Wondering if this would be a viable playstyle. Not so much for the build, but in terms of... well, being able to "hunt" dragons, as opposed to just randomly seeing them.

I know you get pointed toward "sources of power" by various people, but if I want to make a character whose sole purpose is to hunt & kill dragons, word walls are not the same thing as the big lizards themselves.

I also wonder just how far I'd need to progress through the main quest in order for this to be viable. I guess would make a lot of sense, but I've never really done that before, despite completing the MQ previously.

As for the build itself (since you asked), I was thinking of a stealthy ranger/hunter type. There was, I think, a 'Dragonstalker' class for D&D 3.5 a few years back. I'd go with Sneak, Archery, possibly One-handed. Maybe a Breton, for the magic resistance. Possibly Alchemy as well. Oh hell, may as well go all out and throw in Enchanting and Smithing. Sounds dangerously close to OP, but I've never made a truly OP character.

I guess I could expand the RP concept and aim to defeat dragonpriests/draugr as well, since they're sort of related to the dragons themselves. But I'd like to hunt the big beasts themselves, primarily. Do you think it will be possible to make that the focus of the game, or is it just too random?

(wondering if the )

They put out bounties on dragons at the hold when you get higher levels I believe, so you could just stalk them. Any high damage character capable of attacking at range with fire/frost resistance would work.

I'm rolling a dragon slayer right at this very moment, you could even follow the main quest to the end and it still makes sense for a dragon slayer.Right now my mission is to hunt down all shout locations that are also dragon roosts, then move onto known locations of named dragons etc.... I will also stop to kill dragons from the random encounters on the road. But I went the tank rout instead of the ranger, Conan(yes he has a new profession) is skilled in two-handed, one-handed, block, heavy armor, archery, alchemy, enchant, smith, and he's a TANK which helps for those times when you just can't take cover, (you gotta dig in and hold your ground) and I'm having a blast wandering around the map slaying any and all dragons that I cross.

You are correct, the dragon bounties replace the giant bounties if I'm correct.But I don't think it wise to rely only on archery, like I said in my earlier post, there are situations where cover just is not there and you need to dig in and hold your ground.Have you ever tried to shoot at the dragon while getting a direct blast of fire in the face? It's damn near impossible due to the " eye focus" effect when you change from a low light to a high light, which is where a sword and shield comes in, at least you will be able to hold the shield up and swing you sword while being blasted in the face and not need to see the dragon to land your blows.

Are these bounties the ones you get at local taverns & such? Normally all I see are bounties for bandits, but at higher levels I usually stop looking for work at taverns. Maybe I should make that a major focus for the character, then...

I think I'll stick with Archery just because it feels right for the concept. I know shooting dragons on the wing is pretty hard, but there will be some situations where you can get a good shot off.

Think I'll add 2-handed into the mix, too... nice big ol' battleaxe.

Archery is the easiest way to kill a Dragon, in my opinion. Even when being blasted by fire, it's still very easy.
I thought about making a Nord, heavily-armored Dragon Slayer, specializing in two-handed weapons. I guess the stereotypical Nord fits the role!

How do you join the Blades and get dragon bounties? I did the MQ once but I don't remember dragon bounties!

There are dragon bounties at the inns and taverns, although it is not 100%, you will still get bandit and giants bounties.

This describes the Dovahkiin, and therefore every person who has ever played the game.
There are far too many dragons anyway...
I have learned over 20 shouts (got the Achievement) and I still have more than 40 Dragon Souls I don't know what to do with.
In my chests I have 100+ bones and scales, enough to armor an entire city!
Point is, you already encounter and kill a LOT of dragons just playing through the game; it's inescapable.
Regards

Sounds like an awesome concept but I'm warning you now, any build with too much sneak is OP

Nah; the difference is in how I'm visualizing the character. Maybe I didn't make that clear.

Anyway, I've played through the game with many characters, most of whom never got very far into the main quest (MQ does not equal "playing through the game", after all). Only completed the MQ with one character. I don't think this character will complete it, either, but probably get farther along than most.

But even for my previous characters who did proceed through the MQ in a substantial way, dragons were just sort of random encounters; I never found many ways to methodically hunt them down. More like, I'd take a carriage to Riften and *boom!* dragon attack.

My big question here was, is it possible to really go on the offense against dragons, instead of just being surprised by them - from a roleplay perspective. As a player, I know of several dragon lairs that become active early on. But my character doesn't.

So it's good to hear that there are bounties for dragons, eventually. I also know that once, a guard did , but I only had that happen the one time.

With another character, I took a look at the today. Ugh. Doesn't look really helpful, unfortunately. Too vague.

As far as actively hunting down the foul worms, there are the word walls on the map that they use as roosts, and the taverns will have lost bounties on them(but I'm not sure on how often) as well do the guards if you stop and talk to them(once again I don't know how often). Other then that I think it's a matter of wandering the map in search for those random encounters, at least that's what I've been doing with my dragon slayer build and it seems to be working.
With the skill set, I would incorporate archery but I wouldn't rely solely on it, your idea of using a two handed axe is good for those run in's where you have no option but hold your ground and using only archery to kill the dragons gets old real fast( IMO ) but I like to "get in their face" from time to time and test my "bada$$ery" against their's.
Conan, my dragon slayer, is skilled in archery,one-hand,two-hand,block,heavy armor,and enchant+smith for crafting and he's a tank when it comes to those epic battles,it's a grand old larff.

I'll probably do a little blocking, but no shield. I definitely plan to get Quick Reflexes (not for use against dragons per se; mostly because it's awesome). My build will look like this, I think:

Main skills :
Archery
Two-handed
Smithing


Supplementary skills :

Sneak - I'll take this up to the bow sneak attack perk. Possibly up to Muffled Movement on the left side. But Assassin's Blade would be useless, and I basically want to be ensured a sneak attack at distance. It's not necessary to work this up too highly for that.

Light Armor - I don't think this will level up very quickly anyway, but I'll wear the stuff

Block - I'll take it for Quick Reflexes and perhaps some of the bash perks. Unlikely this will get too high either, as my real goal is to avoid getting hit most of the time.

Enchanting - I'll do some of this, but it will probably be a slow leveller and I'm not sure how much I'll need it really.


I first thought I'd take Alchemy, but I'm no longer sure I'll need it. I'll probably do some of it as it seems in keeping with a ranger-type character.


Basically, the idea is to explore Archery and a ranger-like character, which I haven't done in Skyrim.

Join the companions too, they occasionally give dragonslayer quests. IIRC, the blades do that too and you can get a blessing from Esbern to help you hunt them down.