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Gold Box Pool to Pools first time playthrough (Gold Box virgin)

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I have to admit, I never played the Gold Box games before. I got into the genre in the late 90s, and while I played old 90s classics then, like Might and Magic 3, Eye of the Beholder, some of the Ultimas, I never got into Gold Box because the interfact was a little too archaic for me.

That changed today.
I had a slow day at the office, my boss didn't have any tasks for me, so I installed DOSBox and gave the Gold Box series another chance.

And, of course, I'm planning to do it properly, by going all the way through from beginning to end with one party, which means Pool -> Curse -> Secret -> Pools.
I've already played for a few hours today and it's pretty fun. The interface is okay once you get used to it, and I'm using the Gold Box Companion to get that sweet sweet minimap and character health and XP bars.

I'm really in the mood for a good, no-bullshit dungeon crawl, so this is tremendous fun right now.

And, of course, as I plan to go from Pool to Pools, I'm wondering what party combination is good for this.
My party is:
- human male cleric
- human female cleric
- human male fighter
- human female fighter
- human female mage
- human female thief

Overall, a solid combination. No characters with really bad flaws (except for the female fighter due to strength capping at (50) instead of (00) but whatev), solid party for a full playthrough I think.

Or, well, I dunno. I think a second mage would've been a good idea to get some more spellcasting power in the later games.

Which is why I'm asking the knowledgeable Codexians: what's the best choices here?
Should I dual class any of my characters in the later games for extra versatility?

I took the thief because I read in a recommendation thread somewhere that having one thief is useful for picking locks and because backstab damage can become obscene on later levels. But right now, it's pretty much the weakest character - lower HP than wizard, can't wear anything better than leather... eh. Is the thief going to become better later on? How does she scale in the later games? Backstab bonus damage on max level in Pool is 4 times, does that go up further on higher levels?

What about spells? I already found out that sleep is overpowered as fuck on low level creatures. Any other really good spells I should take, and which spells are useless because some don't really seem to do anything (shield doesn't lower my AC, for example).
 

octavius

Arcane
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Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,184
Location
Bjørgvin
I'd just ignore backstabbing in PoR; it's not very efficient at lower levels and the rules are different, making it more difficult to achieve than in later games. A Half-Elf or Dwarf F/T is very useful in Curse, though. At low levels it's generally best to use Thieves as archers, since high Dex gives bonus to missile THAC0 and bow fire twice a round.

In PoR multi-class characters are very useful due to the low level caps (single classes will hit max level too soon), so I'd make an Elf Fighter/Mage (bonus with Longsword and Longbows, can use metal armour) and a Half Elf Cleric/Mage to get as many Sleep (can't have enough of these) and Cure spells as possible.
Then ditch them for a Paladin and Ranger in Curse.

So I'd make this party:
Human Fighter
Human Cleric
Human Mage
Half Elf Cleric/Mage
Elf Fighter/Mage
Dwarf Fighter/Thief

Also, you can have two hirelings. I recommend one (to leave room for NPCs that can join) Fighter type, since the rest are useless when you can't control them.
 
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Dorateen

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
4,332
Location
The Crystal Mist Mountains
Spells: Stinking Cloud is a must when it becomes available. It will allow you to better shape and control the battlefield.

Also, Haste is very useful, but ages a character one year. Your all human party might have issues with that.
 

Fowyr

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
7,671
1) It's 1st ed, so all demihumans have level caps. Keep your elves as thieves, the only class where they can attain 40! Humans are master race.
2) You can take ranger and paladin later in CoAB, replacing two of your characters.
Paladin is nifty due to controlling NPC in fight (starting with SotSB).
FIreball is a must, but you can find at least four scrolls with it, so don't learn it on level up.

Shield is tricky:
http://pandaria.rpgworlds.info/cant/rules/adnd_spells.htm#Shield
 

oldmanpaco

Master of Siestas
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
13,609
Location
Winter
PoR -> CotAB
Human Fighter -> Dual to Mage
Human Fighter -> Dual to Cleric
Cleric -> Drop for Paladin
Fighter/Mage -> Drop for Ranger
Mage/Cleric -> Drop for Fighter to be dualed Cleric
Human Thief -> Dual to Mage

The thief slot is open for really anything.
 
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Null Null

Arbiter
Joined
Aug 2, 2014
Messages
542
The only thing I'd add is that if you're not going to drop any characters in Curse, you might have a few issues with Pools of Darkness due to a lack of high-HP characters. I'd drop a cleric and replace him/her with a fighter if you're doing all single-class. You can then dual one of the fighters to mage in Curse after getting to level 9 (HP levels off).

I did the full run with the same set of characters, and here's what I did:
3 human fighters (dual one to mage in Secret at level 13, dual one to cleric in Pools at level 17)
1 elf fighter/mage/thief
1 human cleric
1 human mage

If you're willing to drop characters in Curse, toss in a fighter/cleric/mage in place of one of the fighters in Pool and replace him with a ranger in Curse, then dual the ranger to mage at level 9.
 

TigerKnee

Arcane
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Messages
1,920
Single class thieves are just worthless as fuck, and Dual'd thieves are kinda awkward in the transition period so Thieves are probably gonna be demi-humans (usually Dwarven Fighter/Thief)
 

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