Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[mediocrepoet]

Is transferring parties recommended in the Forgotten Realms games? About to start PoR and wondering if I should add Paladin/Ranger to take a party all the way through. I'd prefer to just play the base classes in PoR and make a new party for Azure Bonds but idk if it puts me at a disadvantage. Is starting a fresh party difficult in later games?

Also any general tips for gold box games? I'm only familiar with Wizardry 1-3 style games and smt as far as turn based blobbers go.

You'll level cap each game either way, but generally importing is good. Just use fighters in PoR and then import your party but replace the fighters in CotAB.
If you do want to use the same party throughout, you're going to want to use humans because the other races have level limits in every class except thief. You should probably have a look at those and also the stat requirements for dual classing. You'll want to plan on having multiple casters in the later games. You will probably also want a thief of some stripe, probably a fighter/thief which many people favour a dwarf for.

For more specific tips, there are a variety of party suggestions in this thread if you search it.

 

[JamesDixon]

This might have been a rule in AD&D, but I can't find any indication of it at the moment

AD&D 1E DMG (Premium Edition) page 86 says, "ONCE A CHARACTER HAS POINTS WHICH ARE EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN THE MINIMUM NUMBER NECESSARY TO MOVE UPWARDS IN EXPERIENCE LEVEL, NO FURTHER EXPERIENCE POINTS CAN BE GAINED UNTIL THE CHARACTER ACTUALLY GAINS THE NEW LEVEL." I'm quoting the book exactly how it's written.

This rule carried over into AD&D 2E as well.

Is transferring parties recommended in the Forgotten Realms games? About to start PoR and wondering if I should add Paladin/Ranger to take a party all the way through.

Yes, you should start characters in PoR and transfer them. Paladins and Rangers were written into PoR but never activated. With Gold Box Companion for the Steam version you can play paladins and rangers. You need to install this add on. You can also use GBC itself for the GOG version to handle paladins and rangers.

 

[newtmonkey]

KDcross
Some general tips (dunno how familiar you are with AD&D rules):

• A dwarf fighter/thief rolled with max STR is actually a pretty decent character to have, because he can do tremendous damage by backstabbing; very handy against magic-resistant enemies in CotAB (he becomes less useful afterwards, though).
• Some spells that are useful for most of if not the entire series: Sleep, Hold Person, Stinking Cloud, Fireball, Bless, Prayer, Haste.
• It's very important to disrupt enemy spellcasters, because they have access to the same spells I listed above.

 

[octavius]

Pool of Radiance is the odd game out of the GB games. The HP gains when leveling are totally random, for example, while in the other games the dice are loaded in favour of the player.
So if you don't save scum, you'll get better characters (as in more HP) if you create new ones in Curse.
Characters transfered from Pool to Curse can also be quite buggy, if they equip stat enhancing items like Ioun Stones.

 

[JamesDixon]

Characters transfered from Pool to Curse can also be quite buggy, if they equip stat enhancing items like Ioun Stones.

It's advised to unequip all items then do the transfer.

 

[Dorateen]

Throughout the series, some locations will have the "Area View" (mini-map) disabled. Hold onto that Wizardry graph paper.

 

[JamesDixon]

Throughout the series, some locations will have the "Area View" (mini-map) disabled. Hold onto that Wizardry graph paper.

Not a problem when you have Gold Box Companion. It has a mapper that is built in to show where you are.

 

[octavius]

Characters transfered from Pool to Curse can also be quite buggy, if they equip stat enhancing items like Ioun Stones.

It's advised to unequip all items then do the transfer.

But Ioun stones are only in Curse. IIRC equipping them on transfered characters led to bugginess. But of course it may have been a combination of them also wearing the Gauntlets of Ogre Strenght and/or having used the Manual of Bodily Strength.

 

[JamesDixon]

Characters transfered from Pool to Curse can also be quite buggy, if they equip stat enhancing items like Ioun Stones.

It's advised to unequip all items then do the transfer.

But Ioun stones are only in Curse. IIRC equipping them on transfered characters led to bugginess. But of course it may have been a combination of them also wearing the Gauntlets of Ogre Strenght and/or having used the Manual of Bodily Strength.

I know. I just was commenting that it's advised to unequip all gear before you export and import.

