Defeating Dragons - Baldur's Gate II

This guide is a collection of strategies for defeating dragons in Baldur’s Gate II. These tips were provided by GameBanshee users.

Besting A Dragon With Magic

Fifth level mage spell called “lower resistance” is very handy for knocking out dragons. Casting breach magics followed by this spell (which can be cumulatively stacked) will leave a dragon open for the most basic of spells such as magic missle. Using this, all of the missles hit, especially if you cast “lower resistance” on the dragon more than once.

Submitted By: Wil

Weakness To Cloudkill

One easy way to defeat the red dragon is to get a Wand of Cloudkill, stand just outside his viewing area and fire 5 or 6 bursts. He is not totally immune and just drops dead after a minute or two!

Submitted By: Bo

Lower Resistance With No Save

I noticed you had posted strategies on the page and one person had said to use lower resistance. An easier and faster way that I use is the 5th ? level priest spell magic resistance. It gives 2% per level of the cleric and the target gets no save. It always takes the lower resistance. I always used Aerie since hers was never more than 28% magic resistance. Hope that helps.

Submitted By: SuperJ22

Sneaky Wizard Eye

This one will only work if you have a cleric of a high enough lvl in your party. This one works best on Lord Jierdan Firkraag (Red Dragon) since he cannot hit the monster that you have to summon, but with a little “trick”, this strat will also work fine against Thaxll’ssyllyia (Shadow Dragon). Here’s what you have to do: Talk to Firkraag and avoid the fight. Move out of his sight and summon a Wizard Eye. After that you have to cast protection from evil 10′. Then you take your wizard eye to fly to Firkraag and place it behind him. Then summon a Pit Fiend (lvl 7 Priest spell: Gate) behind or in front of the dragon. The Shadow fiend will attack the dragon no matter what, and the best of all is that Firkraag can’t hit him except with his mighty fireballs… Just before Firkraag falls you have to go in and kill him, the best way to do that is to use lower resistance and then fire Magic Missiles, Cromatic Orbs and Holy Smites (lvl 3 Priest spell, a very effective spell in my opinion) at him and he will be dead in seconds. You don’t have to do this, but if the Pit Fiend kills him, you won’t get any xp. After you have killed him, you can kill the Pit fiend, too and the best of all, you will get xp for him and he won’t attack you because of the protection from evil, very nice. Do the same with the Shadow Dragon, except of talking to him, you have to avoid him since he is very tough and can actually hit the Pit Fiend, happy Dragon killing. This should work against all the big monsters you have problems with.

Submitted By: Bordin Steelaxe

Traps!

You can use traps to kill dragons (ie set traps, sleep, set more traps etc) however I did notice that this would occasionally result in no experience points (bug??) for the kill, so one way around this is to set up only enough traps to get the dragon near death, then finish him off with a few magic missiles. I found that with Firkraag I needed around 9 or 10 traps and then one magic missile spell to kill him.

Submitted By: Jason

Point Your Finger

When I fought the black dragon in Suldenesselar I found that the dragon was rather susceptible to “Finger of Death” dying without a fight at all. Anomen just walked upto him (behind a couple of fire elementals to keep him busy) and cast “Finger of Death” on him.

Submitted By: Chris

Buy Yourself Some Time

Firkraag is not hostile once you’ve ended your talk with him, and if you have taken the amulet of Amuana, the Shadow Dragon won’t be hostile either when you get to him.

Then just cast whatever beneficial spells you think you need, and spread the characters you want to engage the Dragon in melee around him (directly next to him).

Pause the game once they’re in position, and select one of them, and click the Dragon as if you want to initiate a dialogue. Immediatly, without unpausing, select all your party members around him, and force-attack him.

The Dragon will wait for a dialogue to initiate, but that will never happen. All the while, you can hack away at the Dragon, without fearing his retribution. Do keep in mind though that eventually, he will respond to your attacks, and go hostile.

This will buy you quite some time at which you can attack him without fear of taking damage yourself.

