Oh, good point.

(I forgot umber hulks as gaze creatures in the game, but you shouldn't be able to reflect them either.)

You were faster than me, I just wanted to edit the post and erase the Magic Missile question.

Because it roots in Pen & Paper, where it would be too extensive to roll many times, I strongly guess it is only one roll.

True, and sometimes D&D video games have seemed a little too obsessive with replicating tabletop ways of doing things, but keep in mind that a computer can do many things that would not be feasible in gaming group. A wide damage range could conceivably be done here. Still, for the sake of the player being able to have a reasonably predictable outcome, it is best to have fairly consistent results.

Combat in gold box is tough. It's best to have every advantage you can.

I'm pretty sure that part of the fun of casting Fireball in tabletop is being able to roll a pile of d6es to see how much damage you do.

There's actually one published 3e epic spell, Vengeful Gaze of God, that does 305d6 damage when cast; it would certainly take a long time to roll that without computer assistance. Then again, this spell requires something like a DC 419 check to cast and does 200d6 damage to the caster, so that spell probably almost never sees actual play, even in epic level campaigns that allow epic spellcasting. (I actually think that spell might be underpowered for its difficulty and cost, but that's another story, as epic spellcasting isn't even remotely close to being balanced.)

I recall some of the 3rd ed epic rules. There are times now when I wonder what they were thinking. It may be that the apparent consensus of "retire the character around or before 20th level" is a smart one.

The problem with such a low cap is that it means that level ups are rather infrequent, and much of the fun of RPGs for me is seeing character growth; it's just not satisfying when you can go a whole session without any growth.

This sort of reason is why I prefer systems where stats/skills improve through usage, or failing that, games with frequent leveling and a high level cap (and less power increase per level up, to keep things under control). Or, incremental games, which are all about increasing numbers.

Incidentally, an alternative to the high power of 3e epic levels would be to softcap power at level 20. Make it so that you gain significantly less at level up past a certain point. One can see this, for example, in Dragon Quest 3, where past level 45 or so you don't gain much in terms of stats at level up (and you probably know all the spells by that point).

(With that said, I think the D&D to-hit mechanic, and the fact that things like level and armor affect hit chance rather than damage, is part of the reason D&D doesn't scale so well.)

Hmm...is that why some D&D players say they prefer low level characters? Keep in mind, though, there are a near infinite variety of types of role players out there.

I think it may actually be largely due to the nature of some of the high-level spells, spells that might eliminate certain types of challenges that low-level adventurers might face. (Fly and Teleport are examples here.)

Also, with all the options, either:
* Combat tends to take longer
* In some games (though I don't know if this is the case for any D&D version), the reverse can happen, where everything becomes a glass cannon

The issue with to-hit modifiers is certainly a reason, but my impression is that, in 5e, it's been reduced, as your level has far less of an impact there than it did in earlier editions. (I'm still of the opinion that armor should give damage reduction rather than chance to evade; it makes more sense and doesn't have the same scaling issue that AC does, assuming that damage can keep up with armor damage reduction.)

Thing is, as numbers get bigger, things can get harder to balance.

(Incidentally, the issue of balancing big numbers comes up in incremental games. While there's generally no "opponent" to worry about (so you don't have things like to-hit or damage), there's still the issue of inflation (one reason why softcaps are common), as well as the fact that, once numbers get *really* big (as in, too big for scientific notation), they no longer behave like smaller numbers, as even multiplication eventually stops being useful.)

Ring of Invisibilty (from the Gnome king): do you know how it works? Is it an invisibility that holds even after attacking or spellcasting? Is it unlimited or does it vanish after some time?

What about the Vorpal Blade? I think the dragon said I should it use only for a purpose, could that be? I don't remember.

Is level 40 the maximum level? All characters now are 40 except the knight (25) and the clerics/fighters (25/14).


Currently, the next step is the Tower of Flame.

It is still the same: the battle system ist basically interesting, but mages and enchanted draconians are just annoying and tedious. Also, the repeating messages I have to wait for in order to take a step. And the economy is broken, I just individually changed about 250 jewels and 3,500 gems into steel to buy magic arrows.

In the AD&D rules, a Vorpal sword is a +3 weapon, but also has a 15-20% chance of beheading the foe causing instant death (if the foe has a head).

01kipper probably knows the rules for 1st ed Vorpal Swords better than I do. I'm not at home right now so it's hard for me to look the rules up.

Note that, while a Vorpal Sword is obviously a very useful item, some enemies, such as all dragons, are immune to beheading.

The way I think a Ring of Invisibility works in gold box is that you turn invisible when you ready the ring and remain invisible even when you unready it. The invisibility is broken as usual by attacking or ca\sting a spell. To turn invisible again, just ready the ring again. The only thing in gold box that allows for unbreakable invisibility (referred to by the word "invisible" rather than "invisibility" on the Display list) and that renders you immune to Detect Invisibility powers is Dust of Disappearance, which is only (as a single one-use item) in Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds. This item was so powerful it was what we would call "broken" and was never used again after Curse. In Pool, it allows you to beat a single fight (even the multiwave final fight of the game) with no risk at all. In Curse, a special optional fight was included that essentially could be beaten by using the dust. (I saw Stephen S. Lee propose a strategy that could conceivably allow someone to win this fight without the dust, but the solution sounded so convoluted and frustrating that I think almost all players will either want to use the dust or avoid the fight.)

