I've always wanted to run or play in Gygax's Giants modules followed by the Queen of the Demonweb Pits.
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Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread
- Thread starter Saxon1974
- Start date
I've always wanted to run or play in Gygax's Giants modules followed by the Queen of the Demonweb Pits.
Dorateen
Arcane
Yeah, it's sad that Troika was talking about doing a modular series of games based on Against the Giants, after Temple of Elemental Evil, but that didn't work out.
There are FRUA modules of both. Haven't played them (yet), though.
Well, I think this is an awesome time to steer the conversation back the the Gold Box games and my favorite of all so far: Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures.
Here is the mod webpage for FRUA: http://frua.rosedragon.org/modulelist/classic.php
It contains the Gold Box version of Temple of Elemental Evil, G1-G3 Against the Giants, Queen of the Demonweb Pits and more. I have some other games I want to catch up to first, and I'm hoping that a real PnP group wants to play these with me sometime. But if not, I'll happily play with myself. Which is not an odd condition for me.
I have yet to play them either. But having played so many of Ray's Modules I would assume his Game17, G1-3, Against the Giants is pretty good.
Edit: I HAVE played his Temple of Elemental Evil. It thought it was pretty good. Highly recommended.
Edit: I HAVE played his Temple of Elemental Evil. It thought it was pretty good. Highly recommended.
Hmmm... what do you guys think of an FRUA Let's Play where people could pick their characters, then which adventure path to go down? But with the added twist that they would be allowed to post their character's actions, so it would behave like a pseudo play-by-post thread.
As long as it has Jaesun the Gay Paladin. 
GarfunkeL
Racism Expert
I'll be a wizard.
Or if someone really, really badly wants to be a wizard, I can also be a dwarf fighter-cleric.
In either case, beard is a must.
Or if someone really, really badly wants to be a wizard, I can also be a dwarf fighter-cleric.
In either case, beard is a must.
Luzur
Good Sir
was he the one that made that nice PoR module?
Yes (Game39, Pool of Radiance).
zwanzig_zwoelf
Guest
Alright, how about poorly balanced human rogue who wants to be a paladin but just too weak for this kind of task?
bussinrounds
Augur
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2011
- Messages
- 484
I gotta start fuckin' with these FRUA modules once I finish all the GB games.
I have my Gold Box FRUA Let's Play thread up in here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...s-module-b4-the-lost-city.82545/#post-2623833
I just finished my fight against the Drow and killed off Kalistes. That battle... that fucking battle...
It took me two hours of constant retrying before my spellcasters got the initiative and suppressed the spellcasters, helping me bring home the win.
I lost my paladin to her attacks, then had to fight the next battle with five characters, but then had my cleric/magic-user turned to stone by a bit of Moander before I won that one also.
Mother fucker, I'm so mad. But you know what? This is the first boss fight in this game where I felt I had a personal grudge and now I'm so very glad that she and her disgusting kin are dead, dead, dead.
Things I learned:
- 8th level magic-user spells are nearly useless. I tried mass charm several times in an effort to shake up the enemy ranks. It didn't work once. Otto's Irresistible Dance is pretty sweet, but only works on one enemy at a time.
- Summon Monster worked well to buy time. I summoned two huge spiders to block Kalistes. She killed them both in a round, chopped up my paladin in the next round, and killed him in the third. But I really needed that extra round those spiders purchased me to clean up the flanks.
- If you don't bring the right weapons to fight Kalistes you have no hope of winning.
- Bits of Moander are immune to fire-based attacks, but not magic missiles or Cones of Cold.
- The Heal spell does not work when you have a character suffering from Feeblemind, even though the tabletop pen and paper rules say it will cure such. I had to restore from an earlier save when one of my spellcasters got hit with a drow Feeblemind spell and I couldn't restore her ability scores.
- I have not found a spell that will restore ability score damage to Constitution when a character is raised back from the dead, as my paladin had to be.
- I'm glad I have three magic-users in my party. I can't imagine how you would win this fight with only one.
It took me two hours of constant retrying before my spellcasters got the initiative and suppressed the spellcasters, helping me bring home the win.
I lost my paladin to her attacks, then had to fight the next battle with five characters, but then had my cleric/magic-user turned to stone by a bit of Moander before I won that one also.
