Hi all, I've just finished the path with Roche. I was taken aback when in Ch 3, after the dragon appeared...I checked the journal and saw a new entry for Saskia, alluding that her appearance stunned everyone in the amphitheatre.
This was my first connection with her and the dragon. Did I miss something in Roche's path or does Geralt find out about Saskia/dragon only in Iorveth's path?
Also, is Saskia originally a dragon who can take on a human appearance, or a human who was magiked into a dragon? I'm assuming the former.
I've read about after the dragon fight, some have the option of breaking the spell. I had only kill it or leave it. Without any knowledge of a spell, I decided the best thing was to kill it and end it's suffering. I think Roche's path should have given the player an illumination about the Saskia/dragon thing.
Thanks for any replies.

Geralt find out about Saskia=dragon in Iorveth's path.
she is a rare golden dragon that can take on a human appearance.

My first play was the same as your current game and i made the same choices you did and for the same reason . So i think that on Roche`s path you are not privy to certain information that you get when doing the Iorveth path or at least i wasn`t able to get any kind of info except that it was the same dragon who tried to kill me in the prolog while protecting the king . Maybe it`s meant to be that way...hence the necessary extra plays to try and get all the endings

On my first playthrough I did the same thing you did. However, if you decide to leave the dragon, it will un-impale itself and, according to Geralt, it's wounded, but will live.

This annoyed the crap out of me. I don't know about anyone else, but when I see a creature impaled right in the center of it's torso with a tree trunk half the width of said torso, now way do I think that creature going to survive. Of course, the actual phrasing of the option to leave it be doesn't help. I noticed there were quite a few moments in this game where the wording of a choice left me thinking it was one thing, then when I selected it it wound of being different than I visualized.

... and how many dragons have you ever seen impaled with a tree trunk? :)
Say you see a werewolf impaled, do you think it survives?
Or a Highlander?

It's fantasy.

The point is, the end result of leaving the dragon alone is not clear due to how that particular scene was displayed. When a game gives you choices, especially in RPGs which are supposed to be about immersion, it would be nice if the player can look at the choices and know what each one means so they can have some illusion that they are actually making the choice. And if you are actually making a choice, it is understand that know what the intentions of your actions are. But with the way that scene played out, picking the choice to leave the dragon alone is like blindfolding yourself, throwing a dart at a board and then see where it landed after the fact.

To me, even when I was first playing it, leaving the dragon means not killing it, if it dies then it dies, and if it lives, so be it. If I choose to kill the dragon, I kill it by my own hands then it is certain death to the dragon. To me, what each choice meant was pretty clear, and I know what I was doing.

But if you're talking about not knowing the consequences if you leave the dragon, I say to that, that's the game's strength - you don't exactly know whether your decision is for the good or for the bad. I do admit the ending is a huge cliffhanger though, but this is just shouting out for a sequel / expansion / whatever.

Witchers don't kill dragons. Geralt doesn't kill dragons. Just watch the opening again, he says it loud and clear. You're given a choice to either make Geralt act like he would in canon, but you don't have to. Roleplaying, I guess, since the game lets you know how he feels about dragons.

The biggest issue here is that at the epilogue journal gets updated with info that Geralt is not supposed to know, if going through Roche path. Essentially game spoils Iorveth path for you. Very annoying.

It really needs to be fixed in some future update.

I did mercy kill on my first go, Roche path. Could not believe dragon will survive this

I only got the comment about him not wanting to kill dragons once, and he said it to Triss right after I let the dragon go at the end of Chapter 3. Remember, this game alters information you get and dialog you hear based on dialog options you pick. Just because you apparently heard it during the begining of the game doesn't mean everyone does.

And another thing that just popped into my mind is that we are all players from different countries playing the game in a different language. Sometimes I wonder if some of the issues with vagueness in the english version is because maybe the english translations weren't done very well.

It wouldn't be the only example in the game where the journal entries are updated erroneously, giving away spoilers of the story. Playing on Roche's path, you never find out the alternative identity of the dragon, or even why it's attacking Loc Muinne. Even so, you get the journal entry giving away the identity. It must be an oversight or a bug/glitch in the scripting, but like I said, it happens fairly often throughout the game that you are given information you are not supposed to have yet, or that you get an update for events that are yet to fully act out (i.e. you get the update while the event is happening, and not after the event, which would have made more sense). It's really unfortunate - I can only be grateful that I joined Iorveth during my first playthrough, so that this was never spoiled to me. It's quite a big revelation, after all.

language translations can be difficult. I don't know anything about Polish but there are many Thai fraises words etc that have no direct translation into engish and vice versa. So mistakes do happen.

He says it in a scripted cut-scene in Prologue, it is not a matter of choice. I'll find it for you later. The books stress over and over that Witchers don't kill dragons - read fan translations of The Sword of Destiny stories and you'll see.