Realistic Dragon's Breath

[Raekai]

Maybe this isn't quite so GURPS-specific, but 1) I'm using GURPS to model these guys, and 2) you guys have brilliant and mind-blowing ideas (at times).

What kind of breath weapons could a "realistic" dragon produce? I'm talking about things that may not be perfectly realistic, but kind of make sense. Fire: methane and phosphor. Cold: nitrogen gas. Acid: any, particularly hydrochloric acid. Poison: gas, spit, etc. Those all seem to make sense. Lightning? Wind blast? Sonic waves? I dunno. You tell me.

My whole point is that I really want to stay away from the color-coded dragons of Dungeons and Dragons. I have nothing against them, but I'm trying to push something slightly more realistic.

Thanks.

[Nereidalbel]

Lightning: Directed stream of charged particles, I guess.

Wind blast: Some kind of organ that super-compresses air to allow for super breath.

Sonic waves: This is just hitting such a high frequency of sound that it causes physical damage.

[lexington]

How realistic are we talking? A naturally evolved creature seems unlikely to have a significant "breath weapon" other than noxious chemicals. The bombadier beetle can produce a spray about as hot as boiling water. I'm sure there's something that spits a mild acid.

I suspect fire brings too much risk and too little damage to justify ever using with a realistic being. Cold is probably close to impossible since anything cold it contains would warm up, there are endothermic chemical reactions but they wouldn't be much like "cold breath". Fairly intense acids are imaginable, if unlikely to occur naturally.

The more I think about this the more I think that the remarkable thing about dragon breath is its coherency. A burp of fire would be harmless within a few yards. I think your stuck with using chemicals that have the effects you want like napalm for fire breath.

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Lightning: Directed stream of charged particles, I guess.

Wind blast: Some kind of organ that super-compresses air to allow for super breath.

Sonic waves: This is just hitting such a high frequency of sound that it causes physical damage.

Great ideas! I never would have thought of the lightning one in a million years!

Originally Posted by lexington

How realistic are we talking? A naturally evolved creature seems unlikely to have a significant "breath weapon" other than noxious chemicals. The bombadier beetle can produce a spray about as hot as boiling water. I'm sure there's something that spits a mild acid.

I suspect fire brings too much risk and too little damage to justify ever using with a realistic being. Cold is probably close to impossible since anything cold it contains would warm up, there are endothermic chemical reactions but they wouldn't be much like "cold breath". Fairly intense acids are imaginable, if unlikely to occur naturally.

The more I think about this the more I think that the remarkable thing about dragon breath is its coherency. A burp of fire would be harmless within a few yards. I think your stuck with using chemicals that have the effects you want like napalm for fire breath.

That's a good question. How realistic? Not necessarily perfect. It doesn't necessarily have to follow natural selection and say that stupid/bad breath weapons wouldn't have lasted long. It just has to kind of make sense. A little bit of natural magic. The proportions for dragons of fantasy are all wrong too, but I'm not about to get heavily into that either. It's just about what is essentially possible rather than realistic, I guess.

[roguebfl]

Animal Planet had a dragon special that covered how a real animal might breath fire.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Animal Planet had a dragon special that covered how a real animal might breath fire.

That special made my brain hurt.

[Agemegos]

How about a dragon that shouts/exhales something like the blast from a vortex ring projector (Ultra-Tech p.134), optionally adding a vapour or mist. Different [kinds of] dragon[s] might add soporific, poisonous, or irritant vapours or dusts to their breaths.

[SimonAce]

Originally Posted by RyanW

That special made my brain hurt.

Mine too.

"Historical" records usually suggest just venom which is enough for most uses.

However something corrosive, toxic, super hot and even flammable in some combination might be possible for the dragon and could even be ignited by some kind of magic effect if your game has any.

Its spits like a big cobra basically with a bigger reservoir of dragon gout and maybe even a pumping organ.

Such a beast could also inject venom if you like.

However a super heated corrosive venom with both hemotoxic and neurotoxic qualities blasted like the bombardier beetle mentioned above would be quite scary and dragon like.

Water dragons might have sonic attacks like a dolphin , might work in air too,

Air drakes would be pterodactyl type critters, large as Quetzalcoatlsaurus or bigger, enough to carry off a man and with a nasty venom as well.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Raekai

That's a good question. How realistic? Not necessarily perfect. It doesn't necessarily have to follow natural selection and say that stupid/bad breath weapons wouldn't have lasted long. It just has to kind of make sense. A little bit of natural magic. The proportions for dragons of fantasy are all wrong too, but I'm not about to get heavily into that either. It's just about what is essentially possible rather than realistic, I guess.

If I were going for what I'd consider "realistic" I would stick to a variety of exotic chemicals that usually have their effects after they hit. In a slightly magic world the effects of something that is supposedly just a chemical reaction be pretty complex. IMO it also gives the dragons a distinctive style.

The list of things that are technically possible is endless. You can justify anything.

[Anaraxes]

More handwavium:

Lightning: like an electric eel, but more powerful: Tesla coil or Van de Graff generator

Wind blast: a vortex gun / wind cannon

Sonic: resonant frequencies