I would like to see some sort of a sneaking mini-game and then deliver a fatal kill without the dragon knowing it.

You just have to assassinate the entire mage's guild, use their robes to create a pair of wings, then fly around until you find a cliff racer. After that it's as simple as growing up with your newfound friend until you have formed a bond stronger than life itself! You and Bob(the cliff racer) will then be able to fly into battle with the dragon, using moves painstakingly ingraved into your minds, from hundreds of hours of training. As you finally manage to kill the beast, you should feel a surge of pride, after all you and your lifelong friend DID just slay a dragon, one of the feircest creatures in all of Tamriel! But when you land, the pride slowly turns to horror, as you realise that angry morrowind fans are shooting Bob, stabbing him! You should manage to get away, but the wounds are too great. And as you hold Bob in your hands, trying with all your heart to stop the inevitable, you realise that it's over, Your friend is dead, Aludin has won.

That should work

maybe...

maybe they won't sleep for another 500 years... then they turn to stone and power nap it for a millennia.

I worried about this too at first but then I remembered this is the Elder Scrolls. When you face a dragon you wont be facing them with just a dagger. You'll be facing them with an Ancient Enchanted Deadric Dagger of Flaming Pointy Death. Combine that with dragon shout and it will make sense when you take one down.

I always play stealth-first characters, but that doesn't mean they can't mix it up if needed.

poisin+sneak+marksman=dead dragon

sounds easier than trying to spank it with a sword

Sneaking up on a dragon? If you can do that kudos to your epic sneaking skills.

Well obviously there's shouts....but besides that, lets see.
1: bows are stronger
2: enchanted bows
3: poison ( unless they are immune )
4: sneak attacks ( extra damage )
5: We can burn oil in the game,and we saw a flaming arrow in the concept art,don't be surprised for that to happen in game. I think we will be able to dip arrows in oil and light them.
6: The enviroment may come into play too,protection from rocks,trees etc.
7: They may not see us after the first sneak attack,thus allowing another....who knows?
Can't think of more at the moment,but each classic character type will have their ways: Mage,thief,warrior.

It would be cool to see you sneaking into the nest of a dragon. Imagine this : You step into the caves and you hear a soft but heavy breath, with dripping water all around you and faint sounds of spring water gushing faraway deep into the caves. As you take a few more steps,the breathing gets heavier and intense. And you know sometimes when people are a little awakened from their sleep they do some kind of a snort then they wiggle about in their bed? Yeah that would happen to the dragon 1. Occasionally or 2. If you make too much noise But of course, minus the wiggling (maybe a little flap of its tail?) Anyway, as you walk deeper into caves, how about the involvement of traps? Maybe lets just say you've collected some really strong and dense material or maybe some really sticky solution to I don't know glue its wings LOL. But yeah something along them lines. Sorry for my bad english.

How are stealth characters going to defeat dragons? Use the hidden and secret ninja move http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnJdGc5a98c

I would like to think bows would be of use against dragons. Though I would like to see bows bounce or do nothing against the armored parts of a dragon, but only damage their softer underside.

Dragon whisper? A stealthy dragon shout? :homestar:

...or get distracted somehow. Maybe you can lure one into a trap or an ambush

Why is everyone's stealth character Robin Hood?

Whats the point in being a BAMF Ninja if you cant wield a Blade?

Sure arrows are great and all but there is sure to be a time when a Dragon is more of a Ninja then you, What can you do at that point? Run and spam arrows, THEY CAN FLY! Play dead and hope he doesn't see you, HES HUNNNNGRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYY (maybe not so much)
Im just gonna go in their chew my non-existant bubble gum and take a few names while Im at it

wait till the dragon takes flight for his daily hunt hide carefully wait for him to get in range then draw your bow (or if its in crossbow) make sure your aim is true and fire. once it lands pull out your daggers or shortswords and deal out high speed attacks side stepping or jumping out of range when threatened. and eventually with luck you will prevail.

I am going to make a stealth Dunmer with Magic support and I am going to be going invisible hiding and taking down his health then for the final blow either cast an epic spell or slowly walk up and unsheathe my long sword (yes long sword will be trained a little bit just so I can do this ) and do one blow to finish it off.

That is how you make an epic example of a Dragon.

I probably will kill one stealthily, eventually, but first I kill one with my fists.

I'm playing as a knight/archer class 1st playthrough (Named Sir Xander, of course), but 2nd playthrough would probably be a ninja-like custom class. I'm guesing stealth PCs will sneak attack them and then do lots of backpedaling and shooting to take them down. Assuming you use a bow. For daggers I guess you'll just dodge around and poke him until he dies. :ninja:

Honestly, killing a dragon as a stealth character would not seem very epic as you're not really all up in it's face in the heat of the battle; you're just sitting back shooting an arrow or sneaking up and stabbing him in his scaled back.

I mean, in Oblivion when I had to kill important NPCs as a stealth dude, I'd just be in shadows, raise meh bow, and shoot. Guy might live, so you get another shot, then dead. You just didn't get this epic HOLY S... feeling for killing this dude, you didn't even make a connection with him/her. Sometimes you didn't even know it was a boss until you go over his corpse.

This was one of the main reasons on why I won't make a stealth character in my first run through the game. I want to feel the intense epicness of dragon battles. Your opinion may differ from mine though.

I doubt you'll find a dragon sleeping, much like you never found any other creature sleeping in any other TES game. My guess is you're gonna have to rely on your speed and agility (though since acrobatics and athletics are out, I'm not entirely sure what kind of advantage thief/assassin characters will have...) to dodge around and get some arrows into the beast. With the buff that bows have gotten, I don't see why a character relying on more rogueish weapons like bows and dual daggers would have any specific difficulty vs. dragons. If anything, the brute with a big sword will have as much or more trouble as anyone else. But since none of us know anything about combating the dragons, we're really all just guessing at this point.

Althoug already mentioned, you can always play Bard from The Hobbit

Just a reminder, there is http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1161098-dragons-a-thread-to-discuss-all-things-about-skyrims-dragons/.

But to reply to the topic of how do stealthy players kill dragons? I don't think you can fight a dragon using stealth. How would you kill a dragon with just a dagger without being spotted/detected. And for that matter a lot of the creatures/beasts in skyrim will probably detect you before your able to do a stealth kill.

I don't think Stealth killing is going to be a main combat for characters. For the fact alone what happens if you were detected? You still going to fight them with just a dagger? No.

Your going to use some other form of combat in that case, like sword melee, magic, or shoot bow and arrow.

I think when you come across dragons or other creatures that you must fight you'll just have to put that stealth aside and survive by other means. I'm sure there will be a lot of stealth kill opportunities in the game just not on certain foes, such as dragons.

Probably bows. Stealth players should be in the best position to take down dragons, they can just shoot em out of the sky.

Or if you really want slice them open in their sleep.

Seriously, that Dragon in the trailer should of knocked that guy off that cliff with that headbutt.

A dagger could easily slip between niches in the dragons armor, I think fighting a dragon as a stealthy character should revolve around tactically hitting it in weak points.