General Velgar

Velgar is the first dragon you fight, at the end of Dragon Slayer, and the fight is tuned for power level 4 gear: iron armour, an Iron Mace or the Abyssal Whip, a blightwood bow or a Blightwood Battlestaff. He takes no extra damage from any type and shrugs off poison and burning, so leave weapon poison and fire arrows at home. If you cast, water and air runes do the work; fire still lands, you just lose the burn.

Pack a Lesser Antipoison Potion and a few Mushroom Kebabs. Both grant Fungal Fortitude, which blunts his poison breath, and the kebab heals as well. Add one infusion for your combat style (they don't stack, so pick the one that cuts stamina on what you do most), healing food, and an Anti-dragon Shield if you fight one-handed or with an Iron Crossbow. Melee players get the most out of a Whetstone, casters out of a Magical Focus, and a Lesser Attack Potion or Lesser Magic Potion on top of either is the cheap way to shorten the fight. Sanguine urns on the way in raise your maximum health, and Tempest Shield blocks attacks a normal shield can't.

Up close he bites and swipes. At range he slams the ground to send a line of earth spikes at you and breathes a cone of poison from wherever he's facing. Each time he loses about a quarter of his health, until the last quarter, he lifts off and rains poison onto red-orange circles on the ground; stand outside them, because where two overlap you get hit twice. If your antipoison or Fungal Fortitude runs out his breath poisons you fast, around four health a second until it's cured, so refresh it between his flights rather than mid-combo. Dodge late rather than early. Most first attempts end on a panicked roll into the next swing, not on damage you couldn't have seen coming.

His head goes into your quest inventory when he falls, and the fight unlocks the recipes for the Challenge Horn, the whip and the two dragon shields.