Mother fucker, I'm so mad. But you know what? This is the first boss fight in this game where I felt I had a personal grudge and now I'm so very glad that she and her disgusting kin are dead, dead, dead.
Things I learned:
- 8th level magic-user spells are nearly useless. I tried mass charm several times in an effort to shake up the enemy ranks. It didn't work once. Otto's Irresistible Dance is pretty sweet, but only works on one enemy at a time.
- Summon Monster worked well to buy time. I summoned two huge spiders to block Kalistes. She killed them both in a round, chopped up my paladin in the next round, and killed him in the third. But I really needed that extra round those spiders purchased me to clean up the flanks.
- If you don't bring the right weapons to fight Kalistes you have no hope of winning.
- Bits of Moander are immune to fire-based attacks, but not magic missiles or Cones of Cold.
- The Heal spell does not work when you have a character suffering from Feeblemind, even though the tabletop pen and paper rules say it will cure such. I had to restore from an earlier save when one of my spellcasters got hit with a drow Feeblemind spell and I couldn't restore her ability scores.
- I have not found a spell that will restore ability score damage to Constitution when a character is raised back from the dead, as my paladin had to be.
- I'm glad I have three magic-users in my party. I can't imagine how you would win this fight with only one.
Yeah, that fight was brutal, and it was so rewarding when you killed that bitch.
Power Word: Blind is the most useless spell ever in a CRPG. It has not effect whatsoever. Or rather, it has an effect, but blindness doesn't prevent enemies from targeting you with spells and missiles, so it's utterly useless.
What do you mean? You used the Raise Dead spell instead of Resurrect? If so that was not a good idea. No cleric scrolls with the Resurrect spell?
GarfunkeL
Racism Expert
Working As Designed.
Dorateen
Arcane
Your version of the battle with Kalistes made me want to go back to read the notebook journal from when I played Pools of Darkness over the summer of 1992.
I saw that I made a reference to our party's wizard being "invulnerable". He probably had the globe activated and was firing off damage dealing spells with impunity. I know he had just made 18th level, because there was a note previously that after fighting spiders on the dimension's overland map, he became an Archmage.
I also used a paladin to take the Marilith head-on. In the notes, I called him a "one-man killing machine". Was probably hastened, enlarged, had bless and prayer and any other buff available. In the end, it was most likely superior equipment and weaponry that carried the day.
First, I had the computer bring to life my paladin by hitting the Fix option. The program raised him from the dead, causing him to lose a point of Constitution (18 -> 17). I decided to press anyway. This is despite my cleric being able to cast Resurrection. I know there are no spells in game to restore ability score damage, but if I recall you used to be able to do so with limited wish, miracle, and wish, none of which are in this game. I also had a hard time in that fight, because I couldn't identify the weapons I had and didn't bother casting detect magic upon them. If I did, more than two of my guys would have been able to hurt Kalistes instead of just my paladin and magic-user/fighter. Also, I didn't use my Globe of Invulnerability on any of the magic-users before the battle, so that was my stupid mistake. I buffed and hasted the characters, but neglected to protect the spellcasters.
After this battle I breezed through the rest of the game with three magic-users spamming delayed fireball blasts and cones of cold. The Bits of Moander went down easily to mass cones of cold, though the battle inside his body was tough due to the few places you could rest and the friggin' iron golems. At one point I fought 10 or so of those iron golems, and it took me several tries to beat them, though a hasted party and lightning bolts to slow down the iron golems were a good combo. But towards the end of the game they threw only two of them at me in one encounter, which I laughed off. I can only surmise that areas were created by different people, which would also explain the different feels of the dungeons. Oh, and the save Sasha from marriage side plot was pretty retarded. So was the ending... it was like it was all a dream...
Anyway, in the last battle in the Realms, my hasted magic-user/ranger decapitated the final two opponents in a single round with the vorpal sword. Truly an awesome spectacle. She had the vorpal sword at the time since I believe it to be a +3 weapon, and my melee characters had +5 weapons which I would rather use due to the better chance to hit. Once I went through Limbo, she gave the blade to my paladin for his use.
