Ludicrously-detailed guide updated to v1.40:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/564785-pool-of-radiance/faqs/73869

Additions and fixes:
* Overhauled location numbers to mostly match those actually used by the game, and by Gold Box Companion and Gold Box Explorer. (I hadn't known about any of these before I wrote the original version.) There are still places where I don't use the internal numbering, to keep things simpler. This all makes this version incompatible with all previous versions, if going into that level of detail.
* Split each map section into an overview section and a details section.
* Added more game text.
* Added coordinates to map annotations, if not ambiguous.
* Added full section on Wilderness Lairs.
* Added formalized list of bugs. (This is not comprehensive by any means.)
* Added detail on how to successfully backstab.
* Added yet another reason not to use NPCs: they make random combats larger.
* Added strategy for using Animate Dead.
* You can in fact fight Ogre Leaders, in the Wealthy Area or Temple of Bane. It requires a high Party Strength to have any chance of happening (at least 66) and is unlikely even then.
* Snake Charm and Animate Dead scale to caster level, not caster hit points.
* Dust of Disappearance will work even against enemies that see invisible, and is supposed to.
* Magical armor never actually provides a saving throw bonus.
* Rings of Protection rarely actually provide a saving throw bonus. The only one I know of where that actually works is the one carried by the THEURGIST (#110). (Another case where I was led astray by that working more reliably in the sequels.)
* The Wand of Paralyzation can bypass Tyranthraxus's magic resistance.
* Added more executable offsets: classes allowed by race, statistics by class.
* Civilized Area: more detail on available NPCs.
* Civilized Area: clarified that you must explicitly receive the commission for Podal Plaza to both perform and be rewarded for it.
* Slums: the script doesn't check if you ran away before crediting you with victory against a set combat.
* Slums: add description of bug that allows you to clear the area without fighting any set combats.
* Sokal Keep: searching for the diary only works reliably if you were told about it by the spectral defenders.
* Mendor's Library: more detail, including mechanics for green slime in the garden.
* Podal Plaza: parley mechanics expanded and corrected.
* Cadorna Textile House: you can't ever get all the random encounters without defeating the ogre.
* Cadorna Textile House: added exploit which allows you to open the Cadorna family treasure repeatedly.
* Wealthy Area: random encounter probability corrected.
* Wealthy Area: added detail on how random encounters are constructed and resolved.
* Wealthy Area: the four-orc patrol counts as encountered as long as you do anything other than fight them.
* Nomad Camp: the Shaman's Bracers AC 2 is actually AC 4.
* Yarash's Pyramid: now split into two separate sections, both for clarity and because that's how the game handles it internally.
* Buccaneer Base: resting is disturbed by the next random encounter, if active.
* Valhingen Graveyard: the two-handed sword vs. undead isn't actually a good choice here.
* Stojanow Gate: more detail and accuracy.

Ludicrously-detailed guide updated to v1.50:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/564785-pool-of-radiance/faqs/73869

Additions and fixes:
* Changed quotes to be more like how the game works (single for in-game quotations, double for game descriptive text).
* Changed location numbering to more closely match both the game's internal numbering and Gold Box Companion.
* Added more game text.
* Added more notes on the game not properly registering fleeing.
* The game's Constitution hit point table actually does not go above 20. (All subsequent games have the table go up to 25.) Anything above that causes array-out-of-bounds shenanigans.
* Slow does not either stack cumulatively with itself, or affect allies, unlike the tabletop version.
* A Wand of Paralyzation actually requires a save vs. paralyzation, not the correct rod/staff/wand.
* Added link to Null Null's single-character Let's Play.
* Added link to CRPG Addict.
* Added list of ECL scripts and maps.
* Moved spell table format to data structure section.
* Executable structure format rearranged.
* The Acolyte NPC can be modified with strange results.
* Some script flag additions and corrections.
* Sokal Keep: the three words on the parchment do have real-life meanings.
* Kuto's Well: random monsters only sometimes attack with high morale.
* Kuto's Well Catacombs: Norris the Gray's treasure may disappear if you fail to claim it promptly.
* Mendor's Library: the maximum number of green slime encounters is 7, not 8.
* Cadorna Textiile House: there are different destinations if you flee from hobgoblins.
* Wilderness: consoliated advice on the most dangerous monsters.
* Yarash's Pyramid Level 1: a couple of the maze random encounters have surprise roll bonuses.
* Yarash's Pyramid Level 2 and 3: corrected teleporter details.
* Yarash's Pyramid Level 3: added mechanics for destroying the machinery.
* Valjevo Castle Inner Tower: noted scripting bug that never fully marks Tyranthraxus as defeated.

