But this takes place quite early in the game, when I'm stuck with one Rocket Launcher, two Grenade Launchers and no chaff grenades. And AFAIK there is no way to return to the pirate ship later.
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Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread
- Thread starter Saxon1974
- Start date
But this takes place quite early in the game, when I'm stuck with one Rocket Launcher, two Grenade Launchers and no chaff grenades. And AFAIK there is no way to return to the pirate ship later.
Damned Registrations
Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2007
- Messages
- 15,872
Ohhh that fight. Hope they roll a lot of ones? 
Without the appropriate anti weapon defensive grenades thats a lot of attack rolls to dodge.
Without the appropriate anti weapon defensive grenades thats a lot of attack rolls to dodge.
Luzur
Good Sir
i need to get me these games, never got further then the second map in Doomsday.
Trash
Pointing and laughing.
Talon? I had at least a rocket launcher at the time. That and spamming grenades for cover and positioning my tanks so that everything moving in close got shredded took care of him. Mind you, always took me a few tries.
Seems it's not possible to do the optional Rendevouze mission on Juno without maxed out stats. At one point my party is surrounded by four combat and assault bots with Plasma Throwers and Rocket Launchers and if I'm lucky one of my guys can react before hell is unleashed.
With no in-combat healing (in Dark Queen of Krynn one Heal spell could turn a battle) and no way to increase STR, your stats and derived abilities (initiative, carrying capacity and movement, and HP) play a larger role in this game.
I assume the final mission at Mercury is even harder (is it?), so I'm tempted to abort the game and restart it some time later with maxed out characters.
Funny thing is that I thought the previous mission on Venus was too easy. In fact the only difficult (as in I had to reload) battle prior to the rendevouze on Juno was when facing two combat bots on Mars.
With no in-combat healing (in Dark Queen of Krynn one Heal spell could turn a battle) and no way to increase STR, your stats and derived abilities (initiative, carrying capacity and movement, and HP) play a larger role in this game.
I assume the final mission at Mercury is even harder (is it?), so I'm tempted to abort the game and restart it some time later with maxed out characters.
Funny thing is that I thought the previous mission on Venus was too easy. In fact the only difficult (as in I had to reload) battle prior to the rendevouze on Juno was when facing two combat bots on Mars.
Carlos' Bitch1
Arcane
Mercury is easier than Juno.
Yeah I wanted to give the game another playthrough after 20 years a few months ago, but the skill screen threw me as I couldn't remember which skills were essential, which were useful and which were never used. This is one of my biggest gripes with old RPG's, the ton of useless skills that are there only for the PnP authenticity and for those wanting to roll PnP characters, but it made creating characters harder that it needed to be with a lot of trial and error and restarts. I don't mind having skills to select that are of marginal utility if you have the option later in game to train other skills but including skills that are NEVER used is taking the piss. I remember with Twilight 2000 thinking how cool when I saw all the ways to develop your character yet most of the skills on offer were unused in the game.
Goliath
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,830
Yes, it's pretty much identical, just more missions. Plus, it finally gives you a chance to use some of those skills which were useless in Buck 1. You know, you are meant to play through Buck 1 then load your party into Buck 2 and continue playing it i.e. like PnP.
Carlos' Bitch1
Arcane
It states in the manuals which skills are not used. Read the manual, pick your skills, play the game. This thread covers everything else you need to know (and you don't really need to know it...everybody that played these games on release didn't need this knowledge), and neither of the games are overly difficult.
Well I didn't have the manual with me when I looked and couldn't remember what the hell was useful from the pages of skills available. I remember that I managed to finish the game with everything done back in 1991 but a decade of popamole where 'everyone is a winrar' no matter the build has made me somewhat fearful of making a 'broken' character.
4too
Arcane
- Joined
- May 20, 2004
- Messages
- 289
Gold Box Handicapping
Need a get out of hell card …
Can max stats, or tweak the relevant numbers for combat (first shots determined by DEX?), or, or, or do the Dos Box equivalent to the disk swap save cheat.
The Buck Rod-gers game play balance limits the number of quality and heavy weapons to heat up the challenge.