After entering Limbo, I easily slew tons of minions in the last dungeons until final encounter where I proceeded to get my butt handed to me for the next two days. Yes, it took me two days to beat the final encounter. It turns out that having a magic-user heavy party isn't conducive for some fights. There are three battles in the last confrontation. The first was difficult only until I realized my hasted party could run to a room to the north in the first round. My strategy consisted of running up there and summoning some monsters to act as meat shields. Once I safely got behind the opening to the room, my cleric would put a wall of blades to block the passage, which the enemy refused to cross.
After that, my magic-users would magic-missile/fireball/cone of cold/ice storm. Dracoliches are vulnerable to magic missiles and ice storm, so if they were grouped I would cast ice storm and if by itself I would use magic missile. I don't know why, but the dracoliches wouldn't breathe at my magic-users from across the opening or the blade barrier. Maybe it was a range issue, but they just stared at me as I picked them off little by little. There were a few attempts during this first battle where I came out entirely unscathed, though my indirect method drug out the fight.
But the next battle is where I had problems. The seven or so magically immune beholders had a field day with my magic-user heavy party. First I tried hiding in a room, but the cheating SOBs liked to toss area effect spells from around the corners like fireballs and slow spells instead of rushing courageously through the opening to face my guys in melee combat. These screwed up my day. Also, I often failed a roll or two against disintegration, meaning I was short personnel for the final fight. Oh and that vorpal sword was a cruel friggin' joke in this fight. Beholders are all head, so what is there to decapitate? I learned quickly not to get fancy. With my buffed party I needed to rush directly at the two beholders to my east and hope for the best. If I made the saves, I could move and sweep out the rest, allowing the walls and summoned creatures to provide me partial cover from death rays. The direct, concentrated method worked best.
At first, I gave up on having all six characters at the last battle, and thought I'd be clever to finish the game. When the BBEG asked me to join him after the second battle when I had only four characters left, I said yes. He then screwed me over and made me fight him anyway. Though I couldn't tell what the difference was between either option. See, he takes away your ability to cast magic either way. Thankfully my three magic-users were ranger, fighter, and cleric dual-classes. They didn't do too bad buffed and hasted, but more melee fighters would have been better. It still took me awhile before I could bring in six fully healthy and buffed characters from the beholder battle. Again, it was initiative that mattered. The BBEG and his dragons did too much damage to me if they went first. I needed to be able to take them out, then survive being surrounded by the rest of the evil army. The last two battles just felt like the game was screwing with me... oh, you're dependent upon magic for your cheap wins? Alright, here's a bunch of guys immune to your spells, followed by a battle where we yank them away from you entirely.
Overall, I still really liked this game for the variety of dungeons and combat, but there are a few things I disliked. First, I really hated how this series kept taking away my hard-won items from previous games, and this game added an insult on top of that where I couldn't use items that I found internally within the game itself. I also didn't like how they had years to develop the magic system, but the series continued to suffer by only having a few spells programmed in at each magical spell level attained, and that only two or three would actually be useful in game. You would think a simple spell like identify would be included, for instance. Also, I hate Elminster. He greatly annoys me whether he is in print or in games. "I'm practically a demi-god and am here to provide words of advice. Oh, but because I am more of a plot device to aid in narration, I won't actually help you in any way despite the forces of evil I am opposed to are out to kill you. Your mentor just got killed? Sorry, I can't help you get to the next town, why don't you wander the woods for awhile with buddy Imoen and hope ogres don't eat you? Oh, you want help to raid your enemies in their planes of existence? Sure, but I got to send you naked because I can't magic up clothes and a weapon that will survive the trip." What an ass. At first I thought I would like this game better than Pool of Radiance, but the dragon area, Elminster, and the constant taking away of my weapons put this behind it. Still a fun game. Pool of Radiance > Pools of Darkness > Curse of the Azure Bonds > Secret of the Silver Blades. Oh, and fuck Elminster. Seriously.