I’m running Pool of Radiance using Dosbox on a Mac and I tried to create “reasonable” but still pretty good characters and kind of just gave up because they were getting wiped out and also weren’t rising very fast in XP. I tried to modify them again, but when I tried to drop them and then modify them, they just vanished. There was no remove option, just drop. The character was still in the save but I didn’t trust it. So I ended up dropping them all in the training hall (still vanished) and then just creating 6 more maximized characters and starting over again. Probably didn’t create optimum characters, 4 humans and 1 elf and 1 half -elf. The elves are multiclass and the humans are Cleric, Thief, MU, and Fighter.

Even with that, after several battles during which they did a much better job, and actually hit once in a while and didn’t ALWAYS get hit by the enemy, I’m still only to 600 points each in the humans. It’s a LONG way to 2nd level, or so it seems. The FAQ led me to believe I’d be able to drop a character back to the “base” menu and then add it back (maybe I misunderstood) but that doesn’t seem to be the case and the Training hall doesn’t seem to have any option to do so.

I got a magic shortbow and arrows but weirdly, after being detected, they lost their asterisk and I ended up selling one accidentally (the bow). I successfully had the clerk identify the arrows. Apparently the detected asterisk doesn’t persist. I guess after detection I need to store them somewhere where I can keep track of them. I also can’t figure out how scrolls work. I can detect them as magic but even if I equip them, I can’t see what spells they are. I guess I need to spend more time trying to read the walkthrough.

Back in the day I played Wizardry and Might and Magic series and also Realmz and it reminds me of those, but this seems more primitive than Realmz and Might and Magic. I am making maximum use of parlay to abuse the monsters so I don’t have to fight so many battles when I’m headed back to base.

I managed to use my mage to read magic on the clerical scroll, and then transfer it to the Cleric, who then equipped it and then used USE (without actually casting them) and that was what I had to do to see what they were. That was REALLY REALLY awkward. Sheesh!

Yes, I finally found the big treasure pile in the slums and that gave me enough experience to level. That is great but it was a slog (I know any game like this is in the beginning). Regarding the detect magic time, that is really awkward too. I had to detect, then transfer the items to a character who wouldn't carry ANYTHING ELSE so I could remember which ones were magical. It worked till I could identify them (by using the store) but that is awkward too.

I'm sure I endured such things when I was playing Wizardry and Might and Magic years ago, but it's harder to take in this day and age. BUT hopefully this will get better with the next game if I get through this one and I'll appreciate that one more. Plus identification is SO expensive in the beginning.

Back when I first played PoR, I did it on the Commodore 64. I bought the game right when it came out, so it was the first version. I swear to this day, there is a room that is nothing but Beholders. A lot of people tell me it was in Curse, which I know has a room like that since I just finished it, but I never got the chance to play Curse. The only other Gold Box game I played was Secret which I played on a DOS/WIndows machine. That is why I can say that in the original Commodore 64 Version there is a room somewhere that is nothing but Beholders.

I wish I still had the discs but I lost them along with most of my Commodore software due to a flood. I believe I still have the code wheel and journal downstairs in amongst the pile of instructions I own from all the games I've bought through the years. Maybe someone can find that room in PoR. Sure would make my day!