This strategy guide is aimed at the unknown user, and therefore will cover several levels of understanding. Below is a layout of tested strategies that will be updated over time.

DO NOT post any spoilers in this thread!
We want new players reading this and the discussion below it, so anyone who spoils the game by posting step-by-step instructions or a powerful item location will be forced marched into the desert to their death. Think before you post.

As with my challenges thread, I welcome all community input. With help this can hopefully become the best strategy guide on the 'net for anyone still playing these fine works of art.

This guide does assume the reader has a basic understanding of character races, classes, combat, spells, any other standard AD&D mechanics, and computers. It also assumes the reader has the powers of Google and their GOG account to reference the core game and P&P rulebooks for details. (The manual and cluebook (with spoilers!) are also in the game install directory.)

Basic (What's a Dark Sun?)

SAVE OFTEN: use multiple save slots.

Any good strategy begins from the ground up, so party creation comes first:
Choose a variety of classes and races - Typically, 1 each of warrior, priest, rogue, and wizard. More optimal configurations can come later.
Roll and adjust stats to match the prime ability for a class - You can max out every ability score if you want, just make sure each class has high ability scores in its prime requisites. Heroes have great abilities.
Max out hit points - On character creation, it's perfectly justifiable to have maximum HP. In fact it is in the current core P&P rules.
Choose an alignment - This actually doesn't matter.
Name your character - The party leader's name gets used in dialogue for those of you who do dirty naming for laughs. Shame on you.

Then we come to basic combat techniques:
Warriors in front of spellcasters - Don't let your artillery get wrecked!
Enemy spellcasters die first - Opposite of the above. At least make sure to hit them to disrupt their spells.
Survival of the fittest means death of the weakest - Kill the weakest enemies first, unless a specific danger is imminent. Like a spellcaster.
Use spells and psionic powers - Spells and powers have a huge impact on the game. Read and use them, even if only to experiment.

Intermediate (Water, please... water)

How to deal with:
BFM's - Big Fantastic Monsters
1. Stun or charm
2. Summon a monster in front
3. Wolf pack -- your warriors take turns absorbing hits and retreating

Guards! Guards! More guards!
1. Charm a guard in the front or near the middle
2. Entangle, Web, Grease, etc.
3. Summon an elemental -- they're immune to arrows!

Advanced (Let the games begin!)

Character Design
It's back to the drawing board! Haven't you beaten Hideous difficulty yet?

A good party member will either specialize in something VERY important or possess a broad range of options. Therefore:

1. Warriors and Preservers will often be single-classed
Each of these classes wants to be ahead of the curve the whole game. Warriors have large hit dice, giving them a bank of health to work with early on. Wizards have enormously powerful effects the higher the spell level they can cast.

2. Priests and Psionicists will often be multi-classed
Druids are an exception, but in general these classes work better with another class to supplement. Rather than have a healer who can't fight, have a healer who can fight. And psionics will either provide more options to a spellcaster, or power enhancements to a warrior.

If the two above rules appear to conflict, look at the character in terms of their role in the party. A warrior/psionicist should not be your frontline fighter because the psionicist part dilutes his hit points. He would take a support role of using his powers to stun then stepping in to hack where needed.

3. Don't use thieves
They're flat out not that useful in this game.

4. Dual-classing is a powerful option
Often overlooked, a human is allowed to switch classes during the course of the game. This can make your spellcaster beefy or give your fighter a few magic tricks in the bag without hurting their advancement speed. Since the earlier levels require a lot less experience, advancing to about 5th level then switching is usually optimal.

Remember that 9th level is the cap in Shattered Lands, so if you wait until then to dual you will not be able to use your previous class abilities nor dual into yet another class until Wake of the Ravager.

Expert (Where's the dragonking?)

(TODO)

First of all, if think you want a Cleric in your party, you probably want a Druid. Clerics can't use Cosmos spells above 3rd level, which means no Cure Serious/Critical wounds, no Neutralize Poison, no Raise Dead, and no Poison/Slay Living.

Some multi-class combinations have some nice synergies. For example:

Warrior/Priest: Cast Shillelagh, Flame Blade, or Spiritual Hammer and then use it as a weapon. (Note that you can dual-wield with one of these weapons, but the other weapon must be a normal weapon. and you won't be able to equip it while the spell is over.) Note that, unlike in the Infinity Engine games, you do not suffer the Priest's equipment limitations with this multiclass; give your Fighter/Druid all the armor you want!

