Does anyone have any tips or strategies that will help me defeat him?

He's obviously very powerful but I'm guessing that casting "Lower Resistance" will help weaken him.

Since rescuing Garren's child, I've saved Trademeet and Ulmar Hills... is it too early to go back and fight Fiirkraag?

[ 07-09-2002, 03:17 PM: Message edited by: Paleface ]

heres a tip, QUICKLY EDIT THE TITLE OF THIS POST. YOUR RUINING THE SURPRISE FOR PEOPLE THAT DONT KNOW FIRKRAAG'S TRUE FORM. PLEASE EDIT THE TITLE!

Now, aside from changing the title: If you know exactly where he is, you can move a mage as close as possible without seeing firkraag. than use EVERY offensive area-effect spell/staff you've got. This should soften him up.

... and also tell the administrators that they must change the name of the forum! Somebody could feel "spoiled" if he is told that there is some BG2 or Shadows of Amn...

Actually, they will edit the title of the thread. Read the Forum FAQ for more information on how to handle game spoilers. ;)

I'm so sorry, it was a terrible accident!
I didn't mean to spoil it for anyone, and I didn't realize what I had done until just now.

Please accept my apologies.

[ 07-09-2002, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: Paleface ]

No need of being sorry - you din't make anything wrong.
The fact that Firkraag is a dragon is known to everybody. Asking for help with "Firkraag, the dragon" is completely natural - it is a strong opponent. Getting upset that somebody wants help with "Firkraag, the dragon" belongs to a madhouse.
I don't understand one thing. Why are we bullied by the administrators in such cases like yours. Are there any limits for spoiler haters' raging in the forum or are there none?
The spoiler haters are strange beasts. They prevent others from gaining and giving information - except for the moment when they themselves get stuck. At this moment, "spoilers" are allowed and required suddenly but only as long as they are stuck. It isn't fair.
The spoiler haters should be banned from the forum - each of them in particular and all of them together because they restrict the liberty of others of seeking and giving help with the game. Why they read the forum if they do not want to see any piece of information on it? Their presence on the forum results in numerous completely useless posts (Oh God! I must not spoil anybody! I must speak in riddles and remove anything important from my post!). They force others to foul their posts with so called "spolier alerts". The spoiler haters sould not be here.

*wonders how many times this has been asked*

Plaeface Whatlevel and What Classes are your team??

[ 07-10-2002, 05:41 AM: Message edited by: Fiend ]

The fact that Firkraag is a dragon is known to everybody.

How do you know? Are you telepathic? Do all newcomers know( especially those surfing the forum for the first time looking for help in Jon Irenicus' dungeon)? The ruling for spoilers are there for a valid reason. How would you feel if you enter a cinema theathre and there were people screaming the killer's real identity? ;)

Asking for help with "Firkraag, the dragon" is completely natural - it is a strong opponent.

Yes it is.

Getting upset that somebody wants help with "Firkraag, the dragon" belongs to a madhouse.

I would not say that we are upset, but those who are spoiled, will be.

I don't understand one thing. Why are we bullied by the administrators in such cases like yours.

If you think this is bullying, you ain't gonna to like the real world, a lot.

Are there any limits for spoiler haters' raging in the forum or are there none?

Now you are jumping to conclusions. Your so called, 'spoiler haters', do not rage in the forum, and they are just following the rules.

The spoiler haters are strange beasts. They prevent others from gaining and giving information - except for the moment when they themselves get stuck. At this moment, "spoilers" are allowed and required suddenly but only as long as they are stuck. It isn't fair.
The spoiler haters should be banned from the forum - each of them in particular and all of them together because they restrict the liberty of others of seeking and giving help with the game. Why they read the forum if they do not want to see any piece of information on it? Their presence on the forum results in numerous completely useless posts (Oh God! I must not spoil anybody! I must speak in riddles and remove anything important from my post!). They force others to foul their posts with so called "spolier alerts". The spoiler haters sould not be here.

