Solo Mage versus Firkraag (Kinda of Lame)
Volatile
Member Posts: 81
For all his might and power, Firkraag is kind of lame. I'll be honest and admit that some research took place before the battle proper, but it's too easy to kill him. I didn't even hide or anything.
You'll need: 1x Fireshield (Red), 1x Protection from Fire, 3x Skull Traps (preferably in a Sequencer, if only to speed things up), lots of Magic Missiles (you probably won't need it, but it's nice to have), Melf's, maybe a Spell Immunity (tbh you won't need this either), 1-2x Mordenkainen's Sword (position your summons close to him and keep a little distance - the AI will target his Dispell on Mordenkainen's), 3x Lower Resistances, and 1x Feeblemind (the killer spell).
Just walk over to him, fire up your protections, summons the Swords, place them accordingly, and initiate the fight with a Lower Resistance. Firkraag will waste his Dispell on the Sword, keep on firing those Lower Resistances (you'll need all three of them, just to be sure). He might throw fireballs (or fire breath, whatever) at you, but you're perfectly safe with the Fireshield and whatnot.
Ready for the super lame part? Hit him with Feeblemind. Game over. Have fun pummeling the guy with everything you've got.
You'll need: 1x Fireshield (Red), 1x Protection from Fire, 3x Skull Traps (preferably in a Sequencer, if only to speed things up), lots of Magic Missiles (you probably won't need it, but it's nice to have), Melf's, maybe a Spell Immunity (tbh you won't need this either), 1-2x Mordenkainen's Sword (position your summons close to him and keep a little distance - the AI will target his Dispell on Mordenkainen's), 3x Lower Resistances, and 1x Feeblemind (the killer spell).
Just walk over to him, fire up your protections, summons the Swords, place them accordingly, and initiate the fight with a Lower Resistance. Firkraag will waste his Dispell on the Sword, keep on firing those Lower Resistances (you'll need all three of them, just to be sure). He might throw fireballs (or fire breath, whatever) at you, but you're perfectly safe with the Fireshield and whatnot.
Ready for the super lame part? Hit him with Feeblemind. Game over. Have fun pummeling the guy with everything you've got.
1
Comments
Similarly, why waste a spell slot on Spell Immunity? You apparently do not even have a spell school that you are wary about and feel unsure about having the spell in your list. If Feeblemind is your strategy, then memorize as many of it as you can.
I forgot to mention G. Malison. You're right, of course. The Spell Immunity is just in case, but again, I don't think it's necessary.
Also, it worked on my first casting of Febleemind. 3x LR, 1x GM e Feeblemind was all it took to bring him down. The Fireshield and Prot. from Fire are there for the inevitable fire breath attack, but it was all over so quick that he never had a chance to hit me with anything else.
but in the case of firkraag and also in the case of the shadow dragon the party knows exactly what they are going to face...
the truth is that is really easy to beat the 90% of the battles of the vanilla game, if a player is enough experienced. and this is fine as other way for a novice beat the game would have been almost impossible. this is why most of who has a certain level of knowledge use mods to ramp up the challenge, or play no reload, solo or with self given limitations.
there are many easy ways to beat a dragon and other enemies, once i charged sadalex with a not buffed f/t welding the pally sword, he did not survive the first (GWW) round. an other time i used jaheira against traxxilia, some insect spells and kiting, then a single magic missile from nalia, not a single physical attack. harm is a spell that can work wonders and is quite underrated. i usually reload many times the battles against dragons sending each time every single member of the party solo.
some research (copying proven tactics from other players) can kill the challenge, even if probably is a phase of the learning process that has its sense, but some research (of tactics that are new to the player and discovered by him, not copied from others) can really increase the fun and push us toward a better knowledge of the game mechanics, of the combat and magic system, of the equipment.
to invent a new recipe to win a battle (even if surely other 1000 players before did something similar...) and to try to not use it the next time, but try to come up with something new is a good way to avoid boredom after the first runs, when the basics of the game are already well known.
I must say I've never really tried to abuse Feeblemind, but I seems to be pretty abusable with its "permanent" duration. Has anyone tried to see if that duration works across map-reloads or even save/reload? I think it might even work on neutral NPCs without turning them hostile if it fails? (For a similarly ridiculous experience try the Wand of Paralysis on... most neutral NPCs in BG1.)
Anyway, what's a solo mage doing killing Firkraag at a point where he cannot wipe the floor with him using triggers, etc.? He doesn't drop any useful loot!
EDIT: Just spellink undze grammers
afaik only in tactics mod some dragons have a feeblemind with a duration, i am not sure why, as the spell is supposed to block every script so even a script that cast dispel magic on self should not trigger, but the sharp teeth red dragon for sure will get rid of his feeblemind if you wait too much before killing him.
i don't understand why you talk of abusing of feeblemind, it is clearly stated in the spell description that it makes the one under its effect not active and not reacting as is stated that the effect last until it is dispelled. maybe is a too powerful spell and should have been implemented in a different way, and there is nothing wrong in refraining from using it, but if you decide to use it is use not abuse.
if the enemy fail the save is a battle winner against single powerful bosses, but this is true also for many other spells, finger of death, imprisonment, disintegration, harm and on and over.
about a solo mage without triggers is hard but he can win. he must use hasted summons to draw the attention of the dragon, being careful to have them attacking from different directions and only one at a time. this will leave the dragon occupied with the summons and let the mage cast the spells one each round with the same final outcome of a trigger. 3 rounds are needed for 3 lower resistance, 1 for greater malison and then he can spam save or else ones, usually in 5 or 6 rounds the battle is won. and to have 5 summons staying alive for that time is not so hard as their only purpose is to distract him, not to do damage, being hasted they can run away as he turns his attention on them, while an other summon start to attack from an other direction, if you are lucky sometimes they can even outrun a firebreath, but as he will not produce more than 2 of them in the time the battle last you can have 2 summons killed and the other 3 can stilldo the distraction work.
at levels where a solo mage can not cast lower resistance, greater malison and save or else spells that can win the battle is better that he does not face a dragon, unless you are willing to use some very cheesy tactics.