Best handheld melee weapons for dragons to use?

Question

The world I'm building contains multiple "species" of sentient dragons. All of them are around human-sized (in terms of body size, if you get what I mean) and quadrupedal with opposable thumbs, with four legs and two or four wings, and can reasonably be expected to remain in the air for at least several hours at a time (and that's the low limit for sick or malnourished dragons).

Some dragon species can breathe fire, but no dragon species has fire resistance. There's a few other abilities like ice breath, a venomous tail stinger, breathing underwater, and the like, but what I'm primarily looking for is how weapons would work when the combatants can fly and sometimes breathe fire.

These dragons would operate with medieval level technology, like swords or battle claws.

Answer 1

Distance and velocity are key:

To maximize what your dragon can do, emphasizing flight and fire, then you want to extend your dragon's reach in a way that maximizes impact as the dragon makes passes over opponents that can't reach the dragon. A dragon isn't extremely strong, but they can lift, swing and drop while using a lot of force.

• Lance: Held in four claws, a lance can be truly immense. More of a pike with a sword on the end, it COULD be used for slashing, and that works for small opponents. The reach and accuracy of this weapon makes it good for engaging other flying opponents. For a large enemy, impaling them on a giant lance stabbed into them at the dragon's dive speed will both keep the dragon out of reach and kill really large enemies. Or land on something high like a roof and stab down at enemies with "stubby" little spears and pikes. For a dragon on the ground, set it to receive a charge as your opponent dive-bombs you.

• Flail-type: Again, these are going to be really long. They might even be attachments to a tail to maximize reach while keeping one's fleshy tail safely from an enemy. A heavy rock on the end of a rope is the simplest version to deal with small opponents. Lots of forward velocity, room to swing, and even the simple expedient of dropping the ball on an enemy and then lifting it off the ground via cord/chain make it versatile and impactful. A martial-arts dragon may even be able to use the kinetics of this to distribute weight and assist in high speed maneuvers. A long-enough flail can be used to entangle an opponent and their limbs/wings.

• Hook (on a rope/chain): Just what it sounds like, you try to impale your enemy on a hook (or bundle of hooks) and jerk their body off the ground. If ripping a hook into them isn't bad enough, fly up, then drop. A hook on a rope or chain would also likely be a useful tool for a dragon to carry things or apply a jerking force to things they want to move. Hooking a flying opponent means you control their motion while hurting them, and if things get awkward or entangled, just let go.

• Whip: The light, easy, portable version of the flail, this weapon can be useful at a generous distance but be coiled up round a limb easily for concealment or just ease. Again, lots of room for maneuvering, but it will require more precision than many other of these tools. Again, tied to a tail, the reach could be very great and optimized with the dragon's natural swing of their tail. Wrap a whip around a wing and the enemy can't fly very well. A whip can work well as a noose or a snare line.

Answer 2

(For this, I'm going to forget that the dragons with no abilities would probably have died out or be a lower-developed race by their middle-ages. Maybe they developed to be stronger or more intelligent, so survived alongside the dragons with abilities. But anyway, here are some thoughts...)

I think if these dragons are sentient, at our level, say, then they would have the capacity to build on what they already have. I think they would develop a lot of fire-based tech and ice-based tech. Like a helmet that concentrates and extends the throw of their breath, or maybe a hand-held extended fire thrower and intensifier, also fuelled by their breath. They would have naturally learned in the past what makes, for example, the fire dragon's fire hotter, more destructive, more intense, as well as what would weaken the effect. They would incorporate this knowledge into weapon and armour designs.

One of the first things developed would probably be armour to protect against these 'special' abilities. This may be full or partial (light) body armour, or possibly a shield that deflects another dragon's breath. A standard dragon shield, for example, would be in two parts separated as much as possible, so the freezing/heating of the front part was not transferred to the inner part of the shield, held by the defending dragon.

The different species would prefer different fighting styles. The ice and fire dragons would rely, pretty much solely, on extending that ability for close to medium range combat, so would need to fly pretty close to be effective. The species without these abilities would prefer to stay well back. Evasion, covert and long-rage attacks would be what they concentrate their development on. Large arrow-firing machines could be held up by multiple dragons or hid in the terrain below. Smaller crossbows or something similar could be attached to or held by, a dragon. They might have developed fire-arrows or explosive arrows. They may have claw-like battle-axes or swords as a last resort, especially if the special abilities can run out at some point.

