Are dragons a necessity for dnd or have we moved past the need for a giant fire breathing reptile 

Define 'need'.

Does a dragon have to be in session or campaign? Of course not. We even had a start set that had an adventure with no dragons in it. It's perfectly valid to play without dragons.

Still, dragons are one of the best and well developed creatures in the game, to the point that I'd say any extended adventure (more than a few levels) should, if it can fit thematically, have a dragon or dragon-like creature in it somewhere. Not having one is like having a zero-magic game - sure, it's doable and might be fun, but there is something missing.

No. You don't need a dragon in your campaign. That being said, they're still super cool.

Necessary? No. Fun? Yes! 

Maybe little dragons.. so they can fit through the dungeon doors without breaking them..

Every long-term campaign I run will have at least one dragon fight in it.  Necessary? No. But they’re fun, iconic fights where the players feel super heroic upon victory, capturing a sense of joy no other monster really can. After all, slaying a dragon is what heroes do—from Saint George to Bard, from to Beowulf to Sigurd. From antiquity across the globe to modern fantasy.  Killing a dragon (or a dragon-like creature) is one of humanity’s oldest and most consistent ways of showing someone is a hero of the highest calibre.

The main campaign I'm running is dragon-centric (homebrew, non dragon lance game).  But these are the first dragons I've ever run in D&D, and when I was on the player side of the table, I was never in a party that encountered a dragon.  

I've also never had a game that dealt with true Giants (ogres yes and other humanoids on the bigger stature size, but no giants).  But between Storm Kings Thunder and the Bigby book on the horizon, I figure I might run something quick with the big folk at some point.

This sort of reminds me of the occasional "ok, D&D but no elves" proposals.  You can do great D&D without elves, but you can also do great D&D with them.  Dragons are like that.  Fun element but not an essential element.

The poll asks "would you use" but the first post asks "do you need." Very confusing/

I'm somehow already bored of dragons despite never actually facing any. o_O

I do like dungeons though.

D&D also doesn't "need" a dungeon either.  The game can be what you want it to be.  That said, Dungeons and Dragons can be fun, so why discard them?  

You can have my [insert type here] dragon when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

(Or my barbarian's cold, dead fingers. Or my Paladin's, or my Rogue's, or...)

I'm pretty sure like 98% of my campaigns have included neither dungeons nor dragons. 

We're also not terribly successful in our adventures. In our last campaign we decided to try and convince the ice queen to go into business with us so that we could turn our tavern into a franchise and expand into the rest of tentowns. (Hey, that honeymead isn't gonna sell itself!)

I'm not sure we play it 'right' though... 

Quote from Torchy_FF >>

Maybe little dragons.. so they can fit through the dungeon doors without breaking them..

 I want you to know that *I* appreciated this.

So, multiple things going on here. Let me try to touch on all of them...

Would I use a Dragon? hell yes. I mean, for *me*, as an individual, it is almost a requirement that a Dragon be present at every game, because, well, I AM a dragon, and I wouldn't be at a game and not bring one since, well, it me. (Wood Dragon, specifically)

In the game?  I have run games where the fantasy world was an idealized "real world". Yes, D&D games.  No dragons. No orcs, trolls, goblins, dwarfs, elfs, et al.  

Do I need to do so?  Nah. Plenty of campaigns have never even had dragons. And some that have had them the players never encountered them and prayed they didn't because they were the size of villages. Smaug would have felt small. I have had dragons that were small, so they could fit through doors. 

Unasked, but germane corollary: must we have dungeons?  No. But then, we really didn't have dungeons, lol, we had ornate labyrinths. Though that is me being pedantic as hell. I have had campaigns without them, and I have long run campaigns that are only them (including a 1000 room, 100 level dungeon that none of my regulars will ever let me use because apparently cackling is a bad look for me).

Huh. I need to dig that out next time I hit up my storage unit, if it wasn't destroyed when it was broken into.

That said, I obviously like my dragons, and I obviously like my dungeons, and so while I can move on from them...

Why should I?

I have use drangons of many colors.  

I had a flock of Brass Wyrmling's descend on a party once. It was a lot of fun.  

It built on a different session where a player tried to discredit another player by making up things that he didn't really do.  Long story short it backfired and the tales of the players heroic deeds spread across the land and the wyrmlings sought them out and played with them for awhile.  

