Fishing in D&D

[HCGLNS]

I can't believe its taken me this long to think of this, but since it came up in our recent session I thought I would share. In D&D 3.0/.5 there became a habit of adventurers flying all over the place after a certain level. It seems to me that after a while flying monsters would get accustomed to this and would start praying on flying people.

So why not take advantage of this and start fishing for dragons in the air by levitating livestock (or villagers) into the air, but strapped to them is an invisible chain and hook. Dragon flys by and sees a floating snack and suddenly gets caught and slammed into the ground!

 

[Gusto]

Dragons are generally pretty intelligent. If they see a cow floating in the air they're likely gonna realize something is up.

 

[Shawn]

I guarantee that a dragon isn't going to fall for a floating cow attached to a metal hook and chain. If anything you're just giving yourself away and he'll follow the chain down, find you, barbecue you (or whatever effect is associated with it's distinct breath weapon), devour you then, if it's feeling particularly hungry, reel in the cow.

You might be able to pull it off with a flying creature that has animal intelligence. But dragons are smart enough to talk and cast spells. You'd have to set up something less obvious as a trap for them.

 

[HCGLNS]

Well I have always ignored the constant stat aspect of monsters. Why can't I have a brilliant zombie or a dumb dragon. But for smart dragons, clearly you would have to condition it to expect floating cows and after months of levitating livestock up for free, sneak up one with the hook.

And who would turn down a free steak dinner?

 

[Wahad]

I guarantee that a dragon isn't going to fall for a floating cow attached to a metal hook and chain. If anything you're just giving yourself away and he'll follow the chain down, find you, barbecue you (or whatever effect is associated with it's distinct breath weapon), devour you then, if it's feeling particularly hungry, reel in the cow.

You might be able to pull it off with a flying creature that has animal intelligence. But dragons are smart enough to talk and cast spells. You'd have to set up something less obvious as a trap for them.

I think this is true, and you're probably better off fishing for drakes instead of full grown dragons.

 

[Chibibar]

Well I have always ignored the constant stat aspect of monsters. Why can't I have a brilliant zombie or a dumb dragon. But for smart dragons, clearly you would have to condition it to expect floating cows and after months of levitating livestock up for free, sneak up one with the hook.

And who would turn down a free steak dinner?

well.. you could have a dumb dragon (it is possible) but a brilliant zombie... not so much since their brain is technically dead and animated by magic (In D&D terms)

The flying cow/hook CAN work on younger dragons but of course this could launch into a campaign of a pissed off parents/relatives.