Forums » RP Discussion » Thoughts on Dragon Size?

What size do you think a dragon should be? How big is too big? I have seen many dragons and there is a great variance in size, a few are no bigger then a cat and some can even rival the size of a blue whale. So I want to hear your opinions on this matter?

How big should a European dragon be? How long should an Oriental dragon be? I have a vested interest as I just can't settle on a size for my own Oriental dragon.

So what do you think?

This reminds me of a fantastic book that I read as a kid- it had all these "facts and statistics" about dragon diets, sizes, etc!

Personally, I believe it depends on the roleplay. Do you want your dragon to go on an adventure with a party of non dragons? Maybe it would be more convenient for the dragon to be a bit bigger than a horse, or something just large enough to be ridden, that way it isn't overpowered and taking all the action from the rest of the party.
Is your dragon the big bad boss? It should probably be tremendous so that it can put up a decent fight against several characters!
Something in between, like a momentary ally or a lesser villain? Stick the height right in between.

As far as size by breed, I think it depends on the build of the dragon. Oriental dragons are typically very long- snake-like- but not especially tall.

I have both that one and the handbook. :B And they are inconsistent in parts.

That way of dragon sizing seems as good as any, in any case. Everyone varies it anyway. Mine are actually a tad on the small side compared to most "full-size" dragons, I think.


EDIT: I tried digging my books out, but my handbook seems to be missing. Pity, too, because if I remember right, it actually mentions other dragons. However, according to Dragonology adult dragon sizes (including tails, I believe) are as follows:

• The basic European dragon is 45 feet long and 13-17 feet tall
• The more serpentine Knucker is 30 feet long and 3-6 feel tall
• The Frost dragon is 40 feet long and 12-15 feet tall
• The Tibetan dragon is 40 feet long and 10-12 feet tall
• The Lindworm is 35 feet long and 8-10 feet tall
• The Asian Lung is 40 feet long and 12-15 feet tall
• The Wyvern is 50 feet long and 18-20 feet tall
• The Amphithere is 45 feet long and 5-10 feet tall
• The Australian Marsupial dragon is 25 feet long and 15-18 feet tall

While I tend to use D&D as a reference, I always tend to shrink them a few feet so then it makes them able to interact with characters and their surroundings.

All right. I think I'll keep my Oriental girl at 50 feet.

My dragons are heavily D&D based. I tend roll down the size a bit, same as Spellplague. I found that if I went by D&D standards, some species got a bit over the top huge, and it made it really awkward to have them interact with people. Things just got hard to invision and explain. Example - What is this huge dragon eating? And in some settings... How is it not everyone knows there is a giant dragon living here? So I rolled mine down. Kledros, for example would have been closer to 20-22 foot at the shoulder, but I made him more in the range of 14 foot at the shoulder. Still massive, but a little more feasible. Merin, who is a somewhat runty Brass Dragon.. probably would have been more like 12-13 foot at the shoulder, but I made him 8 foot instead. I didnt really assume -my- dragons were abnormally small, just assumed what was 'normal' was smaller. I never bothered with length, since it was a bit hard for me to plot out.

Yeah I originally made Sorea only 30 feet long, but then she seemed so small compared to a lot of dragons I saw. I mean I saw people making 60+ foot long European dragons and I felt like as a serpentine dragon that she should be longer then an European dragon, but I couldn't bring myself to make her THAT long.

What's funny is, despite these huge sizes, most paintings of dragons depict them as quite small. An early painting depicits a knight on his horse locked in combat with a fire-breathing dragon, his horse rearing up away from the flame. As in, the dragon breathes fire up at the horse, not down. The dragon only came to about the horse's knees. Admittedly the dragon in said painting looked hunched over but it stll didn't have long legs, it would likely barely have come to the horse's torso. There was nothng to suggest it was a baby dragon or anything, either. If I could remember the name of the painting I would say it, but I can't and am on my phone, making looking it up difficult.

Heh, Nashyll's only about 20 foot head to tail presently, and only about a third that for shoulder height. That might be changing, but I might leave it.

make your dragon really short and mad about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_and_the_Dragon I think this is what you were referring to?

Haha and Merin is rather undersized for his kind, but he isn't bitter or angry about it. (not anymore, he probably was when he was younger) It forced him to get really clever really fast as a hatchling, and focus more on magic as he grew up. Still even being a centuries old adult dragon he'd rather use wits, tricks and illusions to get out of a situation, rather than fighting. Being smaller and weaker than most other dragons also caused him to develop more compassion towards smaller creatures and races. He's a really fun character to play.