It's actually really easy as long as you follow the guidelines:
Sure, that's common sense, you say. But how do you keep from getting breathed on? How do you keep the dragon from ever getting an attack?
To arrive at a solution to these questions, you should have at least some of these recommended supplies:
First, let's briefly discuss the speed problem. To get Very Fast, you need at least one permanent speed item (a ring or boots), and a temporary speed item (a staff or potion of speed, or a haste self spell.)
It is certainly possible to kill ancient dragons at normal speed, but it is exceedingly dangerous, especially with the AMHD. If you want to try, see the section "Be Prepared!"
If you want to kill young or mature dragons, you need only get to Fast, since they move only at normal speed. Generally, young and mature dragons are cake if you can get Fast and so I'll be writing the rest of this document with ancient dragons in mind. If you want, however, you can apply the techniques presented here to non-ancient dragons if your character is particularly wimpy. ;-)
Most people have read in the FAQ "How to kill an AMHD". It's easy. You build a pillar like this (using stone-to-mud, you might want to light the area around the pillar):
...
.#.
...
and you get Very Fast, and you do the so-called "Dragon Dance" around
the pillar. Since the Dragon is only Fast, he can move in the time it
takes you to hit and move.
... .D. .D. ...
.#@ .#@ .#@ D#.
... ... ... .@.
Waiting Dragon You hit, You duck out of the way,
appears Dragon doesn't Dragon has used his only
have a turn turn to follow you. Hit
him again...
This is great, but there is a vital step missing. Lets say you are a
really stealthy individual. Maybe you could walk circles around a
sleeping dragon all day and not wake him up. Or, maybe you're not so
stealthy and the dragon knows you're there, but often times the dragon
will simply ignore wimpy little you. How do you get his attention?
How do you get him to come chase you to the pillar?
Take the following situation:
################
#..............#
#.....D.......@#
#............#.#
#..............#
####.###########
Very Fast
Our hero is ready to do the dragon dance, but the dragon isn't
interested. Let's say that it's an AMHD, and he can kill our hero in
one turn.
One solution is to shoot the dragon with something to get his attention, then duck behind the pillar. This is a bad plan because the dragon might get a turn and he might breathe gas. Sure, the chances are slim, but it's an unnecessary risk if our hero is willing to invest a little time and effort.
Let's rebuild that pillar in a different place:
#################
#......\........#
#.....D.\.......#
#........\......#
#.........\.....#
####.######\#.###
# # #.@.#
# # #.###
Very Fast
The line indicates our hero's line of sight. He cannot see the
dragon, or vice versa. However, notice what a ball spell would do if
it were to hit the wall up and to the right of the dragon...it would
hit with 1/3 damage. The damage isn't so important--what is
important is that the dragon is now pissed and will come after our
hero. If the player now moves up and to the right, the next time he
sees the dragon should be:
#################
#...............#
#...............#
#...............#
#...........D...#
####.######.#@###
# # #...#
# # #.###
Very Fast
and now it's time for the dragon dance.
This all works very well if the dragon is within 2 spaces of a wall...what if he's not? Well, the obvious answer is to build a wall next to him (or onto him!) and the proceed as before. That is where the wand of wall building comes into play.
Here is a solution to the problem:
#################
#...............#
#...............######
#................ .@#
#...............####.#
#....D..........# # #
#...............# # #
#...............# # #
####.######.#.### # #
# # #...# # #
# # #.### # #
Very Fast
The dragon is out of sight, and probably wouldn't attack even if it
was in sight (don't take this for granted!) A wand of wall building
is fired into the room:
#################
#...............#
#...............######
#..################# #
#...............#### #
#....D..........# # #
#...............# # #
#...............# # #
####.######.#.### # #
# # #.@.# # #
# # #.### # #
Very Fast
and our hero moves into position to fire his ball spell just as
before and viola! The dragon is toast a short time later.
Being prepared mostly means to have all of the following items (also mentioned at the beginning of the document):
In addition, you may want to have a scroll or staff of teleport self, or a wand of teleport other just in case things get too hairy. For example, if you're doing the dragon dance and the following happens:
### #
#.DL#
#.#@#
#.VQ#
# ###
You might want to bail with some sort of teleport self spell.
In addition, you might want to have resistance to the breath of the type of dragon you're fighting. (R) armor works well for this, as does a (DF) weapon. Also good are rings of resistance and lordly protection, as well as potions. Note that you take 1/9 damage from a breath weapon if you have permanent and temporary protection from a certain breath weapon. Also note that there is no protection against gas and a full strength AMHD does 693 HP damage in one breath.
Know the damages of the certain breath weapons as listed in the file dragon.inf. Know which dragons you can survive a breath from, and which ones you need to keep away from. Be wary of ancient greens and ancient multi-hueds.
If you have plenty of hit points and good resistance, you can probably just stand out there and blast the dragon with ball spells to cut him down to size. Then pound him with bolts or a weapon to finish him off. This can be done at Fast or even normal speed (though I don't recommend the latter since the dragon could breath twice) and you can do away with the time consuming dragon dance. If you get breathed on and can only survive one breath, duck for cover or teleport away. You can get him later.
If you really want to chop a dragon to shreds with a weapon, get 18/100 STR and DEX and find a (SD) weapon which does 4x normal damage to dragons...brings 'em down fast...
Also, some ancient dragons (and plenty of other bad things) can paralyze you. This is considerably bad news. Get some sort of free action magical item (a (DF) weapon offers this type of protection.)
Finally, if you are firing spells at dragon, look at him first and see if he is susceptible or resistant to anything. This can help you plan your attack. Note that AMHDs are resistant to everything.
Yawn. You've been pounding on an AMHD for 10 minutes with your wimpy weapon and you're getting bored. Move, hit, move, hit, move, hit, "1", "7", "9", "7", "1", "7", "9", "7"--oops! Suddenly the dragon got bored or winded or something and took a step back...you find yourself here:
#########
#...D.@.#
#.....#.#
#.......#
#######.#
and it's his move! "The Ancient Multi-Hued Dragon breathes gas!"
Game over. Don't get lulled into a rhythm and mess up.
Another fine thing to see while you're fighting an ancient dragon is, "You feel yourself slow down." Make sure this doesn't happen! Cast haste self or quaff potions as necessary to keep your speed up. If you do slow down, dance from side to side until the dragon moves away and gives you a free turn, or teleport away and come back to the fight later. An easy way around this problem is to have two permanent speed items... :-)
Also worthy of mention in this section is the topic of carelessness. Sometimes you'll know that a dragon is ignoring you and you'll take advantage of that fact by running around busily creating your pillar right in front of him. Maybe this makes you feel like a brave individual, but if that dragon wakes up you may end up an extremely blackened corpse.
Some of the bigger dragons carry a lot of items and it's up to you to make sure there's room for all these items when the dragon dies, or some of them won't appear. Take the following dance in progress:
### #
#.D.#
#.#@#
#...#
# ###
If our hero swings and kills now, there are only about 7 spaces for
treasure and objects. An AMHD can drop up to 16. Make sure you
hollow out enough room for the treasure.
If you're lazy and don't want to do all that, you could hollow out only the area to the left and above your pillar:
##########
#........#
#........#
#........#
#......D.#
#......#@#
#........#
######.###
This is because, for whatever reason, the dragons seem to prefer the
north and west sides of the pillar (at least in Umoria.)
Also, don't use ball spells when the dragon is about to die. Frost, Acid, and Fire balls can destroy items that you might want (potions of gain stat, for example.)
Killing dragons can be a piece of cake if you do it correctly. Remember: Be fast, be prepared, and, above all, don't screw up!!
Good luck!