Dragon Infestion? (Small Spoilers)

[Lord]

I was trying to finish all of my stronghold quests, seeing how only the bard, fighter, and ranger strongholds were left to finish. So, as I'm waiting for enough time to pass to go back to each stronghold for the next quest, I was trying to make use of my time, so I went to the Small Teeth Pass. As I immediately enter the area, there is a purple dragon there (purple??? wow, I've never seen one of these babies before). Just southeast of it is a Brown Dragon, and there is also a red dragon somewhere that I can't manage to find. The red dragon casts a spell, and it says something like 'Damn Lord, where are you?' or something of the sort. So I know it's there, but I can't find it. I tried killing the purple dragon many times, but I failed everytime. My party is:

Minsc: Equiped him with Dragonslayer to kill the dragon, but he normally uses sword of balduran, which isn't as good as DS on dragons, obviously.
Keldorn: Carsomyr
Lord: Using spells on the dragon, using staff of the magi.
Aerie: Using protection spells (protection from fire/cold, etc) on her and my sorceror to try to keep them alive from the dragon's breath. Equiping Staff of Power.
Saloufein: Celestial Fury +5 (item upgrade mod)
Valygar: Using Blade of Roses +3. I had him equiping So....+4 (no idea how to spell it), but it seemed to cheesey, so I ditched it.

I had Valy, Keldorn, and Minsc fighting the purple dragon, while Lord (sorceror) casts Improved Alacrity (ToB HLA *allows you to cast spells for 2 rounds with out waiting for a pause between spell casting* highlight to read), then time stop, 4 lower resistances on the dragon, improved alacrity. Time stop ran out here I think, or it was almost finished, so I used another 1, and started bombarding the dragon with horrid wiltings and other spells, then, when the time stop ended, the dragon took no damage at all. So, just to see if the rest of the area is like this, I tried to cheat. I uncovered the whole map using CLUA, then used control+j to move my 2 spell casters and Salo away from the battle to the complete opposite side of the map. They seemed safe for a few seconds, then, I was suddenly killed by something. I guess it was a dragon, but I had no way to figure out since the screen changed to the dying image (the hand image). Is this whole area infested with dragons? Can anyone give me any ideas on how to keep me (59 HP) and Aerie (I think she has 52 HP) alive?

Edit: there's no time to buff up really since I start the area right next to the dragon

[ 11-09-2003, 06:38 PM: Message edited by: Lord ]

[Tancred]

There are only three dragons... um, is it possible that the dragon targetted you, Aerie or Sola with breath just before you teleported away? Because I think the breath effect would follow you. It's weird how that works.

The dragon took no damage from the Wiltings... erk! Is it using a Spell Immunity, or something? Try hitting it with some anti-spell protection spells first, or check in the dialogue window to see if it does any of that.

You might consider having some serious Chain Contingencies up and ready, if you have that spell. It'd take the time out of having to buff up. If not, get that spell, it's damn good.

[Userunfriendly]

Originally posted by Tancred: There are only three dragons... um, is it possible that the dragon targetted you, Aerie or Sola with breath just before you teleported away? Because I think the breath effect would follow you. It's weird how that works. The dragon took no damage from the Wiltings... erk! Is it using a Spell Immunity, or something? Try hitting it with some anti-spell protection spells first, or check in the dialogue window to see if it does any of that. You might consider having some serious Chain Contingencies up and ready, if you have that spell. It'd take the time out of having to buff up. If not, get that spell, it's damn good.

breach him....he's probably using stacked (this is illegal, but typical in tactics mod) protection from energy...breach, lower resistance and lower resistance via spell trigger, unleash abi dahzim hell...also, they should be vulnerable to sunfire blasts...and a triple implosion from aerie via chain contingency should do wonders...

oh and if the breach does not work, it has spell shield up, a second breach will lay it wide open for spell attacks...

[Kezardin]

Some people have the problem with being targetted just about anywhere on the map by the red dragon.

There is some discussion in this thread :

http://forums.fwstudios.net/index.php?showtopic=2190

[Lord]

What I read in that topic on that forum was exactly the same problem that I had: the red dragon was blasting me from so far away. However, someone also said they had 120% fire resistance, so the fire blasts actually healed them. Is this true for all ersists? If you are more than 100% resistance to something (say electricity), will casting lighting bolt on that person heal them?

[dragon_lord]

Yes having over a 100% protection from something will heal you when hit by that something. I to had the red dragon fire breathing me from half way across the map (hes just across the bridge to the south).

Heres my little tale:
Upon entering the area I was instantly ambushed by a purple dragon who has a chain lightning attack - this chain lighting is extremly deadly doing sometimes upwards of 200 damage (on insane difficulty of course, with smarter dragons mod). Easily enough fixed by casting protection from electricity (never leave home without every sort of green protection scroll) on each party members the instant i entered the area. However the real problems start when all of a sudden i was hit by a dragon's fire breath (also often doing upwards of 200 dmg) from a red dragon half way across the map (What the....?) and since i had no time to buff to protect my whole party from both electricity and fire half my party was turned into charred corpses.

