Balancing archery and Dragons

[darkmadmax]

Ranged sneak archer/xbow is an ultimate killing machines with no weak points. yet whenever I think about how to balance it better I inevitably run into that huge elephant in the room - DRAGONS

 

See if we make archery weaker without huge investment that means that all non archer characters are automatically hosed against dragons. if we make it weaker across the board it still screws them even though archers themselves are worse .Like its a lose lose situation because game early on does not give you option to bring dragons down without ranged weapons. How to balance it? Give dragonrend in the first dungeon? give some special anti-dragon arrows? Poisons? "throw bolas" power?

Edited October 25, 2013 by Dark_MadMax

[Hyacathusarullistad]

Maybe Ancient Nord arrows could have some sort of advantage against dragons, being from (around about) an era where Skyrim was rebelling against their reptilian overlords.

[MidevalGuy]

Here is an anecdote from my current play through that might shed some light on possible mod ideas:

 

I am playing the Pseudo Alternate Start mod that takes place after the main quest is done leaving you free to do everything else the game has to offer. You start at level one with base magic, helath and stamina and just level up like you normally do. The only difference is you have Dragonrend and whatever shouts you discover during the MQ e.g. Call of Valor, Fire Breath, etc. So, to get to the point...

 

I was just getting used to my character's "new life" as a farm hand when low and behold a Dragon roars right over Palegia farm! At first, I was like "Oh, s***! I'm screwed!". I mean, here I am level ONE with NO armor and NO weapons whatsoever. Just the normal belted tunic, boots and lowly iron dagger. However, half a second later Dragonborn instincts kicked in and I used Dragonrend to get the dragon to land. I was like, "All right, what do I do now?!" Then it hit me. The only offensive weapon I had was all three levels of Unrelenting Force. So, guess what? I followed in Ulfric Stormcloak's footsteps and SHOUTED the dragon to death! Literally! Each Fus Do Rah took away a third of the Dragon's health bar until it died.

 

Now, this is where it gets interesting: The dragon wasn't pushed like normal foes are when using Fus Do Rah. It just absorbed my shouts, but took damage from the unrelenting force, hence the name.

 

So, Dragonrend is for getting them to land and weaken them (being hit by Drangonrend probably ticks a flag that says "Stop flying around; Land, and makes them un-essential?). Once the dragon is down it is vulnerable to all kinds of damage from weapons and more importantly elemental damage (fire, frost and shock). If you are a mage, you can take a fire breathing dragon down with forst spells. I know this because I've done it. You can do the same for a frost breathing dragon with fire. All dragons are vulnerable to lightning strikes, too.

 

If I were to make weapons specifically designed to kill dragons I would start by making craftable Dragonrend Arrows to get Dragons to land if you aren't the Dragonborn. Then it's just a matter of using normal weapons to kill it (and let's be honest, vanilla dragons are so under powered it's a joke). You could even do what the Dragonbane weapon does and that is do more damage to dragons and have it enchanted with elemental damage, so it's not useless against other enemies like the current Dragonbane is.

 

Just some quick thoughts...