The old thread was vague and got a lot of arguments without any progress on each side, so this is my attempt at making a more coherent version. The rules:
Every dragon on Faerun (the average with 2024 rules, Fizban if Greatwyrm) has been sent to modern Europe.
The dragons all form an alliance with themselves, so does the entirety of Europe expect Russia, no other nations on any other continent will be capable of giving aid.
Dragons are kill/capture on sight, with the dragons sent to environments closest to what they would prefer, they and all of European millitary are incapable of going out of European water and air borders.
Dragon win condition:
The military is in any way incapable of defending themselves, be it by the European alliance being dismantled or by total destruction.
Europe win condition:
Ensure all dragons are no longer a threat, be it by containment or extermination.
If the deals were made, would that be for or against Europe's win condition? Because if they made a deal with some dragons to keep them well fed in return for not helping in defending others of their kind, wouldn’t that be technically containment?
Why are we starting up this again? It is trivial that a modern military wins because a modern military has fighter aircraft that move many times faster than a dragon, and have a range many times longer than a dragon. All the dragons would get sniped in aerial dog-fights within a few hours.
The only chance for dragons is for them to polymorph into humans and try to economically & politically dominate Europe by exploiting their extended lifespans. At which point it doesn't really matter that they are dragons. It's basically just an argument as to whether immortal humans can dominate non-immortal humans.
Remember, stone-age humans exterminated sabertooth cats, mammoths, giant bears and lots of other types of megafauna using nothing but stone spears. A dragon is not a threat to a modern military.
Why do you think dragons are stupid enough to fight on a jet's home turf? If the dragon’s an adult, they’re likely smart enough to be careful of any modern tech, I’ve yet to see a fighter jet strafe in the middle of a dense forest or near urban areas. Sure a dozen or so may fall to the jets, but most would likely just hide in their lairs and encroach on urban areas.
It’s a lose-lose scenario for the millitary, bomb an urban centre and escalate conflict among themselves or let a dragon freely control an entire town. Land units don’t help either, green, red and black dragons have lairs that poison people who reside in them, greens would be a vietnam war, red would make being heavily armored a terrible idea and blacks would just turn their lair into a no man's land before carpet bombing does.
Theres also the point that dragons have a good amount of magic, the most important is Scrying, which combined with any metallic dragon’s ability to polymorph and a computer, allows them to target important military figures. Sure they may have a squadron of elite soldiers ensuring their safety, but I’ve yet to see them beat a flying tank that can pretend to be human, cast magic and is as intelligent as the smartest of humans.
Sure a dozen or so may fall to the jets, but most would likely just hide in their lairs and encroach on urban areas.
Fighter planes can and do dog fight over cities, and over forests. A dragon is too big to fly effectively in a forest, and modern artillery can fire of 1 mile away so could easily pick them off on the ground long before the dragon was in range for anything. If a dragon hides in its lair, it is trivial to collapse that lair from above with a big enough bomb or just mine up the entrance to the lair and wait for the dragon to start to starve and be forced out, or pump full of nerve-gas to kill it.
In cities, civilians would flee enabling the military to enter and engage without issue, and any modern tank can similarly out-range a dragon and take it out from several blocks away in a city. Dragons can't fit through the door of a building so they have no where to hide in a city so would be much simpler to defeat than a human army in a city, using artillery and sniper rifles from a distance with only minor damage to the city infrastructure. Note that many tanks are no bigger than a Ford F150 so can easily fit down city streets, and have firing range of 15,000 ft - 7 miles.
There's no risk of "escalating the conflict among themselves" since the EU has already got very high military cooperation so it's as simple as the French air-force radioing the German airforce to get permission to kill the dragon attacking Strasbourg. And contrary to what you seem to think, most europeans love democracy and their countries so will welcome any military coming in to kill any dragon that tries to conquer a populated place.
