Another Great Way To Improve Dragons' A.I.

[Volourn]

Even though this may be too late for TOB, I just though of a good way to improve dragon A.I. This came tome after reading a post about someone backstabbing Firkragg with a thief after hiding in shadows. The best way to deal with this, is the following: As soon as the dragon notices someone either in stealth mode, or invisible the beasty views this as an offensive action, and immediately attacks the offending creature(s). This would ( kind of) end surprise attacks -espicially by thieves. What do ya all think?!?

GO DRAGONS GO!
GO DWARVES GO!

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"That didn't hurt!" - Volourn Honourblade after the red dragon breathed on him for 75% of his hp.

[Encard]

Well... Hmm... Maybe... Problem is, that won't help them much against the tactic I use, which is to hit it with Spell trigger: Lower Resist x3, then Chain COntingency: Horrid Wilting x3. It either kills it in one blast or gets it very close to being dead. Hmm... Your suggestion is a very good idea, though.

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Bow down to the RaBid Fruit Trees!!! DEAT!
:1drgat:

[Volourn]

The best ways for them to deal with your multiple castings of lower resistance is the following:

1. Limit it 1 casting per creature.
2. Or go by the official 2E rules which is the following..... No saving throw; but target get a mr roll but have its actual mr. Ex. Mind flayers have 90%mr, so they would have a 40% chance to resist this spell. This would be based on actual pnp rules. This is fair I say.

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"That didn't hurt!" - Volourn Honourblade after the red dragon breathed on him for 75% of his hp.

[sunder]

As to the magic resistance, I would assume a dragon could dispel magic, thus ridding himself of the pesky lowered resistance or magic resistance upon him.
And I don't know if a dragon can be backstabbed or not, some creatures are immune to backstabbing. I don't think ive ever did backstab damage to a dragon. And if you can, simply eliminating that would be helpful, what are you going to do, sneak up on it, walk up on its huge back without him feeling you, then plunge a shortsword into him? I think not.
A major way to help them out is to make them turn red and attack on sight upon any casting within the area they are in. Who ever heard of a dragon not attacking while the party powers up and ready's themselves for fighting it while it is blue

[Havok]

In another gamesite forum, someone even took Firkraag out with a Monks "Quivering Palm" attack for christsakes. I guess there's always that chance of "blind luck" occuring.

In my opinion, no self-respecting dragon of adult to ancient age should ever be caught napping or otherwise indisposed to let anyone get that upclose and personal with him. It should have enough wards and guardians about to give it plenty of early warning of impending danger so that it's wide-eyed and pissed off as hell when the offending party enters it's lair. With all of its available weapons that I remember from my old PnP days; spell usage, fear aura, breath, claws (foreclaws and wingclaws), wing buffet, tail whip, trampling, bite, and just plain old body slamming; the dragon should be one of the toughest, if not THE toughest encounter in the game.

Then again, I guess it would be hard for a designer/programmer to take all of this into account and still make it a winnable encounter and not a "how to" exercise on committing party suicide.

Cheezy tactics and all, it's still apparently a tough encounter...party members still tended to die quite handily, as I recall from some of those "Firkraag is Easy" posts that I've read from the different forums.





[This message has been edited by Havok (edited 06-16-2001).]

[Volourn]

I agree, despite the weaknesses of the game, the dragons are still pretty tough. Usually one of my characters are hurt very bad, or die. heck, I actually raise them during the battle so they can still get the XP. Heheh! Just to let you know, I go full out against the dragons. No sneaky tatics like traps.
PnP dragons are tougher though, and SMARTER!
Enjoy the dragon hunting in TOB.

BTW: How many tries did it take to beat the dragons your first time. Me, it is the following...

Shadow - 3
Red - 6
Silver - never fought, but will soon
Black - 2
Hell -avoided fighting


GO DRAGONS GO!

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"That didn't hurt!" - Volourn Honourblade after the red dragon breathed on him for 75% of his hp.

[Drawde1]

I really don't see what's wrong with the Lower Resistance spell. If you don't have any really tough fighters (or they're all badly injured) it's the only chance you have against things like demons, golems and dragons with high MR. And you need to cast several Lower Resistances to have much effect.
The only balance problem I can see is with dragons, as they usually don't start off hostile to you, so you can have easily have several mages cast the spell at it simultaneously, instantly lowering its MR by a considerable amount. Perhaps dragons could have a MR over 100% so you need to hit it with several of these spells just to be able to damage it with magic.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Without Cheese... ...

Shadow Dragon, 2nd try.

Red Dragon, 1st try.

Black Dragon, 1st try. --> Note: With 'Finger of Death' spell, my party was getting the crap beaten out of them when my Sorcerer casted the spell, Minsc was dead, so was Keldorn, leaving only my mages and cleric... ... I loved that spell ever since.

Sliver Dragon, I never play evil characters, not my gaming nature, so never attacked her before.

Green Dragon, same story as the Silver Dragon.

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If not a Sorcerer, then a Paladin.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Hmmmm... ...

Smack Attack, each blow knocks back the hit character.
Uses breath weapon in melee as well.
Increase Hp.
Immunity to Poison and Lightning as well.
Improve saving throws.
Set Magic Resistance, not changable.
Attacks if you come too close and stay too long.
50% chance to cause a critical hit.
5% chance to land a crushing blow, reduce hit character to 1Hp.
95% Damage resistance. (Unless using Dragon-slaying equipment, makes them useful for a change ).
Immune to 3+ and below weapons. ( LOL)
10% chance spells casted against the Dragon reflects off the scales and bounces back to the caster.
Has a Stomp Attack which has a THACO -10 to hit and causes instant death if contact is made( Dragon suffers -10Hp if character was wearing metal armour).
Has a bite attack which has a THACO -10 to hit also and causes instant death if successful( Dragon gains 2Hp per level of character eaten).
Has a Stomp Ground Attack, all opponents are knocked down unless they weigh more than 200lbs, knocked down opponents lose one round to regain composure.
Fireball attack, 60ft radius, visual range of Dragon, 20D20 Fire Damage.

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If not a Sorcerer, then a Paladin.



[This message has been edited by Dundee Slaytern (edited 06-16-2001).]

[Volourn]

I hate to say this Dundee, but those suggestions are just a little over top. Don't you agree? I hope you were joking.

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"That didn't hurt!" - Volourn Honourblade after the red dragon breathed on him for 75% of his hp.