Archers and Kensai both have ridiculously low THACOs. This allows them to hit dragons quite often. Kensai have to get in close, and without armor tend to take quite a bit of damage from the dragon's melee attacks. But archers are incredible against dragons, since they sit at range and just whack them (especially if you have summons or other characters in the way to draw the dragon's wing buffets and attacks).
Only the solo sorcerer beats dragons easier (in fact, solo sorcerers pretty much beat anything easy without Tactics installed...
). Taking out a dragon with a solo fighter involves:
- summons from items
- potions (VERY important)
- items that jack up your AC and saves
- good weapondry
I have not tried a solo thief against a dragon, but they could use the same principles above probably. The swashbucklers bonuses (especially at higher levels) let them equal or exceed fighters in combat (though the lack of hp hurts), and the others could use traps and/or poisoned weapons (cheesy to stack up a bunch of traps, but it works).