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How do you normally beat Firkraag?

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  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    TBH, I just had an awful time in ToB doing Dorn's quest for the first time, a bit of a double whammy showing up to curbstomp my party. When the enemy can disable a Planetar in about 1 round, you know you're going to have a very bad time of things. I'm not going to lie, I make liberal use of Hexxat's trap setting abilities to make some fights easier, but running into even Saladrex wasn't that bad, he took 1 spike trap and went hostile, but my party could take him down without any difficulty; these two were literally scripted to gain almost impervious defenses, with an auto-stoneskin and protection from Eneregy to make most of the nasty tricks ineffective. They also run around, but can't be lead away to traps very easily, and their breath weapon does over 100 damage ON NORMAL. :s These two dropped Korgan in ONE ROUND. And even a prepared PC with full Cold Resist was getting owned pretty badly. I ended up abusing archery, which narrowly won out. Hated that fight. I did it after Watcher's Keep mostly, still found it awful. How are those dragons fair!? I know you can talk them out of a fight, but yikes. Firky is a literal joke compared to that.
    gorgonzolaloliendunbar
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    edited February 2019
    sadly i can't force myself to rp so evil to have dorn in the party, so i missed those dragons, i would have been really happy to try that battle...
    auto stoneskin and protection from energy nerf some tricks but not all. i can not tell more cause i don't know that battle, i am just guessing that feeblemind, flash to stone, harm, if there is a short window between stoneskins, and other tricks maybe can work and make the battle easier, as from what you tell is not something that can be easily handled by some strong warrior going point and click, thing that imo is good. also spells that disable their spell casting like the insect ones can be good if their protection are not applied using a script that overrides, and blinding them can be really effective if they have not dispel magic.
    EDIT: this is maybe one of those battles where the staff of domination i named before in the topic can work wonders. if one of the dragons can be dominated and sent to fight the other i suppose that the battle could be completely different.

    lolienThacoBelliosfrustration
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    After years of just throwing the kitchen sink at dragons and wearing them down by attrition I've finally found a (rather cheesy) solution that suits me:

    I do enough of WK early so that I can get a couple of wands of Spell Striking and give them to my mage who can cast Simulcrum (or a F/M with Vhailor's Helm). Then the mage uses his simulcrum to repeatedly hit the dragon with the WoSS (which doesn't use any of the charges on the original wands in the real mage's quickslots) while my hasted fighter(s) hack the lizard to pieces.

    I'm not sure how well this would work on Dorn's bloody dragons though - I've only beaten them once (back in my kitchen sink days) and that was more by luck and attrition than anything else.
    Skataniosfrustration
  • PraxPrax Member Posts: 8
    Lower Magic Resistance
    Doom
    Blind
    Ranged weapons
    iosfrustration
  • Teddy1337Teddy1337 Member Posts: 1
    Cloak of the sewers is the key, ur going to wanna use it to become a mustard jelly. The mustard jelly is able to inflict a lot of poison dmg upon Firkraag. Also you would want to have a thief or two putting down traps around Firkaag for the early dmg, this makes him drop 2 bars of health.

    Next you would just want to do you normal buffs, remember resistance against fear and haste. You're going to try to have Firkaag target the jelly so have your tanks back a bit of just when the fight starts and then make them attack when Firkraag is attacking the jelly.

    You would want your mages casting Lower Resistance, Greater Malison and Breach to make him easier to hit. Then you just let them to ur job and if you need just give them a greater health potion.

    There you go, job done!
    iosfrustration
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    A mage with Wand of Spell Striking (available early on from the Red Wizard enclave in Neera's quest) and a buffed-up tank.
    iosfrustration
  • iosfrustrationiosfrustration Member Posts: 153
    Feeblemind cheese, gets him every time.

