40d Talk:Dragon

Weak?

One champion armed with a crossbow in melee (with high hammer skill) heavily injured a dragon invader. After the champion dropped, my 6 other champions took him out without injury (in melee, one shot a couple times). Was I just lucky?

They go through magma

a dragon walked through 3 tiles of magma channel and destroyed my fortress

Considering that vanilla dragons are specifically not immune to magma, I find this hard to believe. As such, I'm removing the comment on the page proper until someone can confirm this. kind of thing. Also, sign your comments.--Quil 14:52, 26 February 2009 (EST)

Tameable?

Are Dragons tameable in this version? Supposedly they were in the previous version, but I am not sure. KiTA 18:59, 24 November 2007 (EST)

If you see a Hyrda in a fortress, will a Dragon ever appear, or will you forever see Hyrdas going forward? KiTA 18:59, 24 November 2007 (EST)

Yes, they can be tamed once you get the dungeon master, just like before. --JT 18:43, 24 November 2007 (EST)

What about multiple types of megabeasts showing up? Or is it "once a hyrda, always a hydra?"

I had both a hydra and bronze colossus show up in the same fort Coelocanth

I had a Dragon, and then 3 months later a hydra show up as well. PS: I edited your comment. --Gotthard 11:08, 10 December 2007 (EST)

So far I'm 15 years into my fortress and I've had 3 Bronze Collusi, 2 Hydras, 1 Titan and 1 Dragon. I've tossed them all into a pit which I drop sieging armies into for my amusment... XRsyst 22:55, May 15 2008 (PDT)

Disappointment

I was pretty disappointed with my first Dragon. It came during a goblin siege, and proceeded to make a bee line for them. The first goblin bolt grounded it as unconscious, and the second killed it. Highly anticlimactic, it didn't even singe anything. Would be nice if they were somewhat threatening. --Gotthard 13:50, 3 December 2007 (EST)

This is not a problem with dragons, it's a recuring problem from ranged weapons. Did you ever try to send champions against a horde of bowmen? They'd die just as easily as recruits... --Eagle of Fire 14:30, 3 December 2007 (EST)

I would say it is somewhat a problem with megabeasts in general, though. Someone actually mentioned this to me in another context the other day, but megabeasts really need to have some special mechanics for them if they're going to be very mega.--Qalnor 15:01, 3 December 2007 (EST)

If I read the raws correctly, it just looks like his only attack is a bite (with a good damage of 1-6). Shouldn't he have a tail swipe, or a wing buffet to complement his fire breathing ability? Perhaps an increased resistance to ranged attacks, although armor doesn't seem to do much to piercing damage. Very irritating. --Gotthard 17:21, 3 December 2007 (EST)

I just saw something similar -- my hunter was out hunting, and came upon a dragon that had just invaded. He seems to have dodged the fire the dragon breathed at him, then knocked it unconscious with a bolt to the heart. The hunter must have agreed that this was anticlimactic, as he then shrugged and went to kill a mountain goat. Dolohov 14:35, 24 August 2008 (EDT)

A dragon raided my village, burning everything above ground. The flames consumed everything. Including the dragon itself. --Sebbekai 16:31, 5 April 2008 (EDT)

err... it burned itself to death? Are you sure? Because if you look at the object data for dragons in this article, it has the [FIREIMMUNE_SUPER] tag... --BahamutZERO 22:17, 16 May 2008 (EDT)

[FIREIMMUNE_SUPER] grants immunity to dragonbreath and the belief that the creature is immune to fire. It does not actually grant an immunity to fire. [FIREIMMUNE] does that. The dragon breathed, ignited grass, and burned upon the fire it started. Sometimes they purposefully hop into lava and become dragon fritters. Rkyeun 23:43, 10 September 2008 (EDT)

Yup, my dragon just destroyed itself in it's own firey fury too, unless my recruit kicked it in it's softspot... And the wooden building nearby just become 'warm'. So there we have it.--JK 18:17, 7 January 2009 (EST)

Got a dragon and it didn't seem to be able to path past my fortifications. I've had goblin sieges path just fine. Anyway, I sent out three elite wrestlers and they killed the dragon pretty quickly, without even getting bruised. --Gesangbaer 19:48, 8 September 2009 (EST)

Adding my experience of disappointment: I just had a regular swordsdwarf defeat a dragon... I have no idea how he did it. No bolts were involved, my crossbow squad was still practicing at the archery targets at the time. I only lost a mason and a carpenter to the dragon. Very disappointing. 3lB33 13:39, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

We have very different definitions of dissapointing. My first dragon arrived and proceeded to burn down my entire military and then cook my minotaurs to death. The sad part was that the only civilians he attacked were those inside the trade depot. They died, dropped the items they were hauling, and EVERYBODY proceeded to sprint to the depot and burn.