Green dragons aren't really an issue, because we have these things called "gas masks" that prevent soldiers getting poisoned. Not to mention the other types of protective equipment from level 4 biohazard suits, to anti-radiation shields, to the fire-proof suits that firefighters wear. But that's all pretty pointless since as I mention above a tank can take out a dragon from a mile away long before entering the "danger zone" of the dragon's lair.
As for the 'armour" of dragons, that's nothing. Modern military shells are designed to penetrate multiple inches of solid military grade steel. A big scaly lizard is nothing. Even hand-held modern weapons can penetrate steel plates.
The nations of Europe have a combined 370 nuclear warheads. 595 if you include the United Kingdom.
What's the DC on a thermonuclear blast?
Europe wins.
Also... an ancient red dragon has a flying speed of 80' per round. The Eurofighter Typhoon has a flying speed of 14,080' per round. And it carries AMRAAM missiles. They travel 3,000 miles per hour and can hit you from a plane 50 miles away. What's the range on a dragon's breath weapon? Is it 50 miles? No, it's 1.7% of one mile.
Also also... there's a 9th level wizard spell called Meteor Swarm. It has a range of 1 mile. It's basically artillery. How many times can the dragons cast that spell? Because Europe produced two million artillery shells last year. That's 666,666 ninth-level spell slots.
Yes. I'm telling you that Europe would nuke Europe to kill the dragons.
Read the original post again (assuming you haven't edited it yet). It clearly says the DRAGONS cannot leave the boundaries of Europe for the fight. It doesn't say the Europeans can't.
But even if I do you a favor and allow you to edit their post and force all Europeans to stay in Europe for the fight, Europe still wins the fight, hands down, without resorting to nukes. Will there be collateral casualties? Yes. Absolutely. Is that going to stop anyone?
Have you ever read ANY books on European history???
Fighter planes can and do dog fight over cities, and over forests. A dragon is too big to fly effectively in a forest, and modern artillery can fire of 1 mile away so could easily pick them off on the ground long before the dragon was in range for anything. If a dragon hides in its lair, it is trivial to collapse that lair from above with a big enough bomb or just mine up the entrance to the lair and wait for the dragon to start to starve and be forced out, or pump full of nerve-gas to kill it.
In cities, civilians would flee enabling the military to enter and engage without issue, and any modern tank can similarly out-range a dragon and take it out from several blocks away in a city. Dragons can't fit through the door of a building so they have no where to hide in a city so would be much simpler to defeat than a human army in a city, using artillery and sniper rifles from a distance with only minor damage to the city infrastructure. Note that many tanks are no bigger than a Ford F150 so can easily fit down city streets, and have firing range of 15,000 ft - 7 miles.
There's no risk of "escalating the conflict among themselves" since the EU has already got very high military cooperation so it's as simple as the French air-force radioing the German airforce to get permission to kill the dragon attacking Strasbourg. And contrary to what you seem to think, most europeans love democracy and their countries so will welcome any military coming in to kill any dragon that tries to conquer a populated place.
Green dragons aren't really an issue, because we have these things called "gas masks" that prevent soldiers getting poisoned. Not to mention the other types of protective equipment from level 4 biohazard suits, to anti-radiation shields, to the fire-proof suits that firefighters wear. But that's all pretty pointless since as I mention above a tank can take out a dragon from a mile away long before entering the "danger zone" of the dragon's lair.
As for the 'armour" of dragons, that's nothing. Modern military shells are designed to penetrate multiple inches of solid military grade steel. A big scaly lizard is nothing. Even hand-held modern weapons can penetrate steel plates.
1. Any dragons who live mainly in forests are probably manoeuvrable enough without their wings, see green and gold dragons being great at swimming and having snake like bodies.
2. You got a point with the civilians fleeing, but it’s kinda useless with metallics. We can also argue that the dragons could just follow civilian evacuations, hostages are a dragon staple.
3. No arguments here
4. Gas masks don’t work, you need a full body suit, which you noted. Firefighters are worthless, they are meant to be fire resistant, but place a fire fighter's face in a active volcano and you get the same result with a Red dragon. Dragons have a lot more reconnaissance than you would expect, they could just ask their animal buddies what’s the buzz and be alerted to any dangers, so they could use hawks to scout out any infantry, tanks or jets before they set up and flee.
