2 minor faux pas, and some Dragon Draggin'
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
No longer posing under the feeble alias of "Big Al", MC ... explorer of other Planes, Slayer of dragons, and hero extraordinaire ... looked for new worlds to conquer. A suppressed memory surfaced, of an old foe who had humiliated him in the past: Firkraag!
OK, time to exact revenge and, incidentally, grab his undoubtedly vast horde of treasure. En route, we passed through Trademeet, where we encountered Mazzy. Her sister was dreadfully sick from poison, and she was searching for a gnome named Wallace, who had apparently supplied the vile stuff, in order to seek a cure.
I didn't have the heart to tell her that, a while back, I sort of ... accidentally on purpose ... killed Wallace while travelling with the 'Bad Boys" gang. Curse you, "Big Al", and your evil crew of thugs! The poor gal was doomed. I'll have to remember to send Mazzy a sympathy card after the funeral.
Speaking of "accidental" malfeasance, this reminds me of another incident, not long ago. Exploring the Bridge District (while still posing as "Big Al"), where we had the dubious distinction of eliminating the paladin gang, we found an estate belonging to someone named Balthis, who was apparently a big-wig in the government. His guards demanded that we leave; needless to say the 'boys" took umbrage. While we stood debating, the guards suddenly drew their weapons and rushed us! Well, we'd probably have killed them anyway, but now we had self defense as an excuse. Down they went, and we fled the scene before reinforcements could arrive. We did leave the good councilor alive, since he was cowering in a corner.
Athkatla really needs to get lessons in hiring guards from Baldur's Gate. If we had done something like that there, the Flaming Fists would have been all over us like white on rice for the next 10 years. I do hope, however, that I don't have to go to the guy later on and ask for some favor or other. Could be awkward.
So much for reminiscing; we have a dragon to slay.
OK, time to exact revenge and, incidentally, grab his undoubtedly vast horde of treasure. En route, we passed through Trademeet, where we encountered Mazzy. Her sister was dreadfully sick from poison, and she was searching for a gnome named Wallace, who had apparently supplied the vile stuff, in order to seek a cure.
I didn't have the heart to tell her that, a while back, I sort of ... accidentally on purpose ... killed Wallace while travelling with the 'Bad Boys" gang. Curse you, "Big Al", and your evil crew of thugs! The poor gal was doomed. I'll have to remember to send Mazzy a sympathy card after the funeral.
Speaking of "accidental" malfeasance, this reminds me of another incident, not long ago. Exploring the Bridge District (while still posing as "Big Al"), where we had the dubious distinction of eliminating the paladin gang, we found an estate belonging to someone named Balthis, who was apparently a big-wig in the government. His guards demanded that we leave; needless to say the 'boys" took umbrage. While we stood debating, the guards suddenly drew their weapons and rushed us! Well, we'd probably have killed them anyway, but now we had self defense as an excuse. Down they went, and we fled the scene before reinforcements could arrive. We did leave the good councilor alive, since he was cowering in a corner.
Athkatla really needs to get lessons in hiring guards from Baldur's Gate. If we had done something like that there, the Flaming Fists would have been all over us like white on rice for the next 10 years. I do hope, however, that I don't have to go to the guy later on and ask for some favor or other. Could be awkward.
So much for reminiscing; we have a dragon to slay.
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Comments
Not underestimating the enemy, we made some alterations to our well tested battle pattern. Anomen summoned 4 skeletal warriors, Jaheira one fire elemental. Nalia and Neera were packing some summonings of their own, so rather than have them engage in combat directly, their role was to hang back and toss in some more critters whenever Firkraag whacked one or more of the first set. MC being already 90% fire resistant, Jaheira, Anomen and Valygar got the all important protection from fire buffs.
We attacked in waves, and circled around to come in from all four sides, rather than bunching up. This worked perfectly; the big lizard was totally confounded by the multiplicity of enemies, and almost tripped over his own tail in his confusion.
Certain aspects did stand out in MC's mind during the fray. Valygar was hitting often, but barely managing to chip the reptile's scales! Jaheira and Anomen were doing a bit better with their blunt weapons, but not hitting as often. Apparently, the slashing damage of a katana is feeble vs dragon scale armoring. As usual, it was up to MC to bear the brunt of combat, and a titanic struggle it was!
Summoned monsters were vaporized, and replaced by the reserve mage corps. MC wound up and delivered several prodigious blows, including one that audibly cracked the beast's ribs, but the massive creature held on. It wasn't all one sided by any means; Firkraag managed a couple of wing buffets that blew some of us around the room, and, when not distracted by summonings, scored heavy hits on poor Valygar. Finally he went down, and just in time; the protection from fire spells started to wear off. Whew.
Under Firkraag's corpse we found paydirt! MC would be able to go back to Keldorn and present him with every Paladin's wet dream; a Holy Sword. But ... where was the fabled dragon hoard of thousands of gold pieces? Dragon's are supposed to be misers; this spendthrift apparently had spent it all. What, did he throw lavish parties or something? Gratified, yet vagely disgruntled, the party rested up and headed back to town to tell Keldorn the good news.
They didn't last long, but it was enough to keep him occupied while we took up positions around him. Also the AI was using attacks more or less at random, without evaluating effectiveness. For example, it cast charm person at a skeletal warrior. And any living intelligent creature would have noticed which foe was most dangerous and attacked that enemy first. (In this case, MC).
Having said all that, Firkraag is still a formidable opponent. One of the reasons we won fairly handily was that MC scored some sort of critical hit that did 90(!) damage; Firkraag still didn't go down; I estimate he had at least 200 HP.
Out of curiosity, I ran the combat over again 5 more times. We won 3 and lost 2. In none of them did I score that type of massive hit; most of my damage was in the 20-25 range. The key point in the two losses was that the combat lasted long enough that the protection from fire spells wore off; his breath then became devastating. In retrospect, I should have had Jaheira and Anomen pack a couple more protection from fire spells, to cast during combat when that happened. And two of the wins were Phyrric; in each one, a character died from dragonfire and was not resurrectable; apparently it's hot enough to reduce a target to non revivable ash.
I have no idea why Valygar's performance was so awful; despite the gauntlets of ogre strength, every hit he did inflicted 1 damage. Katanas must suck vs dragons scale. We'd have been better off giving him a weapon in which he had zero proficiency, like Dragonslayer. Better weaponry and damage buffs like giant strength potions would have helped Anomen and Jaheira do more damage per hit.
Just curious if you others agree with this.
Well, it stopped Korgan's grumbling at any rate.
Btw, what weapons does MC use?
That may be possible. I would have to do it again and pay more attention. In fact it makes more sense that way. I didn't consider that he might have had a damage reduction spell in effect. Nor did I try anything like breach; I was keeping the mage gals out of the way of combat and doing summoning type stuff.
Who is this Balthis? Never heard of him. Is he of any importance, or is this just an odd little scenario thrown in to add atmosphere?
I, for one, have no idea about some things since I've never completed the game with a bard. They have some content which I have absolutely no clue about. Same goes for rangers. Also, I have never used Jan, Mazzy or Cernd for any prolonged period of time. I have nothing against any of them, they just never really seem to fit.
"Btw, what weapons does MC use?"
5 proficiency slots in two handed swords, 2 in two handed style, 1 in katana for no good reason; I should have gone for halbard instead, I think. Although if I give him Celestial Fury, he can use a shield along with it to pump up his AC. Have to think about it further. Current weapon: Lilarcor. It's conferred immunities seem to complement the berserker buffs well.
Oh wait; so THAT'S why he never leaves that room; he can't find the exit on his own!