Big guns? Maybe two rocket launchers and as many plasma throwers as you can grind out of space combat with Mercuric cruisers. High explosive grenades are rationed out to the final fights.
Duplicate a cache of high explosives and some +3 needle guns instead of going all 18's, and get tactical with the end game.
Equip the low strength specialists with the lighter grenade launchers.
Maybe suit up more than one character in the best double plus body armor.
Area effect weapons, screens of chaff / smoke, +3 projectile side arms,
and huge Martians with pikes and mono swords in what ever combined arms mayhem you can muster.
Take no prisoners.
4too
octavius said:
Need a get out of hell card …
Can max stats, or tweak the relevant numbers for combat (first shots determined by DEX?), or, or, or do the Dos Box equivalent to the disk swap save cheat.
The Buck Rod-gers game play balance limits the number of quality and heavy weapons to heat up the challenge.
Big guns? Maybe two rocket launchers and as many plasma throwers as you can grind out of space combat with Mercuric cruisers. High explosive grenades are rationed out to the final fights.
Duplicate a cache of high explosives and some +3 needle guns instead of going all 18's, and get tactical with the end game.
Equip the low strength specialists with the lighter grenade launchers.
Maybe suit up more than one character in the best double plus body armor.
Area effect weapons, screens of chaff / smoke, +3 projectile side arms,
and huge Martians with pikes and mono swords in what ever combined arms mayhem you can muster.
Take no prisoners.
4too
I restarted the game with better characters. Still not maxed out, as I just can't shake the feeling that maxed stats is cheating (and duplicating items is only for the truly desperate, IMO). But I put more emphasis on STR, since you really need decent STR if you want your characters to be able to both carry a Plasma Thrower and move unencumbered.
On my first try I avoided space combat if I could due to the tedium of mopping up the mobs of warriors aboard the ships. But not this time, as a general rule. I realized it was out of character for my group of NEO space cadets to avoid space combat. since the commanding officer actually says you are supposed to attack and salvage RAM and pirate ships. Since all ships are named I assume there is a finite number of them.
I'm also making more of an effort at shopping around and making sure my characters are equipped to deal with anything.
All in all I think the learning curve is higher for this game than the traditional Gold Box games. There is also more micro-management since you need so many different types of weapons and grenades, and only have 16 item slots. But in general the combats are easier, though. But the random encounters rate is pretty annoying is some places. Which brings to the rage inducing Quick Combat AI - it utterly sucks. I was getting tired of constantly being nibbled on by space rats, so I tried quick combat. First thing my character did was to re-equip weapon and waste my only Explosive Grenade on a single rat.
Combat feels a bit weirder than the fantasy GB games. There are still bonuses for backstabbing and attacking from behind, but there is no opportunity attack rules, so it's usually easy to move your characters around at will and make sure they shoot enemies from behind. So a good tactic is, if room allows it, to have half your squad on each side of the enemy and get as many shots in their backs as possible. Having enemies on only one side of your characters also ensures your own characters are not accidentally (since the AI is too stupid to do it intentionally) shot in the back.
On my first try I avoided space combat if I could due to the tedium of mopping up the mobs of warriors aboard the ships. But not this time, as a general rule. I realized it was out of character for my group of NEO space cadets to avoid space combat. since the commanding officer actually says you are supposed to attack and salvage RAM and pirate ships. Since all ships are named I assume there is a finite number of them.
I'm also making more of an effort at shopping around and making sure my characters are equipped to deal with anything.
All in all I think the learning curve is higher for this game than the traditional Gold Box games. There is also more micro-management since you need so many different types of weapons and grenades, and only have 16 item slots. But in general the combats are easier, though. But the random encounters rate is pretty annoying is some places. Which brings to the rage inducing Quick Combat AI - it utterly sucks. I was getting tired of constantly being nibbled on by space rats, so I tried quick combat. First thing my character did was to re-equip weapon and waste my only Explosive Grenade on a single rat.
Combat feels a bit weirder than the fantasy GB games. There are still bonuses for backstabbing and attacking from behind, but there is no opportunity attack rules, so it's usually easy to move your characters around at will and make sure they shoot enemies from behind. So a good tactic is, if room allows it, to have half your squad on each side of the enemy and get as many shots in their backs as possible. Having enemies on only one side of your characters also ensures your own characters are not accidentally (since the AI is too stupid to do it intentionally) shot in the back.
