Dragon slaying

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Dragon slaying

Whats the best strategy - I have +3 weaponary + the sword that is supposed to be effective against dragons. I didnt even make a dent on the damn thing. I'm up against the shadow dragon (supposedly the easiest) in the temple ruins.

 

First of all, make sure you have the shadow dragon wardstone. You can then take the first shot. You can slog it out, trying to lower the dragon's resistances. Use your mage to keep the dragon's defenses down. With multiple mages you can use damaging spells with one while stripping defenses with the other. A rod of resurrection will completely heal an ally from any distance -- have your cleric stand back and use it on any tanks that are low on hit points. Bolt of Glory also work well against dragons. Surround the dragon, do not give it a good line of sight to breath on multiple characters.

Now for the cheap ways:

Traps. Set as many as you want, HLA traps work best. This is how I killed the shadow dragon solo.

Chromatic Doom -- Aerie with a sequencer of Doom and Chromatic Orb (in that order). This will sometimes kill the dragons outright.

Quivering Palm. Great for monks, especially if doom/greater malison is cast first.

Harm. What a wonderful spell to use against a dragon, sometimes they'll save, sometimes their magic resistance will kick in. You may need to buff with thac0 modifiers. I killed Firkraag with this spell and one trap.

 

you forgot Cloudkill.

The wand from the Lich in the City Gates has 10 charges, that will kill Firkraag without him even knowing of you do it right.

you can use it on the Shadow Dragon in the Temple ruins, but its harder to do as he is a little closer.

 

yeah cloudkill tactic is the best but only in unpatched game (if you have baldurdash or g3 the spell will be affected by magical resistance)

i think fake talk strategy still works though: pause the game, and use talk option on the dragon, after that use attack option - the dragon will be stuck in dialogue mode and this usually gives you about three rounds worth of free hits

 

I just took on the shadow dragon by summoning a fire elemental (two would be nice) and then having a buffed mage (the rest of my characters were stunned by his wing buffet) continuously casting Monster Summoning II (from all those scrolls from those random encounters) to distract him while the Fire Elemental kicked his ass from behind.

Although, I think I had a few backstabs in there too.

 

Buff your party beforehand and spread out around the dragon. Lightning bolt from a wand works great as does Creeping Doom.

 

with level draining and the chance of taking him on at a relatively low level I rate him as one of the hardest .

Dragons are immune to backstab.

good call kuemper - spreading your mellee power around the dragon ensures that a single wing buffet won't take them all out in one go.

-Note that the magic resistance of most dragons is around 70% - if you want to use magic you really want to lower this. One option is the lvl 5 Mage spell Lower Resistance which can lower the MR by 10% +1%/lvl of the caster. The lvl5 priest spell Magic Resistance *sets* the MR of a target to 2%/lvl of the caster - you can use this on the dragon before the fight (it won't turn him hostile).

-Dragons are tough - this is the chance to use all those high level summoning scrolls you've been saving.

-Improve Haste your best warriors - this will double their rate of attack

-Resist fear is a must - you don't want your fighters chickening out part way through.

-as said above, use traps.

-Use kai, barbarian rage and all your x/day items/abilites

 

I have summons keep him busy while my mages cast that spell lowering magical resistance over and over. Once he death spells/wind buffets the summons, i send my buffed tanks in (the stronger tanks usually protected by some spell preventing confusion/charm type spells) and hammer away at him while my mages repeatedly cast magic missiles which will now keep connecting past his MR. He doesn't last very long with this technique. Always worked for me

 

Lower his resistance four times (have at least three arcane casters with this spell!) , throw a Greater Malison and Doom. And then cast Chaos. No dragon can save vs this combo easily, with -10 penalty to saving throw! Once confused, dragon's script will be overwritten and he will never use more dangerous attacks such as breath weapon/wing buffet/spells. Alternatively, a succesful Feeblemind will also end the battle in your favour. Finger of Death may work but some dragons put Death Ward beforehand.

Harm also offers no saving throw in the vanilla game, though MR will stop it cold.