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How to protect myself from Thaxll'ssillyia's shadow dragon breath?

I usually do fine until he just instakills one of my characters... :( what can i do to protect myself from it? is there a spell?

Comments

  • KorlamaqKorlamaq Member Posts: 216
    also this battle is buggy as F! its lagging like crazy and i just crashed lol
    Phototoxin
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    I'm not sure of any reliable way to fully protect somebody from shadow dragon breath... But that is the one dragon that u can launch a surprise attack on even if u play with roleplay restrictions.

    Use summons to tank him from the front, ur warriors attack from the back, so they hopefully avoid the worst of the attacks. Pre-buff the party and summons of course.

    Keep low hp characters like Aerie back at a safe distance. Use True Sight encase he goes invisible. Assuming u are not rushing into this too early, it shouldn't be too hard.
  • kryptixkryptix Member Posts: 741
    He really has low hp, so he died to about 5 hits each from Charname and Jaheira after spell protections were down, which is like 1 round at the levels I took him at...
  • AbelAbel Member Posts: 785
    edited January 2014
    The file to look at in DLTCEP is SPIN893.SPL.
    So, I'm looking and indeed it's nasty, very nasty.
    Blindness and 4 levels drain with no save and bypass magic resistance.
    An additional 2 levels drain but with save vs. Breath Weapon.
    Fortunately, Blindness only has a duration of 6 seconds (1 round).
    Level drains last 60 seconds (1 turn).
    The only option I see there would be to protect your character from level drain. As for the blindness you could wait for it to end.

    Problem is I see in his script there's also a wing buffet (SPIN695.SPL) that can follow.
    Again there's no save against the knock back effect and it bypasses resistance.
    From what I understand, it also causes 13-20 crushing damage again with no save/resistance but I guess a specific crushing resistance could reduce the damage.

    @Heindrich1988 had a good idea. That's why I like to call Archers dragon slayers. They deal damage at a range, they can dispel their stoneskins with appropriate arrows and their THAC0 can easily keep up with dragons tremendous AC.

    Anyway, quite cheesy breath if you want my opinion. You could trap cheese him to death...

  • KorlamaqKorlamaq Member Posts: 216
    edited January 2014
    actually i just killed him :) i used doom and harm and for some reason the dragon didnt use his breath at all (actually it might be that i got lucky with saving throws now that i think of it) :D lucky i guess because tanking him with summons was not an option since he removes them all with one spell
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    Spell Shield should work in like it did in vanilla, unless it was fixed....
    Spell Shield makes you immune to this attacks, because it is bugged.
  • abacusabacus Member Posts: 1,307
    I've never had a problem with this particular lizard...
    My divines have responsibility to keep him busy with summons, whilst my arcane battery tears down his magic resistance & saves, then drop a breach before my melee grinders roll in with hastes and heavy hitting. Mages then spam Minute Meteors or Magic Missiles (after 3-4 Lower Resistances MM really hurts). Death follows swiftly.
    I typically do the Umar Hills first or second trip after leaving the city, but never really need more than one reload if I'm prepared to do a resurrection or two.

    I generally find that the key with dragons is to spread out... So that a wing buffet doesn't drop your entire party in one go.
    Heindrich
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    abacus said:


    I generally find that the key with dragons is to spread out... So that a wing buffet doesn't drop your entire party in one go.

    @abacus

    Yes, and also I think wing buffet is directional. Hence why I said summons up front, warriors at the back, so that they hopefully avoid the wing buffet.

    That said, there are some later dragons that seem to be able to AoE u from insane distances, and no matter where u are standing in relation to its head/tail.
    abacusNonnahswriter
  • YamchaYamcha Member Posts: 486
    Acid Protection helps.

