Need help with the Guardian Dragon

Remove all ads!

HOW TO KILL IT?
I TRY ALL THE SPELLS AND NO RESULTS.. I MANAGE TO EGT ABOUT 6O DAMAEG..
ANY ADVISE.. GOOd SPELLS ON HIM?
DESINTEGRATE IT IS NOT WORK. SO. I LEAVE HIM ALIVE?

[ July 11, 2006, 12:32: Message edited by: Beren ]

 

You could try Power Word: Caps Lock.

If that doesn't work, remember that he has damage reduction so here's where your high strength, two handed weapon wielding Half Orc Barbarian comes into play. Protect him from fear and acid and let him hack away.

Disintegrate will also work, but only rarely, and after some sort of saving throw reduction spell first.

Sending in loads of summons to take the hits for you will also help.

 

A +4 WEAPON WILL...ahem. A +4 weapon will get through his damage reduction quite nicely. There are plenty in the Yuan-ti temple.

 

The guardian is optional and you can return later to fight him.

 

AC is meaningless. So use summons to keep him busy. Get 6 upfront and keep summoning from atleast 2 sources while he is alive. Buff up 1 or 2 guys with big +4,+5 two-handed weapons. Use Stoneskin, Protection from Acid, Executioner's Eyes, Bless. Throw Doom, Malison on Chakopek before Magic Missile and Chromatic Orb.

 

AC is not useless!!! My high-AC decoy didn't need to be fully buffed to only get hit on 20:s. And that combined with mirror images made me almost invincible! The only problem I had was that all my chars were too squatted (and I didn't want them leveled up yet) so the spellcasters didn't have good spells and my attackers had low BAB so it took a long time to kill him.
Fear is the biggest problem! My cleric had a lot of remove fear spells and the "Houndstooth Collar" you get in the prologue-fight and my decoy had 2 lvls of paladin so I survived.

[ July 11, 2006, 19:09: Message edited by: Mudde ]

 

If you have a bard fear shouldn't be a problem because of the level 3 song.

 

How To Kill that damn Guardian - Spolier Ahead!!!

Here is the non-HoF Guardian in it's beauty:
"Chahohpek the Guardian" - Chaotic Evil Dragon Fighter (20) / Wizard (10)
Spells: Shield x1, Haste x3
AC: 35 (Base) + 4 (Permanent Haste - so why the extra spells?) = 39 (46 with Shield cast)
Saving Throws = 20, 20, 15 (Fortitude, Reflex and Will respectively)
Acid Immunity
50% Magic Immunity

There is more, but I don't want a COMPLETE spolier!

Melee:
An AC of 46 means you need an attack bonus of +65 to guarantee hitting it (excluding the magical bonuses)! This requires a STR 40 character (you need Tensor's Tranformation to get this!) and a bunch of other buff spells too!
Conclusion: don't expect your melee characters to do much except die, because the Guardian has more than enough hit points.

Magic:
Disintegrate will work, but you need a DC of 41 to guarantee success! However, even powergaming a sorcerer (a HoF character with all 7 stat increases can reach a higher CHA (32) than a wizard can reach INT (30)) can only reach a DC of 28 with 6th level spells (requires a lucky Eagle's Splendor roll)!
However, in non-HoF mode, you can expect to reach a DC of around 23-24 (assuming you squeezed every point into the right stat) by the time you reach the guardian, which leaves Disintegrate at a success rate of 10-15%. Therefore, you need to reduce it's Fortitude saving throw. As I said, it is not a complete spolier, because the Guardian is immune to some of those type of spells!
Then you get HoF mode, where the AC and saving throws are bumped up further (I don't know by how much).

Have fun!

(PS - if you were to cheat, and bump up your spellcasters level to 30, get a lucky Eagle's Splendor roll, decrease the guardian's saving throws AND decrease it's DEX - you can freeze it with Chromatic Orb at an 85% success rate!)

 

No need to do all that stuff.The Guardian is not invencible, it´s just a REALLY hard figth(the type I wanted most).
The summoning strategy is a winner here, but if there is a spell that works wonders in this battle is "reduce magic resistance" or something like this, a five or four level spell(it is also available in th "nine steps" spear).Do this 3 or 4 times and the "son of a female dragon bitch" became vulnerable to magic missile or mordenkainen´s missile force.
And you can always hit them with a pair of bows or crossbows and a few +4,+5 or shure striking arrows(dispel magic first)

 

I can't recall how I did it in party mode, but in solo, I disintegrated him... or wait, did I maybe disintigrate him in party mode but not in solo? Don't know, he just went poof the first time I tried. And normal difficulty. Caster level was higher in party mode, plus the party-mode sorcerer had Greater Focus: Transmutation. The solo guy was a paladin/wizard 50%/50%, IIRC no Transmutation focus and his INT might have been lower than the party sorc's CHA.

 

@Lord FOX:

I know you don't need to do all the stuff I said - it was supposed to be about how difficult it is to defeat the guardian without casting several spells, whether they are buff, healing or attack spells. It is a question of how many times you want to reload after unsuccesful attempts - whether you get annoyed enough with it to just want to make a "quick" kill.

Also note that a level 12 spellcaster only needs to cast Lower Resistance twice:
To successfully cast a spell to bypass resistance, the game rolls D20 and adds the casters level. If it is equal or higher than the enemy's resistance, your spell will fire (e.g. the Guardian has a spell resistance of 25 (50%), so a level 24 caster will automatically bypass its spell resistance).
The lower resistance spell works at half the enemy's resistance and will reduce by half the casters level:
Guaranteed spell casting success value: 13 (D20=1 + casters level)
Half enemies resistance: 25/2 = 12.5
Half casters level: 12/2 = 6
Lower Resitance: 25-(6x2) = 13 = Guaranteed spell casting success value
Of course, this is only for spells that do not automatically bypass spell resistance. And only useful for spells with no saving throw. Oh yes, and spellcasters below level 12 would not be 100% succesful.

 

Thanks for the support,Da Rock.Sadly, I´m not into all the "info" that everybody seems to know on this forum.Repeat, I mean no offense to anyone, just said what worked for me(I enjoy the hard figths) after a several and different strategies.

 

Simple suggestions:

The guardian dragon is vulnerable to electrical spells. Thus, any lightning related spell is very useful, particularly Call Lightning and Chain Lightning.

I also liked using one or 2 archers with high level arrows or bolts to suppliment all other damage.

Have a cleric with lots of Remove Fear and Heal spells ready to cast. And keep the cleric well out of melee. You don't want him/her getting hurt or Fear'd in this battle.

Any melee tank that desperately needs healing should retreat from the dragon, rather than have the cleric come to him. In the time that the cleric needs to run up to the wounded tank and quickly cast the heal spell, the dragon may strike the tank with the killing blow. OTOH, if the wounded tank runs from the dragon, the chance for survival increases greatly.