This is the main reason that most people get into taming, the Dragon.
Their are actually a lot of places that Dragons can be found, Destard Dungeon is a well known place, but there is also the 4th Level of Covetous, the very back swamp/caves of the Terrathon Keep (where nightmares spawn) and the Lava Pits on Fire Island. Fire island is the Big Island in the lower right hand corner of the map, Hythloth Dungeon and Many small miners caves are also on fire island.
Of these places Destard is probably the easiest (although its not easy) and the Lava pits are probably the next best thing. Taming dragons at the Terrathon keep is a very dangerous and extremely chaotic endeavor, but it happens all the time. People go there usually in search of nightmares, you have to fight your way in between the Terrathons, and the Omphedian hoards. Then get back to the Nightmare spawn, fight, maneuver, and dodge their way around that area until a Nightmare "pops".
The dragon room in covetous should actually be called the "Dragon Cubical" unless your a bard its going to take some fancy footwork and well timed spells to live for even a few minutes here...Were going to use Destard for the majority of this chapter lol.
If your pack is ready (see the Preparation for Big 4 taming hunts) you will have:
Meat spaced out and ready to goGo to Destard, cast night site, then pop through the entrance. There is occasionally a pack of doorway monsters in Destard that can kill you before you have a chance to Get through the entrance and run for it. If that happens just Rez and repeat until you get through, your going to be doing a lot of Rez and Repeat as a tamer :)
Once your inside you can determine where your going to tame, if there are bodies all over the place, and you can hear combat you want to head to either the back left or back right of that Large Circular room. You absolutely do not want to be taming near other people, most people are good but its amazing how many lamers are in here as well, you can maneuver an animal into just the right position where you have its attention but nothing else, lay down the paralyze field perfectly then some lamer walks by and "takes a crack" at it, its known as "Tame Jumping" So if there are people around, go to one of the sides, basically stay out of the center and front of the dungeon.
(If your looking to start with a drake just head straight to the back, there are still dangerous things there but mostly drakes, snakes and elementals, you wont have to "run" from as many dragons)
Also you can "rez" at the shrine in the back north/east corner of the first elval of the dungeon.
If you have the place to yourself tho, basically anywhere is going to work.
The Trick to easy taming is not to attract anything but a dragon, if you have to deal with the dragon your trying to tame and a Loose Drake, the odds are its going to take forever and you can easily die in the process.
The way to "loose" any animal or Monster that is following you is to cast invisibility on yourself. This will also work to get a dragon to stop casting spells on you.
You can also Hide, or Peacemake if your a Bard, but each of those things has its problems, Hiding is almost imposable if there are multiple monsters on you, and Quite imposable if even one monster "on you" is close. The benefit to hiding is its fast. The Drawback is monsters in combat mode on you will prevent even a GM hider from hiding.
Peacemaking is very good, however if there are other fights going on in the area you will throw those players off because it takes everything out of War Mode, it sounds simple but a lot of people (lol try it out in a faction fight some time..) don't think to "Tab" back into combat for several crucial seconds. If there are other bards in the area getting monsters to fight and you Peacemake...*shakes head* You deserve the next Connection Loss!
So your going to try and find a dragon all by himself, and lead him off where you can safely try and tame him.
Taming was such a BEAR when I was training up my first character, all the way through I was thinking, the moment I can tame a Dragon 93.9 or just a point or two above, I would race over to Destard and just do it until I came back with a Dragon.... Boy was I mistaken :)
If you just barely have the minimum skill it will take Hours (like maybe 5) to tame one of the noble creatures. In addition to it being a Loooooonngggggggg time, you will have to make Multiple trips back to a bank to restock your regs, and anything else that is low or your out of. Dragon taming Is not like taming non-combat creatures, your Burning Greater Heal, Paralyze Field, and other Reagents like a Machine gun spitting out Brass.
Ok once at that quiet spot with the dragon your trying to tame in tow, your going to Cast paralyze field, then stand on the other side of it so the Dragon walks through the field and gets stuck.
If at any point he casts spells on you (not the breath weapon) Invis for a moment, then come back. That will usually stop that.
Stand with a 1 tile space between you and the dragon and start trying to tame it. (I have the health bar of the beast floating, and I target the health bar for taming attempts, it helps me a little at this point, but you can target the beast directly if that works better for you) Odds are your going to get a message that "you seem to anger it" instantly start taming again, unlike other things your trying to tame where you have to wait a moment or two in-between attempts, you can try about as fast as you can press the keys to tame. After a while you will get the message that "You attempt to tame the creature" At GM Taming, while your fully Fed (if your "hungry" it seems to hurt your odds of taming) your odds are about 1 in 12 every time you start a taming attempt. It can vary wildly, I have gotten them on the first attempt before, as well as having to have tried it 30+ times, but usually you will get them in the first 12.