    If lower his resistance and use finger of death or the priest equivalent the fight gets a bit cheesy, but its effective!
  • LathlaerLathlaer Member Posts: 475
    edited January 2014
    I recently send my champion sorcerer. Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Spell Immunity (Abjuration), immunity to level drain. Start with a series of lower resistance, follow up with greater malison, finish with finger of death (which, apparently, he is vulnurable to).

    Of course it requires you to be a bit higher level when you face him. Or you can use chromatic orb/feeblemind a few times :P

    The ultimate cheese is to save and just cast feeblemind. His spell resistance isn't 100% so you could cast and reload until you meet two criteria: 1) bypass his SR 2) he fails his saving throw.

    Once feeblemind lands, you can do anything to him.
  • bob_vengbob_veng Member Posts: 2,308
    i've never even seen it's breath, it simply dies too fast. i've never used any cheese on it.
  • YamchaYamcha Member Posts: 486
    bob_veng said:

    i've never even seen it's breath, it simply dies too fast. i've never used any cheese on it.

    Only if you dont use SCS

    which you should!
  • bob_vengbob_veng Member Posts: 2,308
    i always use it, still dies too fast.
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    abbadaba said:

    I'm impressed you actually spelled out its name.

    What's wrong with me?
    bob_veng said:

    i've never even seen it's breath, it simply dies too fast. i've never used any cheese on it.

    Wow, so badass.
    This Dragon is weak, and, well, he likes to use his breath right at the start of the battle to incinerate Viconia. Then he was really easy.
  • fighter_mage_thieffighter_mage_thief Member Posts: 262
    The easiest way to protect yourself from his breath is to avoid fighting him.

    That or to give the guy a tooth brush.
    HeindrichjackjackCrevsDaakAbel
  • NonnahswriterNonnahswriter Member Posts: 2,520
    His breath attack only has a limited range. Keep your fighters a fair distance away when he's about to use it, and he'll miss.
  • KorlamaqKorlamaq Member Posts: 216
    abbadaba said:

    I'm impressed you actually spelled out its name.

    The power of copy-paste, my friend :)

  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited February 2014
    Here is how this fight went inmy current playthrough:

    my party: Charname is a 10th level inquisitor, Jaheira, Anomen, Jan, Aerie and Nalia.

    Before combat starts: Chaname and Anomen cast draw upon holy might, Anomen casts Righteous Magic, Aerie casts Protection from evil 10', Nalia casts haste, Anomen casts Negative Plane Protection in the front fighters. Jaheira is iron skinned already.

    I position my front liners around the dragon and the wizard go to the back.

    Aerie, Jan and Nalia open attack with lower magic resistance, the front liners start attacking. Notice that at this point charname is already using Carsomyr as I went after Firkraag first, Anomen is using the Flail of Ages.

    Second round Jan casts breach to make sure the dragon has no stoneskins. Aerie and Nalia start raining Magic Missiles.

    Third round Magic missile storm continues, never underestimate the damage of 15 magic missiles every round ;). Anomen and Charname critically hit, dragon dies.
    Post edited by mlnevese on
    jackjackbob_veng
  • WebShamanWebShaman Member Posts: 490
    I buffed, sent in the melee'ers, and won. I think Neera Breached once (then MMed 2~3 times), My Archer shot, and the rest whooped dragon doo. Hexxat used a bow for this one.

    The SD died very quickly - I don't think it got time to use it's breath. I was really sort of let down, tbh.

    Firkraag, on the other hand...nasty red brute!
  • AnaximanderAnaximander Member Posts: 191
    Wouldn't negative plane protection help? Unfortunately the spell only lasts 4 rounds ...
  • AskarnAskarn Member Posts: 5
    Limited Wish + I wish to be protected from undead. Negative Plane Protection for the whole family. Depending on your level you it might not last long enough, but it'll protect you one or two times.

    Oh, and cast Resist Fear before going in. You'd be amazed how many times that trips you up...
  • matricematrice Member Posts: 86
    the spell "shield" protect from buffet, but that's only for mage ^^
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