Scared of Dragons

biofarmaco · Post by **biofarmaco** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 8:44 pm

I'm getting closed to The Bad "snakelady." I'm confronted by two corrupted Dragons (copper & silver). My henchchick and I are immediately hit by frightened spells. Is there a defense against these spells. My character is a fighter/ cleric, so I dont have much magic to use. Help??

The Great Hairy · Post by **The Great Hairy** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:02 pm

What levels are you? You should have some nice save-boosting equipment, too. Anything which raises your will saves is definitely worthwhile.

Note that you can separate the two dragons and face only one at a time (try and get one fighting summons, the other draw off chasing yourself). This does make the fight a lot easier. Have plenty of summons ready (memorise several Summon Creature spells).

Spells worth casting - Prayer, Magic Circle vs Alignment (evil), Owl's Wisdom, Bless and Remove Fear.

Who is your henchperson? Got any potions/scrolls? What other items are you carrying?

Cheers mate,
TGHO

biofarmaco · Post by **biofarmaco** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:55 pm

Thanks Hairy

That did it. All I had to do is improve my saving throws a little bit and bingo.
Not only did I beat them dragons, but I finally beat that ugly old lizard skank:
Maurag. I sure do thank ya'll for givin' me a heck of a lot of good info. Good game and great friends! Peace.........

Zel Greywords · Post by **Zel Greywords** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:25 am

If one is a spellcaster, there is another really nice trick to avoid the Dragon fear aura...
...why, any aura, even.

It's "Gust of Wind". Just a measly level 3 wizard spell, but I've come to love it like no other gimmick of that level... it's original purpose is to knock down enemies (which basically never works with anything but the weakest foes, so its useless in that aspect).

Yet, it's secondary function is far more interesting. Namely that it dispels any kind of area-of-effect magic like acid clouds or stinking clouds - but not only those.
It will also easily rid an area of "Web", "Blade Barrier", "Mine Vine" (and all similarly annoying spells), plus... here comes the catch: auras. No matter if it's a mummy, a dragon or a whorde of undead.

Gust of wind removes their auras in 100% of all cases. And once they're gone, they're never ignited again. That and the fact that it dispels those otherwise long-lasting stupid blade barriers makes it one of my favourite toys.

-Zel

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 5:54 am

Hmm, I was under the impression that the aura would be recast after being gusted (after all the fear aura is infinite uses per day). What patch are you playing, if it can get rid a Blade Barriers it might be quite useful...

Zel Greywords · Post by **Zel Greywords** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 6:52 am

It's v1.62.

And yes, the critters can re-ignite their auras. The catch is: they don't.

It simply seems as if the critters don't even notice that their aura is gone, so they see no need to re-ignite/re-cast it. Call it sloppily-coded AI routines or call it mercy on behalf of the developers - once you dispelled the aura of a critter, it doesn't come back unless you leave the map and return again.

At least I never ever experienced it. Of course, if you go pvp, this wont work - since a human player will d'mn well notice that his aura/spell is gone.

As for the blade barriers: it works. And has worked since v1.0. Basically because the gust dispels -all- (unscripted) area effects, and the game engine treats a "wall of fire" or a "blade barrier" just like it would treat a "stinking cloud".

Another thing: you can even dispel "darkness" in most cases. Also VERY useful. Especially when going against the Shadovar in their own demiplane...

Only "In most cases" because you can only dispel it if it was cast in its area-of-effect variant and -not- directly on your character. (since then it is a personal effect, not an area one).

-Zel

The Great Hairy · Post by **The Great Hairy** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 6:39 pm

Wow. That's a pretty cool bug - but I think I would classify it as cheese to be honest. I've never used the spell, so I didn't know it could do that!

Thanks Zel.

Cheers,
TGHO

silent_assassin · Post by **silent_assassin** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:12 am

...or you can just get the Dragon Slippers whick make you immune to all types of fear

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:32 am

There is a lot of equipment which makes you immune to lots of stuff.
Checking merchants, questrewards etc is always a good thing and one can often find something to help overcomes problems

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:34 am

Well if it really is a bug, suprisingly I haven't stumbled upon it from the official forums, which means that it might not be a bug

, so I can abuse it to my hearts content.

Zel Greywords · Post by **Zel Greywords** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:19 am

Well it's sure not a "bug" in the sense of the word - it's a wanted, legitimate (and documented) part of the spell effect. By "documented", I mean that this effect is even listed in the ingame spell description.

The only surprising thing about it is that it helps with far more than just your run-of-them-mill "stinking cloud" problem - simply because the game engine cannot tell all the area-of-effect spells apart. Thus basically, any and all area effects are treated like banks of fog by it, even if they are something as "physical" as a blade barrier.

-Zel