MM7: Dragon on Emerald Isle

[Zareth]

Are there any easy methods to beat him? The videos I saw keep people running around and relying on luck to beat him (her?). But I noticed some people said that it's easy to beat this dragon but didn't really go into detail on how. Just curious if anyone's willing to share a detailed method other than running around like a chicken with head chopped off.

[Macros the Black]

Are there any easy methods to beat him? The videos I saw keep people running around and relying on luck to beat him (her?). But I noticed some people said that it's easy to beat this dragon but didn't really go into detail on how. Just curious if anyone's willing to share a detailed method other than running around like a chicken with head chopped off.

Iirc the dragon has the same recovery time for each fireball, so it's easy to dodge them.. It just takes quite a while and one or two slip ups could be fatal. Mr. Malwick's wand makes the whole process faster.

[Zareth]

Ah, I found a trick to it after wandering around the room a bit. Kind of combined the wand trick I read about and shooting thing. I hid in the corner of the entrance area so the dragon would go back and away and kept coming out to shoot arrows at him. Managed to kill him in about an 40 minutes or so with a LOT of saving ^^;;

With enough practice, I think I can do it without saving.

[vmxa]

Get the wand of fireballs from Malwick. Either take the deal or drag fire flies onto him. Get bows and hit the fire boost and the DoG.

Learn to run backwards and shoot bows and drop some fireballs. No need to save and reload. If that is where you are, just use the editor and give everyone a wand of incinerate.

[ShadowLiberal]

It's possible to kill the dragon entirely through the wand of fireballs, but it takes a lot of reloading if you do too little damage in a single hit (the dragon has around 1,200 HP, so divide that by the # of charges on the wand to get what damage you need to do each hit). I have done it though in a solo walk through.

It's also possible to kill the dragon with 4 party members armed with bows, though like the others have said, it does take a while, and probably a lot of saving and reloading. Getting the fire resistance from the well and orb help survive one or maybe even two extra hits if you're lucky.

It may be easier actually if you steal all the items in the cavern and kill off the rats first, as I've had trouble with the rats blocking my path for a second and getting me killed that way.

[Zareth]

Started over...kind of messed up my early skill point distribution and also wanted more stuff from the dragon. Also changed and modified the character stats better this time around. Going to try out the wand and see how it goes.

Wouldn't mind some early skill distribution suggestions and such if anyone has any by the way~ I do enjoy how this game is so open though.

btw, which hirelings do most of you take at the beginning?

[Arret]

I would definitely hire a scholar while looting the dragon. Usually I grab a factor as the other just to balance as much of the cost of the scholar as I can or a merchant to sell my items I won't use for more.

Once you get off Emerald Isle though, you need to determine what is important to your playstyle. Remember not all types of hirelings are in Harmondale, you need to head to Tularean Forest for the advanced ones.

Duper/Merchant can help a lot until you get Stone City cleared (tends to be a lot more cash than Banker/Factor). Wind master/gate master are also good combos if you are not concerned with cash. Instructor/Teacher if you want to get a few levels faster, but really they won't make a huge difference. I tend to grab pathfinder/explorer because I hate wasting extra days on travel time but if playing the first time you probably want something else.
For points, you definitely want to get body to expert first above all else. If you have someone that can master sword, those are what should have points dumped into first.

I tend to run KCSS and my points work as follows:
K -> Sword to 7 -> Armsmaster to 7 -> Spear to 7
C -> Body to 4 -> Merchant to 4 -> Body to 7 -> Merchant to 7
S1 -> Air to 4 -> Dagger to 4 -> Id Item to 4 -> Leather to 4 -> Air to 7 -> Id Item to 7
S2 -> Water to 4 -> Dagger to 4 -> Leather to 4 -> Water to 7 -> Fire to 4

[Zareth]

Yea...I messed up on my Sorcerer and Cleric. I got ID items up high before anything else for my Sorcerer and for my Cleric, I went Merchant first. This time around, I raised up Bow skill to 3 (going to stop at 4) for my Knight and Thief so they would do slightly better against the dragon fight.

Went with a Teacher and Scholar for the dragon. I should swap the teacher out for a Merchant I guess though now that the dragon is dead.

For Alchemy, would a Cleric or Sorcerer be able to make black potions with +alchemy skill equipment? Or is it only a Druid who can make the black potions?