Dude, you do not really read here often do you? If you stick around long enough, you will come to realise that your so called spoilers haters do help other people. In particular, your claim that their posts are useless is offensive, baseless and bordering close on trolling of the flaming kind.

[ 07-10-2002, 11:42 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

I would gladly search for previous posts on this subject but I don't see a search tool anywhere.

Here they are:

Staccato: Paladin - Level 10 (PC)

Minsc: Ranger - Level 10

Sir Anomen: Fighter/Cleric - Level 7/10

Jaheira: Fighter/Druid - Level 9/12

Aerie: Cleric/Mage - Level 9/10

I realize my party only consists of five people. I have Cernd and Yoshima waiting by, should I happen to need a sixth member.

POSSIBLE SPOILER
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I need to destroy Firkraag in order to achieve the Paladin stronghold, not to mention, get that wonderful Holy Avenger. ;)

[ 07-10-2002, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: Paleface ]

/me stretches and cracks his knuckles.

Let's get ready to rumble.

Your party is actually quite low level to take on Firkragg. I usually recommend an average party level of 12 before you tackle him. Not to say that it is impossible though, but it will be considerably tougher.

Before you attack Firkragg, buff up your party with as many spell protections as possible. Spells like Stoneskin, Protection from Evil 10' Radius, <u>Protection from Fire</u>, Chaotic Commands( use Anomen), etc... Cast the spell that has the longest duration first( Stoneskin) towards the spell that has the shortest duration. Chaotic Commands are to be used on your main tanks, to counter the Chaos spell and Domination spell that Firkragg will use.

Summon some creatures like Fire Elementals( use Jaheira). Fire Elementals are particulary good because of their fire immunity. They will serve a good distractions. When Firkragg is distracted, get Jaheira to cast Mountain Bears next to Firkragg, then fire off a Haste spell from Aerie on the Mountain Bears.

Get Aerie, Anomen and Jaheira to cast the Doom spell on Firkragg. This will greatly assist your ability to hurt him. While you are at it, get Jaheira to cast Insect Plague on Firkragg as well. Aerie should also cast Breach from time to time( no need to memorise Lower Resistance, most of the spells that I have listed here are not affected by Firkragg's magic resistance).

Your tanks meanwhile, should be wailing away on Firkragg, but be careful! Try to make it so that the summons are in front of Firkragg, while your tanks are behind him. This is to counter the Wing Buffet attack that all Dragons have.

When your spellcasters have done their initial spell barrage, start using them to support the tanks by casting long-range, area-of-effect spells like Bless and Chant. If they really run out of spells, get them to sling stuff at Firkragg.

Good luck, have fun. [img]graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

I was pretty low level when I fought Firkraag, but maybe not quite as low as your current party. You should definitley pick up a 6th character, Yoshimo or maybe the thief/illusionist in the government district I forget his name. If you do decide to turn back and fight Firkraag later, do the Cult of the unseeing eye quest. Along the way you will find the Dragon's Bane, it does +6 damage to Dragons. Just for reference when I fought and killed him, I started out by not talking to him, instead I cast lower resistance on him and when the spell was in mid air I had my party attack to get the jump on him. With a potion of fire giant strength + draw upon holy might ur main fighter should be able to attack with 25 strength. Don't forget haste, bless, and chant would also help.

How many heal spells does he have? Because when I fought him
he heals each time he has low hit points.
What things prevent him from healing?

Hmmmm... if it is in a Contingency, nothing that you can do about it, otherwise Insect Plague will neutralise it. I believe he only has on Heal spell.