Submitted By: Crovax (from a post by Maurice)

Protection From Fire

When battling Lord Jierdan Firekag, it really helped to have a protection from fire spell cast on Aerie…. then she is fairly safe in casting Lower Resistance and Vampiric Touch on the dragon (while he’s preoccupied with summoned critters etc.) She got 27 points of damage on him and guided him toward my line of traps and magic missile shooters, clinching his doom.

Submitted By: Paul

Holy Smite

When I first fought the Shadow Dragon at the Temple Ruins, I had my party slaughtered twice without touching him, so I tried a new strategy. I found that getting Anomen to cast the level 3 Cleric Spell “Holy Smite” took the Dragon down to “Near Death”, then my party made pretty short work of him… Mind you, he still managed to kill Yoshimo and Mazzy even in his weakened state. 🙂

Submitted By: Glen Grady

Feeblemind

Well, this tactic is really cheesy, but it works with any dragon who is willing to talk. (Has a blue circle) Feeblemind. Save the game beforehand, and just walk up and feeblemind it. You can try multiple times, as this does not cause them to go aggresive if it fails. If you have run out of feeblemind spells, just reload and try again. Once you get one to stick, just send everyone in with a melee weapon and hack the dragon to death. The Dragon will not even turn towards you. Bingo, dead dragon, no casualties to the party.

Submitted By: Sunbane

Quivering Palm

If you are using a monk and have a mage with you, just use “Lower Resistance” and have the monk use his Quivering Palm attack. That single punch will kill it. If not, just reload.

Submitted By: Tiongcl

Area-Effect Spells & Another Wizard Eye Use

I used 2 effective methods to kill the red dragon and the shadow dragon:

Position your party members at a position where the dragon can’t see them. Cast lotsa area effect spells (i.e. those that you don’t need a target): cloudkill, death fog, ice storm, fireball, holy smite, silence. True, the dragon may have magic resistance, but cloudkill, deathfog, ice storm lasts many rounds…so it will take some damage while you wait happily at one side. Then cast silence 15′ radius a few times (till the spell affects it) to prevent it from casting Heal on itself. Then cast instant lotsa offensive spells: holy smite, fireball…and the dragon is toast without even having a chance to speak to you.
Cast Wizard Eye and let it approach the dragon. The dragon will use its offensive abilities on the wizard eye, which is however immune to the attacks. Meanwhile, use arrow of piercing, bullets +2, magic missiles, insect plague and other offensive attacks on it. The dragon will be dead by the time the wizard eye spell wears off.

Method 2 does not work on shadow dragon because he will cast dispel magic on the wizard eye.

Submitted By: Sebastian C.

Disintegrate

I read all kinds of complicated ways to defeat the shadow dragon Thaxll’ssyllyia. But I just cast the ‘Disintegrate’ spell on it, and it immediately worked the first time. You can even do this while it is in the blue (neutral) mode, so no one needs to get hurt. You get the experience and the scroll for Crom Faeyr, but you don’t get the shadow dragon scales to forge into the shadow dragon armor.

Submitted By: Catpriest

Harm & Dragonslayer

All you need for this strategy are two medium/high level mages and a high level cleric armed with the Dragonslayer or high enchanted weapon.

Get the mages to throw in a few Lower Resistance spells, and then cast Harm on the dragon with your cleric. A succesfull Harm takes the dragon to 1 HP, and a followup hit with the Dragonslayer (or other weapon) should kill it.

Submitted By: Pariah of Valhalla

Lotsa Tactics

What you NEED:

It is desirable that your party(or at least the mage) is minimum 10th level when you approach your first dragon.
A good “tank” which means one (or more) fighter (or creatures) that will distract the dragon until the mage casts his spells.
A mage with knowledge of the following spells :
- Lower Resistance needed because all dragons have a high Magic Resistance (varies from 45% to 65%)
- Greater Malison so the dragon has less chance to save vs. your spells
- Feeblemind the best and the final part…if it succeeds you’ve got yourself a new toy of joy
- A summoning spell If you don’t have a good “tank” or are soloing,these poor creatures are used to distract the dragon until your mage cast his spells.I think any would do if the numbers are sufficient,but it seams Mordenkainen’s Sword it the best because it’s completely immune to physical damage.

