Lord Jierdan SPOILERS

[Butterfingers]

You do not, I repeat, you do not need cheese to beat Big Red with a low level party. If you have to resort to cheese, go try another game, like Checkers, Candyland, or maybe Chutes and Ladders if you think you are up to it.

All it takes is a little bit of brains and a tad bit of luck.

First off, do not, if you can help it, engage the dragon in melee. He hits hard and fast.

Drink potions, cast spells, or, read scrolls of fire protection. Get your mage the Mage Robe of Fire Resistance.

Use poison. Lots of POISON! Get crossbows with bolts of biting. the Druid's Poison spell works quite well, if the save is failed. (You might get lucky) It is possible to poison Big Red so badly he does nothing but stand there and hiccup.

Keep him distracted with cannon fodder.

Keep him Spooked if you can at all times. Forget Horror, it seldom works. Spook does.

Use Arrows of Dispelling and Arrows of Ice if possible. They help out a whole lot.

With a few exceptions, magic is a waste of time. Screw lowering his resists, while this is nice, it is by no means needed. Pound the crap right out of his haughty snooty red ass with an endless barage of missles. Far more effective.

Use the low level spells. These are your allies. Spells like Spook, Doom, and many other low level spells are often ignored because people have this stupid idea that higher level spells are better. If used properly, many low level spells have amazing effects.

Try Harm. With a lucky hit, you take Big Red down to 1 hit point. Get in and get out quickly though, do not waste your efforts trying to melee the big stupid lizard.

Defensive Harmony is your friend. Also good for summons.

Chant and Bless are your friends. Big Red has good AC. Pelting him with missles is good, pelting him with highly accurate and deadly missles is better.

If he charges you, do anything to stop the big fat bastard. Summon more critters. Keep him busy and away from you. If need be, run away with your party and regroup. Discretion is the better part of valour.

Remember, Firkraag is only hard if you play stupidly. Measure your assets and your weaknesses. Compare them to his. You do not need traps, cloudkill offscreen tactics, or anything else. It is possible, and, infact, quite easy to beat him in a fair fight with a low level party.

[SixOfSpades]

A small addition to Butterfingers' list:

Attack from multiple directions. Happily, you can do this very easily with Firkraag, as he'll stand around while you position your men wherever you want. The advantage to surrounding him is twofold--One, when he Wing Buffets you, you've only got one Tank out of action for a bit, while the other two are carving up his rear flanks. Two, he can't just charge in one direction and force you to withdraw your entire back line at once.

There would be a third advantage--when you spread out your party, his Firebreath is much less effective--but all of your party members should be pretty close to 100% Fire Resistance anyway.

[ 02-13-2003, 02:55 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

[LennonCook]

Cloudkill tactic isn`t cheese - it`s a bug.
Cast Magic Resistance then Lower Resistance then Feeblemind.
Perfectly legitimate, and works wonders

[Angelousss]

Originally posted by LennonCook: Cloudkill tactic isn`t cheese - it`s a bug. Cast Magic Resistance then Lower Resistance then Feeblemind. Perfectly legitimate, and works wonders

you should throw a greater maliason and maybe a doom too.

[Fiend]

I finally carved him up.

The monk told Firkragg that he would come back then proceeded to pound his 'pet' into oblivion. Then came the dragon himself. The sorceror hasted his companions then put 2 spooks into a minor sequencer scroll. Kerell (cleric) then cast magic resis on Firkraag leaving the sorc to make him run in fear. After casting several magic missiles and spooks, and after a barrage of missiles from his companions the magic user was out of 1st level spells. But, his quick thinking saw a way. Vampiric touch. Rushing in to help his companions who were engaging the giant in honourable combat, he absorbed 24 of of Firkraags hitpoints. But the dragon was not beaten yet and he saw a chance to remove the leader of the party, a monk named Aun'Kauyon from the picture. He rushed in to attack the young monk, but he had underestimated his foe. Even though the monk was young, he had the benefit of intelligence and wisdom on his side (18,18 both natural) and seeing his chance, ducked under the dragons attack and attacked his weak point. The drgon fell...

[ 02-13-2003, 05:46 AM: Message edited by: Fiend ]