Firkraag and Thaxl'ssyll-something. Same strategy?

Morcarack · Post by **Morcarack** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:34 am

Having just completed the Umar hills quest and getting Thaxl'whaddyacallit dead in my first try, I am currently grinning ear-to-ear and my main Swashbuckler just got Level 15 and 1 million+ exp.

But I have a question; will this Dragon Slaying tactic work for Firkraag as well?

Here's the plan: Set up traps, get him hostile and kill him with combined traps + spells + weaps. I plan to use Angzamar's Scorcher, Magic Missile for the spells.

Basic Q: Can I set up traps against Firkraag without him going hostile? Will Angzamar's Scorcher & Magic Missile work against him?

And one more: Will I have to clear out Firkraag's dungeon ALL OVER AGAIN?

And the last question: what are my prospects for Spellhold? I got a Lvl 15 Swashbuckler, Lvl 15 Yoshimo, Lvl 11 Minsc, Lvl 10 FIghter/Lvl 12 Druid Jahiera, Lvl 11 Cleric/11 Mage Aerie, and a Lvl 12 Nalia. Can I do it?

~Morc.

PS: This is what happened when I did the Shadow Dragon:

I had the Wardstone so I could get up close to the Shadow Dragon and set up traps. I had 8 set up and ready to go. But then I made the mistake of casting a summoning spell and all hell broke loose, AND, my traps didn't go off because the Shadow Dragon still had the blue circle. I got up close and wailed on him with normal weaps (the dragon wasn't casting protections!) to get the red circle. The traps went, and Thaxl went to Badly Injured. Then the unthinkable: a wing beat.

Knocked 5 of my chars into Greater Malison and left only Nalia standing unhurt. I used Nalia to Angzamar's Scorcher him and, the biggest surprise, it worked, got Thaxl to Near Death and Yoshimo got the killer with a bow!

All my chars only sustained minor wounds and cure light wounds spells were handed out.

Aramant · Post by **Aramant** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 3:37 pm

You can set up traps without making Firkraag turn hostile. In terms of spells, I'm surprised they worked against the shadow dragon, because of magic resistance. For Firkraag, he'll probably resist them, and he might be immune to the scorcher anyway, being a red dragon and all.

Your party should probably work, though. That was the party I had on my first run-through, except my character was a kensai. Anyway, I beat the dragon fine, and I'm not overly versed in tactics, so you should be able to.

Thrifalas · Post by **Thrifalas** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 6:21 pm

First of all, I don't remember running into anything harder than the Shadow Dragon in the underdark that you have to kill. I mean, Adalon, Lesser Demon Lord, the thingies guarding the Girdle of some Giant Strenght and that are thought, but you won't die by not killing them.

And for killing Firkraag... You do get some kind of dragonkiller weapon before you fight him, and if I recall correctly I was almost able to solo Firkraag with a fighter/thief around lvl15. Traps works wonders against him, and by cheesing around and luring him upstairs and downstairs, resting and laying traps you can easily get him killed, if he hadn't had that healing-spell that messed it all upp.

I had about as much problems with the Shadowdragon as I had with Firkraag, he isn't really that though. And, in case everything else fails, why not lower resistances and finger of death? ^^

If you want a real challenge, try killing the greater werewolf that you meet before him. I swear, I was able to solo the Ravager, Melissan, Irenicus, every dragon and demon in the game, Demogorgon, but not that werewolf. He just couldn't drop to injured. I think my game was bugged.

SP101 · Post by **SP101** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 6:24 pm

[QUOTE=Thrifalas]If you want a real challenge, try killing the greater werewolf that you meet before him. I swear, I was able to solo the Ravager, Melissan, Irenicus, every dragon and demon in the game, Demogorgon, but not that werewolf. He just couldn't drop to injured. I think my game was bugged.

[/QUOTE]

That's called regeneration... INSANE one it is...

