22 réponses à ce sujet

[Son of Imoen]

Hello everybody,

I haven't posted for a while, but haven't stopped playing BG . Right now I ask you for help defeating Firkraag. I tried it with a slightly low-level party, failed and decided it to tackle him in another campaign with a high-level party, but even they fail. Firkraag has the benefit of the 'Smarter dragons -> Dragons cast spells like normal wizards: v15'-component of SCS II, as well as the 'Standardise dragon immunities', but not the improved staying power, so no additonal hp's.

My party consists of:

Faihra: Cleric/Ranger lvl 13/12 (giving her 2 lvl-6 spells)
Keldorn: Inquisitor lvl 16
Aerie: Cleric/Mage lvl 12/12 (giving access to 1 lvl-6 wizard and 2 lvl-6 priest spells)
Amber: Fighter>Thief lvl 6/12
Imoen: Adventurer>Mage lvl 7/14 (giving her 1 lvl-7 spell)
Xan: Enchanter lvl 16 (giving him 3 lvl-7 and 2 lvl-8 spells)

My strategy has been, to buff the party, with prot. from evil, haste, protection from fire, mass inivisibility and spell shield among others. Hit Firkraag with Remove Magic and Breach while he's still blue, then strike with my melee characters (Faihra, Keldorn and Amber) while the Mages keep on removing spell protections with Breach, Warding Whip, Pierce Magic. I manage to stay alive longer than with the low-level party I tried it with, but did only, in of my 4 tries, get Firkraag to 'badly damaged', before 1 or 2 characters died from massive melee damage and the battle quickly turns against my favour and all die.

Thanks in advance for any help with better strategies. Or would I be better off de-installing the 'smarter dragons' if I have never yet defeated a dragon in my whole life? (not even in other games, :< ).

[AnonymousHero]

Just a little note on your use of Remove Magic: Remove Magic has no effect on neutrals, so you can skip that until Firkraag has a red circle. He's also pretty high level, so the mage casting Remove/Dispel magic is unlikely to have any effect. However, the Inquisitor's Dispel Magic casts as level 32, so that's pretty likely to work.

[ussnorway]

If you have the “Purifier +4” (Watcher's Keep, Level Three) then I’d give it to Keldorn to tank with... pick a shield you like but “Dragon Scale Shield +2” is my pick for the resistance.

Obviously Faihra is your main melee output so I’ll just suggest “Bracers of Blinding Strike” from the fish dungeon (underdark) because the ‘Improved Haste’ will double his attacks.

 Amber 1: At that level Amber has mediocre melee capability (outside of backstabs) and should be using a bow... unlike most thieves she uses a longbow, the “Elven Court Bow +3” from de'Arnise Keep is a good one until you find the “Mana Bow”.

Amber 2: Set 5 traps at the back and pull him onto them... ok at level 12 they only Deal 2d8+5 damage but the 2d6 poison damage will keep ticking away unless the “'Standardise dragon immunities'” interferes with them... Sorry, I don’t use that component in my SCS build.

Spells ideas to try;

Level 4:
* ‘Farsight’ will let you target him from outside his LOS... you can send Skeletons against him as an opening move.

Level 5:
Have Aerie cast ‘Magic Resistance’ on him (works on a neutral circle) to lower his resistance to 24 then have Xan follow that up with ‘Lower Resistance’ to remove 26.
‘Protection From Acid’ see Level 6.

Level 6:
IMO ‘DeathFog’ is the best AOE spell to use against SCS bosses because you can put ‘PfA’ on your melee Fighters to allow them to ignore the damage... the drawback is any normal adds (yours or his) will get dispelled by the fog.

* The best effect adds layers of ‘Cloudkill’ (level 5 spell but there are wands around ) & send them in two at a time to keep him interested... The basic scenario is that you trade some cheap summons for allowing him to burn/waste spells plus allows Aerie & Xan to actively contribute.

[morbidest2]

Do Immy and Airhead have any Lightening wands or Melf's MMs? While he is in a state of Breach, they seem to work well on him. Does your PC have an Insect spell memorized? Always seems to drive Firky "buggy"!  

Modifié par morbidest2, 13 mai 2012 - 01:41 .

[Son of Imoen]

Thanks for your replies. My first 2 spells were Lower Magic Resistance, not Remove Magic, I mixed up the words, sorry for that. Glad to hear it works on a blue circle. Will try out the AoE effect spells, refrained from using Cloudkill as it seems cheesy, but if it heightens my chances. Will try it out in combo with skeleton summons. Are they immune to Cloudkill or will they get struck by it as well?

