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<blockquote data-quote="Werebat" data-source="post: 5475934" data-attributes="member: 40158">Calling old/powerful dragons &quot;forces of nature&quot; is the way to go here, I think.&nbsp; One thing to remember is that dragons are in fact semi-social, and have their own conflicts amongst themselves.&nbsp; It may well be that most dragons don't survive long past the &quot;adult&quot; stage; only the exceptionally powerful, lucky, and careful ones get to be really, really big.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because the rest are wiped out by OTHER DRAGONS.&nbsp; The ones that get to be beyond the power level of E6 characters to deal with physically tend to be the ones who avoid combat in the first place (not always, but TEND to be).&nbsp; The rootin' tootin' breath a-blazin' Huge Red who terrorizes townships for fun is going to attract the attention of other dragons who are interested in his hoard; some of these (particularly metallics) might even be willing to work together in order to do so.&nbsp; He isn't going to live to be Gargantuan.Smaug blew a town apart, and could do it again -- but he didn't bother.&nbsp; He was quite content to sleep away most of his time in Lonely Mountain, rolling around on his hoard.&nbsp; Sure, he plundered from time to time, but never frequently enough that it was considered worth the risk of dealing with him.&nbsp; He was relatively smart -- his one mistake being that he took a fortress from dwarves and didn't wipe out the ruling family of the place.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Werebat, post: 5475934, member: 40158"] Calling old/powerful dragons "forces of nature" is the way to go here, I think. One thing to remember is that dragons are in fact semi-social, and have their own conflicts amongst themselves. It may well be that most dragons don't survive long past the "adult" stage; only the exceptionally powerful, lucky, and careful ones get to be really, really big. Why? Because the rest are wiped out by OTHER DRAGONS. The ones that get to be beyond the power level of E6 characters to deal with physically tend to be the ones who avoid combat in the first place (not always, but TEND to be). The rootin' tootin' breath a-blazin' Huge Red who terrorizes townships for fun is going to attract the attention of other dragons who are interested in his hoard; some of these (particularly metallics) might even be willing to work together in order to do so. He isn't going to live to be Gargantuan. Smaug blew a town apart, and could do it again -- but he didn't bother. He was quite content to sleep away most of his time in Lonely Mountain, rolling around on his hoard. Sure, he plundered from time to time, but never frequently enough that it was considered worth the risk of dealing with him. He was relatively smart -- his one mistake being that he took a fortress from dwarves and didn't wipe out the ruling family of the place. [/QUOTE]

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