OK I can defeat Draconis the wussy mage but the damn dragon is whupping me! I can batter him to badly injured then EVERY SINGLE time he heals and so the battle goes until I die! Help! Anyone?

Party makeup?

No time for makeup...no I've got Saravok, Imoen, Minsc, Aerie, Jaheira & I'm a level 20 Paladin

Hmmmm... your strength lies in melee, what with three tanks, and one semi-tank. Draconis' Dragon Breath is acid-based, so use scrolls of Protection from Acid and the level 5 Mage spell, Protection from Acid to boost Sarevok's, Minsc's and your Paladin's Acid Resistance to 100+%

Cast these spells before you fight Draconis. Do not worry, they will last more than 10 minutes each, more than enough to cover the whole battle.

When Draconis is near-death in his human form, get Aerie and Imoen to cast True Sight, and position them a safe distance from Draconis. When Draconis morphs into a dragon, immediately select all your tanks to get up and rush forward. Aerie and Imoen should constantly cast Ruby Rays of Reversal and Breaches, while your tanks use Greater Whirlwind to tear Draconis down. Jaheira should also be summoning Mountain Bears and Fire Elementals after Draconis morphs. Jaheira should cast Insect Plague first though.

Good luck, have fun.

You don't really need to go through the trouble of casting all those protections if you put up a good offense. I found his weakness if you have a mage or two just keep casting Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting when he turns into dragon form. I cast time stop and then 3 of them with a few more hits he was dead in seconds.

Note my first comment. His strength laid in melee. Your strategy only works for a Mage-intensive party. His average party level is around 20, so it is safe to assume that his Aerie cannot cast Time Stop, and assuming he rescued Imoen late, neither can Imoen.

Remember, different tactics for different parties, which was why I asked for his party makeup in the first place. One size does not fit all.

One thing, Dundee--you suggested an Insect Plague or two from Jaheira? You have to be VERY careful targeting spells directly at Draconis, as I notice that his Spell Turning is very persistent: Either it doesn't get taken down quickly by the Ruby Ray, or Draconis casts it again....either way, the result will be that Jaheira will insect Plague herself, Aerie, and Imoen, which will quickly result in a free meal for Draconis.

Point, SixofSpades.

Thanks all for help, I've now bashed the dragon - used most of the spell advice from dundee and beat it first time, ta!

Congratulations, Lord Righteous. http://www.plauder-smilies.de/nosmile/claps.gif

Ermm....didya all know Draconis still falls for the cloudkill trick?
On the floor of his enclave are those reddy-brown decorations. Go up to the third one and go no furthur..If you do, he will whup you. Stand their with your mages and possible their simulcrums and cast cloudkill after cloudkill into the centre of the first line of fog of war. he'll switch to dragon shape, but just keep going (Ice storm and Holy smite work as well) and he'll eventually just cough and keel over dead.
[img]smile.gif[/img]

Two things come to mind.

1) Cheeeesy.

2) Where is the fun and satisfaction in that?

[ADD]
Heck... if you want another cheesy method... go buy a scroll of Time Stop and Shapechange. Cast Time Stop, cast Shapechange and choose Mind Flayer. Proceed to suck out Draconis' brains. This method is even faster, but there is no glory in it.

Wait! There is more! If you have Thieves in your party, get them to lay Spike Traps a distance away and harrass Draconis. When he morphs into a Dragon, lure him to the trapped area and say hasta la vista, Draconis.

However... I personally could never derive any sense of achievement if I used any of these methods. I prefer to take Dragons head-on, mano-a-mano, a battle of power, not exploitation of game flaws.
[/ADD]

[ 06-30-2002, 12:13 PM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

Two things come to mind.

1) Cheeeesy.

2) Where is the fun and satisfaction in that?

[ADD]
Heck... if you want another cheesy method... go buy a scroll of Time Stop and Shapechange. Cast Time Stop, cast Shapechange and choose Mind Flayer. Proceed to suck out Draconis' brains. This method is even faster, but there is no glory in it.

Wait! There is more! If you have Thieves in your party, get them to lay Spike Traps a distance away and harrass Draconis. When he morphs into a Dragon, lure him to the trapped area and say hasta la vista, Draconis.

However... I personally could never derive any sense of achievement if I used any of these methods. I prefer to take Dragons head-on, mano-a-mano, a battle of power, not exploitation of game flaws.
[/ADD]</font>[/QUOTE]Works for a lower lvl party. Of course, my cavalier just walked up and whacked him one. THAT was fun.

I refuse to accept the Time-stop / Mind flayer Tactic as unsatisfactory ...

All that pride, magic skills and fighting talent ... useless ... nothing in his power can protect him from the attacks.

The greatest fights i fight, are the fights where I
humiliate (spelling?) my opponent.

Loved poisoning Saladrex with Melf's Acid Arrows and slowly let him die, while i let him chase me ...
He tried to catch up, which didnt work .. all the while being a little short of time. In the end i let him catch me and do his worst ... but as hard as he hit me, and did good damage, it was too late, the final wave of acid did him in.
Heheh [img]graemlins/firedevil.gif[/img] All that power, and me letting him use it on me, still couldnt defeat me in time, loved that :D

I derived a lot of amusement from killing Abazigal with...

