Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Ruhfuss]

Hmm. In FRUA-Curse, when I tried to take on THAT encounter, the Dust was a great deal less effective compared to regular Curse. Running around a corner, hoping to take enemies down one by one when they get into range, didn't work out that well, either. The constant spam of Slow crippled the party, first by needing some members to counter Slows with Hastes instead of dealing damage, and later by not being able to deal enough damage due to being slowed while being shredded by DE Lords. I gave up after a few tries and moved on.

 

[octavius]

I guess the Dust works like Inv 10' in FRUA.
Also, Slow hurts due to the improved AI which means Beholders can move and then cast spells. Best tactic against Beholders is probably Fine Longbows + Hasted and Enlarged archers, but IIRC Fine Longbows are not available in FRUA Curse.

 

[Hitoshura]

I don't recall a Dust in Pool. Where do you find it?

In a "secret" stash in the Temple of Bane.

 

[Ruhfuss]

I guess the Dust works like Inv 10' in FRUA.
Also, Slow hurts due to the improved AI which means Beholders can move and then cast spells. Best tactic against Beholders is probably Fine Longbows + Hasted and Enlarged archers, but IIRC Fine Longbows are not available in FRUA Curse.

Fine Long Bows can carry over from FRUA Pool. Needling Beholders with buffed warriors, like you said, is usually the safest way to take them down fast. Beholders move slowly, and their more devastating attacks have short range.

In the FRUA Curse MBC encounter, there are just to many enemies pushing into (melee) range, combined with lack of space to out-maneuver the Beholders' casting range, so that it's not possible to concentrate fire on the Beholders with all the need to counter Slows / stepping back from DE Lords to be able to fire again and taking hits to the rear while doing so.

If the newer AI is "improved" enough to avoid Clouds of Bad Air that won't get through MR, maybe Cloudkill could help to divide enemy forces. It has quite a large area of effect, and stays reasonably long.

 

[Null Null]

If you're playing FRUA, a ring of invisibility provides immunity from targeted ranged attacks (though not area of effect) before you act, and a ring of blinking provides immunity after you act. Wear both and beholders don't seem to be able to attack you most of the time. I was playing around with this for an unreleased design and a 1st-level mage armed with 80 darts +5 and rings of blinking and invisibility most of the time. Every so often the beholder got its attacks off though.

Not sure if Ray Dyer put those in the game though. Certainly there were no rings of blinking until Pools of Darkness in gold box games. (There will also never be a FRUA adaptation of Secret of the Silver Blades because it sucks nobody wants to bother puzzling out the teleporters to make the giant dungeons work.)

 

[Ruhfuss]

If you're playing FRUA, a ring of invisibility provides immunity from targeted ranged attacks (though not area of effect) before you act, and a ring of blinking provides immunity after you act. Wear both and beholders don't seem to be able to attack you most of the time. I was playing around with this for an unreleased design and a 1st-level mage armed with 80 darts +5 and rings of blinking and invisibility most of the time. Every so often the beholder got its attacks off though.

If a game/module had both a working Ring of Invisibility and Ring of Blinking, a PC wearing both should only be hittable by melee or area of effect spells before it ends its round, and should be completely immune to targeted ranged attacks and spells. The only exception to the latter that comes to mind is if a PC does something that causes to drop invisibility for the round, and then delaying the next action, leaving the PC visible and "in-phase" until it ends its round.

One has to wonder if Rings of Invisibility have been intentionally gimped by the devs for Pools. The invisibility/blink combo is really mean. The blinking effect alone almost negates the need for mirrors or silver shields to deflect gaze attacks; as long as a PC blinks and has the initiative, gaze attacks can't connect.

Not sure if Ray Dyer put those in the game though. Certainly there were no rings of blinking until Pools of Darkness in gold box games.

I think Pools is the only game that has Rings of Blinking. Can't remember finding any in FRUA Pool or FRUA Curse.

(There will also never be a FRUA adaptation of Secret of the Silver Blades because it sucks nobody wants to bother puzzling out the teleporters to make the giant dungeons work.)