Placing every European solider outside of Europe sounds more like a stalemate to me, if they make the entire continent uninhabitable that would mean the millitary is unable to harm them seeing they are not in Europe.
Also half the dragons can breath underwater or live in super deep caves (Deep dragons my beloved).
1. You think forests are going to protect the dragons? Ask the Dow Chemical Corporation and the people of Viet Nam and Cambodia how well that'll work.
2. In an existential war for survival, there are no civilians. Every man, woman, child, and well trained dog will be armed and fighting. Have you ever seen the War Department's projected losses for Operation Downfall? People who are defending their homes and their families, and who have nowhere to which to evacuate, will fight like an army of possessed demons.
3. . .
4. Damage resistances won't matter. Seriously. Go look up the specs on an AMRAAM missile. Do the dragons have radar? Europe does. Do the dragons have bunkers? Europe does. Europeans have been fighting fights like this for thousands of years. And Europe is still there.
Seriously. Anyone who thinks dragons would pose any threat at all to a modern military force has been watching too many Hollywood movies.
And you're right. Artillery shells do not have the same effect as a Meteor Swarm. Artillery is much more powerful.
1. You think forests are going to protect the dragons? Ask the Dow Chemical Corporation and the people of Viet Nam and Cambodia how well that'll work.
2. In an existential war for survival, there are no civilians. Every man, woman, child, and well trained dog will be armed and fighting. Have you ever seen the War Department's projected losses for Operation Downfall? People who are defending their homes and their families, and who have nowhere to which to evacuate, will fight like an army of possessed demons.
3. . .
4. Damage resistances won't matter. Seriously. Go look up the specs on an AMRAAM missile. Do the dragons have radar? Europe does. Do the dragons have bunkers? Europe does. Europeans have been fighting fights like this for thousands of years. And Europe is still there.
Seriously. Anyone who thinks dragons would pose any threat at all to a modern military force has been watching too many Hollywood movies.
And you're right. Artillery shells do not have the same effect as a Meteor Swarm. Artillery is much more powerful.
1. Last I check, Vietnam won.
2. Black dragons solve the moral problem easily, good luck fighting like demons when you can’t even ******* drink water without dying.
3. We all agree on this at least.
4. Damage immunities, total immunity to napalm for 1/3 of dragons, gas weapons for greens. Yes most dragons would have their own bunkers, blues and reds especially. Brass would all hide underwater, negating most artillery and missiles.
If artillery was so powerful, why are there even survivors of it, last I checked, a single round could destroy a house, not level an entire castle, that’s an artillery barrage. Not to mention don’t they take time to set up? What’s stopping the dragons from just digging a big hole under them?
Every artillery well capable of wiping dragons will literally permanently scar the entire area around them, any significant blow to dragons that aren’t tanks or jets would cause the nation to harm themselves.
Even if they use nerve agents good luck telling the civilians that they dropped that stuff into random ass forests because of a big lizard, especially when the dragon just uses it as a spice.
Also half the dragons can breath underwater or live in super deep caves (Deep dragons my beloved).
Europe has nuclear armed / nuclear powered submarines that will obliterate any dragon trying to hide in the ocean, battleships and many planes have anti-sub weapons that can take out any dragon even relatively deep in a lake or coastal region. A dragon trapped in a lake or deep cave isn't a threat anymore, so the dragons certainly aren't winning if they are stuck hiding in a cave or at the bottom of Loch Ness.
A dragon on foot is barely more dangerous than a moose or a bear. A few hunters out there on dirt bikes / ATVs armed with Elephant Guns or a bazooka and it's done.
Ancient Dragon breath weapons max out at what? 90 ft, that's about half the width of a football field. It's nothing. They will be obliterated by SAMs, RPGs, or even just a regular old hunting rifles (normal range of 900 ft) long before they can use their breath weapon on anyone.
