D&D 5E (2024) Opinions on the Topaz Dragon Reverse Wings?

[Crimson Longinus]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you can't tell the difference then I suspect your pattern recognizing abilities are less than the average person.

Mod Note:

One of the big rules here is “Keep it civil.” This doesn’t meet that standard. Do better going forward.

 

[Teemu]

I like the weird topaz dragon look. The gem dragons can look odd and strange and I think that gives them more character. They're psionic and they have more esoteric abilities compared to the typical dragon. It's a very memorable design.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

We see objects without wings flying all the time. Bullets. Missiles. Etc. And the idea that a creature can simply move by willing itself to move, while not real, doesn't actually conflict with any basic intuitions of how things physically function.

Wings on backwards directly contradicts physical awareness. We know how animal wings work, at least at a very basic level. They flap, pushing air around in a way that generates lift and forward thrust. We know that they have the shape they have because the air needs to go backward if you want to fly forward.

I used the three interlocking gears example for a very good reason. While some people may not make the logical connection, most who spend even a moment reviewing it will realize "wait, if this gear turns left and that gear turns right...the third one doesn't have any direction it can turn!"

The wings thing is the same. The difference you are not seeing is that something which is not real but compatible with the physical structure we see, is acceptable; it can be ascribed to a greater system we don't understand. Something that is not real specifically because it is outright incompatible with the physical structure we see, is not acceptable; it looks like the artist (writer, director, etc.) simply misunderstood how that physical structure works.


A wing that points backward is actively inhibitory to flight. It isn't just irrelevant. It's actually harmful. A dragon flying by telekinesis would not want wings like this; at least if they pointed forward the wings could help the flight in some way. That's why this "shouldn't be able to fly". It's not that they can't have telekinetic or otherwise supernatural flight. It's that regular wings help, while these wings are actively harmful.


I don't think it would even be cool there. As preciously said, I do not get any "but how...?" feeling out of this. I get "...oh, so the artist doesn't understand wings."

More or less, before I can even begin to speculate, I am already concluding that it's simply incorrect. Not that it is impossible, but that its creator, the artist, has misunderstood the assignment.

I hear what you’re saying. I guess it just doesn’t bother me in the same way.

 

[Laurefindel]

Yeah, that's what I said earlier. I see where you're coming from but I find it interesting how people can suspend disbelief for one type of 'impossible flight' and not for another type of 'impossible flight' in a fantasy setting.

I’ll give you « interesting », but I don’t find it surprising.

Our suspension of disbelief is intimately linked to what we know and have experienced. There are many ways to fly in fantasy, but most exist in relations to things we know. Maybe dragons fly like birds. Maybe theyfly like bats. Maybe they’re weightless and just float. Maybe they swim in air like an eel swims in water. Maybe their wings are metaphorical. And so forth. Things don’t need to be realistic for us to make connections and associations.

In fantasy, creatures usually flies because they have wings, or because they don’t need them. Sometimes, fantasy creatures don’t need wings to fly but end up having wing-like shadows/clothing/accessories/phenomenon or whatever, because the power of sympathy is strong in fantasy.

This dragon has real, non-figurative or metaphorical wings, but doesn’t need them to fly, but yet uses them to fly, in ways that shouldn’t help them flying.

I can usually imagine a sensical reason as to why fantasy creatures can fly, even if it makes as little scientific sense as « they just float and swim through the air » or « gallop on the wind as if it was grass ». This one is mind-boggling. It makes no sense even in non-scientific fantasy sense. Not in dream-like onirical sense either, in psychedelic trippy sense. Ironically, it only makes sense as a medieval monk making illuminations for a manuscript, taking too literally the drunken words of a sailor who heard another sailor describing something he could not comprehend. Normally this would right down my alley, but it’s just convoluted.

 

[Clint_L]

Am I the only person who doesn't may much attention to dragon colour in D&D? I mostly just grab the miniature that tickles my fancy and then grab a stat block that suits my needs foe the adventure at hand. I'm not gonna pass up a sweet miniature because it doesn't look like official WotC art!

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Am I the only person who doesn't may much attention to dragon colour in D&D? I mostly just grab the miniature that tickles my fancy and then grab a stat block that suits my needs foe the adventure at hand. I'm not gonna pass up a sweet miniature because it doesn't look like official WotC art!

In this case the miniature not looking like the official WotC art is a definite plus!

 

[dave2008]

A wing that points backward is actively inhibitory to flight. It isn't just irrelevant. It's actually harmful. A dragon flying by telekinesis would not want wings like this; at least if they pointed forward the wings could help the flight in some way. That's why this "shouldn't be able to fly". It's not that they can't have telekinetic or otherwise supernatural flight. It's that regular wings help, while these wings are actively harmful.

Would backward wings inhibit flying backward?

 

[Corinnguard]

Would backward wings inhibit flying backward?

Hard to say since we don't have a RL critter that does the backstroke in midair.

 

[dave2008]

Hard to say since we don't have a RL critter that does the backstroke in midair.

we do have RL animals that have some odd wing motions. I actually find the idea of the Topaz dragon flies like a giant hummingbird a bit interesting.