Thrifalas · Post by **Thrifalas** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 6:31 pm

Tell me about it. I thought that they regenerated like 3 hp each second, but I'm sure I dealt more than 15 each second, still I couldn't even wound him. Had to stick him to the ground with Short sword of Mask and then run away. Stealthing worked as well, but I mean... come on. He can't possibly be supposed to be harder than Firkraag. ^^

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:23 pm

At least a single character has no chance to bring a greater wolfwere down by physical means without employing Greater Whirlwind imho. Tried it with 7/2 attacks, +4 weapon and a THACO <0, no go.

Morcarack · Post by **Morcarack** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:28 pm

That entire dungeon had some spooky stuff. Personally, the hardest battle I had was the 5 (?) Vampires. They kept dominating my players and I had to reload a lot. Eventually I lured them in 1 or 2 to the trap line I had set up near where the first two Stone Golems were after the Orc Archers.

As for the Greater Wolfwere, I had no idea what I did. I just kept wailing him with all six of my chars and he just dropped dead. (My main char had the honor of the killer) The Addy Golem was one fun battle: When he got stuck in the passage, Minsc just soloed him.

Well, I'll take my chances with Firkraag again. Perhaps Feeblemind and Slay Living ... Eh, I'm just musing. I'll go get him

~Morc.

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 12:39 am

As for whether the spells work, just cast the spell lower resistance on him, as that takes it down.

A cheese lower resistance spell is the spell that is supposed to help ally (cannot remember the name), because he is blue, and he has high resist, when you cast the spell on the dragon, it takes his resist down without him hating you.

Aramant · Post by **Aramant** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 12:58 am

[QUOTE=dj_venom]A cheese lower resistance spell is the spell that is supposed to help allie (cannot remember the name), because he is blue, and he has high resist, when you cast the spell on the dragon, it takes his resist down without him hating you.[/QUOTE]

That would just be casting a regular Magic Resistance spell. The theory is that casting your own Magic Resistance on him will lower his, because the resistance level from yours will be less than his, but will still remove his and add yours.

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 3:30 am

Yeah, that was the spell I was talking about. It lowers the resistance because his is naturally higher, thanks Aramant

Astafas · Post by **Astafas** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 7:30 am

Plenty of standard Magic Missiles (some will get through) and lots of pounding will do the trick against both the Greater Werewolf and Firkraag (make sure to buff with spells that protect you from fire). The Shield of Hamony comes in handy when facing all the vampires.

Devilock · Post by **Devilock** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 9:04 am

My Kensai/Thief insta-killed the Greater Werewolves with a backstab, but I only took on Firkraag after I did the Underdark...

greg28j · Post by **greg28j** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:59 am

the reason that ONLY the werewolf in windspear is near impossible to kill has to do with a well known bug that stacks his regen with itself every time you reloaded the game.Wiemer has a bug fix for it.....just think,you thought it was cuz your fighters were a sissy.LOL

Thrifalas · Post by **Thrifalas** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 9:07 pm

Not really, I kinda figured that it was a bug there since... it was sick. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Dedigan · Post by **Dedigan** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 5:05 am

I had two methods in my last game for the two dragons.
I was relatively low level when I met the shadow dragon (Thax). So I used cheese. I cast lower resistance with three mages (Nalia, Imoen, Kelsey). Then I cast feeblemind. All Thax could do was stand and get beaten down.

I was a higher level on Firkraag, but my strategy wasn't completely different. First I cast lower resist, then I used spell triggers loaded with magic missles or other damage spells. That was an even quicker fight than Thax. By then my fighter (Minsc) and my priest (main character) had 100% fire resistance as well. Jahiera cast only an insect swarm, which worked wonders against Firkraag casting spells.

I don't know why, but I didn't have a problem with the greater wolfwere.

Thrifalas · Post by **Thrifalas** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 5:14 am

You had Imoen, which means that you had gone through the whole asylum/underdark-stuff and you're still "relatively low level"?

Or did you use some patch?

