Tips for a neophyte who wants to play Pool of Radiance

[mondblut]

Something else came up. In regard to leveling up dual classers or multi-classers, it says I have the XP to level them, but not for the class I want. Do I have to wait until I can afford the particular class or do each of the classes of the multiclass have their own XP pool?

To clarify, I have a fighter/mage that's ready to level, but only the fighter portion. If I level the fighter portion would I need to start grinding XP from scratch for the mage portion again? Do I need to hoard the XP until I have enough to level up the mage bit?

Separate pools. Your xp is divided by 2 (or 3) and goes to each of the classes.

 

[The Limper]

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.

Plus CoK has much better Race/Class options, Kender Taunt and the Knight class. PoR has the better game interface.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Great game, tedious inventory management, too many junk mobs, surprising amount of C&C. 7.5/10.

Fin.

 

[Cael]

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.

Plus CoK has much better Race/Class options, Kender Taunt and the Knight class. PoR has the better game interface.

No one tells him about Dark Queen of Krynn. He'll blow a gasket.

 

[mondblut]

No one tells him about Dark Queen of Krynn. He'll blow a gasket.

Someone hasn't played past the underwater section, I see.

 

[Cael]

No one tells him about Dark Queen of Krynn. He'll blow a gasket.

Someone hasn't played past the underwater section, I see.

When someone insists that DQK isn't the most linear GB game...

 

[mondblut]

When someone insists that DQK isn't the most linear GB game...

After you land on Thaladas, it becomes fairly tolerable. In fact, you're often at loss where to go and what to do, especially if you didn't search that wizard's tower early on Thaladas thoroughly enough.

Not a pinnacle of open worldbuilding for sure, but a far cry from "thanks for DEBRIEFING your previous MISSION, soldier. Now, hear the BRIEFING to your next MISSION, soldier".

 

[Cael]

When someone insists that DQK isn't the most linear GB game...

After you land on Thaladas, it becomes fairly tolerable. In fact, you're often at loss where to go and what to do, especially if you didn't search that wizard's tower early on Thaladas thoroughly enough.

Not a pinnacle of open worldbuilding for sure, but a far cry from "thanks for DEBRIEFING your previous MISSION, soldier. Now, hear the BRIEFING to your next MISSION, soldier".

In COK, after Throtl, you get to mess around until you complete all of the side and main areas, and make the final push to Sanction and Kernan. That is the entire game bar the first and last areas...

On the other hand, DQK is linear to Thaladas, and then it is 3 areas to choose from (Tower, Kristophan and New Aurim), as the next couple is gated (Hawkbluff and the Bakali swamp). Can't remember if Bai'or is. After that, it is linear again all the way to the credits. No side quests, nothing. In fact, it is so linear that the story telling makes it extremely obvious you are supposed to go Tower, Kristophan and New Aurim in that order.

COK is far closer to DKK than DQK can ever aspire to be.

 

[Eirinjas]

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.

I recently picked up the complete D&D bundle on STEAM. I'm gearing up to play everything, beginning with POR. What is considered too powerful? What is the cutoff before the game punishes the player for modifying characters? Does rolling natural high stat characters also punish the player?

 

[jaekl]

I wouldn't worry about it, do whatever you want. I maxed out all my stats and played through it without any issues whatsoever. The game is not very hard and you can save anywhere. I suspect a case of chronic old man gamer exaggeration syndrome.

 

[Cael]

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.

I recently picked up the complete D&D bundle on STEAM. I'm gearing up to play everything, beginning with POR. What is considered too powerful? What is the cutoff before the game punishes the player for modifying characters? Does rolling natural high stat characters also punish the player?

There is no punishment for modifying stats. In fact, the function is there specifically for you to modify stats to "make the character you want or import your favourite character into the game". The manual tells you this. There are people who say that POR will punish you, but that is because POR scales to your power. You getting a +1 sword will end up with the same power level as a guy with 18 in all stats, so you might as well start with 18 in all stats.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

What is the cutoff before the game punishes the player for modifying characters? Does rolling natural high stat characters also punish the player?

