Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[octavius]

Anyone ever found the Hobgoblin Lair in PoR?
The nomads talk about a hobgoblin lair south-east of their own camp and the lizardmen talk about a hobgoblin lair to the south of their castle. But I can't remember ever finding it.


Just did the mission to find the Heir of Biuvant.
Expect for The Commandant the Buccaneers are pathetically weak. They have no weapons and armour and can be "sweeped". Heh, too bad the game can't be modded.

I dunno if it's a bug or not, but the reward for this mission was one 2H Sword +1, +4 vs Undead and four Scrolls of Restoration - the same stuff you get for accepting the Graveyard mission.
Bug or a subtle hint to get on with the Graveyard mission?

 

[Luzur]

Did you try out the Tandy sound effect option?

If you're asking me, then no.
I play PoR without sound.

i pity you.

 

[Ozzy_98]

About the manual on PoR, changing CON will cause HP is recalculated (Curse had the girdle of dwarves and ion stones to raise it), it does not recalculate correctly in PoR. Giving a hero the manual, his HP went from 35 to 36. If you notice too, dwarf fighters should have a max of 15 HP at the start, but they top off at 14 HP. Using more than one manual (Dupes, more than one play through) can cause your con to raise too high; there's no tables for the bonuses at higher values so you get a bonus of 0 hp.

To use the manual, you should be in camp where you can rest. Once you use the manual, rest for 31 days. After one day, it'll say "<PC name here> is trying to train", then after 30 more days, con goes up one point. Not like it helps much.

Might be better to give to a hireling that you plan on leveling up. A hero should hit a max of 92 HP if you give him the manual at level 4, and train him up to level 8.

 

[octavius]

About the manual on PoR, changing CON will cause HP is recalculated (Curse had the girdle of dwarves and ion stones to raise it), it does not recalculate correctly in PoR. Giving a hero the manual, his HP went from 35 to 36. If you notice too, dwarf fighters should have a max of 15 HP at the start, but they top off at 14 HP. Using more than one manual (Dupes, more than one play through) can cause your con to raise too high; there's no tables for the bonuses at higher values so you get a bonus of 0 hp.

To use the manual, you should be in camp where you can rest. Once you use the manual, rest for 31 days. After one day, it'll say "<PC name here> is trying to train", then after 30 more days, con goes up one point. Not like it helps much.

Might be better to give to a hireling that you plan on leveling up. A hero should hit a max of 92 HP if you give him the manual at level 4, and train him up to level 8.

I don't think PoR tracks NPC stats correctly. When I played Hero was level drained at the Graveyard, but Restoration didn't work on him at all.

I used the MS-DOS version 1.3 and did the rest 31 days thing and got the "is training" message after day one. But it was not untill after several weeks in the wilderness looking for the Nomad Camp that the second message of the training program flashed on the screen so fast that I couldn't read it. But I noticed my mage's CON had gone up from 14 to 15.
Giving the manual to an NPC is a waste IMO, but then I'm probably the only one not using characters with maxed stats and I never reload if getting only one HP when leveling up.
Mages actually get extra HP from CON up untill level 11 while Fighers only get the extra HP up untill lvl 9.

 

[Ozzy_98]

Giving the manual to an NPC is a waste IMO, but then I'm probably the only one not using characters with maxed stats and I never reload if getting only one HP when leveling up.
Mages actually get extra HP from CON up untill level 11 while Fighers only get the extra HP up untill lvl 9.

If you're not playing maxe3 stats then I can see using it yourself, otherwise it's just a large paperweight, or funds to buy a fine longbow (Thoese things are not cheap!)

Stupid time-out fairy ate my post to gah.

Anyways the way Pool handels all stats are messed up, a F/Mu-C should max at 66 HP, 14 hp per level fighter, 6 per level magic user, and 10 per level cleric, with 8, 6 and 5 levels each, divide that mess by 3. But truth is, they max at 75 HP, they start with 9 hp, gain 3 HP/levle for magic-users, 4 hp/level clerics, and 5 hp/level fighters. I'm not sure if this carries to later games or not, but I doubt it.

I imported a 75 hp level 8/6/5 char to Curse, so they were ready to go to level 8 magic users right off the bat, and they gained no HP. I had one 70 hp 7/6/5 char who just hadn't trained yet, and when he went to level 8/8/5, he gained more HP, he had like 83 I think maxed. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how it's working.

