Kirkraag Strageties? (Spoilers?)

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:23 am

Ok First off, I hate this damned thing, it heals itself to full when near death, OCCASIONALLY does the smart thing and fire breath my Mages And or, when it seems that i ALMOST got the bugger, he crits my main guy and ta da.. Game over folks.

I've tried many approches, this being the best I think of now:

Stand completly outta his sight at the start and use some cloudkill wand charges to bring that jackass down to Badly Hurt.
Note: I tried to be El cheese, but he still heals even though he cannot see me.

Sidenote, I just told him I'd be back for his scaly ass, to avoid having to fight that other bugger too. I decided to wrap it up b4 leaving though

Ok, your probably gonna wanna know my party and my levels to try and figure out the problem. Oi..

Main Guy- Paladin LVL 9
AC -8
Thaco 7
HP 89

Notable equipment:
Dragonslayer sword
Dragon Scale shield
Dragon Helm
Boots of Speed
Regeneration Ring
Amulet 5% Mag resist

Keldorn- LVL 9

AC -6
Thaco 7

Minsc - LVL 9

AC -7
Thaco 7

Notable Equip
Dragon's Bane +3
Helm of Charm Protection

Yoshimoto - LVL 12
AC -6
Thaco 11 (Bow) 8 (Swd)

Notable Equip
Cestial Fury +3
Heartseeker+3
Arrows of Biting

Hear Dalis - LVL 9
Nothing really, Using him for Aerie Romance, but his usefullness is casting some Magic missles, otherwise he's useless.

Aerie - Lvl 9/10
Thaco -5

Casts M.M. 4 times then Heals.

Notable Equip
Ressurection Rod 10 Charges
Cloud Kill Rod 7 Charges

Pretty much it's like this.

General Plan 1.

I surrounded him with summons and spread my GUYS on 3 sides to avoid getting nailed by a breath all at once. My summons are easyly dispatched and I hack away while whipping spells like mad at the damned thing. Used Aerie to heal and resserect Minsc and Keldorn, Each character can take a full breath aside from Aerie and Hear Dalis.

Best Result :
Badly Wounded.

Plan B.

Stood outside his range and used cloudkill rod twice, then rushed him to find him near dead. He still pulled off the healing even with me at full health pounding him AND hitting him. Got killed. Dammit all..

Best Result - Near Dead/Barely Wounded (Depends on when I got killed or if he pulled off healing...)

Plan C

Used up ALL 7 charges of Cloudkill rod, result no different then above.

So now I ask you. How's the best way to kill this ****ing thing. I've done EVERY temple quest trying to get into the radiant heart, this being the one to trigger my testing. Plus I want that Holy Swd...

I had way less trouble on the Unseeing eye, and that was not even using the rod to cripple him ( I forgot I had it when he came around the corner, still no deaths and Minsc molested the thing.)

I'm just shy off a level with pretty much all my chars too, but I doubt one level will make a huge difference.

Gothmog · Post by **Gothmog** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:34 am

I've never tried him at that level before, but I suspect it's doable. Potions would be my best advice. Heroism...speed (or just haste the party before you go for mele). Also, haste your pets, and keep 'em coming.

Another thing I've used successfully against him is improved invis. It keeps him from targeting whoever is not visible.

If Aerie is your only mage, I'd invest heavilly in scrolls, too.

I don't usually go dragon hunting until somebody can throw at least 6th level spells. Pierce magic is nice vs. MR baddies.

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:42 am

Hello, Cyrus.

*Spoiler*
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

If you want a cheese tactic, use the CloudKill many times. As you said, he heals up fast, so you can't kill him if you are waiting to throw the second CloudKill till the first one wears off. Throw 3-4 times at least.

I usually summon a few pets (powerful ones, like Fire Elemental), protect everyone from fear (and other protection might be useful), then cast haste. Spread everyone around the dragon with their Melee weapons, and have a Cleric to cast 5th level Magic Registance to reduce his magic registance (Read the discription of this spell in the manual, if you are not sure what I'm talking about). Cast spells like Lower Registance and Greater Malison. Once he gets angry, just bash him with force, non stop. Any potion of strength may halp as well.

There's a good section of strategy in the game section of this site. I think you should check it.

Hope it helps a bit.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:42 am

Kill the mages and get the Xp then get all your mr lowerers and breach fire the MR Lowerers then breach, then any damaging spell

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:44 am

Hmm I forgot about the pots I had, Pots of def Herosim, invis, invulerbility, but I hardly figure they work.

