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Does anyone out there have any advice for defeating the red dragon in the fire giants area. I've tried about a dozen times and the whole party gets wiped out. I'm a 16 lvl paladin with the usual party members. Any ideas, I really want that holy avenger.

Dunno the answer to your question, but I will ask that you please include a spoiler for in game specifics such as area's or quests.

Send one of your casters away from the battlefield -as far as possible (and turn on puppet mode before they run back). Then have Qara/Sand cast many (greater)missilestorms while the others bash in on the Dragon at close ranger. She won't come after your caster.

If you can, cast some ban magic spells.

There's a number of topics dealing with this fight, since it is one of the hardest. Search this board for dragon

I had no porblems with this dragon. All I did was cast the highest level summon that qara has to tank for us then khelgar and char ran at the back of the dragon to slash away while Qara was pumping missile storm after missile storm at the dragon. Same strategy I used to defeat the dragons in Nolalath

Some tips (Spoliers)

Some of this may be obvious, but bears repeating.

Don't waste time or spell slots on spells that cause fire damage - they won't work. Assume that any saves that the dragon can make, it will make; so the instant death and Bigby-type spells won't do any good. Swap out weapons that do fire damage for those with other types of elemental damages.

Be sure that all characters that can cast Energy Immunity - Fire do so. I was only able to cast the spell on the caster, even though it is supposed to be a touch spell. This may affect your choice of who to put in your party, as Sand can not cast this spell (but sure can cast a lot of Missile Storms).

Perhaps a scroll of Energy Immunity might work, but Sand is my only player who can scribe scrolls, and he doesn't have the spell. You might find one, or be able to buy one somewhere.

Don't forget the usual buffs like Greater Stoneskin, and summoning creatures both can help in the battle by distracting the dragon and inflict some damage on their own (such as a Vampire Warlock). Sometimes, I enlarge Khelgar just to have fun watching a giant Khelgar go into battle with the dragon.

The dragon has a lot of buffs; including powerful regeneration. If someone has Mordenkainen's Disjunction, start there. If not, cast Greater Dispel Magic.

Because of the regeneration, the speed that damage can be delivered is important. This is not an opponent that can be taken down slowly. So, as quickened spells can be cast in the same round as a regular spell, it is helpful to have any spellcasters who have the feat to memorize some quickened spells in addition to the regular variety. That effectively allows two attack spells to be cast per round, helping to offset the regeneration.

Zhjaeve can be an asset in this battle; she can cast Energy Immunity, Summon Greater Undead, has some decent offensive spells, and run around resurrecting fallen comrades. Resurrection brings characters back with full HP, so it can more advantageous than trying to cast Heal spells round after round. Having Sand blast two Missle Storms a round (first a quickened Lesser then cast a regular Greater) until his stoneskin wears out, and then having Zhjaeve resurrect him can be a good strategy.

Qara's AI is poor. Left to her own devices, she will cast Bigby's Grasping Hand over and over, failing each time. Either put her in puppet mode, or don't bring her. You can control the spells that Sand memorizes, so his AI is less of a problem.

Elanee can cast Energy Immunity, summon a horde of Elementals, buff herself with Stoneskin and then Tortoise Shell and even do a decent job with a longsword if all else fails. She's not a bad choice for your party.

Also, bear in mind that - until the last few scenes - the dragon isn't going anywhere. You may want to level up your characters, learn some additional spells, have Khelgar recover the Hammer of Ironfist (if you left him as a fighter), or have your main character re-form the Silver Sword of Gith. These two weapons may turn the tide in your favor.

Death of a Thousand Cuts

I tried to kill Tholapsyx many, many times, using the advice in this thread as best I could. The time I had success and killed her was very odd. You could not plan or carry it out, it just has to happen!

I armed Khelgar with his greatly craftsmanly enhanced Dwarven Waraxe and a spell-resistance shield and ran him around behind the dragon. I had my main character cast Shining Shield. I ran Sand to Tholapsyx's rear right flank where I had him shower the dragon with Missle Storms and everything else that looked good, and that kept me from seeing what was going on in front of the dragon.

After awhile I could see that the main characters were doing OK healthwise but that the dragon was Badly Wounded. I selected a character that was out front of the dragon (Casavir) and had him Smite Evil. She died! I had almost given up hope of ever seeing that, although many years of NWN play has taught me perseverance wins ...

I then had the leisure to read the log. What happened! Tholapsyx spent the battle being distracted, first by an Elder Elemental summons, then by the pets and Mordenkienin's Sword! She kept being nibbled at and swatting at, and mostly missing, Naloch, Sand's cat Jaral, and my Wizard character's bat! Mordenkienin's Sword was healed by someone and kept on cutting, but the dragon never healed herself!

A lot of stuff was hurled at her by Elanee, Sand, my Wizard character, etc. but I did not see any really large damage. Death of a thousand cuts! Hail to AI, that brought me victory!

Some few more advice...

The Energy Immunity is very essential, hence you have to maximize the number of characters you can cast it with.

The Gith's Blade Barrier makes sure that the dragon gets continued damage.

I also used Ammon's eldritch spear continuously for good measure.

Of course, these complement the other suggestions of buffing up your frontliners and raining missile storms and monster summons.

All i remember is that I killed the dragon in the fire giant area too(killed the giants too in the same battle).First time we failed(main char was a drow mage) so I went out of the cave and memorized just strong AE spells(and everything with frost damage can be useful too).The second try was a success.

What is important is that you should let the giants tank the dragon(and keep your melee characters close to you like Khelgar so they wont get hurt by your strong AE spells).After you run out of AE spells(the giants should be dead already) send in the melee chars and spam your healing/single target damage spells(you should have enough healing power to keep the melee alive unti the dragon dies if you dont waste them earlier).

You could get the giants to help with the dragon? Hmm that would've been much easier :laugh:

I got through the fight with 2 healers, 2 tanks, with tank-switching every time the damage taken was too great.

Everyone can act as a tank in this fight. Warriors & co are health-deposits, mediocre AC but can take a lot hits to the face, monks, rogues & co can have very high AC, and rarely be hit at all, but lower health makes it trickier, mages are very tricky due to incredibly low health, but defensive spells can make them the best tanks avaliable.

My first setup was Monk, Khelgar (not a monk yet), The geth chick and Elanee iirc.

The second time the party was Sorcerer, Neeshka (had to boost her dex by quite a bit), geth chick and Elanee. It was easier than with monk and Khelgar, but i had to really stay on my toes and watch the spells closely. Neeshka died at least once.

If you have a mage than summons can be either tanks or dps on their own.

The most important thing to remember is to minimalise the amount of people that receive damage (and thus have to be healed) by fire resistance buffs, spreading out, keeping distance, and tank switching.
It's also important to remember that the fight can very easily go very wrong. Two critical hits in a row by the dragon, and you're knee-deep in ****. Take it slowly, and use potions to aid the healers.

Edit : Yeah, what i mean to say is that i turtled up through the fight