Goliath
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,830
No, you don't. I have completed that game and a strategy guide only needs two words: needle gun. No enemy is immune to it and it does a lot of damage. Just give all your characters the best needle gun and armor you can find and combat becomes a brainless slaughterfest. Well, at least that worked on normal difficulty and easier levels. I guess in hard mode you actually need to use all those different weapons and grenades.
For warriors with skill in Needle Guns that is true. But for unskilled characters a Rocket Pistol has the most damage potential (6-18 vs 4-40), and because a non-warrior's THAC0 is not so good as a warrior's whatever weapon is of best quality is usually the best allround choice.
And I like Rogues with high Move Silently skill and a high quality melee weapon for one hit kills. A Warrior with skill in Sword and Move Silently would be fun too, but the nastiest robots can't be backstabbed, so Needle Gun is the safe choice.
Trash
Pointing and laughing.
Untill you get rocket and plasma launchers. After that it's just a matter of spamming them for instant win.
Annoying that you have to re-equip them after each battle or risk having to spend a round equipping it next battle.
Against robots I prefer to to drown them in Chaffe Grenades and then destroy them with Needle Guns and Heat Guns.
Anyway, did anyone manage to capture that heavy RAM cruiser? I didn't. I defeated som medium cruisers that would have stood a better chance if I was able to take over captured ships.
Anyone know if equipment transfer over to Matrix Cubed?
Just finished the game and only my two medics got enough XP to reach the level cap of 8.
Trash
Pointing and laughing.
Matrix Cubed starts out with you attending some diplomatic event that goes wrong. I believe that when I imported the CTD save it carried over the equipment as well. As I recall it was in a locker at the start. Could be wrong though. It's been awhile.
Luzur
Good Sir
i started replaying BR:CTD and just finished the alien infested space derelict (again)
luckily i remembered to spice up my guys for the boss this time and use grenades.
luckily i remembered to spice up my guys for the boss this time and use grenades.
Kersey
Educated
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2010
- Messages
- 74
I've been going through the Forgotten Realms variety of the Gold Box games lately and thought I'd tell my tale and also turn to the Codex for a bit of help with character development towards the end.
So let's get right down to it, starting with: Pool of Radiance
I played through this one a couple of years ago already and had more fun with it than I'd had with any video game for a long time. Also started Curse of the Azure Bonds right after that but couldn't keep up motivation to play it for long on account of my initial disappointment. It just felt like a worse game than Pool and I probably had something else than playing games to do back then too, which didn't help and I quietly gave up on Curse.
Upon discovering the Amiga versions with WHDLoad, I got excited about giving these games a go again. I toyed around with the Amiga version of Pool and found it quite uncomfortable to play. I don't know if the original version had any of these problems or if it was a WinUAE/WHDLoad thing but it had a certain slowness, especially with disk access as every save game took an uncomfortably long time. On top of that the interface wasn't really improved from the original version and some things didn't seem to work right, like when using the parlay option the options on the lower edge of the screen would turn into a garbled mess. The sounds, while improved also seemed kind of glitchy. Overall, not impressed. Especially since the Amiga version of Curse had none of these problems, which is why I decided to skip Pool entirely.
Unfortunately Amiga Curse had one thing in common with Amiga Pool. It kept crashing. The crashes weren't really all too frequent on either of the games but compared to the DOS versions which I don't remember ever crashing it was still too much so I went and started over from the DOS version of Pool of Radiance with a fresh party. Also a factor in my decision was the fact that while Pool on Amiga looks superior to its DOS counterpart, the opposite is true for the last part of the series, Pools of Darkness.
My party consisted of:
Human Fighter
Dwarf Fighter/Thief
Half-Elf Cleric/Fighter
Human Cleric
Half-Elf Fighter/Magic-User
Human Magic-User
Having previously completed the game, I blazed through it in a day, finding most of the good stuff there is to find and missing some. Also I tried to do some things different than on my first time. Like, instead of handing the potion over to the wizard Ohlo in the slums I demanded more money and ended up killing the poor guy, did the graveyard pretty early on (which involved a bit of savescumming and swearing) and missed the whole efreeti bottle thing. I didn't have the balls to try to defeat Tyranthraxus without the dust though.
