The shame of defeating the Black Dragon (spoiler)

[mistral4543]

Just thought I would share my rather shameful experience at the elven city here. So here goes...

There I was, flipping the walkthrough which said by this time, my party should be so experienced that whacking this pest would not be a problem. Confidently, my party entered the forest. Save game.

My priests casted the usual spells: Chaotic Commands, Defensive Harmony, Bless, Chant, Death Ward, Blade Barrier. My mages? Resist Fear, Spell Immunity (Abjuration), Protection from Magic Energy, Stoneskin, Improved Invisibility.
My fighters? Belt of Inertia Barrier and Simulacrum (Vhailor's Helm).

Then, we strode confidently to listen to the braying of that detestable dragon, and couldn't wait to whack it. Battle began soon enough.

To my satisfaction, Lower Resistance and Breach spells knocked the darn creature. But just as my fighters menacingly charged forward (kensai activated Kai ability for good measure), the entire party was stuck! All the dragon had to do was breathe some yellowish vapour and we were all completely stuck
Missile weapons had no effect on the beast and I watched helplessly as the vapour and then the dragon itself slowly annihilated my beloved party of Minsc, Jaheira, Viconia, Jan and Imoen.

Reload. Tried casting magic swords... swords were caught by yellowish vapour and again, no damage could be done from far (too near and again the party was caught in the vapour).

After several reloads, I did the shameless act.

Yup, because I had installed TOB and my party had started gaining special abilities, I got Jan to place a spike trap and 2 other traps out of the dragon's view but yet reasonably close.

To cut the story short, the spike trap itself did smtg like 70+ pts of damage, and the normal traps finished off the beast.

So the fight was won, but I felt anything but victorious. In fact, I felt real lousy, but was too sick of seeing the whole scene over and over again, to replay it the honourable way.

That explains why I'm doing SoA one more time. This time, I sure hope I make it through the right way. Wish me luck...

[Dundee Slaytern]

I listed several efficient ways to kill Dragons in this thread, somewhere at the bottom.

You may want to consider them, although in the end, a dead evil dragon is a good dragon too. I understand about the feeling lousy part, since I felt that way when I used the Cloudkill method. On the bright side, it led me to find other ways to slay dragons.

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If not a Sorcerer casting total oblivion, then a Paladin meting out justice. Otherwise, I think I will just be a bard and torture my enemies with, "My Heart Will Go On".

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Baldur's Gate Item Mart

[Dundee Slaytern]

Oh, and as for dealing with Entangle, do unto it, what it does unto you.

Clerics have a spell called Free Action, this will nullify the Entanglement, your mages can also cast Web on the Dragon, then the Dragon becomes immobilised and unable to do anything. You can still move though, because of Free Action.

Ring of Free Action and Keldorn's armour also have innate Free Action, plus some short sword.

I kinda accidentally used this Web Tactic in my first game, I figured since everybody was entangled, let's share the misery.

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If not a Sorcerer casting total oblivion, then a Paladin meting out justice. Otherwise, I think I will just be a bard and torture my enemies with, "My Heart Will Go On".

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Baldur's Gate Item Mart

[mistral4543]

Thanks v much for all the tips and encouragement, Dundee! Will go try the methods, especially entangle.

I wouldn't have felt so bad if it were a normal trap, but it had to be a special ability that caused most of the damage and I knew that by right, party members should not have been on such a high level at that point (although it can also be argued that TOB lifted the XP cap and not me).

My only consolation is that I got to see how powerful spike traps are. So in TOB, Jan is definitely staying on

[IrishHound]

That is by far the toughest dragon you face in "soa" and I to remember it completely annilating my party like we were ramped up goblins. I did a check on that dragons stats and you would not beleive just how powerful it is, crazy armor class, super low thaco, 5 or 6 attacks per round and pretty much 25's in all stats if memory serves.

I did come to find out that lighting attacks workd dam well on it as well as flame strikes, but good luck when you say hi to the dragon again.

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To quote the pestering peasant, Neeber, of tradesmeet: "I killed a rabid rabbit! I'm experienced, now!"

[floyd]

hmm.. I just remember sending in a few summoned creatures to take the brunt of the entangle spell, then sending in the tanks who mopped old blackey in a matter of seconds. They all seemed to make saves against entangle. Near level 20, I guess everyone has some pretty good saves.

[crymson77]

I was reading intently untill I got to the part about yellowish vapor. The black dragon breath weapon is acid. Yellowish vapor sounds more like the green dragon. Yellowish "stuff" might be more aprropriate, maybe even yellowish-green...