After this battle I breezed through the rest of the game with three magic-users spamming delayed fireball blasts and cones of cold. The Bits of Moander went down easily to mass cones of cold, though the battle inside his body was tough due to the few places you could rest and the friggin' iron golems. At one point I fought 10 or so of those iron golems, and it took me several tries to beat them, though a hasted party and lightning bolts to slow down the iron golems were a good combo. But towards the end of the game they threw only two of them at me in one encounter, which I laughed off. I can only surmise that areas were created by different people, which would also explain the different feels of the dungeons. Oh, and the save Sasha from marriage side plot was pretty retarded. So was the ending... it was like it was all a dream...
Anyway, in the last battle in the Realms, my hasted magic-user/ranger decapitated the final two opponents in a single round with the vorpal sword. Truly an awesome spectacle. She had the vorpal sword at the time since I believe it to be a +3 weapon, and my melee characters had +5 weapons which I would rather use due to the better chance to hit. Once I went through Limbo, she gave the blade to my paladin for his use.
After entering Limbo, I easily slew tons of minions in the last dungeons until final encounter where I proceeded to get my butt handed to me for the next two days. Yes, it took me two days to beat the final encounter. It turns out that having a magic-user heavy party isn't conducive for some fights. There are three battles in the last confrontation. The first was difficult only until I realized my hasted party could run to a room to the north in the first round. My strategy consisted of running up there and summoning some monsters to act as meat shields. Once I safely got behind the opening to the room, my cleric would put a wall of blades to block the passage, which the enemy refused to cross.
After that, my magic-users would magic-missile/fireball/cone of cold/ice storm. Dracoliches are vulnerable to magic missiles and ice storm, so if they were grouped I would cast ice storm and if by itself I would use magic missile. I don't know why, but the dracoliches wouldn't breathe at my magic-users from across the opening or the blade barrier. Maybe it was a range issue, but they just stared at me as I picked them off little by little. There were a few attempts during this first battle where I came out entirely unscathed, though my indirect method drug out the fight.
But the next battle is where I had problems. The seven or so magically immune beholders had a field day with my magic-user heavy party. First I tried hiding in a room, but the cheating SOBs liked to toss area effect spells from around the corners like fireballs and slow spells instead of rushing courageously through the opening to face my guys in melee combat. These screwed up my day. Also, I often failed a roll or two against disintegration, meaning I was short personnel for the final fight. Oh and that vorpal sword was a cruel friggin' joke in this fight. Beholders are all head, so what is there to decapitate? I learned quickly not to get fancy. With my buffed party I needed to rush directly at the two beholders to my east and hope for the best. If I made the saves, I could move and sweep out the rest, allowing the walls and summoned creatures to provide me partial cover from death rays. The direct, concentrated method worked best.
At first, I gave up on having all six characters at the last battle, and thought I'd be clever to finish the game. When the BBEG asked me to join him after the second battle when I had only four characters left, I said yes. He then screwed me over and made me fight him anyway. Though I couldn't tell what the difference was between either option. See, he takes away your ability to cast magic either way. Thankfully my three magic-users were ranger, fighter, and cleric dual-classes. They didn't do too bad buffed and hasted, but more melee fighters would have been better. It still took me awhile before I could bring in six fully healthy and buffed characters from the beholder battle. Again, it was initiative that mattered. The BBEG and his dragons did too much damage to me if they went first. I needed to be able to take them out, then survive being surrounded by the rest of the evil army. The last two battles just felt like the game was screwing with me... oh, you're dependent upon magic for your cheap wins? Alright, here's a bunch of guys immune to your spells, followed by a battle where we yank them away from you entirely.
Overall, I still really liked this game for the variety of dungeons and combat, but there are a few things I disliked. First, I really hated how this series kept taking away my hard-won items from previous games, and this game added an insult on top of that where I couldn't use items that I found internally within the game itself. I also didn't like how they had years to develop the magic system, but the series continued to suffer by only having a few spells programmed in at each magical spell level attained, and that only two or three would actually be useful in game. You would think a simple spell like identify would be included, for instance. Also, I hate Elminster. He greatly annoys me whether he is in print or in games. "I'm practically a demi-god and am here to provide words of advice. Oh, but because I am more of a plot device to aid in narration, I won't actually help you in any way despite the forces of evil I am opposed to are out to kill you. Your mentor just got killed? Sorry, I can't help you get to the next town, why don't you wander the woods for awhile with buddy Imoen and hope ogres don't eat you? Oh, you want help to raid your enemies in their planes of existence? Sure, but I got to send you naked because I can't magic up clothes and a weapon that will survive the trip." What an ass. At first I thought I would like this game better than Pool of Radiance, but the dragon area, Elminster, and the constant taking away of my weapons put this behind it. Still a fun game. Pool of Radiance > Pools of Darkness > Curse of the Azure Bonds > Secret of the Silver Blades. Oh, and fuck Elminster. Seriously.
