I've created my own party, transferred the save files and have now hit my first problem. I'm a level 10 monk with a level 12 elf swashbuckler, level 10 elf priest of helm and a level 10 or 11 half-elven sorc. HOW THE HELLL DO I KILL FIRKRAGG!!!!! ok. i cant hit him, i havent got lower magic resis, priest spell magic resis keeps failing cos he ALWAYS turns round and hits the caster, the pet mage keeps casting death spell and and the only way i can kill him is by letting firkragg do it.

I dont wont to use any npc's (apart from the ones above) so how do i kill him??
ive never had any problems before killing him(well maybe 1 or 2) but this time i can only do damage with sorcs 4 cloud kill and a wand of cloudkill that has 1 charge.

please help.

I know your problem very well. I am always playing a party of three and I am always solving the same problem.
The battle is impossible. You can survive but only as a result of pure luck. Even if you place your people around the dragon (so that only one of your guys gets hit by the fireball each time the dragon casts it), even if you max your resistance to fire (80% against magical fire) and even if each of your guys will have enough Potions of Extra Healing, you cannot win regularly.
Therefore, only pieces of cheese pass.

At any rate, get rid of the lackey first. Pretend to leave the dragon and service the lackey upstairs. Return and go cheezy.
1. You can recharge your Wand of Cloudkills and use it on the dragon. Sell the wand and buy it back. It will contain, IIRC, 30 charges. Use the "Cloudkill" method.
2. You can use the "Feeblemind Method". This piece of cheese is based on dragon's not reacting on casting Feebleminds on it. Memorize as much of Feebleminds as possible, save the game, and let the sorc cast one Feeblemind after another on the dragon until success. Once the sorc succeeds, you can approach the dragon and hack it down. Reload if the sorc fails. That's what I am doing all the time :D
3. You can use the "Fake Talk" method. This piece of cheese is based on the fact that every turn lasts 6 seconds of real time. Go to the dragon, pause the game, command the first guy to talk with the dragon, command the rest of your party to attack, and then command the "talking guy" to attack as well. Unpause. Let your party attack for no more than 5 seconds. Pause. Repeat until the dragon falls. (The trick consists in dragon's waiting for the pretended interview for one turn and ignoring the attack during the turn. When you will pretend the talk again before the turn elapses, the dragon will wait again - and again...)

You will solve the same problems with another dragons, too. Good luck :(

THX Radek, hopefully my cleric will be wearing dragon hide tonight [img]smile.gif[/img]

or if you want to be REALLY cheesy, use the cloudkill tactic.. to use this i understand that you first need to obtain a full wand of cloudkill. my way of doing this is selling a wand to a shop where you can steal, and steal it back. then go back to firkraag, but when in his room, stand so that he is just out of view. than cast a couple of cloudkills near him. he will die because he isn't resistant to it.

very cheesy, but it works.

I regularly TROUNCE Big Red with a level 9 to 11 party. It's one of the first things I do on my list.

I see you have a Sorcerer. Do you have Spook and Skull Trap? Use Spook on the dragon to keep him running from you at all times. If he is running, he aint attacking. Make sure your whole party can use missle weapons. Slings, bows, and crossbows. Especially crossbows. Bolts of Biting work rather well here. So do Arrows of Ice. Since your party is at range, or, at least it should be, lack of missle weapon use is just piss poor planning, use Skull Traps when possible. And BTW, Arrows of Dispelling will get rid of his combat protections.

Keep monsters summoned. With the Wand of Monster Summoning if you can. Hobgoblins are good. If Big Red is pulping monsters, he aint pulping you.

I suppose you COULD wait until your Monk get´s the Quivering Palm and kill Big F that way. Just reload if it doesn´t work.

my sorc does have cloudkill, and i think spook(lvl 1 or 2 spell?)the prob with my sorc is he dosent have ANY summoning spells what-so-ever. although i could use my clerics ?raise dead? for my summons.

also i dont seem to be doing any damage with any range or melee weps, i have had Firkraag down to badly injured and the mage dead (monk cloudkill behind mage, cleric slings bullets at mage, Thief casts lightning with celestial fury +3 on mage, and sorc casts 2 magic missiles in scoll of minor sequencer at mage then 4 cloudkills just infront of Firkraag)

[ 02-12-2003, 09:37 AM: Message edited by: Fiend ]

Whats all the fuss about killing firkraag...? okay he is powerfull... but not impossible.... how ever with your party it could be hard... the Cloudkill tactics will not help you if you have the Baldurash fixpack installed...becaus that fixes the AI of dumb enemies (like standing in a Cloudkill without doing a thing)...

There are many cheesy tactics when fighting Firkraag... use spell like horror..if your lucky.... he's a little frighten dragon that will run and hide from you... otherwise use the level 1 spell spook.

[add] this is probale a worthless post for you because most of the times I take Firkraag down with a level 13-15 party or solo char. level 20 or so... okay ive beaten him regarly with a low level party in my early years of BG II but without the cheese tactics... just man vs dragon tactics :D

[ 02-12-2003, 10:28 AM: Message edited by: Annatar ]

Summon creatures. (If you have ToB, go to the first level of the Watcher's Keep and get the Summoning Golem Book, really useful - go to the crypt and get the spider figurine - get a wand etc..)

Buff your party and the creatures. (haste and AC at least)

Set traps around him whil his circle is still blue.

