[Tancred]

Originally posted by Bloodtitan: to kill a dragon try timestop and use all your instant killerspells. if he survives use powerword : reload.

That's the easy way to do it... but Abazigal's defences against magic are pretty good. Extreme magic resistance and an annoying habit of making your spells fail wherever you are (even in mid-Time Stop). Not to mention the one time I decided to Imprison him back, only to find he was immune to Imprisonment.

You need an efficient, well-planned attack to defeat Abazigal or other dragons. Some jiggling of magical items night be in order, to get maximum coverage for magical and elemental resistances - believe me, when fighting a dragon, Armour Class is the last thing you should consider because most likely no matter HOW high it is it's not going to save you. A few basic protection spells also won't go amiss, too. Every party member of mine had at least 60% electrical resistnce through spells and items. Potions of Healing, Invisibilty, Insulation and Speed were doled out in equal measures just in case.

I defeated him a few minutes ago (WOOHOO!) and this was what I did...

By this stage, the party had defeated Tamah the Dragon, the Drakes and the Salamanders, so this should work for Regular Abazigal as well. While human man Abazigal was duelling with a one of Mordenkainen's swords, the party regrouped and gulped down some healing potions. Then...

Phase 1: I had Edwin haste the party and Viconia dole out a couple of Protection from Lightning spells - nothing fancy. While my wave of fighters (Malvolio the fighter/thief, Korgan, the ToB NPC and Valen) swept forward, I had Viconia advance about a screen away and Edwin tucked away, busily casting as many Mordenkainen's Swords as he could (2).

Phase 2: When Abazigal turned into a Dragon, Korgan (who had suffered the most in the fight) ran to Viconia to get healed. While the party picked themselves up off the ground and ran to the attack, Edwin moved up with his group of Swords. Once Edwin was in range, he hit Time Stop, unleashing a quick flurry of Spellstrike, Remove Magic and Breach to knock down Abazigal's defences before high-tailing it.

Phase 3. Edwin moved back in, summoning a Dark Planetar. Viconia moved in also, summoning some Elementals. Korgan rejoined the fight. Now, Valen, Korgan and the ToB NPC all used their stored Whirlwind attacks to get as many hits on Abazigal as possible. It helped that Malvolio, Korgan and Valen were all dual-wielding weapons. One party member gets Imprisoned, usually, during this phase.

Now, with any luck you'll have him so swamped that you'll gradually knock his health down until he dies. Things to watch out for are your main character being imprisoned, Abazigal knocking everyone flying (in which case, run your spellcasters away FAST because he'll go for them) and the amount of damage everyone's taking. If someone is getting killed (falls below 100 hp), run them back and either get them healed or glug some potions before going back in, possibly even switching to missile fire while they do. The 100 hp thing is important, because Abazigal's lightning breath is easily capable of doing that much damage in one fell swoop. If one of your party members is hit by that, chances are they'll die outright, no resurrection possible.

Other things to think about: Have spell sequencers and contingencies that will be useful. My favourite use of Spell Trigger (7th level spell - allows you to store 3 other spells as a one-use special ability) is to lump together Pierce Magic, Breach and Greater Malison, a handy one-shot blat that takes down most spell-based defences. You could substitute Greater Malison for Remove Magic, or others... experiment! Chances are you're carrying around an INCREDIBLE amount of stuff in your bag of holding or whatever - have a look through it and see if you can find anything useful! And the most important thing of all: FIGHT ABAZIGAL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CHAMBER, not near one of the walls, because it usually means you'll end up with one party member backed up against a wall and shredded.

Things that aren't worth trying: Low-level summons. Abazigal will either eat them alive in a few seconds or just death-spell the lot of them. It's impossible to swamp Abazigal with creatures that aren't up to the task. Trying to whittle down Abazigal with missile fire alone is also useless, as he's too tough for that; it gives him free reign to Maze and Imprison your party. Plus, he has a last-ditch Heal spell that hel'll use if he's Near Death and he has some spare time.

My method took 8 attempts, but gradually I got faster, made modifications to the plan, my reflexes got more and more used to the various clickings I had to do, I learned what and what not to try... On the 4th attempt, he fought us to a standstill for 25 minutes. On the 8th attempt we took him down in 2. Now, I can do that because my party - with 2 fighters, 2 fighter-thieves and a Cleric, is very combat-heavy and can cause enough damage to a creature like Abazigal... yours might not. Review the party members at your disposal - the spells they have, the equipment and abilities they have... and work out a plan. Basically, I'm saying keep at it and keep adapting to fight whatever he's got and eventually you'll win through. A day earlier I thought I couldn't take him down. Today... like I say, 2 minutes. Bwahaha, and all that...

[ 07-06-2003, 05:04 PM: Message edited by: Tancred ]