How to feed a dragon?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


I have been wondering, how much does a dragon need to eat on a per day basis? And how much would it increase based on size category?


shadowwolf78 wrote:
I have been wondering, how much does a dragon need to eat on a per day basis? And how much would it increase based on size category?

A huge amount of food given that older dragons are massive flying beasts that dwarf the largest land bound animals on earth.

A fairly small amount of food given that even a fairly young dragon doesn't deplete the local stocks of wildlife just keeping itself fed.

Yes, there is a problem here.


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How to feed a Dragon? I can't answer your questions about specific numbers and their relation to size categories, but I can give the following general advice that I think you will find valuable: VERY, VERY CAREFULLY.


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You know all those goblin orphanages...


All dragons are innately magical creatures and eventually become casters in their own right, plus they all like hording piles of shiny, expensive, magical things. I imagine Rings of Sustenance are very popular with them to help with the logistical nightmare of staying fed when you are that big.


Trying to pin down or figure out actual numbers or at least a (If weights this much then eats this % of weight) kind of thing. Though a RoS is very useful in situations. Goblins taste horrible! Playing a dragon in a spelljammer campaign and trying to figure out how much supplies the ship needs to carry for him.


Some dragon types have Change Shape: Does yours? If so you could potentially be looking at staying humanoid form and maybe having to eat less.

Dark Archive

How much does a sperm whale eat? Hmmm, aren't there rules for this sort of thing in the CRB?

Humans can survive on 1 pound of rations per day, while gnomes and halflings only need a 1/4 pound.

Large needs 4 pounds of food/day.
Huge needs 16 pounds of food/day.
Gargantuan needs 64 pounds of food per day.
Colossal needs 256 pounds of food per day.

Alternatively, you could look at a horse who needs 10 pounds of feed per day.
Large needs 10 pounds of feed per day.
Huge needs 40 pounds of feed per day.
Gargantuan needs 160 pounds of feed per day.
Colossal needs 640 pounds of feed per day.

Though to be honest, horses are herbivores. It might be better to compare dragons with some kind of carnivore, or with a big reptile like a crocodile or a komodo dragon. It would also depend on how active a dragon is.
In AD&D a gold dragon would be asleep in it's lair for 10% of the time, while a white dragon would be asleep for 60% of the time. There's a huge difference right there.


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In fiction dragons often sleep for extended periods. I suggest you let the GM worry about it and that he use it as a story element more than try to calculations somthing clear.


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One virgin a month.

/cevah


Well, it's notable that dragons are basically giant lizards in the end. Reptiles tend to be able to go for long periods of time without food, as they spend most of their time dormant. I would imagine if the dragon doesn't have to move much, it won't have to eat as much.

Otherwise, think about the amount of food a lizard would eat and then multiply that by the size of the dragon compared to the lizard.

Or something like that. It's a bit silly to consider seriously.


I would say probably a cow a week for a normal, sedentary period; counting piles of coins and such. A sheep every couple of days.

Dark Archive

How to feed a dragon? One adventurer at the time. They also much prefer them while in a crispy charcoal flavor.
On a different, I have this distant memory of dragons feeding on gems and magic items?


Just remember- you need 1 maiden per week as a dietary supplement, or the dragon has digestive issues and gets cranky.

Dark Archive

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Hyamda wrote:

How to feed a dragon? One adventurer at the time. They also much prefer them while in a crispy charcoal flavor.

On a different, I have this distant memory of dragons feeding on gems and magic items?

3.5 Draconomicon mentions gems and precious metals, I think.


You just need one troll. Make sure the dragon never eats all of it and doesn't deal fire or acid damage.
Else put some berry bushes on the ship and use goodberry (from a wand via UMD if no druid is available)
Or one of the other spells that nourish you like dreamfeast, abstemiousness, create food/water.

Magic is allways the go to option for everything in this game.

Sovereign Court

You could just say that their scales are packed full of Chlorophyll - the shades of the Chlorophyll is why dragons are different colors - just like with plants.

Dragons get most of their energy through photosynthesis. They are to animals what a Venus Fly Trap is to plants. (Which consumes flesh despite being a plant.)


Charon's Little Helper wrote:

You could just say that their scales are packed full of Chlorophyll - the shades of the Chlorophyll is why dragons are different colors - just like with plants.

Dragons get most of their energy through photosynthesis. They are to animals what a Venus Fly Trap is to plants. (Which consumes flesh despite being a plant.)

Which is why they like to stay...in...caves?


Snowblind wrote:
Charon's Little Helper wrote:

You could just say that their scales are packed full of Chlorophyll - the shades of the Chlorophyll is why dragons are different colors - just like with plants.

