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

[Seramus]

Dragons are more like zeppelins.

The chemical process that lets them breathe keeps them afloat, and the wings are just for propulsion and maneuvering.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Dragons are more like zeppelins.

The chemical process that lets them breathe keeps them afloat, and the wings are just for propulsion and maneuvering.

You watched that movie too didnt you?

 

[Oofta]

If dragons are just zeppelins and the hydrogen is propulsion does that mean that they breath fire out of their posteriors?

 

[Tonguez]

Simplified theory:

Young dragons can fly without issue.
Old dragons can fly because they've flown their whole lives and aren't about to let a little physics tell them what they can and can't do.

Thats not a bad proposition actually. I dont like colour coded dragons, so I decided that in my game all dragons breath/spray acidic gas and other ‘effects’ (lightning, fire etc) are uses of magic (or alchemy)

having small dragons being able to fly naturally but larger dragons being ‘naturally’ land bound Wyrms would work too, of course once a dragon gets to its Wyrm stage its magical powerz is such that flight is a minor abilty really

If dragons are just zeppelins and the hydrogen is propulsion does that mean that they breath fire out of their posteriors?

No, just the noxious fumes

 

[dave2008]

Why would anyone know or care how much they weigh? It's not like they're going to be put on a scale any time soon. It doesn't have to make a difference on how strong they are (because magic).

I care about the mass because I want my dragons to be powerful, F=ma. The mass is important.

Personally I like the idea of GoT dragons with their extremely heavy "iron" bones, thus needing to be even more powerfully magical!

 

[Leatherhead]

If dragons are just zeppelins and the hydrogen is propulsion does that mean that they breath fire out of their posteriors?

Let's not bring up dragon cloacas, that way lies madness.

 

[Oofta]

I care about the mass because I want my dragons to be powerful, F=ma. The mass is important.

Personally I like the idea of GoT dragons with their extremely heavy "iron" bones, thus needing to be even more powerfully magical!

But mass and weight are not the same thing. After all, nobody pushes around a dragon!

Which just means that you choose to have dragons in your world have flight based on downward force generated by their wings along with magic keeping them aloft.

 

[Oofta]

No, just the noxious fumes

Well, my ... friend ... used to generate fire with the aid of a lighter from noxious fumes so who says you can't have the best of both worlds?

 

[Son of the Serpent]

If dragons are just zeppelins and the hydrogen is propulsion does that mean that they breath fire out of their posteriors?

Its from a fairly absurd animated movie

The wings are for direction and propulsion

The chemical reaction is for bouyancy

They just ignore the fact that fire breathing would push backward

 

[Beleriphon]

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.

Dragons are obviously rocket powered then