I need some tips on taking out dragons. I was playing with a fighter/cleric and met both the shadow dragon and firkraag. I didn't attack the shadow dragon the first time cos quite frankly he scare the Sh*t out of me. When I met Firkraag I thought I'd give it a go and frankly got my ass royaly kicked a dozen time over, I think I managed to cast a couple of magic missiles and made a few hits with my tanks before everyone split. Does anyone have any tips on taking the dragons out? I've just restarted the game as an elven sorceror so if anyone got tips on spells that might work or what kind of level my guys should be when I take them out than that would be helpfull. Thanks in advance.

You can find very good information in guides like "SoA & ToB Tactics" and "The Big Book of (Almost) Everything", both found in in this page (http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/index_tips.php) of the BG2 part of the "Games" section of the site.

It also depends on whether you are playing solo or with a party and your preferences. With a mage in the party, I prefer using disabling and save-or-else spells like Feeblemind or Polymorph and then hack the disabled dragon to pieces. Or Desintegrate and Flesh to Stone (although these two will make the loot disappear, mind you). I don't consider credible defeating a dragon in normal melee combat, even with spell buffs.

Well, the clue about dragons is that you wanna kill them before they kill you(doh) in order to do this I find it fundamental that you protect yourself against they're breath attack, Firkraag: fire shadow: acid etc in order to survive a couple of rounds (especially your spellcasters will have trouble surviving without prot.) 4th lvl priest spell prot from fire grants a whooping 80% fire res.

If you still have problems surviving use summons to draw attention and always remember to spread your party so they dont all get hit by breath attack.

Now to killing them there are many ways, but here's a good one that doesn't require you being high level. Just put 3x lower res in a spell trigger and 2x magic missle in a minor sequencer (if u have a backup mage make him do this to) . then fire 3x lower res on him and 4x magic missle in the first round, u got them at badly wounded already, just follow up with more missles and they probably go down by round 2 (depends on what dragon ur facing ofcourse, but this works for most dragons in SoA)

That depends on many things!
For example on what your main forces are!
Weaponry, magic or combined!
"eatmyshorts" explained you how the Dragon can be defeated by magical forces.
But i will try to adwise you how to do it with weapon forces.But you will need a pair of magical users.A mage and a cleric/druid.
First cast the protection from their breath atacks such as Fire and Acid.That Depends on what kind of dragon are you going to fight.
Drink with your fighters and archers all maner of strenght encreasing potions.Try to increase your defending abiliteas with all possible ways.
Summon some help to atrack the Dragons attension on them for some time.
Give your archers the best arrows that you have. For axample Arrows of piercing.
Start a fight while he is neutral.
Before you unpause the game order your mage to cast protection from waepon removing spell.I think it's called breach or something.And then keep your mage ready at bay.Or dissapear.Appear when you will need to cast somthing.Because you will need to cast breach twice if my memory surves me correct!!
Your fighter will need some healing potions also!

For a lot of dragons, they kind of ignore you for a while, for whatever reason they may have. This is a good time to set a few traps around them (though I'm not sure if regular traps will hurt them, give it a shot!) those who feel this is unrealistic, bear in mind that you have mystic protection from being seen by the Shadow Dragon and that thieves do things by stealth anyhow.

I often buff the tar out of a tank and have him get the first few shots in, you want lots of summoned help to distract the dragons too. Don't let too many of your characters get too close to the dragon -- keep your mages especially out of the way. A really good tank helps a lot, and depending on how many spellcasters you have, you can have one focus on summoning more creatures and another focus on lowering resistance and removing spell protections. I find that it's best to wait until you are higher level to deal with a dragon -- in both Firkraag's case and the Shadow Dragon, you have the chance to come back and deal with them later, when you are more experienced, and have better equpiment.

Great tips so far. Here's what I do when I have a mage and some warriors.

Haste or Improved Haste on my warriors, and Resist Fear. Surround the dragon evenly to prevent your entire party from being disabled by the wing buffet. Keep spellcasters in the back, spaced out as far as possible Spell Trigger w/ 3X Lower Resist is my first attack, followed by Greater Malison in a Spell Sequencer and Doom (if someone else can cast it). Breach as needed and cast whatever offensive spells you like. I've never had much trouble with the breath attacks, but some extra buffs before the battle should keep you safe.