Dragons get most of their energy through photosynthesis. They are to animals what a Venus Fly Trap is to plants. (Which consumes flesh despite being a plant.)

Which is why they like to stay...in...caves?

Twilight zones, sky lights, and heck....magical sun lamps.

But mushrooms are given the plant type. So lets say they use mycelium and decompose the charred remains of adventurers, knights, thieves, and sacrificial princesses.


I believe both the Draconomicon and Dragons Revisited mentioned that dragons eat very very little for their size, even whites and reds. Reds specifically were called out as wreaking havoc on the ecosystem when young because they ate too much, and as they got older, and smarter, come to realize how much they can eat for sustenance and to sustain their territories.

Basically, like snakes. A colossal dragon can eat 10 cows at once, but then he's fed for like 10 years. And it only takes a cow 1 year to reach mostly full size.

Sovereign Court

Snowblind wrote:
Charon's Little Helper wrote:

You could just say that their scales are packed full of Chlorophyll - the shades of the Chlorophyll is why dragons are different colors - just like with plants.

Dragons get most of their energy through photosynthesis. They are to animals what a Venus Fly Trap is to plants. (Which consumes flesh despite being a plant.)

Which is why they like to stay...in...caves?

I thought that was just where they lived & kept their hoard.

Does anything say they spend the bulk of their waking time in there?


Also dragons can pretty much digest almost anything. Including non organic substances.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

a number of trail rations per day equal to twice as many for every size increase above medium.


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You spread a rumor at nearby farms that there's a cave full of wealth that was abandoned.

Eventually food will deliver itself.


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Wouldn't work in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, but I've been inspired by this cover art on an issue of Dragon from the early 1980s (or maybe even late 1970s) that showed a knight cowering under this immense Dragon, behind which you (but not the knight) could see a much smaller Dragon (no more than twice the height of the Knight) keeping the immense dragon inflated (and probably controlled) using a bicycle pump. The idea I got from this is that since Dragons are supposed to be masters of deception anyway, they have extremely powerful Illusion magic (which ordinary True Seeing isn't good enough to defeat and normally has no saving throw or spell resistance) that makes them look a lot bigger than they really are, not only making them more scary but also giving them a convenient displacement effect that makes them much harder to kill than they should be. "Finding the vulnerable spot" really means finding out where in the Illusion to stab or shoot so that you actually hit something important. Saint George has been depicted fighting a Dragon not much bigger than his horse, which could represent him being able to pierce the Illusion magic, possibly by confronting the Dragon in an Anti-Magic Field strong enough to suppress the Illusion.

The above conveniently allows Dragons to eat a LOT less than you would think from looking at them.


I always figured that dragons just ate spacetime or whatever. Plenty of spacetime around.


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Snallygaster wrote:
I always figured that dragons just ate spacetime or whatever. Plenty of spacetime around.

But then they would have to worry about timelords instead of adventurers.


lemeres wrote:
Snallygaster wrote:
I always figured that dragons just ate spacetime or whatever. Plenty of spacetime around.
But then they would have to worry about timelords instead of adventurers.

Timelords can't get to a place without traveling through spacetime. If the dragon ate all the spacetime in their general vicinity then they are pretty much eating the bridge that the Timelords would need to go over to get to them. I imagine there are a bunch of angry timelords just seething and watching the dragon from like hundreds of years away but they can't get close enough to stop it unless they want to stop time traveling for a few centuries to wait for the dragon to catch up to them in the time line, and ain't no one got time for that, especially time travelers.


lemeres wrote:
Snallygaster wrote:
I always figured that dragons just ate spacetime or whatever. Plenty of spacetime around.
But then they would have to worry about timelords instead of adventurers.

That gives me an idea: what if dragons are what happens when regeneration goes wrong?


chaoseffect wrote:
Timelords can't get to a place without traveling through spacetime. If the dragon ate all the spacetime in their general vicinity then they are pretty much eating the bridge that the Timelords would need to go over to get to them. I imagine there are a bunch of angry timelords just seething and watching the dragon from like hundreds of years away but they can't get close enough to stop it unless they want to stop time traveling for a few centuries to wait for the dragon to catch up to them in the time line, and ain't no one got time for that, especially time travelers.

...and thus why time lords would nip this in the bud before they couldn't do any thing.

Scythia wrote:
That gives me an idea: what if dragons are what happens when regeneration goes wrong?

From what I know about time lords and their culture...yeah, sounds about right. Attitude wise at least.


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Why do you think they keep kobolds ARound for?

They like to CLEAVE into kobolds lol

Silver Crusade

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The first step in feeding any dragon is to take the food out of its wrapper... err... I mean armor.


Why do you think they lock princes and princesses in towers with dragons?


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don't forget the ketchup or they will get really cranky

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