So realistically what would be the best weapons to fight dragons with...

Anti-aircraft guns.

But if you meant more medieval weaponry, ballistae and early firearms could do good. Melee combat with a dragon would be suicide, although if the dragon was small enough, spears and pikes could work if there are lots of warriors to combat the dragon. Usually dragon scales are tough, so aiming at locations protected by them wouldn't do much. Soft or fragile locations like wings should be the first target, so that the dragon's mobility advantage would be removed.
Bows and crossbows: don't see them working unless they are extremely strong and shot en masse, or unless shots are aimed at vulnerable locations like the wings I mentioned.

So, anything that has reach and/or has the potential to punch through armour.

An oversized bear trap hidden under grass in a sheep paddock. The bear trap is tied a huge boulder buried 10 ft down. The sheep aren't heavy enough to trigger the trap. When the dragon comes to feed, it gets maimed and trapped. Then slay it with a bolt from pic related hidden in the barn.

Heroism.

I would fight any giant beast with slashing weapons, for long messy cuts that kill through blood loss.

Well, there's one problem.

Flying animals are fast. There's no way you'll be able to aim a ballista or siege weapon at a flying animal.

So, we go back to the first post.
You fight dragons with dragons.

There are lots off different dragons. Best for each?

Since most are enormous, I want it trapped and exhausted. I want to finish it with a siege weapon like a ballista.

The trick is not to aim the ballista fast enough.

The trick is to guide the dragon into the killzone of where 20 ballistae are aimed.

Alternatively where ballistae are firing a giant net, and have a small army to swarm the fallen dragon to death.

If you know a dragon is going to swoop to attack, you'd have a reasonable chance of getting a ballista bolt in the right space at the right time, with a skilled crew and good planning.

Why the fuck would an animal with a long-distance weapon swoop in close?

Hell, if it runs out of fire, it can just pick up boulders and drop them on people like a high-altitude bomber.

Well, it depends on the effective range of fire breath, which does admittedly vary a lot. Still, even at the extreme limits of what a dragons flaming breath can do, they still need to swoop or hover at relatively close range. Although dropping rocks is a fair point.

Attach chains to harpoons and yank the dragons out of the sky through sheer muscle.

And a black arrow. Sure.

You'll just bring shame to your family and death to your town.

...

Can you fly?
It's fly or fry, so you'd better fly.

You don't fight a dragon that has taken flight.
You ambush the beast while it sleeps, as heroic tradition demands.
Use big, rending axes, or swords if you have to be more heroic. Halberds and pollaxes are good too.
FUCK ITS WINGS.
Then it becomes a fair fight against a wurm, nothing we haven't already done hundreds of times.

Traps, poison and explosives.

An anti-tank rifle.

The 'classic' D&D method is indirect-fire siege weapons like catapults or trebuchets lobbing bundles of rocks around en masse, but a volley from ballistae should be good too. The intention is more to chase them off and be more trouble than it's worth for the dragon to deal with.
Plus at the same time that those defensive siege weapons were an assumption for a castle to have, there was also a fair chance that there would be a retinue of mid-level knights mounted on griffins or rocs.

On top of that, they might be expected to petition the aid of a Cleric stronghold, the masters of which likely being served by high level fighters and hippogriffs. On top of their powerful spellcasting this makes them a reliable ally indeed.

Monks to burn away their resistances.

The best weapon to fight a dragon would be another dragon
It's the only true conclusion I can come up if we're trying to stay down to earth

Bump

A wizard

Poison

You guessed right. Spears, pikes, and lances are the best type of weapons for dragons. The low surface area makes spears and the like better at getting through a dragon's scales, and any large enough creature will be killed more quickly by poking holes in its internal organs than hacking at it or bludgeoning it.

>darpa.mil/program/magneto-hydrodynamic-explosive-munition
>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAHEM
>space.com/5292-darpa-works-perfect-forging-high-velocity-spears.html

DARPA is already working on the problem.

Comprehensive trials in Dwarf Fortress's arena mode indicate that pikes are the best weapons for dragon slaying. I mean, the dragon still wins regardless like 95% of the time, but pike users tend to die slightly less often. I don't know any simulations that are more "realistic" than DF for this sort of thing, so that's probably the best answer you're going to get.

Simple, an anti aircraft gun you idiots. But since you probably want medieval weapons i'd say a Bow and Arrow, because good luck trying to hit something thats flying and breathes fire with a melee weapon.

The closest things we have to dragons IRL are crocodiles and whales. Thing is, dragons can fly, breathe fire and have really tough armor. So, you'd need to take an approach similar to whaling or hunting crocodiles, just with those other factors in mind.