Warrior/Psionicist: Use Psychometabolic powers to improve your AC and unarmed damage. Remember that you can activate powers *before* battle starts and not waste any rounds during combat. (Note that the powers will end when combat does.) Combining Biofeedback and Displacement can give you very nice AC. Also, if you don't already have 24 Strength, you might find Adrenaline Rush or Enhanced Strength to be useful. A thri-kreen may want Animal Affinity or Body Weapon to increase the damage of her natural attack and later Flesh Armor for better AC. A half-giant is going to have a lot of HP and can therefore benefit from having Lend Health.

The Lend Health power has two nice uses:
1. In the first game, and earlier in the second, it is the only decent burst healing option you have; magical healing just doesn't heal enough to be practical during combat.
2. In the second game, your Druid will learn Heal at 11th level. To make the most of it, you can have a high HP character (such as a half-giant) lend her HP to companions, and then cast Heal once to restore her HP fully in one casting. (Note that only a Druid can use that spell, not a Cleric.)

Actually, I was thinking of non-combat use here. Basically, when you are not in combat, if the character with Lend Health has a high maximum HP, you can get more healing for a single spell by healing everyone else with Lend Health and then taking advantage of the fact that Heal has no limit on the amount it can heal.

Also, note that Druids get Poison and Slay Living in both games.

One warning: You can't always trust P&P rulebooks when it comes to the way the game actually behaves. For example, "temporary hit points" are not actually temporary in this game, meaning that Aid can be used for permanent healing. Another example is that the game doesn't implement critical success and failure for psionic powers.

Also, even the manual isn't guaranteed to be correct. The manual's description of temporary hp effects does not match the way the game actually behaves, for example.

Regarding Lend Health in WotR:

I loaded up Wake of the Ravager and noticed that the default party has a Half-Giant Gladiator with 165 HP that knows Lend Health. That's more than double what any one else in the party has. (Of course, he only has 27 PP with which to use it, but Lend Health only costs 4 PP anyway.)

In other words, to make use of Lend Health in Wake of the Ravager, you don't even need the Half-Giant to be a Psionicist; this is one case where a Wild Talent can be quite useful.

Annoyingly, the game sends me into combat before I can do anything else, making the game more annoying for testing purposes.

Right, that caveat is just to make sure people don't expect a lesson on D&D (more importantly AD&D). On the whole the game is pretty faithful to P&P, but as with every computer game there's an abundance of differences or errors.

One thing to note: Wake of the Ravager implements racial level limits. These limits didn't make it into the manual, but if you look at the data subdirectory there is a README.TXT file there. The most important thing to note is that Half-Giant Rangers can't reach 13th level and therefor can't get the 2nd half attack.

If you want a Lend Health character in WotR, I recommend using a single-class Fighter or Gladiator. (Choose psychometabolism and you can start with Lend Health.)

Also, a couple little WotR divine magic tricks:
1. If you happen to have an Earth Cleric/Druid, there is no excuse for not giving everyone weapons at least as good as an Obsidian Greataxe. Casting Stone Shape will create a permanent one that you can give to any party members. (Note that the default party has everybody equipped with better weapons at the start.)
2. Magic weapon creating spells can put a weapon in the off hand this time around. Therefore, you can dual wield such weapons, provided you use 2 different spells to create them. (Try Flame Blade + Magma Blade for lots of fiery damage.)
3. Spiritual Hammer appears to now create a ranged weapon that deals Strength damage. With high strength, this spell might actually not be that bad.
4. If you have a half-giant with 24 Strength, you can cast Strength of One and give everybody that strength. (Doesn't matter who casts it.) Handy if you want to throw Spiritual Hammers at your opponents or just want to send your thri-kreen into melee with natural weapons.

This is on my list of top games and I'm always interested in learning more (always seems to be something else to learn about the two Dark Sun games).

Would you please elaborate on this?

Maybe, but are there any other spells of their level that can be used from the other side of the map without having to get close to the actual combat? Sometimes, getting close enough to engage the enemy isn't practical, but you still want the character to do something with her turn.

(In the Dark Sun CRPGs, most spells that affect single party members have unlimited range; this includes the Cure spells, Heal/Water of Life (in the second game), but not the 4th level Water spell that can heal (because it has to be usable on enemies for its offensive effect).)

I have to laugh because I accidentally dated my own statement with a cultural reference. If the 20/20/20/20 record is what you were wondering about, that's from Five Nights at Freddy's (or one of the sequels).

I'll come up with something Dark Sun related.

And yes, the first game has an astonishing number of secrets or easter eggs, and the second game probably does as well.