I've got a LOT of notes on the goldbox games over on my site, http://rhwiii.info/blog there's a goldbox section to the right, and also the startings of my Pools of Radiance faq.

 

[octavius]

OK, I left Hap. Akbar Bel Akash a mage who joined our party in Hap, left saying we were cowards running away from defending the town. Well he was pretty worthless anyway. He never cast his fireball spells and only once used stinking cloud to good effect. He was real good at throwing darts though. I fear I would spend too much time worrying about protecting him with his measly 15 hitpoints. Good riddance XP leech.

The only good thing about "Admiral Akbar" is that he forces you to fight the Drow patrols you meet, thereby making the showdown (or drowdown) in the barn much easier.
Too bad the AI is so piss poor in the Gold Box games compared to the IE games or he could have been useful in battle. Instead he casts Stinking Clouds and Fireballs with no though of his allies being caught in the AoE while the magic resistant Drow laughs at the stupid human who fries his own friends.

 

[mondblut]

You are a puissant necromancer of threads.

Anyway, Akabar holds the honor of being the sole NPC in goldbox series I just stopped caring about and allowed him to die without reloading. He was that useless. Even the random NPCs in POR I cared about more.

 

[octavius]

You are a puissant necromancer of threads.

Well, someone has to do it, while the rest write about faggotry, and how evil Bethesda and Bioware is.

 

[octavius]

Just finished CoAB and was magically teleported (isn't Elminster nice to have around?) to Shadowdale and I can continue the game.
Damned annoying since my characters only have from 300,000 to 450,000 EXP and I can still get a couple of levels for my character before starting Secret of the Silver Blades. I haven't "Searched" any area so there is still lots to explore.

Any tricks to use my expeienced characters with an old save game? I tried loading an old save game, entering a city, Remove all my characters and the Add characters, but they don't show up.

 

[Ozzy_98]

Depends on thesystem the game is on, but you will see files called chardata01, chardatb02, ect. the chardat just means it's a saved game file, the a,b,c ect is what saved game it is, so chardata is for saved game a. The 01 to 06 means it's slot 1-6, so you SHOULD be able to just copy the foles from, say, chardatl to chardata and move your chars that way, but I've never tried it.

I think another way is to DROP them from the old save file, and remove them from the newer one, but I'm not sure.

And remember, you're not done with curse till you can beat the beholder corps WITHOUT the dust of disapperence. inv 10' is fine though.

 

[octavius]

Depends on thesystem the game is on, but you will see files called chardata01, chardatb02, ect. the chardat just means it's a saved game file, the a,b,c ect is what saved game it is, so chardata is for saved game a. The 01 to 06 means it's slot 1-6, so you SHOULD be able to just copy the foles from, say, chardatl to chardata and move your chars that way, but I've never tried it.

I think another way is to DROP them from the old save file, and remove them from the newer one, but I'm not sure.

And remember, you're not done with curse till you can beat the beholder corps WITHOUT the dust of disapperence. inv 10' is fine though.

Yay! Renaming the 17-18 CHARDAT* SWG, SAV and FX files did the trick.

As for the Beholder Corp I already beat them in another time I played CoA and I didn't even use the Dust since I didn't know what it did. I thought it was just regular Invisibily for all the party.
The trick was to move away from the doorway and the line of sight of the beholders and then exploit the bad AI to deal with them one at a time. A Hasted and Enlarged Fighter/Thief chopped up most of the Beholders and Drow Lords. Nothing beats backstabbing Fighter/Thieves when dealing with magic resistant or immune man sized enemies!
I have a Ranger who can dual to either Mage or Thief and I'm actually tempted to dual him to thief instead of mage when he reaches lvl 13 or 14.
Since my party only rests once a day unless they have to a Ranger/Thief is often more useful to me than a Ranger/Mage.

 

[Ozzy_98]

I'm a huge fan of hman rangers\pallys dual classed, I have a bunch of notes talking about it on my site at http://rhwiii.info/blog just look at the goldbox section.

I'm also not a big fan of backstab, I'd always prefer a MU of the same level for the raw damage. Backstabings a lot more limited than people seem to think, but they see that great big number and think, "Wow, that's amazing".

Then you get to PoD where I've seen lightning bolts do over 400hp before when bounced off the wall. Or it would have if the creature was still alive after the first 200+ hit, and failed a second saving throw...