I also was disappointed with dragons. You should try a Giant cave spider. I had one crawl out of a chasm and ambush some dwarfs. It was pretty tricky to contain it, since it kept spitting web which immobilized the dwarfs. It also paralyzed a few of the dwarfs.--Kwieland 22:01, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Tiny?

Dragons can enter dwarf homes? That's a bit odd. A five story tall dragon probably should be a bit taller then the four-or-so foot dwarves. I'd imagine elves have a hard enough time as is. Minalkra 01:20, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

Uhh.. This is Dwarf Fortress not the North American Scale and Size Convention (NASSC) ...Duh Hoborobo 14:03, 4 August 2008 (EDT)

Maybe the dwarves are so either depressed about their size or megalomaniac that they build/dig completely oversized rooms. Gnarker

Burning items ...

IMO the easiest way of dealing with fire breath is: Options -> Only military allowed outside.

Setting this ON as soon as the dragon arrives will result in dwarves not doing much (or more precisely cancelling any task that paths them outside), but should also prevent dwarves from picking up burning items (providing you kill the dragon while it's still outside the fortress.)

They're [FANCIFUL]...?

I just noticed the object data for dragons has the [FANCIFUL] tag. I had been led to believe by this article that this tag was for creatures that were just mythical and didn't actually spawn in the game. But dragons certainly do spawn in the game. Is that article wrong or what? --BahamutZERO 22:26, 16 May 2008 (EDT)

I think this makes dragons not spawn normally. Instead, they spawn when it's time for a dragon attack. --GreyMaria 22:32, 16 May 2008 (EDT)

Ah, I just looked at the other megabeasts, and they have the tag too, along with the demons. So that's probably why. The [FANCIFUL] article is still somewhat wrong or misleading though. --BahamutZERO 22:36, 16 May 2008 (EDT)

I have been led to believe that it is for creatures that everyone knows about, no matter what. Everyone has heard of a dragon, even if only about 50 people have seen one. --Zchris13 20:01, 25 February 2009 (EST)

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that with the megabeasts they have the fanciful tag to *Prevent* them from being spawned after worldgen. As, all megabeasts are spawned at worldgen, not as they come to your fortress.Shardok 23:00, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, [FANCIFUL] creatures can appear in engravings and such even if they haven't appeared, and can be flagged to appear more often in the art of civilizations (as in the humans). --Chinkeeyong 05:04, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

After being tamed

Will they defend themselves if they get attacked? I would love burning the bloody goblins who go and ruin my dwarven families. It seems they won't move much if you let them out of their cages. It would also be fun to have a match with 2 mega beasts against each other.--Seaneat 13:37, 4 August 2008 (EDT)

I think tamed monsters don't act the same if they were untamed because I remember having a chained dragon staying still, doing jack squat when goblins were in fire breathing range. Has anyone ever had their tamed dragons breathe fire on anything? Is fire breathing like shooting a crossbow? Is this attack unique as it's the most advanced attack a creature could have? I'm thinking of making war dragons unless that's already planned or someone made making different war animals easy already, me thinking that they would rip and tear through goblins and trolls, more easily.--Seaneat 11:32, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Spawning Injured?

I was just assaulted by a Dragon. With no legs. (Well... it was missing 2 legs... completely cut off)

It constantly was unconscious (although it did wake up every 5 minutes or so and take a couple steps forward) I haven't checked up on the legends for that dragon yet, but I can assume it lost those body parts in a battle sometime back. Very... intriguing. Should a note be made about mega-beasts spawning as such?

