High dragon

"A fully mature adult female dragon is the high dragon: the great monster of legend, the rarest of all dragonkind. These dragons hollow out massive lairs for themselves, for they need the space to house their harem of drakes as well as their eggs and the dragonlings..."

-- Dragon Age: Origins Codex

Impregnated females are known as high dragons. Living more than 1000 years, these terrifying beasts are known to have at least a dozen drakes guarding their lair.

At the end of the Blessed Age, many in Thedas believed that all the dragons had vanished until one went on a Rampage. A Rampage is when one or more high dragons, who are all female, emerge from their underground lair and destroy everything in their path. They gorge, then lay a clutch.

It was this portent (the Rampage) that led to the current period being named the Dragon Age by the Divine of the Chantry.

Tactics
The Warden is given the option to battle a High Dragon during and after The Urn of Sacred Ashes quest. After (optionally) battling Kolgrim and emerging onto the Mountain Top, a short cutscene of a dragon flying above the Warden is seen. The Warden can engage the dragon by using Kolgrim's Horn (PC Version), looted from Kolgrim, or by hitting the gong seen shortly after emerging on the mountaintop (Console Version). The below strategy guide is written for this scenario.

The battle is an extremely difficult one, and as such there are some tactics that will make the battle easier:

Another set of tactics involves the use of ranged attacks and the forcefield power. Using a main tank to get aggro initially, have the rest of the party attack with ranged weapons from behind but out of range of the tail slap. Use force field on the main tank and keep him healed when the force field drops before re-applying. This should keep the dragon occupied while the rest of the party reduces its HP. The tank should also use powers like Taunt or Bellow for the few seconds that the force field is down to maximize aggro.
 * Having a Weapon and Shield specialist as the tank is very helpful because having the Shield Wall and Shield Expertise talents will make the character immune to the dragon's knockdown attack.
 * Having Wynne in the party is crucial for this battle, as surviving without her healing abilities is near impossible. It would also help (granted the Warden or someone is the party has basic Herbalism) to buy the maximum amount of flasks (from Bodhan at the camp) and lyrium dust (from the quartermaster at the Kinloch Hold (the Circle Tower). This will allow to create 99 lesser lyrium potions, and, using tactics, the Warden can get her to use one every time her mana drops under 75%. She will essentially have infinite mana, and thus limitless healing abilities.
 * It certainly helps to engage the dragon at range, due to a melee attack that causes immediate death. The player should either use their rogue character (skilled archer such as Leliana) or damage oriented mage.
 * The Warden can prevent the death of a melee character from the dragon's grab attack using well timed heals from a healer. Having both Heal and Group Heal works well for this.  Melee characters other than a tank can be kept to the left and right sides of the dragon to prevent being knocked down from the tail/legs of the dragon, also use Force Field to break the dragon's grab, temporarily neutralize him, which gives few seconds to recover.
 * Morrigan's Cone of the Cold spell is immeasurably valuable in this scenario, as it will immediately freeze the dragon and break the grab attack. Use one of the tactics slots to assign this move, and another to assign a similar potion use to Wynne's.
 * Making 99 lesser health potions and having all of the melee companions use them when their health is less than 75% helps keep them alive longer.
 * Due to having high a constitution, Shale is an excellent choice for the party in this scenario. Equipping a fire crystal will increase resistance to the dragon's fire breathing attacks. Shale is also immune to knockback and the dragon's 1-hit kill move; couple this with the Stoneheart ability to make an almost invincible tank.
 * If The Warden defeated any Drakes prior to fighting the High Dragon, then bring them to Wade's Emporium in Ferelden and the smith will forge Wade's (Superior if The Warden lets him try twice) Drakeskin Leather Armor. Wade's Drakeskin Set is excellent for this battle, as each suit gives 70% flame resistance.
 * Ranger summoned pets seem to be immune to the dragon's 1-hit-kill melee attack. This makes them a good choice to hold aggro to complement a ranged strategy.
 * A fully specialized Arcane Warrior also works very well as a tank if The Warden uses a combination of Combat Magic, Rock Armor, and Shimmering Shield. This will render the Arcane Warrior highly resilient to the dragon's physical attacks and almost impervious to its fire attacks. Using spells such as Walking Bomb and Crushing Prison also help to ensure a steady stream of damage. However, note that an Arcane Warrior is vulnerable to knockdown effects, unlike the Weapon and Shield warrior, so the damage output is highly dependent on how well the Arcane Warrior can resist knockdown effects
 * A two-handed weapons specialist equipped with the Yusaris is also recommended as it grants additional damage against dragons and resistance to fire.

The high dragon's main attacks are frontal. A good tactic against this is to attack from the sides and never be directly in front of the dragon. Do not get close to its legs or tails and use potions often. When fighting the high dragon, keep to the sides and use the most powerful attacks. This may draw out the battle longer, but it's a good tactic to use if the main tank dies.Another tactic to use is traps. Place several around and then summon the dragon. After it lands, an almost instant kill is possible.
 * An example of this is having Shale use his Stone Heart and going in and out from Stone aura to heal both from potions and Wynne is a great tactic, while having Leliana (or another range character) doing the damage on the bridge. Just be sure to have Shale marked or the High Dragon will use her ability to drag Wynne or Leliana out from the bridge and instant kill them.

There is a path between two of the places where the dragon can land that is useful for ranged characters. Simply move your party to the path and start attacking the dragon when it lands, when it takes off again use the path to go to where it just was. Using this tactic the dragon can't hit you and a character can land two or three attacks before you have to repeat. (Video demonstration below)

Also very useful for this battle are Telekinesis, Misdirection Hex and Death Hex, which cause the dragon to miss all attacks while you land armor-penetrating critical hits with every blow. These help to mop up any single creature very quickly. Beware though that often the boss tends to shift focus and attack the caster of these spells.


 * Another strategy that involves almost zero risk: Command all units to hold position and move them up the ramp just behind the last arch on the way down.  Then have a rogue pop the dragon, run back up the ramp and stop just behind the big hole in the ramp.  The dragon will hit you quite a bit on the way up, so make sure to heal.  The dragon should get "stuck" in the red circle on the map shown here and the rogue can use a bow and fire away.  If you do it right, the dragon will end up facing the opposite way and won't use her breath attack, and the only move she can use that will damage the rogue is her hurricane attack.  But since the healers are close behind you, it won't be a problem.  It takes a while to kill it this way, but there is almost no risk involved. Dietere 03:24, December 12, 2009 (UTC)

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Result
One of the most valuable items that can be looted from the dragon is her scales. Speak to Wade, from Wade's Emporium, in Denerim.

Wade Drake/Dragon Armor(s)

 * Wade can make the Drake and Dragon armor(s) from Drake Scales and Dragon Scale. For details about this process and the talk page about it, see Wade.