The usual explanation for this is that both Pool and Curse were actual PnP module conversions with dev backing from TSR, which made them fitting material for Ray's Realm setting, while Secret and successors are original material. From a more technical viewpoint, Pool lacks some options (e. g. Paladins, Rangers, Fix), and Curse can be a buggy mess, so both profit from the FRUA engine's modernization. While Secret still lacks some much appreciated things that come with Pools (e. g. improved targeting, spell rememorization), its (technical!) implementation is otherwise of fine quality.

 

[octavius]

If the newer AI is "improved" enough to avoid Clouds of Bad Air that won't get through MR, maybe Cloudkill could help to divide enemy forces. It has quite a large area of effect, and stays reasonably long.

It should be possible to stop the Drow Lords advancing, but not the Beholder and Rakshakas who are immune.

If you're playing FRUA, a ring of invisibility provides immunity from targeted ranged attacks (though not area of effect) before you act,

That's not my experience.

 

[Ruhfuss]

Update on my Pools campaign progess. I'm doing things in a what I guess to be unconventional order - bad metagamer me! - and plan to do a little more detailed writeup on that later on.

I finished Myth Drannor after a short visit to Mulmaster and the Beholder Caves. The Cleric reached level 18 and got her Paladin(17) abilities back. I really like how Paladin/Cleric and Ranger/Magic-User combos fit together with their combined spell slots.

DISCLAIMER: Shameless self-praise for party awesomness following.

Current party features achievments:

• Pub Brawl Nightmare: 12 melee attacks/round, without beer
• Bruiser: THAC0 range is from -6 (best) to 1 (worst)
• Turtle Tank: AC range from -15 (best) to -12 (worst) [addendum]
  
• Wrecker's Ball: 3 PCs wearing a Girdle of Giant Strength
• Giant's Bane: 3 Rangers, and 2 Paladins carrying Long Swords vs. Giants
• Hail of Arrows: 6 PCs carrying Fine Long Bows (one which is +2)
  
• Perfidious Bastard: 2 backstabs possible per round, unhasted
• Perfidious Bastard on Crack: hasted backstab damage potential: 480 HP/round
• Barber Shop Sextett: each PC is a spellcaster
  
• Nuclear Launch Detected: 4 full time Magic-Users
• Save Scumming Loser: close to 150 HP per PC
  
• Vanity Affair: 5 PCs carrying a silver shield
• Almost No Boob Plate: 5 PCs NOT wearing armor
• Belch Resistance: a scroll that makes bad breath a non-issue
• Warp Fields Initialized: 2 PCs wearing a Ring of Blinking
  
• Night Club Bouncer: carrying more rings than having fingers to put them on
• Weird Beast Poacher: each PC wearing a Cloak of Displacement
• Indian Burn: reliably raping Rakshasa before they get their spells off

 

[Jo498]

Now I did a bunch of stupid things. I played most of Secrets last winter (despite not really liking it) to keep developing some characters I had carried over from the earlier games and to build up at least two or even three dual class chars for another go at Pools. So what happens, I lose interest in the last dungeon and take a break from gold box. Then a few weeks ago the old computer I used for those old games apparently died. Not sure if the data can be saved, I am relying on help here and it will take a another few weeks before that guy can look at the computer and harddisk.

It gets more stupid still: For whatever reason I want to play Pools a week ago or so (maybe because the gaming computer died), finally found a PC version for download. Of course I am without transferable characters. Frustrated because I probably lost the ones I had meticulously build up from PoR or Curse, I thought first about using a modification of the pre-made party. But they cannot be modified (I actually basically wanted to change some names and this would easily be possible with remove/overwrite but I am stupid so I rembered too late how this works).
So I create/modify new ones and decide to dual no less than three characters right away. Which is stupid. The beginning of PoR is not at all a good place for dualling in many respects. The premade party has smartly dualled a cleric to mage at lvl11 (to have the Heal and blade barrier) and the ranger to mage at 9 or so (for the 1.5 attacks/round and max HP) , as I probably did in Secrets (do not quite remember the details). But more than everything else, the structure of Secrets with frequent returns to Verdigris is ideal for building up dual class chars. The beginning of Pools is the worst place ever for this because of the lack of training opportunities and, if one survives, so many xp that they will be wasted because characters can only advance one lvl at a time and every xp above two lvl gains are lost. And I was again too stupid to get a cluebook early enough to figure out the best way to do it...

