Tips for a neophyte who wants to play Pool of Radiance

[KafkaBot]

Greetings, fellow codexers. To cut a long story short, I'm completely inexperienced with any and all Gold Box Games (for starters, they came out before before I was even born). Hell, I don't have much experience with Golden Age CRPGs in general, with the only exceptions being Wizardry and Ultima Underworld (and Betrayal at Krondor, but I played very little of that one, so it doesn't count YET).

I intend to rectify that somewhat by playing Pool of Radiance; needless to say, I suspect it will be quite different from most of my experiences with the genre so far. What do I have to keep in mind to make my playthrough as satisfactory as possible? I know that I should use the Gold Box companion, the online code wheel and make absolutely sure one of my magic users learns Knock eventually, but that's about it.

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

What do I have to keep in mind to make my experience as satisfactory as possible?

Get a lobotomy.

 

[octavius]

When creating characters, DEX is their most useful stat, since it governs both initiative, AC and missile THAC0.
Make sure Clerics have high WIS for extra spells.
Make most characters multi-class Elves. Elves get +1 THAC0 with Long Swords and Longbows, and you can never have too many Sleep and Cure Light Wounds spells.
Make one mage single class to get Stinking Cloud and Fireball ASAP.
Hire fighter types from the training hall as meat shields. The other classes are useless thanks to the very poor AI.
Every map has a fixed amount of random encounters.
Instead of resting and casting healing spells, you may want to go to a temple for healing instead. You will soon have more money than you carry anyway.

And this is a very useful link.

 

[smaug]

In all seriousness play Champions of Krynn instead. A much better introduction to Gold Box and doesn’t have the tediousness of POR.

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

And this is a very useful link.

"You may not ignore yourself."

 

[KafkaBot]

When creating characters, DEX is their most useful stat, since it governs both initiative, AC and missile THAC0.
Make sure Clerics have high WIS for extra spells.
Make most characters multi-class Elves. Elves get +1 THAC0 with Long Swords and Longbows, and you can never have too many Sleep and Cure Light Wounds spells.
Make one mage single class to get Stinking Cloud and Fireball ASAP.
Hire fighter types from the training hall as meat shields. The other classes are useless thanks to the very poor AI.
Every map has a fixed amount of random encounters.
Instead of resting and casting healing spells, you may want to go to a temple for healing instead. You will soon have more money than you carry anyway.

And this is a very useful link.

Now THIS is informative. Thanks a lot!

Since you are clearly quite knowledgeable about this game, please allow me to ask you another question: are there any ways of accidentally making the game unwinnable I should be aware of? Other than not getting the Knock spell, I mean.

In all seriousness play Champions of Krynn instead. A much better introduction to Gold Box and doesn’t have the tediousness of POR.

I'm certainly open to recommendations, since I don't intend to end my Gold Box Experience with POR, so thanks for mentioning this game.

 

[octavius]

are there any ways of accidentally making the game unwinnable I should be aware of? Other than not getting the Knock spell, I mean.

Not that I can think of, except maybe if you visit The Pyramid with too low level characters, get lost and the slaughtered by some tough random encounters, and only ever used one save slot.

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

Pls don't forget to keep us updated on your experience, OP. Have fun.

 

[Dorateen]

Haste, enlarge, prayer and bless are good preparatory spells heading into a big battle against large numbers of enemies.
Try to anchor characters near a wall to keep from being flanked or surrounded.
Many combat maps have side rooms, which can be used to retreat to and create a bottleneck in the doorway.

 

[mondblut]

If you don't plan to take your party all the way to pools of darkness, play Amiga version. It is much prettier than PC.

Until you learn fireball, sleep is your best friend.

 

[mondblut]

In all seriousness play Champions of Krynn instead. A much better introduction to Gold Box and doesn’t have the tediousness of POR.

Stop the lies. Of all the goldbox games, champions of krynn is the most linear, disgustingly railroaded game. You are literally "doing missions", may these baleful words never leave my lips again.

 

[smaug]

In all seriousness play Champions of Krynn instead. A much better introduction to Gold Box and doesn’t have the tediousness of POR.

Stop the lies. Of all the goldbox games, champions of krynn is the most linear, disgustingly railroaded game. You are literally "doing missions", may these baleful words never leave my lips again.

Yea, the linearity is decline, sure. But it still beats the tediousness of POR any day.

 

[JarlFrank]

What exactly is tedious about PoR?

 

[Morenatsu.]

When creating characters, DEX is their most useful stat, since it governs both initiative, AC and missile THAC0.
Make sure Clerics have high WIS for extra spells.
Make most characters multi-class Elves. Elves get +1 THAC0 with Long Swords and Longbows, and you can never have too many Sleep and Cure Light Wounds spells.
Make one mage single class to get Stinking Cloud and Fireball ASAP.
Hire fighter types from the training hall as meat shields. The other classes are useless thanks to the very poor AI.
Every map has a fixed amount of random encounters.
Instead of resting and casting healing spells, you may want to go to a temple for healing instead. You will soon have more money than you carry anyway.

And this is a very useful link.

While you're at it, you should try this link, and this one as well.

Anyway, the best way to play a game is to just play it. That's what I always do.

 

[KafkaBot]

are there any ways of accidentally making the game unwinnable I should be aware of? Other than not getting the Knock spell, I mean.

Not that I can think of, except maybe if you visit The Pyramid with too low level characters, get lost and the slaughtered by some tough random encounters, and only ever used one save slot.

I tend to save as if my life depended on it, so that probably won't be a problem. Thanks!

