Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Cael]

If you have four mages... what do you do when an enemy silences your fighter; worse... charms the fighter to then attack them? Aside from the loss of defender, and the incoming melee attacks, the silence follows the fighter around, and affects everyone near them.

Your gotcha is retarded simply because a 3-4 archer party is just as affected by the Charmed fighter. They can't use their bows when he is next to them either.

 

[Glop_dweller]

"Your gotcha"?

It's a given that anyone capable of using a longbow in the game can defend themselves with more than just a dagger, and cane. Any archer can switch to melee at will, and have some skill at it,—as well as being usually armored. Mages are the definition of glass canons; the heavy artillery that can be easily hamstrung if careless, or taken by surprise. Having four of them is devastating, sure...but they can themselves be decimated.

 

[Cael]

"Your gotcha"?

It's a given that anyone capable of using a longbow in the game can defend themselves with more than just a dagger, and cane. Any archer can switch to melee at will, and have some skill at it,—as well as being usually armored. Mages are the definition of glass canons; the heavy artillery that can be easily hamstrung if careless, or taken by surprise. Having four of them is devastating, sure...but they can themselves be decimated.

Yes, yes, yes. The old "but if this particular contrived situation occurs, you're screwed, so I win!!!" Fuck off, dramacunt. You're not even arguing the same thing we are: That is the efficacy of archers vs mages against enemy mobs in early game GB games.

 

[Glop_dweller]

If I had to choose between only Fighters or Mages to defend against mobs (ignoring rangers for sake of argument), I would pick fighters. To pick mages would mean starting things off with a bang, then quickly fizzling out, before being slaughtered.

 

[Cael]

If I had to choose between only Fighters or Mages to defend against mobs (ignoring rangers for sake of argument), I would pick fighters. To pick mages would mean starting things off with a bang, then quickly fizzling out, before being slaughtered.

Yep. I knew it. The cunt was never arguing in good faith but is angling for the old fighter vs mage debate. Typical dramacunt shit that blighted the old woketards of the cunts forums.

 

[Glop_dweller]

You are definitely digging a hole for yourself.

 

[The Limper]

I want to like these Gold Box games, a lot. But I have yet to get beyond the first few battles any time I try. I think I will get all the QoL features I can, assuming any exist, and try my hand at the Dragonlance ones again. Always liked their 2e rule implementation.

If you start with CoK and only plan to also play DKoK, party isn’t that important, per se. But, if you want to play a continuous party through the entire Dragonlance trilogy, you will probably want to plan your party composition out from the get go.

CoK, assuming you are going straight to Throtl, the 1st battle is easy. Just make sure you have an extra melee weapon for each melee combatant. Once you reach Throtl, make sure you have Sleep and Stinking Clouds and Hold Persons memorized. Keep upgrading armor. Once you hit level 4-5 you are good to go with plenty of HP and AC and Crowd Control. Then the game takes off into tons of battles. Do the tomb of Sir Dargaard as early as possible….. once Throtl and Gargath are cleared.

Yep, Longbows are your best friend in all low level AD&D games. (Except Dark Sun of course where your STR is equivalent to a Giant.)

I am not too sure about the GB games. I find them to be too close ranged for longbows to be effective, other than in random encounters in the wilderness.

Between disabling spells and Bows, enemy spellcasters become mute. Still need 2 tanks of course. But in the early game bows make it easy. Sleep/Hold Person/Stinking Cloud combined with bowfire will get you through Throtl with no issues until the Dragon fight. But if you just use the Ice Storm wand even that fight last only 1 round, maybe 2….

 

[Butter]

Yep, Longbows are your best friend in all low level AD&D games. (Except Dark Sun of course where your STR is equivalent to a Giant.)

I am not too sure about the GB games. I find them to be too close ranged for longbows to be effective, other than in random encounters in the wilderness.

Huh? There's no friendly fire or LOS in the GB games, and the AI will target whatever is closest, so there's no problem having two frontliners and the rest archers and spell casters. At low levels nothing is more effective than an Elf with a Longbow.

There is absolutely line of sight in the Gold Box games.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Yep, Longbows are your best friend in all low level AD&D games. (Except Dark Sun of course where your STR is equivalent to a Giant.)

I am not too sure about the GB games. I find them to be too close ranged for longbows to be effective, other than in random encounters in the wilderness.

Huh? There's no friendly fire or LOS in the GB games, and the AI will target whatever is closest, so there's no problem having two frontliners and the rest archers and spell casters. At low levels nothing is more effective than an Elf with a Longbow.

There is absolutely line of sight in the Gold Box games.

There is, but it doesn't come up all that often. A few walls, the odd tree or rock. It's usually not much of a big deal.

