Hello,

although I am no beginner (played Ultima IV-VII; Baldur's Gate 1+2, Neverwinter Nights 1, Icewind Dale 1+2, Fallout 1-2), this game beats me already in its first scenes. And I read it is one of the easiest of Gold Box...

The first battle (draconians on the road) really is easy, but already the second enemy party (with entering Throtl) totally slaughters me.

I have a knight, a fighter, a ranger, a ranger/cleric, a cleric and a mage (he is, thanks to "sleep" not quite as useless as a low level mage in other D&D games), all have main stats of 17 and 18, not too low HP, all with readied gear as far as I could afford.

Nevertheless, the enemies are MANY (including several fighters with 18 HP, are you serious?!) and while they also do not hit very often, if they do they hit hard. I cannot retreat into the doorway, the enemies cut my way. And I know, in some games you don't need much for the first part and you can save spells for example but here you have to throw everything into the battle you have - and I did.

Are there some basic tips?

Maybe I am supposed to avoid Throthl for now and grind in the area? Are there random encounters on the map in Gold Box?

Setting down the difficulty seems not advisable, because a) of my ambition as in fact no beginner and b) less XP means worse characters for who later fights might get too hard.

Futher concrete questions

2. After some attacks with the bow, the fighter/cleric is no more allowed to shoot. The target cursor solely shows "exit" instead of "target". The bow and arrows are readied, and the targed enemy is not next to me.

3. The spell "sleep" targets 1-16 characters, but how is it calculated around the initial target? A 4x4 grid has no middle monster to target.

4. There is no aborting a battle or reloading a game if someone dies beside closing DOSBox, right?

5. There is no saving the game beside in camp, right?

6. After choosing a cleric spell, another character's turn begins, why am I not able to finish the cleric's turn in a single step? If the mage casts, the spell can be targeted immediately.

7. If I want to see my overall money, I have to view every character and then add it up, right? I think "pool" is only available in shops.

8. Is the GOG version an inferior one? There are worse graphics as I see on the internet's depiction of the DOS version and instead of music there are just some annoying battle sound effects.

9. The game counts time and characters' age, but there is no time limit or dying of old age, right?

It's been ages since I played this game, I don't recall it very clearly and I played it on a C64, but I'll give a shot at answering your questions.

1) Throtl is the first intended location. My only comment is that your party is pretty light on magic-users, with multiple Sleep spells I think the combat will go much more easily. CoK has very high demihuman level limits for some classes (even when carrying over to the full series), so you may want to consider some multi-classed elven magic-users? (I am aware that this is probably a biased comment, I love magic-users in these games, but I'm not sure what else to say as I've never played such a fighter-heavy party as you have.)

2) You can't use a bow if *any* enemy is next to you, not just the target enemy.

3) I think you target the upper-left corner of the intended effect.

4) This is pretty typical for some DOS games.

5) Yes, you can only save from the camp menu.

6) Some spells have a longer casting time than others, in which case other characters/enemies may be able to take turns before the spell is finished. If your character gets hit before the spell is finished, it will be spoiled and they lose that spell.

7) Yes, "pool" money is only available in shops.

8) I have no idea about this one, but I think with many DOS games there is supposed to be some sort of setup.exe (or setup.bat, or similar) which you can run (separate from the game itself) to choose graphics & soundcard. Maybe GOG's version has already preset these for you so you don't mess things up.

9) Yes, age is meaningless, there are no consequences.

Correct, there is no in-game benefit of 19 DEX over 18 DEX.
INT is used to determine what maximum spell level a magic-user can ultimately cast, but not the total number of spells. Not sure about this one in that case. (I don't use archers much, but I've never had this problem). Yeah, 3x3 is the way the Sleep spell works in the C64 version of other Gold Box games, but I was not sure if perhaps they changed it in CoK to 4x4 (or if perhaps it's 4x4 on DOS vs C64). It does need careful targetting (and elves are 90% immune), or if you have enough magic-users it doesn't matter if it affects your own characters just so long as ALL the enemy are also put to sleep.

