Are dragon riders too OP to be utilized properly? What dilemmas could arise from traveling with a dragon?

This could actually be interesting

Well depends on what kind of dragon. If we're talking Game of Thrones, these things aren't exactly tame, so that's a challenge there. If we're going more Inheritance Cycle, then your enemies will probably be strong enough that battling them is challenging.

At least you don't need a tent or flint tools

That begs the question, what class or role would a rider be best suited for supporting the dragon?
Mage? Healer? Archer? An officer directing them to act as artillery?

You're all making the mistake of thinking that dragon must be a highly intelligent creature capable of combat on it's own, as opposed a giant, scaley flying horse with a flamethrower attached to it's head, and thus needing a rider to direct it in combat.

Like this but at a greater distance and a higher vantage.

>Whats irritating about dragon riders, and monstrous mounts in general, is what the fuck is the guy on the back supposed to do. They cant reach anything and the dragon is doing all the actual fighting. I guess it looks cool?

That's like saying "the general of an army doesn't do anything, it's the soldiers doing all the fighting". The rider commands the dragon. If they're being ridden by someone, the mounts are usually not intelligent enough to strategize or even distinguish properly between friend and foe.

I guess he could also use a bow, or a spear if the dragon is small enough. If a guy with a bow can kill a dragon then a guy with a bow ON a dragon is even more dangerous.

Helps take care of the dragon's equipment outside of combat.
Not like that.

What would be the ideal size for the dragon anyway?

I think second to last is about right.

Smaug sized.

I would think the 40 foot would be ideal. 30 or below seems too small to carry someone with armor.

You are aware horses are much smaller than 30 feet long?

Horses don't fly for long distances.

Horses do not fly, and you need a large wingspan to lift both dragon and a rider.

Exactly like that

Guess what?
Depends on the setting.

Big Lance, two handed halberd. 9' polearms are pretty ideal.

Barring that, a mage riding a dragon is both effective and possibly the most metal thing I can visualize, especially if he's an amber or jade wizard

Would dragon riding be easier with a more intelligent dragon, or a more feral/animal one?

Would you develop a solid working relationship with your dragon?

how does one fuck a dragon without dying

I guess you could make it more like a dragon tamer, and have it be a ranger type class with a dragon too small to ride. It could also be very large and the group mount, like Appa from the Last Air Bender. The main issue is that it's hard to have just one guy have a flying dragon and feel involved with the rest of the group in or out of combat.

Dragons are not for fucking you sick piece of shit

The first. Anything larger strains credibility with regards to flight.

Yes. Romance in the workplace is a fucking fairytale myth. Much better to have a solid partner whom you can trust wholeheartedly, especially if you're going to be doing anything dangerous together like combat.

I would invite him to hang out with the group and remember his birthday so hard

>What dilemmas could arise from traveling with a dragon?
I know this is juvenile, but it really is something to consider when constantly around any large animal.
The poo.
Think of the poo.

I think it's high, high level character stuff. You have to be powerful enough that a dragon is like a horse to you.

Shapeshifting. Correct choice of positions and activities. Also, correct choice of the dragon.

CUTE

>Not, suggesting a Bright Wizard with Crown of Flame & fiery orbs atop a crimson dragon spewing firy death, the wind of Aqshy blowing back his robes

Scuba gear

They could easily make deals with farmers in particular areas.
Could be used as manure fertilizer or as fuel.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_animal_dung_fuel

smaller than first for hatchling
second for young
last for adult
up to deathwing for ancient

There's a number of clear and obvious benefits to the dragon.

Having a second pair of eyes in combat is wonderful.
The rider can act as a spell turret if they're a caster, can use wands, or are given a proper magical item. Hell, even a guy who's a damn good shot with his magical bow is better than nothing.
The rider can act as an intermediary or representative when dealing with people who don't like dragons.
The dragon can demand the rider furnish her with magical protections and gear.
But most importantly, the dragon gets a scapegoat and an excuse. Every act it takes while it has a rider can be blamed completely on the rider, and the humanoids will believe it because they think the rider is always in charge. Likewise, the dragon can loot and pillage the enemies of the rider and it'll be "normal wartime activity" instead of "marauding dragon".

Not covered in enough animal skulls and wearing leather although it's close

Depends on the setting and size of dragon but a reasonably large dragon could have a saddle fixed parrot gun on its back loaded by its rider

Even in lower-tech settings, it's not that hard for an enterprising dragon to have a modest squad of halfling crossbowmidgets strapped to itself in carefully chosen positions.

how are they supposed to reload?

You don't tie their arms, duh. The fuck would be the point if you did?

ablative armor?

That would never stop screaming and squirming? Far easier to just get a suit of dragon plate.

they have nothing to brace the crossbow against to pull back the strings.

Winches exist.

That would defeat the purpose of giving them crossbows though

They're more likely to go along with it if they think they have a chance.

Intimidation factor

What sort of fuckup of a dragon are you that a bunch of screaming midgets is necessary to make you scary enough?

Why not have the dragon deploy troops?

Have a cage of light infantry, lead by a wizard for range attacks & protective magic, the dragon picks it up, flies to a good tactical spot, burns everything bare & then lowers the cage, infantry charges into the rear lines. Dragon lays down airsupport.

