Im new to this game and the pesky dragon damaging the northern tower is stopping me from progressing. Im with the patrol at the tower. I am a warrior with bow and arrows.
1. If I stand behind a wall or crouch he still flames me.
2. If I stand in his face he flames me
3. If I stand in the tower no flaming but everyone else gets killed and his health is still a bit too high for me to take him down solo.
4. Cant take him down from the roof I cant put the + mark on him before I fire the paraqet height wont allow it.

I have no idea what to do next...

Strategies anyone...

You're playing with the 1.2 patch? That means avoiding his flames at all cost. I found that staying high up on the stairs, near the top of the tower, but out of sight, and shooting arrows at him from there, worked well. Also, wait for him to land and get busy fighting the guards, and then power attack him from behind or at his wings.

I usually either avoid him by running around the tower until he lands and I can get a good shot, or stock up on resist fire + restore health potions and draw him to me..

Wait the 1.2 patch makes the breath epicly powered?

Whew. Thought that Blood dragons weren't going to be any fun at all.

does it do the same for all magic?

Only I got pulled apart by a fort full of mages. Ended up getting lucky when they all hung out on the wrong side of a barred door leaving me to use magic/summons through the door with impunity.

Also: Hire a companion. You should be swimming in gold. It's pretty easy. I made 15000 without going overboard selling loot, just by picking up gold from drops in the first 10 levels and selling gems. Which weren't worth all that much.

One of the patrol is invincible, provided they don't get killed by you. Essentially the three of you should be able to take him out.
Oh. And JUMP up onto the paraqet.

DOH! Ill try attacking from behind and also from the top of the paraqet. Thankyou everyone....*deep breath* off we go.

Ok cant stand on the top of the tower it is too open and the little walls provide no cover he came right above me and flamed me to death


Ran around the back of the tower...there is a slopey ramp thing made of fallen wall ran up, shot and ran down...jumped down the side....ran back to the keep....near the entrance popped out from behind a wall between a pillar and shot a few arrows
Minimal effect didnt do much couldnt get a bunch of good hits. With 80% of his flames he kills you through walls...

Even if you stop shooting and youre standing against a wall if he sees you he flames you anyway. It is almost impossible to stand behind him as he is moving and flying so much.

Tried 3 more times with failure...anyone else?

Yeah apparantly the 1.2 mesh patch reduces all npc's resistance of everything to 0%, as well as the players'. The bugfix caused this bug.

EDIT: Patch, not mesh. ;P

I am so over this quest....find it a bit ridiculous...no incentive to keep going...Im contemplating watching Mrs Doubtfire which is on tv right now. So frustrated./

Found something interesting...

Invincible dog companion

Go to Falkreath, and find the smith named Lod. He will ask you to find his dog. You can find the dog, Barbas, outside of the village, and it will take you to the Shrine of Clavicus Vile. Once you speak with the Daedra Lord, the dog will accompany you until you finish the "A Daedra's Best Friend" quest. Since the dog is considered a quest item, it cannot be killed. It will automatically attack enemies who approach you, but it will not lose any health. Note: You can also take another companion in addition to the dog.

Maybe I need this invincible attack dog to kill the dragon for me lol

Pretty stoked about that dog..

That's really annoying you are having such issues. I found that quest VERY easy, and I'm playing on the second hardest difficulty. I didn't even get attacked by the dragon. I jumped up on the paraqet at the beginning of the fight while all the guards were below me and after the dragon had landed.

I'm assuming you're a relatively high level?

If need be, go dungeon diving looking for scrolls. Get a couple of summon storm atronach scrolls, and go nato on that dragons ass.