Completed Let's play Pool of Radiance with one character!

[Null Null]

LOL. They got a lot better with the art as time went on, no?

If I had more time I'd do the evolution of the various reused combat icons through the series. Curse's Royal Guard made it pretty much intact as FRUA's Road Guard.

 

[Dorateen]

If I had more time I'd do the evolution of the various reused combat icons through the series. Curse's Royal Guard made it pretty much intact as FRUA's Road Guard.

Right, and another favorite is the beholder, which started out smaller and then became those giant sized ugly orbs by the later games.

 

[yellowking]

so, can this be done with the Krynn games? I would think the later games would make it hard, but the 8th level fighter fight is one of the toughest of the pool sequence, overall.

 

[Null Null]

I started with Champions of Krynn. I think I got as far as Gargath using a neutral C/F/M (red mage gets 3rd level spells at level 4). There are more enemy spellcasters in that game so it's hard to keep them all suppressed.

More or less the same problem with Curse; I tried making an elf F/M/T (who would have unlimited advancement in 2 classes) and made it out of Tilverton; saved games started being corrupted for some reason, I'd go places and all the encounters would be in the wrong area (and not in a way that allowed me to finish the dungeon). My guess is the engine doesn't like having one character and creates errors. Usually if you make old software do things it doesn't expect there are problems.

I've seen the videos on Youtube where someone beats the last battle with one character, but that's different from running the entire game like that. (Though maybe they did that too!)

I actually tried with a single paladin in Pools of Darkness, but couldn't get anywhere.

 

[Null Null]

As an aside, I may do one and try it. I need a break from Let's Plays and I actually have a pretty hectic job, I've just theorized about this for a long time.

It also occurs to me I probably should have spaced this out to let it gain some buzz, I was just afraid life would intervene again and everyone would be left with a half-complete Let's Play. I personally hate stories that end in the middle.

Of course, if I do either of those there will be a disclaimer at the front that it may not end.

 

[CappenVarra]

impressive lp old chap

could only be improved by more polearms to make gary happy

 

[octavius]

Yup, only 2 of them. The computer sees a low Party Strength from my lonely Overman, and puts a lousy 2 kobolds against me. Even with a little knock from the Hobgoblins (dude nicked me with his long sword), I've still got 8 HP and AC 0 to the kobolds' HP 3 and AC 7. It's not really a fair fight--and remember, we don't want one. They only have to win once.

But think of that extra XP you miss, man!

 

[Null Null]

Thanks! More polearms. It's often struck me that the way the damage is set up you're always better off with the Long Sword or Two-Handed Sword depending on whether you like shields or not. Gary went and made 20 varieties of polearms and then made them all worse than a two-handed sword. Thing is, the only magic polearm is the Lucern Hammer +1 from the dwarven fighters, and that's still weaker than most of the stuff you get at that stage. I'm told polearms were actually more important than swords in late medieval European warfare...better range and could knock a knight off his horse.

Extra XP? Absolutely. With single-character, though, most of your effort is devoted to not dying, so you want to keep from getting swarmed. My strategy was (a) get to level 2 ASAP so you can't be killed by, say, 4 orcs guarding a piece of paper, and (b) clean out the slums and Kuto's well at that low level so I didn't have to go through the whole rigmarole of waiting for 10 orcs to guard. Monsters, particularly weak ones, actually give very little XP.

 

[octavius]

I was joking about the XP. But if you were really suffering from OCD, it would have bothered you.

And was bringing along a Hero against your rules?

 

[Null Null]

I see that. TBH I've always felt 'games are games' and flamewars over this stuff puzzle me. They're fun, if someone wants to play the game differently good for them.

Yeah, it was. I kinda felt single-character meant single-character. I mean, with 'challenges' like this it's always whatever you want to do. I didn't add Genheeris or Skullcrusher for similar reasons.

EDIT: For any future readers using this as a walkthrough, the Hero gives access to a two-handed sword +1 (of questionable utility) and plate mail +1 (probably useful) if you backstab him.