Overall, Pool was every bit as fun on the second time through. Even with it's shortcomings it's just a magnificent game. The tactical combat is easily the most fun in a CRPG I've had since ToEE, the world is well fleshed out and clearing areas never gets repetitive or unplausible because there are no endless random encounters in a small confined space as opposed to so many other CRPGs. Not to mention all the interesting set encounters, areas, quests and neat details all over the game. Yes, Pool of Radiance made it to being one of my favorite games ever and I can't believe it took me this long to get to it.
My intention was to take the Fighter/Thief, Cleric and Magic-User to the sequels and make new paladin and ranger class characters to replace the rest. But for better of for worse, I ended up keeping the fighter, as I had grown somewhat attached to the guy.
Hillsfar
One of the toughest parts of this adventure was going through Hillsfar with one of my characters. The dubious honor fell to the dwarf fighter/thief. Mostly I wanted to see how far the Hillsfar/Curse of the Azure Bonds integration went. As you may or may not know, when you complete all three(!) quests for a guild in Hillsfar the guild master tells you that the Harpers will aid you in your next adventure (and tells you to go out and buy SSI's Curse of the Azure Bonds, no less).
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Well anyway, after a couple of boring hours of arcade action I got started with Curse of the Azure Bonds. I remember hating the seemingly endless mobs of assassins at the beginning and the (F)ix command seeming more like (C)heat to me since it allowed me to get all healed up in places where I wouldn't have been able to in Pool, and probably shouldn't have been able to in the first place.
My party in Curse was as follows:
Human Paladin
Human Fighter
Dwarf Fighter/Thief
Human Ranger
Human Cleric
Human Magic-User
My last attempt at Curse had ended in Yulash, having completed Tilverton and Hap. This time I had much more fun with the game than I remember having the last time, for whatever reason. I still think that Pool is the better game, and especially the way the world map is in Curse doesn't sit well with me. It makes the world seem very, very small to me, consisting only of a collection of one-screen towns with a few 16 by 16 square explorable towns. But luckily what there is is of good quality and full of interesting content.
While the Fire Knife mobs of the beginning still seemed like nothing but busywork, there were some memorable encounters later on. Bits O' Moander being a good example. And I absolutely loved Myth Drannor! Even though I fell for most (well, all) of the Rakshasa traps. Those were all brilliantly annoying, and made me think twice about going to see the elven spirit who did turn out to be legitimate.
Unfortunately I missed pretty much all of the optional content and realized this when I was already past the point of no return and on my way to give T. what was coming to him. Oh well, maybe next time. The final fight was a joke with the dust that I could've put to better use earlier on.
As for what I got for my troubles for taking one of the guys through Hillsfar, there was a bunch of helpful spoilers in the early game while moving on the world map. These were in the form of unsigned notes attached to the appropriate character's belongings and addressed to "Harpers' friend". The notes added a nice bit of flavor but not much more than that, really.
Secret of the Silver Blades
I haven't heard much good about this one and had pretty low expectations for it. I went to it with the exact party that finished Curse and I liked the beginning quite a bit as it did a lot to refine the system. The interface was a little better, though in some ways a little worse (specifically with the requirement to keep using the command (M)ove all the time both in and out of battle which wasn't there in Curse).
Overall my first impressions were favorable. Without the pretense of being on a grand adventure spanning a huge geographical area, and yet having so much to explore, the world seemed larger and more plausible than in Curse. There were quite a few neat details in the town of New Verdigris and the sub-plot with the wizard was quite fun (although his being evil was made obvious pretty much immediately).
Even in the mines I still had fun. Although the "find the 8 pieces of McGuffin" wasn't compelling at any point, the ability to skip most encounters made exploration a breeze (and the game even awarded experience to the character that talked the monsters out of attacking, which I liked). And the lizard men inhabiting part of one of the levels was a nice little detail.
After the mines, there was the dungeon which was one of the game's high points for me. There was even an antagonist there to harass you constantly, although the riddles were mostly just... I don't know. Maybe I just suck with riddles.