Nobody's dropping bombs to wiped out a few lizards the size of Elephants (Adult Dragon), or the size of a small commercial airplane (Ancient Dragon). Such things can be taken down with small-arms fire from individual soldiers. Or myriad small-medium sized military vehicles, from helicopters with machine guns and heat-seeking missiles, to fighter jets, to ATVs with guns mounted on the back, to tanks, to your classic jeep with a bunch of soldiers with RPGs/Bazookas on the back.
Bunkers become stationary targets, that can be cleared out with toxic gas, various grenades, or high-energy explosives with focused detonations (check out shaped charges!), or simply mined and surrounded by razor wire and/or electric fences or have their entrances sealed shut with layers of concrete like the tomb we build around Chernobyl. It does nothing to mitigate the problem that Dragons have basically 0 range with their attacks compared to modern weapons. No amount of information or preparation would change that.
2. Black dragons solve the moral problem easily, good luck fighting like demons when you can’t even ******* drink water without dying.
LOL, acid is like the easiest thing to deal with. Every science lab in every highschool has a chemical spill kit that can harmlessly absorb and/or neutralize strong acid. Red's aren't really any better off, most houses / buildings in Europe have clay tile roofs and are built of brick or concrete, fire breath would have negligible effect on them. Not to mention we have safety equipment that allows people to walk and work perfectly safely within a few feet of lava rivers, Volcanologist use them all the time to collect sample of lava for analysis. For Blues we have faraday cages, and greens we have biohazard suits, and for whites we have all the arctic/antarctic safety gear. But again, safety equipment is unnecessary because modern weapons have ranges of several MILES so no dragon is getting close enough to hit anyone with a breath attack.
The best a dragon could manage in the modern world is just to go into hiding, sure there are still plenty of remote areas where a dragon could hide out, living off fish or deer like any other big animal, and thus be not worth the effort of hunting down and killing. But they aren't conquering anything.
What’s the to hit of an average gun? AC isn’t just how hard it is to punch through, it allows agility and the like. Also why are you acting like this is a wild animal their dealing with, the average dragon has more than 4 times the health of an elephant, not to mention that you need several meteor swarms to pin any ancient dragons down.
If we account for legendary resistances that just gives them a better chance to shrug off bombs, not to mention headshots would in game terms, likely only be the finisher to them, since the closest equivalent is a critical hit
Notes about Inferno: When prepared for a battle against a powerful foe, he normal goes with his prepared Chain Contigency of the day, while attacking with his unusual Breath attack, and using his free action summoned Elder Fire Elemental to run interference. He uses his augmented alchemy epic feat to produce a potion of his dragon's breath at double power, and this is the breath attack he will use first in combat against a tough opponent, 48d12 fire damage + 24d12 divine damage, he cannot use his potion ability to enhance the divine portion of his breath.
He has multiple 9th level spells slots and is capable of changing his breath attack, has several magic items to augment himself and can teleport.
Also there’s a difference between being next to lava and being covered in a fire that burns hotter than lava, unlike gas, heat doesn’t need a hole to enter, you just need to be in it. I feel like you overestimate human constructions with the bricks thing, throw a brick into the sun and tell me it’s immune to heat.
Cold suits exist in dnd, but I don’t see them giving you cold immunity, also strapping yourself in a faraday cage is just dumb, yea the breath weapon is nullified but stuffing yourself in a box is still stupid.
The main problem with your breath nullification ideas is the pure quantity of the damage in breath weapons, yea you can neutralise strong acids in the water, but you can't do that mid breath unless you got an entire shield of the stuff somehow.
The old thread was vague and got a lot of arguments without any progress on each side, so this is my attempt at making a more coherent version. The rules:
Dragon win condition:
The military is in any way incapable of defending themselves, be it by the European alliance being dismantled or by total destruction.
Europe win condition:
Ensure all dragons are no longer a threat, be it by containment or extermination.
There would be to many Euro countries making secret deals with the dragons for them to even stand a chance.