Another attack method would be similar to birds of prey. They would swoop covertly from above to grab, grapple and pierce their prey with their claws or simple stabbing tools. This would be a get in, get out, repeat type attack used in combination with other attacks from other fronts.

These would all be medieval-type tech.

Answer 3

Long range: glaives. Short range: gauntlet-swords

Every hand-held weapon but the knuckleduster shares one feature: they extend a person's reach. Generally you always want a longer weapon over a shorter one: as evidenced by an interesting set of fights by HEMA practitioners, spears tend to beat swords in personal or group combat. The limit is when the thing becomes unwieldy or unusable for specific kinds of combat (close quarters, scuffle on the ground).

Reach is funny thing for flying dragons. Most of the time you are really, really far away; and occasionally you get really close. We humans have a middle range because we can keep a consistent two-step distance from an opponent; from there one step back and you're safe, one step forward and you can reach the enemy. Perfect for formal duels. Not feasible for dragons.

So for the long distance you take the weapon that extends your range most dramatically, for when you are both flying and making passes at each other. A long-range fight between two dragons (assuming neither of them breathes fire) would resemble jousting. And for that you need a lance, to truly skewer the enemy serpent through with all your body weight behind it; or a glaive, essentially a sword on a long stick, if you don't want to skewer (or be skewered) but want to make a big gash in the foe's wing membrane. Hold the glaive perpendicular to your body, make sure you know which way the enemy will pass you and have the sharp end in that direction, then slash about as you sail beside him and hopefully not get slashed yourself.

Then there's close range; when two dragons are grabbing each other, falling to their deaths, and it is a game of chicken who first disentangles to not hit the ground together, and who stays longer to inflict further harm on the baddy. Range is not necessary here, you are already practically hugging; so here's where you need the equivalent of the dagger. A sharp object to focus your strength on the narrow tip and penetrate armour (natural or metal) like a knife through butter.

Actual daggers can work here. Claw extensions can work. Teeth extensions can work. Anything sharpening the pointy bits a dragon naturally has will be of use here, and probably be whatever the dragon himself prefers. But I want to throw one particular idea out there: a dagger equivalent of the gauntlet-sword. In fact, a wrist-mounted Assassin's Creed dagger would do fine as well; the advantage being that you can use that small arm whilst you are holding on to the larger glaive or lance. That spares an entangled dragon the need to change weapons and waste a precious few moments of terminal velocity.

Answer 4

Wing-mounted weapons.

Even assuming your quadruped dragons have the range of motion in their limbs to swing a weapon, it will pale in comparison to the energy your wings can produce. Essentially you are "jumping" on the air constantly, lifting your entire bodyweight each time in order to fly.

Any melee weapon would be mounted on the wings for this reason, around halfway on the wings (the tips wont have the bone strength to handle the shock). You can choose what type of weapon yourself. A simple razors edge mounted on the wingedge. Alternatives are scimitar like weapons and spears that are slightly aimed inwards.

"But Demigan, the wings beat DOWN, not forwards". Correct! But to swing a melee weapon these quadrupeds have to go bipedal, and then any wingbeat will move the wing straight at the enemy. With a partially folded wing you can prevent your dragons from launching themselves backwards with each strike (although it would be a good way to quickly dodge backwards when you need it). So the weapons will also be mounted facing "down" rather than "forwards", as seen from a quadruped position

Answer 5

The dragons' abilities are their best weapons. No, seriously, how much damage will a medieval sword or bow do against fire that can melt or burn, ice that can freeze and crack wood or even metal, or a tail which likely has much better accuracy and range than any weapon of the time? (To use the examples provided in the question.) (Dragons that could breathe in water could be used to lure their opponents into the water, where they could drown them or use the water as a trap.)

Their natural flight ability and speed would be their next best weapon. Again, this may seem almost too simple, but with the clumsy medieval level technology such as swords and bows, any dragon that can fly at least moderately quickly can evade the weapons from the air as well.

Finally, given that the dragons do not have resistance to one another's abilities, their most potent weapons given the technology of the world would be their physical strength, ability to fly, and unique powers that can be used against one another. (Similarly to @n00dles' answer, the dragons by that point would have likely also created weapons to enhance their special powers.)

It appears based on all of this (and the information about the dragons provided in the OP's question) that the medieval weapons known to man would be likely extremely ineffective for dragons fighting in the air using their powers.