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Pool of Radiance
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RPGDot Forums > Dungeons and Dragons General

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Seth
Last Man Standing
Last Man Standing




Joined: 23 Jan 2002
Posts: 1008
Location: Faerun
Pool of Radiance
   

Just picked up the updated version of PoR:RoMD (the first one couldn’t even start), anyway how in the hell are you suppose to use the wands?
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Post Sun Jan 19, 2003 8:45 am
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stanthony
One Smart Dog
One Smart Dog




Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 556
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
   

Not intuitive enough, huh?

The secret is simple. You have to select a wand TWICE. First time you select a wand from the Magic menu to actually take it in your hand, and then you select it second time from the same menu to activate it. Cursor changes to aim. Click on your target to use magic.

In fact this is not the only problem with PoR: RoMD interface. However, I couldn't say that the game is all bad. I'm about to finish it sometime in the near future, and then I will share my opinion with you all. Most of players hate this game, but it works almost ideally as a dungeon crawl. I love turn-based battles. Real D&D rules
Post Sun Jan 19, 2003 7:59 pm
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EverythingXen
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Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
   

Yaaaugh...

This is the ONLY D&D game I didn't like.

ALright... I can live with the graphics. I can mostly live with the crappy stupid experience reduction (NWN did the same sort of thing after all). I can live with the lack of interaction, weak story, ugly cutscenes. I can live with the absence of gnomes, wizards, and druids. (mostly)

I can live with being surprised at the beginning of most combats despite being the one moving silently and such. I can live with the piss poor implementation of spells. I can live with spontaneous clerical casting.(getting less tolerant)

I can live with repetitive dungeon settings, poor enemy AI, and the extreme number of magic items in the game. I can live with the insane amount of damage multiplying weapons. I can live with the poor 25 point stat buy and having the NPCs you find CHEAT and not use it. (urge to kill rising)

I cannot - CANNOT - live with the SLOW monster animations in combat. Getting attacked by 12 skeletons or orcs takes FOREVER. I never made it through the first series of dungeons. I also cannot live with the party not being able to be more than a screen apart. It makes rogues worthless as scouts.
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Post Mon Jan 20, 2003 1:05 pm
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Seth
Last Man Standing
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Joined: 23 Jan 2002
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Location: Faerun
   

Thanks stanthony, actually I did this combination on weapons and I unequipped them so I thought it would do the same thing to my magic wands.

@Xen. I agree with your points, and yet this is the closest game resembling PnP. The touch of DM is also nice.
For the record the thing that piss me off the most is inability to develop your character, I mean the feats and perks are assigned automatically, hey if I want to f*** up my character I don’t need anybody’s help.
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Post Mon Jan 20, 2003 1:32 pm
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EverythingXen
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I think NWN is closer, by far. hell... I think IWD2 is closer by far.
If I EVER ran a game like POR2 (where magic items were so common as to be meaningless ... but needed because things were overpowered, among other flaws) my players would shoot me.

Oh yes... the automatic feat and skill assignment. I completely missed that.

I LOATHED that about PoR2.

Let's take a system that gives the players the most customization seen so far in any edition of D&D... and take away that customization.

Um... why, god, WHY? Assigning skills and feats is what makes each character in 3E unique! Two fighters will look entirely different in 3e... in PoR2... they're all the same.
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Post Mon Jan 20, 2003 1:40 pm
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Seth
Last Man Standing
Last Man Standing




Joined: 23 Jan 2002
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Location: Faerun
   

Is there any way to recharge magical items such as rings and weapons??




Yeah…

But is turn based . I don’t consider NWN my favorite, maybe because I couldn’t have my party of few guys, just one, but then again this game was made for multiplayer in mind and I don’t have time to commit myself to this type of gaming (wow three negatives in one sentence).
IWD2, I was too many times thrown on the ground, don’t get me wrong I like some challenge but I also like if some wimpy kobolds who came along from time to time so I can release my anger. That’s why I like BG1, never knew what was around the corner, going to the edge of the map and discover new areas, lots of NPC to rob, did I mention that my best liked class is rouge .
But I would play again PnP, unfortunately my friends don’t even know what’s the AD&D and again TIME for that. This kind of a game last almost forever.

PoR had some potential, of course when you passed once there is no motive to play again for the reason you mention above.
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Post Tue Jan 21, 2003 5:52 pm
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stanthony
One Smart Dog
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Joined: 28 Oct 2002
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Location: Tallinn, Estonia
   

Just trying not to spoil the fun of writing a "review" of the game later, when I finish it...