 

[Ysaye]

Is anyone still sad that Seven Dragon Saga never made it? I am still hoping that this type / style of game gets a revival via ProphetSword 's efforts.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Pool of Radiance is the odd game out of the GB games. The HP gains when leveling are totally random, for example, while in the other games the dice are loaded in favour of the player.
So if you don't save scum, you'll get better characters (as in more HP) if you create new ones in Curse.
Characters transfered from Pool to Curse can also be quite buggy, if they equip stat enhancing items like Ioun Stones.

If he's playing the PC version with Gold Box Companion, he would have the option of adjusting character stats, rather than create new characters in CotAB for the HP boost.

This functionality could also be used to correct any errors resulting from the transfer of characters between games, though as JamesDixon noted it's best to unequip magic items beforehand, which should prevent such bugs from occurring.

 

[Morblot]

Is anyone still sad that Seven Dragon Saga never made it?

Yeah, whenever I look at my Kickstarter history and am reminded of it. Still the only KS I've ever pledged more than $100 for.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

How much mapping should I be expecting to do in Pool of Radiance? Should I be mapping towns?

 

[Butter]

How much mapping should I be expecting to do in Pool of Radiance? Should I be mapping towns?

Some of the dungeon areas are worth mapping. None of the areas in Phlan require it. You can press A to bring up an area map in a lot of locations.

 

[Ladonna]

How much mapping should I be expecting to do in Pool of Radiance? Should I be mapping towns?

I played through every GB game and never mapped a single thing. The maps aren't big enough or convoluted enough to bother with mapping really. Some people might disagree when it comes to parts of Silver Blades, but I got through ok.

 

[Glop_dweller]

Goldbox Companion will provide an automap, or Gridmonger would be more than sufficient for mapping them.

 

[newtmonkey]

PoR doesn't have mapping puzzles like Wizardry or The Bard's Tale (with just one exception), so the Area command combined with taking notes shoudl be enough to get through the game. The only thing to be concerned about is that there are quite a few caches of magic equipment hidden in the maps, and unless you explore thoroughly you could miss them, and thus miss out on some nice equipment and experience rewards.

 

[Glop_dweller]

An interesting thing about PoR (1) is that completing it unlocks an open world—such as it is for a 1987 title.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

How do you interrupt a character's Quick or Guard status in PoR? The manual doesn't seem to explain it. Two of my characters are stuck on autopilot.

 

[mediocrepoet]

How do you interrupt a character's Quick or Guard status in PoR? The manual doesn't seem to explain it. Two of my characters are stuck on autopilot.

Guard is set until their next turn (unless it's guarding due to being on quick mode). As I recall, quick mode can be turned off by hitting space bar. Also as I recall, sometimes you have to hammer on it a bit to get that to take.

 

[ProphetSword]

How do you interrupt a character's Quick or Guard status in PoR? The manual doesn't seem to explain it. Two of my characters are stuck on autopilot.

SPACE BAR removes the AUTO setting from all characters in the party and returns them to manual control.

This makes it easy to set all characters to Auto during a random encounter you know you can beat, and then hit the SPACE BAR when the more serious encounters occur.

Guarding cannot be removed. Once you Guard, your turn is over and your character stands ready to attack any enemy that approaches within melee. If your guard doesn't trigger before your next turn, it is removed automatically. If you're trying to do something later in the round, DELAY is actually the command you want.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Any tips for beginning combat in PoR? I can't seem to hit anyone unless I cast a sleep spell first, and I can only cast two sleep spells before needing to rest, and resting is usually interrupted. It looks like it'll be awhile before I get the 1000 gold pieces needed to train. I've got a few platinum pieces, but I never saw any mention of a bank or any currency exchange in the manual.

Sorry, I would usually save these kinds of banal "help me" requests for the shoutbox, but, uh, you know.

 

[Butter]

Platinum is worth 5x gold. I'm pretty sure the trainers will accept it. Money is pretty hard to come by in the early game, and I think it's reasonable to save-scum the tavern gambling.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Platinum is 5gp, 2 electrum is 1gp, 10 silver is 1gp, 100 copper is 1 gp. It's important because coins have weight so you want to convert up and after a point dump all the crap.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Early combat in old school AD&D is a bit of a crap shoot. Spells like bless can help, as can high strength (dexterity for ranges weapons), but mostly expect to miss a lot until you get a few levels under your belt.