Of course I'm hasted, I need to beat him fast enough so he can't heal, but that's where my problem lies, He JUST heals himself to full right near the end.

I've gotten him to near death without going near him yet, he won't heal yet, and I've still got my party at full strength, but after I hit him once, he's back at full, it's not that I can't bring him back down to near dead again, it's just that he can outlast me with his healing.

Besides that, Yoshimoto, Fighting with swd or shootin arrows?

and like I said b4, that bard uses magic too, this dragon's got remarkable magic resist but mostly I'm lucky with the number of MMs that hit him.

Aerie's almost Mage lvl 11, will she get a lvl 6 spel then? and secondly, when did you take him down, what level? etc/

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:47 am

.

Minerva :

I've actually cast all 7 cloudkill charges in one bang, it makes no diff, he STILL heals..

I'm not worried about him mind effects, he generally goes for my minions with those, or he goes for minsc, and remarkably, Minsc NEVER misses his save.

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:57 am

Originally posted by Cyrus
I've actually cast all 7 cloudkill charges in one bang, it makes no diff, he STILL heals..

Hmmm, that's a bit odd. I usually kill him with 3 CloudKills...

Why not try to use Magic Registance on him, then use CloudKills on him from outside of his view? The spell won't make him angry, so you have enough time to take Aerie away.

If you still can't kill him, I suspect you might have a bug. (I hope I'm wrong.

) I'm not a computer/game wizard, so I'll leave this to others to answer.

Gothmog · Post by **Gothmog** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:58 am

Aerie's almost Mage lvl 11, will she get a lvl 6 spel then? and secondly, when did you take him down, what level? etc/

Mages do indeed get 6th lvl spells at level 11...but now I'm confused...

Aerie is higher level than your PC??? How did that happen? She's multi-class, and a Paladin is not! Also, is this a modded game? (TDD, maybe?) Your fight just sounds a LOT harder than any I've ever had with either of the first two dragons.

Like I said, I usually save the dragons for after I'm through with most everything else in Ch. 2....(I do all the quests I can before I go to Spellhold) But even coming at him with a party average level of 12 or 13 I don't think I've ever seen him heal himself.

Am I just really really lucky? Or is your dragon a LOT smarter than mine?

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 5:03 am

Augh!

Explaining Aeris is easy, no not modded, I'm a straight no cheats guy, i solve my problems without ruining the game for myself.

While yes Aeris's level is higher, her XP is not. It just so happens A Mage levels faster then a Pally, and she just got her lvl 9 Cleric not long ago, thats explaining that.

And I just finished reading alot of tactics with this guy and I've got some ideas.. Feebleminded, and etc.

I've got the game difficulty on Core Rules, it's harder then normal apparantly. Maybe you have it lower so the Dragons were not as bright.

With this same party I've mauled Vampires, Mages, Beholders, Undead, Minotaurs, with little trouble, But this guy's different.. he heals.. and woe is that.

Also, I'm gonna spend alot of loading time and see if I can fluke a Silence on him.

As for mag resist, he's NEVER resisted one Cloudkill hit

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 5:11 am

Augh!

As it turns out I just happen to NOT have either spell. Sigh..

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 5:38 am

Lame.

I managed to silence him so I could Cheeze his ass with cloudkill, it even said

"Silenced"

Now here's the lame thing, not a second later he healed himself.. UH< but wasn't he silenced DAMMIT!?

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 5:51 am

WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

You want Cheese folks, HERE"S CHEESE!

I Hasted everyone, had 5 good summons, and then walked right up to him and started talking, then attack for 5 seconds then talked just before he went hostile, the counter resets repeat the process as desired until dragon is toasted and chopped to perfection.

I didn't even take a scratch@

Now THAT's how you play with the game and teach it you got some dirty tricks

Silvanerian · Post by **Silvanerian** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 6:08 am

If you want to take out the dragon with out cheese, why don't you use Keldorns dispel magic ability? He's level 9, so it hits as if cast by a 18th level mage - It dispels Firkraags Haste and Stoneskins.
I've managed to take him out on Core also with a 10th level Inquisitor - solo.
My tactic (if I have an inquisitor) is to wait till he casts haste on himself - the few charms the throws before Inquisitors are immune to.
Then I fire the dispel magic - he only has one haste and one stoneskin (unlike other dragons...)
Now, I'd suggest that you use the ring of fireresistance with your other dragon equipment, as he lowers your fireresistance by 50% in the start.
Then, just melee him and keep that rod of resurrection close to your main character - it fully heals your character, even if you aren't dead.

