I don't completely agree. To me, some realistic requirements can be enjoyable occasionally in some games. I don't mind Betrayal at Krondor's rations requirements, though it is true can a various points they certainly increase the challenge of that game. I probably would not be happy if requirements become too overwhelming in a game or if too many games started imposing severe ones, but I'm happy with some. Also, I think it's fine to have some games be more challenging than others, as gold box shows.

To be a little bit fair to Gygax, he was designing 1st edition at a time when RPGs were fairly new.

One thing to ask when it comes to this sort of thing:

* Does the mechanic have some strategic significance to the gameplay, or does it just add busywork?

Situations like Ultima 7's feeding characters manually and Elder Scrolls's weapon durability serve only to make things more tedious; there's no scarcity of the needed resources, so there's no extra challenge or strategic layer added by these mechanics. On the other hand, when things like this are used as a balancing factor, or if the game is built around such mechanics (survival games, for example), then the mechanic starts being meaningful rather than just busywork.

Incidentally, Dungeon Master also requires manual feeding of party members, except that:
* It takes far longer to go hungry in Dungeon Master. (Interestingly enough, characters who exert themselves or use a lot of magic get hungry faster.)
* Dungeon Master's inventory system is much nicer than that of Ultima 7.

My party joins the parties that became Champions of Krynn.

I was surprised about how relaxed the endgame was, partly because resting worked rather well and partly because of the enemy groups themselves.

The battles in front of and behind the Kernen base gate were relatively small, although I don't know how they would have been had I not used the tactics that minimize the draconian forces (at least there would have been dragons if I would not have the ogres' support, according to the cluebook).

But I also had no problems with the game's last three fights: none with the Dragon Master, none with Myrtani and his gang and none with the red dragons, which I even killed without the dragonlance and resist dragon breath scroll (Resist Fire, Bless, knight & fighter & fighter/cleric close up, fighter/cleric archer and two magic missile casters from afar, although I think I also got lucky with the initiative).

I even continued not needing any wands, potions, scrolls (just for scribing) or "haste" in the whole game. Speaking about potions, there are less healing options compared to BG / IwD, the potions grant only few HP and there are less healing spells.

I ultimately had no need of grinding or cheating - although I optimized: stat rolling until every vital one is 18 or 19, rerolling level upgrades for maximum HP, reading the cluebook from time to time in order to not miss magic items, major treasure or XP and reloading after a random magic loot turns out to be too weak.

So, after the initial problems (which I now think were due to me being used to BG / IwD magic, which is more about summoning and less about psychic and hold attacks or having protection against those), with optimizing and with getting tips from you it really was a medium difficulty game (I played with the default medium difficulty the whole time).

So I see the sequels more relaxed. CRPG Addict gave CoK a difficulty rating of 2.5 (out of 5.0), DKK got 3.5 and DQK got 3.0.

Thank you :o)

It was very nice getting so many tips and also generally chatting about Goldbox.

I now hope that character transfer works for the sequel. Depending on how I get along with DKC, I might open a new topic for that.

According to a tip in a walkthrough I bought 500 arrows +1 before ultimately saving the game as they are supposedly very expensive in the sequel (15,000 for ten unlike 480 or 200 for ten in CoK).

Still more non-item healing options than in Pool of Radiance. In particular, in CoK, unlike in PoR:
* Cure Serious Wounds is available as a spell.
* Knights can get limited access to Cure Light Wounds.
* One of the deity choices for good Clerics gets an extra die added to healing spells (at least according to the manual).
* It appears that the Fix option, which automatically has characters cast healing spells and resting, is available in this game. (It isn't in Pool of Radiance.)

(In Pool of Radiance, from what I understand, after casting a spell you have to manually select the spell to re-memorize it before your next less. Is that necessary in CoK, or does the game automatically have you rememorize your spells when you rest?)

Britannia47, I'm glad we could help you.

To dtgreene:

Pool of Radiance is the only gold box game that doesn't have the Fix command. It was included in Curse of the Azure Bonds and all others. Similarly, in Pool you do have to manually reselect your spells for memorization each time before you rest. In later gold box games (starting again, I think, in Curse) the game already has the same spells preselected for memorization when you rest, though if you want to change them you need to do so manually before you rest. (GBC has its own Fix command to heal the party, which also works in Pool. However, the GBC one does so instantly for the entire party, with no time passing and, thus, no chance of being interrupted. Therefore, the GBC Fix IMO needs to be regarded as essentially a cheat. Even if you use GBC, you can always use the in game Fix command where it exists, which works normally. Note that GBC also has a command to allow you to instantly rememorize all spells without resting.)

I am a little surprised Britannia47 found Champions that easy. I remember finding it somewhat more challenging myself. I'm even more surprised that the CRPG website considers Death Knights of Krynn to be a harder game than The Dark Queen of Krynn, which I thought had a very hard reputation, while I recall finding Death Knights relatively easy. The reason for Death Knights increased difficulty rating there is that they may have included Dave's Challenge at the end of the game, designed to be significantly harder than the main game. (I completed it once, though I could only get through the Challenge's final fight by turning the difficulty down to minimum. Also note that there is another Dave's Challenge in Pools of Darkness, but, there, the difficulty is always at maximum.)

I am also surprised that Britannia47 never needed haste, a spell I have often used in gold box (and probably overused in my last incomplete Pools of Darkness playthrough), particularly since Britannia47 didn't use maxed out characters. Remember that if you find the game too easy, you can always turn up the difficulty (except for Pool and Curse, which have no difficulty settings). I plan to do that on the next playthroughs for games I find too easy.

Not too much different in scale from the battle at world map Kernen, only with Red Dragons breathing the very first round. It ends up being a battle you probably won't successfully cast in the first or second round.

The final battle is a tossup in your favor if you don't optimize. You always win surprise.