I was wondering why is it that there are numerous dragon shouts, but the only ones dragons use are fire and frost breath. Considering that all the shouts are based on the dragon language, you would think dragons would know a lot more of them than just fire and frost breath. Is there a reason given by the lore in the game that explains this, or is this just an oversight that Bethesda just didn't think of?

i am pretty sure that dragon priests use a couple shouts, i don't know if they use shouts other than fire or frost though.

Technically, the only shout dragons are not able to use is "Dragonrend" (maybe also "Call of Valor" as the Sovnguard guys are not THAT fond of dragons currently). But they should be able to use all the others we can learn, I agree.

Imagine being frozen solid by a dragon that moves like a speeding bullet just before he calls one of his brothers to aid him in battle.

WANTS

Also Draugr Death Lords use some shouts I think. I have been disarmed by a shout by one of those freaks more than once.

i think i've had a dragon use a shout on me.
im pretty sure he hit me with unrelenting force.
i have all the subtitles switched on and it came up on screen.
might have been fire or that possibly i suppose.

Its not an oversight, its not a bug, its not because of something in the lore

its just a lot easier to make dragons only use one or two attacks. To code, I mean.

The dragons uses more shouts, dudes. You can see that in the main quest. It's all a matter of design...

The FIRST shout you ever meet is Alduin Fus Ro Da-ing you one sec before your execution. That shout hurted the player head a lot.

but common dragons.. Like those you find randomly has no porpuse in using more than one shout because they are just "commom" dragons.

Besides it all, Alduin revives the dragons, I believe, with shouts.

Alduin did Fus Ro Da me at Helgen in my last playthrough.
Was running around to see the battle instead of just following one of the guy in a tower then he landed right in front of me, turned his head to stare at me, Fus Ro and shiii i was flying !

Dragon Frost and Fire Breath are both Dragon Shouts. If you turn on "General Subtitles" it'll show the Dragon Language for the Shout. For some reason the Subtitles don't always appear, probably due to throttling and because it also shows your Followers, other NPCs, etc. Example:

Frost Dragon: Fo...Krah...

(Frost Breath -- you can learn it too!)

Alduin definatly has a full range of shouts, but he seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Perhaps some modders can get creative and give dragons more shouts to mix things up?

Alduin far as I've seen has:
- Fire breath (Yol-toor-shul)
- Frost breath (Fo-krah-diin)
- Resurrect dragons (Slen-tiid-vo)
- Unrelenting force, apparently (Fus-ro-dah)
- Meteor storm (?)
- "Wind, strong, gale", sort've fog (Vel-mul-riik)

That's actually the Nord battle cry I think since the Draugr were Nords when they were alive.

higher level dragons do shout, besides the breath attack common to all.

I would love to see Bethesda officially tweak dragons to have and use more shouts.

What shouts? I really have yet to see any dragon other than Alduin use something outside of frost or fire, and I've got a dozen extra souls in my pocket. Granted, I don't let any of them live very long, but it'd be damn impressive if one of them called in a Storm, slowed time, froze me, or any number of other interesting things. Maybe the next Ancient one I see I'll toy with for a while before putting him down, just to see, but I really doubt he'll do anything new to me... I'd be all for it though.

I've been knocked on my ass by unrelenting force repeatedly. As for others, yeah they probably won't use ones like slow time etc.