Spoilers! A Cold Dragon against a castle?

[Glorelendil]

By never exposing himself.

"Funny, the last few supply caravans never arrived. Let's send out a patrol."

"That patrol is long overdue, let's send out another one."

"Sir, the men are refusing to go. They say there's a monster lurking in the forest."

"Nonsense! I'll lead them myself...."

Dragons are calculating and patient, and only rarely overreach.

[Otaku-sempai]

Failing the Corruption test against the Dragon-spell paralyzes the victim until the dragon is dead, or a powerful Wizard uses his abilities to dispell the enchantment. Imagine that, with 10 Hate points, the Forest Dragon could paralyze 5 soldiers (or more) every day. As stated before, time is on her side. Also, this is a forest fortress, not Minas Tirith. How many able men is a garrison composed of? 50? 100? Give her ten days and everyone will be all about cowering and shuting their eyes at any movement coming from the forest.

Ah. Thanks for the clarification, I had only glossed over the description, thinking that it was the same as the Dragon-spell attributed to Raenar:

**Dragon-spell: during combat, reduce the dragon's Hate point score by one to force one companion who is within his baleful gaze to make a Corruption check against TN 16. If failed, the companion gains one Shadow point and cannot attack the dragon for a number of rounds equal to 10 minus his Wisdom rating. The dragon can spend several Hate points to affect an equal number of companions at the same time. If used during an encounter, companions put under the dragon-spell feel compelled to answer truthfully to questions for the duration of the encounter.

Definitely less effective than the Forest Dragon's spell-ability, although her spell-effect is only permanent if the subject fails his/her Corruption check (TN 14). However, if we were to convert the Forest Dragon into a Cold-drake then I would alter her dragon-spell as above to reflect that change.

[Corvo]

Thank you all for the suggestions!

About the "Cold Dragon" thing: I was under the impression that, in Tolkien's works, a "cold" dragon is one incapable of breathing fire.
Maybe I'm wrong: these days I'm writing from mobile, away from my books, and a lot of my texts are translated, so there can be some differences.

[Glorelendil]

I think that would be a Temperate Dragon.

[Otaku-sempai]

About the "Cold Dragon" thing: I was under the impression that, in Tolkien's works, a "cold" dragon is one incapable of breathing fire.
Maybe I'm wrong: these days I'm writing from mobile, away from my books, and a lot of my texts are translated, so there can be some differences.

Well, quoting Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth:

There appear to have been three strains of dragons: the Urulóki, the winged dragons, and the cold-drakes. The first of the Urulóki, the fire-drakes of the North, was Glaurung (q.v.). They breathed fire but did not fly; they were the most common type of dragon in the First Age. The winged dragons, who also breathed fire, first appeared in the Great Battle, but thereafter are not mentioned until TA 2570, when they reappeared in the Ered Mithrin and harassed the Dwarves and the Eothéod. The greatest winged dragon of the Third Age was Smaug, who took Erebor in 2770 and was slain in 2941. The cold-drakes were found only in the Ered Mithrin; they probably did not breathe fire.

So, we can make a case that the Forest Dragon (and by extension Scatha) are Urulóki (Quenya: 'hot serpents'), a term that first appears in The Silmarillion so that TOR uses 'Long-worms' as an alternative. This also suggests that the Forest Dragon should be able to breathe fire; perhaps her fire was quenched during her long sleep and she has not yet been able to rekindle it.

It should be noted that David Day, in his A Tolkien Bestiary, reckons Scatha the Worm as one of the Cold-drakes rather than including him among the Urulóki. If this is correct then we would not expect either Scatha or the Forest Dragon to be able to breathe fire.

[Finrod Felagund]

According to the RAW (p99 Darkening of Mirkwood), the Forest Dragon doesn't have fiery breath.

[Corvo]

According to the RAW (p99 Darkening of Mirkwood), the Forest Dragon doesn't have fiery breath.

Yeah, this is the reason I thought it was one of the cold drakes

[Otaku-sempai]

According to the RAW (p99 Darkening of Mirkwood), the Forest Dragon doesn't have fiery breath.

Yes. That suggests that David Day might be more correct in A Tolkien Bestiary when he reckons Scatha (and by extension the Forest Dragon) as one of the Cold-drakes. I've edited my previous post to include this interpretation. His break-down of dragon-kind is similar to Foster's but not identical:

The "Quenta Silmarillion" tells how, in the First Age of Sun, Morgoth the Dark Enemy hid himself in the Pits of Angband and wrought his masterpieces of evil from flame and sorcery. These dark jewels of Morgoth's genius were the Great Worms called Dragons. He made three kinds: great serpents that slithered, those that walked on legs, and those that flew with wings like the Bat. Of these kinds there were two types: the Cold-drakes, who fought with fang and claw, and the miraculous Urulóki Fire-drakes, who destroyed with breath of flame. All Dragons were the embodiment of the chief evils of Men, Elves and Dwarves, and so were great in their destruction of those races.

Day numbers Scatha among the Cold-drakes, which would make the Forest Dragon the same. The records of Scatha the Worm are so scant that he could be considered either a Cold-drake or one of the Urulóki. That said, TOR seems to firmly place the Forest Dragon and Scatha in the latter group (as the Long-worms).

[Arthadan]

Some more ideas from the top of my hat:

- The dragon destroys/poisons the water source or flood supplies in a first unexpected attack and then waits until the defenders are weak to finish them off.

- A sizeable band of Orcs is causing problems on the road, the main force of the fortress is lead to a trap and destroyed by the dragon. Then, before news reach the fortress, the beast storms the gates.

Anyway a surprise attack may work, depending on the alert level of the fortress. If the dragon manages to block the door of the barracks when the main force is inside (probable at night) odds are he could take care of the few nightwatch and let the rest starve to death. Everything depends on the exact layout of the castle.

[Glorelendil]

Ok, NOW we can revive this thread and have a proper discussion about dragons!