4
![[Deleted User]](https://forums.beamdog.com/applications/dashboard/design/images/defaulticon.png)
[Deleted User]
Posts: 0
The user and all related content has been deleted.
Post edited by [Deleted User] on
17
Comments
Flight!
As you are aware birds have cleverly adapted bone and musculature. The bones are hollow and all muscles are lean. This lightness makes them quick, and agile, but unfortunately very fragile. Fat is dead weight on birds that can fly. In fact fat storage is so poor on birds that they cannot hibernate. They are forced to fly to find food each day. This same fat on mammals make them more resistant to temperature change and physical blows they may come up against, hence there current domination of the planet as the largest species.
My studies into Dragons over the millennia make me realise that Dragons are adapted to flight, but have an awful disadvantage to birds. Not only are Dragons built for flight, with all the same disadvantages that birds have, food supply is a constant worry! Think how much a pigeon eats and what a Dragon needs! It means that Dragons can only do two things. Sleep or look for food.
Happily though. Dragons collect treasure and most food simply walks in. But as for the stamping part... Lets look for some empathy here...
Would you stamp on a hot potato and then eat it? Come on... Would you? Because that adventure with a shiny sword is a hot potato, it may singe the fingers holding it, but once you get past that silvery foil stuff it is 100% fluffy carbohydrate and vitamin goodness!
A proper dragon would just fly in the air and breath on everything until it's dead.
Nevermind that a proper dragon would just flee if it sees that it cannot win either by flying again or teleporting.
And so would other mages or liches.
Serious Spoilers about Baldur's Gate 2
Lets remember how Jierdan treated you , even an attitude you could expect from a noble ( if not royal -> hard-earned ) , the tempting perfection he has in that compared to a display of saddening arrogance some noble woman or man had in Athkatla , was I think just a dragon move. If you were royal , you wouldn't act that way to some strangers who don't know you , speaking in an ordering tone. Let me remind myself the script. ( jumping to 1 minute 25 seconds )
He actually spoils himself with the word creature , so that actually might reveal how he got blinded by his weapon over time.
And there are many people that are tempted by roleplayed arrogance. Look around some Youtube comments to get what I mean.
But I think that part of implementation lies within the tower example. Like you cut the feet then dragon stomps down , they you cut the knees and dragon stomps down a level again... etc. ?
So , when you become a legend one day , they will implement you in such ways so some forum folk will get to throw jokes on about it like this , and like "oh he/she could just belched"... Hmmm... Dat story-mode...
So what to be learned about that ? Don't become a legend , or at least keep it to your own.
But then again dragons fly. This means they have to have colossal amounts of magical lift, or they are very light. It has been suggested they have great pockets of lighter than air gases which not only helps them fly, but it also explains the flaming breath. However if all of this is true, it means dragon bones must be light and therefore fragile. Standing on a well armed adventurer could break some of the small bones in the feet and ankle, unless it is done with care - more of a grab and hold with the claws than a stomp.
I personally think all the really fast and clever dragons have figured out that staying in a world full of people who keep trying to kill them is a bad idea, so they have moved addresses to a less conflict ridden plane. The ones that are left are the dunces, the low in magic and the slow. (Now I think it's time to run before an irate horde of dragons comes after me for my hide!)
That aside, if a dragon were a real creature, it would depend on what kind of dragon we were dealing with (i.e. how the dragon in question was drawn/animated).
If we look at this dragon I would say that it would walk on all fours because its legs are all about the same length and very muscular and thick as if they were designed for walking on; it would be capable of rearing up and walking that way if necessary, however it would be somewhat clumsy on two limbs.
Now if we look at this dragon I would say that it could walk well on either all four legs or on two legs. Its hind legs are clearly much thicker and more muscular than its front legs. The hind legs also appear to be longer despite being folded up. I would liken this dragon to a frilled-neck lizard or a basilisk lizard. It would be capable of moving on all fours, and probably do that most of the time, but when stressed it could run at much higher speed on its hind legs at the cost of a high rate of energy consumption. The long tail would also help balance it when running on two legs. (I tried to find a video of the frilled lizard to demonstrate this that did not have annoying music or commentary. I failed)
It makes me think of an animated movie I saw many years ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flight_of_Dragons
Long story short:
IIRC a modern scientist went back in time, where dragon were real, and figured out how could it be possible for animals as big as dragons to fly and breath fire.
But I've seen it really a long time ago, so I could have dreamed all of this
The Astral Dragon is the rarest of them all..
Live in the Abyss and will live forever..
But ok. the dont fight and only take Liquid as food..:P