So I get a Paladin, a Ranger and a f/m/t (a dwarf or half-elf f/t would probably be better but this guy had to be my main caster for quite a while. although he will advance even more slowly than the paladin and even with modification has only around 80 HP) and a fighter, a cleric and a ranger and dual to cleric, mage, mage already in Phlan. The first lvl advancement is achieved by fighting the Ettins in the tavern but then one is transported into the wilderness.
Not having played this in a long time, my plan was to somehow (power word reload) survive wilderness random encounters and go to Zhentil Keep for training. Only problem is that one has to bribe a clerk with 10 gems. So I can train there only once because while random encounters yield lots of loot to be sold, one cannot change it into gems (at least I have not found a place). So I go around the moonsea to mulmaster where the bribe is only 100 platinum for training.
(The better way would have been to go to the giants steading north of Phlan because this has a *free* training hall once you are in and smallish groups of giants can be fought with 3 capable and 3 lvl 2-3 characters even better than most wilderness encounters, I found this out after the first few lvls gained).

It is possible to grind the 3 newbies up to a level where they are of some use (ca. lvl 5-7) but one has to reload several times because some wilderness encounters are too hard (no neutralize poison before lvl 7 cleric... and one hit from a vampire kills a lvl 2 character through "draining") I even managed Thorne's cave with the newbies still a level or two (12-13) beneath achieving dual abilities. (All battles fought at standard pre-set middle difficulty, that is e.g. Blue Dragon has 80 HP))
It's not really fun. If one for some reason cannot import dual characters from earlier games, I'd go for only one, at most two at the beginning of pools. Fighter/cleric is not really necessary, i'ts mainly that he can use more weapons, attack more frequently, has a few (but not so much) more HP and a pure cleric might max out before the end of the game. With a 14-15 lvl cleric one would not have to reload frequently in the early grinding phase because he can cure poison etc.
I am also somewhat disappointed by the game itself I used to like a bit, maybe because it was so huge. It's fairly hard to figure out what to do at the beginning, fairly easy to miss some good stuff and some battles are frustrating, not in the way of being overly hard per se but being "randomly" dependent on initiative or luck with certain spells. (Hold monster and stinking cloud are better vs. dragons with middle lvl (below DBF) mages)
One of the most annoying things is that the PC version (I played it on amiga first almost 25 years ago and probably again on mac in the mid/late 1990s, not sure if ever on PC) does not let you bundle up scrolls, a feature that was already there in Secrets! This leads to lots of equipment shuffling and frequent "overload".

 

[octavius]

Sounds like you could have used the Gold Box Companion to recreate your characters.

 

[Ruhfuss]

It gets more stupid still: For whatever reason I want to play Pools a week ago or so (maybe because the gaming computer died), finally found a PC version for download. Of course I am without transferable characters. Frustrated because I probably lost the ones I had meticulously build up from PoR or Curse, I thought first about using a modification of the pre-made party. But they cannot be modified (I actually basically wanted to change some names and this would easily be possible with remove/overwrite but I am stupid so I rembered too late how this works).

Starting Pools with

game 2 2 HALIBUT

enables MODIFY for "used" PCs. MODIFY also allows to rename PCs.

The beginning of PoR is not at all a good place for dualling in many respects. The premade party has smartly dualled a cleric to mage at lvl11 (to have the Heal and blade barrier) and the ranger to mage at 9 or so (for the 1.5 attacks/round and max HP) , as I probably did in Secrets (do not quite remember the details). But more than everything else, the structure of Secrets with frequent returns to Verdigris is ideal for building up dual class chars. The beginning of Pools is the worst place ever for this because of the lack of training opportunities and, if one survives, so many xp that they will be wasted because characters can only advance one lvl at a time and every xp above two lvl gains are lost. And I was again too stupid to get a cluebook early enough to figure out the best way to do it...

Phlan offers one fight (Ettins at the Troll Toss Tavern), which nets enough XP to advance to level 2 for freshly dualled PCs. After leaving Phlan, the Hill Giant Steading should be made the party's base camp. It has a shop, a free training hall and offers many easy encounters to quickly level up freshly dualled PCs.

The more Rangers your party has (max. is 3), the better the chances are that the party can FLEE from wilderness encounters, even earning the Ranger that leads the party around the enemies some XP.

