D&D 5E Is Neil Gaiman Wrong?

[CleverNickName]

OTOH, what’s the point of becoming epic Demi-god heroes if you can’t break that last rule?

If that's the point of the campaign, then by all means break that last rule. Just know that not every D&D campaign has a goal of "becoming epic Demi-god heroes." Sometimes the goal is just to help your friend throw a ring into a volcano, then go home and marry Rosie Cotton.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Dragons have spent a lot on public relations in later editions giving them a pompous air they don't deserve!

 

[Doug McCrae]

In his words "We would need an army, all fully equipped with very powerful weapons, and a lot of luck to get a small chance to survive. There is no such thing as a dragon hunt."

Beowulf, Seamus Heaney translation:

Yet the prince of the rings was too proud
to line up with a large army
against the sky-plague. He had scant regard
for the dragon as a threat, no dread at all
of its courage or strength, for he had kept going
often in the past, through perils and ordeals
of every sort...

The lord of the Geats took eleven comrades
and went in a rage to reconnoiter...

"Men-at-arms, remain here on the barrow,
safe in your armour, to see which one of us
is better in the end at bearing wounds
in a deadly fray. This fight is not yours,
nor is it up to any man except me
to measure his strength against the monster
or to prove his worth. I shall win the gold
by my courage, or else mortal combat,
doom of battle, will bear your lord away."...

No help or backing was to be had then
from his highborn comrades; that hand-picked troop
broke ranks and ran for their lives
to the safety of the wood. But within one heart
sorrow welled up: in a man of worth
the claims of kinship cannot be denied.
His name was Wiglaf, a son of Weohstan's...

Beowulf dealt it a deadly wound.
They had killed the enemy, courage quelled his life;
that pair of kinsmen, partners in nobility,
had destroyed the foe.​

 

[BRayne]

Important to consider that a dragon's arrogance might be in direct opposition to it's own self preservation

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If that's the point of the campaign, then by all means break that last rule. Just know that not every D&D campaign has a goal of "becoming epic Demi-god heroes." Sometimes the goal is just to help your friend throw a ring into a volcano, then go home and marry Rosie Cotton.

Absolutely, and I’d never have such a campaign get to epic levels.

 

[Weiley31]

We would need an army, all fully equipped with very powerful weapons, and a lot of luck to get a small chance to survive. There is no such thing as a dragon hunt."

That would be the "we are screwed" briefing if the party was facing a Great Ancient Wyrm, Eberron Argonesson top tier dragons, or Full Powered Tiamat/Bahamut/Io Reborn

Against dragons below that age category? The chances are alot higher. Cryovain in the Peaks of Icespire Castle is a young dragon. Still annoying to deal with and is a threat, but still managabale. And the party can find a(minor) dragon slaying blade to even the odds.

 

[Yardiff]

Surprising! I didn’t realize it took so many words to spell sophistry.

So your way is the only way to view dragons?

 

[Weiley31]

Coincidentally (or not) I really like how The One Ring models hard-to-kill adversaries: instead of just piling on ever more HP, it takes a fair amount of dice luck, from a pretty advanced character (preferably with really good weapons), to finish one off. And that's after their HP reach zero.

And in Adventures in Middle-Earth, said weapon requires the "Bane" attribute to even be allowed to affect stuff like that similarly IIRC.

 

[MGibster]

Um, with respect, dinosaurs went out 65 million years ago. Homo erectus became a thing about 2 million years ago. There's a 60+ million year gap, such that there's no real connection between those events.

Yeah! Look how long it took those lazy mammals to do something once the dinosaurs weren't available to to do all the heavy lifting?

 

[aco175]

Well, elephants are thought to be about as smart as a person

"Don't eat elephants either."
"But a dragon has charm."
"It would have to be 10 times more charming that that Elliot in Pete's Dragon."

If it is alive, a human will find a way to kill it.

Agreed, the only monsters you cannot kill are gods. Even then there are ways, especially in FR.