This is also kind of a general fire protection thread as well-

I just went up against a Fire Lizard and whether or not I have no Fire Protection or as high Fire Protection as I could raise it, one breath kills me. Does ANY amount of possible Fire Protection EVER become enough to survive a SINGLE breath from a Fire Lizard? The question probably also applies to the Fire Golem, but as it seems to be unique it's less surprising to me that it would instant-kill.

I've beaten the game before but I can't remember exactly what enemy mages do what. I'm pretty sure Orc Shamans cast spells, I'm pretty sure Liches cast spells and I know Water/Fire Mages cast spells.

I actually can't remember if you end up fighting the Fire Mages for whatever reason (or if I just went on a random killing spree for fun) but it seems like Fire Protection could only ever come into play against Orc Shamans and maybe Liches (though I don't recall Liches using fire spells).

Is an Orc Shaman the only enemy to whom Fire Protection is ever applicable?

I'm just trying to wrap my head around it as there are so few spell-casting or fire-spewing enemies in the game.

I don't understand what you mean by "I tried raising it". Do you mean through jewelry and gear?
If so, keep in mind that there are only very few rings that are worth mentioning with fire resistance when it comes to jewels (such as Ring of Invincibility).
As of armor, robes have the highest fire protection.
You will also get an amulet called Orc Talisman, which grants an amazing +20 fire resist, and that should greatly cover (+bonus from armor of course) your fire problem.

And no, fire resist works against shamans, fire lizards and pretty much anything that throws fire at you.

If I remember correctly, you first get your hands on Orc Talisman in chapter 3 - Artifacts of Ancient Power - when you meet Milten by the undead cave. Also, you receive one from Ur-Shak.

The magnitude of fire resist on items isn't enough to make much of a different when fighting fire lizards. Higher HP from leveling up can help you survive better, but you'll still be taking just as much damage. For dealing with fire lizards, either use long range attacks, or become good at reading and avoiding their fire breath attack at close range.

I contradict you.

Sure, high HP helps in every situation, but the fire resist items help a lot if you decide to take them early on, and are not good at timing when swinging weapons. Tested it myself.

Just what kind of test did you run? Armor (and resists) in the Gothic games act as a flat reduction to damage. If the OP is getting one-shotted by fire lizards then he'll only start to see some noticeable results from fire resists once the resist starts getting up to about about 50% of what his max HP is (at which point he'll be getting two-shotted rather than one-shotted). The most fire resist you can get from armor is 60 (from the Robe of the Dark Arts), then to that you can add 20 from the Orc Amulet and 5(x2) from rings, for a maximum resistance of 90. Now let's say the OP currently has 300 HP, so getting one-shotted means the fire lizard is doing over 300 points of damage with its attack; even with that 90 fire resist such an attack would still be doing over 210 points of damage, which will still be bringing the OP close to the brink of death. Ultimately, for armor or resists to be particularly effective they need to be close in value to the damage of the attacks you're trying to defend against, and there simply isn't enough fire resist available in Gothic 1 to get close to the kind of damage the fire lizards can do.

Fire lizards do not use melee attacks. Their only attack is Breath of Fire, which is the equivalent of a powered Fireball (with the exception that they don't have the chance of stunning you).
That means the attack (A) is:

A = ([initial Fire damage] + [damage over time])

My test was fighting a fire lizard (at level 10, and not level 1 so that I have enough HP to calculate):
1) No armor + no jewelery = almost one hit
2) No armor + all available fire resist jewelery = ~60% HP
3) Robe of Dark Arts + all available fire resist jewelery = almost immune.

So I can't see how fire resistance doesn't help.

I'm curious though on what you base your statement. And I mean calculating the aforementioned, not the fact that you can dodge their attack or take them down with a ranged weapon / spell.

Wait a second, clarify something for me.

Fire Lizards hit ONCE and the damage is dealt in ticks, right? Or am I actually getting hit like 20 times in quick succession in what appears to be one attack?

Also, Kojocel, can you list how much life you had and how much Fire Protection you had when you survived it?

With 40 Fire Protection and 300+ life, I got killed in what APPEARED to be a single attack from a Fire Lizard.

Interesting. I was assuming the attack was a single large amount of damage, but if the damage is dealt as multiple components (initial hit plus several DoT hits) then it's likely that each of those components will be reduced independently by the fire resist (so instead of removing 90 damage from, say, a 300 damage attack, you'd instead be removing 90 damage from 3x100 damage attacks, ultimately reducing the overall damage far more). The results of your test seem to be quite consistent with this. Thanks for posting those results, taught me something new.

Waaaaait a second, you can survive a Fire Lizard attack with NO protection at all? At about level 20 with 40 fire protection I thought I got downed in one hit...

Okay, I really have to ask, is damage channeled or something?

When I get hit, I could swear I got hit once and I died from it, could it be they're hitting me multiple times???

No problem man, anytime.
Those were just the conclusions I draw from testing their damage. If there are any other fight mechanics here I'm not aware of, or what I concluded is wrong, I'd be happy to change my opinion on the matter, (thus enlightening myself and not misguide other people) providing someone else knows the intricate details and doesn't mind to share. No the damage is not channeled. They do have a fast attack rate, but each attack counts as a powered fireball (due to DoT effect, that is).

I'm certainly no expert but I believe that all hits have a chance for a critical hit (double, I think), even beasts. I've been playing G-III for quite a while so my memory of the others is foggy. At least I think I remember a large inconsistency in hits from the same sort of attack from time to time; may be what you experienced.