Need some help with Draconis (spoilers)

[dplax]

I have already killed Sendai and am now trying to get to Abazigal, but Draconis has been causing me problems. I can quite easily take his human form down, but when he shifts into his dragon form he just seems to put up protection spells faster than I can take them down and with melee attacks kills my tanks quite fast. What tactics would you recommend in this fight for this party?

Main character: elf sorceror
Sarevok
Minsc
Aerie
Jan
Edwin

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Hm.. What 9th level spells does your sorc have? And does anybody have Improved Alacrity yet?
I would offer some generic advice while waiting for your questions and tell you that planetars, devas, and especially Mordy Swords are very good in a fight like this.

[dplax]

Sorc 9th level spells (and 10th but they use the same slots): timestop, improved alacrity, dragon breath and chain contingency

Edwin 9th and 10th: timestop, improved alacrity, spell trap, spellstrike, wail of the banshee, dragon's breath

[teardropmina]

what's the levels of Aerie? If Aerie's at high levels, she can take down Draconis all by herself.

anyway,
let both of your Sorc PC and Edwin time-stop + improved alacrity, the battle should be brief.
Before he turns into dragon form, let everyone capable of casting True Sight cast the spell (Edwin, Aerie, and Jan; your sorc PC if has that one picked).
With your powerful arcane party, the only tricky thing facing Draconis should be not letting him go invisible while the time-stop in effect.

[ 06-08-2004, 03:19 PM: Message edited by: teardropmina ]

[SixOfSpades]

The reason Draconis is difficult for your 4-Wizard party is because he keeps turning Invisible: You start casting your spells directly at him, but he turns Invisible while you're casting, so your guys lose their target and all your best spells are wasted. To combat this, you can either (as has been said) stop time (and have a True Sight running on the person who cast Time Stop), or use area-of-effect spells that don't need to be cast directly at the target....unfortunately, Lower Resistance is not one of those spells.

[CerebroDragon]

Three of my party members (Viconia, Edwin and PC Avenger) used Energy Blades to great effect in this battle. Try to keep your distance and rotate to prevent him targetting individuals.

The Usual list of other anti-dragon stuff applies well enough here too. Greater malison, spell contingencies with lower resistances, cloudkill) really help as well.
As Teardropmina and Six said, a true sight caster is handy and almost obligatory. I had Jan use his thieves hood IIRC.

[ 06-08-2004, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: CerebroDragon ]