Also, if you're playing from pool to pool, learn how meteor swarm works, it's a line attack with a diamond at the end. It' great for taking out drow, since thoese in the line have to make their MR roll 3-4 times, and thoese in the blast area need to roll it 4-8 times, it will almost always hit at least a few, and at higher levels when you've dropped their MR to 0, it can kill them even on champion. It's also the only spell in the game that can damage raskasha

 

[octavius]

I'm a huge fan of hman rangers\pallys dual classed, I have a bunch of notes talking about it on my site at http://rhwiii.info/blog just look at the goldbox section.

I'm also not a big fan of backstab, I'd always prefer a MU of the same level for the raw damage. Backstabings a lot more limited than people seem to think, but they see that great big number and think, "Wow, that's amazing".

Then you get to PoD where I've seen lightning bolts do over 400hp before when bounced off the wall. Or it would have if the creature was still alive after the first 200+ hit, and failed a second saving throw...

Yes, but spells have limited uses before they have to be rememorized, while there is no such restriction on backstabbing.

I read your blog and it's obvious we have totally different playing styles. I don't use maxed characters, I don't "cheat" (no item duplication, no saving and loading to get max HP when leveling and no looting of hired Heroes) and I try to role play my characters - my fighters refuse to rest just so that the brainiacs can memorize their spells after every battle, for example.
With such a playing style, with conservative use of magic, a Fighter/Thief is invaluable and my F/T did probably 90% of the party's kills against the Drows in Hap and the caverns beneath in CoAB. He used the only Potion of Speed I found in the room with 20 Drow Fighters and killed three of them each round. CoAB is more brutal than PoR and I found that area to be the most brutal one in the whole game.
Backstabbing in PoR is not very effective since you need to attack twice before the F/T can backstab and you only get 2X damage for most of the game. But in later games you only need to attack opposite of the first attacker, it works on any single hex monster and the damage is more than any single class fighter type can hope to make. And when not backstabbing the F/T will do as much damage as a pure fighter type anayway (axcept Rangers vs giant types).
But I agree that single class Thieves are probably the least useful characters to have in your party.

Also, if you're playing from pool to pool, learn how meteor swarm works, it's a line attack with a diamond at the end. It' great for taking out drow, since thoese in the line have to make their MR roll 3-4 times, and thoese in the blast area need to roll it 4-8 times, it will almost always hit at least a few, and at higher levels when you've dropped their MR to 0, it can kill them even on champion. It's also the only spell in the game that can damage raskasha

Thanks for the tip; that's another spell I never quite worked out the AoE for. I guess Meteor Storm is considered a Physical, and not Magical, attack?

BTW, interesting stuff on your blog about hex editing. I don't use it to "cheat" but next time I play the Pool series I'll try to have a Ranger and Paladin in my PoR party.

 

[Fowyr]

Also, if you're playing from pool to pool, learn how meteor swarm works, it's a line attack with a diamond at the end. It' great for taking out drow, since thoese in the line have to make their MR roll 3-4 times, and thoese in the blast area need to roll it 4-8 times, it will almost always hit at least a few, and at higher levels when you've dropped their MR to 0, it can kill them even on champion. It's also the only spell in the game that can damage raskasha

Thanks! This is really great and some time I try it.

 

[Jaesun]

How did the Mulmaster beholder corps battle go?

 

[rpgcodexusername]

Secret of the Silver Blades is a terrible game.

There is a long corridor that takes hours to walk down, I dont think I even reached the end

 

[octavius]

Secret of the Silver Blades is a terrible game.

Yeah, the whole premise of the game is ludicrous - armies of monsters, and high level priests and mages - enought to conquer the Forgotten Realms - are gathered in an old mine???
I'm about to start playing it soon, but mainly to have more experiended characters when starting Pools of Darkness.

 

[Ozzy_98]

Yes, but spells have limited uses before they have to be rememorized, while there is no such restriction on backstabbing.

Other than being humanoid

I don't use maxed characters, I don't "cheat" (no item duplication, no saving and loading to get max HP when leveling and no looting of hired Heroes) and I try to role play my characters - my fighters refuse to rest just so that the brainiacs can memorize their spells after every battle, for example.

Gah, make it sound like I play dirty

I do save\load still to get HP though, just because the rules of the game butt rape fighters sometime. I was playing CotAB when I had two fighters, same level, over 20 HP apart. That's when I decided it was time to save\load before level ups.

CoAB is more brutal than PoR and I found that area to be the most brutal one in the whole game.

