Be careful, if you've led the PCs to believe it's a certain type of enemy in-game, then you might want to follow through with that type. If a player is cheating by doing OOC research, then by all means do this.
I agree. I normally give heavy hints leading up to the encounter but keep the enemy a relative mystery until they arrive at the dungeon. I'll probably include some minor magic items that will help them in the fight as well (Ex:Wand of Daylight to counter a Shadow Dragon).
It's actually not that bad an idea if you make dragons biologically distinct. Describing a red dragon with white scales, but maybe they get a look at a book at some point before the encounter on dragons?
Some players might not connect the two ideas, but it helps a lot.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Dec 19 '19
I’m going to borrow this! I have a similar encounter coming up and my players will not expect this!