Ok, that dragon is raping my fighters.

I have a lvl 14 Fighter
lvl 14 Battleguard of Tempus
lvl 15 Barbarian

Protected from evil, acid, fire. Hasted, Recitationed, bull strenghed, iron skinned, stoneskinned.

My tempus guy has 33 in AC and he is getting PLOWED by that dragon. No matter how much AC I seem to crank up that dragon almost never misses.

I turned off power attack so my barb has over +25 for his main attack, he just KEEPS missing.

I even whipped out a Gelugon through the Gate spell, the poor demon got 1-shotted.

How do you beat him?

Skipping that boss is not an option.

Summons!!!
You need an AC of around 50 (don't remember exactly) to be somewhat protected. Otherwise you'll get killed fast.
So use summons to take the hits.

To damage the guardian I think you need +4 enhanced weapons (could be +3, don't remember).
If you have a high enough lvl arcane magician then use the mordenkainen sword (spelling??). It's a lvl 7 spell.

Try to have all your party members contribute during the whole combat.
Your cleric and barbarian get an additional attack per round when they reach the next level, level 15 and 16 also yield a feat and stat raise, so if you manage to gather some XP first the battle will be easier.
You can delay this battle, you can return and summon the guardian later when you are somewhat more experienced and better equipped.

In BG2 the trick was to bomb dragons with Lower resists and Spell triggers jam packed with magic missiles but I found neither spell in IWD2.

I guess I'll have to come back later.

By the way, how do I go back to the Ice temple battle square? I didn't see the option on Oswald at the end of Chapter 4.

IMHO I find dragons in BG easier to kill than dragons in IWD.

Killing that chunk of dragon meat is tough, I always get creamed myself XD

But I found an easier way to kill it, a "cheat" if you will... only it's not the console type.

I got it stuck on a stele ;P and spammed it with +5 bolts and arrows (if you have 'em) and drowned it with magic missiles and mordenkainen's force missiles until it died :evil:

Sounds cheesy? You betcha :banana:
I wouldn't have killed it any other way

Well, I use that "cheat" sometimes myself because it pisses me off so much how monsters will run past your fighters and won't leave your casters alone.

In Pen and Paper DnD that would NEVER happen because said monsters would get mowed by attacks of opportunity.

By the way, I came back to Kuldahar. I wiped out that army without getting hit once. I actually had more hit points at the end of the fight.

What I meant about "cheat" was getting the old guy stuck on a stele (which is quite tricky), that way he never had a chance to harm my characters, I got out of there unscathed... literally

I have to asume that is not a HoF game.
If you don´t have more than 3 magic weapons with your front liners(+3 weapon ench. I think) you have to rely on your arcane spell casters.
I don´t remember correctly, but by this point of the game you should have the "reduce resistance" spell.
Use it wisely against the MF dragon and only then (if you have 2 spell casters, the better) your "always reliable" LEVEL 1 MAGIC MISSILE will damage him.
Repeat until dead.

You have (up to) three other characters you haven't mentioned. Hopefully one of them has Disintegrate, and another has Static Charge and Call Lightning.

Disintegrate won't kill the Guardian, but it does a lot of damage.

Krowser, what's your entire party? Is it only those 3 characters listed in the first post? It's hard to know what tactics to use without knowing the entire party composition.

Summons are nice to use, but against the patched IWD2 dragon, you can't use only the summons in melee. The Dragon will simply teleport to the nearest party member.

Electrical based spells do very well against this dragon. Chain Lightning and Call Lightning are great spells to use against it.

IIRC, Disintegration *will* work against this dragon ... IF you have sufficiently lowered its magic resistance and get a little lucky. Mord's Sword is a solid spell to use against the dragon, if you happen to have it.

For summons, I tend to like undead summons. The best way to protect your tanks from getting hit is to provide the dragon with some cannon fodder summons to hopefully take a few hits.

ALways have LOTS of Remove/Resist Fear spells available, as well as lots of Heal spells. Personally, I like to keep my cleric well out of melee against this nasty dragon, so that he won't get Fear'ed and will be available to cast those Remove Fear and Heal spells. Also, when you have a warrior who is desperately in need of a Heal, retreat back to the cleric, rather than have the cleric come to him. In the time that it takes for the cleric to get to your wounded warrior, the dragon might get in a killing blow. OTOH, if you retreat out of melee, you are hopefully staying of reach of the dragon's claws. (Of course, you could still get killed by its acid breath, but that's the risk you'll just have to take.)


Oh, and Mass Haste is very much your "friend" in this battle!

I think powergaming is dumb (honestly, how can a fighter with 3 intelligence even WEILD a sword. By DnD rules a Golden Retreiver has 3 intelligence.)

Barbarian
Fighter
Tempus Guard
Bane Priest
Rogue
Wizard

I'm very short on lightning I'm afraid. My bane priest has mostly crowd control spells such as Dominate and command. I never found a lower resist scroll :( .

Krowser, you're preaching to the choir about characters with INT 3's. ;)

Hmmm. Depending on what spells your Wizzy actually has, this could be a challenge.

If your rogue is hanging back and using some sort of archer, use your best ammo (duh). Otherwise, you may want to use him as another tank, particularly if you have to pull back your fighter or barbarian for healing.

Your Banite priest probably is going to more about buffing and hanging back to be the party medic and Remove Fear specialist. I suppose that he could also be ready to summon additional cannon fodder as needed.

I'd guess that you will probably want your Tempus battleguard in melee. Be certain to have him all buffed up, with things like Champion's Strength and Holy Power, and Prayer, etc.