I'd say some of the fights in PoD were worse, try not grabbing the crystal at the end, with it sent to champions. Weee, lots of dracolicheses.

Wait, Draco.. chesses?yum

Also, if you're playing 1.0 of the game, it's worse, after you get to the top of the tower, and be a man and kill all the dragons (You didn't wuss out on me did you? ), you get to face a lone dark elf lord way sooner then you should be ready for it. And he's even a cheating dark elf to boot! He was removed from version 1.3

Anyways another tip for backstabbing is have someone use delay along with the thief, and have them attack the target from one side, while the thief attacks from the other.

I guess Meteor Storm is considered a Physical, and not Magical, attack?

I wish, then it would clear out dracos in a heartbeat at the end. So right now, only blade barrier and ice storm affect more than one of them, since they're immune to fire\ice\lightning.

Yep, Ice Storm is not cold damage, it's magic damage. For a long time I refused to use it on dracos, since it was "a bug in the game" and shouldn't affect them. Then I found a copy of 1st edition rules, and guess what? Ice storm does it's damage from the hail, and is considered physical, not magical. So you can not feel bad using it to stop them from casting spell after spell.

I never really had anything aginst SotSB, it's dull, but picks up a bit after the mines. Then gets boring as hell in the ice crevices....

Oh, but you get to kill canaries, so that's cool

 

[octavius]

Yes, but spells have limited uses before they have to be rememorized, while there is no such restriction on backstabbing.

Other than being humanoid

No, only humanoid sized. So backstab works on any one hex monster from CoAB onwards. In PoR it actually worked on any monster, but it was more difficult to set up the backstab.

I don't use maxed characters, I don't "cheat" (no item duplication, no saving and loading to get max HP when leveling and no looting of hired Heroes) and I try to role play my characters - my fighters refuse to rest just so that the brainiacs can memorize their spells after every battle, for example.

Gah, make it sound like I play dirty

Heh, it's a single player game so the only "correct" way to play it is the one that you enjoy the most. I used to enjoy number crunching and power playing myself when I was younger, but now I prefer to role play the CRPGs as much as possible.

CoAB is more brutal than PoR and I found that area to be the most brutal one in the whole game.

I'd say some of the fights in PoD were worse, try not grabbing the crystal at the end, with it sent to champions. Weee, lots of dracolicheses.

Wait, Draco.. chesses?yum

Also, if you're playing 1.0 of the game, it's worse, after you get to the top of the tower, and be a man and kill all the dragons (You didn't wuss out on me did you? ), you get to face a lone dark elf lord way sooner then you should be ready for it. And he's even a cheating dark elf to boot! He was removed from version 1.3

I didn't kill the dragons, but I still met the lone Drow Lord. I don't think he's cheating, as much as he has buffed, just like the player characters can do.
Guess how I defeated him? ;-)

Anyways another tip for backstabbing is have someone use delay along with the thief, and have them attack the target from one side, while the thief attacks from the other.

Yup, that's what I usually do when the fighter/thief's turn is before the rest of the party.

 

[kmonster]

I recommend letting your ranger reach level 15 before dualclassing, SotSB will be too easy with an imported party anyway while the extra half attack per round and other bonuses you get at ranger level 15 will make a difference in PoD.
I'd dual to mage , PoD battles get very tedious if you don't speed them up with a (delayed blast) fireball which does more damage than 10 backstabs, high level mages get lots of spells, so you'll be able to speed up more than 20 battles before resting.

 

[mondblut]

my fighters refuse to rest just so that the brainiacs can memorize their spells after every battle, for example.

 

[octavius]

my fighters refuse to rest just so that the brainiacs can memorize their spells after every battle, for example.

??? Role playing is lame?

 

[Jaesun]

 

[octavius]

:violin:

 

[Ozzy_98]

I didn't kill the dragons, but I still met the lone Drow Lord. I don't think he's cheating, as much as he has buffed, just like the player characters can do.

No, I mean, he's REALLY cheating. If you read the text, he was hiding a symbol of pain, it's causing you penilties on your attacks aginst him.

I've also noticed saving throws are wrong. In Pool of Radiance, they seemed to have followed the rules, but right now mine are too high (bad).

Anyways if you missed the dragons, here's a video I did so you can see more of my style. Oh I roleplay when I do the SSI games. I'm an avatar of Talos :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoeqVvNiQyE