Archery is going to be stronger, so we don't have to extrapolate 50 arrows for a bear multiplied by a dragon that is X times larger. But, how many arrows does it really take to kill something huge, like an elephant? Does location damage make a difference?

Well if a dragon is anything like a dinosaur with a scaled, you should be able to kill it with a single arrow to the head or heart. (you can kill a elephant with a bolt)(you can kill a whale with a harpoon) People underestimate what it takes to kill things. Though this is a game, so I think 5 to 10 daedric (plus criticals/poison/enchantments) arrows should put it down.

To those doubting you can hit a dragon in the air. Practice makes perfect, and stopping time with a shout will help too.

Not sure if anyone answered this yet (and it might even be a few pages back), but the dragon encounters aren't set pieces. It's been confirmed somewhere they're random encounters most of the time.

EDIT: Yes it has.

You should be able to enchant your arrows with "explosion 50 feet on strike" which should do a good job of the dragons.

Of course you should be able to kill dragons with arrows, but i think the final killing blow if done with an arrow would have to be delivered by a specialised archer personally.

Now I want dragons to be voiced by John Cleese.

I want them to be voiced by Bill Cosby.

I see your point, I would prefer Christopher Walken though.

I think killing dragons should be hard no matter what weapon you use.

Sorry, in one of the new foreign magazines it said that no dragon is a scripted encounter and all of them follow their own AI so you could run into them anywhere, even run into two at once.

If it bleeds, we can kill it any way we damn please.

Arrows aren't hitscan weapons, so you can miss even with an accurate shot if the dragon dodges. The manner in killing a dragon should depend on how aggressive it is. An aggressive dragon can be goaded into unfavorable terrain where you can kill it as you see fit, while a cautious one would try getting you to fight on its terms. I hope combat against them doesn't exclude any of the three disciplines, likely requiring dragons to be highly resistant to arrows, nearly immune to spell damage, and relatively low on HP to make it vulnerable to melee attacks, so every strike against them should be a dramatic moment.

Arrows should still do significant damage, so, with the archery overhaul, every shot is a dramatic moment in battle along the lines of Bard's shot vs. Smaug. Spell casting against a dragon becomes an epic duel between Mage and Dragon that lays waste to the terrain around it, and a warrior's in for a tough struggle against a foe, trying to get into position to strike against the creature while protecting themselves from the counterattack, and emerging triumphant after delivering a few telling blows, each one requiring a great amount of work to land so it's still a satisfying, epic fight without the dragon being a "Damage Sponge".

Special poson against dragons.

Der Der.

wat are all you people going to do wen your limited number of arrows runs out? It's not like in Oblivion where u could bring a thousand+ arrows with u into battle. You are limited now, so wat do you do wen u run out of those little toothpicks? i voted that u can weaken it with arrows, but in order to kill it, u gotts use a melle strike, or maybe some sort of spell.

I'd like to see how many toothpicks in the eye it takes for you to go down.

This

I am with this guy, Dragons have the best of armor as skin people no way a arrow should take them down nor any regular sword it is gonna be pure magic from the words, or a mixture of the dragon language magic and a special weapon/weapons

I think everyone should have to melee them to kill them. Mages included. Make it so you drop them out of the sky, or beat them down, and use a dagger or sword to pierce a week spot. No skill needed for this kill, just a book, or lesson.

I absolutely do not think a melee blow should be required to kill them considering I want to try out playing a mostly magically oriented player this time around.

Would be cool to conjure a blade, then dramatically stab the beast, but having to do that every time would be lame. I rather electrocute a dragon to death.

Archers need a harpoon to take out dragons!

Maybe certain arrows cannot penetrate a dragon's hide, but some can. Say that arrow is enchanted with an electrocution effect, and the archer hits the dragon straight in the heart. The dragon now is suffering from ventricular fibrillation that he cannot recover from, falls from the sky and dies from cardiac arrest.

Or an explosion effect, blasts a hole in the dragon's heart and death by cardiac arrest/exsanguination.

Or a long paralyze effect, the dragon falls from the sky and is impaled by a tree.

Or a special arrow that does not harm the dragon but instead makes the dragon fall in love with the player and follow him/her around fighting by their side.

I voted lots and lots of arrows, but what I really want is for archery to use a amount of arrows and time that makes it roughly equal to the other 2 primary methods of killing.(melee and magic)

The reason fo you to choose between one shot and lots and lots is becose the one shot is in my oppinion for fun and I belive dragons are supposed to be powerful boss creatures so whats the iea of few arrows?

Dragons encounters aren't scripted, as far as I know. All evidence I've seen or read has pointed to random encounters, and a recent thread supports that. So I doubt they will be "bosses" so much as really powerful creatures. That may also be wishful thinking, though, because a lot of people on here seem to want or expect boss fights like on Gears of War (which I wasn't too fond of). Sure, they remained challenging, but they were limiting. It felt more like a difficult quicktime event than a dramatic battle.

I vote somewhere between "lots and lots" and "they require a melee killing blow". I want the fights to be realistic, not fair. If arrows don't meet that, then I'm going to stab the damn thing until it dies.

I'm rather disappointed that you can kill dragons at all. I just know it's going to be easier than it should be.

As far as killing them goes I hope it's a bit more intuitive than hack and slash, and I hope you can avoid combat with them or even reason with them.

I like to play archers. In previous games, this didn't make my characters less competent in magic or fencing, but this time, you won't be able to take all perks, so I will be really pissed of if I can't kill a dragon with arrows, while a melee player didn't need to shoot arrow to be able to kill the same dragon.

fire an arrow (or two) into a dragons wing and bam it goes down taking damage (or dying) when it hits the floor and then it comes for you (or any thing in between).