-Syl.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 6:41 am

Solo eh? I dunno methinks that's pushing it, and besides the point, If your soloing him, he hits pretty hard 30+
I find that rather impossible, even with healing, Yes, I didn't dispel, I'm a moron, but I did do something as a precaution in my victory attempt, I took that Fire ring off of Keldorn and put it on my main guy, Granting him 100% fire resist.

Little did I know that all it took was Critials from

My Guy X 3
Keldorn
Minsc

And then the Dragon lie dead.. I thought that was going to be a helluva lot harder and didn't imagine the trick to work.

frogus · Post by **frogus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 11:22 am

I killed him with one Chromatic orb...no fighting involved!
if you can't manage that, then are dooms cumulative? Monster summoning and some fire elementals should keep him busy until you doom him three or four times, and if they stack, then he's red meat

Thakrintiz · Post by **Thakrintiz** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 9:16 pm

It is THAT easy!!! Belive me!

I have recently begun soloing through SoA with a, YES, a cleric/mage.... (started about 4 days ago now in Underdark

Doesn't seems as if those are respected enough...

Either way I am a cleric of Talos lvl 14/Mage lvl 15 or so when i decided it was time to eat Firkraag <----- THATS THE WAY TO SPELL IT

Now i had made some small thought experiments about Melf's Minute Meteor spell and improved haste...
Now MMM sets your attacks to 5 á round, now improved haste DOUBLES that amount, giving you an effective 10 attacks pr. round... (you'll laugh your ass of seeing that lil mage sending 10 of them meteors at something within 6 secs

Now i knew lil Kraggy was totally imune to fire, what with him being a red dragon and all, ok nothing to do about that...
BUT the meteors still do about 5-8 dam pr. meteor...
but remember that we can dispense 10 of those each round... doing a nice 50-80 dam, now many of you seem to forget the golden spell in fighting dragons...
**DAM DAM**
Lower resistances... either just cast 3 of those on Kraggy (or any other dragon for that matter) or stick 3 of 'em in a spell trigger...

Ok now his MR is Nearly all gone, now it time to reduce his AC...
this is done easily...
Now using slow give an AC penalty of, 4 as do blindness/glitterdust which ever you prefer...
Ok now he should have about 1 AC...
And just to be on the safe side... better kill if melee attack too...
Ray of enfeeblement... sets the poor buggers str to 5...

Now by this time you are prolly thinking:

"But he'll have killed me long since then"

Not if you are using a spell sequencer for the slow/blind/ROE
And you will be casting Protection from Magical weapons and protection from fire, also having equipped the ring of fire resistance that you found on that Transmuter Rakshasa at the entrance. Altohugh i just used my beloved Stormshield instead

Now he cant do ANYTHING to you usign breath-weapon, his melee wont affect you for 4 rounds, mroe than enough to cast the above spells on him, and should it take longer either cast Protection from Magical weapons again or just use Improved Invis or stoneskins...

Now all you need is to make sure you always have MMM active...
If you find Kraggy too annoying you can always give him a lil Pit Fiend to play with...
With his lowered saving throws the Demon Fear will work on him!!!
Funny seeing that big guy run all around the lair...

If you wanna degrade him totally... you can use Disintgrate on him or Finger of Death... after Greater Malison of course... you can also use doom and glitter dust on him...
(Glitterdust ALSO reduces his saving thorws... part of being blind

"Ok Class next time we'll have a lesson about how to kill Greater Warewolves in 4 short lessons..."

Phew... that was along one!
Thanks for reading this long.

Any comments, flames, idiotic remarks, intelligent suggestions...
all welcome...

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 10:07 pm

Re: It is THAT easy!!! Belive me!

Originally posted by Thakrintiz
"Ok Class next time we'll have a lesson about how to kill Greater Warewolves in 4 short lessons..."

I hope your joking.. Those things are slack, Maul and maul again works as it is

A recently I rearraged my equip and loaded my Paladin with Potions(Herisom ETC)

The only part that wasn't called soloing when I reloaded that save and charged in was Keldorn Doing a minor favor and Dispelling the dragon. Other then that it was Hack and slash, My main guy being immune to fire took 3 breaths, got slashed twice, but by the time he hit a second time, I regenerated thanks to a wonderous ring.

So I thrust this to you. A lvl 9 Paladin, or even better, an Inqusitoer CAN best Firkraag

Methinks I got lucky though.

I laughed my ass off and hung my head in shame for having such problems with him the first time.

As for that Shadow Dragon, I felt sorry for that thing...