I'll check to see what wands I have. I always stock them but never use 'em, but right now I might indeed give it a try.

Insect Plague is Faihra's favourite spell and I did use it, as well as the Remove Magic. Will try to complement it with AoE Cloudkill and/or Death Fog and try out my wands, see if it helps. Will need a fit brain and lots of energy though as well, which I'm lacking at the moment.

Edit: never saw the use of Farsight, thanks for clearing that up USS Norway!

Modifié par Son of Imoen, 13 mai 2012 - 04:56 .

[Son of Imoen]

I reloaded the save before my rest and adjusted spells accordingly, but I have one more question: there are so many spell defenses to pick from for my mages, at 5th and 6th level especially, like spell turning, spell deflection, prot. from magic energy, spell shield, prot from normal or from magic weapons. Which of those are helpful to pick vs. Firkraag or should I fill all my slots with breaching his defenses and offensive spells?

[morbidest2]

To me this is a matter of playing style, rather than there being some optimum approach. I give my mages just the "standard" low level defenses and save my higher level slots for summons and offensive spells, but if you favor a more balanced approach, then considering that a dragon is a very magical critter, you might want to use Protect. from Mag. Weapons to shelter I & A. I wonder about using AoE spells when fighting a dragon who is quite capable of roaming all over his den. I agree with Norway that it is worth trying having Amber unload her supply at the western end of the den - before you sight Firky - leave most of the party behind it and then send her in for quick attack and quicker retreat behind the "trapline" for some quick initial damage. The nice thing about lightening wands and BIG targets is that the bolt reflects inside them, so you get as many as 10 little hits out of one wand strike. Those roughly 30 point hits quickly add up with 2 mages using lt wands on a Breached, reduced magic target. Of course the really fun way of killing Firky is a lev 4 transformation spell turning him into an infuriated squirrel for the PC and Keldorn to sit on, but I think this only works about 1% of the time.

[ussnorway]

Son of Imoen wrote...

Thanks for your replies. My first 2 spells were Lower Magic Resistance, not Remove Magic, I mixed up the words, sorry for that. Glad to hear it works on a blue circle. Will try out the AoE effect spells, refrained from using Cloudkill as it seems cheesy, but if it heightens my chances. Will try it out in combo with skeleton summons. Are they immune to Cloudkill or will they get struck by it as well?

I'll check to see what wands I have. I always stock them but never use 'em, but right now I might indeed give it a try.

Insect Plague is Faihra's favourite spell and I did use it, as well as the Remove Magic. Will try to complement it with AoE Cloudkill and/or Death Fog and try out my wands, see if it helps. Will need a fit brain and lots of energy though as well, which I'm lacking at the moment.

Edit: never saw the use of Farsight, thanks for clearing that up USS Norway!

They do get struck but have such a high resistance that it doesn't matter much... any protection from fire is a safe bet so "Staff of Fire +2" (Planar Sphere) or any other way to add fire summons out side the 'Cloud Kill' effect will also be a good investment .

[Triaxx2]

Pretty mage heavy party. Any of those mods prevent LMR>Finger of Death?

If so, then sequencers are your friend. Stack them full of damage spells, like Magic Missile, or Melf's Acid Arrow. Anything to interrupt him from casting at you.

Break out the Skeleton Warriors, and Mordenkainen's Swords. Anything to pump the number of melee keeping him occupied.

Open from out of range with Cloudkill. Skull traps between him and the party to start damaging him.

[saros_shadow_follower]

Here's the cheesiest strategy:

Since Xan can use lvl 7 spells, buy for him the Limited Wish scroll at Waukeen's promenade. Have him cast Limited Wish under the effect of a potion of Insight (wis 18) and use first the option 'I wish to be anything I desire' (i.e. Shapechange) and afterwards the 'control over time' one-time wish options i.e. Time Stop, but make sure Xan is positioned next to the dragon. Then turn to a Mind Flayer and under Time Stop (all hits count) simply int drain the dragon with mindflayer attacks. Although not sure if Xan can learn the Limited Wish spell, being an enchanter...it's both an Evocation and a Conjuration spell, so he could be able to. Dunno. Never played with an enchanter in BG2.

Or you may simply kill him with farsight-navigated summons while the party stays away and watches. Best use summons which are naturally fire-resistant. Fire Elementals summoned by your R-C would be best naturally. Aerie can join with Aerial Servants, and Xan with Skeleton Warriors. If you have the Staff of Fire from the Planar Sphere, you may summon more and more fire elementals via it.

Modifié par saros_shadow_follower, 14 mai 2012 - 01:10 .