Depending on who's giving the rendition, dragon fire is either hot enough to melt stone or cool enough to hide from behind a shield. That's a lot of variance, but we'll assume it's somewhere in between; hot enough to set rope, dry logs, etc. on fire and heat metal paneling through. So, for adequate protection, you'll want to be shielded by something substantial and hard to set on fire. Soaking wet chamois and wet wool laid thick over a wooden frame might work pretty well, if you're using siege engines to get right up close to the thing.

Next, you'll want to tire it out. If a dragon doesn't like its chances of losing, there's a good chance it will fly away; to minimize that factor, you'll need to disable its wings and encumber it. If it tries to get close to bite past your fireproof armor, have the engine's crew stab its wings with long pikes; while you do that, position ballistas and launch harpoons into its hide. They don't need to hurt it, they just need to strike deep enough to anchor themselves. The bolts could be shaped like Roman pilum, with a long flexible metal tip that warps on impact and impedes armor. For even better results, try to get above the dragon (get it under a cliff, for instance) and drop harpoons with weighted chains on it. That will get the son of a bitch good and tired.

Now, you just run the thing ragged. Assuming the dragon isn't sentient (or maybe even if it is), it will likely panic and try to escape. Chase it on horseback, harassing it from a safe distance with slings or guns, while it exhausts itself trying to take off.

(to be continued)

(cont'd.)

The final stage of a dragon hunt would inevitably be the most dangerous, because at this point you will have a cornered, desperate animal. As in whaling, the kill is the time when people are most likely to die, so you'll need some brave men (who really want that reward money) to finish the thing off.

Again, the weapon of choice here is the pike, as long as possible. If we assume that a dragon that's out of breath will have a harder time breathing fire, you'll have a good window to attack.

First, immobilize the neck and head with weighted nets, ropes, and what have you. As soon as you do that, your boys need to hit a soft spot, like an eye socket or the throat. For better control, you can get harpoons attached to ropes, and really hook him in. All of this will need to be done before the animal can muster up the strength to incinerate half your men with another gust of fire.

Once you've got all that down, you're golden. That's my analysis, anyway.

A lance. Hit that fucker going full tilt. Hit it right in the pussy.

Probably some kind of hammer. A dragon's scales can be up to a foot thick, there's no way you'll hurt it with some gay spear.

Bow and arrow has generally been the most effective weapon. (So long as you have a magic arrow.)

Or a lance, if you're on that St. George shit.

Nah. Just get a good sword and a shitload of mushrooms, climb up on it, and spam Gouge over the heart until it dies. Opportunism and Adhesion augments are helpful, as is a Deadly Gouge ring. Pump Periapts to taste.

So long as it doesn't flame you this probably is the best way to do it. Nothing quite as armor piercing as 2600lbs of horse, man, and armor moving at over 20 mph concentrated into a small point.

ROCKET PROPELLED MOLTEN LANCES

FUCK

I read that in Trump's voice

Anyway. In folklore dragons are basically unstoppable bastards, unless you can find their weak point. In that case, no ballista or artillery or shit is needed, bow and arrow does the trick.

If not: I'd say a wizard's fireball or something equivalent, basically redirecting artillery.

STRIKE THE HEART ARISEN!

...

The dragon-slayer

"I would bomb the hell out of that dragon. I'd bomb it biggly. Listen, we've got bombs, big beautiful bombs, and we'll use it on that failing dragon"

I prefer Thousand Kisses.

Gouge has better damage per stamina point though, and it makes you harder to throw off.

Plus,using it with a Cursed Light sword turns cursed dragons into paste.

Realistically speaking the best way to kill a Dragon is to use Greek Fire. Shit doesn't go out, and just because a dragon breathes fire (likely involving a complex system involving a highly potent gas stored in an air bladder with some kind of sparking device).

Shit you could possibly make a Dragon explode with Greek Fire if you ignited the gas inside the body.

Daggers have Gale harness and Instant Reset.

*doesn't mean the dragon is immune to fire

Except most fire breathing dragons are immune or at least very resistant to fire.

Reset is a meme skill. Harness is nice, though.

The great thing about playing Assassin is you can use both.

Which is retarded because they are still made largely of water, which can be brought boil. Even if their scales somehow contained a special compound that made them fire-resistant you could still just fry the entire dragon with a hot enough flame. Or target the vulnerable areas such as the nose, mouth, and eyes. Or just smoke it to death with carbon monoxide, splashing some of that wonderful jelly onto the Dragon's maw so it inhales smoke until it asphyxiates.

No...let them fight.

Pic related is guaranteed to pierce a dragon's scales

Cross Spears/Spears in general, are the best melee weapon for hunting just about anything. Axes are for trees, & swords are for men.

That is seriously one of my favorite weapons in the game.

>Reset is a meme skill
Only if you have no idea how to play a dagger class.

