Dragon Questions

[BaldHero]

What kind of range do you suppose dragons have? If we consider their lair to be the center of their domain, what kind of radius would the beast patrol or hunt in, or claim as it's own territory? For such a massive predator, what sounds believable for an adult or older black dragon?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

A dragon that can sleep for decades without food and eats human virgins probably doesn't need a huge hunting range. However, they do tend to claim ownership of land, and soon no sentient beings will form large settlements or farms there.

 

[Wippit Guud]

For an adult black dragon... if it's the only dragon in the swamp, it'll claim the whole thing.

 

[Aluvial]

I watched a special on Discovery last night about leopards. A female marks her territory at 25 square miles!

That's one leopard.

One Dragon = whatever one dragon wants. I would imagine at least 50 to 200 square miles. After that, even if you are a dragon and can fly, you are covering way to large of an area to manage.

Especially since dragons don't like to leave their hoards for too long. Usually only to hunt.

Of course, I have a dragon that holds a political position and a large country in Greyhawk now... Has fealty from a group of humanoids in the area.

His domain in this case is enormous.

Aluvial

 

[AGGEMAM]

I would say it depends on its flyspeed, an adult or older dragon would probably not control an area larger than it can get to the outer boundeary and back in a day. So an area of a radius of its daily overland flyspeed divided with two.

 

[Wippit Guud]

I don't think they'd be limited by speed... the majority od dragons who warrant having 'range' would have subordinates who would be able to look after their affairs in places quite a distance from their lair. Ranges would probably be more defined by geologial stuff - black would control an entire swamp, buut won't care much about non-swpam stuff... unless, like in Dragonlance 5th age, they started to ex[pand the swamp. Likewise green dragons would control a large forest, blues a desert. The only exception really would be reds, they'd just want to control everything.

Overland movement divided by 2 is a good starting place, but those values could doublee or even triple depending on how many, and what type, of creatures call that dragon leige.