I remember my first play through of Pool of Radiance when it was first released. I do not remember this battle trampling my party to dust for three days.

My Party (at least an 18 in primary stats):

- Swordsman (3rd level fighter, 18 HP)
- Swordsman (3rd level fighter, 18 HP)
- Third level fighter (+1 Broadsword, AC 1, 15 HP)
- Second level cleric (+1 Flair, AC 3, 7 HP)
- Third level fighter (+1 Short Bow, +1 Arrows, 19 HP)
- Third level thief (Sling, 10 HP)
- Second level Magic-user (magic missile)
- Second level Magic-user (magic missile)

With this line-up, given the room angle, my three fighters are in front. The cleric blesses the party and one of my magic-users uses a scroll of haste on the party. My magic-users' experience is around 3500, too low to use the training hall to hit third level. All the wandering monsters and room encounters are cleared. This room is all that is left.

I take out the ogres first, which goes fast with the hasted melee fighters and my +1 short bow and +1 arrows. The thief even manages to get hits more than 50% of the time.

Then all hell breaks loose and I lose the melee fighters to the trolls before I can get Cure Light Wounds cast on them. After that it just falls apart.

IIRC standing over where a troll falls prevents it from regenerating. I've managed to take out the ogres every time but never more than one troll.

Anyone have suggestions on party composition? Tactically there are not that many options. You take the ogres out first because the trolls can regenerate.
- I have tried backing up so only two of my characters are exposed to melee but opportunity attacks take my front-line tanks out before I can retreat to the entrance.
- Magic Missile doesn't do enough damage. Sleep doesn't effect these guys. Not sure about removing the Swordsmen and adding another magic-user - my party already has two.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Do you have any fire attacks? Try using them on the Trolls.

Also, someone in another thread posted that you can prevent Troll regeneration by having someone stand on them.

Alternatively, avoid the fight and come back later.

Replace the two lvl 3 Swordsmen with two lvl 4 Heroes. Those +1 2H Swords can do some serious damage against trolls.
Use the Heroes as front linesr, and have your own warriors and thieves use bows and arrows.
Try a Sleep spell on the Ogres. Sometimes you are lucky and one falls asleep. Wait wait with killing it, as it will reduce the number of trolls that can reach your party.
When you kill a troll, make sure it can't rise again by standing on the corpse.

Last time I played my Mage had enough XP to reach lvl 3 after having cleared everything else in Phlan and the first slum area. That meant he could cast a Stinking Cloud spell, which is a tremendous help in this battle.

So, Sleep will work in this battle? I was racking my brain trying to remember if Sleep was powerful enough at all in this battle.

Does Hold Person work on trolls and ogres? I couldn't remember that either. This is certainly the game changer. At least it was for me when I discovered it. I recall doing the same. From my recollection, as long as this fight is saved for the very end of the Slums, it is eminently doable. It is just rough on folks who stumble in on it too soon.

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The only extra thing I would note is to use the doorway as a bottle-neck. Since the trolls and ogres are so large, you can block off a number of their friends. Trolls regenerate 3 HP/round, have a total of 36 HP (iirc), and will stay on the ground until they have gotten to max hit points (I am 75% positive). So, you have 12 rounds to prevent them from getting up from the time they 'died'. Use the Ogres as blockers, as previously suggested, while you take down the trolls with range attacks. You should be able to get most of them dead before the first ones 'dead' start getting up.

Also note that enemies will prevent their friends from standing up if they are occupying the same position, as well. However, I think once they die, their friend will immediately get up the next round (assuming they were ready). So, some care might be needed if using that tactic.

No, you need the 4th level Hold Monster for that.

Yep, that is what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation. :)

I'll let my two current ones go and see if I get a 4th level Hero from the guild. I've had my two mages throw two sleep spells each and none of them worked. That would be great because with it you can throttle the number of trolls you have to deal with. I remember this from playing this when the game was first released :-) It's a nice exploit. How did you get to level 3 mages? Did you have a full six player characters?

It sounds like you missed some magical items, you should have a few Broad Sword + 1 after clearing the Slums. Also worth enabling search, as there are a few hidden spots of treasure in the first two areas.

Have your strongest fighters on the front line, and concentrate on the Trolls. Leave your other characters further back for safety, using ranged weapons. Save the arrows for the Trolls, they are the most dangerous.

If you need more experience, try clearing the random encounters in the next area (Kuto's Well), you can retreat back to the Slums when you need to rest.

Your party is very low in terms of hit points, I expect that is why you are having so much trouble.

I have those - for brevity I just listed the readied weapons. Fine idea. Thanks!

I never did tackle this fight until 3rd level for mages when I got Stinking Cloud--it is tough! Make sure you check out the treasure room in the NW Corner, the building in Kuto's Well to the south of the well, and the items in the northeast quarter of Sokal Keep--these will build XP without too much trouble.

If you really want to try with the current party, I'd recommend Sleeping the ogres, using them as meat shields (ie don't attack them), and hitting the trolls with arrows. Keep in mind you might not have low enough THAC0s to pull it off yet.

I did have a full party, and I also found the secret treasure trove in the NW corner. I think there may also be some other treasures you only find if you Look or have Search on. Most of the XP in the game comes from treasure, not killing monsters, so it's important to find every bit of treasure.

That was it. They all went down quickly. Thanks.

Hi guys, also having a bugger of a time with this fight. A few qns:

* I've hired 2 NPC fighters as meat shields but the marching order keeps screwing me up: I "alter" so that the NPCs are in positions 1 & 2 on the character list, but when I enter the battle, the 2 NPCs are always at the back behind my PCs. The battle starts with 4 characters on the front line and the rest behind, and the 4 front-liners change depending on the marching order, but it's always the first 4 PCs, with the NPCs at the back. Consequently, my meat shields uselessly peg arrows while my PCs still get squashed. And even if I manage to reload until the trolls roll 1s and miss while the PCs run away, the stupid AI won't ever tell the NPCs to advance and block. The entire "NPCs as meat shields" strategy is useless unless the NPCs start at the front. How do I have NPCs appear at the front of a battle, not just the marching order?

* Is there any option to add/drop NPCs from the party without having to schlep all the way back to the training halls?

* Is there any option to pool and/or transfer money between characters without having to schlep all the way back to the training halls or a merchant?

* Once a character drops in battle, is there any way to heal them so that they can once again take part, or at least share in the xp once it's over? It seems that once a character drops, you can bandage, but that's all, and they'll be out of the rest of the battle regardless, and then on 0 HPs once you finish the combat phase. Which pretty much means that as soon as a PC drops, it's reset time. Which brings me to the last qn:

* I'm using a C64 emulator to play. Is there any way to quickly reload a game rather than closing the entire emulator & reloading the game? I can't see any option to abandon a current game and (re)load a save game?

Thanks

Unequip hirelings' arrows if you want to use melee weapons.