jaylittle said:
In relation to the actual topic, the only bugs I recall from my recent run throughs of the Gold Box Forgotten Realm games pretty much all involve Ioun stones. Those fucking things were terribly buggy...
I'm not sure on the bugginess of the ion stones, but I'm pretty sure if you maxed out your characters stats at the beginning of the game, that the ioun stones were pretty much useless as your characters already had the max stats and could not go any further with an equipped ioun stone.
Beyond that there aren't really any bugs that I am aware of and I've played through PoR, Curse, SoSB, and PoD multiple times. These were all the DOS versions, as I'm a huge DOS whore when it comes right down to it. A few tips:
1) Don't bother with non-human characters
So very true...Unless your character is a fighter/thief, there is no real reason for any character to be any race but human.
2) Prepare to dual every single character eventually (preferably allow every single character to be able to cast mage spells if possible). I waited until PoD and it was worth the extra stretch.
It is (in my opinion) preferable to create new characters for every new game in the forgotten realms series. Only in the Pools of Darkness game do we really even need to consider doing the human class change. (except by PoD, all of your character's races should = human. If any are non-human then make your thief a halfling. But still even the thief could dual class if human.
3) Drop all of your fighters from PoR for rangers in Curse. Rangers can dual class to Mages and cast mage spells while wearing armor, using a shield and wielding any kind of weapon. This is a massive advantage in PoD. Other classes that dual over to mages will not be able to wear armor when they want to cast mage spells.
No objections here. Rangers come in super handy in Curse/Secret.
4) Don't worry about experience. Each game gives you more than enough even with a full 6 character party to smash through the level limits for the game.
Yep.
5) Use the cluebooks. There is a decent amount of hidden stuff in a lot of maps that will be worth discovering.
The only game in the series that I needed to use the cluebook for was for Curse of the Azure Bonds. I feel that that is the most complex and toughest game in the series. Use the Cluebook at will in that game. The others....not so much.
6) Don't worry about hanging onto every single item for the next game. The only game that allows transfer of character items from game to the next is Secret of the Silver Blades. Even then your vault contents are not transferred. I learned this the hard way as I had dozens of mage scrolls saved in my vault and I planned on using them for my dual classing needs and then poof! they were gone!
Oh so true! Use those items if you got 'em! Use the scrolling option to learn the spells if you don't already have them in your repertoire first though.
7) Secret of the Silver Blades sucks. God it is just a horrid game. By the time you punch your way through to the end, you'll just want it to be over. It is boring and uninspired at best.
While I find that SotSB is the most repetitioius...I disagree that it is a horrid game. I have found that the second time around, that SotSB is rewarding and better the second time around.
8) Pools of Darkness absolutely fucking rocks. Best game of the series. Curse/PoR are neck and neck in second place.
I did enjoy PoD, however I still consider PoR, as the best in the series, Curse I consider the least replayable as it is so difficult, Secret my second favorite, and PoD, my least favorite. Perhaps I like PoD the least due to it being the highest level game in the series. I tend to prefer the lower level quests.
9) Fireball, Ice Storm, Magic Missile, Haste. Delayed Blast Fireball. These are probably the most used mage spells in the game. If you aren't using them religiously, you are doing something wrong.
If you aren't using these spells you are most likely dead by now.
10) When fighting Beholders: Haste, Mirror Image, Dispel Evil, Globe of Invulnerability, and Fire Shield make for a great combination. You will be fighting a handful of Beholders in Curse and Secret, and fuckton of them in PoD.
11) Never ever ever ever waste the "Dust of Disappearance". This item is in Curse once or twice and in Secret of the Silver Blades once I think. Easily the best item of the game, but it's for a single use only.
I have vague recollections of using the Dust in the final battle in Curse.
The last battle is an excellent choice to of course. My other favorite choice for it's use would if be you decided to take out the dragons at the top of Draconis' tower.
