Ok, in my group, this is how I took out Thax'llsillyia (Shadow Dragon): My cast of characters at the time (only 5) was my own character (Berserker/Mage), Minsc, Anomen, Nalia, and Aerie.
With the Dragon Wardstone in hand, I used the Wand of Summoning to summon some fodder for the dragon to play with. I was counting on it wasting its death spell on them, and it did. Then I pumped everyone up with: Haste, Resist Fear, Chant, Protection from Evil 10' radius, Defensive Harmony, and had my berserker go into Enrage mode. I then summoned more monsters (ogres this time, great!) and positioned everyone around the dragon in a circle, with the main fighters directly behind the dragon.
I then had the ogres attack the dragon. While they got its attention, the others began the attack. Nalia and Aerie spell thrust and breached at the dragon after it set its spells. We only got wing buffeted once; no one died (miraculous!), and one ogre was still left alive when the dragon fell! I think Minsc and Aerie were chaosed during the battle, but no biggie.
I used a similar tactic on Firkraag, but used the "Magic Resistance" then "Lower Resistance" on him first...then cast Wizard Eye and had him attack the eye behind him while we launched the attack. I forget my actual strategy on him, though, because I had to reload 6 times to get it to work. *sigh* Perserverance paid off, though.
And, yes, GRAB THE SCALES whatever you do! They make terrific armor...take them to Cromwell in the Docks district with 5000 GP...it's well worth it.
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