But after that the game went downhill for me in a big way. Maybe it was the sameyness of it all going on for too long or maybe it just did go a bit bland at some point, but I had very little fun with the game after reaching the crevasses. Going through seemingly endless corridors and seemingly endless random encounters just made me go to the cluebook and look at the shortest way through it all. By the time I got to the castle I was already pretty fed up with the game and wanted it to end so I probably didn't get the most out of the castle either, although the area did seem promising. And the final fight at least was a bit of a fight for a change.
It's actually hard to put my finger on why I got bored with the game in spite of enjoying most parts of it. To the game's credit, I really liked how there were lots more checks for race and class than in previous games (unless I didn't notice most of them in the previous games of course).
Pools of Darkness
It all comes down to this. I know Pools is legendary for its difficulty level and frankly, I'm not sure if I'm up for it (not to mention my party of adventurers). I've played it a little bit and I'm really liking it so far.
Right now my party is as follows:
Level 14 Paladin
Level 17 Fighter
Level 9/15 Fighter/Thief
Level 15 Ranger
Level 17 Cleric
Level 16 Magic-User
I was thinking of dual classing some characters in Curse or Secret, but thought I should save it for this game, knowing that things are going to get tough. My fighter and fighter/thief are starting to look like waste of space by now and I have little idea on what to do with the rest of them.
Any advice on who and when to dual class would be welcome. My thoughts would be dualing the ranger and the cleric to magic-users soon and possibly the fighter to cleric (although his wisdom pretty much sucks) but I don't know what I'll be up against.
So let's get right down to it, starting with: Pool of Radiance
I played through this one a couple of years ago already and had more fun with it than I'd had with any video game for a long time. Also started Curse of the Azure Bonds right after that but couldn't keep up motivation to play it for long on account of my initial disappointment. It just felt like a worse game than Pool and I probably had something else than playing games to do back then too, which didn't help and I quietly gave up on Curse.
Upon discovering the Amiga versions with WHDLoad, I got excited about giving these games a go again. I toyed around with the Amiga version of Pool and found it quite uncomfortable to play. I don't know if the original version had any of these problems or if it was a WinUAE/WHDLoad thing but it had a certain slowness, especially with disk access as every save game took an uncomfortably long time. On top of that the interface wasn't really improved from the original version and some things didn't seem to work right, like when using the parlay option the options on the lower edge of the screen would turn into a garbled mess. The sounds, while improved also seemed kind of glitchy. Overall, not impressed. Especially since the Amiga version of Curse had none of these problems, which is why I decided to skip Pool entirely.
Unfortunately Amiga Curse had one thing in common with Amiga Pool. It kept crashing. The crashes weren't really all too frequent on either of the games but compared to the DOS versions which I don't remember ever crashing it was still too much so I went and started over from the DOS version of Pool of Radiance with a fresh party. Also a factor in my decision was the fact that while Pool on Amiga looks superior to its DOS counterpart, the opposite is true for the last part of the series, Pools of Darkness.
My party consisted of:
Human Fighter
Dwarf Fighter/Thief
Half-Elf Cleric/Fighter
Human Cleric
Half-Elf Fighter/Magic-User
Human Magic-User
Having previously completed the game, I blazed through it in a day, finding most of the good stuff there is to find and missing some. Also I tried to do some things different than on my first time. Like, instead of handing the potion over to the wizard Ohlo in the slums I demanded more money and ended up killing the poor guy, did the graveyard pretty early on (which involved a bit of savescumming and swearing) and missed the whole efreeti bottle thing. I didn't have the balls to try to defeat Tyranthraxus without the dust though.
Overall, Pool was every bit as fun on the second time through. Even with it's shortcomings it's just a magnificent game. The tactical combat is easily the most fun in a CRPG I've had since ToEE, the world is well fleshed out and clearing areas never gets repetitive or unplausible because there are no endless random encounters in a small confined space as opposed to so many other CRPGs. Not to mention all the interesting set encounters, areas, quests and neat details all over the game. Yes, Pool of Radiance made it to being one of my favorite games ever and I can't believe it took me this long to get to it.
