So is this indeed how it works?

[Knightlord]

Let's take a look at an iconic dragon: Smaug. What could Smaug do in a combat? Why was he dangerous?

*He could hypnotize.

*He could breath fire.

*He was big like a freight train and had teeth and claws.

*He could fly.

That's it. Yet Smaug was something of a force majeur in his setting, he killed off an entire dwarf- town and he made Gandalf really nervous about the future of Middle Earth.

A creature doesn't need 15 esoteric special abilities to be interesting, it's enough if it's big and dangerous enough. Then the implications will come on their own.

This. Smaug practically did NOTHING and people feared him.

As Med Stud said, you don't need a ton of abilities or to put on a fireworks show to be scary.

 

[FreeXenon]

Ummm....

I'm afraid of zombies.... freaking zombies.

This is such a wonderful feeling to have again.

=)

 

[Dausuul]

It's not the place of the game designer to decide which monsters will be BBEGs and which will be just big scary brutes. That's for the DM. You want an ancient dragon to be the BBEG in your campaign, great; but I may want an ancient dragon ready to use off the cuff--you never know when your players are going to announce, "Hey, let's go kill that dragon!" In that case, I don't want to have to spend a lot of time statting it out.

4E includes the ability to put templates on monsters, give them class levels, and all that good stuff. If you want to spend time building a dragon into a complex BBEG with a large array of special abilities, you have that option, just as you did in 3.X. The difference is that now I have the option to not spend time on it; I can just crack open the Monster Manual and have a dragon ready to go.

 

[mmu1]

This. Smaug practically did NOTHING and people feared him.

As Med Stud said, you don't need a ton of abilities or to put on a fireworks show to be scary.

Apples and oranges. A traditional dragon is scary as hell in a low-magic setting, and just a big boring lizard in a high-magic one where most of the characters have superhuman abilities and throw spells around at will. (and might very well have been fighting dragons since level 5)

Also, a general announcement: from now on using "well, make it up yourself" in response to a complaint about something missing from the game means you lose the thread.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Apples and oranges. A traditional dragon is scary as hell in a low-magic setting, and just a big boring lizard in a high-magic one where most of the characters have superhuman abilities and throw spells around at will. (and might very well have been fighting dragons since level 5)

A Dragon must breath fire (I am willing to accept some alternate kind of breath weapons, but really, for fire definitely is my favorite, all D&Dismns or differing mythologies be damned), should fly around and eat virgins and wanna-be-dragon slayers.

That's what I demand of a real dragon. If you give him bizarre spells and strange abilities outside of this abilities, congratulations, you just created an awesome monster that is almost, but not entirely different from a Dragon.
If it is not his breath, flight and bite that define him in combat, then why do you even bother with a dragon?

EDIT:
Or, said in another way - if these abilities are not fantastic enough, maybe the real problem is that D&D PCs are just to fantastic. Remove all spellcaster classes that create flashy effects, and the Dragon is awesome and fantastic. That's unfortunately a general problem with games that offer magic to PCs. Magical creatures are just not that awesome anymore if your spellcasters are flinging fireballs and Dispel Magics around.

/EDIT

Also, a general announcement: from now on using "well, make it up yourself" in response to a complaint about something missing from the game means you lose the thread.

I have to say this now: "Well, make it up yourself."

 

[med stud]

Apples and oranges. A traditional dragon is scary as hell in a low-magic setting, and just a big boring lizard in a high-magic one where most of the characters have superhuman abilities and throw spells around at will. (and might very well have been fighting dragons since level 5)

Why would it be boring? It will be scary as hell due to it being big, powerful, smart, it can fly and it can fry you. What the hell does it need all the spell like abilities for? IMO it only cheapens the dragon when it casts Water Breathing and create luckstones.

Also, a general announcement: from now on using "well, make it up yourself" in response to a complaint about something missing from the game means you lose the thread.

It depends on context. Certain complaints on missing things are so weird that "make it up yourself" is the only viable answer.

 

[LordArchaon]

Also, a general announcement: from now on using "well, make it up yourself" in response to a complaint about something missing from the game means you lose the thread.

You should "lose" all D&D threads in general for assuming that in D&D if something is not on the books it can be considered "missing from the game".

 

[Lacyon]

Also, a general announcement: from now on using "well, make it up yourself" in response to a complaint about something missing from the game means you lose the thread.

If you aren't making something up yourself, it isn't D&D.

 

[Gort]

This. Smaug practically did NOTHING and people feared him.

As Med Stud said, you don't need a ton of abilities or to put on a fireworks show to be scary.

Smaug was a minion. One arrow? Psh.

 

[mmu1]

Why would it be boring? It will be scary as hell due to it being big, powerful, smart, it can fly and it can fry you. What the hell does it need all the spell like abilities for? IMO it only cheapens the dragon when it casts Water Breathing and create luckstones.

Tons of other things are big, powerful, smart, can fly and do elemental damage.

In D&D Dragons needs something more to differentiate them from all the other big flying scare stuff besides being shaped like huge lizards.

Especially if you stick with the fluff that D&D designers are still using - dragons being worshipped by lesser beings, or (according to the 4E MM) the most powerful ones actually being rivals for the gods.

Back when an ancient red dragon was an unrivaled machine of destruction that also happened to be one of the most intelligent creatures in existence and a very high level spellcaster, that sort of thing made sense. Now, when it's just a really tough melee monster with no spells and an 18 Intelligence? Not so much.