Aramant · Post by **Aramant** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 5:19 am

It's possible that he glossed over the side quests before going through Brynnlaw et cetera.

Morcarack · Post by **Morcarack** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:18 am

In a stunning killing spree (about 16 hours after I beat Thaxl) I "hit" the Kangster, Shangy and his "friends", and Firkraag in under 1 hour. (real life time)

Kang was easy; I had Jahiera use a Prot. Magic scroll, stood her next to the Kangster's Demi-Lich form with the Staff of Rhynn+4, and had Aerie beat the hell out of him with Melf's Minute Meteors. I believe the Staff Of Rhynn didn't do much because I counted Jahiera's damage total against Kangaxx and found a 4. Aerie did the beating, (and the kill shot!!

) and I only had 2 meteors left. Lucky me, just in the nick of time.

(I only had 3 Meteor spells)

Shangy and his friends were a long, but overall, not very hard battle. I positioned all my chars who could do ranged attacks on the left/north (in 1st person/3rd person perspective) wall, hid my main character behind them, set up some traps, and had Jahiera (under my second and last Prot. Magic) walk in to the big room. Shangy did his thing, then teleported straight into my traps and instantly died while Jahiera retreated back into the small room. Because of the position of my chars, only the vampire and fighter could see and come after me, so I toasted them with Angzamar's Scorcher (I love this spell!) and Magic Missile. (this one too

)

Then Jahiera walked into the main room and started meleeing Vaxall the Beholder. He used only Magic attacks, so he would be toast, but before I could get Vaxall past "Barely Injured", Layene the mage Time Stopped and did Meteor Swarm + Gate. That was exactly what I was hoping for. The Pit Fiend got nearly instantly killed my all the Meteors, AND, Vaxall went to Near Death. I finished Vaxall and ran Jahiera into Layene. Again, all magic meant Jahiera didn't get a scratch while my ranged attack characters wailed on her till she died.

I had some great gear about now. I gave Minsc the Ring of Gaxx and Nalia got the Staff Of The Magi and then I went for Firkraag.

Traps, traps, traps. Had Firkraag to Badly Injured straight away and Angzamar's Scorchered and Magic Missiled him (Seriously: best spells in the game) till he died. Or, well, nearly. He knocked everyone but Minsc (who was Berserking with Dragonbane +3) and Yoshimo (Save) into Greater Malison, and Minsc just beat him up while Yoshimo got the kill shot.

Lol, because of the traps and luck, Yoshimo got Thaxl, Firkraag, AND Shangalar while Aerie had Kangaxx to her name. Amazing stuff.

And in the last two days I've been doing ALL the quests. Really. All. There's nothing left for me to do 'cept kill Bodhi and get to Spellhold.

*Sigh* I hope I'm up for it. I have a Lvl 16 Swashbuckler, Lvl 11 Fighter/Lvl 13 Druid Jahiera, Lvl 13 Minsc, Lvl 16 Yoshimo, Lvl 11 Cleric/Lvl 13 Mage (I think) Aerie and Lvl 12 Nalia. And away I got to Spellhold! (Eh, gotta kill Bodhi first. THEN to Spellhold.)

Aramant · Post by **Aramant** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:41 am

[QUOTE=Morcarack]In a stunning killing spree...[/QUOTE]

I have nothing to add to this thread except to say the above made me giggle uncontrollably. Well, rather the above and the excess of caffeine in my system and my lack of sleep. But still, there was giggling.

mbz · Post by **mbz** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 11:01 am

I remember how I killed shangy when I soloed with a sorceror. I could only cast 7th level spells at that time. I casted Project Image(multiple times) and Wizard Eye, and filled the ares where the allies would show up with skull traps(arround 4 for each spot). After Shangy's allies showed up, whamp!...they are all gone in a second. I kiled shangy himself from Incendiary clouds and Abi Dalzims (casted from scrolls). He couldn't even cast a spell.

The only bad thing is that skulls trap kills from Project Images don't give me experience. anyways, i got the staff and that was more than enough.