Not necessary but helpful spells:

Spell Sequencer VERY helpful,because it let’s you cast 3 spells at once (best used with lower resistance)
(Minor)Spell Trigger similar as Spell Sequencer,but works with only spells up to (second) fourth level.If you have a Cleric/Mage in your party (i.e. Aerie) you can stack 2 or 3 Doom spels in a (Minor) Spell Sequencer,so using this strat,after the lower res,and with one Greater Malison,you can instantly lower a anyone’s saving throws by 14 !!!
Mordenkainen’s Sword use it to distract the dragon,place the sword exactly in front of the dragon so he’ll attack it and not cast spells
Project Image keeps your mage out of harm’s way and double’s his spells,way cool!!!
Breach to remove Stoneskin and similar stuff from the dragon but if you decide to Feeblemind him you don’t really need this because then he’ll be totally helpless
Finger of Death to use instead of Feeblemind=instant kill but you don’t get it until you finish Bodhi’s lair
Protection from… the mage versions of the protection spells last 1 turn/level,so you may want to protect your fighters from fire/acid/cold,depends on which dragon you’re up ageinst.
Polymorph other (Pun intended) My favorite! Turn that big ol’ mean dragon into a cute little squirly and then watch him fall to your wraith (BTW you still get ALL of the items the “late” dragon-squirrel carried)
Disintegrate can turn a mighty dragon to dust in mere seconds,but alas,most of the,oh so useful items,it carried are gone too

Other useful stuff:

Robe of Vecna for your mage,because it reduces his spell casting speed and grants him AC 5 and 15% Magic res.
Ilbratha a short sword that casts mirror image 1/day;remember don’t let your fighter weald it,just equipping it will do
Ras to be used instead of Mordenkainen’s Sword but it CAN be dispelled;the above rule also applies
Protection Scrolls can be purchased and used by anyone(I think?) and give you resistance or immunity to fire/acid/cold or even magic.

The Final Preparations:

If your mage has got a spell trigger you should prepare 3 lower res. spells,if not just memorize them.Also be sure to memorize at least 2 Feeblemind spells and 1 Greater Malison(cause they don’t stack).Summon up your creatures,then put them and your fighter’s in position,which means DON’T stack them all up right in front of the dragon,cause his first wing buffet is gonna blow them away,instead place some of the creatures/fighters behind or at the side of the dragon.If you’ve got Ilbratha,the short sword that casts mirror image,you can use it on your main tank so he’ll be really hard to hit.Cast all your helpful clerical spells on your fighters,i.e.. Remove Fear,Bless,Chant,Champion’s Strengths etc.You can also protect your fighters from fire/acid/cold (depending on which dragon you’re fighting) either by a cleric/mage spell or from a scroll.I think that Adalon and the Shadow dragon cast something like the Finger of Death,so you might want to prepare a couple of Death Wards before fighting them.If you’ve got Mordenkainen’s Sword or Ras,place it exactly in front of the dragon so he’ll attack it and not your fighters which you don’t need up front then.Then talk to the dragon so it’ll go hostile.

The Battle:

Ok, now comes the interesting part! While your fighters and/or creatures are keeping the dragon busy, depending on your mage’s level you may need to cast 3-4 lower res. (or 3X stacked in a spell trigger). After that cast Greater Malison, a couple of Doom spells (preferably stacked in a Spell Sequencer) and finally Feeblemind. If Feeblemind succeeds, the dragon can’t hurt you or cast spells any more,and from then on it’s just a slaughter. Once the dragon’s magic res. and saving throws are lowered, the choice is yours. Instead of Feeblemind you can cast Finger of Death or cast Slay Living/Hurt on him with your cleric, or even cast Polymorph Other to turn him into a lowly squirrel. Also, it seems that all dragons are vulnerable to lightning, so once their magic resistance is down, make them FRY.