Even moreso in the MMO version of the game, where learning how to Reset properly is mandatory for Seeker to even be playable past level 50 because Capcom is lazy as hell when it comes to class balance.

This brings up a question I've wanted to ask my players for awhile.

"The beast is 20 times your size and you BARELY manage to stab 5 inches of blade into his thick hide......would a sword going a quarter of an inch into you chest do that much damage? "

Seriously, it's like someone coming at you with a box-cutter on the shallowest depth setting. I'm sure it'll kill you from blood loss with a dozen or two.....or FIVE cuts but unless they get the eyes or something you're not really going down easily from that. And god help you if the creature is even bigger.....

You're fighting a flying alligator with toothpicks and legoman swords.

I'LL HAVE YE KNOW I'VE KILLED A MAN WITH LESS

KILLED 'EM GOOD I DID

Or, you know, the giant flying and firebreathing lizard is fucking MAGICAL.

Clearly, instead of legoman swords, we use actual legos. Maybe like, a few thousand d4s while we're at it...

Anti-Tank guns
Armor piercing bullets
Surface to air rockets

If you insist upon using old-fashioned stuff, I imagine using one of those saber-rapier looking things bullfighters use could do the trick. Matadors are probably the closest thing to dragon slayers in the modern world. Crossbows might work too if you aimed for the face.

Be interesting in your descriptions. A rogue with a dagger doesn't hit the dragon's thick scaly chest.He stilettos the dragon's foreleg joint. A paladin's great sword doesn't bang off of it's defensive horns, it flays open the monster's neck. Super-powered people with magic toys do not just bang things over the head bro

I get that, but I'm gonna count super vital areas as critical hit fodder and you'd basically need a crit to kill someone with a toothpick in less than a few dozen stabs. Magic can level the playing field, certainly, but a normal longsword should probably do jack shit most of the time beyond some bleeding.

I guess that's what DT is for? It's just hard to go with in the fluff sometimes.

Change the idea of critical areas a bit. Eyes, jaw, guts, groin, major arteries are still crit areas. But soft tissue areas should be your normal hits. Think about a decent hit on a human, the thigh. It hurts like hell, compromises balance, & it feels significant but still like it's not gonna drop the enemy. So when the party attacks a human boss, most decent attacks will hit decent soft tissue targets. On a dragon, it has four legs so hurting the joints won't feel like you are slowing it down as much as if you stilettoed a humans elbow. Neck & wing shots are also good. Pounding the neck & tenderizing it til you can cut it off goes a long way to build immersion

That's.......legitimate advice. Stop that at once or I will have you fucking banned from the board you monster.

On a more serious note, how do the players hit those vital areas? Even on all fours hitting a good sized dragon in the neck is gonna be tough if he's keeping it up a good height. Should I really be require the players do some advanced research and study of the giant creatures to learn the placement of vital points and structures in their bodies? Maybe encouraging them to try to climb the creature Shadow of the Colossus style?

Fuck, next time my players fight a dragon I'm gonna make that shit either amazing or the most brutal TPK they've ever seen.

ask every species of megafauna that didn't co-evolve with humanity.

Did any of those actually die to human involvement? I'm sure there's some, but I doubt it's most. They probably wouldn't have lasted regardless of humans being around.

And those that did probably couldn't breathe fire, were significantly smarter than humans, and were fucking MAGIC.

I'm just say people are really good at hunting, if you break it down there should be no way people on a sailing ship could catch and kill an animal as large as the ship that could dive for 10's of minutes and swim as fast or faster than the ship, but people did it.

Killing a dragon wouldn't be the same as waiting in a blind for an afternoon to kill a deer. It would involve a similar process of tracking the dragon's movement pattern and strategically wounding it. It'd probably take a few weeks or even months to kill a dragon, but once people found a good strategy they'd apply it for as long as it's possible. At that point the only way for dragon's to feasibly survive would be to band together and impose treaties or go to war.

At the risk of being reported...

So anything man height is game, mostly legs. Tail & wings can be a good thing to just have soak some hits if you feel like variety. The way I picture it a dragon is either is a low slung position with the neck & head in crazy Dwarven axe distance, or at least coming down & snapping most of the time. Not all dragons sit pretty & aloof while fighting.

Knowledge Arcana should cover dragon anatomy. Maybe give them a bonus or incentive if they make a good roll. Depending on system a misc. +2 or in 5e give them advantage for one strike anytime during the fight.

Clever uses of traps/equipment is the downfall of any creature dealing with man. Snares or beartraps to wound it's feet. Harpoons to ground it. Goad hooks to pin it. Chains & locks, elementally treated. A head covering to blind it, once pinned by a dozen strong men with goad hooks. Or just a big unwieldy axe to kill it once pinned.

But seriously, no one ever brings up hooks on a stick for dealing with shit when it's mankind's goto solution to big things with teeth.

