Dragons have an ability (I forget what it's called) that does their entire attack value in true damage (i.e. no roll, no defense) to anybody on the board, and they can cast this multiple times per battle. When you really need to one-shot something before it gets too you, or if you just can't crack the defense on something, it's invaluable.
Also, I gave one of my dragons (it was actually the one you get from the quest) a tome of attack (or strength potion, or something of that sort) and her attack roughly doubled to 160. I was just testing to see if you could give it items like that; turns out that 160 true damage multiple times per battle is something of an an "I win" button. Perhaps you can't do this to young dragons because they are trained troops rather than, well, whatever the status of a creature you get as a quest reward is, but the ability to give attack enhancements to dragons should be... toned down, to say the least.