@dtgreene
Personally, and maybe this is just me, I don't cast healing spells during combat. There's two reasons:

1. Little enemies like guards don't deal enough damage to threaten the party.
2. The beastiest of the beasties like mountain stalkers deal too much damage for the healing spell to matter.

It's not like current-day games where a typical heal will just replenish everything. Most of the time, the enemies that give you trouble will easily surpass the life gained with life lost the next turn. I can't think of an example where a Cure Critical Wounds saved my keister in a tough situation. If I have a Druid, I'd rather summon, paralyze, or charm rather than heal.

If anything, it is a flaw of the Dark Sun world that stats and damage are jacked up but the healing spells are not. They're still useful after a combat, but I'm pretty sure if you're healing during combat in this game you're doing it wrong. Unless you're dealing with paralysis or charm effects.

You could still end up in a situation where:
* You already have a summon out; I believe your entire party is allowed one summon.
* There is no enemy in range of your paralyze or charm spell because your druid is on the wrong part of the map.

Hence, the only options are to heal or to do nothing other than move (or cast some other spell that affects a party member regardless of range).

Also, note that Aid allows you to heal and bless a party member at the same time.

Edit: Also, I note that Lend Health exists as a psionic power. A half-giant Ranger/Psionic (in Shattered Lands) can use this power to heal another character if needed. (In Wake of the Ravager, just use a single class half-giant Gladiator and take Psychometabolism as your psionic discipline; this will get you Lend Health while not compromising any HP.) Also, in Wake of the Ravager, there's Heal and Water of Life, which are actually practical in-combat healing spells. (I could mention that the description for Water of Life is misleading; it acts like Heal, not Lend Health.)

Yes, there are situations where you cannot cast a useful spell, and still I've found it more optimal for the Druid to get up to the front lines if they're also a Warrior or fire a missile if they are not. Shooting other spellcasters is a big deal because none of those healing spells can catch up with the damage or summons they are capable of.

Trust me, I've played this game one hell of a lot, and the individual heal spells (EDIT: with the exception of Heal and its equivalents) are just wasting time in combat.

I'm talking about the situation where there are no enemies in range, even if you move. Offensive actions have finite range, but healing spells (excluding that 4th level water spell) do not. Using ranged attacks is fine and dandy, as is charging and using melee attacks, but what if you can't even do that this round?

Speaking of ranged attacks to interrupt enemies, which psionic power is better: Project Force or Ballistic Attack? Ballistic Attack is cheaper, but Project Force has better range (according to the manual) and is likely to do more damage to spellcasters (assuming they tend to have high AC).

Which is better, Ego Whip or Id Insinuation?

Anyway, which powers tend to be the most useful, anyway? Which powers, other than the obvious choices of Disintegrate and (Mass) Domination, are best to pick? Animal Affinity or Body Weaponry? (In testing, those two powers work similarly.)

I did some testing a while ago, and I seem to remember Energy Containment making you immune to all spells and psionics (including beneficial ones), and it doesn't seem to have a maintenance cost (it probably should).

Furthermore, what arcane spells are most worth picking for Preservers? (I wish the game let you pick 2 spells per level up rather than just 1.)

(Obvious strategy: Have your melee characters manifest Energy Containment, then throw Fireballs; you don't need to worry about your melee characters taking damage due to being caught in your own Fireball.)

A lot of those comparisons you mention are indeed similar. I haven't done any fine-toothed examinations of the nuances. Primarily, if one has a better power score (that's the roll required to succeed), then that's the one to choose. Power scores will be different based on which ability score it uses and what the penalty is, which will vary.

Yeah the maintenance cost is a hit-or-miss kind of thing. I'm pretty sure some powers have it at least implemented if not correctly because between rounds you'll see an effect happen on your psionicist when they have that power active. It's a real hole that they left it incomplete, especially for the domination powers, but for some powers it turns out to be sorta fair given how psionicists don't even do anything in combat sometimes (since their rolls often fail).

Preservers are a whole different ballgame. All throughout D&D, mages tend to be best with targeted missile damage or mass damage. Melf's Acid Arrow is ridiculous against other spellcasters and even psionicists. I would avoid picking charm or summon spells since priests are chock full of them, unless your party doesn't have a priest for some reason.

Stick with stuff like Fireball, Ice Storm, Confusion, Chaos, Death Cloud, etc. I like the mass stun effects too, like Rainbow Pattern and Web. Oh and Haste is downright busted; completely stupid on half-giants. It's almost like you can't lose, except for the Final Battle.