My intention was to take the Fighter/Thief, Cleric and Magic-User to the sequels and make new paladin and ranger class characters to replace the rest. But for better of for worse, I ended up keeping the fighter, as I had grown somewhat attached to the guy.
Hillsfar
One of the toughest parts of this adventure was going through Hillsfar with one of my characters. The dubious honor fell to the dwarf fighter/thief. Mostly I wanted to see how far the Hillsfar/Curse of the Azure Bonds integration went. As you may or may not know, when you complete all three(!) quests for a guild in Hillsfar the guild master tells you that the Harpers will aid you in your next adventure (and tells you to go out and buy SSI's Curse of the Azure Bonds, no less).
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Well anyway, after a couple of boring hours of arcade action I got started with Curse of the Azure Bonds. I remember hating the seemingly endless mobs of assassins at the beginning and the (F)ix command seeming more like (C)heat to me since it allowed me to get all healed up in places where I wouldn't have been able to in Pool, and probably shouldn't have been able to in the first place.
My party in Curse was as follows:
Human Paladin
Human Fighter
Dwarf Fighter/Thief
Human Ranger
Human Cleric
Human Magic-User
My last attempt at Curse had ended in Yulash, having completed Tilverton and Hap. This time I had much more fun with the game than I remember having the last time, for whatever reason. I still think that Pool is the better game, and especially the way the world map is in Curse doesn't sit well with me. It makes the world seem very, very small to me, consisting only of a collection of one-screen towns with a few 16 by 16 square explorable towns. But luckily what there is is of good quality and full of interesting content.
While the Fire Knife mobs of the beginning still seemed like nothing but busywork, there were some memorable encounters later on. Bits O' Moander being a good example. And I absolutely loved Myth Drannor! Even though I fell for most (well, all) of the Rakshasa traps. Those were all brilliantly annoying, and made me think twice about going to see the elven spirit who did turn out to be legitimate.
Unfortunately I missed pretty much all of the optional content and realized this when I was already past the point of no return and on my way to give T. what was coming to him. Oh well, maybe next time. The final fight was a joke with the dust that I could've put to better use earlier on.
As for what I got for my troubles for taking one of the guys through Hillsfar, there was a bunch of helpful spoilers in the early game while moving on the world map. These were in the form of unsigned notes attached to the appropriate character's belongings and addressed to "Harpers' friend". The notes added a nice bit of flavor but not much more than that, really.
Secret of the Silver Blades
I haven't heard much good about this one and had pretty low expectations for it. I went to it with the exact party that finished Curse and I liked the beginning quite a bit as it did a lot to refine the system. The interface was a little better, though in some ways a little worse (specifically with the requirement to keep using the command (M)ove all the time both in and out of battle which wasn't there in Curse).
Overall my first impressions were favorable. Without the pretense of being on a grand adventure spanning a huge geographical area, and yet having so much to explore, the world seemed larger and more plausible than in Curse. There were quite a few neat details in the town of New Verdigris and the sub-plot with the wizard was quite fun (although his being evil was made obvious pretty much immediately).
Even in the mines I still had fun. Although the "find the 8 pieces of McGuffin" wasn't compelling at any point, the ability to skip most encounters made exploration a breeze (and the game even awarded experience to the character that talked the monsters out of attacking, which I liked). And the lizard men inhabiting part of one of the levels was a nice little detail.
After the mines, there was the dungeon which was one of the game's high points for me. There was even an antagonist there to harass you constantly, although the riddles were mostly just... I don't know. Maybe I just suck with riddles.
But after that the game went downhill for me in a big way. Maybe it was the sameyness of it all going on for too long or maybe it just did go a bit bland at some point, but I had very little fun with the game after reaching the crevasses. Going through seemingly endless corridors and seemingly endless random encounters just made me go to the cluebook and look at the shortest way through it all. By the time I got to the castle I was already pretty fed up with the game and wanted it to end so I probably didn't get the most out of the castle either, although the area did seem promising. And the final fight at least was a bit of a fight for a change.
It's actually hard to put my finger on why I got bored with the game in spite of enjoying most parts of it. To the game's credit, I really liked how there were lots more checks for race and class than in previous games (unless I didn't notice most of them in the previous games of course).
