Editing v0.31:Dragon

{{quality|Exceptional|11:47, 2 October 2010 (UTC)}}
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'''Dragons''' are gigantic fire-breathing [[:Megabeast|Megabeasts]], eventually becoming the largest beings in the world. They cannot fly, are immune to fire and magma (and are not harmed by being immersed in it). They breathe out a jet of "dragonfire" which can injure things that are immune to normal fire, such as the {{L|Bronze colossus}} (dragonfire is, however, a blockable attack if its victim is using a shield). Only Dragons and {{L|Cave dragon|Cave Dragons}} are naturally immune to dragonfire. They are also ''not'' trapavoid.

==Dragon Size==

Dragons can grow to be the largest creatures in the game, eventually reaching their adult size of 25,000,000 cm<sup>3</sup> after 1000 years.  As a hatchling, dragons are quite tiny, at exactly 1/10th an adult dwarf's size, but they grow very rapidly, at roughly 25,000 cm<sup>3</sup> per year. Dragons reach dwarf size shortly after its second birthday, are more than double a dwarf at about year 5, and add another dwarf in size roughly every two years after that.  

*At 23 years, a dragon is the size of a [[giant cheetah]].
*At 80 years, a dragon is the size of an adolescent [[Roc]].
*At 200 years, a dragon is the size of an adult [[elephant]].
*At 320 years, a dragon is the size of a [[Hydra]].
*At 800 years, a dragon is the size of a [[Bronze Colossus]] or an adult [[Roc]].
*Thereafter, a dragon is the largest being alive.

==Defense Strategies==

Dragonfire can be blocked if the victim is using a shield, and it often will be.  Dragons are also massively powerful in melee combat, so they can be hard to take down without a good military.  Possibly the best defense is to use piercing weapons like crossbows and especially spears and hope you get lucky and hit a vital organ which can bring it down immediately. An alternative is quickly building one or multiple cage traps which will probably cage the dragon making it harmless.

==Domestication==

Dragons can be captured in cage traps and made as pets if you're lucky enough to catch one.  You need a {{L|dungeon master}} to tame a Dragon (unless you change their raw from [PET-EXOTIC] to [PET], allowing them to be tamed by any dwarf), but if you can do it, you'll have a massively valuable pet that can lay {{L|egg}}s. Dragons can also be trained as war or hunting animals at the {{L|kennel}}. You may have to watch out, though, as a Dragon can seriously damage a fortress with one blast of ill-timed dragonfire.  See {{L|fire}} for details.

==Irregularities, Bugs, and Future Plans==
Dragons have been observed to occasionally wear some armour (breastplates, greaves, leggings and boots). This armor is specified as "Large [metal][armor type]" and gives the dragon the same protection as any other species might get from it.

Toady has mentioned that he plans to eventually extend the random creature generator of the game to create different species and varieties of dragon within certain constraints, calling it "Half-Random", with ideas for variants including just about anything dragons have been given in literature, such as acidic blood, while maintaining a basic draconic structure.<sup>([http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=30026.msg1012311#msg1012311])</sup>

One of the [[Consolidated Development: Arcs, core-items, bloats, Reqs and Powergoals#Power Goals|old power goals]] referenced stealing dragon eggs as part of an adventure mode quest.
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{{Category|Megabeasts}}