Of dragons (Possibly Spoilers)

[Anara]

I was reading through the Icewind Dale trilogy to sort of prepare for playing these games (among other Forgotten Realms literature). I came upon this notion of dragons by Drizzt Do’Urden (whom we all know, I suppose). Although this concerns the Icewind Dale areas more, I think it’s reasonable to post it here instead, because of the larger confrontations with dragons.

Anyway here is the passage:

“I pray that the world never runs out of dragons. I say that in all sincerity, though I have played a part in the death of one great wyrm. For the dragon is the quintessential enemy, the greatest foe, the unconquerable epitome of devastation. The dragon, above all other creatures, even the demons and the devils, revokes images of dark grandeur, of the greatest beast curled asleep on the greatest treasure hoard.

They are the ultimate test of the hero and the ultimate fright of the child. They are older than the elves and more akin to the earth than the dwarves. The great dragons are the prenatural beast. The basic element of the beast, that darkest path of our imagination…

…no, I would not want to live in a world without dragons, as I would not want to live in a world without magic, for that is a world without mystery, and that is a world without faith. And that, I fear, for any reasoning, conscious being, would be cruellest trick of all.”

Now, my question is this; I still remember the sense of accomplishment I had when I first conquered a dragon in Shadows of Amn. If I recall correctly it was the shadow dragon in the Temple Dungeon, Umar Hills. It was more, I feel, than the mere gameplay challenge of beating a dragon. Sure, there have been other great challenges along the way in this regard. For instance, how to counter that damned Psionic Blast from the Mind Flayers, the level drain of Vampires, and so on.
But it never quite amounted to the epic task of being a dragon slayer.

Well, perhaps hunting down and killing Irenicus has the same quality to it, but that was personal!

What do you guys feel of your encounters with the dragons; does it have the same sort of mythological, if you will, meaning to it. Or do other encounters in the game retain the same sort of epic quality to it?

With regards,

Anara.

[kmonster]

There's nothing epic in BG2's dragon encounters, they are just standard cannon fodder. You just need a mage with a few low level spells to wipe the floor with them.

[Anara]

I agree to a certain extend: but I did not know the gameplay encounters for dragons (or other certain monster types, e.g. vampires, Beholders, Ilithids, and so forth) the first time around. They do lose some of their reputation after a while, I guess.

[AvatarOfLight]

For Shadows of Amn I think your level when facing dragons is pretty important. If you wait until you've returned with Imoen you won't have much of a challenge.

The first dragon I slew was Firkraag and it truly felt epic. Looking back I see I was a lot younger, had no idea of tactics and pretty much brute forced him down.

Despite the tedium of being a mage, fighting Onyxia the first few times in World of Warcraft is truly epic dragon slaying.

[Anara]

Thank you for your response!

My first encounter with dragons in Shadows of Amn is actually quite similar to yours. I know I mentioned the shadow dragon in an earlier post, but it was actually Firkraag I thought of while writing the post. He's clearly more memorable than some of the other ones; perhaps you sort of have a history with him (or Gorion and the Harpers had), and the quest involving him is somewhat longer, than the shadow one (or the black one).

And yet, as you also found out, if you meet him later on in the game (say, chapter 6), you'll be quite amazed by how quickly he'll go down. At least compared to the very first time you encountered him, as you mentioned.

If I recall correctly, the first time I met him, after I rescued the Windspear kid, I withdrew quietly... ...after a couple of attempts, of course. He gave me quite a lesson, back then...

[Nightmare]

Trying to kill Firkraag with a party of level 9 characters took hours in my first run through. When it finally happened, half my characters needed resurrection and one, Minsc, was killed beyond resurrection. Since it was the first time I'd killed it and didn't want to try again for hours, I just kept playing.

Sadly, this first playthrough later got bugged and unfinishable, but the Firkraag battle is always one I do at low levels to try and recreate the challenge.

[wise grimwald]

Now I know what I've been doing wrong when fighting dragons! I have obviously been trying to kill them too early as quite often they have wiped the floor with me. Or have I? Perhaps taking them on early is what has made them such a challenge and hence more enjoyable. I remember the first time I beat the shadow dragon. I had fought it, run away, healed the party and come back to fight it again. It was still difficult, and what a sense of satisfaction when it finally died! I was a bit disapointed with the dragon in the Saerileth mod. It was way too easy so long as you used your brain.

[Claudius]

I think if you have 2 mages a divine caster and a scroll of lower resist which you use after the divine caster casts magic resistance (setting the resistance low) you do ok. Next greater Malison/doom and minor sequencers filled with spook :laugh:

[Dummy]

so im back after a long time

as always, i think bg was or is to easy designed, even with some nice mods its usually easy if u know how the game works.

ofc there are super hard mods, but i play the pnp D&D and when i know what can be i think its kind of ridiculous what they did to the game in order to create challenge, the most fun of this game, impov comes from the very well written story and unique conversations in the game