There are some hard fights in COK, but not among the tougher ones of the GB games.
In FRUA (unlike the GB games) it's my impression that the monsters have a +2-3 global modifier to most of the rolls. But no proof one way or the other exists.
-
Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.
"This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.
Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread
- Thread starter Saxon1974
- Start date
There are some hard fights in COK, but not among the tougher ones of the GB games.
In FRUA (unlike the GB games) it's my impression that the monsters have a +2-3 global modifier to most of the rolls. But no proof one way or the other exists.
Depending on what I play, one of my common tactic is to draw the map on paper and then copy it in Grid Cartographer. The paper is my draft so I don't mind striking things, and the GC map can easily be amended if I discover the game tricked me at some point.
Null Null
Arbiter
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2014
- Messages
- 542
What gratitude:
We'll see if I ever save her ass again...
Anyway, knocking on the Dreadlord's castle now, so it's time to think about Pools of Darkness which I don't have much memory of.
Haha! Hope you like high-level D&D, where they have extra-strength versions of cockatrices, otyughs, and Iron Golems. (all in the manual, not a spoiler)
-Are seventh level Cleric spells worthwhile enough to really build around in any way? I don't remember them being all that great, unlike in later D&D cRPGs. Restoration andResurrection have their uses, but I remember Destruction being yet another bad save-or-else spell that never works.
I'll disagree with Octavius here. Carrying around scrolls can be a huge load in terms of item slots, and there are a lot of casual encounters with energy-draining undead in the wilderness and in the end of the game. I think it's quite valuable to have access to Restoration for the reason I just mentioned, and Resurrection (which resurrects characters without a drop in Constitution...no, that wasn't in the PHB) because your characters are going to die (not be knocked unconscious) a lot. (Yes, there will be blood.)
-On the topic of Clerical magic, is any of it worthwhile past Bless/Prayer, healing/dispels, and Hold Person? Bestow Curse, Cause Blindness/Disease, Sticks to Snakes, Silence, and whatnot haven't proven effective in my experience. In fact, Sticks to Snakes has never worked in the dozens of times I've used it; enemies always "smash them flat". Am I playing my Clerics wrong, or are their spell selections simply sub-par? Do some PoD enemies have critical weaknesses to certain Clerical spells that can be exploited? Did
I'm told Dispel Evil is sometimes useful against Bane Minions (it doesn't seem to work on Bits of Moander). Bless/Prayer are invisible in their effects, so it's hard to assess. Most of the other spells you describe are pretty useless--if you read the FRUA notes it doesn't work on monsters with over 7 hit dice (whcih is almost all of them in POD). But yes, Cure Light Wounds, Hold Person, Dispel Magic, Cure Serious Wounds, Cure Critical Wounds, Heal/Blade Barrier, Resurrection/Restoration.
-Did Pools have the feature in which a player character Paladin can permit the player to command recruited NPCs if the paladin has high charisma and is of a higher level than the NPC? I remember this in the latter Krynn games (this might have extended to Knights as well) which were about the same "generation" as PoD.
Yup, and it's useful. Not critical, but useful.
-Any items that are extremely important to transfer over from Secret? Obviously things like +5 weaponry/shields/armor/bracers as well as unique rings are coming along, but are there any things plentiful in SotSB that I'd regret leaving in New Verdigris' vault? Potions? Scrolls? All those wands I wasted on encounters in the mines/crevasses?
Your bundled scrolls will not transfer. You have been warned.
Potions you can buy. Your instincts are essentially valid: +5, bracers, unique rings. Anything surprising, I don't know. Wands and scrolls aren't as useful as sources of extra magic as you might expect because of the magic resistance issue (though they are useful in the final fight of Dave's Challenge, which is technically optional).
Magic arrows, as has been said, though there is a shop in Mulmaster you can buy them at (up to +2).
We'll see if I ever save her ass again...
You have two chances to. POD is big on the call backs to prior games in the series. The first is near the beginning of the game. Then near the end she gets kidnapped again, and you actually do have the option to let the bad guys walk off with her, though you get more experience if you don't.
Anyway, knocking on the Dreadlord's castle now, so it's time to think about Pools of Darkness which I don't have much memory of.
Haha! Hope you like high-level D&D, where they have extra-strength versions of cockatrices, otyughs, and Iron Golems. (all in the manual, not a spoiler)
-Are seventh level Cleric spells worthwhile enough to really build around in any way? I don't remember them being all that great, unlike in later D&D cRPGs. Restoration andResurrection have their uses, but I remember Destruction being yet another bad save-or-else spell that never works.
