The Hardest Dragon

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You can dimension door into Baldurs Gate? Are you supposed to be allowed to do that?

 

I told you he was breaking the game

From the page linked before:

So no, you're not supposed to be doing that

 

The BG2 speedrun is also quite an interesting read - lots of glitches used! Talk about abuse!

I have a feeling that a lot of those glitches will be fixed by the fixpack.

 

I do remember him being harder than his father, too.

 

I thought he was more difficult on my first couple of attempts, merely because he teleports around. When you aren't expecting that, it's more challenging because it requires slightly altered tactics. As soon as you get him to stand still, he becomes much easier. The best way I've found is to get up a couple of beefy summons, (mordy swords, greater elementals, or even a pit fiend if you're feeling frisky) and he focuses most of his spells on him, while you work on taking his protections down. Then he's just like your typical dragon.

 

I'm pretty sure he doesn't teleport around. He just goes invisible whenever he feels like it and runs around hasted, so sometimes it's hard to keep track of him. Summons are usually not so great because I'm pretty sure he was a fair few death spells.

 

OK, maybe he does go invisible, hastily move, and then reappear. But that's basically teleporting with a small time lapse. He does have a few death spells, but he also summons some invisible stalkers too, so it seems like when he does that, he doesn't cast his death spells. Anyway, so long as you keep him in one place, a quick dispel/remove magic along with a couple of GWW does the trick.

 

If he knew about the poll, he would vote. For himself. So, since he has no votes, he doesn't know about it yet.
I'll tell him about it the next time we go out together.

I also think so. But I find it surprising that so many people met Thaxll'ssillyia before Firkraag.

 

I'm fighting SCS II's Firkraag at the moment. I have SCS II set to non innate spells for dragons (ie they have a casting time and can be interrupted) and do not have the increased staying power component installed.

Wow! I didnt have too much trouble with SCS II Thax'llsillyia, but Firkraag is something else! Even though my party is a little more powerful than it was, I'm really, really struggling. His firebreath and claws decimate my party! I think the problem is he Removes/Dispels magic on them, and then most of the protection not granted by gear is gone. Even then, I saw him cast Lower Fire Resist on my character wearing most of the fire resist gear.

I havent been using summons though, which is probably where I'm going wrong. I need something to soak up his attention for the first few seconds so he can waste his remove/dispel magic on them.

My party is:
Inquisitor 13 (I think)
Ranger 7/Cleric 14
Fighter/Thief multiclass (not sure of levels, probably 10/13 or 11/14 or so).
Sorcerer 14
Generic archer 9/Mage 14
Mage 12/Cleric 12 or 13 or so

I'll probably change some of my cleric spells to summon undead, and use those. Hopefully I can get some good undead summons! Not using any spell or summon mods.

 

Me too (although I admit that this was the case with me as well). You meet Firkraag very early in the game. I imagine most people go immediately to the Copper Coronet right after you meet Galen, and so you'd get that quest first. Sure, you meet Nalia there as well, so I could certainly see you doing her quest as your first major quest (not counting the slavers, which I imagine pretty much everyone does as their first major quest).

I could even imagine you completing that quest before you even hear anything about the Umar Hills on your first play through. That quest is activated by either meeting Delon or visiting the Cowled Wizards in the Government District, both of which would add the Umar Hills to your world map. But assuming you already met Firkraag at the CC before that, there would be no real impetus to go complete the Umar Hills before heading to the Windspear Hills.

 

I cant remember which order I did them in, when I first played the game, all those years ago. I think I fought Firkraag second for some reason, though I'm not sure why. I know I never visited Trademeet in my first playthrough, and I started the cleric stronghold quest but didnt finish it, because I didnt know where the lair was. I got to the sewers but couldnt find the entrance to the lair. Yeah, I know!

 

Finger of Death doesnt work on SCS II dragons! Much harder that way!

I tried the cleric spell Poison, which does a massive amount of damage per round, but it didnt seem to connect. Maybe his spell turning was still active that time. I eventually beat him. Using my Inquisitor's Dispel Magic did the trick - dispelled his protections and his haste, after that there wasnt much he could do.

 

You could even cast fear on Firkraag in old days, luckily remedied by now by SCSII.

 

Another reason Thaxll'ssillyia might be getting more love than Firkraag. Level drain breath. Unless you have the means of ignoring it he can be pretty nasty and there is no reason to assume players will by that point. Where Firkraag's own dungeon holds many fire resistance items Thaxll'ssilyia's is -in comparison- pretty barren.

Also, once you start replaying the game you will know that Fikraag can wait for as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable (although wearing all that dragon slayer armour you''d think you'd be ready already >.>), while Thaxll'ssilyia disappears as soon as you kill the final boss for that quest and so you have to either kill Thaxll'ssilyia before completing that one or skip him entirely and for me personally, once I start a quest (actually start it by doing something in the quest area, not just as soon as I get it put in my journal) I like to finish it all in one go.

 

Horror still works on SCS II dragons, I got Firkraag with it twice.

As for Finger of Death, pity I dont have a Firkraag save, I would test it. I know DavidW added a component called Standardize Dragon Immunities, which I have installed. I think thats new. It makes SOA dragons have the same immunities as TOB dragons - namely death magic. Might be some other things it is immune to. I tried Hold Monster a few times, but it looked like he always made his save. If he has to save against it, does that mean he is not immune to it?

@Samael

Agreed, Thax'll etc's breath is much harder to protect against, but for some reason, Firkraag's breath seems to be more level. Maybe it has a much wider area of effect? I know one of his fireballs killed several of my party members in one go, including fighters wearing fire resist equipment. His Lower Fire Resistance spell might have something to do with that.

I also never let the Shadow Dragon live! I know I could sneak past it, but I just dont. I do leave Firkraag alive after our first meeting, in order to kill him later as part of the Paladin stronghold quest. I believe you get less experience if he is already dead when the quest is given to you?

 

@Proteus_za
Thaxll'ssillyia's breath does IIRC have a much smaller area of effect, can't remember it specifically but yeah, it's not like Firkraag's explosions. I seem to remember something about avoiding his breath attack in some way but I cannot remember. Anyway, much smaller but still scary breath attack.

I can't let a shadow dragon live, no self-respecting adventurer could!

Correct, if you kill Firkraag on your first encounter you get his loot and the exp for killing him and that is all you'll ever get. If you wait for the Radiant Heart to assign his death as a quest then you get the normal things plus some quest experience.