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. The developers have suggested the level of devastation is comparable to a category 5 hurricane.

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

Gameplay Tips
t cutscene of a dragon flying above the player is seen. The player can engage the dragon by using a Horn looted from Kolgrim. The player can also skip this entirely and come back later, possibly at a higher level, to take on the dragon (there is a direct entrance to the mountaintop from the main secion of the Broken Temple after the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest is completed.

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

- Having a Weapon and Shield specialist as your 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 with you is crucial for this battle, as surviving without her healing abilities is near impossible. It would also help (granted the player 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 you to create 99 lesser lyrium potions, and, using tactics, you 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 also 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 (or otherwise skilled archer) or a character such as Leliana.

- You can also 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.

- Morrigan's Cone of the Cold spell is immeasurably valuable in this scenario, as it will immediately freeze the dragon. Use one of the tactics slots to assign this move, and another to assign a similar potion use to Wynne's.[actually, just spam the cone of cold, it's wicked enough to freeze practically everything]

- Due to his high constitution, Shale is also an excellent choice for your party in this scenario. He should be equipped with a fire crystal to increase his resistance to the dragons fire breathing attacks.

- If you defeated any Drakes prior to fighting the High Dragon, you can bring them to Wade's Emporium in Ferelden and the smith will forge Wade's (Superior if you let him try twice) Drakeskin Leather Armor for you. Wade's Drakeskin is excellent for this battle, as each suit gives you 70% flame resistance. (Edit: This needs more verification for accuracy, but if you you can get a third set of armor made after beating the High Dragon at Wade's shop.  he will give you a choice of light, medium, or massive dragon bone armor.  The stats vary depending on the chosen type, but all contain a huge amount of fire resistance.)

- Ranger summoned pets seem immune to the dragon's 1-hit-kill melee attack. This makes them a good choice to hold aggro to complement a ranged strategy.

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. Using forcefield on the main tank, and keeping him healed when it drops before re-applying, should keep the dragon occupied while the rest of the party reduces it's HP. The tank should also use powers like Taunt or Bellow for the few seconds that the forcefield is down.

The high dragon's main attack are frontal. A good tactic against this is to attack from the sides and never be directly in front of the dragon, and not get close to its legs or tails and use potions often. When fighting the high dragon keep to the sides and use your most powerful attacks, this may draw out the battle longer, so its a good tactic to use if your main tank dies.