Congrats on finishing Pools of Darkness!
The last battles were the only battles in all the Gold Box games where my non-maxed characters didn't cut it, and I had to use an editor to raise their DEX to 18. Then I beat it on second try. First try was unsuccesful due to the rage inducing way Mirror Image works in PoD and FRUA: it "protects" against Haste, even though Haste is an area effect spell. So my mages entered with no Haste or Globes, and reduced Mirror Images.
On my succesful attempt I killed most of the Minions and Pets with two DBFs and then proceeded to hack away at the Dracoliches.
The second fight was a bitch due to the beholders casting Slow, but I prevailed.
After the final fight only my Ranger/Mage was left standing. Epic stuff!
The last battles were the only battles in all the Gold Box games where my non-maxed characters didn't cut it, and I had to use an editor to raise their DEX to 18. Then I beat it on second try. First try was unsuccesful due to the rage inducing way Mirror Image works in PoD and FRUA: it "protects" against Haste, even though Haste is an area effect spell. So my mages entered with no Haste or Globes, and reduced Mirror Images.
On my succesful attempt I killed most of the Minions and Pets with two DBFs and then proceeded to hack away at the Dracoliches.
The second fight was a bitch due to the beholders casting Slow, but I prevailed.
After the final fight only my Ranger/Mage was left standing. Epic stuff!
Luzur
Good Sir
only memories i have of that battle is just blinding rage then darkness, i remember waking up in a unknown burning town, on a throne of skulls.
GarfunkeL
Racism Expert
It is the most difficult combination of fights in any GB game.
I'm more than halfway through Gateway to the Savage Frontier right now, and it started off both harder and easier than previous Gold Box games. First, it was harder because leaving the first city (Yartar) is suicide unless you take a boat and stick to the northern river to Nesme in order to complete the first quest. Walking outside puts you into contact with hill giants and wild boars, which will murder your characters since they will most likely start out with weak armor. Once I completed the quest in Nemse, I looted corpses and upgraded the armor to my fighters. Once I did that, I was actually able to survive some battles with hill giants and wild boars and the game became incredibly easy.
You see, once I finished the first quest that takes you to Yartar to Nesme, I was able to level up a character. But I couldn't level the character up since I had no gold. I started experimenting with random encounters, then found that going west of Yartar made me encounter two hill giants as a wandering encounter. Killing them got me 800gp and combined with some gold I had for the first quest and selling looted equipment, I was able to level up one character. But the fight with the hill giants resulted in everyone getting about 700 more XP, meaning I had two more characters that now needed leveling. So I went back out again, and encountered two more hill giants. This time I leveled up my magic-user to level 3, and she was able to cast stinking cloud.
I went out a third time and encountered three hill giants, which I survived due to stinking cloud to back-up the party. Now I got 1200 gold pieces and 1000xp for each character. I was able to level up another character, but now had three that needed gold to level. This became a cyclical problem. By the time I finally didn't have anyone needing level-ups, I had only a few hundred gold pieces, but m paladin and two-magic users were level four and my fighter, ranger and cleric were level five. I then began the next part of the quest and breezed through the encounters, as you can imagine.
If I was to do this again, I would suggest the following. Go with one magic-user, a paladin, two rangers and two fighters. That is indeed five melee combatants and a caster. You do not need my favorite character class in this game: the thief. Get one fighter and one ranger to level five by killing hill giants west of Yartar as I highlighted before, then dual-class them to to a fighter/magic-user and a fighter/cleric. Once they reach level 6 you'll have a paladin, ranger, fighter, ranger/cleric, fighter/magic-user and magic-user. You might be able to pull this off with an all melee combat party, too, if you are willing to save and load often, therefore having two fighter/magic-users. Winning this game with such a party than transferring them to Treasures of the Savage Frontier would be quite a stomp.