Maybe:

Knight
Fighter
Cleric/Ranger
Cleric/Fighter
Mage (red)
Mage (white)

So, the high cleric spells slower but clerics can also block, and more mage spells as magic seems very helpful

No more only-Clerics because now I need them to fight and they can only wield some weapons

I am more compliant to dual class since I read that you can grind in Gold Box, as there are random enconters (in some regions only so many but they reset after re-entering)

All of them Half/Elves because of their almost immunity against magic (oh wait, does this include buffs?)

Maybe also Fighter/Mage but I guess at least two single class warriors are needed to block

Are you sure age is completely meaningless? From what I hear, while the game does not age your characters naturally, even if you wait for a year, the haste spell definitely ages any character who receives it one year every time it is cast (as does a potion of speed for the drinker). I was always confused whether there was any consequence for aging in the gold box games. Stephen J. Lee, who seems to have written the definitive guides for Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds (displaying a truly intimate familiarity with the gold box series) seems to think that aging is a threat, primarily for humans, of course, who have the shortest life spans. He specifically said that aging would start to affect a human who had received haste about 20 times. Keep in mind that many effects in the gold box games do not display in any way in the game. You could have modifiers that you will not see on your character displays. (Gold Box Companion may allow you to view some otherwise hidden effects.)

So, are you telling me that aging definitely has no effect in the gold box games?

Half-elves have 30% resistance to sleep and charm only (not all magic), so it doesn't affect buffs. No, I cannot confirm that definitively. If S.S. Lee says it has an effect I'd believe him. I guess I should have said "I have never noticed an effect", but I don't tend to use Haste too often.

Due to the aging effect, it's often considered unwise to overuse haste in the gold box games, but I do generally use it in what I consider to be major battles. Then again, my habit has been to create new characters every time I start such a game, rather than importing them. This may have become a problem in Pools of Darkness, however, as on my last playthrough about 5 years ago I was unable to progress past the drow stronghold (as I refused to turn down the game's difficulty). Next time, I'm going to import my characters, but that means being conscious of how often I use haste, as you pretty much need mostly or all human characters at higher levels. One thing that should be noted, for the "Pool" Forgotten Realms series is that Elixirs of Youth are for sale at the Zhentil Keep magic shop in Pools of Darkness, so aging is ultimately reversible there. However, there is no equivalent for the Savage Frontier or Krynn series. (That last may be a particular concern if you're taking characters through the entire Krynn series, as The Dark Queen of Krynn is reputed to be even tougher than Pools of Darkness.)

One other thing that the OP should know: it is possible to modify your characters at the time of character creation to give them max values in all six abilities as well as starting hit points in all gold box games. Yes, from a certain perspective this is kind of "cheating." However, it is a common practice (I always do it myself) and it's practically necessary if you are playing the high-level games, whose designers balanced them with the assumption that your party would have incredible stats. The OP will have to start a new game with newly created characters to modify them, but they seemed pretty close to the beginning anyway.

By the way, in CoK you do need to start with Throtl. You can wander the overland to grind some (but DON'T go to far away at low levels as the fights get increasingly tough the further south and especially east you go), but all other areas on the map are tougher and, in any case, the other plot points of the game will not activate until you fully complete Throtl. (I personally prefer to rescue Caramon, then return to the outpost for further orders from Sir Karl and to hear the new tavern tales before returning to Throtl, but that's just how I play. I like to see everything.)

Yes, you can modify up to maximum stats. I see this a one of the last resorts, although I am already almost there because I roll so many times until I get stats that allow 18 in all class attributes of that character and otherwise important ones (e.g. DEX and CON for all, but not necessarily INT for a fighter).

I don't really get the difficulty setting. The manual warns for setting it low, because the it will "give less powerful characters which may offset the benefits of playing at easy". What does that mean? The chars will stay weaker, yes, but also the battles will be easier, so it should be straightforward. Wait - if both gets down, there is no change, is there? You can make fights easier but the chars are also weaker, so the ratio is the same. Or maybe this is right but the gear stays the same and makes the difference.

Would you think the new idea of a party could work (I plan to play the sequels too if I can get through and the gog versions allow party transfer)?

I think the difficulty level only increases the hitpoints of enemies, but therefore also increased the XP your characters earn for defeating them. So what the game means is that on lower difficulties your characters will earn fewer XP and thus be weaker, so setting an easier difficulty level does not necessarily make the game easier because the two factors (party XP/level and enemy hitpoints) are not balanced against each other Half-elves are not ideal for continuing the entire series, most of their classes cap out at around level 10.