Here´s a non cheat way to fight him. Buff up your party, particularly with hasta and protection rom fire. Arrange your party around him, he will not attack you until you attack him. I placed my tanks (misk an keldorn) on opposite sides of firkraag, to avoid the wing buffet. Have my sorceror cast whatever his name´s aura clensing (which in combination with the robes of vecna is amazing) and had all the mages (me, jan and aerie) cast lower resistance (which all 3 lowers resistance by about 60%. While your tanks attack (he is hostile by now) Have all your mages cast 1 creature effect spells like magic missile (use your time with the aura clensing wisely, I managed to get off about 10 spells in the duratios, with firkraag doing only his wing buffet) By the time the duration of the spell wore off, I had had everyone cast a lot, continued casting and attacking (had someone cast a doom or greater malison to help the tanks) and he was toast, no one dead.

Thanks everyone!
I'm currently doing the Unseeing Eye quest and a couple other quests too strengthen my party a bit.

When I do fight Firkraag, I will use Keldorn instead of Cernd or Yoshimo. He's much more powerful.

I should have known better to begin with.
My journal says I should fight Firkraag "when I'm ready" and retrieve the Holy Avenger.

I'm not quite ready yet.

what is that spell? ive never heard of that one i dont think...

Dude... his average party level is only 10-11. Read the thread in full. ;)

And out of the frying pan, and into the fire... ...

Technically, the Cult of the Unseeing Eye quest is considered more difficult than the Windspear Hills quest, unless you have a certain item. Have you done the Umar Hill quest or the Tradesmeet quest yet? Those are considerably easier.

what is that spell? ive never heard of that one i dont think...</font>[/QUOTE]It is a ToB high level ability for Mages/Sorcerers and requires a minimum of level 18 in order to get it. Sigh... in the same vein as what Cerek the Barbarian( another boardie) once said,

"I wish people will stop assuming everybody is level 20+"

This is why I always ask people for their party makeup and levels, so as to give them a custom made tactic that they can use. No point talking about Time Stop and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting if he/she cannot even cast Death Spell yet.

Anyway... the proper name for this high level ability is Improved Alacrity. It removes the waiting time needed inbetween spellcasting.

Radek, you are wrong. How would the fact that Firkraag is a dragon be known to those who just bought the game yesterday? Don't make assumptions for other people based on how you feel.

Posting a spoiler warning and editing your title is an act of courtesy and consideration. It lets people know what to expect in a thread, particularly if it is a plot twist. They are not preventing people from getting information, they are just asking people to word their requests in a more considerate way, because most people who post unintentional spoilers aren't doing it on purpose, they probably just didn't think of the possible consequence of their actions - like Paleface who was quite happy to edit his title when asked.

And finally, our spoiler policy is clearly outlined in our Rules and Regulations (click on the top right hand button if you haven't read this). In fact, I will cut and paste it for you:

<font color="gold">
Warn before you Spoil: A spoiler is something that reveals information about a plot twist or the location of some object/character/hidden place in a game. Spoilers are by their nature subjective - you will need to use your judgment to determine what these are. Many people in this forum talk about 'general' game issues, such as "What is the best party for whatever" or "Should I drop whoever from my group?". These types of posts usually don't require spoilers as they are general information. Other people might have specific game questions like "How do I get past so-and-so" or "Where is such-and-such". These would be considered posts requesting spoiler information. Some are obviously bigger spoilers than others. There are also posts which refer to specific plot twists in the games here, A lot of people who come here do NOT know about certain plot twists which the rest of us might take for granted. Unmarked spoilers about these detract from these people's gaming experience. The majority of people don't like finding out about a plot twist before they were meant to. (Like someone telling you the ending of a movie before you see it) As a courtesy to other board members who may not have gotten as far in the game as you have, please abide by the following when requesting or revealing spoiler information: Do NOT reveal the spoiler in your title. Put a SPOILER tag in the title so people know you will be revealing spoiler information. Put spoiler spaces just before the part where you are revealing the information.
</font>

You don't have to like this policy, but I expect you to abide by it.

