Draconic. Most parties meet one in human form first, sharing a fire on the road, and the reveal comes when something attacks the camp and the traveler stands up taller than the trees. Play that reveal as the first scene, not the second.

In combat, lead with Cold Breath if it has charged. 30-foot cone, DC 17 Con save, 49 cold on a fail and half on a success. Recharge 5 to 6 means it'll likely come back, so use the first one on the enemy formation that hasn't spread yet. Save Paralyzing Breath for the moment a single boss enemy needs to be locked down: same cone, DC 17, two failed saves and the target is Paralyzed for up to a minute. Paralyzed means melee within 5 ft. is auto-crit, so the rogue should be standing next to that target before the dragon breathes.

Multiattack is three Rend at +10 for 15 slashing each, with the option to swap one Rend for a Paralyzing Breath. The dragon will not stand and trade. Fly 80 ft., dive in for the Multiattack and pull back out of melee by end of turn. Passive Perception 18 plus Blindsight 30 ft. and Darkvision 120 ft. mean ambushes against the dragon basically don't work. Cold immunity means the wizard can drop Cone of Cold through the dragon's space safely. Tell that player. They will love it.

The dragon will leave the moment the threat ends. Silver dragons consider themselves protectors, not party members, so it gives a brief blessing or a warning about what comes next, then takes off. Have the goodbye written ahead of time. Improvised dragon dialogue dies on the table; one prepared line lives.

A hostile young silver dragon is rare but not impossible. Maybe the party serves a patron the dragon's order has condemned, maybe a relic they carry registers as evil at History +6 distance, maybe a shapeshifter has impersonated them at a previous court. Sell the misunderstanding for at least one scene. A silver dragon that tries to kill the party should believe, with full evidence, that they are the worse option.

Once it commits, run it like a paladin on wings. Open with Cold Breath, the 30-foot cone, DC 17 Con save, 49 cold on a fail. At AC 18 and 168 HP it can take a round of return fire, so it will land for the Multiattack: three Rend at +10 for 15 slashing each, or two Rends and a Paralyzing Breath into the cone. Paralyzed PCs in melee with the dragon eat auto-crit Rends from any Bloodied frontliner the dragon can pull along, and from the dragon itself on its next turn. The whole combo is built to remove one PC from the fight cleanly without killing them; the dragon prefers prisoners to corpses.

It will accept surrender. At any point the party drops weapons and yields, the dragon stops, and the encounter shifts back to social. If the party refuses and brings it to Bloodied, the dragon flies up to a kilometer and reports back to its order. Silver dragons do not die for a misunderstanding. They return with allies and proof.

Have the dragon name what it thinks the party did wrong before the first attack. Players will argue with the accusation in character, which is the right kind of fight to start a combat with.