 

[Cael]

Between disabling spells and Bows, enemy spellcasters become mute. Still need 2 tanks of course. But in the early game bows make it easy. Sleep/Hold Person/Stinking Cloud combined with bowfire will get you through Throtl with no issues until the Dragon fight. But if you just use the Ice Storm wand even that fight last only 1 round, maybe 2….

I recall just using Sleep and Hold Person with melee guys. Don't really need bows unless it was an emergency, like a caster that HAD to be damaged that very second. If there are no casters, just swinging with fighters will do the job. In Throtl, that is basically what I did. You can clear most of the outer area without rest if you really wanted to with just 1 knight, 2 f/m, 1 t/m, 1 red mage and 1 f/c.

 

[Cael]

You are definitely digging a hole for yourself.

Ah, a woketard of the cunts troll. How cute. Welcome to the Ignore list, cunt.

 

[A horse of course]

You boomers sure like to argue a lot

 

[The Limper]

Between disabling spells and Bows, enemy spellcasters become mute. Still need 2 tanks of course. But in the early game bows make it easy. Sleep/Hold Person/Stinking Cloud combined with bowfire will get you through Throtl with no issues until the Dragon fight. But if you just use the Ice Storm wand even that fight last only 1 round, maybe 2….

I recall just using Sleep and Hold Person with melee guys. Don't really need bows unless it was an emergency, like a caster that HAD to be damaged that very second. If there are no casters, just swinging with fighters will do the job. In Throtl, that is basically what I did. You can clear most of the outer area without rest if you really wanted to with just 1 knight, 2 f/m, 1 t/m, 1 red mage and 1 f/c.

No arguments there, 4 mages is a LOT of Sleep spells. That is definitely a viable way to go. There are a couple of battles though in Throtl with a good amount of enemy spellcasters. Casters are usually in the back row of the enemy formation. That is what makes bows quite useful. If you are maxing stats on your characters, it probably doesn't matter since you will mostly win the initiative anyway and will plow through enemy ranks in melee with 18(51-100)strengths. I try not to do that. It defeats the purpose of certain spells and in game items like the girdle and gauntlets. No judging on my part, just saying.

 

[Cael]

Between disabling spells and Bows, enemy spellcasters become mute. Still need 2 tanks of course. But in the early game bows make it easy. Sleep/Hold Person/Stinking Cloud combined with bowfire will get you through Throtl with no issues until the Dragon fight. But if you just use the Ice Storm wand even that fight last only 1 round, maybe 2….

I recall just using Sleep and Hold Person with melee guys. Don't really need bows unless it was an emergency, like a caster that HAD to be damaged that very second. If there are no casters, just swinging with fighters will do the job. In Throtl, that is basically what I did. You can clear most of the outer area without rest if you really wanted to with just 1 knight, 2 f/m, 1 t/m, 1 red mage and 1 f/c.

No arguments there, 4 mages is a LOT of Sleep spells. That is definitely a viable way to go. There are a couple of battles though in Throtl with a good amount of enemy spellcasters. Casters are usually in the back row of the enemy formation. That is what makes bows quite useful. If you are maxing stats on your characters, it probably doesn't matter since you will mostly win the initiative anyway and will plow through enemy ranks in melee with 18(51-100)strengths. I try not to do that. It defeats the purpose of certain spells and in game items like the girdle and gauntlets. No judging on my part, just saying.

Casters are pretty vulnerable to Sleep and Hold Person, and given the cramped confines, range isn't an issue. The area effect of the spells, though, is where they really win out. 1 guy can disable a whole bunch of the enemy while the rest can plough right through them with auto-kill shots.

 

[The Limper]

You boomers sure like to argue a lot.

Between disabling spells and Bows, enemy spellcasters become mute. Still need 2 tanks of course. But in the early game bows make it easy. Sleep/Hold Person/Stinking Cloud combined with bowfire will get you through Throtl with no issues until the Dragon fight. But if you just use the Ice Storm wand even that fight last only 1 round, maybe 2….

I recall just using Sleep and Hold Person with melee guys. Don't really need bows unless it was an emergency, like a caster that HAD to be damaged that very second. If there are no casters, just swinging with fighters will do the job. In Throtl, that is basically what I did. You can clear most of the outer area without rest if you really wanted to with just 1 knight, 2 f/m, 1 t/m, 1 red mage and 1 f/c.

No arguments there, 4 mages is a LOT of Sleep spells. That is definitely a viable way to go. There are a couple of battles though in Throtl with a good amount of enemy spellcasters. Casters are usually in the back row of the enemy formation. That is what makes bows quite useful. If you are maxing stats on your characters, it probably doesn't matter since you will mostly win the initiative anyway and will plow through enemy ranks in melee with 18(51-100)strengths. I try not to do that. It defeats the purpose of certain spells and in game items like the girdle and gauntlets. No judging on my part, just saying.

Casters are pretty vulnerable to Sleep and Hold Person, and given the cramped confines, range isn't an issue. The area effect of the spells, though, is where they really win out. 1 guy can disable a whole bunch of the enemy while the rest can plough right through them with auto-kill shots.