Yes, 40 is the absolute maximum level in all gold box games. Even GBC, which allows you to circumvent a particular game's level caps if you want, does not allow you to advance beyond 40th level.

I believe the Tower of Flame, and the otherworldly "map area" (not quite the right term for it) that you will temporarily enter from it before returning to the tower, may be the most difficult areas of the game, mainly because I believe there will be long periods where you will probably not be able to rest.

Yes, I agree the gold box economy is very simplistic. This may have typical for RPGs of its era. (Of course, in the case of Dragonlance, I have noted some people pointing out that it may not make much sense to have a steel-based currency, certainly not if the value of the coinage is pegged to the value of the metal of which it is made, as was typically the case in medieval times, since if steel can be mass produced, it's going to be pretty cheap. Yes, the value of today's currencies is largely determined by the state by fiat, but that is largely the product of modern society with things like national banks, things that didn't really exist medieval times, and even in the 20th century, much of the world used the gold standard for a long time. Admittedly, someone who is better in economics than I am may contradict what I say here.)

Just finished "Dark Queen of Krynn"

Playing on "veteran" level, it was indeed medium difficulty (with some spikes, see below), but consider that I played with the characters from "Champions of Krynn", so I had most of the magic stuff from two games prior - I guess that makes a big difference. And because I got impatient with the game, I played with a walkthrough and the hintbook most of the time. Furthermore, in New Aurim I grinded some hours, so the mages got level 40 and therefore mighty magic missiles and fireballs.

Although, in the battles, I still did not need any potions, haste or scrolls (not even "protection against dragon breath", which I made a fuss about because of the bug as I intended to use them in the final battle). And I never was very close to having no more spells after long or multi-part battles. In regard of resting, the game was very fair and did not restrict it much.

Mostly, the more difficult battles were not difficult because of tactical challenges but because of hardly avoidable damage from enchanted draconians like exploding, immolating, zapping and whatnot. In some cases, because of fighting up to four beholders (fortunately I had good saving throws so the reloading did not get too much a habit). And sometimes just getting non-avoidable damage from the main screen (falls or explosions).

Speaking of reloading, it really is a gift to play this in DOSBox instead of the original platforms ;o)

Also, the magic system is a bit broken. Because every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to have magical resistance, beside buffing and healing you end up just casting magic missile, the two fireballs and maybe power words. But I guess this is the case in every D&D or even CRPG.

The story was kind of a mess, the areas were hard to navigate. It got tedious and I just played on because the game and battle engines still are fascinating and fun even in this environment.

As a bonus note, in the Tower of Flame, I finally got decent monster summoning in the form of fire giant mages instead of the mostly useless gorgons (might be because the mage was level 40). They still did not make a big difference, so I used this only maybe twice, but they managed to stall the monsters quite some time.

Further, because the manual does not say: based on the veteran difficulty, novice means -50%, squire -25%, adept +25% and champion +50% HP of monsters.

Thank you for supporting my travels to Krynn :o)

You're very welcome, Brittania47. I don't know if you've fully whetted your appetite for gold box games, but if you haven't you can try the six (or so) Forgotten Realms games. Again, on GOG today you can get those as a package. (You would want the Forgotten Realms package, volume 2 for the gold box games.) Alternatively, if you want to try other D&D games from the same original publisher (SSI), you could try the Eye of the Beholder trilogy (available as volume 1), a first person, real-time series that works very differently from gold box (though if you do, you'll probably want to not bother with the third game in the series, which, unlike the first two, was developed by SSI in house and which pretty much everyone agrees they released in a botched state).

Other possible D&D games from that era available on GOG include the Dark Sun series, where you control a party in a somewhat isometric environment, though unlike Baldur's Gate, combat is turn based. The setting is one I kind of described back in the 1990s as "post-apocalyptic meets high fantasy."

Still, further possibilities are the Ravenloft series and the Forgotten Realms game Menzoberranzan (volume 3), both using an engine that was clearly based on the EOB engine. Ravenloft as a setting is basically "gothic horror meets high fantasy, while Menzoberranzan is a drow city in the Underdark and original home of famed dissident drow Drizzt Do'urden (who is definitely in the game).

Still another interesting possibility is the Al-Qadim game, which can probably be described as the only D&D game released by SSI that was trying to emulate a JRPG. It is an isometric ARPG. The setting is intended to be kind of an "Arabian Nights" one, mostly based on a series of highly romantic Hollywood films from about the 1960s.

Of course, everything I am recommending here is D&D cRPGs of the early 1990s and have only mentioned the ones I have played. There are others and, as you know, countless other non-D&D games available on GOG. Let me know if you are interested in anything.

(I was assuming you were new to D&D computer games of the era and were interested in trying more of them. Apologies if that is not the case.)

There are CRPGs where magic is, in fact, really powerful, to the point where magic allows you to win most battles very quickly. Some examples from the top of my head:
* Avernum 2: Crystal Souls (haven't played this, but read that this is a factor, even more than in Escape from the Pit)
* Saviors of Sapphire Wings (though it's actually the Healer's attack spells that are so powerful)
* Wizardry 1 (once you get mass damage spells)
* The Dark Spire (at least once you get the mass damage spells)
* Final Fantasy 6 (Ultima should *not* have ignored magic defense)
* (Honorable mention: Final Fantasy 4's midgame, except that you don't have enough MP to spam what would normally be late-game spells that the game gives you early, and Final Fantasy 5 where breaking rods gives you access to late-game spells via consumables)