Hooks are tough for something the size of a 747, to be fair, and I tend to guy by "Circle and nuke" strategy for my dragons and flying creatures, honestly, but that leaves traps as the only and probably ultimate answer.

I'm also, again, assuming the dragon or beast is at least as intelligent as the players. If we're talking geopolitics at that point I'd also go with the cliche'd dragon standpoint of "FUCK THAT OTHER SCALY CUNT" and have them be fairly independent, if only to avoid overwhelming the world with flying magical nuclear bombers with an superiority complex.

So you'd imagine in this scenario that dragons get slowly outpaced and maneuvered by superior numbers of humanoids?

Take hooked stick & launch it in the air (harpoon) drag that motherfucker down to earth & restrain/kill it

>What? Archers are already useless against crocodiles.

wat

the iconic image of a knight using a shield to block dragon fire is idiotic. the heat would still burn you. I would say the best option is to have a line of ballista on swivel mounts lay in wait outside it's lair to ambush it. maybe have men with pikes if it lands to stab it to death before it can slaughter them all. cover themselves in mud to act as flame retardant.

Toothpicks and twine, puny monkey.

You dont fight a dragon, you sneak up on it in its lair and murder it while it sleeps. Just like the mythical heroes of old woulda done.

>never gone gator hunting.

...

Artilery strikes.

It'd probably be teams of people watching the dragon as it flies to determine where it nests, hunts, and the size of its territory, and then setting an ambush there for it.

The first problem would be the dragons mobility. The best weapon would be harpoons with tethers (wire rope or chain preferably) tied down to heavy weights. This way it would be easier to hit with heavy weapons and less able to fight back. If the group hunting the dragon had detailed knowledge of its territory and movement they may even use many light weights so that the dragon is likely to try and take off again. This attempt to fly off, whether successful or not, would help tire the dragon out. If it is able to take off the light weights still attached would sap it's stamina far faster in the air than on the ground.

If/when the dragon flies off then you'd want teams watching throughout it's territory tracking it (1 or 2 teams per 10-50 square miles or so) so they could harry it when it lands.

This endeavor would require a large group (300 people to form multiple teams. It would require a great deal of preplanning (weeks or months) and probably take a week to actually pull off. For equipment you'd need a great deal of chain, weights (rocks in the field or manmade), harpoons, and pack animals to carry gear up.

Now dragons are smart, but the first few times this happened they'd be caught off guard. Once the dragonslaying economy has been established their most obvious countermeasures would be preventative in nature. Then you'd see other hunting strategies start. Hunters would destroy the entrance to a liar to try and flush it to another favorable location, Construct dummy camps to serve as bait, hide siege weaponry to ambush it along well mapped flight paths, try to analyze it's horde and use artifacts as bait, enlist burglars to steal from the horde to prompt an enraged attack.

In all, dragons would be difficult prey, but by no means beyond human ability to hunt.

Heavy lances to pierce their hides, spiky armor to stop them from biting you, amd strong legs to jump good.

Fight them with food.
Feed them, make it a habit. Make them become dependent upon you to feed them.
Then start to feed them richer food.
Fry everything.
Kill them with heart failure.
Enjoy korean bbq afterward.

I take it you've had a GM pull this on you before?

Hawkeye Gough is the knightliest giant ever.

> "Hello, I am blind."
> "I am having trouble with a dragon."
> "Ah yes, that one. You know, even the Gods tried to avoid it.
> "Well fuck."
> "Hold on, lemme just snipe it."

Siege weapons to fire nets and ball-and-chain bolas. Swarms of crossbow bolts or sheafs of ballista spears might work for creating small holes in the wing membranes, which will quickly become large holes if the dragon tries to keep flying.

we had a campaign arc that was like moby dick, but with dragons in the sierra nevada. One of the party died, but we came out of it rich.

can you actually make fois gras with dragon? i know they have the same temperament as a goose, but...

Wasn't blind during his glory days, people just made him think he was blind by shoving shit into his helmet slits over time cause FUCK THEM BIG FUCKS.

And guess what? Still did the hard work of Kalameet for you. Well, beyond getting it's FUCKING TAIL. Also probably elbow dropped your candy ass like Macho Man, didn't he?

Don't even fucking joke, dick weasel.

Dragons have sense and reason. Geese have only madness and RAGE.

>Wasn't blind during his glory days, people just made him think he was blind by shoving shit into his helmet slits over time cause FUCK THEM BIG FUCKS.

I know, but he believes he's blind when you find him and when he snipes a fucking dragon like a mile away.

Would cannons be the greatdr equalizer against monsters and dragons?

a pile of poisoned corpses as a sacrifice?

yes, but are they delicious like the goose? do you get the same sense of satisfaction as being the true dominant predator when you dine on its fattened liver?