Four Magic Dragons

[Wild Rose]

I'm trying out a new party with 4 Magic Dragons - mag, alc, psy, pri + Felpurr Bard & Liz Fig. Not too sure what the other two are for, just not sure about making it with a 4 party.

Has anyone else played a Dragon party? Any pointers, tips, hints? Is there any real disadvantage to the fact that you don't up stats with Dragon Breath. The hit count does go up, it generally starts out with 2-3 and can get to 20-30 later. With 4 Dragons + a Bard that should really take out the goups at Rapax Rift. Supposedly anyhow?

Thoughts anyone?

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Leave the Bard and Fighter our of it.

[Wereboar]

At least in expert ironman, without stealth training, 4 pure spellcasters only is very hard to survive. I had to add a bishop (to have a second guardian angel available early, and a second body of stone later, and a third 'tough' character to protect mage and psionic).

4 pure spellcasters and one meat shield is fun. 4 and a bard is even more fun.

With 4 spellcasters, you don't have to worry about taking out the rapax, at least if you go powercast. You won't use your breath much, since spells do far more damage, and practice your skills.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Who cares about "expert ironman"? When you only have 3-4 in your party, that's challenge enough. Save that for when there's 8 in the party so it's not a cake-walk.

[Krull]

One question, aren't they slow? If I recall (at work at the moment, oops) they don't have great Speed or Senses although perhaps these are increased to cover the purist spellcaster's initial attributes?

I think it essential, because of Soul Shield and Element Shield, that you make the Psionic and Alchemist (at least) speed merchants so they can cast these in the first combat round. Reason being, of course, that Mental and Earth realms are their best realms.

I read on Flamestryke's excellent site that Lizard and Dracon Psionics have mental immunity to cover their -10 and -5 respectively to mental resistances. So a Dracon Psionic should be fun.

What I normally do with a Bard is get the Rousing Drum asap and cast it in the first round. Only snag is that I think the effect only takes place in the next round. Can someone confirm this?

Variol, I have tried 4 purist spellcasters parties but haven't been too successful with them. You menion the four of them and a Bard. As I said a couple of weeks ago, Bard, Gadgeteer and the four casters is probably one of my most favourite parties.

[Flamestryke]

@Krull, Yes Dracs are relatively slow, starting speed of 40, Senses 30. The Mage, Priest, and Alchemist will be able to boost speed by up to 10 points at creation. Using 9 points would put them at 49 leaving 51 to make 100. Assigning 3 attrib points each level up would gain them the expert skill of Snakespeed by level 18.

The Psionic only gets up to 4 points for an attrib at creation but the professional requirement of Senses=60 has them boosted up a bit.

The Bard is likely a good idea. You can have either the Mage or Alchemist work on speed for Elemental Shield casting and snitch the Soulful Sax for the Bard to use. Being Felpur it will be the easiest one to move speed up on for the Snakespeed skill. Perhaps this is why Wild Rose selected the Felpurr Bard.

@Wild Rose, you're thinking pretty far ahead there. It would be quite a sight to behold, an entire Army melting away to acid spewing Dragons. It may or may not work out very well, Acid spells are water based in this game so who knows. I would really like to know how it goes, please keep us posted on their progress.

[ 08-31-2004, 10:22 AM: Message edited by: Flamestryke ]

[Gadgeteer Tom]

OK, well I'm not so much in being the toughest or overcoming the worst challenges - so my favorite mix is Ranger, Ninja (or Samauri), Monk, Madge, gadgeteer and bard...

But I don't use Dracons much, and actually don't find much use for Dracon breath after level 5 or so.

But that's me - I like to change personalities of characters while playing, to stay amused...it's all good...

WIZ 8 has staying power far beyond even Doom 3...and dosen't crash as much (although sometimes I get 'crushed' in some weird spots).

[Wereboar]

I've played several spell-heavy parties, and never raised speed (well, its the 4th stat i go for, after intelligence, piety and vitality). You'll not be first to cast spells, but thats usually no major problem. Spellcasters have a nice resistance due to their realm skills.
And if it is an extremly dangerous fight, you can cast elemental shield with mage and alchemist, and soul shield with priest and psionic. It would be very unlikely that more than one character dies before to spells are up. And a single death is no problem.

@Krull: Several people have stated here that the haste spell doesn't affect the round in which it is cast. And with a spell-heavy party, i don't need the spell.

[Scatter]

If you can anticipate the hard fights (well, with X-ray you can anticipate all of them...) you can initiate combat to get initiative (EDIT i mean Surprise) in first round, casting Haste will then be in effect by the first round of enemy action.
Dracon Breath can get pretty powerful, but the Stamina use makes it hard to have as your primary attack system.
One of my randomly rolled parties had a Dracon Priest, though, and i was actually pleased with the way it worked out. (the rest were: Rawulf Rogue, Human Ranger, and Elf Psionic)

[ 08-31-2004, 08:23 PM: Message edited by: Scatter ]

[Wild Rose]

Thanks all!

So far they are all early teens. The problem of stamina isn't really so big because my usual tactic is to get in one good round to get things leveled out some (at at 50+ hits in the first round) and see what's left. The hits just aren't worth it for a second round of Dragon Breath - or Pierceing Pipes for that matter. Almost anything else will work better. But that first round is FUN!

Of course it does take planning - but that's the fun of this game.