What if the rider behaves as a moral compass to the dragon?
What if the dragon doesn't care much for anything else other than their relationship with the rider?
After all, it's a dragon.
>"Why should I care that the orphanage is burning?"
>"Oh fine, since it matter so much to you."

>Mage? Healer? Archer?
mage and archer leap to mind, but I had never considered healer

A heavy-armor cleric with defensive spells (particularly stoneskin and shield other on the dragon and sanctuary on himself), sticking primarily to keeping the dragon alive and buffing it, makes a ton of sense

3 or 4

How would you establish trust and cooperation with your mount?

By treating it like the intelligent being it is

A question that murders my sleep on that topic: Assuming they are like animaly, how would you even tame or domesticate dragons?
We have domesticated wolves. Wolves are social animals, and a singular wolf can be convinced that a human is stronger than him.
We have tamed elephants. Elephants are social animals that do not see us as a food source.
We have domesticated cats. A cat doesn't see us as food and is obviously smaller and weaker than us. Even then, cats are known for merely tolerating their owners in many cases.

Now, we have a creature that is strong like an elephant, would eat us like a wolf and is asocial like a cat. How does this work in any way? I desperately want to see a solution.

>fetishits ruin everything

business as usual on Veeky Forums i see.

>solution
Make them intelligent and open to bargains/development of friendships

>Implying these threads aren't solely made for people to post dragon-fetish garbage

Mind control magic?

Why is everyone assuming that the human is in charge? Why not the dragon is graciously accepting the help of a lesser being to help him him fend of theats to his lair & hoard. Plus the small pink ape can help brush his scales & clean his teeth

>Romance in the workplace is a fucking fairytale myth.
you're a knight riding a dragon, you ARE a fairytale myth!

How would you run a Drakengard campaign? You'd have to balance characters and their respective pact partners in whatever system chosen and make sure a suicide hotline number was on display during the session

This.

It's how I reasoned the dragons who work with githyanki made pacts with them in the first place. The dragons are definitely not the second class citizens in that scenario.

....truer words never written, user.

M&M 3e. Human character is PL10, 120 points. They then spend an additional 24 points for a PL12 alternate form representing them riding their Pact partner.

Season to taste.

Source?

I remember reading a story about a dragon and dragon rider duo. They were both actually dragons and would take turns via polymorph magic. They also had a tendency to run out on their tavern bills.

Dragons are for literal hoes.
Everyone knows a man's true best friend is a talking book

Sounds like the sort of companion that some jackass who only causes one apocalypse would have.

How about fucking freezing to death in the air at 10,000 ft, or asphyxiation of you and your cool girlfriend you took for a ride, and fuck flying low on a winged animal of that size. Imagine the soreness of riding a horse by a thousand, or getting beat up hard at your first day of "mixed martial arts class", you yuppy schmuck.

Cloak of Resist Elements modified into a flightsuit & a Bottle of Air rigged to a helmet.

Do you even Artificer?

In fact i will state that artificers make the best class. They are both ranged weapon combatants like an archer, & part time mages. They have the knowledge & resources to equip the dragon with all kinds of armor & magitek.

Surprised no one has mentioned the Temeraire book series.
Napoleonic wars with dragons used living bombers/fighter planes.

Good to know my anonymous friend. Sorry to be so salty, but GoTs drives me crazy with that shit. She would be so dead or almost passed out, especially beyond on the wall.

What would you feed an animal that size? The horses you brought with you? All several hundred of them?

Avian metabolism is insane, and a dragon would need to consume an enormous amount of food to transport its own massive weight, while taking constant breaks, and needing huge amounts of protein at each stop.

I would put a feeding tube down its throat, or just drill a hole in it and pump it into their stomach, while using concentrated soy, and hope the thing just doesn't notice. Would it be wise to be drugging it with 200 proof grain alcohol? Probably not. Something more akin to W8 would do the trick.

At least he would nothing wrong to cause that apocalypse.
Plus, at least both would be better than some robo lesbo twins who'd ruin everything and do everything wrong

>nothing wrong
He had complete and total knowledge of what he was doing at the end, and did it anyways.

If it can look a giraffe in the eye when standing on four limbs, it has reached ideal size.

Have you ever smelled a dragon fart? Let alone the potential to get 2nd or 3rd degree burned.

They probably get a lot of their caloric intake by absorbing ambiant magic. Most magical creatures are such freakish combinations that its the only way to explain the diets of half of them.

I mean if you are talking about d&d dragons they can survive on dirt if they want. Other dragon lore will vary, but most in this thread are using it as a baseline

I like the way Temeraire does it
Dragons have really strong parental imprinting, like birds. If you're there when they hatch and feed them, they end up devoted to you and essentially treat you like they would their parent. Eventually they grow out of it, somewhat, but by then you've bonded.

Why not have the rider be the Dragon's squire?

>Be the male
>Cure Serious Wound potions on an IV drip
>Enlarge Person/Reduce Creature
>Resurrection

This basically what the character in my shitty short story is like. A bounty hunter and his friend dragon, dragon is driven by his love of human food and money, and the bounty huter wants adventure and to be a good guy. Also the dragon can not speak, because he doesn't have lips or proper vocal cords for human speech. It deals with many of these issues, the fact dragons are 40ft long, speechless, intelligent, fire breathing, cats.

Friends with benefits

Either the second or third option, speaking personally.