Make space between your party members so, as stated above, only one at time gets hit by aera effect stuff.

Engage him with summoned creatures only. His circle turns red, he takes some damage from traps.

Makes your char start firing projectiles at him (arrows+2, arrows of ice, bullets+2 etc...)

(You can engage with one char who has the sword of dragon slaying that you should find in the same dungeon, but at least 1 round after you sent the summoned creatures)

Cast greater malison on him. Breach. Then some magic missiles/skull traps/cone of ice (? - don't know the name in english [img]smile.gif[/img] ).

And when your last summoned creature dies, cross your fingers, drink potions, and with some improvisation, imagination and a tiny bit of luck, you should kill him [img]smile.gif[/img]

Good luck. :D

I repeat if he has the Baldurash fixpack installed the Trap cheese cannot be applied because Firkraag will turn hostile after the first trap that is installed next to him...

And is everybody forgot about the magic resistance spell.... thats THE CHEESE tactic vs Firkraag (didn't saw it yet so.. I think :confused: )

Cast magic resistance (you will probaly have it.. it is a level 5 priest spell, your priest is level 10 so he should have 2 open spell slots in level 5)

Firkraags magic resistance is somewhere about 80% - 90%, when casted with a low level priest (level 10 in this case)... this will lower firkraags his magic resistance to a poor 20 % magic resistance.... FIRE AWAY with those magic missle's that WILL hurt him this time...

have fun beating the hell out of that ancient redhead ;)

You do not, I repeat, you do not need cheese to beat Big Red with a low level party. If you have to resort to cheese, go try another game, like Checkers, Candyland, or maybe Chutes and Ladders if you think you are up to it.

All it takes is a little bit of brains and a tad bit of luck.

First off, do not, if you can help it, engage the dragon in melee. He hits hard and fast.

Drink potions, cast spells, or, read scrolls of fire protection. Get your mage the Mage Robe of Fire Resistance.

Use poison. Lots of POISON! Get crossbows with bolts of biting. the Druid's Poison spell works quite well, if the save is failed. (You might get lucky) It is possible to poison Big Red so badly he does nothing but stand there and hiccup.

Keep him distracted with cannon fodder.

Keep him Spooked if you can at all times. Forget Horror, it seldom works. Spook does.

Use Arrows of Dispelling and Arrows of Ice if possible. They help out a whole lot.

With a few exceptions, magic is a waste of time. Screw lowering his resists, while this is nice, it is by no means needed. Pound the crap right out of his haughty snooty red ass with an endless barage of missles. Far more effective.

Use the low level spells. These are your allies. Spells like Spook, Doom, and many other low level spells are often ignored because people have this stupid idea that higher level spells are better. If used properly, many low level spells have amazing effects.

Try Harm. With a lucky hit, you take Big Red down to 1 hit point. Get in and get out quickly though, do not waste your efforts trying to melee the big stupid lizard.

Defensive Harmony is your friend. Also good for summons.

Chant and Bless are your friends. Big Red has good AC. Pelting him with missles is good, pelting him with highly accurate and deadly missles is better.

If he charges you, do anything to stop the big fat bastard. Summon more critters. Keep him busy and away from you. If need be, run away with your party and regroup. Discretion is the better part of valour.

Remember, Firkraag is only hard if you play stupidly. Measure your assets and your weaknesses. Compare them to his. You do not need traps, cloudkill offscreen tactics, or anything else. It is possible, and, infact, quite easy to beat him in a fair fight with a low level party.

A small addition to Butterfingers' list:

Attack from multiple directions. Happily, you can do this very easily with Firkraag, as he'll stand around while you position your men wherever you want. The advantage to surrounding him is twofold--One, when he Wing Buffets you, you've only got one Tank out of action for a bit, while the other two are carving up his rear flanks. Two, he can't just charge in one direction and force you to withdraw your entire back line at once.

There would be a third advantage--when you spread out your party, his Firebreath is much less effective--but all of your party members should be pretty close to 100% Fire Resistance anyway.

[ 02-13-2003, 02:55 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

<font color="lightblue">Cloudkill tactic isn`t cheese - it`s a bug.
Cast Magic Resistance then Lower Resistance then Feeblemind.
Perfectly legitimate, and works wonders :D </font>

you should throw a greater maliason and maybe a doom too.

I finally carved him up.

The monk told Firkragg that he would come back then proceeded to pound his 'pet' into oblivion. Then came the dragon himself. The sorceror hasted his companions then put 2 spooks into a minor sequencer scroll. Kerell (cleric) then cast magic resis on Firkraag leaving the sorc to make him run in fear. After casting several magic missiles and spooks, and after a barrage of missiles from his companions the magic user was out of 1st level spells. But, his quick thinking saw a way. Vampiric touch. Rushing in to help his companions who were engaging the giant in honourable combat, he absorbed 24 of of Firkraags hitpoints. But the dragon was not beaten yet and he saw a chance to remove the leader of the party, a monk named Aun'Kauyon from the picture. He rushed in to attack the young monk, but he had underestimated his foe. Even though the monk was young, he had the benefit of intelligence and wisdom on his side (18,18 both natural) and seeing his chance, ducked under the dragons attack and attacked his weak point. The drgon fell...

[ 02-13-2003, 05:46 AM: Message edited by: Fiend ]