Posted April 28, 2014
I recently picked up The Forgotten Realms Archives with the Gold Box SSI games in it (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness, among others). So, I thought, "What would be a good party to take through the games?" I didn't want to fall into the usual trap of rolling characters and using the Modify command to max them out. Did that enough in my mis-spent youth.
So, instead I looked up the stats of the "canon" party in Baldur's Gate 1 and decided to re-create that party in Pool of Radiance with the intention of taking them through all four games. This presented some interesting challenges as Pool of Radiance has a pretty limited selection of classes. But, I think I made it work okay, and I have some routes to go for the later adventures.
For the "main character," I used the character from the Baldur's Gate strategy guide, Diana Nightflame. She is a Half-Elf Chaotic Good Fighter/Mage. Her stats are:
STR - 16
DEX - 14
CON - 15
INT - 15
WIS - 12
CHA - 15
From the beginning in BG1 she knows Armor and Burning Hands. However, Magic-Users in Pool of Radiance know all first level spells, so I'm intentionally limiting her to those two spells at the beginning.
Dual Classing doesn't become available until Curse of the Azure Bonds, so Imoen actually works out pretty well. I started her as a Thief, as she is in BG1. When I get to CotAB, I will (at the earliest opportunity) Dual Class her to Magic-User.
Dynaheir was pretty easy to recreate as she's a straight up Magic-User. Yes, she's supposed to be a specialist mage, but specialization doesn't exist in the Gold Box games, so Magic-User it is. Khalid was also pretty easy as a straight up Half-Elf Fighter.
Minsc starts as a Fighter as the Ranger class doesn't exist in PoR. However, the Ranger class was added in CotAB. I will have to recreate him when Rangers become available in CotAB as Fighters can't Dual Class to Rangers..
Jaheira was the only character I couldn't recreate exactly as the Druid class doesn't appear in any of the Gold Box games. I had to make her a Fighter/Cleric. Otherwise, her stats are the same as BG1.
The characters don't have the most optimal stats, but I think it will be a fun challenge for me as I only ever played the games with maxed characters before. The only optimization I allowed for the characters as I modified their state was I gave them max HP for the first level. For training, I will take what the game gives me.
I haven't started playing the game yet, I've only completed creating the characters and have the game saved just after the initial tour of Phlan. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to blog the game or not, but I'm seriously thinking about it. I would need to find everyone's combat pictures in BG1 though so I can re-create their icons in PoR the best I can (EGA is a tad limiting, heh). I haven't made it very far through BG1 yet - I'm just outside the Friendly Arms Inn.
If I do blog the game, and you guys are interested in following along, I'll post a link to the blog once I get everything set up.
Flynn
Edited to fix spelling and formatting errors.
So, instead I looked up the stats of the "canon" party in Baldur's Gate 1 and decided to re-create that party in Pool of Radiance with the intention of taking them through all four games. This presented some interesting challenges as Pool of Radiance has a pretty limited selection of classes. But, I think I made it work okay, and I have some routes to go for the later adventures.
For the "main character," I used the character from the Baldur's Gate strategy guide, Diana Nightflame. She is a Half-Elf Chaotic Good Fighter/Mage. Her stats are:
STR - 16
DEX - 14
CON - 15
INT - 15
WIS - 12
CHA - 15
From the beginning in BG1 she knows Armor and Burning Hands. However, Magic-Users in Pool of Radiance know all first level spells, so I'm intentionally limiting her to those two spells at the beginning.
Dual Classing doesn't become available until Curse of the Azure Bonds, so Imoen actually works out pretty well. I started her as a Thief, as she is in BG1. When I get to CotAB, I will (at the earliest opportunity) Dual Class her to Magic-User.
Dynaheir was pretty easy to recreate as she's a straight up Magic-User. Yes, she's supposed to be a specialist mage, but specialization doesn't exist in the Gold Box games, so Magic-User it is. Khalid was also pretty easy as a straight up Half-Elf Fighter.
Minsc starts as a Fighter as the Ranger class doesn't exist in PoR. However, the Ranger class was added in CotAB. I will have to recreate him when Rangers become available in CotAB as Fighters can't Dual Class to Rangers..
Jaheira was the only character I couldn't recreate exactly as the Druid class doesn't appear in any of the Gold Box games. I had to make her a Fighter/Cleric. Otherwise, her stats are the same as BG1.
The characters don't have the most optimal stats, but I think it will be a fun challenge for me as I only ever played the games with maxed characters before. The only optimization I allowed for the characters as I modified their state was I gave them max HP for the first level. For training, I will take what the game gives me.
I haven't started playing the game yet, I've only completed creating the characters and have the game saved just after the initial tour of Phlan. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to blog the game or not, but I'm seriously thinking about it. I would need to find everyone's combat pictures in BG1 though so I can re-create their icons in PoR the best I can (EGA is a tad limiting, heh). I haven't made it very far through BG1 yet - I'm just outside the Friendly Arms Inn.
If I do blog the game, and you guys are interested in following along, I'll post a link to the blog once I get everything set up.
Flynn
Edited to fix spelling and formatting errors.
Post edited April 28, 2014 by FlynnArrowstarr