If the deals were made, would that be for or against Europe's win condition? Because if they made a deal with some dragons to keep them well fed in return for not helping in defending others of their kind, wouldn’t that be technically containment?
Why are we starting up this again? It is trivial that a modern military wins because a modern military has fighter aircraft that move many times faster than a dragon, and have a range many times longer than a dragon. All the dragons would get sniped in aerial dog-fights within a few hours.
The only chance for dragons is for them to polymorph into humans and try to economically & politically dominate Europe by exploiting their extended lifespans. At which point it doesn't really matter that they are dragons. It's basically just an argument as to whether immortal humans can dominate non-immortal humans.
Remember, stone-age humans exterminated sabertooth cats, mammoths, giant bears and lots of other types of megafauna using nothing but stone spears. A dragon is not a threat to a modern military.
Why do you think dragons are stupid enough to fight on a jet's home turf? If the dragon’s an adult, they’re likely smart enough to be careful of any modern tech, I’ve yet to see a fighter jet strafe in the middle of a dense forest or near urban areas. Sure a dozen or so may fall to the jets, but most would likely just hide in their lairs and encroach on urban areas.
It’s a lose-lose scenario for the millitary, bomb an urban centre and escalate conflict among themselves or let a dragon freely control an entire town. Land units don’t help either, green, red and black dragons have lairs that poison people who reside in them, greens would be a vietnam war, red would make being heavily armored a terrible idea and blacks would just turn their lair into a no man's land before carpet bombing does.
Theres also the point that dragons have a good amount of magic, the most important is Scrying, which combined with any metallic dragon’s ability to polymorph and a computer, allows them to target important military figures. Sure they may have a squadron of elite soldiers ensuring their safety, but I’ve yet to see them beat a flying tank that can pretend to be human, cast magic and is as intelligent as the smartest of humans.
Fighter planes can and do dog fight over cities, and over forests. A dragon is too big to fly effectively in a forest, and modern artillery can fire of 1 mile away so could easily pick them off on the ground long before the dragon was in range for anything. If a dragon hides in its lair, it is trivial to collapse that lair from above with a big enough bomb or just mine up the entrance to the lair and wait for the dragon to start to starve and be forced out, or pump full of nerve-gas to kill it.
In cities, civilians would flee enabling the military to enter and engage without issue, and any modern tank can similarly out-range a dragon and take it out from several blocks away in a city. Dragons can't fit through the door of a building so they have no where to hide in a city so would be much simpler to defeat than a human army in a city, using artillery and sniper rifles from a distance with only minor damage to the city infrastructure. Note that many tanks are no bigger than a Ford F150 so can easily fit down city streets, and have firing range of 15,000 ft - 7 miles.
There's no risk of "escalating the conflict among themselves" since the EU has already got very high military cooperation so it's as simple as the French air-force radioing the German airforce to get permission to kill the dragon attacking Strasbourg. And contrary to what you seem to think, most europeans love democracy and their countries so will welcome any military coming in to kill any dragon that tries to conquer a populated place.
Green dragons aren't really an issue, because we have these things called "gas masks" that prevent soldiers getting poisoned. Not to mention the other types of protective equipment from level 4 biohazard suits, to anti-radiation shields, to the fire-proof suits that firefighters wear. But that's all pretty pointless since as I mention above a tank can take out a dragon from a mile away long before entering the "danger zone" of the dragon's lair.
As for the 'armour" of dragons, that's nothing. Modern military shells are designed to penetrate multiple inches of solid military grade steel. A big scaly lizard is nothing. Even hand-held modern weapons can penetrate steel plates.
The nations of Europe have a combined 370 nuclear warheads. 595 if you include the United Kingdom.
What's the DC on a thermonuclear blast?
Europe wins.
Also... an ancient red dragon has a flying speed of 80' per round. The Eurofighter Typhoon has a flying speed of 14,080' per round. And it carries AMRAAM missiles. They travel 3,000 miles per hour and can hit you from a plane 50 miles away. What's the range on a dragon's breath weapon? Is it 50 miles? No, it's 1.7% of one mile.