 

[octavius]

I'm almost tempted to do a solo run myself, even though I suffered a FRUA overdose a year or so ago (which is why I'm no longer active on the FRUa board).

 

[Tigranes]

Good old grognard murderhobo tale here, old chap. Very much appreciate it.

 

[Null Null]

Tigranes: Glad you liked it!

Octavius: If you want to do a different solo run, you could try elf F/M/T. More HP but you will have to rest to heal, and fighting the 8-Fs requires Stinking Cloud and Hold Person as a 3rd-level mage spell. In that case I would pick up the Potion of Speed, and carefully hold onto mage scrolls. The game crashes if you try to load a saved game from inside Yarash's pyramid (and possibly other areas; apparently it can't find the walls), so be warned.

As for FRUA: everyone's got their tastes. I spent a few years of my life where I would actually read RPG books and think 'could I FRUA this magic system?'; even now I've thought of turning Call of Cthulhu or even Encounter Critical into a FRUA mod. So I'm attached to it.

 

[Jason Liang]

Just a couple of notes on the game's possible random treasure -
- the best stuff I've ever gotten from the generic magic item spots are Bracers of AC 2 (0?), Ring of Protection +5. There is a Shield +3 in the Lizardman ruins. Gloves of Ogre Power, Longbow +3, Shortbow +3 and Long Sword +5 are also possible drops. Probably the rarest drops are random manuals - which I got from the Wyvern stash in the Kobold caverns. Ring of Invisibility is also pretty broken.
- Yarash's treasure vault is the only place I've seen to drop Composite Longbow +3, so it might be worth reloading a few times to get it. I've never seen it from a generic magic treasure drop.
- There are obviously insane wands like Wand of Paralyzation.
- My preferred weapon is 2-Handed Sword +3, for Fire Giant and Hill Giant hunting in Vallejo castle.

 

[Null Null]

Silly thing to be pedantic about, but there's a few Shields +2 in the Lizardman Ruins--shields have a base improvement of 1 so a Shield +2 will improve AC by 3.

I'm impressed you found a longsword +5 as a random drop. (Sure you didn't get it from fake Tyranthraxus?)

I actually did go to Yarash's treasure rooms a total of 29 times, ages ago, to test the random item generator. I produced 107 +1 items, 30 +2 items, and 6 +3 items. I never got a +4 item. On the other hand, I never got Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and that's definitely in the game in multiple fixed encounters. So maybe you actually did get one?

If you can actually get a 2-hander +3, sure--the damage bump is nice, and the hill giants don't do that much damage. I think the strongest you get is +2 outside of a random hoard though.

 

[Jason Liang]

The best spot to "test" the game's random magic item table is the Wyvern stash in the Kobold caverns, since that one gives two random treasures, plus potentially more if you are super lucky. Ohlo's reward is probably the earliest possible fixed random magic item slot, although there are two other slots in the Slums as well (one is the Troll hoard and the 3rd iirc is the hobgoblins?).

The Shields in the Lizardman Ruins are usually +2, but at least one of the slots can occasionally generate +3. Same with Yarash's treasure hoard - one of the hoard slots generates a magic bow that can be +1 to +3, which is the only place I've ever gotten Composite Longbow +3. As far as I can tell, in random treasure, 1 handed weapons can generate up to +5 while 2 handed can generate up to +3. But ofc long swords and and short swords are way more common than anything else.

 

[Elwro]

Congrats Null Null !

 

[Incendax]

Perhaps you could do Curse with the GB companion level uncapper? I think it would still be a major challenge.

 

[Null Null]

Ah. Run Curse single-player with Gold Box Companion to remove the level limits? Nifty idea! Unfortunately, if you have one character, the game has a tendency to mess up after leaving Tilverton by sending you to versions of the dungeons with all the events in the wrong places, such that the game is unfinishable. (I tried this with an F/M/T elf, which can get maximum levels in M and T, and ran into this problem.)

 

[Nijar]

Not possible! ... okay, maybe? Not really but... what's going .. wow!?
Thanks for showcasing, that was pretty impressive.