Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Beans00]

Since it's only a duology, unlike krynn and the por series I felt like it would be mostly low level spam and mages would be a liability like in bg1. In por I would probably have like 3-4 casters.

If I'm wrong I'll still do my best

If I start getting my ass kicked I'll drop someone when I go to treasures.


Although, if I knew this game had companions(I recruited a fighter named Krevish?) I probably would have taken an extra caster.

 

[Dorateen]

I was going to say something about having two thieves in the party, and then I remembered when I played the Savage Frontier games, I also made a triple class thief character to go along with our party's fighter/thief. They would have contests to see who gets more backstabs in battles.

 

[The Limper]

Although, if I knew this game had companions(I recruited a fighter named Krevish?) I probably would have taken an extra caster.

The NPCs are best used as Archers. Drop big arrow stacks into their inventories and add Longbow or Comp Longbow on each. Their casting disruption will help since you don’t have a dedicated Mage. Make good use of Enlarge and then Bless and Prayer with the Clerics to increase your combat effectiveness.

 

[Beans00]

I played a bit more and wrapped up Nesme(2nd town in the game), although I only had enough gold/xp to level up my fighter, and my cleric.

Might grind on trolls for a bit to level up some of my other guys before traveling again. I ran into some ankegs and they killed my whole party lol.

 

[Cael]

I started gateway to the savage frontier today. I only played for an hour or so, my party is;

human fighter
human cleric
human paladin
dwarf F/T
half elf F/M/T
half elf ranger/cleric

Used a few spaced for characters I normally wouldn't play.



My biggest observation is the inventory/UI is no where near as tedious as I thought it would be. it's pretty quick to navigate though the menus. My biggest complaint is not having a joint gold fun for your party, which is relatively annoying.

Aside from that decent time so far.

Cleric and Mages have a max level of 5 in this game, so part-timing isn't bad. Triple class, on the other hand, is bad. Plus you don't need 2 thieves.

Paladin is a must to control NPCs and prevent them from kamikazing at everything under the sun.

Half-elf has a max cleric level of 5, so it will be stuck there forever, if you are thinking of importing your characters into Treasures.

Human Fighter is meh. I am just not a fan of one-dimensional beatsticks, but it is not a totally terrible choice.

IIRC, my original party was 1x human Paladin, 3x human Ranger, 1x human Cleric, 1x human Mage. The more experienced players will know where I am going with this...

 

[Beans00]

I started gateway to the savage frontier today. I only played for an hour or so, my party is;

human fighter
human cleric
human paladin
dwarf F/T
half elf F/M/T
half elf ranger/cleric

Used a few spaced for characters I normally wouldn't play.



My biggest observation is the inventory/UI is no where near as tedious as I thought it would be. it's pretty quick to navigate though the menus. My biggest complaint is not having a joint gold fun for your party, which is relatively annoying.

Aside from that decent time so far.

Cleric and Mages have a max level of 5 in this game, so part-timing isn't bad. Triple class, on the other hand, is bad. Plus you don't need 2 thieves.

Paladin is a must to control NPCs and prevent them from kamikazing at everything under the sun.

Half-elf has a max cleric level of 5, so it will be stuck there forever, if you are thinking of importing your characters into Treasures.

Human Fighter is meh. I am just not a fan of one-dimensional beatsticks, but it is not a totally terrible choice.

IIRC, my original party was 1x human Paladin, 3x human Ranger, 1x human Cleric, 1x human Mage. The more experienced players will know where I am going with this...

I was planning to dual my human fighter into a mage at some point. Like I did in dark sun

 

[The Limper]

I started gateway to the savage frontier today. I only played for an hour or so, my party is;

human fighter
human cleric
human paladin
dwarf F/T
half elf F/M/T
half elf ranger/cleric

Used a few spaced for characters I normally wouldn't play.



My biggest observation is the inventory/UI is no where near as tedious as I thought it would be. it's pretty quick to navigate though the menus. My biggest complaint is not having a joint gold fun for your party, which is relatively annoying.

Aside from that decent time so far.

Cleric and Mages have a max level of 5 in this game, so part-timing isn't bad. Triple class, on the other hand, is bad. Plus you don't need 2 thieves.

Paladin is a must to control NPCs and prevent them from kamikazing at everything under the sun.

Half-elf has a max cleric level of 5, so it will be stuck there forever, if you are thinking of importing your characters into Treasures.

Human Fighter is meh. I am just not a fan of one-dimensional beatsticks, but it is not a totally terrible choice.

IIRC, my original party was 1x human Paladin, 3x human Ranger, 1x human Cleric, 1x human Mage. The more experienced players will know where I am going with this...

I was planning to dual my human fighter into a mage at some point. Like I did in dark sun

That is a good call. I would do it sooner rather than later so that character can get to Fireball ASAP.

 

[octavius]

A cunning plan would be to create a Ranger and dual him immediately. Then you'll have a Ranger/Mage who can cast spells while wearing armour (Fighter/Mages can't) and use Shields.
You'll need 17 in STR, WIS and INT, IIRC.