I am also somewhat disappointed by the game itself I used to like a bit, maybe because it was so huge. It's fairly hard to figure out what to do at the beginning, fairly easy to miss some good stuff

Due to its extremly open nature for a Gold Box game, combined with lack of hand-holding, Pools is a game that can vary greatly in difficulty. Without prior experience with the game, Pools can be a real bitch.

On the other hand, after the bitch has taught you her tricks, comes payback time. Taking on Pools as a real campaign instead of a railroad that takes you from one tactical encounter to the next, the game's offering an opportunity that's rarely seen in a CRPG. Plan your campaign. Have a strategy. Know where to go first, know where you can get powerful items as soon as possible. Then make Pools your bitch.

 

[Jo498]

I know. I played that game at least twice (amiga and Mac), probably three times or more (maybe some not quite completely). But the last time was in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
The first time was in 1992 or 93 on the Amiga with my brother and we must have been struggling for months. We were not very experienced players, this was much harder than Champions and Deaths Knights and we had not understood dual classing, so our party had human paladin, ranger, mage, cleric and one dwarven fighter/thief and a triple class elf. (I think we had even started first with an elf f/m only to realize that this guy could not advance AT ALL in that game). This is doable, but such a party is low on spell casters and if the priest goes down one can frequently reload (at least until the Paladin gets cure poison). And that elf never really got enough HP for the fights later in the game.
(It would be a real challenge to try the game with say, one human cleric and 5 non-human dual/triple characters )
The dungeon with Vala was a nightmare (I think we got there before the Temple of Tyr which is a mistake, IMO). There is one fight with Drow and the last fight against a huge number of Vaasans, we must have tried those at least 3 times or more before succeeding. Than we did some of the giant's stuff but missed Thorne and the first outer dimension we did was Kalistes. Again nightmare. This was before widespread internet and walkthrus and we must have somehow figured out some things although I remember that at one stage I got some hints or so for Moander's circulatory system

As for recreating; I not remember my Curse/Secret characters's details well enough for that. And I have half a mind to continue now that my new party can use their dual abilities... Starting with all the super equipment from Secret is also somewhat lame because this is better than most stuff one can find in Pools.
(I realized slightly too late that I should have gone to the giant's fort first for levelling up (I had not remembered that this was half a friendly town) and I also got several times the evasion with help of a ranger)

Where/when does one enter such code: game 2 2 HALIBUT

Is there a list on which magical items survive transfer through the limbo? I think the Vorpal sword does and rings of protection fire/cold/evil do. But I am not sure if there is a random factor involved. E.g. some ring survives luckily when going from the realms to Kalistes but dissolves on the return trip.

 

[Null Null]

If you're making it that's fine. If you're in need of some low-level grinding you could try starting fights in Mulmaster (though you will have a longer set of battles to get into Arcam's cave), or trying to clear out areas like the Hill Giant Steading that offer easy access to resting.

If you want to do the major quests in Pools out of order Kalistes is a reasonable one to do second or third as the increments in your characters' levels will make Drow easier to affect with spells. MR for Drow is 64-80%, which means a 13th level character has a 30-46% chance of affecting a Drow with a fireball, whereas a 23rd level character has a 80-96% chance, and a 33rd level character will always affect them. Rakshasa are difficult to fight in large numbers without access to Meteor Swarm, so put that one off.

As far as I know there is no random factor. Drow items will survive the transfer to Kalistes' dimension, but only that transfer (ie going to Moander will destroy them). You can buy nonmagical items from the trading post at Zhentil Keep if you want to go in carrying something. The Vorpal Long Sword survives the transfer as well. Rings with a special effect like Rings of Fire Resistance, but not rings with a given bonus like Rings of Protection, appear to survive (can anyone verify?). This is probably the origin of the quirk of FRUA that magic rings have a special byte set.

Pools was made at the height of the Gold Box series' popularity and was made to challenge dedicated fans. It's not surprising you had a hard time.

 

[Ruhfuss]

(It would be a real challenge to try the game with say, one human cleric and 5 non-human dual/triple characters )

That would be called PITA mode, I'd say.

Alternatively, try Dark Queen of Krynn with race/class combos of the highest level caps that are not "Max". I did build such a party once or twice for fun, but was never insane enough to really go for it.