I maxed them all out, the game never felt too hard for it and I reckon I would have regretted it if I hadn't. POR was pretty forgiving, other than rolling shitty HP values on level ups. I highly recommend using the GBC's level-up feature to get max HP per level to save you reloading a bajillion times.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Might as well post this PSA here. If you ever go to play Curse of the Azure Bonds after POR make sure you never equip the Belt of Dwarves unless you feel like having hours of your life wasted. Permanantly robs your character of half his HP due to a bug. Shit game so far too, annoying battle terrain and bad encounter design. Way way worse than POR.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Might as well post this PSA here. If you ever go to play Curse of the Azure Bonds after POR make sure you never equip the Belt of Dwarves unless you feel like having hours of your life wasted. Permanantly robs your character of half his HP due to a bug. Shit game so far too, annoying battle terrain and bad encounter design. Way way worse than POR.

You could consider switching to the Krynn series, since Death Knights of Krynn is the second-best game in the Gold Box series, though you would want to complete the more-linear Champions of Krynn first.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

You could consider switching to the Krynn series, since Death Knights of Krynn is the second-best game in the Gold Box series, though you would want to complete the more-linear Champions of Krynn first.

Nah, I'm gonna restart Curse in a week or so and hope it gets better, once my anger abates. I'll get to the Krynn series eventually.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Gott play Hillsfar, though, I don't know if they ever fixed dos transfers or if you keep the extra hp. Bah! That game pissed me off at times. Imagine doing every character on c64 from pool to hills to curse. Ugh! It took time and i can't recall if the bonus stuck.

 

[octavius]

Might as well post this PSA here. If you ever go to play Curse of the Azure Bonds after POR make sure you never equip the Belt of Dwarves unless you feel like having hours of your life wasted. Permanantly robs your character of half his HP due to a bug. Shit game so far too, annoying battle terrain and bad encounter design. Way way worse than POR.

The bug only happens with imported characters, I think. Ioun Stones are also dangerous to equip.
But if you use the Gold Box Companion, you should be able to easily fix bugged stats.

The wilderness combats are annoying, but there's not many of them. Overall CoAB has excellent encounter design.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Any of you mule the manual of bodily health? Works great that 25 con. Hmmm hmm... regen time. There was a bug with Enlarge at least in the c64 where i tranferred chars who ended up with 24 str as well. I don't recall if dos had this bug though.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I thought Curse of the Azure bonds was far superior to Pool of Radiance. You can't just win every fight with a fireball. Better loot too. But I despise low level caps in D&D games, and PoR caps you at what, 6? Yech. Low level D&D is overrated as shit.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

From memory:
6 mage
6 cleric
8 fighter
9 rogue

I think. Your demi-humans get shafted esp after pools. 2e rules raised these limits (see Dungeon Hack).

 

[octavius]

Elf multi-classes ruled in PoR. Not only do they snigger haughtily at the XP caps, they also get +1 THAC0 when wielding Long Swords and Longbows, as well as better saving throws.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

But if you use the Gold Box Companion, you should be able to easily fix bugged stats.

Some version of GBC comes packaged in with the collection on Steam, however it gave me no option to fix anything other than encamp and level drain and believe me, I spent some time looking. Too late anyway, already deleted my saves, good to know I'll be playing Russian Roulette any time I equip an item.

In addition to this, I didn't notice any reduced stats, just reduced HP. All the stats were reading as normal, unless the bug causes the stat loss to be unperceivable and incorrect values continue being displayed hiding the true values or something.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Did some research and this may be useful for anyone who transfers characters from POR to Curse. To prevent the bug in my post above you need to unequip all items from your characters in POR before exporting them in the training hall. Then import them to Curse and add them one by one until they're all in the party. Once they're all in the party, you then need to remove them from the party again. This tricks the game into thinking that the imported characters are actually from Curse rather than POR. This time instead of adding them from POR, you can now add them to the party from Curse and finally begin the game.

Edit: Nope, the above info was also wrong at least partially, perhaps entirely. Just tested it. Belt of the Dwarves is still broken, it still permanently reduces their HP. Be sure you never equip it. Ioun Stones seem okay so far, but have only tested the Deep Red and the Pink and Green one.

Edit #2: Pale Blue Ioun Stone is also bugged. Breaks your strength score. Never equip it if your characters are imported from PoR with a natural 18 in strength.