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How to kill dragons in BG2 ?

Do you have a solid strategy and are you willing to share it ?

Because i have not find it yet. I go by instinct. Or i cheese.

For example :


My cheese strategy for Draconis is to lower his magic resistance, ( greater malison optional ) and then Finger on Death until he fail the save vs death and dies.



My not cheese strategy for the SoA shadow dragon Thaxll'ssillyia was to lower his magic resistance.

Then, without bothering to do break or magic piercing spells, i simply melee him while my mages keep hitting him with Flame Arrows.

Flame Arrow is, surprisingly, a very good spell in my opinion. Very useful in many situations.
JuliusBorisovBlackravenCrevsDaak

Comments

  • RelSundanRelSundan Member Posts: 918
    What I usually do is buffing up my fighers with all the elemental resistances as possible. (Fire, Poison etc for different dragons). The goal is to cut down all the damage he does in half. If you have a pure fighter that's about it. Just keep melee the dragon, make sure you got powerful healing potions.

    For Fighter/Mages, go with the same strategies but always remember to re-cast your protection spells. I would recommend Blur, Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Protection from Magical Weapons.

    Your cleric will buff up your front-liners as well as heal them if necessary. One important spell is remove fear, keep several of those.

    Your mages should keep lowering his magic resistance as well as breaching the dragon, allowing your fighters to deal more damage. When you have lowered it's resistance, just keep on spamming spells like Chromatic orb and magic missle for damage. It works very good for me. You can always try your luck with a finger of death spell as well.

    Use a rod of resurrection to either heal your npcs, this is the fastest way as you can heal them from distance and it completely restores their health.
    JuliusBorisovBlackravenCrevsDaak
  • MasterteoMasterteo Member Posts: 111
    On a side note, when i fight against a dragon i like to buff my hundead hunter , minsc , Keldon with protection from fear and evil.

    Also, another thing that i do is always giving improved haste to my melee characters AND improved invisibility for the save bonus against enemyes melee attacks.


    Well, if i have a high level mage ( and abuse triggers and rest) things would be more simple :

    (First of all have Keldon cast true sight)

    1- Chain contingency --> when caster see enemy --> Pierce shield + spellstrike + break
    2- Spell trigger at beginning of fight --> 3x lower resistence

    3- Time stop --> cast alacrity, cast great malison, then start spamming Fingers of Death / flame or magic arrows.

    CrevsDaak
  • ARKdeEREHARKdeEREH Member Posts: 531
    I've cast imprisonment on the shadow dragon sometimes, then cast freedom, then cast imprisonment again. This was without actually attacking so it never went hostile and I just got free XP.

    Aside from that, another easy way is to have multiple NPCs cast the energy blades spell and attack a dragon from as many sides as you have NPCs with the spell at the same time. Every time a blade hits the dragon will halt its attack to turn towards the new threat, but the blades are so fast that by that time another NPC's blade has hit and then another, so that the dragon never really gets a chance to respond. Eventually the blades run out, but if you also have something to distract the dragon from your party (such as summoned creatures, for instance) you can just cast energy blades again and repeat the process until the dragon is dead. This is much harder with Draconis, but can still be done.

    Another strategy (but one that takes a lot longer and is more risky) is to have a fast character with high hp (such as an NPC wearing both the boots of speed and the cheetah amulet) run circles around the dragon while staying far enough away to hopefully be out of reach. In the mean time the rest of the party use spells and ranged weapons against the dragon. If the dragon ever loses interest in the runner, the runner can move in closer and take a few swipes at the dragon to get its attention, before resuming the circle running.
    CrevsDaak
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    ARKdeEREH said:

    I've cast imprisonment on the shadow dragon sometimes, then cast freedom, then cast imprisonment again. This was without actually attacking so it never went hostile and I just got free XP.

    Imo that is not a solid strategy to beat a dragon, but only an easy trick that give infinite xp if you are willing to have infinite rests. And it work only with SoA dragons, many of the ToB ones are immune.
    I often use a similar strategy, but with flash to stone and stone to flash, to get the multiple experience. But I do it starting the battle with the dialogue and without feeblemind the lizard, taking good care to not damage him while he is at 1HP while I tank him as my mages petrify him again and again.
    Doing so he can react, and he will react, and you have challenge, you earn the added xp and pay it with blood and a hard and difficult battle.


    CrevsDaak
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653

    ...
    Using a CC with 3x Finger of Death spells to hit him while he is invisible, as you can not target an invisible character but CC can, can be cheesy. You are not supposed to target invisible people with spells and exploit the way CC trigger and target to do it.