These are the ones with no level caps:
Cleric: Human, Elf(any), H.Elf
Fighter: Human, Dwarf (any). Q.Elf can reach level 14 which is the max for the second game.
Paladin: Human
Ranger: Human, Elf(any)
Knight: Human
Magic-User: Human, Elf(any)
Thief: Human, Q.Elf, H.Elf, Kender

I'm afraid I can't help you when it comes to difficulty setting. Up until now, I've pretty much always played in the default exact medium setting. (Next time, since I max out my characters, I may turn difficulty up to second from hardest for games I find too easy.) From what I know, difficulty definitely affects monster hit points and damage. The gold box rule books also say it affects experience granted (al least for easier than the default medium setting) though I've never really experimented enough to find out, especially what long term results might be. Also, I believe that difficulty has no effect on saving throws, so the game could still be easier or harder regardless of setting, when that mechanic is involved.

(If you try other gold box games, note that the first two, Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds, have no difficulty setting options. Those were first introduced with Champions of Krynn and Secret of the Silver Blades, as well as the Buck Rogers game Countdown to Doomsday.)

One more thing: The 1st edition D&D rules can be rather obscure (and sometimes arbitrary) to someone not familiar with them, and the gold game materials are not the best introduction. If you want to read a summary, try Stephen J. Lee's comprehensive guides to Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds. These are available on gamefaqs.gamespot.com. (You can also go gbc.zorbus.com and look for links to those two guides.)
Again, I'm confused. I thought in 1st edition D&D ALL non-humans had severe level limits for any class other than thief. (Well, dwarves can get to a somewhat decent level in fighter and elves can get to a somewhat even better level in magic-user, IF they have maximum scores in respectively strength and intelligence, that is, but even those caps are very limiting if you want to go all the way to Pools of Darkness or The Dark Queen of Krynn.) Mr. Lee definitely indicated that such limits apply to the pool Forgotten Realms series. Are you saying that the race/class combos you indicated were changed for the Krynn series? In general, it's recommended that if you are going to very high levels that your party be almost all or all human. (By the way, thief should be the one class in which ANY race has no level limits.)

Another thing I've wondered about but haven't checked: is it possible for human characters in the Krynn series to dual class?

It is possible (and maybe a vital part of high-level play) in the Forgotten Realms gold box games starting with Curse of the Azure Bonds, but the game materials make no mention of it in the Krynn games. If so, how do you complete The Dark Queen of Krynn with the extreme non-human level limits discussed in the previous post? (Or is 01kipper right in saying that level limits have been waived for the indicated race/class combos in the Krynn series?)

Yes, Dragonlance has it's own level limits (and it's own multi-class combos), different than normal AD&D.

I have no idea, I never dual class.

Then I'm curious. How do you complete the difficult, very high level games? I admit I've never dual classed myself, but seeing how I've never successfully completed Pools of Darkness (as previously mentioned, last time I never got past the Drow Stronghold, though the first time I somehow got all the way to the final three-wave fight against Gothmenes but could never win it, even on the lowest difficulty---although I admit I made some pretty serious mistakes regarding my equipment loadout) and have never really tried The Dark Queen of Krynn at all, I got the impression that dual classing was a generally recommended way to get the powerful party needed to win those games and I'm curious if it's an approach I should try.

Again, what is your approach?

I only ever completed PoD and DQK over 25 years ago, and I think I only once each, so I don't recall my parties exactly. I do know difficult battles would have been quit and re-loaded until successful. I also didn't use disposable magic items (eg. potions, wands, etc.) for most battles, I saved them for the super-hard battles as well. I'm pretty sure I played on Champion difficulty, and I was not shy about giving my characters max stats.

PoD would have been (I think) P, R, C, M, M, F/T (dwarf), although it's quite possible I dropped the R for another M or P.
DQK is much trickier to recall. May have been K (Sword, human), C/T (kender), C/M(w), F/M(r), F/M(r), M(r) (the last four all elves). I am a bit unsure about the elves, the C/M(w) could have been C/F/M(w).