I know I will more than likely be harpped on for this, but I'm posten it anyway!! Yes I agree that NPC's in a city are too happy to run up on a dragon,die and now you lost a quest.But why not use your noodle like me? There are no dragon killing weapons any where in game and unless your on a PC(mods and such), you will get smoked fairly easy if your not careful.So why not take advantage of the potion loops?With some moderation you can go from commoner - demi god - full on god such as I did.

A dragons health is like 4000+ if I'm not mistaken and pretty much is able to one-hit you from any position.So inorder to save the folk of any major town I created a dragon killing sword using said potion loop, which now can drop a dragon in 4-5 strikes on master if timed right.Now some are gonna argue that I'm cheating, and maybe I am but isn't Beth. cheating by putting a creature of lour into a game that is pretty much a demi god in it's self in game and gives no means of defending ones self effectively?So I argue, if with moderation(unless you want to be a god) can I not craft a means of defeating a dragon seeing how I'm on console and have no access to mods?

I'm not new to the game, I hate how you can ask the fletcher in Solitude if he has any dragon killing arrows and the answer you get is that you belong in a mental ward! I hate haven to dump a thousand arrows into the chest of a dragon inored to kill it even if that bow is smithed to it's fullest using legit methods in game and acommpanied with ebony arrows.So I say na to thee Beth. I shall take it upon thine-self to master what cannot.

P.S. if this should be in spoilers, I apologise for my ignorance, I don't now how to add spoilers to what I post.

I actually WANT the Dragon battles to last long. This is an amazing powerful foe, worthy of fear and admiration. It just wound't feel right if he fell as easy as a Skeever.
And when "Sons of Skyrim" starts playing during a battle, well...then I definitely want it to last long!

And about the Dragons killing NPCs, well If I fast travel less they don't spawn so frequently.

First, you can't cheat in a Single Player Game. What you do has no effect on anyone else who plays the game.

Second, character exploits are better in Spoilers so I will move this

Third, I just fast travel to a geographically preferable area to draw the dragon attack, then I don't have to worry about the dragon attacking a town.

Yup I'm similar. I have a weapon I carry built just for that purpose of quickly killing dragons. Not fast traveling isn't an option, especially when I'm going cross-map a lot of times like from Riverwood to Falkreath or Dawnstar to Riften. Sadly my home-away-from-home is based out of Riverwood so there's always dragon attacks there. In my earlier days I lost Alvor the smith and Faendal the elf to dragon attacks, but I didn't know they were dead until it was too late to be worth going back to a previous save.

Like seriously...why do unarmored, barely skilled npc's with iron daggers just rush at a dragon? Especially an ancient dragon which can chomp down on one and fling them around in a single attack. They should be running and saying they're routed.

I get what your saying, but in all lour of someone killing dragon they usually had to quest to some magical place to retrieve some material to craft a dragon killing weapon or had to quest to find a weapon of lour that could kill dragons. I'm not saying I use it all the time, it depends on the situation or my mood.If I'm in a city and I know alot of people will die then I use my sword( I only crafted a sword nothing else) but out on the map it depends on my mood, if I want to dipatch the dragon fast cause he shows up at the most inopportune moment. That being said I still need to get the dragon on the ground to use the sword, and if I'm not careful the dragon is still able to one hit me so it's not like I'm invulnerable the dragon still has a chance of killing me. It just bugs me to no end that to put a demi god in game and no option of defeating said demi god other than 100 arrows to make it land and then 100 blows from a sword to kill it.

Alot of people that I know who play the game call it cheating and their playing on PC so isn't certain mods cheating?Any way I only say cheating for lack of a better word and the fact that 9 out of 10 people I know playing call it cheating when all I'm doing is solving a problem with out the use of mods.

This.

Keeps those feckless NPCs alive!

I don't believe in fast travel. It takes from the game IMO, and really it doesn't make sense why would a dragon chase you down when it has a whole town to devour? I prefer to either stand and defend the town or walk outside to draw it out there but my NPC's tend to follow the fight( I don't know bout you).

I didn't do any of that crap and I can kill a dragon fairly easy. With a Deadric bow upgraded to Legendary with shock damage magic and deadric arrows, they go down pretty fast. Ancient Dragons are the only good fight now. I can one shot a regular dragon and kill it. Of course I also have enchanted neclace, gaunlets, and helmet to go with it to fortify archery. And with a flame, or frost resistance neclace, I don't really take much damage at all.

Dragons are in fear of me now. I have a hard time keeping them from flying away from the fight now. And I have Dragonrend too. Happens all the time now. I hit them with Dragonrend and then a few arrows and they fly off with their tale between their legs. Big Wussies!!

soooo...why is the forum called "Sklyrim CHEATS, Hints, and Spoilers?"

Anyway, my main way of killing dragons seems to be to get Marked For Death, always have 3 items enchanted for fire resist and 3 with frost resist (boots, ring, necklace so that whichever dragon type shows up, I can be immune to it's shouts (or nearly so) - once I get the dual enchanting perk, I only need one "Dragonslaying" suit with both resists on em.

I just hit the attacking dragon with Mark of Death and then the Guards actually have a chance against it. And I get the soul. If you use a shield, as I do, you can have one for fire and frost resist, and if you're leveled up enough you can have the perk for blocking 50% of the elemental damage with your shield. Granted this is easier if you use light armor, but if you use heavy armor you'll have to do it with necklaces and stuff like that.