    Little known fact: Sequencers and contingencies loaded with save or else spells do not require multiple saves. There is only one saving throw made for all the spells in the group. Putting more than one save or else spell in a sequencer or contingency is a waste.
    [Deleted User]ronaldogorgonzolaGallowglass
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited November 2016
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
    Blackraven
  • unavailableunavailable Member Posts: 268
    edited November 2016
    RelSundan said:

    What I usually do is buffing up my fighers with all the elemental resistances as possible. (Fire, Poison etc for different dragons). The goal is to cut down all the damage he does in half. If you have a pure fighter that's about it. Just keep melee the dragon, make sure you got powerful healing potions.

    For Fighter/Mages, go with the same strategies but always remember to re-cast your protection spells. I would recommend Blur, Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Protection from Magical Weapons.

    Your cleric will buff up your front-liners as well as heal them if necessary. One important spell is remove fear, keep several of those.

    Pfmw and healing spells and stoneskin and nlur and mirror image and remove fear are all good, but what does taking all of the above leave you to remove the dragons many layers of defense?
  • RelSundanRelSundan Member Posts: 918
    Yes, my other pure wizards handles that. I usually have 2-3 around at all times. Breach works good.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    As I've said in answer to the same question in earlier threads, my strategy is simply to charge right in and kill it. Of course a few buffs beforehand help (especially Haste and Remove Fear), but sometimes I've done it without even bothering to pre-buff.

    If just-charge-right-in-and-kill-it isn't working, then I interpret that as the game's way of telling you that you're attempting to do it too soon ... so come back later, when you've got more levels and better equipment.

    My simple cheese-free brute-force approach works reliably against every dragon in the series. The secret of success is to know when your party is sufficiently strong to do it.
  • FrancoisFrancois Member Posts: 452
    edited November 2016
    Early game (shadow dragon and Firkraag) I use Lower Resistance (simultaneous from 2-3 casters) followed by lighting bolts. Fighters do what they can, just in case they get lucky. I remember a nice time when Korgan killed the Shadow Dragon on a crit with the dwarven thrower (A Skull Breaker!)

    I think Breach doesn't work on Firkraag for some reason, no?

    Saladrex I usually swarm with summons and charge. Wait until after he casts dispell to buff whatever character I can.

    For Draconis and Abazigal the Wondrous Spike Traps of Instant Slaying works beautifuly.
  • TenreccTenrecc Member Posts: 265
    edited November 2016


    Doable by a solo level 5 mage. ;)
    gorgonzolaCrevsDaakGoturalJuliusBorisov
  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,075
    First, I summon a bunch of creatures; it doesn't matter how strong they are. I send them to the dragon one by one. The dragon will use one of its deadly abilities on one of them, it dies, then I send in the next one. Eventually the dragon will run out of abilities and start attacking.

    What happens next depends on my party. If I have a several powerful archers, I will have the dragon chase a fast-moving party member while the archers fire their most accurate missiles. If I have a character or two who can use Mirror Image/Stoneskin/Protection from Magic Weapons, I'll have the dragon attack them while all my warriors are attacking it as best as they can.
  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
    JuliusBorisov
  • UnderstandMouseMagicUnderstandMouseMagic Member Posts: 2,147
    I'm playing SCS for the first time so it's also the first time I have had a full party for ages.

    The Firkrag fight was a masterclass (for me) in complete control this run. With 2 mage, 2 cleric, (Aerie so extra mage as well) and charname and Kagain, Firkrag didn't have a prayer.

    Skeletons to draw attention, then beautiful, excessive spellary to strip defences, lower resistance and finally land feeblemind/rigid thinking.
    Kagain was in the corner having a beer and charname shot a few arrows just to look like they were contributing for leadership purposes.

    Then I got killed (or party members did) by the bloody mage Conster...............are you effing kidding me?
    Grond0CrevsDaakJuliusBorisov
  • moparmanmoparman Member Posts: 46
    It's really easy actually. All you need to do to lower their defenses is a Breach spell. Other than that the most important thing is to be able to defend and/or heal yourself and beat the snot out of it. It's really that simple and it applies to all of them.
    gorgonzola
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    Back when Poison Weapon wasn't worthless, my favourite strategy was GWW+Poison Weapon with a ranged weapon (the Red Dragon in WK isn't immune to Poison so you can do this, the rest of the dragons should have died before you've gotten any HLA so this shouldn't be possible sadly) and have the dragon die of a Poison Damage Overdose (AKA Dorn pwnd u w/Firetooth).

