A recent thread here spurred a question in my mind and I felt it deserved a poll. The thread was "would dragons always breathe fire ?" and it assumed the dragons "breathed" the fire, while as I understand it they are shouting the right words to produce fire. But what about other shouts ? Of course for the sake of advertisemant and keeping things down to earth we′ve only seen a dragon shout fire so far (as we have only seen a male Nord Dovahkiin and such) but dragons should be able to use the other dragon shouts as well, the slow time one, the force push one and all other dragon shouts that are out there. Now the question is, would you like to see the dragons favor their fire shout over the other shouts, or perhaps equally much as other shouts, even less ?

I′ve tried to have a option for everyone, ended up with 7 options and I myself will be voting for option 3, I want to see them use their fire shout half the time and other shouts the other half. I′m skipping the "Other" option because I feel like I made enough but if you don′t feel like you can choose anything then please write what you think it should be like, and in general don′t be afraid to discuss this, don′t want this thread to just be "another poll".

Now the reason I want them to use their fire shout so often is simply because I like classical dragons quite much but I still like the added twist Bethesda gives them, and it just "feels" right to have dragons breathe fire and I hope to see them do that at least half the time.

If I'm not mistaken the fire is a form of magic caused by their shout, so it's all the same.

I think the type of dragon will be determined by what kind of shouts they will use. I don't think all dragons will be able to breathe/shout fire.
There might be ones that can use multiple shouts, but maybe only on higher levels...

I can't wait for dragons that can push you away, or my favorite: teleporting dragons!

Um, the question wasn′t if the fire was different from other shouts or not, it was about if they should favor their fire shout over other shouts. Like in most fantasy when you hear someone say "sorcerer" you probably think about a dude flinging fireballs around, maybe you thought of lighting, but in general those two are what pop into mind, that is because in most fantasy it seems sorcerers really love to fling around fireballs and lightning and in most games the first destructive spell you learn is either lightning (fable) or a fireball (Oblivion). So even while dragons are using magic and should be able to use many kind of magic just like a sorcerer should. Do you think they should favor their fire shout or not ?



That is a point, perhaps I have the wrong idea about those dragons. But I′d love a good fleshed out fight with a dragon flinging all sorts of magic at me, I′d like him to cast a shield before I hit him, then force-push me away, heal and for good measures blast me with fire as I come charging back at him. That′s what I′d like to see in a fight.

It's more than just a twist. It makes Bethesda's dragons far more unique than any other dragons presented in a game. Most dragons are apparently un-scripted; this means they run on AI. If this is the case, then the shouts they use are completely random. This decreases the probability that one shout will be used over another (unless certain encountered dragons are restricted to a set of shouts) and makes them more dynamic, meaning most dragon battles will most likely play out differently.

Well I'd certainly like dragons to be a calls onto themselves. Not just a sorcerer with scales and wings. I'd venture to say that they'd primarily fight with there fangs and claws, breathing fire is certainly going to be amongst their primary abilities as pictured on that stone wall months ago. I would say that the different kinds of dragons will have different shouts, what I believe would be most likely for your common dragon you'd fight in the wild would be at most two shouts in an encounter before the dragon is killed, kills you, leaves, or you flee. This isn't based on what I want for it, but what I believe the most likely system that'll be in place.

I voted for option 2 -- like you, the fire will feel right. I would want the fire most of the time, though -- with other shouts being used now and again. That would make sure I'll see the fire almost every time and I'll have that feeling of battling the classic dragon I've always imagined, but now and again I'll get surprised with something different that catches me completely off guard. Getting caught off guard is always fun.

I'd like it if each dragon (or dragon types if more than one type or color of dragon exist) had a preferred shout they would use as a breath weapon as well as other miscellaneous shouts to mix it up. Like some dragons would use the normal fire shout while others use ice, lightning, poison gas, acid, etc. If there are different types and sizes of dragons it would be even cooler, with smaller and quicker dragons shadow stepping around you and flying swiftly to dodge and strike and larger dragons being very difficult to harm and using powerful force blasts to keep you from moving too much, but relatively slow moving compared to a smaller dragon.

I think the concept of coloured dragons has been thinned pretty much out, you′re seeing it everywhere these days. But you do make me think that perhaps dragons should have favorite shouts based on their personality, maybe one dragon loves fire and has practiced that a lot, and one loves ice, and one loves force pushing things around and so on and so on.

Teleporting dragons at night will be a thing of my nightmares.

Any water spewing dragons? Or mud spewing!?

^+1. Awesome nightmares!!!

Off-topic: Does anyone think it is ironic that the dragon shouts are the language of the dragons, that dragons fight to debate and thus they flame each other when they argue about things?

I imagine different dragons to have different shouts. They may have common shouts (shouts are a language so you will use the same words every now and then) but I want unique shouts for each dragon else why would you bother to kill one just to "unlock" the same shout over and over? We know there is fire shouts and I've heard about shouts that slow time...anything else is fair game, poison shouts, rusting shouts, conjuration shouts...who knows!

I think it may depend on how much power one draws out of the word, like in the trailer video for Skyrim you see him shout loudly at the dragon like FUS RO DAH! But what if he did it in a silent and sloppy manner, like a sloppy convenience store worker on a night shift, fus, ro, dah...

If I remember right some graybeards of great power swore silence so they would not wreak havoc upon the world, but it is said one could hear them whisper into the wind at certain times, that is the people of Skyrim could hear a graybeard whispering up on the top of High Hrothgar. So maybe the dragons could whisper at each other to debate ?

I find it all awfully weird though, as I understand you will not be as powerful as the graybeards of old, yet you as Dovahkiin will be more powerful than a normal graybeard ? Does that only include modern graybeard or also the legends of old ? And if it includes them then isn′t there some retcon happening there ?

There are also theories that Dragons follow the will of Alduin and that they in general don′t fight each other.

Mm yeah. There's some very interesting, thought provoking stuff in that. Not what I meant at all.

No, what I meant was that the dragons debate with each other by breathing fire. Or 'flaming'
And sometimes when we debate with each other, we flame each other inadvertently due to our emotional response to the debate...
Aint that ironic?

Awesome nightmares, yes...but nightmares none the less. Hopefully dragons will attack at night. Seeing a village on fire in the distance with a shadow flying over it now and then at night would be the most horrifyinly beautiful thing ever. I really wanna see it happen. If the nights are just a little darker...then we'll really be in business.

Dragon flame wars would undoubtibly be much more entertaining than anything we could produce here.