This does sound rather interesting. When did Toady Introduce the fact that Megabeasts exist in the world and can be encountered on numerous occasions, given that you haven't killed them yet? And, Can you find mega-beasts in Adventure mode? Hoborobo 08:17, 10 August 2008 (EDT)

As I recall, Megabeasts have their own lives and histories, generated when the map is generated. There is a rotating quote on the front page from Toady about a Titan that had its leg gnawed off by a dwarf and then laid waste to the land for 1000 years or so. So, no, your Dragon didn't start injured. Someone else injured it for you. --Mirthmanor 17:09, 27 August 2008 (EDT)

Hell, even the semi-megabeasts that mayors want you to fight spawn injured. In my most recent adventure, besides successfully killing almost an entire town (I had recruited like 30 marksdwarves. Heh.) I had at least 5 occassions where a semi would constantly fall unconcious from the fact it had missling legs, lungs, arms, etc. Milskidasith 22:16, 18 November 2008 (EST)

I've even seen this happen with civ leaders, I recently had a goblin elite marksman with his whole left leg gone siege me, he of course never advanced because he was always unconscious, but somehow he escaped two times. On the third time I finally got the sucker because he came in right beside my castle. -Jebraltix 16:46, 18 January 2009 (CST)

Dragon Footprints

From SomethingAwful forums thread #2917631

Krinkle posted:

holy poo poo! Just as I was getting ready to go home I get a message.

Berayi Nelarthesa, Dragon, has arrived.

I saved and took the save with me. Holy crap. I sounded the alarm that nobody but nobody was allowed outside and let loose and he leaves sand where he walks HE LEAVES SAND WHERE HE WALKS.

Reposted for flavour by --Jellyfishgreen 07:02, 3 September 2008 (EDT)

It seems to me that dwarves walking on a layer of sand covered by grass leave sand where they walk, too. This way the stange phenomenon posted above might be explained. --Doub

Elves have grasstrample 0. Dwarves have default grasstrample. Giant desert scorpions have grasstrample 10. Alligators have grasstrample 20. Dragons have grasstrample 50. A mess of dwarves milling about your entrance will wear away all the grass eventually. A dragon does it with every step. Rkyeun 23:43, 10 September 2008 (EDT)

Trapped!

I have built a few hundred cage traps around my fortress. The second a Dragon appeared, I ordered (o) my dwarves to stay indoors and just waited. AWESOME! Caught him in a dumb cage trap. Shucks the kobalts don't get caught in them... (so I put a few stone traps around the exits/entrances).

Yep. Dragons are easily captured. And tamed, in fact. And, with the proper mod, and a stroke of luck, bred.--Aescula 03:48, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Bugged Dragon?

I had 3 stonefall traps lining the entrance to my fortress (this was very early in the game). A dragon showed up when I was still getting settled (not even a season into the game) and cheerfully walked right past my traps without setting them off, then torched all of my dwarves. Why didn't it set off the traps? Was it flying over them?--Aegeus 20:17, 20 September 2008 (EDT)

It probably set off the stonefall traps. (you can check, there should be stone on the ground). Dragons just don't get hurt much by them (I had a skeletal dragon run through a line of 8 and come out with some badly bruised bones and a broken (for skeletal, that means totally lost) left claw. Milskidasith 17:02, 9 November 2008 (EST)

Depends on random factors, I suppose. When a dragon went after the chained horse surrounded by stonefall traps I keep outside, it was already nauseous by the time my military arrived to finish the job. It can't have gone through more than three traps, more likely two. I don't think I'll d trapfields again, they're just too appallingly effective. --Corona688 09:50, 14 January 2009 (EST)

Given how early this dragon showed up, did you check to see if you had a cave on the map? The dragon probably lives there and came out to investigate who was disturbing his land. There at least used to be a bug that native creatures (start on the map) know where all the traps are - not sure if its still true. --Squirrelloid 19:22, 18 January 2009 (EST)

Dragonfire too weak?

Ok, I got a skeletal dragon invading my fortress. He sends dragonfire out at a regular dwarf, and it hits him at the very edge for no damage (the land is scorched, no fire). Dwarf flees, jumps in the river, dies to carp (which rather hilariously start attacking the skeletal dragon, who proceeds to claw one to death until another dwarf walks by. No big deal, the fire barely hit the peasant so it makes sense it didn't hurt him.

I send in a military squad to fight the dragon. My champion (the one *without* my legendary shield, his was -quality- iron) runs to the dragon, gets hit POINT BLANK by dragonfire (which once again kills the plants without setting them on fire) and doesn't even get hurt. Repeat when two swordsdwarves, one who is only a low level shield user, get hit at about a third of the total range. I killed the dragon, but honestly, he didn't light a thing on fire and couldn't hurt the dwarves. It would AT LEAST make sense if the dwarves got light injuries from the fact they are standing on freshly scorched land while it's in the process of being scorched again.Milskidasith 17:08, 9 November 2008 (EST)

How can a skeletal dragon breathe dragonfire anyway? He's just a skeleton. --FJH 07:40, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to think that the laws of physics tend to be pretty lenient on skeletal dragons. Y'know, what with them being sketetal dragons and all :P --Mr Frog 05:23, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

edit: The samething happen to me. Is there a way to know where the lairs are from start?

