This is a quickie on unique interface features that may go unnoticed by the average gamer. Both games will have these features since the engine did not change much from Shattered Lands to Wake of the Ravager.

As per the thread title, no spoilers on this one. (Why would you?)

Passing an item on the inventory screen
While holding an item in the inventory, right-click another character's portrait to pass the item without switching screens.

Holding an item in the cursor
After picking up an item, right-click to switch back to an action icon without dropping it. You will carry the item around in a separate cursor slot. Warning: This probably doesn't work too well or at all between areas, and I haven't tested it.

Viewing arrow count
Right-click on the quiver. Identical arrows combine by clicking them together and split by holding them and clicking the 'Split' option.

Spell and Power descriptions
Right-click on the icon of a spell or power to view its description (some are incorrect though). This works on any menu with the icons, including the quick spell slot and spell selection on level up.

Quick Spell slot
On the world overview, right-clicking the sun in the upper lefthand corner opens a small menu of recently used spells by the current character. Handy for those fireball-heavy outings.

Casting Spells from Menu
In the spell menu, you can cast spells on fellow characters where applicable by simply clicking the spell icon on their portrait. To cast on an NPC, simply click on the spell then exit the menu normally.

Expand/Collapse party
This one is in the rulebook, but the benefits may not be obvious. Controlling the party as a group allows you to position your party before combat so that your spellcasters don't end up in front. This also allows for out-of-combat spells effects such as Haste to take effect. This option is available in the Tab menu or just press '5'.

View enemy HP and status
Using the Look icon in combat, you can view each enemy's remaining HP in the flame bar at the top along with any statuses at the bottom (e.g. "paralyzed"). Basically a manual version of Tab in Baldur's Gate.

Here is a good one for those running the game under DOSBox:

Press and hold Alt+F12 to fast forward the game. This is great for getting past the logo screen when you first turn on the game, for example. (Should work for all DOSBox games unless the control was changed in the configuration.)

It works in combat as well, I just checked. It goes by the selected character from what I could tell.

Added the arrows. The equipment switch is an exploit rather than a feature.

DOSBox shortcuts we'll leave off the main post as well. They have their own documentation. Though, the fast forward is definitely handy in reducing loading time.

Could you explain why? It doesn't seem like an exploit to me.

(Also, I note that the Graft Weapon power exists, and it has the intentional side effect of preventing you from switching weapons while it is in effect.)

Who knows why they left it unrestricted, but switching armor in combat shouldn't be permissible. Weapons sure, but freely changing them about doesn't fall in line with the limitations on action. You can swap weapons with another character who is 24 squares away.

They left character imports unrestricted too, and for the same reason I wouldn't advocate duplicating items or importing high-level characters from other saves. They're not that tough to figure out anyway.

I came to realize some of my suggestions are actually mentioned in the manual. I'll trim a bit and just leave the really useful stuff.

I'd argue that switching armor during combat isn't an exploit under typical circumstances. There is only one reason I can really think of for doing so: The player forgot to equip armor before the battle. In this case, it is just a convenience.

Incidentally, I would argue that importing high-level characters isn't necessarily an exploit, especially if you get stuck due to a bug or saving yourself into a corner; just use it as a form of New Game+.

Also, to my understanding there is a method of duplicating certain items available late in the game that is clearly intentional. Do you allow that? (Unfortunately, the "NO SPOILER" rule for this topic prevents this from being explained in detail.)

That method has nothing to do with the character import. I was simply saying, you can use the import to duplicate items, but just because that exploit exists I wouldn't encourage players to use it.

The import definitely wasn't done right for higher level characters because you can start in the arena (as a slave) with full suits of armor and magical weapons. It's an obvious hole, not a particularly heinous one, but a hole nonetheless.

Switching armor in combat really isn't in the scope of available actions for a single combat round. Everything in D&D is based on "reasonableness," and fastening or unfastening armor takes more time and attention than one round can afford. You could do it in P&P if you're sidelined and spend multiple rounds, but computer games that enforce this properly (like Baldur's Gate) do not allow it period.

A few others:

If the party is not expanded, various effects (including spell effects that affect areas) will only affect the party leader. Anyone who casts a spell is treated as the party leader, so spells such as Bless and Fireball will only affect the caster. If you want to affect the whole party with a spell like Bless or Fireball, expand the party first. (There's a use for Fireball on allies in the second game: Reincarnate only works if the target is already dead.)

Some spells can be cast from the menu screen and affect characters rather than areas. (Cure Light Wounds is one example.) During combat, this allows you to cast the spell without worrying about range. In particular, this means that Cure spells (but not Blood Flow) have infinite range, provided the target is a party member. If you want to cast the spell on something other than a party member, select the spell to cast, then exit the menu; you can now target the spell on characters who aren't in your party.

Heh, well I wasn't meaning to put a moratorium on exploits, only that I don't like to advertise them through standard interface tips. Trying to remain faithful to the intentions of the game developers, if that makes any sense.

Casting not on your party certainly is important since NPC allies tend to fall into rough patches in combat.

There is one issue: How do you know what the intentions of the game developers are in the first place? This is especially an issue if, for example, a spell fails to do anything useful; how is it supposed to behave? There is also the problem of spell descriptions not matching the in-game effects.

For example, in WotR, the description of Water of Life says that it transfers the target's wounds to the caster, which seems awfully weak for a 6th level spell. (There is actually a 2nd level spell in WotR (Altruism) that works that way, as well as a psionic power (Lend Health).) In reality, the spell behaves like Heal, another spell of the same level, which seems more reasonable to me (and makes Water a reasonable choice for a cleric).

By the way, one more interface tip: Right click on a spell or power to view its description. Note that the spell description might not always be accurate; sometimes the manual description, in-game description, and actual in-game behavior of the spell are all different. (You are in a maze of twisty bugs, all different.)

It's a fair criticism philosophically, but I don't feel like anything I've said is that debatable so far as original intent. Not that my arguments are totally unassailable, just that I've kept my arguments relatively "safe."

You have to remember that this was built in an era absent any frameworks beyond engine reuse. There was no Unity, no .NET, not even the utility that C++ offers over C. This game was written in C (plus some assembler). They built this engine from the ground up in a low level language even though the work had already been done in the tried-and-true Goldbox engine.

Through all this, they remained faithful as they could to the P&P ruleset (adding in psionic powers to boot). Considering how complex AD&D is to program, that's really quite an achievement. Other games may have done this better or worse, but nothing in the game suggested their effort was to simplify or cartoonify the AD&D world. They wanted to capture the feel of Dark Sun, and IMHO they did a damn good job, all the way down to minor interface tweaks. The attention to usability is seriously unusual compared to other AD&D games of that era, and probably the main reason why this is my favorite DOS game (TIE Fighter a close second).

So stuff like actively killing your character to Reincarnate them -- that's not what the developers would consider a "feature." Possible yes, and I'm sure they'd be proud of the game's flexibility. But the game is built as a close sister to the real thing, and a DM would generally have a serious problem with the players conspiring to such a plan (depends on the campaign and alignments, etc.).

I'm not familiar with Water of Life, but I've read your investigation on it. I agree the Heal effect seems more reasonable; I doubt the description is accurate. When I have more time I'd be happy to research that spell in the materials I have, assuming they didn't just make it for the game.