Sure, you don't have to use a dragon in your D&D campaign. 

Just like - you don't have to eat hot dogs at a baseball game. You don't have to go up the Eiffel Tower when you visit France. You don't have to say "cows" when you drive past a field of cows. 

But why wouldn't you?

Quote from AnzioFaro >>

Sure, you don't have to use a dragon in your D&D campaign. 

Just like - you don't have to eat hot dogs at a baseball game. You don't have to go up the Eiffel Tower when you visit France. You don't have to say "cows" when you drive past a field of cows. 

But why wouldn't you?

Even dragons say "cows" when they fly over them. It is a truth.

Quote from NokkBrittlebone >>

I'm pretty sure like 98% of my campaigns have included neither dungeons nor dragons. 

We're also not terribly successful in our adventures. In our last campaign we decided to try and convince the ice queen to go into business with us so that we could turn our tavern into a franchise and expand into the rest of tentowns. (Hey, that honeymead isn't gonna sell itself!)

I'm not sure we play it 'right' though... 

 Oh, you are most certainly playing it right. (also, table 7 needs another pitcher of honeymead.)

Of course its in the title after all!

However to use them properly they have to have a presence and reputation.

In the last game I ran I introduced a pair working as mercenaries or rather part of the bad guys army.

One ran interference to keep forces within the keep until it left as the ship his force was waiting for arrived and he was moved out of the city as his mate a red dragon disposed of enemies near the port so the bad guys can leave.

Instead of killing the arriving keep forces she took out the brainwashed locals that was the real problem in the fishing village and then left with the BBEG riding atop of her with the delivery they had been sent to acquire.

Sadly the players didn't pay attention and simply hid behind the gathered keep forces rather than investigate anything at the port.

Didn't stop them taking a group to investigate the local church where those brainwashed foes were based out of.

I clearly need to work more with use of dragons.

I just feel the Witcher showed a really good way to demonstrate a dragon still wondering about the Vox Machina display.

So, Dragons, again. Let me tell you about my dragons.

Only 17th level and above will ever face one in battle if they are smart.

My dragons, full grown, are 75 feet long from tip of nose to tip of tail. They go through several stages, molting and changing, more in line withthe kind of changes a frog does than the normal D&D set up.

A full grown dragon has 3 attacks per round doing an average of 15.5 damage per attack, and a +7 to their proficiency bonus. That doesn't include the breath weapons, which come in 12 varietes for most, but higher order dragons add another 8 planar sorts of breath weapons.

They have a typical AC of 27 on their underside, and the rest is an AC 30. They have an average of 465 hit points, often closer to 900, and the really old and powerful ones have over 1000. They cannot be harmed by non-magical weaponry. They can cast spells as if they were a level 20, and different ones have different lists (arcane, Divine, Primal).

They can all polymorph at will. They have a move speed of 90. They are able to swallow a person whole and suffocate them in less than 5 rounds.  They often live in symbiosis with 1 inch long, worm like grubs that help to clean their scales and are voracious eaters and if you are familiar with rot grubs, make them tougher and meaner.

All my Dragons are pissed off. You see, they survived the terraforming some 3,000 years ago, and it was what made them what they are, and they really don't like sharing the world with these puny creatures -- except for the cool ones who totally work with them, called Satyrs and Centaurs. 

They have 3 weaknesses, and they kill those who learn them. They send spies into the Empire to see what people up are up to, and they are bent on destabilizing the entire place so they can completely erase the scourge from their home.

The only things that live longer than them are planar beings. They are patient, and like the fabled martians, they are making plans and waiting for the best chance to strike. They have a CR of 45. 

Their culture is a peculiar blend of Lakota and Dineh. And they are the most powerful creatures on the planet, except for the Gods themselves. Who tried a peace treaty by giving them the largest continent after making it even bigger. 

And they are almost utterly unknown to most people of the world. No one has survived a meeting with a dragon, ever, and they do not have any history of talking first and eating later. There are 25 big ones on the continent that is the location of the main campaign. each has a hunting range of 150 by 150 square miles. 

I haven't grown out of dragons. I have made them The Final Boss. The one *after* the BBEG. The one reached after you go through a mountain dungeon.

The published ones? Yeah, Imma done with those, long ago.