Where/when does one enter such code: game 2 2 HALIBUT

I'm assuming a legacy/vanilla PC version of Pools, running in Dosbox. Instead of starting the game with "START.BAT" from a DOS prompt, enter "game 2 2 HALIBUT" instead. If you're using a customized Dosbox config file to start the game, posting the last 10 or so lines would make it easier to give you advice.

 

[octavius]

Rings with a special effect like Rings of Fire Resistance, but not rings with a given bonus like Rings of Protection, appear to survive (can anyone verify?).

That's my experience too. Too bad the Ring of Lightning Immunity doesn't work in the DOS version, though. It's amazing how much difference it makes, at least if you're playing with non-maxed, non save scummed characters.

 

[Ruhfuss]

I've just completed the Moander part of Pools. I had entered Moander's dimension deliberately without any equipment, not even the Vorpal Long Sword.

The Moander Mini-Adventures, as the Clue Book calls them, were no trouble at all. The Heart was... a mixed experience. The "dungeon" design must be one of the most unconventional and innovative things that the Gold Box has to offer. But the difficulty spike of the -> random <- encounters is just way beyond crazy, topping maybe even the final battles of the other games in the series. And all of this with improvised equipment.

Compared to the quality of the Clue Book for Secret, the one for Pools is a major decline. For example, in the Heart, the map lacks the information where the final encounter takes place. It's also generally easy to miss valuable items after combat, since the encounter descriptions often lack info on the loot, or the info is imprecise, as is the major-magic-items-overview.

It was a real bummer that none of better/rare items carried over from Moander's to the Realms. Boots of Speed, I'm looking at you. Just as dickish as with the Silver Shield +3 or Bracers AC 2 from Thorne's. It's one thing to up the challenge in letting the player start out poor, but don't take away all the great stuff on the journey home. After all, there's a Dave waiting for a kick in the butt!

Speaking of Dave, the closer I get to the finale, the more I miss the additional items that could have been brought over from TSF. One can never have enough protective items.

Current party overview:

• Paladin(17)/Cleric(23) | AC -15 | THAC0 -6 | HP 162
  
• Ranger(17)/Thief(25) | AC -15 | THAC0 -4 | HP 162
• Ranger(15)/Magic-User(25) | AC -15 | THAC0 -1 | HP 152
• Ranger(15)/Magic-User(25) | AC -15 | THAC0 -3 | HP 152
• Paladin(13)/Magic-User(26) | AC -14 | THAC0 0 | HP 151
• Paladin(13)/Magic-User(26) | AC -14 | THAC0 0 | HP 151

Next stop: Zhentil Keep. There's some human superiority to show to some Drow.

 

[Ruhfuss]

Too bad the Ring of Lightning Immunity doesn't work in the DOS version, though.

Just did a quick check.

• entered combat, readied unequipped Ring of Electrical Immunity on PC, cast Lightning Bolt on respective PC
• entered combat with already equipped Ring of Electrical Immunity on PC, cast serveral Lightning Bolts on respective PC

The Lightning Bolts did no damage. Couldn't find a helpful Blue Dragon or other lightning breather for further investigation, though.

Game version is 1.10 for DOS.

 

[octavius]

Too bad the Ring of Lightning Immunity doesn't work in the DOS version, though.

Just did a quick check.

• entered combat, readied unequipped Ring of Electrical Immunity on PC, cast Lightning Bolt on respective PC
• entered combat with already equipped Ring of Electrical Immunity on PC, cast serveral Lightning Bolts on respective PC

The Lightning Bolts did no damage. Couldn't find a helpful Blue Dragon or other lightning breather for further investigation, though.

Game version is 1.10 for DOS.

Hmm...I must have played the 1.00 version, then, and the ring fixed in 1.10. Can't check since it's on the old computer, and it was before the GB games were available on GOG.

 

[Jo498]

(It would be a real challenge to try the game with say, one human cleric and 5 non-human dual/triple characters )

That would be called PITA mode, I'd say.

Alternatively, try Dark Queen of Krynn with race/class combos of the highest level caps that are not "Max". I did build such a party once or twice for fun, but was never insane enough to really go for it.