Agreed. The 1st fight at the gates of Throtl teaches you from the get go that Sleep is a low-level parties best friend. Otherwise you need to buff your crappy THACO frontline and there isn't much to choose from other than Bless. If you pick the right Hob-gobbo in that fight, you can sleep a sleu of enemies. 2 Sleeps will win that first fight with ease.

 

[Cael]

You boomers sure like to argue a lot.

Between disabling spells and Bows, enemy spellcasters become mute. Still need 2 tanks of course. But in the early game bows make it easy. Sleep/Hold Person/Stinking Cloud combined with bowfire will get you through Throtl with no issues until the Dragon fight. But if you just use the Ice Storm wand even that fight last only 1 round, maybe 2….

I recall just using Sleep and Hold Person with melee guys. Don't really need bows unless it was an emergency, like a caster that HAD to be damaged that very second. If there are no casters, just swinging with fighters will do the job. In Throtl, that is basically what I did. You can clear most of the outer area without rest if you really wanted to with just 1 knight, 2 f/m, 1 t/m, 1 red mage and 1 f/c.

No arguments there, 4 mages is a LOT of Sleep spells. That is definitely a viable way to go. There are a couple of battles though in Throtl with a good amount of enemy spellcasters. Casters are usually in the back row of the enemy formation. That is what makes bows quite useful. If you are maxing stats on your characters, it probably doesn't matter since you will mostly win the initiative anyway and will plow through enemy ranks in melee with 18(51-100)strengths. I try not to do that. It defeats the purpose of certain spells and in game items like the girdle and gauntlets. No judging on my part, just saying.

Casters are pretty vulnerable to Sleep and Hold Person, and given the cramped confines, range isn't an issue. The area effect of the spells, though, is where they really win out. 1 guy can disable a whole bunch of the enemy while the rest can plough right through them with auto-kill shots.

Agreed. The 1st fight at the gates of Throtl teaches you from the get go that Sleep is a low-level parties best friend. Otherwise you need to buff your crappy THACO frontline and there isn't much to choose from other than Bless. If you pick the right Hob-gobbo in that fight, you can sleep a sleu of enemies. 2 Sleeps will win that first fight with ease.

Hence why I don't bother buying armour and weapons for the party and just go straight to Throtl. A couple of Sleep spells and everyone has a ton to choose from.

 

[Arbiter]

Which was the first game in the series with VGA graphics and mouse support?

 

[Glop_dweller]

Pools of Darkness, afaik.

 

[Cael]

Which was the first game in the series with VGA graphics and mouse support?

I think most were EGA? Only DQK seem to be VGA.

 

[Dorateen]

Pools of Darkness was VGA. Had to get a new VGA monitor to play, and it looked glorious.

 

[Dorateen]

I suppose that’s one way to jump out of the closet.

 

[ProphetSword]

Gateway to the Savage Frontier and Treasures of the Savage Frontier were also VGA.

 

[Radiane]

Currently playing through Curse and my party right now is at Yulash and has to fight against these shambling mounds there, who can pack quite a punch, among other enemies.

It seems that this game could have profited from one of the things its predecessor had, namely when you defeat a certain numer of patrols in an area, no more random encounters would be encountered until you leave that area and come back.

Well i can understand that Yulash is a bit different cause there seems to be some kind of raids going on there, but other areas were full with random encounters as well (maybe not that extreme but still), like the dracolich cave full with drow patrols! It's really a bit exhausting, not to mention also a bit high on the difficulty side, too.
Having to fight against hordes of units with high magic resistance, while never having any place 100% safe for resting, and then that other place where you, more or less, randomly run into that beholder battle.. i wonder how people were supposed to master this without any meta knowledge?

I played this game a bit a couple of years ago, and I had the impression this game would already feature a difficulty option, but apparently I simply remembered that wrong.

 

[octavius]

I think it's best to just treat Yulash as the war zone it is and move as quickly as possible, without exploring the whole map.
In Hap the design was quite clever. If you had El Kebab or whatever his name was in your party he would insult the Drow patrols, provoking a fight. If you fought all the patrols the mini boss fight in the barn was much easier than if you avoided fighting all the patrols.

 

[Cael]

I think it's best to just treat Yulash as the war zone it is and move as quickly as possible, without exploring the whole map.
In Hap the design was quite clever. If you had El Kebab or whatever his name was in your party he would insult the Drow patrols, provoking a fight. If you fought all the patrols the mini boss fight in the barn was much easier than if you avoided fighting all the patrols.

I tend to do things the hardest way for the most XP. Like in Gateway, I fought that big fight just before Ascore before going around and cleaning up the patrols. In COK, I fought the main gate battle at Gargath (I think?) before going around and wiping out the little pockets.