Submitted By: aVENGER

Aerie Alone and Chicken Run

Windspear Hills dragon: Aerie could do it all by herself

For Firkraag, keep him friendly and have one of the mages cast Feeblemind on him (Aerie successfully did this in one go, so I don’t know if Firkraag have some resistance to this spell or not). Then have the same (hasted) mage fire three rounds from a wand of Cloudkill directly into the centre of his blue circle and run. Casting Lower Resistance beforehand would render the dragon dead after a minute. If Firkraag still lives, fire another Cloudkill until he drops, but three rounds (without Lower Resistance) worked fine for me.

Temple Ruins dragon: chicken run

For the Shadow Dragon, he’s much tougher. Keep him friendly and spread out your party so that they are standing at opposite ends of the room: one against the south wall, one at the east wall, and another at the west wall (take advantage of the space), but never in front of the dragon. Turn off their AI as well, in case they do something stupid like a suicidal rush forward.

First, you’ll need to cast Lower Resistance on the dragon, memorize as many magic missiles as you can (use at least two mages for magic missile spells), then cast Aid, Luck and Haste (or have him drink Oil of Speed) on your tank (in my case, it was my PC).

Next, have a mage fire Cloudkills (Holy Smite does NOT deal enough damage) or cast Cloudkill spells directly into the centre of his blue circle like for Firkraag (Feeblemind does not work on the Shadow Dragon, though). Very soon, the dragon will start attacking you after he is “Barely Injured”.

However, with your party all spread far and wide, he’ll aim for your PC only (this is a proven fact). By now, you’ll have a nice Cloudkill area in the center of the room. When the dragon attacks, have your PC or tank dodge and run straight into the Cloudkill fog. Damage on your PC would be nil if you avoid the orange puffs. When the dragon follows you into the poison, give him a little run around in the poison with your tank while dodging the dragon attacks (you might get hit while you’re giving commands).

Now with your tank keeping the dragon in the Cloudkill, have your two mages fire magic missiles on the beast (this requires a lot of pausing to give commands).

Within 15 minutes (game time), (voila!) the cumulative damage of Cloudkill and magic missiles will drop the dragon. Victory to the chicken runner and the mages!

Note: if you do not get the dragon hostile, he would fully heal himself when he’s “Badly Injured”.

Submitted By: Fatale

Spell Trigger

All you need is a mage with spelltrigger and two clerics/mages(who has finger of death) and a good hand to hand fighter (Korgan, Keldor or Minsc come to mind).

Against the shadow dragon, load the spelltrigger with “Flame Arrow”.
Against Firkraag, “Ice Storm” will do the trick.

Once you are up against them let your clerics/mages start of with a simultaneous blast with fingers of death. Then fire off the spelltrigger. If it was Ice Storm, retreat back a little bit. If it was Flame Arrow go straight for the attack.

After this barrage, if the fingers of death didn’t wipe the dragon from existance the combined damage of the spelltrigger and Fingers of Death will have taken him down to Near Death or Badly Hurt where your fighter with some backup spells (Bolt of Glory for one) can easily dispatch it.

Submitted By: Cybot

Petrification via the Wand of Wonder

After you raid the Mind Flayer dungeon in the sewers, you end up with a “Wand of Wonder.” This is a pretty good item, albeit random. What you do is either walk up to the dragon when it isn’t hostile, and wave the wand at it over and over, until it is petrified (takes about 8 times or more; the dragon won’t see this as hostile and won’t attack), or, if the dragon attacks you when you go in, summon a bunch of monsters and charge with your brute characters, cycling the wand around so that you don’t have to wait between casts, and petrify it. It might be really cheap, but I killed the shadow dragon with this strategy fairly easily.

Submitted By: StolidMind

Hasted Slayer

My second trick requires you to be able to morph into the slayer, and for someone to know improved haste. As the slayer, you get huge attack bonuses, and 5 attacks a round. You can see where this is heading. With improved haste, you get a whopping 10 attacks. Since the dragon continously dispels, it’s best to have a few people ready to cast the haste on the slayer. Not even a mighty dragon can resist 10 attacks a round with 20 damage per hit, at a thaco of about -8.

Submitted By: Stolid Mind