I don't like that game enough, I am afraid. While the details are hazy as it's been more than 20 years, as I said, my brother and myself managed as not very experienced players (of course we gained a lot during the game) to beat Pools without dual class characters. We even played most of it on the second highest lvl (blue dragon 100 HP instead of 80). It was a huge pain and I really wonder how we managed to do it because there were several tactics we were'nt aware of. I guess we just had to do a lot of re-loading and trying stuff like the Kalistes endfight 3-4 times.
Only for the last concatenated fight we had to switch to the easiest lvl after many trials. I don't remember the details but the main problems with such a party (p,r,m,c, f/t, f/m/t) is that 3 characters have fairly low HP, the dwarf probably around 90-100 which is o.k. but the pure mage and the triple had only around 70-75 at the end of the game, I guess. And the multiclass have less attacks as fighters and less resistances because of lower lvl altogether. And one has only one really good mage, the triple is capped at lvl 11, that is 5th lvl spells. In the first part of the final fight one can take out the bane minions probably with two DBF if one has two high lvl mages. A mere fireball from an 11 lvl mage will without great luck not kill a 50 HP? bane minion.

Where/when does one enter such code: game 2 2 HALIBUT

I'm assuming a legacy/vanilla PC version of Pools, running in Dosbox. Instead of starting the game with "START.BAT" from a DOS prompt, enter "game 2 2 HALIBUT" instead. If you're using a customized Dosbox config file to start the game, posting the last 10 or so lines would make it easier to give you advice.[/QUOTE]
thanks, I am running Dosbox without customized config files, so I will try this. But I am probably going to stick with the party I have now and rather hope I might recover my "specially trained" Secrets party some day.

 

[Jo498]

If you're making it that's fine. If you're in need of some low-level grinding you could try starting fights in Mulmaster (though you will have a longer set of battles to get into Arcam's cave), or trying to clear out areas like the Hill Giant Steading that offer easy access to resting.

That is basically what I did. I went first to Zhentil keep, then around the southern shore to mulmaster, did two rounds in the arena (this was possible with haste if nobody was poisoned by a purple worm and Arcam's representative told me to go for Thorne). Then I went back to either the giant's steading or the temple of Tyr and realized that I should have started with the giant steading. (although the giants are more fun if one already has two rangers....). Then I cleared all the pre-Thorne giants/dragons stuff, then did the Vala/Vaasa dungeon. Then Thorne and also Manshoon's tower, although I messed this up a little (I somewhow got in the back door or so and the top is kind of disappointing anyway. (Admittedly I had to look up how to pass the "Gelt" (what is that?)

Spoiler

invisibilty 3 ft works

Rakshasa are difficult to fight in large numbers without access to Meteor Swarm, so put that one off.

I actually did Myth drannor already (the most recent thing I did). But now all of the 3 duals are (just) at their dual abilities (i.e. ca. lvl 14) and with lots of fire resistance, blessed bolts and enlarged warriors/thiefs (Nacacia does help) even the end fight was considerably easier than expected. I probably was lucky with hold person not taking effect but the mostly threw fireballs that affected only 5-10 damage or less with the protected characters
(I think this is another situation where the game is considerably harder on that lvl with monsters having 25% hp. It means a rakshasa is alive another round because he as that 8-15 hp left he otherwise would not have and will cast fireball or hold person and this adds up.)

As far as I know there is no random factor. Drow items will survive the transfer to Kalistes' dimension, but only that transfer (ie going to Moander will destroy them). You can buy nonmagical items from the trading post at Zhentil Keep if you want to go in carrying something. The Vorpal Long Sword survives the transfer as well. Rings with a special effect like Rings of Fire Resistance, but not rings with a given bonus like Rings of Protection, appear to survive (can anyone verify?).

This agrees with my recollection. I think I once saved drow weapons for the Moander dimension and was quite pissed when they were gone...

 

[Ruhfuss]

Hmm...I must have played the 1.00 version, then, and the ring fixed in 1.10. Can't check since it's on the old computer, and it was before the GB games were available on GOG.