... get this...

... <font color="white">Dispel Magic</font>.

Why yes! You CAN kill Abazigal with Dispel Magic! http://www.plauder-smilies.de/evillaugh2.gif

I bet some of you are dying to know how is this possible. http://www.plauder-smilies.de/naughty.gif

[img]tongue.gif[/img]
You underestimate my knowledge of all screenshots / stories you've ever posted ... but im not spoiling it for the rest :D

This I gotta see. :eek:

Anyway, evil parties generally have an easier time against Draconis due to the almighty EDWIN (note that I type his name in caps, indicating that it must be SHOUTED).

Dispel Magic is the killer blow, because... I successfully Feebleminded Abazigal, rendering him dumber than a pile of rocks. Unfortunately, Abazigal wears Imoen's Belt( aka, the Belt of Invulnerability), because he needs to talk to you in order to proceed with the game, but he cannot, because he is literally dumbstruck. Since he is feebleminded, you can slash all you want, but he will not die. Thus... you cast Dispel Magic on him and voila! Deathscene sequence.

You know... it was warped in that I shuffled party members around in order to get a good screenshot.

Screenshot.

Oh, and because I still think it is humorous, here is a screenshot of what 3 Flame Arrows in a Spell Sequencer can do.

One shot kill, multiple hits though.

You will note the window was not tall enough to fit all the damage text. ;) [img]tongue.gif[/img] ;) Basically, it involves the very much surprised and dead monster on the right.

I like the 3 Flame Arrows in a Sequencer, Dundee, but for some reason whenever I try to fire off a Sequencer full of Skull Traps, I get 3 Spell Failed messages. What the?

Personally, I think the use of Spike Traps against Dragons is only partly cheesy, unless you lay all your Traps in one big stack, which is MEGA-cheesy. There's not much else that Thieves can do against Draconis--even Time Traps won't be much help, because he's Protected from Magic Weapons. Exploding Traps might still hurt him, though.....

I think it has to do with the casting range. The casting range of Spell Sequencer is further than that of Skull Trap. So when you try to cast Spell Sequencer and the distance is too far for the Skull Trap to travel, the spell fizzles.

This is only my own deduction, as I have not tried casting a Spell Sequencer with 3 Skull Traps near my Mage for obvious reasons.

You are correct Dundee ... I love 3 skull traps ... but you cant just cast it at any range, you have to -manually- move into the right casting range or it wont work.
This usually means you get hit yourself too, but hey, that's why you have Prot. from Magic Energy ( or Mirror Image at lower lvls) ....

BTW.. does stoneskin protect from skull-trap ?
Im getting the impression it doesnt, which strikes me as odd ...

Stoneskin protects against physical attacks.

Skull Trap deals magic damage; same as Magic Missile and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting.

Wow, a dispel magic? Now that IS cheesy! :D
Like daan, i prefer humiliating the party...my last "run" through the game with a kensai/mage (in order to get a lvl 39 fighter dual classed to a level 40 mage...I have the "safe" xp cap remover from Baldurdash) meant she walked up to Draconis while the rest of the party got the invisible stalkers and killed him with the staff of the magi. I laughed.
In case you can't tell, i prefer muscle to magic...though I did solo the game with a mage...(NEVER do this unless you are extremely hardcore :( It was VERY hard).

Eh? Mages are generally considered one of the easiest class to solo the game with. Yes, Mages. Magic is extremely powerful in the BG2 game.

Now... a plain Fighter, that will be for hardcore masochistic people. ;)

You think so? My fighter who dual weilded had no problems whatsoever...maybe that's 'cos I'm not very good with magic ;)

A plain Fighter? Quick request then, could you summarise how he/she took on Abazigal?( assuming you do not have the Improved Bosses mod, if you do, then a summary on the Improved Abazigal fight)

If you have completed the game with him/her, another quick summary on the Final Fight please.

~~ADD]

Oh, and I am assuming you did not use anything to... 'aid' your Fighter. Be it the CLUA console, Shadowkeeper or the Import trick.

[ 07-06-2002, 09:04 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

About 5 spike traps will take him out so fast he doesn't have time to whimper. Set them up far enough away so you don't set them off prematurely, then lead Draconis (dragon) into them. Too easy. Save this strategy for last if you want to go head to head.

A plain Fighter? Quick request then, could you summarise how he/she took on Abazigal?( assuming you do not have the Improved Bosses mod, if you do, then a summary on the Improved Abazigal fight)

If you have completed the game with him/her, another quick summary on the Final Fight please.

~~ADD]

Oh, and I am assuming you did not use anything to... 'aid' your Fighter. Be it the CLUA console, Shadowkeeper or the Import trick.</font>[/QUOTE]One word: dumb luck. I played this fighter through BG1 as well, so i got those tomes & manuals. A good deal of the time is spent knowing when to run away. (ie, liches. Gotta get that time stop wasted or else you're creamed)

Reads above topic. "Uhh...make that two words...dumb luck is two words..."
*Hits self over head with something HARD*