If you don't have Spell Trigger, just cast two Lower Resists. In my games summons seem to make the dragon hostile as soon as he sees them, and he just Death Spells them. Keeping them out of sight and sending them in later works and makes the dragon waste time with the Death Spell.

I just use resist fear, bless, prot. from evil, haste, defensive harmony. I use stoneskin on my magic-users and drink potions of fire/frost/storm giant strength for your fighters. Have thiefs using a bow and arrows of piercing. Summon what you can, for me it is usually a simulacrum via vailor's helm, a fire elemental, and an efreeti from the bottle. At that point I have everyone attack, with the magic users casting magic missles. Also, I use breach right away since he puts up a stoneskin. I never need spell triggers or sequencers or anything, just beat him to death with weapons.

Yeah, I prefer an ole-fashioned beatdown also :D . I use the Lower Resists, GM, and Doom as insurance in case things go south. For example, in my last battle with Saladrex he decided to pick on my sorc instead of my tanks. Bad news for him because she had a Chain Contingency set at 50% HP loaded with Horrid Wiltings. The spell preparations made those mortally painful :evil: .

You can easily beat the Shadow Dragon at level 8-9. Just make sure you've got lots of Breach spells memorized. And if you really want to make it easy, lower his resistance.

Firkraag isn't much different, just more powerful. If you lower his resistance and get him to concentrate all his attacks on one well-protected character then you're laughing. Breach as necessary.

Haste or Improved Haste on my warriors, and Resist Fear.Pretty much the best advice if you want a tank beatdown approach.

wizards are the way to take down dragons. for high level mages a dragon is easy. get your wizard to cast time stop and then cast improved alacrity(sp?) this combo in itself is pretty deadly but once you throw the robe of vecna into the picture things just get plain old ridiculous. the robe of vecna, timestop, improved alacrity then cast lower resistance several times followed by magic missiles and flame arrows and MAAs.

This is an incredibly cheesy way, but with the Shadow Dragon and Firkraag, they're not hostile until you attack. You can have a cleric cast Magic Resistance which, since their resistance is already over the max for the spell, DROPS their resistance to at most about 40% (much nicer than their normal) and doesn't make them hostile...yet. Then SAVE. Have a cleric move in close, cast Harm and pray you hit. It'll drop them down to 1 HP. After that, you can try having a fighter take down that last HP or (my favorite) have a mage cast Magic Missile. This works great for lower level parties looking for XP. You might have to reload several times, but it is SO sweet to see the 'high and mighty' Firkraag drop in a matter of seconds.

Cannon Fodder works well too. Summon some creatures, preferably higher level ones to distract the dragon while your tanks beat on it. Also it goes without saying that the dragon weapons are a bonus. This in combination with proper buffing spells and some good mage spells and it should be a walk in the park.

This only works for a Ranger PC (well, unless you use the cheat codes, that is). I found that summoning the Moon Dog (and casting Haste) using the stronghold gift, rushing it up to Firkraag and/or Thax and triggering the Moon Dog Howl ability is amazingly effective. A dragon that's running around helpless with fear seems strange, but it makes the job extremely easy (so long as you box them in with your party).

Protection from acid is only marginally usefull when fighting the shadow dragon, seeing as the biggest problem comes from the level draining ability of his breath weapon. Negative plane protection is therefore essential!

I usually use summons in the first round of combat first one to offer to the death spell, then the rest to get in the first shots before getting wing buffed away. In the meantime have mages cast lower resistance in the first round (right after the death spell, to gain initiative), and breach in the second (to get rid of stoneskins). At some point the dragon will wing buffet almost al summons away, unless carefully spread out around him before combat. When that happens wait for the summons to pass your tanks and sent them in with the usuall buffs (cast before the battel of course). Usually you need another breach for the second stoneskins and protection from magical weapons (switch to normal!) but you should be able to take out the dragon with your fighters or mages in the next two to three rounds.

One last tip, for some reason lighting bolts (and probably other electrical attacks to) work amazingly well against dragons. I ofter finish them off with one and they rarely saved for half damage against them!

Interestingly enough I just soloed an Inquisitor and was able to hack him to bits no trouble, I hit almost every time, I think I was still using the sword of chaos +2 haha.