Haste, enlarge, prayer and bless are good preparatory spells heading into a big battle against large numbers of enemies.
Try to anchor characters near a wall to keep from being flanked or surrounded.
Many combat maps have side rooms, which can be used to retreat to and create a bottleneck in the doorway.

If you don't plan to take your party all the way to pools of darkness, play Amiga version. It is much prettier than PC.

Until you learn fireball, sleep is your best friend.

Ooooh, nice. Thanks for these tips.

Pls don't forget to keep us updated on your experience, OP. Have fun.

I will try, fellow codexer. Thanks for the well wishes!

 

[newtmonkey]

There are a bunch of save slots, so just make use of them and you won't get stuck. It's enough to just use two slots, really, one at town and one when outside of town. It's an awesome game, probably in the top 5 of games I've played.

If you don't plan on transferring your party to the other games, there's really not much to worry about with regard to rolling up characters. There are some really tough encounters in the game, but it's nonlinear enough that you can often put them aside to do other stuff if you get frustrated. Once you get used to the UI, it's feels very modern (even better than modern RPGs in some ways).

 

[Null Null]

Octavius, Dorateen, and mondblut have said most of the key points.

Only big thing I'd add is there's kind of a tradeoff between this game (where non-humans are useful and fun) and the later ones (where they run into low level caps, like 5 for clerics, 8-11 for mages, and 4-9 for fighters, for classes other than thief imposed by Gygax, who hated LOTR). If you want to bring your characters into later games, don't have more than one or two non-humans, and they should be multiclass thieves (dwarf fighter/thief or elf or half-elf fighter/magic-user/thief). Keep in mind you can make new characters in those games, so it's not that huge of an issue.

Fights in certain areas scale to the size and strength of your party, so putting off clearing the Slums and Kuto's Well of random encounters, say, will make your life harder as you have to traverse those areas to get to other places. Podol Plaza is particularly annoying as due to a bug it can't be cleared if you blew your cover (or refused to hide) while on the mission. One of the draggiest parts of the game is having to fight 50 goblins because you walked into the wrong area.

If you fight the town guard in town, temples, shops, and inns will refuse you service until you complete a mission. The Temple of Tempus will actually attack you. You can get good loot from these but it's a bad idea unless you are pretty strong.

Oh, and you have to rest for a month after using the Manual of Bodily Health. Everyone gets confused by that.

 

[Apostle Hand]

why would you wanna play that shitty game

 

[deadmeme]

Greetings, fellow codexers. To cut a long story short, I'm completely inexperienced with any and all Gold Box Games (for starters, they came out before before I was even born). Hell, I don't have much experience with Golden Age CRPGs in general, with the only exceptions being Wizardry and Ultima Underworld (and Betrayal at Krondor, but I played very little of that one, so it doesn't count YET).

I intend to rectify that somewhat by playing Pool of Radiance; needless to say, I suspect it will be quite different from most of my experiences with the genre so far. What do I have to keep in mind to make my playthrough as satisfactory as possible? I know that I should use the Gold Box companion, the online code wheel and make absolutely sure one of my magic users learns Knock eventually, but that's about it.

General tips when you play old School games.

Save often, test everything, always search for secret areas, in Eye of the Beholder there are invisible walls, don't give up, write things down.
Bosses require tricks to kill so again, don't give up. In ultima 1 there is G for get, you don't use it for anything except for the boss fight.

 

[Dorateen]

don't give up

Speaking of not giving up, specific to Pool of Radiance and the Gold Box series, new players should be encouraged not to throw in the towel too soon when combat is going badly. Monsters have a morale rating, and at some point they might very well break and run or outright surrender if a battle persists for a lengthy amount of rounds. Even if the player is down to one or two characters with a few hit points remaining and outnumbered, it is possible the enemy could break ranks and flee.

 

[Ladonna]

Just do what we all did as kids; use modify character

Seriously though, it isn't that difficult to get into. If the PC sound annoys you, play the Amiga or C64 version. The only annoying thing about POR would be the lack of automated healing command that later games got, but it is the best game of the GB series imho. Have fun.

 

[Brozef]

only thing to add is don't be a retard like me and keep "search" toggled all the time. it will bump up the encounter rate to every other turn.

 

[octavius]

The only annoying thing about POR would be the lack of automated healing command that later games got, but it is the best game of the GB series imho.

That's why using temples may be more convenient.

only thing to add is don't be a retard like me and keep "search" toggled all the time. it will bump up the encounter rate to every other turn.

It's still the same number of encounter; they will just happen every step until they stop.

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

So how's your journey going, KafkaBot?

 

[ProphetSword]

As someone who has beaten the game multiple times, here's what I recommend:

* Be careful if you use the "Modify" button. Making your party too powerful will make the encounters much more difficult. Fight the urge to max out your stats.

* Read as many of the rules as you can in the rule book. Understanding AD&D helps, and the books do a good job of teaching you what you need to know.

* Learn what all the spells you pick can do, as casting the right spells at the right time can save you when things are going bad.

* The only way to make the game unwinnable is if you only have one save and lock yourself into a place you can't escape. You can easily win this game with a non-optimal party, so play whatever you want. Just save often and use multiple save slots, and you should be fine.

* This game doesn't require Gold-Box Companion (none of the Gold-Box games do). People will tell you it is "essential," but people are dumbfucks. These games aren't that hard once you grasp the system. Consider playing without it for a pure experience. We got along fine without it for years.

* Dying in combat will happen. Don't let it frustrate you. Expect to see the monsters rejoicing at your defeat on occasion. Reload and try again.

* Enjoy the experience. These days, you can beat the game in less than a week. Playing on a Commodore 64 back in 1988 with no FastLoad cartridge and only a couple of hours a week, it took me 9 months to beat it...but I still loved every moment of it.