I became victim to what I think was a bug in the city of Suldanessar. I killed the black dragon Nizidramanii'yt and it didn't drop the Goblet of Life! I hadn't got any of the other two artifacts yet. I thought it would be better to do the hard part first and kill the dragon. I tried several times but no, no Goblet of Life. I searched this forum about the bug but only found some info about altering the ini-file and spawn the Goblet by the console.
I decided to make another try but first I laid my hands on the two other artifacts, the Moonblade and the Medallion and believe my joy when the black dragon dropped the Goblet of Life after I had killed it!
It could be a sequencer bug here so make sure you have the Moonblade and the Medallion before you enter the black dragon's landing strip!
I'm sorry if this info already have been mentioned here but I couldn't find it.
Backbone
About the Goblet of Life bug (?). Minor spoiler.
About goodies dropped by dragon (minor spoiler)
First of all, thank you for your welcome!
The black dragon i Suldanessar always drop a couple of hundred goldcoins, 3 pretty worthless necklaces and an elven chainmail which is fairly good.
As always when I suddenly run into a dragon I was disintegrated!
But after the first reload of the game I summoned a Caco fiend and a Nishruu (no special stragety behind the choice of the creatures. It was the spells I had memorized). Before that I cast Protection from Evil 10' radius on my party. The creatures released the dragon's first attack spells. My party was standing outside the vicinity of the battle (ok, I am a coward). The summoned creatures are buffered away once and a while and I let the Nishruu tease the Caco fiend back to the dragon again becuase when the fiend looses sight of the dragon it just stands there. When the fiend and the Nishruu were slain I released a firestorm, a poison cloud and some fireballs at the dragon. This also outside the vicinity of the dragon (ok ok! I AM a coward). When the dragon's entangle spell wears out I cast Haste on my party, summon a copule of fire elementals in front of the dragon and NOW I charge, hehe. The dragon is pretty weak by now. My magic-users fires some magic missiles and a couple of sword cuts (preferrably with the Equalizer) and the dragon is soon hacked, minced and packed into delicious hot dragon sausages.
This strategy works. I tried it for 7 times without any trouble.
Backbone
First of all, thank you for your welcome!
The black dragon i Suldanessar always drop a couple of hundred goldcoins, 3 pretty worthless necklaces and an elven chainmail which is fairly good.
As always when I suddenly run into a dragon I was disintegrated!
But after the first reload of the game I summoned a Caco fiend and a Nishruu (no special stragety behind the choice of the creatures. It was the spells I had memorized). Before that I cast Protection from Evil 10' radius on my party. The creatures released the dragon's first attack spells. My party was standing outside the vicinity of the battle (ok, I am a coward). The summoned creatures are buffered away once and a while and I let the Nishruu tease the Caco fiend back to the dragon again becuase when the fiend looses sight of the dragon it just stands there. When the fiend and the Nishruu were slain I released a firestorm, a poison cloud and some fireballs at the dragon. This also outside the vicinity of the dragon (ok ok! I AM a coward). When the dragon's entangle spell wears out I cast Haste on my party, summon a copule of fire elementals in front of the dragon and NOW I charge, hehe. The dragon is pretty weak by now. My magic-users fires some magic missiles and a couple of sword cuts (preferrably with the Equalizer) and the dragon is soon hacked, minced and packed into delicious hot dragon sausages.
This strategy works. I tried it for 7 times without any trouble.
Backbone
Strange that is, I can't see any reason why you would need the other bits and bobs in order for the dragon to drop the goblet. Its not inconcievable that you might either encounter the dragon before you recover the other artifacts or (like you did) decide to face it first, in which case you'd need to reload to complete the game. Ah well... 
Nice dragon slaying tactics...only the most mule headed paladin would face a black dragon without some back up. That fight can get pretty nasty if it manages to unleash an insect plague in the midst of your party. But dragon sausages...um I think I'll pass
Nice dragon slaying tactics...only the most mule headed paladin would face a black dragon without some back up. That fight can get pretty nasty if it manages to unleash an insect plague in the midst of your party. But dragon sausages...um I think I'll pass
The order of the items has nothing to do with it. The Goblet of Life is one of those incorrectly-flagged items in SoA that get eaten by Nishruus and Hakeashars. I'm not sure whether this is fixed in ToB. You can download a fix for it at Baldurdash - look for the Nishruu-Proof Items Fix.
There's nothing a little poison couldn't cure...
What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, ... to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security.
What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, ... to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security.
My Inquisitor (mule headed??? paladin duty is to defend the helpless and get rid of all those nasty monster without fear) faced, charged (and killed) that dragon only with the help of a coupple of "call lightning" from the rest of the party (they kept safely away from the Beast).Originally posted by kopywrite
Nice dragon slaying tactics...only the most mule headed paladin would face a black dragon without some back up. That fight can get pretty nasty if it manages to unleash an insect plague in the midst of your party. But dragon sausages...um I think I'll pass
@ Lompo; no offense intended about your inquisitor or any others out there playing characters with the upper part of the body above the neck which may resemble a mule or other equine beast of burden
I generally play magic heavy groups and I'm lacking experience when it comes to playing warriors very effectively...whenever I've tried toe to toe, the fighter usually ends up very dead; Imoen is my number one dragon slayer.
Paladins are supposed to be 'mule headed' (the phrase was used in a light hearted way), facing terrible foes on their own, toe to toe. In 1E AD&D, they were banned from using missile weapons for instance.
Kudos to you though for beating a dragon using tactics that I've always failed miserably with
I generally play magic heavy groups and I'm lacking experience when it comes to playing warriors very effectively...whenever I've tried toe to toe, the fighter usually ends up very dead; Imoen is my number one dragon slayer.
Paladins are supposed to be 'mule headed' (the phrase was used in a light hearted way), facing terrible foes on their own, toe to toe. In 1E AD&D, they were banned from using missile weapons for instance.
Kudos to you though for beating a dragon using tactics that I've always failed miserably with
No offense taken, I know that normal people would think twice before facing toe to toe such beasts, but is the role of paladin, thay choose to eventually sacrify thamselves for a right cause or for keeping safe the weakest ones, so more than mule headed (good definition for Minsc) they are conscious of their role and destiny.
As for the killing, was the easiest of the Dragon because of the high level (and the equipment) of my Inquisitor at that point.
The previous Dragons were much more difficoult, and couldn't be taken down toe to toe with only one fighter.
On my PC I had red dragon scale+fire control ring for 100% fire resistance (plus high magic resistance), ring of gaax belt of 21 strenght and Carsomir (the rest was usual stuff).
I had around 150-160 hp (same of the Dragon I think), AC -9(better than dragon), Thac0 -10 (I think) (better than dragon), damage with improved haste of about 100-120/round (probably better than dragon), some potions of healing, immunity to hold (no entangle), and you are stronger than a dragon.
As for the killing, was the easiest of the Dragon because of the high level (and the equipment) of my Inquisitor at that point.
The previous Dragons were much more difficoult, and couldn't be taken down toe to toe with only one fighter.
On my PC I had red dragon scale+fire control ring for 100% fire resistance (plus high magic resistance), ring of gaax belt of 21 strenght and Carsomir (the rest was usual stuff).
I had around 150-160 hp (same of the Dragon I think), AC -9(better than dragon), Thac0 -10 (I think) (better than dragon), damage with improved haste of about 100-120/round (probably better than dragon), some potions of healing, immunity to hold (no entangle), and you are stronger than a dragon.