Still Relevant?

Those parts about training not working on murderous dragons, and especially about fire being inexplicably deadly, sound vaguely 2D. Can anyone confirm the training issue still exists? --Corona688 09:50, 14 January 2009 (EST)

The training quirk is a problem with all tamed animals, not just dragons. Fire is still outrageously deadly because the dwarven AI doesn't correctly understand being on fire, or why they should not touch things that are on fire. So yes, this is all still relevant. --ThunderClaw 11:05, 14 January 2009 (EST)

The section could still do with a rewrite, though, considering that all dragons are named and not just those that have killed dwarves --Pushy 10:09, 12 February 2009 (EST)

Dragonfire and fortifications

Question: Will a breath dragonfire go through fortifications? Will it be blocked, or will the dragon be able to 'shoot' through it like marksmen? --Kami 05:03, 10 February 2009 (EST)

Dungeon Master

I noticed when I tamed a captured dragon that the actual task of taming was performed by a normal animal trainer and not by my Dungeon Master. My Dungeon Master was alive and well at the time but is it possible that megabeast taming doesn't require one after all? --Paradigmlost 10:46, 12 February 2009 (EST)

The DM must be at least on the map. That is the only requirement.--Zchris13 20:05, 25 February 2009 (EST)

Dragon Fire Cross Z-Plane?

Anyone know if Dragons can shoot fire at an angle up or down? --Yidda 14:11, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Should be possible. It is a projectile. -- Zchris13 19:29, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Dragon on embark

In my recent fortress there was a dragon sitting in the valley as I embarked. Surely he was not the average "animal" lurking around, as there also was some digging done (a world-gen outpost then destroyed by the dragon?) and items littered. Matakuka 21:13, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

yes, either a cave or abandoned fort.

Limited Dragons

Is it possible for the number of dragons (or megabeasts in particular) to run out, as in there is a certain number of them and once they are all killed/captured, no more will come to your fort?--CrazyMcfobo 20:50, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Quite so. Currently it's "standard" that they are all dead after worldgen already, sadly. Thats why you have the worldgen settings "stop worldgen when megabeast percentage X killed" and "check for megabeast percentage dead first in year X" --Confused 22:56, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Dragons Vulnerable to Dragon-fire

In the September 2008 version (***.40?) I've proven (quite tragically) that dragons are not invulnerable to dragon-fire. Yes, it was quite sad actually, you see I had two prized tamed dragons in my goblin gladiator pit and so guess what happened. Yep, you guessed it, dropped the goblin in and the two dragons accidentally fried each other. They were both female dragons, so would you call this a heated cat fight or what?

Gamli 00:25, 24 July 2009 (PST)

Was it the dragonfire that did it, or the fire on the ground as a result of the dragonfire? Shardok 23:18, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Uninvited Guest

I found my latest dragon invader in the Unit List as an "Uninvited Guest." Do all mega beasts show up as uninvited guests, or is their status variable? 3lB33 13:29, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

On a late note, all megabeasts are listed as that. I recently had a hydra who appeared as such, for example. (He wrecked my pump system and got killed by some wrestlers. Very underwhelming, didn't even make it to the cage traps.) ~ Midna 17:37, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Undead dragons and BUILDINGDESTROYER

I recently captured a skeletal dragon that doesn't seem to be able to destroy drawbridges. I managed to build a pen for him using a drawbridge as a door... Can anyone decisively confirm that skeletal dragons are BUILDINGDESTROYER:1 and not 2? --155.69.95.232 09:28, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Other testing seems to suggest that BUILDINGDESTROYER:2s do not destroy drawbridges, at least when lowered (since otherwise they'd destroy their path into your fort). --Quietust 13:40, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Can Two Tame Dragons/Hydras

Have children (assuming they are opposite genders)? Has anyone tried this? --24.60.21.237 17:44, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

No, they can't. However, you can mod the game to make them able to, apparently. VengefulDonut 03:17, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

My userpage has the proper mod.--Aescula 02:50, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Flying

Why is it that dragons have not been given the ability to fly?