PoR certainly is NOT the best D&D game ever. I just think it's not fair to compare it with BG and similar games. Hack'n'slash would be a better comparison. Icewind Dale? Closer. But still IWD is not a dungeon crawl game like PoR, and certainly it is not the case with IWD2. I liked almost all D&D games before BG1, and I love them all since BG1. PoR is the last one in my favorite list. But still.

OK, I truly believe that D&D is the best role-playing system ever And D&D has to be turn-based. I enjoyed spacebar feature in Infinity games, but anyway this is not the most accurate realization of D&D combat. I agree that tactical side of turn-based combat in PoR is bad. But it is still turn-based. And it matters to me. I love to have characters under control, I love to plan several turns ahead, this is how guys from TSR made it all work and I like it. So probably my initial reaction to PoR was mostly a nostalgia. Don't know.

I'm somewhere in the middle of the game right now. Again, little time to play, very true, Seth. I'm also starting another PnP campaign this week. I will run five characters in Forgotten Realms, one of the places there will be a dwarven treasury in Myth Drannor So I look forward to see familiar setting from a very different point of view. That of PnP DM

And BTW I don't know of a way to recharge magical stuff
Post Tue Jan 21, 2003 7:41 pm
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DemonKing
Village Dweller
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Joined: 04 Jun 2002
Posts: 7
   

People who complain about the IWD series being a "Dungeon crawl" have not played POR2!

You will literally crawl through miles upon miles of visually identical dungeons, often getting hopelessly lost and confused because every single cporridor looks exactly the same. Alos the Dungeon dwellers, when they attack, will literally crawl towards you in the game's atrocious turn based combat.

A pity really, because the surface areas of the game (which are few and far between) are quite decent to look at and the engine is capable of some good moments....but the desingers decided that 8 levels of vast, dull identical areas were what gamers were really after.

Bad move.
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Post Wed Jan 22, 2003 5:06 am
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EverythingXen
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Joined: 01 Feb 2002
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To recharge wands drop them on the ground and pick them up again. UNless the most recent patch fixed that exploit... the game can't tell if it's the first time or hundreth time you've picked that item up.

Oh, how I want a true turn based D&D 3e game with decent graphics, a good story, and excellent implementation of the rules...

I hate this real time and staggered time crap. D&D is turn based, I agree. PoR2 got a CHANCE because of that... then it went and blew it with really, really, really, really slow monster turns.
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Estuans interius, Ira vehementi

"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"

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=Worshipper of the Written Word=
Post Wed Jan 22, 2003 3:42 pm
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Catch
Village Dweller
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Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Posts: 5
Location: uk
   

id have to admit that having layed the origional pod yrs ago on the amiga i had high hopes for this one.I tried and tried and put a few hrs into it but its just not a well thought out game and a disapointment:(
Post Sun Feb 02, 2003 10:53 pm
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Desdicado
Head Merchant
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Joined: 08 Apr 2002
Posts: 58
Location: Scotland
   

Like Catch, I played the original POR on my Amiga, along with it's follow ups, like death knights of krynn etc and loved them.

POR2 just had too many flaws to be playable, I'd actually forgotten you couldn't change the view and move one character more than 6 feet away from the rest, this was a real pain.

Combat was pretty dreary as the monsters were so slow!, there actually is a sppedup program out there which helped a bit, but using this somehow your guys often miss their turn.
The combat issue is a lot like Wiz8.

Finally there is the interface, I described it to someone as like trying to control your team using the mouse via those big robotic arms they have in nuclear plants.
It takes about 10 minutes to equip something, in the end I stopped bothering as it took so long to get into the characters inventory.
Using items is almost as bad.
The dungeon areas are all too similar too.

On the plus side the overland areas were better.
What can I say? Avoid!.
Post Thu Apr 03, 2003 1:07 pm
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HiddenX
The Elder Spy
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Joined: 20 Jul 2001
Posts: 749
Location: NRW / Germany
   

I like Pool Of Radiance 2 - A big turn based dugeon crawler is all I need - I don't care for D&D rules.

+tactical fighting
+many quests
+many puzzles
+many items, weapons
+good story

-combat too slow
-too much identical graphic elements
-character development could be better
-no interaction between party members

(use the latest patch)
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Post Mon May 12, 2003 12:07 am
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