Pools of Darkness
It all comes down to this. I know Pools is legendary for its difficulty level and frankly, I'm not sure if I'm up for it (not to mention my party of adventurers). I've played it a little bit and I'm really liking it so far.
Right now my party is as follows:
Level 14 Paladin
Level 17 Fighter
Level 9/15 Fighter/Thief
Level 15 Ranger
Level 17 Cleric
Level 16 Magic-User
I was thinking of dual classing some characters in Curse or Secret, but thought I should save it for this game, knowing that things are going to get tough. My fighter and fighter/thief are starting to look like waste of space by now and I have little idea on what to do with the rest of them.
Any advice on who and when to dual class would be welcome. My thoughts would be dualing the ranger and the cleric to magic-users soon and possibly the fighter to cleric (although his wisdom pretty much sucks) but I don't know what I'll be up against.
Luzur
Good Sir
well, first rule to play the Golden Box series is always to have no pants on so your dick get space to grow, second is to multi-class.
You made the right decision in playing the DOS versions. I've never had problems with the Amiga versions crashing, but Secret of the Silver Blades has a rather serious bug - the Cloaks of Displacement makes you totally immune to physical attacks.
How excactly does this work? Does info from Hillsfar get transfered to CoAB, and then you get Journal Entries you otherwise would not get?
I completed Pools 20 years ago and I don't remember it being that hard. Personally I found Dark Queen of Krynn to be harder.
Dual classing is a good idea. Especially dualing your Ranger to magic user when he was level 15 would have been a good idea, since he gets two attacks per round at level 15 and as a ranger he can wear armour and cast spells, something a fighter dualed to magic user can't do.
What are the stats of your characters? If your fighter's wisdom sucks he won't be able to dual class to cleric. He'll need 17 in the "prime requsite" of his new class (wisdom for clerics) and 15 in the PR of his old class (STR for fighters).
And can the Paladin dual class? They can dual in som game and they can't in other, but I keep forgetting which is which.
Your Fighter/Thief should still be very useful as a backstabber against all the high level humanoid enemies, like those magic resistant Drows.
kmonster
Augur
- Joined
- May 24, 2010
- Messages
- 316
It's better to dual in SotSB, even if you dual right at the start of PoD you'll have 1,500,000 less XP in the final class than a freshly created character and 4 mage levels do make a difference. Even without dualclassing you won't reach the level 40 cap without grinding.
Fighter/paladin/ranger thac0 and saving throws are maxed at level 17, the important attacks per round even at level 13 (fighter,paladin) or 15 (ranger). If you wait longer you'll have to spend a lot for barely any benefit.
I'm assuming all your characters have good enough stats for dualclassing (17 in the new class primary attribute needed).
Your cleric already knows level 7 spells and your warriors have 2 attacks per round.
I'd dual one of fighter/ranger/paladin to cleric and the other 2 to mage, just like the cleric, you can never have enough delayed blast fireballs.
At cleric level 19 thac0 and saves are maxed and a second level 7 spell per day is gained but there's no need to wait that long, more mage levels mean more offensive power.
Fighter/paladin/ranger thac0 and saving throws are maxed at level 17, the important attacks per round even at level 13 (fighter,paladin) or 15 (ranger). If you wait longer you'll have to spend a lot for barely any benefit.
I'm assuming all your characters have good enough stats for dualclassing (17 in the new class primary attribute needed).
Your cleric already knows level 7 spells and your warriors have 2 attacks per round.
I'd dual one of fighter/ranger/paladin to cleric and the other 2 to mage, just like the cleric, you can never have enough delayed blast fireballs.
At cleric level 19 thac0 and saves are maxed and a second level 7 spell per day is gained but there's no need to wait that long, more mage levels mean more offensive power.
BTW, you must have skipped a lot of battles if your ranger is only lvl 15. On my latest playthrough I dualed my ranger to magic user quite early in Secret of the Silver Blades when he was level 15. I got a Gold Box overdose so I put Pools of Darkness on a temporary hold when reaching the Fire Giant caves, at which point my former lvl 15 ranger was still only a lvl 13 magic user.
So dualing too late may not be a good idea.
So dualing too late may not be a good idea.
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