[Mithlas]

Except that dragons, being magicians, tend to have Improved Invisibility, and likely have things like Physical Camouflage or Trideo Phantasm. Those affect technology as well as metahumans.

I think that in the 2070s, or even the 2050s, railgun technology (which we've already got working in small scale NOW and is likely being field tested in secret) would be more of an issue. Gauss cannons can hit them from so far away they never knew you were there, hard enough to hurt them, and in a package small enough that you could reasonably even expect to sneak a couple out and hit them from multiple angles without them knowing you were there unless they had supremely good intel - which, granted, dragons like Lofwyr probably do.

Good luck trying to survive the other dragons coming down on you for hurting one of their own, though.

[CanRay]

Anchored spells at high levels detecting high velocity objects are probably in place for most dragons.

I mean, all it takes is one Cessna into the nose to sting like hell to want that spell in place. 

[Angelone]

Except that dragons, being magicians, tend to have Improved Invisibility, and likely have things like Physical Camouflage or Trideo Phantasm. Those affect technology as well as metahumans.

I think that in the 2070s, or even the 2050s, railgun technology (which we've already got working in small scale NOW and is likely being field tested in secret) would be more of an issue. Gauss cannons can hit them from so far away they never knew you were there, hard enough to hurt them, and in a package small enough that you could reasonably even expect to sneak a couple out and hit them from multiple angles without them knowing you were there unless they had supremely good intel - which, granted, dragons like Lofwyr probably do.

Good luck trying to survive the other dragons coming down on you for hurting one of their own, though.

Both work off radar and not sight. The also have ranges in the hundreds of miles. 

[Mirikon]

And that flight time gives a dragon plenty of time to dodge. Or just blast the missile from the sky. Assuming there aren't anchored spells in place to deal with such things, or bound spirits, etc. Same problem as with gauss guns. The spells to counter such things are already available, its just that no mortal mage can get enough mojo to cast them at that high a force without their brain bleeding out their ears.

[Angelone]

Still can be used for spotting and keeping other things on target.

[Mirikon]

Unless they use spells to make them invisible to radar. Shouldn't be too hard, actually, with the spell design rules in Street magic. See, you're making one of the classic blunders. The first is "never start a land war in Asia". The second is "never bet against a Sicilian when death is on the line". The third, and just as important, is "never expect dragons not to have a counter to your plans already in place before you begin planning".

[DamienHollow]

Unless they use spells to make them invisible to radar. Shouldn't be too hard, actually, with the spell design rules in Street magic. See, you're making one of the classic blunders. The first is "never start a land war in Asia". The second is "never bet against a Sicilian when death is on the line". The third, and just as important, is "never expect dragons not to have a counter to your plans already in place before you begin planning".

Which explains why people want so desperately to kill one. The more godlike a character is, the more people want to wipe the smug grin off their face. I think we can leave this at "dragons are stated to hell and back, if you want to kill one then you need a car bomb. If you want to kill a great dragon you need a nuke... Where can i get some weapons grade uranium?"

[RHat]

Unless they use spells to make them invisible to radar. Shouldn't be too hard, actually, with the spell design rules in Street magic. See, you're making one of the classic blunders. The first is "never start a land war in Asia". The second is "never bet against a Sicilian when death is on the line". The third, and just as important, is "never expect dragons not to have a counter to your plans already in place before you begin planning".

Which explains why people want so desperately to kill one. The more godlike a character is, the more people want to wipe the smug grin off their face. I think we can leave this at "dragons are stated to hell and back, if you want to kill one then you need a car bomb. If you want to kill a great dragon you need a nuke... Where can i get some weapons grade uranium?"

No, if a great dragon wants to kill HIMSELF, he needs a nuke.  Otherwise, he could have used some kind of countermeasure.

As for gauss cannons, they tried those with some frequency.  It didn't work too well.  I suspect most dragons have multiple simultaneous sustained spells, which likely include something to the tune of "Redirect Projectile".  Meaning you simply can't shoot them with anything because they don't even have to dodge - it was never going to hit them in the first place.

Even with a highly, highly, highly specialized, powerful, nasty, specifically designed anti-dragon weapon and a massive ritual powered by a huge number of sacrifices using one of the most powerful artifacts yet discovered, the Azzies couldn't kill Sirrug.

Just because it has stats doesn't mean it can be killed.  Especially not when we're talking about dragons, whose stat blocks are typically explicitly incomplete.

[DamienHollow]

Just because it has stats doesn't mean it can be killed.  Especially not when we're talking about dragons, whose stat blocks are typically explicitly incomplete.

I wouldn't say incomplete, just loosely defined. SR4 gives us a good idea of a Great dragon's stats. Not that 20 or so Mystic Armor on top of prodigious health would encourage anyone to take them on. What I want to know is how much drain they're having to resist. Must be an incredible amount.

[Mirikon]

Actually, a great dragon's hardened armor/hardened mystic armor is a critter power, not a spell, so there's zero drain for that. By the way, does an armor spell stack with the armor power?

[Prodigy]

Unless they use spells to make them invisible to radar. Shouldn't be too hard, actually, with the spell design rules in Street magic. See, you're making one of the classic blunders. The first is "never start a land war in Asia". The second is "never bet against a Sicilian when death is on the line". The third, and just as important, is "never expect dragons not to have a counter to your plans already in place before you begin planning".

Really? Princess Bride?

And remember, Dragons have mojo no one even knows about. Potentially teleportation. And that wasn't even a great dragon. Killing one would probably be incredibly difficult, even with an entire military force.

[Mirikon]

Heh. I wondered who would call me on the reference.

Just remember, the only reason the assembled runners were able to finish off Alamais is because Lofwyr smacked him up and down the block, before making it so he couldn't even fight back as the humans got to unload at him. The Azzies scrambled the largest force they've ever put together in one place, pretty much, and still couldn't finish the job on Sirrurg.

[Red Canti]

One way or another, they'd need to use Magic, though I'm not entirely sure what Magic would help, they'd want some twinked out Counterspell specialist certainly.

[DeathStrobe]

I don't know if people really can kill a dragon. Didn't the world almanac imply that the one and only dragon to "die" by human hands didn't...and that she crashed in to the SOX and became some kind of horrible toxic dragon? Man, that's a cool and terrifying plot hook...

[Mirikon]

Well, let's just say this is one of those "Be sure to check the body" kind of situations. Firewings went down over the SOX, yes, shot down by fighter planes, but no one ever did check to find her body. Haeslich(sp?) got gunned down by Twist and his crew back in the 50s, but again, the body disappeared in the river. However, it is possible for metahumans to take down, even kill, adult dragons. It isn't easy, and you're going to need a lot of heavy guns (and luck), but it is possible. Taking down a Great Dragon, however, is another story altogether. Difference between an adult dragon and a great dragon is like the difference between High School baseball (maybe college) and the Major Leagues. For reference, the rest of us are middle school teams. For metahumans to take down a dragon, forget your A game, you need to be on that AAA game at least, and the dragon needs to be having a Bad Day. Metahumans taking down a great dragon (without another great dragon doing most of the work) takes, well, Aztlan almost got enough together to pull it off, but even they couldn't finish it.

Unless of course you're Harlequin, and can stand toe to toe with Ghostwalker and fight him in fragging silver plate mail like something out of a bygone world.