Also also... there's a 9th level wizard spell called Meteor Swarm. It has a range of 1 mile. It's basically artillery. How many times can the dragons cast that spell? Because Europe produced two million artillery shells last year. That's 666,666 ninth-level spell slots.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
So you’re telling me Europe would nuke themselves? When it’s one of the smaller continents, and there is still fallout, I feel like that’s overkill
Yes. I'm telling you that Europe would nuke Europe to kill the dragons.
Read the original post again (assuming you haven't edited it yet). It clearly says the DRAGONS cannot leave the boundaries of Europe for the fight. It doesn't say the Europeans can't.
But even if I do you a favor and allow you to edit their post and force all Europeans to stay in Europe for the fight, Europe still wins the fight, hands down, without resorting to nukes. Will there be collateral casualties? Yes. Absolutely. Is that going to stop anyone?
Have you ever read ANY books on European history???
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
1. Any dragons who live mainly in forests are probably manoeuvrable enough without their wings, see green and gold dragons being great at swimming and having snake like bodies.
2. You got a point with the civilians fleeing, but it’s kinda useless with metallics. We can also argue that the dragons could just follow civilian evacuations, hostages are a dragon staple.
3. No arguments here
4. Gas masks don’t work, you need a full body suit, which you noted. Firefighters are worthless, they are meant to be fire resistant, but place a fire fighter's face in a active volcano and you get the same result with a Red dragon. Dragons have a lot more reconnaissance than you would expect, they could just ask their animal buddies what’s the buzz and be alerted to any dangers, so they could use hawks to scout out any infantry, tanks or jets before they set up and flee.
5. You got a point.
1. You think forests are going to protect the dragons? Ask the Dow Chemical Corporation and the people of Viet Nam and Cambodia how well that'll work.
2. In an existential war for survival, there are no civilians. Every man, woman, child, and well trained dog will be armed and fighting. Have you ever seen the War Department's projected losses for Operation Downfall? People who are defending their homes and their families, and who have nowhere to which to evacuate, will fight like an army of possessed demons.
3. . .
4. Damage resistances won't matter. Seriously. Go look up the specs on an AMRAAM missile. Do the dragons have radar? Europe does. Do the dragons have bunkers? Europe does. Europeans have been fighting fights like this for thousands of years. And Europe is still there.
Seriously. Anyone who thinks dragons would pose any threat at all to a modern military force has been watching too many Hollywood movies.
And you're right. Artillery shells do not have the same effect as a Meteor Swarm. Artillery is much more powerful.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
1. Last I check, Vietnam won.
2. Black dragons solve the moral problem easily, good luck fighting like demons when you can’t even ******* drink water without dying.
3. We all agree on this at least.
4. Damage immunities, total immunity to napalm for 1/3 of dragons, gas weapons for greens. Yes most dragons would have their own bunkers, blues and reds especially. Brass would all hide underwater, negating most artillery and missiles.
If artillery was so powerful, why are there even survivors of it, last I checked, a single round could destroy a house, not level an entire castle, that’s an artillery barrage. Not to mention don’t they take time to set up? What’s stopping the dragons from just digging a big hole under them?
Feel free to think what you want to think. Hopefully you'll never have to see what our weapons of war are capable of.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
Every artillery well capable of wiping dragons will literally permanently scar the entire area around them, any significant blow to dragons that aren’t tanks or jets would cause the nation to harm themselves.
Even if they use nerve agents good luck telling the civilians that they dropped that stuff into random ass forests because of a big lizard, especially when the dragon just uses it as a spice.
Europe has nuclear armed / nuclear powered submarines that will obliterate any dragon trying to hide in the ocean, battleships and many planes have anti-sub weapons that can take out any dragon even relatively deep in a lake or coastal region. A dragon trapped in a lake or deep cave isn't a threat anymore, so the dragons certainly aren't winning if they are stuck hiding in a cave or at the bottom of Loch Ness.