I am nearly towards the end of the game. It isn't as balanced or hard as Pools of Radiance, so it feels more like a fan mod than a heavily play-tested game. It also doesn't feel cohesive, but instead it feels like I'm playing an episodic series rather than an epic quest. The dialogue is also poor, and the plot is well-conceived, but falls flat at times. I gave my ranger the Sword of Icewind Dale +1, without realizing how awesome that move was. I got attacked by two fire giants, but the ranger made that tough encounter into a bit of a joke. Rangers seem to do double damage against fire giants, and the sword of Icewind Dale also does extra damage against fire-based creatures, so my ranger was doing around 36 points of damage on each hit.
You see, once I finished the first quest that takes you to Yartar to Nesme, I was able to level up a character. But I couldn't level the character up since I had no gold. I started experimenting with random encounters, then found that going west of Yartar made me encounter two hill giants as a wandering encounter. Killing them got me 800gp and combined with some gold I had for the first quest and selling looted equipment, I was able to level up one character. But the fight with the hill giants resulted in everyone getting about 700 more XP, meaning I had two more characters that now needed leveling. So I went back out again, and encountered two more hill giants. This time I leveled up my magic-user to level 3, and she was able to cast stinking cloud.
I went out a third time and encountered three hill giants, which I survived due to stinking cloud to back-up the party. Now I got 1200 gold pieces and 1000xp for each character. I was able to level up another character, but now had three that needed gold to level. This became a cyclical problem. By the time I finally didn't have anyone needing level-ups, I had only a few hundred gold pieces, but m paladin and two-magic users were level four and my fighter, ranger and cleric were level five. I then began the next part of the quest and breezed through the encounters, as you can imagine.
If I was to do this again, I would suggest the following. Go with one magic-user, a paladin, two rangers and two fighters. That is indeed five melee combatants and a caster. You do not need my favorite character class in this game: the thief. Get one fighter and one ranger to level five by killing hill giants west of Yartar as I highlighted before, then dual-class them to to a fighter/magic-user and a fighter/cleric. Once they reach level 6 you'll have a paladin, ranger, fighter, ranger/cleric, fighter/magic-user and magic-user. You might be able to pull this off with an all melee combat party, too, if you are willing to save and load often, therefore having two fighter/magic-users. Winning this game with such a party than transferring them to Treasures of the Savage Frontier would be quite a stomp.
I am nearly towards the end of the game. It isn't as balanced or hard as Pools of Radiance, so it feels more like a fan mod than a heavily play-tested game. It also doesn't feel cohesive, but instead it feels like I'm playing an episodic series rather than an epic quest. The dialogue is also poor, and the plot is well-conceived, but falls flat at times. I gave my ranger the Sword of Icewind Dale +1, without realizing how awesome that move was. I got attacked by two fire giants, but the ranger made that tough encounter into a bit of a joke. Rangers seem to do double damage against fire giants, and the sword of Icewind Dale also does extra damage against fire-based creatures, so my ranger was doing around 36 points of damage on each hit.
Some faggot merged my Savage Frontier thread into this thread, but you can find my long discussion about it here (some spoilers).
Personally I don't think there's any reason at all to leave the roads and rivers.
Firstly there is nothing whatsoever to find except random encounters. And the random encounters are exceedingly dull and predictable in this game.
Secondly Gateway is so easy that grinding those Hill Giants will suck what little challenge and enjoyment the game offers out of it.
The only highlight in this game were the final battles. Except for that it's just a chore to develop your characters for the much better Treasures of the Savage Frontier. Even the fan made Magic of the Savage Frontier was more enjoyable, IMO.
Personally I don't think there's any reason at all to leave the roads and rivers.
Firstly there is nothing whatsoever to find except random encounters. And the random encounters are exceedingly dull and predictable in this game.
Secondly Gateway is so easy that grinding those Hill Giants will suck what little challenge and enjoyment the game offers out of it.
The only highlight in this game were the final battles. Except for that it's just a chore to develop your characters for the much better Treasures of the Savage Frontier. Even the fan made Magic of the Savage Frontier was more enjoyable, IMO.
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