Dragons are underpowered, they suffer from predictable gameplay mechanics, limited arsenal of offensive weapons and from dragonrend. If dragons are the masters of the thu'um, why do they use only three shouts?

Dragons use the following shouts:
Fire Breath: Yol Toor Shul
Frost Breath: Fo Kra Diin
Drain Vitality: Gaan Lah Haas

As you can see they only use the most basic of the shouts, every level of dragon, should be able to alternate between frost and fire breath(With the exception of Frost Dragons and Dragons) I would improve them by adding them the following shouts.


Vanilla Dragons:

Dragons: Fire Breath

Frost Dragons: Frost Breath

Blood Dragons: Fire breath, Frost Breath and Become Ethereal

Elder Dragons: Fire Breath, Frost Breath, Become Ethereal and Whirlwind Sprint

Ancient Dragons: Fire Breath, Frost Breath, Become Ethereal, Whirlwind Sprint and Slow Time


Dawnguard Dragons:
Revered Dragons: Fire Breath, Frost Breath, Become Ethereal, Whirlwind Sprint, Slow Time, Drain Vitality and Dismay

Legendary Dragons: Fire Breath, Frost Breath, Become Ethereal, Whirlwind Sprint, Slow Time, Drain Vitality, Dismay and Storm Call


Dragonborn Dragons:
Serpentine Dragons: Fire Breath, Frost Breath, Become Ethereal, Whirlwind Sprint and Cyclone


Shouts mechanics:

Fire Breath: Same as in game

Frost Breath: Same as in game

Become Ethereal: Renders dragon invulnerable for 5-10 seconds and cancels the effects of dragonrend, [Cooldown 15 seconds]

Whirlwind Sprint: Gives them a dash of speed while flying, [Cooldown 10 seconds]

Slow Time: Makes everything ingame move 60-75% slower except themselves, [Cooldown 20 seconds]

Drain Vitality: Same as in game

Dismay: NPC allies flee for 15 seconds,and Magicka and Stamina consumption is increased by 35%(Revered) or 50%(Legendary Dragons) and damage taken increases by 25% (Revered) and 40% (Legendary) [Cooldown 30 seconds]

Storm Call: Same as when the player casts it (Can be countered by Clear Skies) [Cooldown 30 seconds]

My opinions:
As you can see this would greatly benefit dragons because as of now, dragons are pushovers and they are supposed to be the toughest foes we face, this would make them tougher, but not by making them damage sponges that dish out a lot of DPS.

This would also make them seem like the thu'um masters they are, and would add an extra layer of challenge that can be overcome quite easily if you are prepared for them.

Feel free to disagree, and voice your opinions

The AI is the main problem. I can kill a Legendary Dragon without losing a single point of health.

I suggested something like this a while ago (Before Dawnguard was announced, so Revered, Legendary, and Serpentine Dragons weren't included). Here's what I suggested:

Dragon: Fire or Frost Breath, and Dismay

Blood Dragon: Fire or Frost Breath, Dismay and Disarm

Frost Dragon: Frost Breath, Dismay, Disarm, and Ice Form

Elder Dragon: Fire or Frost Breath, Dismay, Disarm, Ice Form, and Unrelenting Force

Ancient Dragon: Fire or Frost Breath, Dismay, Disarm, Ice Form, Unrelenting Force, and Marked for Death

I like this idea. If you're on the PC, try the Deadly Dragons mod. If I'm correct I think it adds new abilities for the vanilla dragons and for the new dragons added by the mod.

How would you implement Dismay? From a dragon to player perspective.

I refrained from including unrelenting force because it would be kind of annoying to be flung of from a cliff or to be on the floor and have the dragon burn you to a crisp without you being able to do anything. Ice form I'm not sure how to add it, because I have never used it.

The issue being is that a lot of the shouts don't work against the player, and if they do they cause issues or are incredibly annoying.

Im on xbox.

My view on the current dragons: "Bzzz *Slap* Damn bugs"

But yes, Deadly Dragons with some other rebalance mod fixes that right up Still teaching them new tricks wouldn't hurt. Even DD just adds a Fire/ice/thunder/poison storm ability to them

Dismay could have two effects, one for players and one for NPCs:

For NPCs, Dismay would cause them to run away (Something I think non-combatant NPCs should do already)
For the player, it could do something like invert the controls momentarily (moving left causes you to go right instead) or cause stamina/magicka costs to increase (due to the stress inflicted on the player via the Dismay shout) until the effect wears off.

It's a pretty good idea I'll add them to high level dragons.

I have dragons that use UF shout. It's from Dragons Real Shout mod (combined with Deadly Dragons) and from what I learned (the hard way) is that the only diffrence from fighting with them is that when you hear "Fus..." You better have a ward spell ready. And btw Dragons should speak their shouts.

Reasons:
1) Lore-friendly - they are not dumb flying lizards
2) You can counter their attack (by paying attention to sounds) adding more strategy to the fight.

I agree to both points.