Keeping a Party from Pool of Radiance in Curse of the Azure Bonds

sevenveils · Post by **sevenveils** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:25 pm

Hi there! I've just re-played Pool of Radiance and finished with a pretty souped-up party that I like a lot. However, I have never played the later games and it seems things get more complex now... I've read the GameBanshee CotAB party advice [url='http://www.gamebanshee.com/curseoftheazurebonds/walkthrough/partycreation.php']here[/url], but it (and every other source that I find online) focuses on starting from scratch with 5th level PCs and doesn't really talk much about keeping your PoR party intact.

I would like to keep as much of my PoR party together as possible, and I'm hoping Gold Box veterans can advise me the best way to do that. I.e., Whom should I dual-class, when, and to what? And whom is best to replace (if I must), and with what?

Currently the party consists of: (levels are as of training in Tilverton)
1. Cleric (Human M), 9th level
2. Cleric (Human M), 9th level
3. Fighter (Human M), 8th/9th level (depending on a little more rampaging in PoR)
4. Fighter (Human M), 8th/9th level (depending on a little more rampaging in PoR)
5. M-U (Human M), 9th/10th level (depending on a little more rampaging in PoR)
6. Multi M-U/Thief (Elf M), 8th level M-U/9th level thief

Do I really need to replace one of these senior bruisers just to have a female for that one part of the game? In addition, it seems like people are really into paladins--should he replace one of the fighters or one of the clerics? Having only one cleric sounds a bit alarming. Rangers--really necessary? And when to dual whom, to what?

Thanks for any and all suggestions and advice! Looking forward to kicking some bonds.

Blomdor · Post by **Blomdor** » Sat Feb 02, 2013 10:31 am

Hi there.

This party looks excellent. I made my only cleric a human female in order to get the bonus for taking one. The annoying strength cap only comes into play for the warrior classes in humans; for clerics, it's 18 either way IIRC. No, you do not need a ranger or a paladin; they work essentially as fighters with some added abilities and flavor. Paladins are excellent team players because of their aura of protection from evil, so IMO it's always nice to have one along.

There's no need to dual class in CotAB. I went through with a human pure ranger, paladin, fighter, cleric, and two elven fighter/magic users, and made it to the end easily enough. Go ahead and keep everyone single or multi-classed if you like. It's not until the later games that I hear dual-classing becomes a major consideration/possibly requirement, but I can't give an opinion on those after Secret of the Silver Blades bored me out of finishing the series.

If I were to recommend any changes, it would be to exchange the MU/thief for an MU/fighter. Thieves in this game are about as important as they are in PoR, i.e., not at all, whereas more muscle is always appreciated. I would also replace one of the clerics with a fighter class or fighter/cleric dual. The last battle may be hard on parties without enough tanks, judging by my experience with it. Hopefully someone will come along with a second opinion.

sevenveils · Post by **sevenveils** » Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:52 am

Hey, thanks for the reply! Wasn't sure if I'd find one for an oldie game.

Thanks for the advice, too. Knowing you went through with single and multi means I shan't get involved in the dual-class mess. Most everywhere I have seen is obsessed with dual-classing for this game, but it seems annoying to start over with basically 1st level PCs after getting used to whipping up on large teams of 7th level fighters, fire giants, thri-kreen, etc. in PoR.

Your advice for more muscle sounds well-taken, though. As much as I am annoyed at having a thief who doesn't get to thieve, it's hard for me to trade an almost 9th level split M-U for a 4th level, pre-Fireball (egads!) greenhorn, who will only ever get up to 9th or so in this game, especially cuz it looks like elves can only get to 7th level fighter at best(!).
Seems like paladins can go up levels for quiiite a while, though, so I'll take one along. Replacing a cleric for him (Sanctimonius, we knew ye well) means a 50% bite on healing time--which will probably get me killed at least once-- and halves my Hold spells, but if you made it through with just one cleric, I trust I can too!

sevenveils · Post by **sevenveils** » Sun Feb 03, 2013 2:57 am

Ouch!!! I did not know that you were unable to level more than once after PoR! I had 250,000+ XP leaving PoR, just trained in Tilverton, and got taken down to 90,000-110,000! Sorry for the exclamations; that is super super painful. Gah!

So I was wrong up above...
Fighters and thief are coming in at 9th, but cleric and M-Us are just at 7th, due to PoR holding you at 6th (for way way way too long). :/

Blomdor · Post by **Blomdor** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:56 am

Sorry to hear. I'm not too sure how importing characters works, myself, since I always started fresh.

I hope the idea of taking one cleric works out for you. My team was not uber powerful by any means, but I found the heavy melee power to be very useful as the enemies became both more durable, numerous, and hard hitting. There are also a couple of bosses that seem immune to magic, which could be very annoying for a pure caster-heavy party.

The fighter/mages were alright. They seemed about as formidable as the cleric in a straight up brawl and reached a high enough M-U level to serve well as offensive casters. You get plenty of experience, probably more than you can use as in PoR, so the split class doesn't hurt the character's progression too severely. By the end of the game, their HP was a bit low for actually tanking, but it certainly helped keep them alive in the earlier stages. The idea was to be able to chuck fireballs and clouds in the rounds before the enemies reach them, then use their passable melee power to help the fighters clean up the survivors. I was quite happy with the results.

The paladin does reach high levels. He gains them a bit more slowly IIRC, but it's nothing that will limit his effectiveness. He should be very helpful to have around, and at the very least will be as effective as anything else at whacking things.

IIRC, there are enough healing potions about to keep your party healthy if the cleric and paldin spells are insufficient.

Good luck! If you enjoyed Pool, you'll love this one. Bigger fights, better graphics, greater challenges, and more places to go. There's definitely a more noticeable feeling of moving towards a goal rather than simply doing things.