Dragons are the msot mighty and terrifying creatures in AD&D, but that isn't reflected in their combat stats! A warrior can do almost as much damage as a full grown red wyrm in a round! Using the following rules makes it more believable, and terrifying, to face a dragon. Although their breath weapons are devastating, the effect of a one ton claw cannot be over looked! ;) Generally, only seige weapons, the most potent of blades and the smrtets of minds can defeat a dragon: meleeing one is almost certain suicide! Also note: you CANNOT "vorpalise" a dragon, they are too big!! Only giant-sized folk could do it, same with "sharpness" weapons.

Dragons are incredibly tough, Hit Dice ranges aren't sufficient, 1 100 yeard beastie is gonna take a lot of killing! Just as humans get bonuses for high Constituion,so do dragons. So a read great wyrm with 23 Hit Dice gets a bonus of 138 hp on top!

Damage dice modifiers increase the amonut of dice done in damage (not the bonuses for age). So a great red wyrm would do 5d10+12 (1d10x5, +12) claw damage. Note that human-sized opponents are so small adult dragons generally can't use more than one attack against them!

Al dragons get a +4 to saves due to their size, magic abilities etc.