D&D General Are dragons wings too small/little?

[Infected Plague Rat]

I look at dragon art and I notice that the wings of dragon are pretty small for such a large creature.
Shouldn't the wings have more surface volume? I know it is all fantasy and such, but it just seems to defy the laws of physics.
It kind of reminds me of an Amnizu, although I don't know if they can actually fly.

Shouldn't the wings of dragons be larger, plus extend down into their tails for more muscle and attachment to the body for longer wings?

 

[Leatherhead]

First of all, they do defy the laws of Physics.
Second of all, they should be bigger, because bigger wings are more intimidating.

 

[ccs]

It's called M A G I C.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Yes, dragon wings are too small for them to fly under natural laws. It's the same problem as giants standing under their own strength.

The issue is endemic to fantasy. If you tried to change it, it would look weird.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Dragons can't fly and humans can't shoot lightning from their fingertips.

It aint called fantasy for nothing.

 

[Bacon Bits]

humans can't shoot lightning from their fingertips.

I mean, you can. Once.

 

[dave2008]

I look at dragon art and I notice that the wings of dragon are pretty small for such a large creature.
Shouldn't the wings have more surface volume? I know it is all fantasy and such, but it just seems to defy the laws of physics.
It kind of reminds me of an Amnizu, although I don't know if they can actually fly.

Shouldn't the wings of dragons be larger, plus extend down into their tails for more muscle and attachment to the body for longer wings?

Yes and no. Dragon wings are to small to make them actual fliers; however, they can't realistic be big enough (and strong enough) to actually enable a creature that size to fly. The largest flying creatures of all time maybe weighed 500 lbs. An adult dragon is probably a least 10,000 lbs. Therefore an adult dragon (about 15 feet long + neck + tail) would need a wingspan of approximately 700 feet to have the same weight to wing surface area. That is all kinds of impossible and would just look bad.

Thankfully there is an easy solution.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

And beholders shouldn't can float in the air, nor the floating islands from Pandora (James Cameron's avatar).

Really winged creatures as dragons, pegasus or gryphons can fly against natural laws because there are midichlorians within their cells who allow an anti-gravity effect like the carvorite minerals.

 

[Oofta]

The largest flying animals were pterosaurs. The largest ones we know of had a wingspan of a small plane and when on the ground were probably about as tall as a giraffe. The wings in proportion to their overall body length wasn't really all that large, but they were almost all wing and they had hollow bones. In addition, there's no way a flying creature could have forelimbs like a dragon - there's no place for the muscle to attach.

But dragons? Magic. After all we are talking about a creature that breaths fire. Oh, and just because I've always found pterosaurs fascinating I've included a couple of images