Hi [img]smile.gif[/img] if you say you wont fight firkragg. then cast magic resistance
on him. this lower his 90% magic res to about 20% (use your lowest lewel to cast magic resistance.) he wont get hostile (magic res is a frendly spell) after that kill him.
(his is still hard to kill but it helps)!

[ 07-11-2002, 09:29 AM: Message edited by: Unliving ]

You don't have to lower its magic resistance. I forgot to memorise it so I just tried to kill it. I summoned 4 animate dead (Anomen= lvl 15/16 (I did all chapter 2 quests I could find and did the Windspear hills last) so he summons that special beast) 2 in front and one on each side of Firkraag. Mazzy had Dragonslayer (long sword) Minsc Dragonbane +3 (+6 to dragons halberd) Anomen Flail of the Ages (didn't use it though)

First I casted Holy Smite (Anomen. Despite of his 90 % magic resistance it did 20+ damage)followed by 2 insect plagues(Jaheira). Hasted my skeleton warriors and charged. After a while it died.

I am very pleased that I got a civilised answer to my provocative post. I would like to emphasize that I know that I am not the administrator of the forum, that other have set the rules for posting and that I should follow them. What drove me crazy was the nature of the cause.

As it is stated in the Rules, "Spoilers are by their nature subjective - you will need to use your judgment to determine what these are". In fact, EVERY piece of information posted on the forum is a "spoiler" because EVERY piece of information posted on the forum can "detract from gaming experience". It is not right that "general game issues" as cited in the Rules aren't "spoilers". If I were a spoiler hater fundamentalist then I could post complaints that somebody dared to start a thread named "Should I drop Nalia from my group?" - because that somebody spoiled me beyond any imagination and told me that I can add Nalia to my party, which I wanted to find myself. In the other words, each thread should be marked as "possible spoilers". Each - perhaps, except those that discuss wheather or girls. And each post in the thread should be full of "spoiler alerts" and dotted lines. Each post - except those that do not bring any piece of information. How do we have to name our threads so as we do not upset spoiler haters?
Here is the problem. We are left at mercy and unmercy of a group of guys, which authorized themselves to judge what is a "spoiler" and what is not a "spoiler". The judgment depends only on the level of fundamentalism of a particular spoiler hater. If we do not want to upset spoiler haters then we should only parrot manuals. Such forum would be no use.
The example with telling the end of "the ending of a movie before you see it" does not pass. If you participate on a discussion about that movie then you gain information about it no matter whether you want the info or not. You cannot want other participants to shut up only because you haven't seen the movie so far or because there are others that haven't seen it. The only possibility of NOT being "spoiled" this way is NOT participating on such discussion. It is your liberty not to participate on the discussion. And it is the liberty of others to discuss the movie.

I would like to see some limits of raging of spoiler haters on the forum. Everybody who opens any thread about "dragons" (not only about Firkraag) or about Firkraag will see that Firkraag is a dragon. It is almost impossible not being "spoiled" by "Firkraag, the dragon" once we click any line in the forum contents that contains words "dragon" or "Firkraag". Therefore, the complaint about "Firkraag, the dragon" exceeded any reasonable limits.

ok nice [img]smile.gif[/img] I took him early in act 2. (I just had a hard time leaving without killing him ;) ) I only had DragonSlayer. and with his res. lower I used bout 5-6 hours killing him, !(2 times Near Death then he got me argh,!) perhaps next time I play a new char. I wait a little longer with him. ;) ! lol

[ 07-11-2002, 10:44 AM: Message edited by: Unliving ]

To Radek:
----
Just wanted to point out that your analogy of Nalia as a joinable NPC is flawed, as it is stated in the SoA manual. ;) I get your drift though, but stating that Firkragg is a Dragon is a genuine spoiler, as the player has absolutely no idea that Firkragg is a Dragon until the player actually meets him face to face.

Also, most threads regarding Firkragg are tagged with the spoiler tag. Those that are not, does not justify that it is okay to do so in the future. As I have said to previous boardies who do not see the point of having spoiler tags, instead of pointing out such examples, why not rectify it by asking the thread creator nicely to modify his thread title?