If your taming is 96 its going to take a while, but its still doable. (As we went over earlier if its 93.9 or close to that its going to take forever).
The main reason that you are using paralyze field, as opposed to just Paralyze, is that Dragons have a fair amount of Magic resistance, and they will Resist the Paralyze spell 1/2 the time, however they almost never resist the paralyze field spell, the few times they make it through there is usually some unleveled terrain they are walking across to get there, but in time you developed a knack for laying that field down in just the right spots.
If there is a second monster (other than a dragon) that gets involved with your taming attempt, you can usually paralyze it directly and be ok for short time.
The hold on Paralyze field does not last forever, if you don't succeed in taming the animal after a few moments its time to retreat a few paces, and cast another paralyze field so its up and ready to go when the dragon breaks free.
Keep doing this until you either tame it, or run out of room. If You are running out of room, just run around the field and start laying them down over the same ground you used on the way in. You don't want to venture too far out because you will attract the attention of other monsters.
Once the dragon accepts you as Master It aint over!!!!! You need to Feed it, and get it out of harms way (out of the dungeon) safely.
All newly tamed animals are "extremely unhappy to confused" (Use animal lore to check on the pets loyalty). "Confused" normal animals like horses, bears, and wolves obey orders very Poorly. Dragons wont obey them at all.
Even tho its "tame" its still in war mode on you, now a target for other monsters, and isn't going to listen to a Thing you say.
This is why you have meat pieced out in your pack (the top level of your pack) and ready to go, (see the preparation chapter on this) so you can Feed it the instant its tamed, but still in the paralyze fields grip.
The dragon is tame to you but is still in war mode trying to attack you, if your in Felucca, or if the "tame" animal code in Trammel is changed again you can easily be killed by your own tame dragon. It has happened to me, and as funny as it is Today that I was killed by my own dragon because I didn't Feed and get him under control fast enough, I didn't quite see the humor at the time....
So feed it immediately, and while its still paralyzed. You need to change the creatures name to whatever name you have set up in your speech command macros so you can give it orders. I use the name Wotan, its a decent name but does not take forever to type out. Its really a bear when your trying to tell your freshly tamed dragon to stay or follow you but you misspelled or didn't fully type out the right name in your haste to change his name and get it out of there.
Ok, now you have a Newly tamed, Fed, re-named and Happy Dragon, its time to gate them out of the dungeon before its former pals (other Dragons, Drakes, Wayverns ect) Decide to do something about it, your Dragon wont be a help here either, as he is going to try and kill every monster he sees too. In a pinch you can try to run him out the front entrance of the dungeon, but if you can gate reasonably (if your magery is in the High 80s) or Gate from a Scroll (if your magery is in the 60s+) gate him to the safe spot near stables.
Cast gate, tell him to follow and you will both appear on the other end of the gate. As a side note, you can get a dragon out of almost any situation by casting a gate, telling him to follow until you hear the happy sound then stepping through the gate.
Now your in the safe spot, Pop Open a soda, get up and stretch, wiggle your fingers and toes. Your going to Savor the moment, enjoy your success and WAIT until that Criminal flag wears off of your pet before moving them anywhere!!!
The flag wont last longer than two minutes, as soon as your pet turns blue take him to the edge of the stable (away from the guards) and say "Stable". Even tho your on the other side of the wall usually one of the stable hands will hear you and stable your pet.
I dont know why but freshly tamed, happy dragons that have turned blue have still done some very odd things before they are stabled. (Like attacking People, or casting spells in town) The guards frown on that, and usually "whack" the dragon and "you". So you don't want to be taking a lot of chances with that.
Once they are stabled tho, you can unstable them immediately and they are ready to go and totally your Pet!!! :)
In review:
Cast paralyze field, attempt to tame for a few seconds, then step back and lay down another paralyze field, repeat until the animal is tame.
The moment its tame but still paralyzed feed it. You can get it out of war mode by Casting invis on yourself, peacemaking if your a bard, ordering it to attack something else, or even by gating him to your safe spot and ordering him to stay put (so he does not take any damage) for minute or so.
Once you gate him to your safe spot, wait for the flag to wear off before taking him into town and stabling.
