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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4827930" data-attributes="member: 19675">Again, this is something seagulls do with great accuracy...albeit with motionless targets.A dragon, with its superior intellect, would probably use this tactic when it would be sure its intended targets would have limited ability to evade (cliffside path? down in a gorge?)...with fairly sizeable rocks (AE?).  It wouldn't so much be aiming at the party as aiming at a spot.IOW, a dragon would use this tactic in such a way as to minimize its miss chances.Its first such attack would have the best chance of success, especially if the dragon attacks out of the sun, uses an illusion to conceal its approach (or the path of the falling boulder), or some kind of misdirection- anything that draws attention to IT rather than to the stone.But even if subsequent attacks are of low hit probability, what are the odds that the party is just going to sit there?  NONE.  This is aerial artillery as covering fire.  Its a morale buster.  Nobody is going to just sit there and get pummeled by 100lb+ boulders dropped from 1000' up.  This means the dragon is dictating the pace of battle, it is controlling the battlespace.  It is making the party react to it, rather than it reacting to party tactics.In addition, just like hawks and fighter pilots, a dragon might use multiple attack attitudes.  Instead of dropping a rock from on high, he might spot his foes from on high, then dive to a much lower altitude and pull out of the dive, greatly improving his chances of hitting...while presenting his foes with a small(er), incredibly fast moving target.Or he could dive to gain speed, but level out around treetop height and do a strafing run...dropping the boulder like a bowling ball (Indiana Jones, anyone?) at the start of the run, finishing with its breath weapon or a spell.  Perhaps it even flies low enough to kick up the dirt with the downdraft from its wings to blind its foes (yes, I've been watching a lot of Dogfights on the Military History channel, esp. the ones about Mig Alley) or sweep its tail through their ranks to trip them or send them sprawling.Remember- the dragon is an apex predator like almost no other.  Its (usually) high intellect commands resources approximate to a D&D party, and was shaped by being a predator that operates in a fully 3D environment.Besides, RIs were designed with roughly human-normal equivalent eyesight in mind, and AFAIK, no race is described as having the kind of visual acuity we're talking about.  If you look at top marksmen- those whose eyesight allows them to see things at 50 feet that most could only see at 20- distance as an object to accuracy begins to diminish in importance as things like wind and the Earth's curvature begin to matter more.And a hawk's distance vision is much better than even a top sniper's.A dragon's eyesight?  Only the DM knows for sure how good it really is in his campaign.</blockquote>

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