And what's the difference between a Spy and an Assassin?

[Talin_Trollbane]

i strafed left and right while firing away arrows at him then run back to the entry and save.

worked pretty well if you skilled with strafing.

[Arret]

Yea...I messed up on my Sorcerer and Cleric. I got ID items up high before anything else for my Sorcerer and for my Cleric, I went Merchant first. This time around, I raised up Bow skill to 3 (going to stop at 4) for my Knight and Thief so they would do slightly better against the dragon fight.

Aside from meditation, body building, and learning, there isn't a misc skill that should be leveled up by more than 1 character (just pass the items to that character for repair, merchant, id, etc). Bow is generally a pretty bad investment until you can get master (which neither of these classes can do).

Went with a Teacher and Scholar for the dragon. I should swap the teacher out for a Merchant I guess though now that the dragon is dead.

Yes. There is no reason to have someone eating 3% of all your cash when they give nothing in return because you aren't killing anything.

For Alchemy, would a Cleric or Sorcerer be able to make black potions with +alchemy skill equipment? Or is it only a Druid who can make the black potions?

Alchemy skill is a tricky skill, but no. Only druid class can get GM and that is only after 2 promotions. Skill works as follows: If you have no skill and mix a phirna root in a bottle you get a potion with power of 1+0=1. If you have a phirna root which has a power 1 and an Alchemy skill of 3, the created potion will be 1+3=4 power. If you put rose petals (power 5) with a level 3 skill you get a potion of 3+5=8 power. If a level 5 expert puts rose petals into a bottle it creates a potion of strength 5+5=10. The same potion would be power 17 if equipping a +7 alchemy skill item.

Expert/Master/GM has no effect on the power of potions created. It just allows you to mix more advanced types of potions (yellow+green gives layered green/yellow, but only after you have learned expert Alchemy).

And what's the difference between a Spy and an Assassin?

Without going into too many spoilers, later in the game you will have a decision. If you make the choice deemed "light" you will follow the light path and the promotion will be from Thief -> Rogue -> Spy. If you have the choice "dark" the promotion will be from Thief -> Rogue -> Assassin. The actual quests/game endings are different for light and dark, giving the game a fair amount of re-playability.

Every class has 1 base promotion and then a 2nd promotion for whichever path you chose (light or dark). Statistically there is no difference for that class. The dark path will allow dark magic (for the right types of casters), and the light path will allow light magic (for the right types of casters). The only class where anything else is different is monks, but you aren't using one (see manual for full list of skill abilities).

[Zareth]

I see. So there's not too much point to getting Alchemy up on my characters if I want Black Potions (perm +50 one time boost) unless I have a Druid for it I guess.


Ok, thought as much. Wanted to know if there was a difference in stats or skills but I guess the chart pretty much explained everything and there's no real difference between Assassin and Spy other than whether they're light or dark aligned.

[tolich]

Aside from meditation, body building, and learning, there isn't a misc skill that should be leveled up by more than 1 character (just pass the items to that character for repair, merchant, id, etc). Bow is generally a pretty bad investment until you can get master (which neither of these classes can do).

Let me disagree: Perception saves every character from trap damage, Merchant lowers the cost of training, Id Monster and Item Repair are also individual (it's better to know last two at minimal level to fix items without transferring them to knight or obtaining information a bit earlier).

[Arret]

Aside from meditation, body building, and learning, there isn't a misc skill that should be leveled up by more than 1 character (just pass the items to that character for repair, merchant, id, etc). Bow is generally a pretty bad investment until you can get master (which neither of these classes can do).

Let me disagree: Perception saves every character from trap damage, Merchant lowers the cost of training, Id Monster and Item Repair are also individual (it's better to know last two at minimal level to fix items without transferring them to knight or obtaining information a bit earlier).

I agree to have basic skills for everyone, I just tend to think that there are better point investments (beyond level 1 normal) in just about all situations. As long as you are in turn based mode, passing items to repair is not a huge issue (mildly tedious, then again so is merchant and everything else). Damage reduction from traps is nice (although still not worth the points). Training costs shouldn't be a problem as you really shouldn't be selling anything big except in Stone City after the trogs are cleared. I can't remember the last time I used ID monster at all (detect life was so much more useful).