 

[Butter]

I thought that F/M could cast in armour in the Gold Box games, that the IE games were the first to restrict them.

 

[Beans00]

I thought that F/M could cast in armour in the Gold Box games, that the IE games were the first to restrict them.

My f/m/t can cast sleep while wearing leather armour.

 

[octavius]

I thought that F/M could cast in armour in the Gold Box games, that the IE games were the first to restrict them.

There's always those annoying minor difference from game to game (which classes can use wands, backstabbing with heavy armour or not, and more), so it's possible that it is in FRUA only.

My f/m/t can cast sleep while wearing leather armour.

That's a multi-class; they don't have the no-casting-wearing-metal-armour restriction.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

I thought that F/M could cast in armour in the Gold Box games

True for both PoR and CotAB at least. Don't know about the rest.

Edit: Forgot my F/Ms were also Elves. Good catch Cael.

 

[Cael]

I thought that F/M could cast in armour in the Gold Box games, that the IE games were the first to restrict them.

No. Only elves can cast arcane spells in armour. For humans, only the ranger/mage dual can cast arcane spells in armour. The former is a holdover from the Elf class who could cast arcane spells in armour. The latter is because Rangers in this edition gets access to mage spells.

 

[Cael]

I thought that F/M could cast in armour in the Gold Box games, that the IE games were the first to restrict them.

There's always those annoying minor difference from game to game (which classes can use wands, backstabbing with heavy armour or not, and more), so it's possible that it is in FRUA only.

My f/m/t can cast sleep while wearing leather armour.

That's a multi-class; they don't have the no-casting-wearing-metal-armour restriction.

Backstab can only be done with thief weapons as far as I know.

It is not the multi-class that is causing that. It is because the multi-class is an elf (and half-elf, it would seem). I have done a Gold Box Companion experiment where I changed one of my guys into a human f/m/c and he wasn't able to cast arcane spells. Changed it to an elf f/m/c and arcane spells are back on the menu. This was done in DQK.

 

[jakkis]

I always include a Dwarf or Half-Elf Fighter/Thief (with high enough STR to get to Fighter 7 and 1.5 APR).
Backstabbing is the most efficient way of dealing with enemies like Drow.

This is a great pro-tip for those quite high hp and ac magic resist drow lords

Ahh, my sweet child. Wait until you run into enchanted Bozaks...

Draconians are a different matter, but I think this was specifically WRT Bonds.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Lol... Lord Soth riding in the background.

Lord Soth is quite clearly in the foreground of what is one of Keith Parkinson's better paintings for D&D/AD&D:

"Lord Soth's Charge" originally appeared in the Dragonlance 1987 calendar and was re-used for Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home, Battlesystem Miniature Rules, DMGR3 Arms & Equipment Guide, SSI's Death Knights of Krynn, and the Tales of the Lance box set.

Now if only wotc offered rolled posters or metal magnetic or w/e wall art/scrolls.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Not exactly ,in basic D&D, demi-humans were treated as classes rather than separate races, unlike in AD&D. They also had better saving throws and specific lore. In BECMI, demi-humans could continue leveling up in the Companion set, gaining martial abilities. However, this is not the case in AD&D, where demi-humans could multi-class but faced class AND level restrictions. Since Pool of Radiance uses AD&D 1e rules, these restrictions become a notable issue when reaching end game , Pool of Darkness, where characters reach higher levels.

Yes and furthermore, in original D&D (1974) there are not separate classes for demi-humans but instead every dwarf is a fighting-man, every hobbit halfling is a fighting-man, and every elf is both a fighting-man and a magic-user, each with their own specific racial bonuses as well. Holmes Basic D&D (1977) moved somewhat in the direction of turning these non-human race options into distinct classes though this was not entirely accomplished until B/X Moldvay/Cook D&D (1981) and continued in BECMI Mentzer D&D (1983-6), whereas Gygax had gone in the opposite direction in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons by allowing class options (and multi-classing) for demi-humans, now including half-elves, gnomes, and half-orcs.

It was even more subtle than this :

• Multi-Classing: Allowed only for demi-humans. A character could advance in two or three classes simultaneously, splitting experience points between them.
• Dual-Classing: Allowed only for humans. A character abandoned their first class to begin a new one, keeping the abilities of the old class but only using them once the new class surpassed the old one's level.

That covers the TTRPG pretty good. I have nothing to add to that unless you want to ponder classes not included in the goldbox like monks, assassasins, bards, psionics, and the UA classes. Oh and maybe sad no goldbox Oriental Adventures but maybe there's a FRUA module made by someone.

The real fun is finding bugs and cheeses. I honestly think there should be a list for each game and platform because maybe c64 has ones dos or others don't.

The earliest cheesiest one for maybe any class on c64 or was it dos is have your guys equipped with those before and after battle. Battle starts equip your melee weapon. You should get DART ROF in swings. Hilarious.

Trolls a problem after they go down. Just stand on their death spot. They can't get back up.