    Well more accurately: 10% of the time it gets him every time
    ThacoBell
  • Djasko_AmsterdamDjasko_Amsterdam Member Posts: 47
    edited June 2020
    Normally I tank him and dispel his protections. Since EE, I like to use the shaman who can Lock Mind or some name like that.
    iosfrustration
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    I tell him "I'll be back", then come back when I've got enough levels to fight fairly straightforwardly. Being able to have the party's bard dispel everything does wonders for dragon fights. Or fighter HLAs for massive damage bursts. Or a mage going Improved Alacrity into Time Stop and casting lots of spells. Or... you get the picture.
    iosfrustration
  • iosfrustrationiosfrustration Member Posts: 153
    Also in the “awesome but impractical” category, spam him with the wand of wonder until you get a lucky flesh to stone (no save). A couple of simulacrum also using the wand and it’s easy enough to nail him in a single round.
    Of course, any party able to
    1) get the wand of wonder on the first place
    2) cast multiple simulacrum
    can probably take him in a fair fight no trouble at all.
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    That's also an "I'll be back" strategy; the key to the area in which the wand of wonder is found is a drop from the encounter just before meeting Firkraag. Once you've got the key and access to reach the wand, there is literally nothing standing in the way of you going down for a chat with the dragon.
    iosfrustration
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    My latest party just took on this particularly twit of a dragon. However, they had the advantage of coming at him at a much later level. The party prepped with a full contingent of Morty's Swords to keep him busy while Eilrie used a spell trigger with three lower resistance spells to soften him up, then a fourth one for good measure. Imoen came in with feeblemind. I don't really consider that cheese, though. That's literally what that spell is for.
    iosfrustration
  • ZaxaresZaxares Member Posts: 1,325
    I'm fairly straightforward in my strategies against mega-boss types like Firkraag. I buff my party to the nines, making sure to take protections against special attacks (so for Firkraag, it would be Remove Fear to stop his dragonfear, potions of Fire Resistance to guard against his breath weapon etc.), and then load up my fighter-types with as many offensive buffs as possible. If possible, I summon a few creatures prior to the battle to serve as distractions, then once battle begins, have my spellcasters loose their various debuffs (usually spells like Breach and Lower Spell Resistance), then everybody unleashes their most potent attacks/spells. I usually don't play with SCS or other increased difficulty mods, so this approach is usually plenty to see me through the encounter with no party member deaths. :)
  • ilduderinoilduderino Member Posts: 773
    The first time I beat him with cloudkill cheese, for many times after that by buffing then full plate and packing steel. Quite enjoy feeblemind cheese now
    iosfrustration
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    edited June 2020
    :: sighs :: Using feeblemind against a dragon isn't cheese... Setting a gazillion traps right in front of him while he is still blue and aggroing him is cheese.

    Note, I don't consider traps to be cheese per-se - setting up a bunch in a hallway you know leads to a major battle is perfectly legit tactics. I did that in BG1 - Durlag's Tower quite a few times.
    ThacoBelliosfrustration
  • ilduderinoilduderino Member Posts: 773
    edited June 2020
    It feels pretty stilton to repeatedly cast feeblemind in a dragon’s face without them reacting and then reloading and trying again when the save isn’t failed - about as close an I win button as it gets when it works
    iosfrustration
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    edited June 2020
    ilduderino wrote: »
    It feels pretty stilton to repeatedly cast feeblemind in a dragon’s face without them reacting and then reloading and trying again when the save isn’t failed - about as close an I win button as it gets when it works

    Ok, I will grant that save-spamming feeblemind is pretty cheesy. However, my party did NOT save spam during their fight with Firkraag, and the first attempt did, in fact, fail.

    Specifically, I had my PC sorcerer, Eilrie, send about three Morty's Swords to aggro/distract him. Then, she fired off a spell trigger with three lower resistance spells, which turned out to not be enough. Imoen fired off her first attempt at feeblemind, which failed, but she had two memorized. Given this fail, Sirene and Jaheira got into firing range to further distract him while Eilrie shot off a couple more lower resistance spells*. The swords were getting swept a lot with the wing buffet, so Isra joined them from the rear while Imoen fired off her second, and last, feeblemind. Isra had Battalista's Passport to help with the fire damage, but still took some heat.

    Fortunately, the second feeblemind stuck, and the rest of the battle was pretty trivial. Isra, Sirene, and Jaheira plugged away until he was a goner.

    Now, would you consider that a cheesy battle?

    If anything, the battle against Thaxll'ssillyia was, perhaps, "cheesy". In that battle, Aerie used the cloak of the sewers and an oil of speed to keep the dragon busy while a few Morty's Swords plugged away at him from the rear. Eilrie fired off the same spell trigger, a few more lower resistance spells for good measure, followed by a pierce shield. With Aerie right there plugging away, the dragon failed to notice Sirene, Jaheira, and Imoen firing off bolts and arrows.

    Only at the end, when the transformation ended, did I have Isra go in to replace Aerie, allowing her to make her escape, but by that point, Thaxll'ssillyia was already in rough shape.

    A great strategy, but transforming into a mustard jelly felt awfully cheesy. (Though, I will point out that Aerie did take damage from the dragon, it was just extremely minor)

    * In fairness, Eilrie has the Robe of Vecna and a helmet that increases her casting speed significantly. She was only in the line of fire very briefly before retreating.
  • jmacjmac Member Posts: 2
    Still playing this game in 2020!

    Anyhow, I've always cheesed Firkraag by using the Harm spell. It takes a while to hit because it needs to bypass his MR, but once it successfully lands, he'll be at 1d4 hp. From there, it's a pretty easy kill.
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