A dragon on foot is barely more dangerous than a moose or a bear. A few hunters out there on dirt bikes / ATVs armed with Elephant Guns or a bazooka and it's done.
Ancient Dragon breath weapons max out at what? 90 ft, that's about half the width of a football field. It's nothing. They will be obliterated by SAMs, RPGs, or even just a regular old hunting rifles (normal range of 900 ft) long before they can use their breath weapon on anyone.
Nobody's dropping bombs to wiped out a few lizards the size of Elephants (Adult Dragon), or the size of a small commercial airplane (Ancient Dragon). Such things can be taken down with small-arms fire from individual soldiers. Or myriad small-medium sized military vehicles, from helicopters with machine guns and heat-seeking missiles, to fighter jets, to ATVs with guns mounted on the back, to tanks, to your classic jeep with a bunch of soldiers with RPGs/Bazookas on the back.
Bunkers become stationary targets, that can be cleared out with toxic gas, various grenades, or high-energy explosives with focused detonations (check out shaped charges!), or simply mined and surrounded by razor wire and/or electric fences or have their entrances sealed shut with layers of concrete like the tomb we build around Chernobyl. It does nothing to mitigate the problem that Dragons have basically 0 range with their attacks compared to modern weapons. No amount of information or preparation would change that.
LOL, acid is like the easiest thing to deal with. Every science lab in every highschool has a chemical spill kit that can harmlessly absorb and/or neutralize strong acid. Red's aren't really any better off, most houses / buildings in Europe have clay tile roofs and are built of brick or concrete, fire breath would have negligible effect on them. Not to mention we have safety equipment that allows people to walk and work perfectly safely within a few feet of lava rivers, Volcanologist use them all the time to collect sample of lava for analysis. For Blues we have faraday cages, and greens we have biohazard suits, and for whites we have all the arctic/antarctic safety gear. But again, safety equipment is unnecessary because modern weapons have ranges of several MILES so no dragon is getting close enough to hit anyone with a breath attack.
The best a dragon could manage in the modern world is just to go into hiding, sure there are still plenty of remote areas where a dragon could hide out, living off fish or deer like any other big animal, and thus be not worth the effort of hunting down and killing. But they aren't conquering anything.
What’s the to hit of an average gun? AC isn’t just how hard it is to punch through, it allows agility and the like. Also why are you acting like this is a wild animal their dealing with, the average dragon has more than 4 times the health of an elephant, not to mention that you need several meteor swarms to pin any ancient dragons down.
If we account for legendary resistances that just gives them a better chance to shrug off bombs, not to mention headshots would in game terms, likely only be the finisher to them, since the closest equivalent is a critical hit
Not to mention named dragons such as Klauth, Inferno, Balagos and Daurgothoth the Creeping Doom.
Notes about Inferno: When prepared for a battle against a powerful foe, he normal goes with his prepared Chain Contigency of the day, while attacking with his unusual Breath attack, and using his free action summoned Elder Fire Elemental to run interference. He uses his augmented alchemy epic feat to produce a potion of his dragon's breath at double power, and this is the breath attack he will use first in combat against a tough opponent, 48d12 fire damage + 24d12 divine damage, he cannot use his potion ability to enhance the divine portion of his breath.
He has multiple 9th level spells slots and is capable of changing his breath attack, has several magic items to augment himself and can teleport.
Also there’s a difference between being next to lava and being covered in a fire that burns hotter than lava, unlike gas, heat doesn’t need a hole to enter, you just need to be in it. I feel like you overestimate human constructions with the bricks thing, throw a brick into the sun and tell me it’s immune to heat.
Cold suits exist in dnd, but I don’t see them giving you cold immunity, also strapping yourself in a faraday cage is just dumb, yea the breath weapon is nullified but stuffing yourself in a box is still stupid.
The main problem with your breath nullification ideas is the pure quantity of the damage in breath weapons, yea you can neutralise strong acids in the water, but you can't do that mid breath unless you got an entire shield of the stuff somehow.