    Another of my favourites (only drawback is that it can fail and you need to be above 0.5 million XP for sure):
    Step 1: Buff your Cleric with THAC0 enhancing buffs
    Step 2: Cast Magic Resistance on the Dragon to be exterminated
    Step 3: Cast Lower Magic Resistance on the Dragon to be pwnd
    Step 4: Cast Harm with the previously buffed Cleric
    Step 5: Attack the Dragon to be slaughtered with said Cleric
    Step 6: Cast Magic Missile over the Dragon to FINISH HIM!
    Step 7: ???
    Step 8: Profit

    And here another one for the non-lazy low-level cheesers: First, cast a bajillion Skull Traps in between the Dragon and your party. Use a safe distance because you should stack at least 20 of them. Then, cast Magic Resistance and Lower Magic Resistance on the Dragon (though you can omit Lower Magic Resistance or even ignore this altogether, though you might need more Skull Traps to do any of these) with a Mage with Minor Globe of Invulnerability (otherwise you'll get exterminated by the Skull Traps), and get close enough to the Skull Traps so that the Dragon goes through them but you don't set them off. Be sure to leave your party safe. Casting Magic Resistance over the Dragon without setting off the Skull Traps is the hardest part, but there's a trick for this—move your party the other side of the Dragon.
    gorgonzola
  • Lehigh96Lehigh96 Member Posts: 23
    Strategy for fighting dragons depends on your party makeup, level, and the toughness of the dragon. None of the dragons in BG2 have a human form that you must defeat first as do the dragons in ToB which makes them much easier.

    If you are high enough level to have 9th level spells with Edwin, killing dragons becomes pretty easy. I'm a firm believer in role playing for realism so I almost never rest and save a different spell set unless I am fighting an enemy that I know is going to require advance preparation. Dragons pretty much fall into that category. It is pretty hard to just stumble on a dragon, and even if you do, they are so arrogant that typically they give you a chance to run away and fight another day. So while I typically don't carry three lower magic resistance and three skull trap spells, I make an exception for dragon battles. Before the battle load spell trigger with 3 lower magic resistance and spell sequencer with 3 skull traps.

    I usually buff everyone in the party with resist fear, chaotic commands, and haste. Mages get stoneskin, blur, mirror image, and globe of invulnerability. I also cast protection from magical energy on my tank to resist the effects of Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. Then cast regeneration on that same tank, usually Korgan. Summon highest level creature, dark planetar, cacofiend, mord swords and place then around the perimeter of the dragon before initiating dialogue. Once everyone is in place, start the dialogue and have Korgan use rage ability and improved haste.

    After the dragon has turned hostile because you picked a fight, have Edwin cast timestop and send Korgan and the summons into melee. If available, have druid/shaman cast Creeping Doom or Insect Plague. Have other mage cast breach, and everyone else fire arrows. Keep in mind, this stuff isn't really necessary as your wizard is going to kill the dragon, buy you can't have lazy asses that just sit around and watch, they gotta at least pretend like they are gonna fight.

    Once Edwin's timestop kicks in, cast Improved Alacrity, release spell trigger, release spell sequencer, cast 2 Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, greater malison, ray of enfeeblement. At this point, timestop is over and the dragon is usually dead. If not, have mages magic missile him and melee fighters should finish him off.
    CrevsDaakgorgonzola
  • KhyronKhyron Member Posts: 624
    I cheese the ever living crap out of them.. cast every protection that is relevant to the dragon in question, lay 7 of the best traps i've got, litter the area with wards (basically magic traps) and what have you.. Then toss on improved invisibility and unload every AoE i've got outside of view distance, and if/when attacked i have my chunkiest warrior kite the overgrown gecko through a plethora of trappy-stuff after having pelted him with pierce magic/breach/etc..