[Triaxx2]

I could swear there's a scroll of limited wish somewhere... Ah. Two of them, but both later on in the story.

Well, shapechange can be found floating around, and even without time stop, You can kill him with Mind flayer. Just have to ensure he's properly distracted.

[ussnorway]

Triaxx2 wrote...

I could swear there's a scroll of limited wish somewhere... Ah. Two of them, but both later on in the story.

Well, shapechange can be found floating around, and even without time stop, You can kill him with Mind flayer. Just have to ensure he's properly distracted.

'Limited wish' is at the AM (Adventurer's Mart) from the start of the game... You get  'Wish' from playing cards with Aesgareth (end of the 3rd level of Watcher's Keep) if you have the guts to play for it that is.

Get 'Time Stop' from Vithal in the Underdark & the 'Shapechange' is AM special stock which is allowed to shop in once you return from the Underdark.

Modifié par ussnorway, 19 mai 2012 - 04:39 .

[Triaxx2]

Yeah, there's actually one Scroll for looting in Spellhold, and one in the Underdark.

[Son of Imoen]

Thanks everyone for your help. I managed! My first dragon slain in my whole life ever!

I didn't use AoE magic, but the Wizard Eye helped to quicken the castening of Lower Resistance on Firkraag, the Skeletons were useful decoys, the Improved Haste helped a lot (Faihra had the Bracers of Blinding Strike, Keldorn got the spell cast on him), Amber used her poison ability, magic missiles helped disrupt his casting and I used potions of Frost and Fire giant strength on Keldorn and Faihra. And he fell! I got me a Carsomyr, I'll take a look how that famous sword looks now!

[Gate70]

Congratulations. If Keldorn has the bracers of dexterity and death-ward buffs you'll find most enemies should now be a lot easier to tackle.

Although lower resistance > doom > insect plague (> scared dragon) is always a good opening gambit against Firkraag.

[Son of Imoen]

Gate70 wrote...
Although lower resistance > doom > insect plague (> scared dragon) is always a good opening gambit against Firkraag.

I used that tactic with the earlier attempts, but failed to get him into panicking. But in lots of other battles, it has been a life-saver (maybe I got the order wrong, usually I open up with insect plague to have the bugs flying right away and only use Faihra's second round of casting to cast Doom).

I was a little surprised such an 'über-weapon' as Carsomyr has such a sleek look. I expected something more hefty.

[EdwardIII]

I've only managed to come close to killing Firkraag as the Slayer.

[Iryoku]

The easiest tactic I found so far is using the following spells:

1) Lower Resistance (Lvl5)
2) Greater Malison (Lvl4)
3) Chromatic Orb (Lvl1)

In other words, you can easily kill him with a couple of scrolls very early in the game. I was very surprised when he just died like that

[Mr Spidey]

Chromatic Orb has a save at +6. Even with Greater Malison, it's a tough sell to make Firecracker fail that one. If you're taking the time to eat his magic resistance, I'm thinking Spook or Chaos are better options. Both have actual penalties to saves, and in combination with Greater Malison, Firecracker will fall victim to those a lot more often than he will Chromatic Orbs.

[Iryoku]

You can succeed in most of the times in my opinion, and it's an easy tactic, unless you play without any saves.

[Mr Spidey]

Can succeed? Sure. Is it easy? Not really. As far as I can tell, from my rather modded BG2 installation, Firkraag has a save vs spells of 6, meaning he'll make his save if he rolls 6 or higher. He thus has 5 chances out of 20 to fail by default. Factor in Greater Malison (-4) and the Chormatic Orb (+6), and he'll save vs at a roll of 4 or more. That gives him just 15% chance of dying and 85% chance of surviving.

Let's contrast this with Spook, which has a -6 penalty to save if the caster is level 12 or more. Base is 6, Greater Malison takes that to 10, and Spook takes it to 16. That's 80% chance of panic and a mere 20% chance of Firkraag not crapping his backside scales. Chaos comes with a penalty of -4, meaning 70% chance of going through and a 30% of Firkraag making his save.

Sure, Firky isn't dead just because you land Chaos or Spook on him, but he sure is a whole lot easier when he's not using his dragon script.

[Iryoku]

I never said Spook can't succeed. You can probably make it even simpler if someone casts Doom as well but that's not the point. The OP was asking for an easy way to kill Firkraag. Good point though.

[Son of Imoen]

Iryoku wrote...
The OP was asking for an easy way to kill Firkraag.

That's not entirely true though, I was asking for a better strategy. I would hardly call reloading waiting for a 15% chance for Firkraag to fail it's save a strategy.