Some of the fights can be a little challenging in Pool of Radiance because you probably won't be ready for them--spectres in the library? really? with level drain? really?!--
And don't forget the Basilisk. That was a fun treat I remember. Hey, presto. Your party is stoned and not in a good way.
And no mention of Pools of Darkness? I've played all 4 (and the DL games and the 'Into the Wild' games) but I had my toughest time with Pools of Darkness. It was great to have my REALLY POWERFUL group triumphantly return to Phlan (ish). But I found the game to be a bit to EPIC. Every single battle had the stakes so high that it was a grueling grind rather than fun (for me). I mean, Yeah to traveling the planes and fighting gods and demons. But really? Still worth playing (once) just to say that you did. And if you are a completionist like myself.
@the_spyder Menzoberranzon is the same game engine as the Ravenloft games. It seemed beautiful when it was new! I enjoyed it for a while. But it's puzzle heavy, and that bores me, so I never finished.
@the_spyder Yes, if you are going to start with Pool of Radiance you have to see it through to the end in Pools of Darkness. Losing all your magic items when you transition from one dimension to another is incredibly frustrating but even back then we managed to use disk-swapping exploits to get around that.
I always found going after Tanetal in Moander's realm to be the most challenging. The nastiest thing about PoD is that SSI learned to separate the opponent in fights so that it isn't just you facing enemies from across the room--no, there are some to your left, some to your right, a few in front of you, and often a few behind you. That really makes area effect spells less useful and teaches you the value of heading towards the nearest wall. The worst part of PoD--blue minions of Bane. *yeesh* A permanent "fire shield" effect that is electricity-based, doing double damage to you when you melee them? No, thank you. Of course, that made the Protection from Electricity ring one of the most valuable items in the game, right up there with the Vorpal Long Sword. snicker snack!
I remember having a special "jump team" in PoD. I don't remember how I did it now, but I'd rearrange my party so characters with no magic items would go through the portals, then I'd switch back to my main team. It was as much fun scamming the game as it was playing...
Didn't see this mentioned yet but they released Al-qadim: the Genies Curse. Was hoping for the dark sun games but TGC uses a version of that engine so hopefully the dark sun games are not far behind.
Sarcasm is a cultural thing, it does not transfer across international boundaries.
It also doesn't translate well over the internet. There's a lot of subtle clues to let people know when you're being sarcastic, like vocal inflections or body-language/facial expressions. You just can't reproduce those things in an online forum.
@MathSorcerer - I remember that all of the sudden you could be surrounded by enemies. I had thought that happened with the first Dragonlance, but I guess I was mistaken. In any case, yeah. That was an interesting upgrade to the combat.
PoD is the only of the gold box games that I never completed. I did try several times, but I just never got all the way through it.
PoD was--still is--a long, grueling grind; that alone sucks some of the joy out of the game. My current party just barely made it in to The Red Tower, going after Marcus and, eventually, Tanetal so even though everyone is in the early 20s level-wise that means I am only halfway through the game (4 lieutenants--2 down, 2 to go).
I had the Gold Box Dragonlance games. Technically I still have them but I haven't tried to play them in...hrm...at least 20 years. Maybe I should revisit them but I recall not liking the limitations on magic-users (some spells were usable only by white robe mages and others only by red robe mages) and that bozaks would remove your weapon when they died. I do recall that I enjoyed Death Knights of Krynn (the second one) much more than the first; part of that might have to do with Dave's Challenge, presuming you could find it once you were done with the main quest.
@atcDave Yes, that's what it was--creating a "place holder" character to move through Limbo then add your party members back. The disk-swapping was the trick for Wasteland to reset the maps. I got those two confused, apparently.
I did enjoy that last epic battle at the end of PoD. I seem to remember needing several tries to win it, but it was huge and epic like the finale ought to be!
Comments
And no mention of Pools of Darkness? I've played all 4 (and the DL games and the 'Into the Wild' games) but I had my toughest time with Pools of Darkness. It was great to have my REALLY POWERFUL group triumphantly return to Phlan (ish). But I found the game to be a bit to EPIC. Every single battle had the stakes so high that it was a grueling grind rather than fun (for me). I mean, Yeah to traveling the planes and fighting gods and demons. But really? Still worth playing (once) just to say that you did. And if you are a completionist like myself.
I enjoyed it for a while. But it's puzzle heavy, and that bores me, so I never finished.
I always found going after Tanetal in Moander's realm to be the most challenging. The nastiest thing about PoD is that SSI learned to separate the opponent in fights so that it isn't just you facing enemies from across the room--no, there are some to your left, some to your right, a few in front of you, and often a few behind you. That really makes area effect spells less useful and teaches you the value of heading towards the nearest wall. The worst part of PoD--blue minions of Bane. *yeesh* A permanent "fire shield" effect that is electricity-based, doing double damage to you when you melee them? No, thank you. Of course, that made the Protection from Electricity ring one of the most valuable items in the game, right up there with the Vorpal Long Sword. snicker snack!
It was as much fun scamming the game as it was playing...
http://www.gog.com/game/alqadim_the_genies_curse
PoD is the only of the gold box games that I never completed. I did try several times, but I just never got all the way through it.
I had the Gold Box Dragonlance games. Technically I still have them but I haven't tried to play them in...hrm...at least 20 years. Maybe I should revisit them but I recall not liking the limitations on magic-users (some spells were usable only by white robe mages and others only by red robe mages) and that bozaks would remove your weapon when they died. I do recall that I enjoyed Death Knights of Krynn (the second one) much more than the first; part of that might have to do with Dave's Challenge, presuming you could find it once you were done with the main quest.
@atcDave Yes, that's what it was--creating a "place holder" character to move through Limbo then add your party members back. The disk-swapping was the trick for Wasteland to reset the maps. I got those two confused, apparently.