Firkraag BG2
Firkraag is a Baldur's Gate enemy in BioWare's cRPG of 2000, Baldur's Gate 2. Firkraag is a famous and fearsome red dragon most notable for inflicting dragon fear, red dragon breath and knocking the party unconscious with his wing buffet special ability. Firkraag's AC, THAC0, resistances and immunities are also impressive. In addition, Firkraag guards the Holy Avenger greatsword, Carsomyr BG2, and his scales can be forged into Red Dragon Scale Armor.
cf. cRPG Dragons.
How to Beat Firkraag
Firkraag can be beaten by employing a number of tactics, both mundane and arcane. As with almost every non-scripted encounter in BG2, the easiest way to beat Firkraag is by laying down multiple Thief Traps or Skull Traps which will instantly slay him as soon as his dialogue ends.
In order to survive vs. Firkraag's onslaught, we must understand what his abilities are, how they impact us and how we can ward against or recover from their effects. Then, in order to beat him, we need to work out what relevant offensive abilities our party has at its disposal.
What follows is a general overview of Firkraag's offensive and defensive capabilities, as well as offensive and defensive abilities that parties can employ vs. Firkraag. If the reader wants a step-by-step example on how to approach combat encounters at humble level in BG2, please refer to TorGal.
• Important: Since Firkraag opens proceedings by casting Remove Magic in order to debuff the party, it is best to initially engage him with only one party member while the others hang back on the staircase, ready to charge in afterwards -- fully buffed.
In addition, Firkraag nerfs our magic resistance (Lower Resistance) and fire resistance (custom: Lower Fire Resistance) as well as our saving throws (Greater Malison) in order to increase the strength of his dragon fear and dragonsbreath abilities. Both of those spells are no-save and MR-bypassing. If we can get one party member to soak up Remove Magic, Lower Resistance and Greater Malison, the rest of the party are going to be in good shape when they enter the fray.
We receive 64,000 XP for slaying Firkraag.
We must protect ourselves from Firkraag's fear aura and heavy hits:
Dragon Fear
It is best to protect the party from Firkraag's fear aura by buffing saving throws or by means of the Chaotic Commands spell (which will also protect against Firkraag's subsequent spamming of Charm Person). Otherwise we're just randomly running around in a panic, which basically means we're going to die soon. Enraged Berserkers or Raging Barbarians are immune to Fear, and Cavaliers are naturally immune to fear.
Aside from that, the Dragonslayer longsword (SW1H32) wards against fear and spells can also ward against or remove fear status.
Red Dragon Claw Damage
Firkraag is a THAC0 Lord (-12) and his claws (1-12 +12) inflict an average of 35.5 slashing damage at a rate of 3 ApR or 4 when self-Hasted. Such damage output is enough to wipe out an entire party of seasoned adventurers in several rounds.
However, we can turn Firkraag into a harmless overgrown butterfly by means of Blindness and Ray of Enfeeblement; RoE also opening up faster stat-drain kills by Archers.
Aside from raw supertanking (AC + HPs), we can protect ourselves more reliably by means of arcane spells such as Mirror Image, Stoneskin and PfMW.
Wing Buffet
Wing Buffet is an MR-bypassing, no-save AoE that inflicts trivial damage but also briefly knocks BACK and knocks OUT party members. It is basically an AoE version of Smite. As per Smite, Wing Buffet is more of an annoyance that anything else since there is no way to ward against its effects.
Dragonsbreath
Red Dragon Breath is a fiery AoE ejected by Firkraag at intervals. While it inflicts upwards of 300 fire damage on failed saves vs. Breath Weapon, there are many ways to protect against fire damage; browse the elemental spells, for example.
Firkraag Immunities
Firkraag is immune to backstab as well as Paralysis, Slow, Entangle, Web, Grease, Charm, Stun, Hold, Wing Buffet, Sleep, Power Word: Sleep, Power Word: Stun and Silence.
• Hit him hard and often
Firkraag is not only an AC Lord (AC -12) but also resists 30% of incoming physical damage and buffs himself with Stoneskin, which is countered by Breach. The most common way to smack him down is with a Fighter-Mage of some sort or simply warriors wielding weapons equal to or greater than +2 enchantment, such as Gnasher, Flail of Ages, Celestial Fury or Crom Faeyr -- buffed with Improved Haste.
FoA and CF are especially useful since their on-hit slow and on-hit stun effects are MR-bypassing (and FoA is no-save as well). The on-hit Slow and elemental damage of FoA bypasses Firkraag's Stoneskin, and the on-hit Stun of Celestial Fury does, too. Is it any wonder they are BG2 Best Weapons?
It is also advisable to buff the strength score to giant-status because strength modifies our THAC0 and damage.
Powerful mages (Edwin) or arcane parties can also attempt to nerf Firkraag's 65% magic resistance through multiple castings of the Lower Resistance spell. Once that is done, he becomes vulnerable to offensive spellcasting.
In addition to the above-mentioned Spike Traps, Firkraag can be insta-killed by Monks (Quivering Palm), vorpal weapons such as the Silver Sword, and by means of 12th level Chromatic Orb if we first debuff his saving throws by means of Greater Malison, Doom or both.
Firkraag Location
Firkraag is found in his dungeon located in Windspear Hills. He can be taken on in Chapters 2, 3 or 6.
cf. Abazigal (blue dragon)
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