Pillars of Eternity [SPOILERS] - Tips vs. Adra Dragon?

O_Bruce

I would like to kindly ask you for some tips to kill the damn beast. It's one of the cheapest videogame bosses I've ever seen, even after talking to the dragon slayer and earning the abillity to weaken the dragon, it is still impossible. Even if I manage to live first few seconds (dodging the breath attack), I cannot deal any real damage ot the dragon, before it kicks my ass. Not only that, it also has a mininons, some of which can dominate my party members.

My current team, level 12 each one, consist of:
PC, Barbarian
Eder
Sagani
Durance
Kana
Aloth

What I tried:
- Distracting the dragon with the minions. I have not enough of these, and they die too quickly for me to even kill rest of the pets.
- Spamming Confuse on the enemies. They provide a weak distraction, and the Dragon still targets my party the most.
- Trying to turn the dragon into the stone. Nope, Immunity.
- Traps are not doing much to it.
- Base damage abillities and spells aren't helping much.

Any tips you can offer me? Because for now I think the damn thing is untouchable.

Musigny

If you never killed it then knowing its stats and imunities will help.

Standard difficulty level



Path of the Damned (add 15 points to accuracy and the 4 defensive stats + 20% endurance)

Generic strategy (the ultimate strategy depends on your team composition)

As you can see you have to attack its reflex or will defense first before collapsing everything including its deflection. Its DR is rather high so you have to favor raw damage and DR bypass or simply hit hard...
otherwise you will have to rely on the 20% min damage.

1- prebuff = rest (or double rest Caed Nua + fire camp -> select the bonus against beast if you can) + eat food everything that helps you. If you have a problem with the adragan, think about boosting your fortitude during this phase.

2- The dragon moves very slowly. Therefore start the attack from as far as you can while keeping a comfortable retreat path. You may use summons to slow down the dragon and divert the first breath (which are not frequent). Use that time to boost your team with potions/scrolls/spells:
- 2a prevent debuff - Noticeably t is very important to protect against (dragon) fear. You may even use a priest to protect against paralysis.
- 2b boost your accuracy, it is very important to start debuffing the dragon.

3- From a general perspective if you think an enemy is going to buff then use spells like arcane dampener or deprive the unworthy to eleminate the bonus. (I think dragons uses buff in PotD, not sure about the normal levels)

4- Combine a first attack targeting its reflex or will, once the first attack take effect, all further attacks will be easier to make.

5- Launch further debuff that targets its decreased defense and will downgrade its deflection.

6- Charge with most of your team. Other members can use wide area spells or summons to limit the adragan and xaurip interference.

If you initially make the dragon follow you "north" or "north west" at your first meeting, then it is possible to sneak past the dragon afterwards and elaborate another strategy whereby you quickly eleminate the minions while keeping the dragon busy with summons and finally deal with the dragon itself.

O_Bruce

Some good pointers you gave here. But I have further questions. How do I protect myself from it's breath/wing attacks? Those are what destroying my party. I know that splitting my party would be good idea, but the game has "stepping out of fight" mechanics, meaning that everytime I predict one of the deadly attacks, I have to move and accept free damage from the dragon due to said mechanic.

TheElf

Been a long time but I noticed it can be walked into a paralyze trap. If you're willing to save and reload, and walk it into the highest level one that'd make a huge difference.