I'll disagree with Octavius here. Carrying around scrolls can be a huge load in terms of item slots, and there are a lot of casual encounters with energy-draining undead in the wilderness and in the end of the game. I think it's quite valuable to have access to Restoration for the reason I just mentioned, and Resurrection (which resurrects characters without a drop in Constitution...no, that wasn't in the PHB) because your characters are going to die (not be knocked unconscious) a lot. (Yes, there will be blood.)
-On the topic of Clerical magic, is any of it worthwhile past Bless/Prayer, healing/dispels, and Hold Person? Bestow Curse, Cause Blindness/Disease, Sticks to Snakes, Silence, and whatnot haven't proven effective in my experience. In fact, Sticks to Snakes has never worked in the dozens of times I've used it; enemies always "smash them flat". Am I playing my Clerics wrong, or are their spell selections simply sub-par? Do some PoD enemies have critical weaknesses to certain Clerical spells that can be exploited? Did
I'm told Dispel Evil is sometimes useful against Bane Minions (it doesn't seem to work on Bits of Moander). Bless/Prayer are invisible in their effects, so it's hard to assess. Most of the other spells you describe are pretty useless--if you read the FRUA notes it doesn't work on monsters with over 7 hit dice (whcih is almost all of them in POD). But yes, Cure Light Wounds, Hold Person, Dispel Magic, Cure Serious Wounds, Cure Critical Wounds, Heal/Blade Barrier, Resurrection/Restoration.
-Did Pools have the feature in which a player character Paladin can permit the player to command recruited NPCs if the paladin has high charisma and is of a higher level than the NPC? I remember this in the latter Krynn games (this might have extended to Knights as well) which were about the same "generation" as PoD.
Yup, and it's useful. Not critical, but useful.
-Any items that are extremely important to transfer over from Secret? Obviously things like +5 weaponry/shields/armor/bracers as well as unique rings are coming along, but are there any things plentiful in SotSB that I'd regret leaving in New Verdigris' vault? Potions? Scrolls? All those wands I wasted on encounters in the mines/crevasses?
Your bundled scrolls will not transfer. You have been warned.
Potions you can buy. Your instincts are essentially valid: +5, bracers, unique rings. Anything surprising, I don't know. Wands and scrolls aren't as useful as sources of extra magic as you might expect because of the magic resistance issue (though they are useful in the final fight of Dave's Challenge, which is technically optional).
Magic arrows, as has been said, though there is a shop in Mulmaster you can buy them at (up to +2).
So Treasures of the Savage Frontier.....
They will take most of the scrolls and wands you had left over in Gateway (which I knew was going to happen anyway). They DO let you keep any healing potions you may have bought. One odd thing was, I bought Gauntlets of Dexterity for my entire party, but what they do is change your characters DEX stat as if the gauntlets were equipped, and take them from you. So it is kind of like you are wearing them, but they don't take any inventory space... so that was.... interesting.
And FINALLY this is in GLORIOUS 32 colors (heh). They finally matched the graphics of the Amiga by this time.
They will take most of the scrolls and wands you had left over in Gateway (which I knew was going to happen anyway). They DO let you keep any healing potions you may have bought. One odd thing was, I bought Gauntlets of Dexterity for my entire party, but what they do is change your characters DEX stat as if the gauntlets were equipped, and take them from you. So it is kind of like you are wearing them, but they don't take any inventory space... so that was.... interesting.
And FINALLY this is in GLORIOUS 32 colors (heh). They finally matched the graphics of the Amiga by this time.
Holy fucking shit.... these battles in the beginning. OUCH. D: D: D:
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2010
- Messages
- 10,882
Huh? I'm pretty sure Treasures was after POD and supports full 256-colour VGA. Which makes it better than the AmigaAnd FINALLY this is in GLORIOUS 32 colors (heh). They finally matched the graphics of the Amiga by this time.
Keep it in your pants there BLOBERT.
Shambling Mounds THE GAME! I thought it was OK. There were just TOO many Shambling Mounds.
Null Null
Arbiter
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2014
- Messages
- 542
Anybody else actually kill Vaalgamon?
Last time I played it my Hasted and Enlarged Fighter/Thief killed him with four backstabs.
I was disappointed that you were not supposed to kill him.