Those are simple ones.

 

[Cael]

Not exactly ,in basic D&D, demi-humans were treated as classes rather than separate races, unlike in AD&D. They also had better saving throws and specific lore. In BECMI, demi-humans could continue leveling up in the Companion set, gaining martial abilities. However, this is not the case in AD&D, where demi-humans could multi-class but faced class AND level restrictions. Since Pool of Radiance uses AD&D 1e rules, these restrictions become a notable issue when reaching end game , Pool of Darkness, where characters reach higher levels.

Yes and furthermore, in original D&D (1974) there are not separate classes for demi-humans but instead every dwarf is a fighting-man, every hobbit halfling is a fighting-man, and every elf is both a fighting-man and a magic-user, each with their own specific racial bonuses as well. Holmes Basic D&D (1977) moved somewhat in the direction of turning these non-human race options into distinct classes though this was not entirely accomplished until B/X Moldvay/Cook D&D (1981) and continued in BECMI Mentzer D&D (1983-6), whereas Gygax had gone in the opposite direction in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons by allowing class options (and multi-classing) for demi-humans, now including half-elves, gnomes, and half-orcs.

It was even more subtle than this :

• Multi-Classing: Allowed only for demi-humans. A character could advance in two or three classes simultaneously, splitting experience points between them.
• Dual-Classing: Allowed only for humans. A character abandoned their first class to begin a new one, keeping the abilities of the old class but only using them once the new class surpassed the old one's level.

That covers the TTRPG pretty good. I have nothing to add to that unless you want to ponder classes not included in the goldbox like monks, assassasins, bards, psionics, and the UA classes. Oh and maybe sad no goldbox Oriental Adventures but maybe there's a FRUA module made by someone.

The real fun is finding bugs and cheeses. I honestly think there should be a list for each game and platform because maybe c64 has ones dos or others don't.

The earliest cheesiest one for maybe any class on c64 or was it dos is have your guys equipped with those before and after battle. Battle starts equip your melee weapon. You should get DART ROF in swings. Hilarious.

Trolls a problem after they go down. Just stand on their death spot. They can't get back up.

Those are simple ones.

"The earliest cheesiest one for maybe any class on c64 or was it dos is have your guys equipped with those before and after battle."

Errr... English, please?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Bah! My brain thinking faster that I care to type.

The earliest cheesiest CHEESE for maybe any class on c64 (or was it dos) is to have your guys equipped with DARTS before and after battle. Battle starts; equip your standard melee weapon (might work with another missile weapon but I doubt it). You should get DART ROF instead of your number of normal swings. Hilarious.

Example: DERF the lvl 1 fighter equips 4 darts. Oh fuck! We are suddenly attacked by 6 orcs. We get initiative. Derf quickly arms his broad sword and shield and attacks. HOLY FUCK! He's on a mean streak as he just hit and killed 3 orcs because his beefy muscles meant he was dealing a minimum of 8 dmg per blow (yeah he had 18(100) str).

"In AD&D, bows fire at a rate of 2 per round and darts at 3 per round"

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Now if only wotc offered rolled posters or metal magnetic or w/e wall art/scrolls.

Keith Parkinson's website offers a variety of his paintings for purchase in various forms, including a high-quality print of Lord Soth's Charge for the meager price of $335.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I think there are services that will put any image on just about anything. I might be wrong but a good 15+ years ago there was was a brick & mortar in Kansas that would do it (maybe they got sued).

 

[Beans00]

So I got some good progress in gateway the last few days. I made it to luskan, went and cleared out some other island and am about to go into some tower in Luskan.

So far it's an ok game but I find the encounter rate is too high, and there's too many fodder encounters. Thankfully there's an auto battle function. I am already level 5-6 and I feel like I'm probably like halfway through the game.

Luskan in particular felt like a complete slog. I'm aware the savage frontiers are fairly lesser regarded among GB fans, and if anything playing this game has made me look forward to playing the pools and krynn games.

I've only played for 9 hours, so I guess I'm on pace to finish in ~20?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

You'll love the climax of this game. And I won't spoil it.

 

[octavius]

Gateway has the worst encounter design of all the GB games IMO (one of the two main designers (Italian sounding name) later designed the infamous Pool of Radiance: Myth Drannor).
People who complain about Baldur's Gate being mostly trash mobs have obviously never played Gateway to the Savage Frontier.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I first played this game on the amiga500 and it felt weird at first. I laughed a bit fighting squids. I tell you, try these games on the different gaming platforms to get a feel of some of the weirdness. I always wanted to get all the emulators working to play each game side by side taking notes and mapping out each difference and graphic. I miss my old POR/Cotab project I did just for dos. On that old DOS computer i had screenthief'd so many pics, wrote EVERYTHING down and redid every encounter so many times including losing because you have to check. I swear just from c64 to dos there are some areas missing or encounters. It could be my imagination.

And damn good thing I did eob 1-2 on amiga first. They still need to fix DOS ending.