The only reason i was even able to eventually defeat all the dragons in the area was by the pot luck that i was able to exploit the fact the red dragon was targeting my fighter/cleric who has 110% fire resistance (Helm of Defense + Ring of Fire Resistance + Ring of Fire Control). I would quickly use my pally to cast resist fear whilst some of the party was quickly casting protection from electricity on them selves and my thief and mage were gulping down oils of speed. Then i would charge (boots of speed) my cleric over behind the purple dragon so as the incoming red dragons breath would no affect my party but seriously harm the purple dragon (friendly fire!) while my mage and thief ran for it (so not as to get hit by wing buffet or fried by electricity) and my fighter + pally charged in. And subsequently got knocked back by wing buffet. My mage then cast ADHW and the purple dragon went down for the count. The rest of the dragons were a cinch.

[Leslie]

No one mentioned it yet - the Purple dragon can cast Imprisonment.
Be very careful ...

[Faceman]

I still haven't installed tactics, but I HAVE done improved Abazigal during Ascension and Tamah (his girl) is a purple dragon.
Now I don't know if your purple dragon is anything like her, but keep the following in mind:
Tactics dragons use natural resistances combined with spells for 100+ resistance on everything. So if you lower Magic Resistance and cast ADhW for example you will still heal it because it has 125% resistance to magic damage
Talk about cheese

[SixOfSpades]

Normal Small Teeth Pass: 2-3 Ankhegs, and some random Orcs and/or Wolfweres. Big whoop. My BG1 party could take them down.

"Improved" Small Teeth Pass: Purple Dragon (based on Tamah), Brown Dragon (based on Draconis), Red Dragon (based on Firkraag).

The Cheese:
Purple Dragon-- Is right next to you the instant you appear in the area (apparently, Dragons can go Stealth, or perhaps you just didn't notice it was there until you bumped into it), and according to Leslie, can cast Imprisonment. Likes to Weimer Wing Buffet(TM).
Brown Dragon-- Not really cheesy, but uses a load of (Improved Invisibility) spells and Spell Immunity: Divination to make all of your targeted spells (such as Lower Magic Resistance) absolutely useless. Also summons Invisible Stalkers.
Red Dragon-- Can see you, and breathe his 10D10 (or is it 20D10?) Fireball at you, from anywhere on the map. Is very fond of Weimer Wing Buffet(TM).

[soapbox] It is unethical to force people to powergame. Players should not have to carry Potions of Fire Resistance in their Quickslots every time they travel outside Athkatla, just on the off chance that they'll get the Red Dragon (courtesy of the Improved Wilderness Encounters MOD). By the same token, players should not feel obliged to deck their PC out in all their best Fire Resistance gear, or hand out a ream of Protection from Electricity scrolls, before heading to the Small Teeth Pass. [/soapbox]

[Userunfriendly]

Originally posted by SixOfSpades: Normal Small Teeth Pass: 2-3 Ankhegs, and some random Orcs and/or Wolfweres. Big whoop. My BG1 party could take them down. "Improved" Small Teeth Pass: Purple Dragon (based on Tamah), Brown Dragon (based on Draconis), Red Dragon (based on Firkraag). The Cheese: Purple Dragon-- Is right next to you the instant you appear in the area (apparently, Dragons can go Stealth, or perhaps you just didn't notice it was there until you bumped into it), and according to Leslie, can cast Imprisonment. Likes to Weimer Wing Buffet(TM). Brown Dragon-- Not really cheesy, but uses a load of (Improved Invisibility) spells and Spell Immunity: Divination to make all of your targeted spells (such as Lower Magic Resistance) absolutely useless. Also summons Invisible Stalkers. Red Dragon-- Can see you, and breathe his 10D10 (or is it 20D10?) Fireball at you, from anywhere on the map. Is very fond of Weimer Wing Buffet(TM). [soapbox] It is unethical to force people to powergame. Players should not have to carry Potions of Fire Resistance in their Quickslots every time they travel outside Athkatla, just on the off chance that they'll get the Red Dragon (courtesy of the Improved Wilderness Encounters MOD). By the same token, players should not feel obliged to deck their PC out in all their best Fire Resistance gear, or hand out a ream of Protection from Electricity scrolls, before heading to the Small Teeth Pass. [/soapbox]

fight cheese with uber cheese...

hhehehehheheh!!!!

all mages prepare spell triggers with triple sunfire before heading out...using a combination of rings of fire resistance, and magic armor, make sure all warriors are near 100% fire resistance...

use sequential sunfires of doom (trademarked by userunfriendly) pause the game, remove any items that decrease spell casting time, and each mage triggers spell trigger on self at the same paused moment...since sunfires makes you invulnerable to fire for about 3 seconds, if timed right, each sunfiring mage is invulnerable to neighbor's sunfires...overlapping sunfire fields should fry purple...

exploit wish spell via project image or simmy...try for magic resistance, and breach everyone in map...magic resistance will set magic resistance for everyone on the same map 40%, and breaching everyone on the map will go right thru spell immunity and improved invisibility...

now buff your warriors, and attack...if necessary use chain contingency ruby ray triple on brown...a chain contingency will target improved invisible creatures...this will dump the spell immunity, allowing truesight to work...

heck, if you get really annoyed, use the smuggled rift device out of the unseeing eye on the brown or red, using a simmy or image to retain device...the ranged harm spell it shoots out will bypass magic resistance, and will target improved invisible creatures, like all devices...

abuse project image to summon 5 planetars, send them on the way...

use an archer with called shot and improved haste to drain strength for attribute drain kill...

lots of cheese you can use...