I had almost forgotten those last battles with ettins and shambling mounds...those were fun
Nobody mentions my favorite low level spells and they were a godsend in Gateway; Stinking Cloud was great for funneling enemies (even the shambling mounds were affected) and had great success with almost everything and the good old magic missle which was very effective not only for enemy spellcasters but for finishing off fleeing enemies
I am so mad I lost my manuals for both of those games, I defiently plan on getting them through ebay one of these days
Nobody mentions my favorite low level spells and they were a godsend in Gateway; Stinking Cloud was great for funneling enemies (even the shambling mounds were affected) and had great success with almost everything and the good old magic missle which was very effective not only for enemy spellcasters but for finishing off fleeing enemies
I am so mad I lost my manuals for both of those games, I defiently plan on getting them through ebay one of these days
Stinking Cloud is a terrific spell, but in the later games the AI had been changed so that monsters would no longer walk into it. The reason I say changed instead of improved was that it led to situations where you could block the monsters and then kill them at your leisure with missile weapons. In such cases it would be better if the monsters either took their chances, took cover and waited out the affect, or just fled the battle.
AI was always the weakest aspect of the GB games, but it isn't nearly as detrimental as it can be in strategy games. I can't play Civ II longer due to the poor AI, for example.
AI was always the weakest aspect of the GB games, but it isn't nearly as detrimental as it can be in strategy games. I can't play Civ II longer due to the poor AI, for example.
Yup Octavious; in the Savage Frontier games I would set up my fighters in wedge position; one forward one bellow and a square back and one just above; that way when the monsters attacked I would either set up my stinking cloud jus above or bellow to protect the backside of the wedge and my casters and ranged fighters or afftect them directly once they had engaged in melee one (and usually 2) of the front row fighters.
I know the goldbox AI wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but good enemy placement and encounter design made them a treat and challenging enough it is setup.
I still remember the 4 or 5 consecutive battles in Gateway where you had not only to fight well, but manage your resources (like spells and healing potions) in between fights.
After I am done with PoR I think I will follow Jaesun and do a Gateway & Treasures run
Btw I still miss you cat avatar
I know the goldbox AI wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but good enemy placement and encounter design made them a treat and challenging enough it is setup.
I still remember the 4 or 5 consecutive battles in Gateway where you had not only to fight well, but manage your resources (like spells and healing potions) in between fights.
After I am done with PoR I think I will follow Jaesun and do a Gateway & Treasures run
Btw I still miss you cat avatar
You get most of the XP from the gold, gems, jewelry and magic items you loot.
In the Infinity Engine games most of the XP would come from quest rewards.
Actual combat experience doesn't give you much XP in AD&D.
Giving them a wedgie, eh?
Yes, it worked well enough in practice.
Me too.
In the Infinity Engine games most of the XP would come from quest rewards.
Actual combat experience doesn't give you much XP in AD&D.
Giving them a wedgie, eh?
Yes, it worked well enough in practice.
Me too.
Null Null
Arbiter
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2014
- Messages
- 542
Go to the 'alter' menu in camp, then set 'speed' to 0. It'll go faster, though I don't think you can get rid of it altogether.
In DosBox you can set computer speed by changing the cycles number. I've found more than 'cycles=12000' tends to give me sound problems. Yeah, these are old games.
(myself included)I needed someone else who could cast sleep? Too bad he wastes them on the trolls!!
What's your party like?
Having a couple of multi-class Cleric/Mages is a good idea, since you need all the Sleep and Cure Light Wounds spells you can get in the beginning, and there is plenty enough XP in the game (single class character will hit the XP cap soon enough).
Due to the poor AI and no way to control NPCs, only the Fighter NPCs are of any use. Spell casters will waste their spells ASAP and Thieves will never try to backstab.
Code:
Character|Race |Align|Class|Level|STR |INT|WIS|DEX|CON|CHA|AC|HP|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Bilbo |Halfling| NN| T| 3| 15| 15| 16| 18| 17| 15| 3|15|
Bofur |Dwarf | LG| F| 3|18/99| 12| 13| 17| 17| 15| 0|21|
Earwen |Elf | LN| M| 3| 16| 18| 12| 13| 16| 14| 6|10|
Elendil |Human | NG| F| 3| 17| 12| 15| 14| 16| 16| 4|24|
Haldad |Human | CG| C| 3| 18| 12| 18| 13| 13| 16| 3|16|
Marach |Human | LE| C| 3| 18| 17| 17| 15| 15| 17| 2|18|On my way to the training hall, after which Haldad and Bilbo will be level 4.
Your main problem is that you have two single class Clerics and only one character able to cast Sleep. One single class Cleric is nice for max Turn Undead power but I'd rather have a Cleric/Mage than a second Cleric.
Are you planning to import your party to Curse?
If so the three first party members will eventually become rather useless.
Are you planning to import your party to Curse?
If so the three first party members will eventually become rather useless.
As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.