As I said before, Mass Haste (cast AFTER you've summon all of your initial summons) is a must cast buff for this battle.

This is definitely a maximum effort, maximum buffing battle. This dragon may be the single toughest battle in the entire game.

However, don't worry too much. I've heard of others who had much "weaker" parties than yours who had difficulty with the dragon, but eventually managed. And your party really isn't all that weak a party mix in the greater scheme of things. A party with 2 full-blooded tanks, a rogue, 2 priests, and a wizard should be able to handle this dragon.

Did you get that throwing axe in battle squares? It does a good amount of damage to the Guardian and if you stick a lot of summons between you and him you should get quite a few good licks in.

Since you'll be using a lot of weapons, a simple innate Drow ability (if you have a Drow) is Faerie Fire. I find this to be pretty useful.

My wizard is a bomber. All damage except for the occasional gizmo spell. I tried Otiluk's resilient sphere but the dragon isin't a dumbass so I ended up locking my battleguard for a minute.

I doubt my rogue has enough hp to stand more than 3 hits. Hes an archer ayway.

I knew the banite would be Cpt. Buffmaster, thats ok.

The battleguard is melee of course.

I used mass haste and I muste say its a very powerful buff. My party was only at 2/3 hp when I started that fight, with missing spells and all even though I gave over 4 buffs to everyone. So i went back to Kuld and even though I didn't expect that welcoming party I mowed them down without getting hit once.

I'm at Dragon's eye right now.

By the way, did you know what Priestess Isabella (or whatever, the one that greets you over the trapped bridge) has unlimited stinking clouds?

I was using my rogue to take off the traps and she SPAMMED stinking clouds on him until he rolled a 20 on his fort and was able to gtfo.

As for the battle square I never got passed lvl 3 because for some reason I kept spawning cyclops and some ridiculous demon who's name I can't recall.

Can I go back?

You can't go back to BS after you left for kuldahar with oswalds balloon.
Do you still have the collar (with immunity to fear) from the attack in the prologue? Put that on the cleric that has remove fear spells. That way you don't have to be too careful with him.

Buff you wizard with mirror image, stone skin, fire shield blue, fire shield red, death armor. The dragon will soon kill itself.

Whats death armor?

Death Armor's a level 2 necromancy mage spell that's similar to the fire shield spells. For the most part, it's not particularly strong and probably useful only for mages who intend to be anywhere near melee.

The guardian has +30 attack bonus, just checked it yesterday. So, AC in the low 30's won't help you the least, try getting upper 40's at least. You most definitely don't need to powergame the least to get to that...

Still old, but need to add my bit =P

You're missing a vital component here(it might of been mentioned but I could of missed it), but you're gonna need....STONESKIN! This will suck up 10 points of damage per hit to a cap of 150. That is a lot of pain saved my man. Hasting as mentioned before is good. Using Resist Acid and Elemental Barrier is a must for negating Acid Damage. Though I had a Lvl 14 Aasimar Paladin with Fiendslayer(Five Acid Resist for race and then +1 to Hit and Damage from Fiendslayer) along with Heroic Inspiration for with he was at 50% or less another +1 to Hit and Damage(and saves). Buff the hells out of your fighters and send them in, positions them before you use the broken...totem thingy. And be sure that when he is near death, you have everyone surround him as you get 12 HP and 5 Acid Resist for killing him ;) .

Hope this isn't too old and helps!

Just a bit of advice,I tried the tactic to run into the temple to heal and return to fight the dragon afresh,but it heals also,so no point,so you can not run away and chip at it until dead,as you have to start all over again!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I think it is the 'reload' area trigger that does it....????

As odd as it sounds, your party's WIZARD actually has the best chances to tank the reptile. Just buff him with Mirror Image (!!!), remember to add Blur and Fireshield (both of them) for extra safety. Keep refreshing your images and hack it to pieces with the rest of your party.

Even the normal mode version of the dragon does just way too much damage on a conventional tank - unless you can get that Armor Class in the upper 40's, that is. He does, what, close to 100 damage PER COMBAT ROUND if he hits with every swing?

Mordy's Sword will take him down fairly easily. Just make sure he is busy chasing your other guys...

"He who runs away gets to scream another day...!" Had to learn it the hard way. Heh,killed the dragon with disitergrate after lower resitance spell.

Darligs, nobody ever believes this but all you need to do is stand on the platform in front of the portal and keep throwing disintergrate at it.

If this doesn'twork (it's not 100%) then move all your party away, improved invisibility on your wizard and keep theguardian in a fiery cloud.

My dears, don't over-complicate things

xxx

If this doesn'twork (it's not 100%) then move all your party away, improved invisibility on your wizard and keep theguardian in a fiery cloud.

My dears, don't over-complicate things

xxx

Smell the cheese? At least fight it fair and square, be it magic or weaponry. Otherwise, just slaughter the temple, if you can't tackle lizard-face.

sweetie, it's not about playing fair, it's about killing the damn thing. Don't be so romantic, it's a game

Powergaming is one thing, ruining the flavor of battle is another. Past all the roleplaying, IWD 2 is a combat game. But using tactics like Animate Dead army, song stacking, Improved Invisibility attacks, or Otiluke's Resilient Sphere repeatedly destroys all the fun in fighting anything. After all, if you're gonna win no matter what, its kinda pointless to play. Even powergaming parties have margin for failure, and require decent tactics, so it doesn't kill the fun.