Unfortunately they didn't fix the Ring of Invisibility not providing immunity to attacks of opportunity. I got so used to the way some items worked - or, well, didn't - in the later games, that I only started using them in the older games after reading that they actually can be usefull. Giving PC thieves a reliable way to safely get into backstab position is a nice tactical advantage, without being overpowered. All the RoI has to offer in Pools might be a bonus to AC, and even that is uncertain. Ah well, there aren't enough ring fingers available anyway.

Although switching rings during combat as needed isn't half as harebrained as removing armor, casting a spell, then donning the armor again in the next round of combat.

Rakshasa are difficult to fight in large numbers without access to Meteor Swarm, so put that one off.

Meteor swarming a whole combat line of Rakshasa felt VERY satisfying this time around. Back in the days, I was under the impression that they were completely immune to magic, and had to put them on my "OMG, this will hurt!" list. Myth Drannor had been a nightmare...

Having 4 PCs capable of casting Power Word Kill also helps when a Meteor Swarm just doesn't fit.

I'm also finding myself using Death Spell now and then in Pools, if only to get a little variety or when there's not enough space for a DBF. Myth Drannor is a good place for the drop-dead-and-die-already spells. Power Word Kill vs. Rakshasa, Death Spell vs. all the *lisks; also works on medusae, regular otyughs, drow clerics, some types of spiders. While certainly situational, Death Spell has replaced Disintegrate as my prefrerred choice of offensive level 6 spell for Magic-Users.

 

[Ruhfuss]

By the way, a chance to actually have fun with Dragon Age: Origins companions

 

[Jo498]

For whatever reason I found the "lisks" almost more annoying in myth drannor than the rakshasas, considering that they are only random encounters.
If two of the party have rings of fire resistance, two + Nacacia Druid fire protection, the rest normal resist fire and fire shield and three add mirror image for the big predictable fights (temple and end fight) one can basically ignore their fireballs and just hack away with enlargened fighters. One needs a little luck that their occasional hold persons don't work.

death spell is also pretty good against annoying/dangerous smaller monsters like spiders when the topography does not allow fireballs because it will kill several of them. These are also one of the few occasions for the blue death cloud (which is overall a far less useful spell than the trusty little green cloud that has 30-50% success on dragons!, evil lords etc. and will prevent many human spell casters at least from casting).cf

 

[octavius]

Unfortunately they didn't fix the Ring of Invisibility not providing immunity to attacks of opportunity. I got so used to the way some items worked - or, well, didn't - in the later games, that I only started using them in the older games after reading that they actually can be usefull. Giving PC thieves a reliable way to safely get into backstab position is a nice tactical advantage, without being overpowered. All the RoI has to offer in Pools might be a bonus to AC, and even that is uncertain.

Yeah, that's one of my favourite tactics: a F/T that can move unhindered amongst most enemeies. Even better if he has Boots of Speed.
Unfortunately in FRUA the RoI does not seem to prevent being targeted by spells and missiles before acting.
It's really annoying how there's always some changes and bugs in items from game to game. A Wand of Ice Storm imported from Gateway to Treasures will work differently from a WoIS that is "native" to Treasures, for example.

I'm also finding myself using Death Spell now and then in Pools, if only to get a little variety or when there's not enough space for a DBF. Myth Drannor is a good place for the drop-dead-and-die-already spells. Power Word Kill vs. Rakshasa, Death Spell vs. all the *lisks; also works on medusae, regular otyughs, drow clerics, some types of spiders. While certainly situational, Death Spell has replaced Disintegrate as my prefrerred choice of offensive level 6 spell for Magic-Users.

Yeah, Death Spell is great against monsters with nasty attacks but low HP.
In some FRUA modules casting Death Spell from scrolls is just about the only way for low level parties to survive against Drow (for some reason many FRUA authors underestimated Drow).

 

[Jo498]

All that talk puts into my mind a replay of PoD with a party as close as possible to my very first one (ranger, paladin, mage, cleric, elf f/m/t, dwarf f/t), maybe even with the way below optimal order of quests/dungeons (like playing Kalistes before thorne and moander). But I am not going to do it on PC unless there is a version that fixes scroll bundling. They gave higher lvl thieves the ability to use scrolls and a mage can cast higher than his actual level from a scroll, I believe, so scroll bundles would be a moderate boost for the comparably weak dwarf/elf multiclass guys.
I used to have a Mac goldbox cd rom but I am not sure where it is and if I still have it...