    Or.. in case I have a bard, I can just trololol-tank him with a near limitless amount of stoneskins + relevant elemental protection/negative energy/fear.. and just wear him out.

    in my oppinion, once you either wear out or manage to dispell a dragon's physical resistances they die rather quickly.. not much hp at all, concidering they are dragons.
    CrevsDaakgorgonzola
  • SouthpawSouthpaw Member Posts: 2,026
    My favourite dragon killing was, when my monk in old vanilla BG2 walked up to the dragon and told it to lay down or someone is going to get hurt. Dragon refused to listen, so I pumelled his face with Quivering palm and got an insta-kill. (I may have been very lucky tho).
    gorgonzolaCrevsDaak
  • unavailableunavailable Member Posts: 268
    I win by not fighting them. I stand back and throw hordes of skeletons and mountain bears from my priests, and have my main mage with mirror image and resist fear breaching, and the secondary mage hasting the summons.
    gorgonzolaCrevsDaak
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    Than try to send some of your summons from all the cardinal points, wing buffets should affect less of them in this way helping you in keeping the pressure on and avoid that the dragon takes the initiative and begin to move and attack your party.
    CrevsDaak
  • ifupaulineifupauline Member Posts: 405
    You must use BDT

    Buff
    Dispel
    Tank
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    I always use or a thief or a wizard solo kill.

    For the wizard:

    Mordenkainen's Sword to keep the dragon busy.

    Debuff him (Breach, Lower Resistance, etc)

    Unleash hell upon him.

    For the thief:

    Set as many trap as you can.

    Oil of Speed.

    Lure him into the traps.

    Wait for the traps secondary effect to kill him.

    Either case, Remove Fear is mandatory.
  • ArchGhostArchGhost Member Posts: 30
    Dragons are powerful opponents to inexperienced players, especially using the gimped NPCs provided by the game. For an experienced player, not so much.

    There are multitudes of ways to beat dragons. The simplest one and the one I still rely on after all these years is treating them like any other spellcaster, really. Get True Sight up to dispel any Invisibilty, surround them with good melees and Breach away their protections. Even when the inevitably pop their Contingencies to recast protections, you just Breach them again. In this sense a dragon is exactly like a mage, except with about 4-6 times the HP and hits back hard in melee. But with mutliple party members able to go toe-to-toe with the dragon, it's not really hard to overpower it at that point. With tough enough warriors you can solo a dragon mano-a-draco without much trouble: Kensai/Mages, Berserker/Mages and Berserker/Clerics can all beat them up handily. I had an Archer of mine once that simply shot up the black dragon in Suldansellar with Taralash, no mages in the party for breach. I had gotten enough exp to have some WW attacks, just walked up to it and riddled it, like a machingun nest, stoneskins and all. Simply backed up and waited out PFMWs. Crazy stuff.

    There are a couple other general rules: Make sure you have Remove/Resist Fear active, surround it or stand on the side of it with the nearest wall so it doesn't blow all of you far away, spread out to avoid the breath weapon nailing multiple party members, and if it has a breath weapon that is elemental, stack up resistances to that.

    For a magical approach, a good opening salvo is 3 Lower Resists in a Spell Trigger from a Mage. That'll blow the dragon wide open for whatever else you want to do to it afterward.

    Thieves have it the easiest. Set all your traps that you can (7 i think?) behind the dragon. Rest to regain them when you run out before you hit the max on the map. Piss it off, run off then hide (don't get close to it when hiding, they can see through any hidden/invisible status!) and drop 7 more, then lure it forward. Rinse and repeat, leaving the dragon's lair if it gets too close to move out of its sight. Even if it stands right next to the entrance, you can distract it with another party member/summon and slip past to plant more traps behind it again.

    My favorite way to deal with them has to be pwning them with Harm. I've been most recently playing an all in-game NPC party and Jaheira is pretty good at wrecking anything that thinks it's bad: Dragons, Demons, the FInal Guardians in Watcher's Keep, whatever. Cast Harm, walk up to the dragon, use Critical Strike and never miss. You only have to deal with the dragon's Magic Resistance at that point, which you can LR away with a mage or simply reduce with Magic Resistance (Priest Spell). Give her weapon with some additional elemental damage like Blackblood club +3 (acid) or Spectral Brand (cold) and she'll hit right through the dragon's Stoneskins on her next attack and and instantly kill it. Hilarious.

    For a more conventional strategy, simply mobbing the dragon with summons while you wade in with your melee party members works well as always. Just make sure to use a few crappy summons first to eat the dragon's memorized Death Spells, then you can mob it with things like Skeleton Warriors, Mordenkainen's Swords and a Planetar/Deva if you are high level, or a bunch of Fire Elementals (Druid) and Aerial Servants (Clerics, it's actually an Air Elemental) if you are lower level. It can also be done with tons of memorization of Monster/Animal Summoning or wands as well, if you are even too low of a level to summon elementals, you just need a LOT of them. The summons help draw the dragon's fire and take down the stoneskins, so your warriors live long enough to skull thump it to death.
    BelgarathMTHGrond0
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