The movie analogy was not a metaphor for the thread, but for the forum, although I admit there are limitations as to how a movie and a forum can be compared. To put it in layman terms, a person enters this forum wanting answers, but not unwanted spoilers. Ironworks Forums strives for this aim, if I am not mistaken.

Yes, I've already completed both of those quests.

A civilized answer to a provocative, inflammatory post - I'm glad you recognized that, and I hope you take some lesson from that when you raise any concerns you may have about our forum policies in the future. Courtesy will always get you a courteous response - even if the response is not what you want. ;)

I would imagine that common sense and good judgment should be used when determining whether something is a spoiler, and if anyone doubts their judgment then it's best to go on the safe side. This is such a small and simple thing to do - it's seven letters you add to your title, and I would hope that people do it for genuine consideration for others, rather than because it's the rules. [img]smile.gif[/img]

what is that spell? ive never heard of that one i dont think...</font>[/QUOTE]I don´t remember the name but it´s one that lests you cast a spell right after you have finished casting one (no wait between spells due to the residue that magic leaves behind, hence the clensing part of the name)

what is that spell? ive never heard of that one i dont think...</font>[/QUOTE]I don´t remember the name but it´s one that lests you cast a spell right after you have finished casting one (no wait between spells due to the residue that magic leaves behind, hence the clensing part of the name)</font>[/QUOTE]Isn't it Improved Alacrity (lvl 10 ToB mage spell)?

I see my post answering the question regarding Improved Alacrity on the first page has been most cruelly ignored and disregarded... ...

I think I have found the best tactics my party could use under the circumstances:

Party:
Keldorn lvl 10
Minsc lvl 9
Mazzy lvl 11
Jan lvl 9/9
Aerie lvl 10/9
Me (sorceror) lvl 12

I put Keldorn behind the big F, Minsc to his back right and Mazzy to his back and left a bit. Aerie went directly in front of him, Jan to the right and me to the left.

Aerie cast Magic resistance, then ran off. Me and Jan magic missiled him for all we were worth and the tanks went for him. Aerie used Holy smite twice, but nothing happened, so she kept up the mms, whilst I summon a Djinni from the djinni bottle from Trademeet and Jan summons a berserker with the Horn of Valhalla. The tanks keep plinking away (Mazzy with Short Sword of Backstabbing and shield of charm protection, Keldorn with Lilarcor and Minsc with Flail of Ages/Mace +2)

F finally lets off a wing buffet, and everyone gets blown away, the summons both die. The spellcasters keep shooting him with every quick spell. The tanks get terrified and Aerie casts a resist fear, getting all but Minsc. As soon as it began, F is dead and Minsc is still running off. No potions, healing or fancy, high level spells. No deaths. No Jaheira and that apparently oh-so-required insect swarm. The highest level spell I used was magic resistance, and nobody had run out of magic missiles by the end of the fight.

All that remained to do was collect the loot and wait for Minsc to stop running about in panic [img]smile.gif[/img] , then exit stage left, time for some lovely experience.

(Actually I had more problems killing F's pet wizard than actually killing the big ole dragon himself - damn that finger of death!)

Well done Cannibal Monkey! [img]graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Next time you have problems with Finger of Death, or any other "instant kill" - two words: Death Ward ;)

Now tell me, what level of difficulty is your game set at? ;)

normal difficulty

you can also combine magic resistance with lower resistance, to completely remove his resistance to spells before whacking him, after that just hit him hard with damageing spells and insect plagues, he can cast heal, and dragons cannot be interrupted when casting, unless it's because of a spell that disables casting like insect swarm, or plague, poison (if you've used doom/greater malison can be effective too(arrows of biting, the spell poison) you can also try having Anomen cast Harm, if he's lvl 11 (it will reduce him to 1d4 hp's)