I have read that apparently the size of encounters in Pool of Radiance is affected by your stats, and I have been thinking about the idea of maxing the stats that matter and minimizing the ones that don't.

This, of course, led me to ask a few questions (consider ONLY Pool of Radiance and not its sequels):

1. Does Charisma do anything at all? Will giving everyone 3 Charisma cause any issues?
2. Do non-casters need Intelligence or Wisdom at all?
3. Do magic-users need Intelligence at all? (From what I can tell, it's not needed to cast 3rd level spells, and higher level spells don't exist.)

1. It probably plays a role when Parlaying.

2. No. But Int may play a role when using the "Sly" option when Parlaying.

3. No.

The levels and stats of characters only effect random encounters, and I think it might have only been for the Slums area.

Simply having one less than maximum stat on one character, is enough to avoid a large amount of enemies.

It's not as apparent at first level. But as your magic user levels up, intelligence effects how many spells you can memorize at once. Not as much as wisdom does with clerics, but magic user spells are more on the damage variety and can end fights quickly.

Actually, from what I understand, that is actually not true in early editions of AD&D, and hence not true in these games.

Yes, the early rules were inconsistent and had a lot of weird issues, like there being no difference between a of 6 and a 14 in the stat.

Incidentally, I have seen this trait copied in a few other games; Both Wizardry (1-5) and the Bard's Tale series give no benefit for stats unless they are at the very top end of the range. (In Wizardry, this applies to Strength, Vitality, and Agility, but not Intelligence and Piety.)

Looking at the 1st edition PHB, Ozzie is correct. The INT score effects the % chance to known each spell, the minimum number of spells / level and the maximum number of spells / level.

So, if you only had a 9 INT, you'd only have a 35% chance to each spell, a minimum of 4 spells/level and a max of 6 spells/level.

However, I don't know if these games take these things into account. But, if they did, if you had a 9 INT and tried scribing a spell from a scroll, you'd only have a 35% chance to learn the spell.

internal static void CMD_PartyStrength() /* sub_272A9 */
{
ovr008.vm_LoadCmdSets(1);
byte power_value = 0;

foreach (Player player in gbl.TeamList)
{
int hit_points = player.hit_point_current;
int armor_class = player.ac;
int hit_bonus = player.hitBonus;

int magic_power = player.SkillLevel(SkillType.MagicUser);
int cleric_power = player.SkillLevel(SkillType.Cleric);

if (armor_class > 60)
{
armor_class -= 60;
}
else
{
armor_class = 0;
}

if (hit_bonus > 39)
{
hit_bonus -= 39;
}
else
{
hit_bonus = 0;
}

power_value += (byte)(((cleric_power * 4) + hit_points + (armor_class * 5) + (hit_bonus * 5) + (magic_power * 8)) / 10);
}

ushort loc = gbl.cmd_opps[1].Word;
ovr008.vm_SetMemoryValue(power_value, loc);
}

Simeon Pilgrim already figured this one out; the AC and hit bonus are stored in some strange way, but I think you get the idea.


Oh, and as for Intelligence: over 16 will give you a 10% bonus to XP as a mage. It doesn't otherwise affect you until you get to Curse; you need a 10 INT to cast 5th level spells, 12 INT to cast 6th level spells, 14 INT to cast 7th level spells, 16 INT to cast 8th level spells, and 18 INT to cast 9th level spells.

Which means it actually winds up meaning next to nothing, because it's not too hard to roll a mage with 14 INT, and you never use 8th or 9th level spells for anything.

The exception is that an 18 INT is useful in Pools of Darkness for casting Meteor Swarm, the only mass damage spell that hurts Rakshasas.

Power Word: Blind is a lvl 8 spell.
It's about as useful as nipples on a breastplate. In fact, I'd nominate it as Most Useless Spell Ever In A CRPG.

Protection from Good, 10' Radius?

It's much lower level, and it would be marginally useful against some enemies.

I believe that in Baldur's Gate 2, the spell has no hit point cap and allows no saving throw. Blinding an enemy prevents it from using ranged attacks or spells, so it is quite useful there. (Of course, there is also a level 7 Druid spell that does the same thing.)

Morrowind has a few useless spells (considering only the Known Spellbook):
Powerwell: Temporarily gives you 5-20 Magicka. Unfortunately, that spell costs something like 38 to cast, making it useless.
Free Action: Cures Paralysis. Unfortunately, it can't be used if you're paralyzed. (Dungeon Hack's Cure Paralysis spell has the same issue.)

Also, Ultima 8, I believe, has a spell that kills everyone, including the caster, when used.

I could also mention Wizardry 4, where HAMAN and MAHAMAN are useless at attainable levels. (In at least the Apple 2 version, if you hack your level to at least 13, these two spells work sensibly; note that "Teleport the Enemies" actually causes your opponents to be DEAD.)

Hypnotize in HoMM 3 is also a contender.

A few other useless spells from other games:

Bard's Tale 1: Poison Strike. Poison status is not implemented for enemies, so the only use is to poison party members. Also, there's a spell whose sole use is to turn a party member insane.

Final Fantasy: LOK2 raises the evasion of all enemies, and there is no way to make it target party members. There's also the non-working (when used by the player) spells LOCK, TMPR, SABR, and XFER. Also, BLND (the FF version of Power Word, Blind) exists; why use it when STUN exists one level lower and will work in every situation BLND will? (At least BLND, STUN, and XXXX use current, not maximum, HP.) Note that the non-working spells were fixed in remakes (TMPR is actually one of the best spells in the remakes).

Might and Magic 2: Uncurse Item. There are no cursed items that you will realistically encounter in that game, and if there were, this spell wouldn't help; it sets the number of charges an item has remaining to 1. This spell isn't actually completely useless, as it is the only way to add an item to a spell that has an item but no charge, and there is a stat raising exploit that requires the item has exactly one charge remaining, but it certainly doesn't serve its intended purpose.

SaGa 1: Confusion effects. Confused enemies still continue to attack you, and their single target attacks now hit the whole party. (This was *not* fixed in the WonderSwan Color version.) Also, though not a spell, SAW never works when it should (but does work when it shouldn't, which is enough to make it useful). (The SAW bug became so famous that, not only was it not fixed, but Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song makes a reference to it.)

The spell Virtue in in Neverwinter Nights gives you a grand total of 1 (one) temporary HP. If you're below your maximum HP, that spell doesn't even heal that 1 HP but still only grants it to you temporarily. It doesn't stack with itself (hardly any spell does) nor with any other spell or effect that gives temporary HP (e.g. Aid, Vampiric Touch), and is just glorious in its uselessness.

In Podal Plaza you need good Charisma to disguise the party as monsters, but only the spokesperson needs it.