Pool of Radiance: Combat

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate level draining?

The combat system developed for Pool of Radiance--and consequently used in all of the Gold Box games--is one of its greatest features. I've been waiting for a properly epic battle in which I can describe all of these features in detail, but since the troll fight, none of the combats have been particularly difficult. I'll do the best I can with what I have.

The system is the culmination of many years of experience at SSI. They first introduced ultra-tactical combat in Wizard's Crown. I blogged about it almost a year ago. If you look at the screen shot from that game, you find that it's strikingly similar to the shots you've seen in Pool of Radiance:

This was before I knew how to use the DOSBox screen capture command. God, I was so young.

At the time, I noted that "there are no less than 20 actions that each of your characters can perform" and that the sheer number of statistics would "give a migraine to Sun Tzu." Apparently, I wasn't the only one to feel this way, because they greatly simplified the combat system for Shard of Spring and Demon's Winter--where you had the same sort of screen, but only the abilities to move, attack, cast, and use an item.

Pool of Radiance errs more towards Wizard's Crown tactical complexity, while removing many of its annoyances. Chief among them is having to be concerned about which way the character is facing. In Wizard's Crown, you had to be facing your enemy's specific position to attack him, and turning was an annoying process that took a weird key combination. In Pool of Radiance, the facing direction does matter, but the game just automatically adjusts it when you choose to target a particular enemy.

The second thing I like about the Gold Box games is the use of movement points. In previous SSI games, the character's movement points (dependent on speed and encumbrance) dictated both how far he could traverse the battlefield and the number of attacks. In adapting this for POR, SSI realized they had to follow D&D rules about number of attacks, so movement only determines how far you can go in charging your enemies or fleeing them. Once you actually stand face-to-face with a foe, even if you exhaust all your movement to get there, you get all the attacks your character class and level warrant. This perhaps makes a little less logical sense, but I confess I like it better.

A high strength and dexterity, and a low encumbrance, gives Duskfire a lot of movement.

Combat tactics start before the battle. If you are lucky enough to "surprise" the enemy, then you get a free round of attacks before they can react. If neither party is surprised, you have the option to flee or parlay, which I talked about a few postings ago. If you know you're going to fight, the more important pre-combat consideration is the distance from the enemy when the combat begins. Consider the screen shot below:


The enemy is about 30 feet from me. If I choose to enter combat at this point, we will face each other across an expanse of empty room. This can be a good thing if the enemy consists primarily of melee fighters (as ghouls are) I can line up my characters and either "guard" or try to pick them off with arrows and spells before they get in combat range. If the enemy consists of fighters with bows and spells of their own, I probably want to close the distance (with the "advance" command) before entering combat. This level was infested with poisonous lizards and frogs--many of which necessitated a hasty trip to a temple--so any time I could start combat at a distance was a good time.

Once you enter combat, there is a certain terrain based on the surrounding walls (which are based on the map area you're in when you enter combat). You can't quite use the environment to funnel your enemies the way you can in Ultima IV, but you can try to use it to your advantage. If you face multiple spellcasters, for instance, you might try to get all your characters out a door and around a corner so they can't see you and have to come to you one-by-one. This is very hard, though, and it's very frustrating when you have half your characters around the corner and two of them get hit by "Hold Person" spells while they're out there on their own. If I'm facing a lot of melee enemies, I prefer a narrow corridor. I can draw clear battle lines, face only four enemies at once, and protect my spellcasters.

Narrow corridors make it easier to line up and wait for your opponents, perhaps while "guarding."

     
The order in which the PCs and enemies attack is based on "initiative." I guess this is based partly on the character's dexterity score, but there must be some randomness to it because it's not the same order every time (unlike in, say, Might & Magic). Going first is usually best, but there are times in which you want a character to move later; for instance, you might want the cleric to hang back in case someone gets injured during the round, or a fighter might be blocked by someone else who should move first. The game allows you to "delay" the movement of any character to the end of the round, and I find I use this a lot.

If you want to wait for the enemies to come to you, you have the option to guard. Guarding means that as soon as the enemy gets within melee range, you get a free swipe at him, with an attack bonus. I use it a lot when facing melee fighters from a distance--it has a better chance of connecting, and does more damage, than missile weapons.

Once combat is joined, the first consideration is who to target. Spellcasters are naturally a priority. Under this game's rules, spellcasters cannot cast if they take damage before or during the casting. So if there's an enemy mage and you can hit him with an arrow, you don't need to worry about him until the next round. There are also enemies that drain levels, poison, and paralyze, and I often target them even ahead of spellcasters. I particularly hate level-drainers. I met a lot of wights in the Textile Complex, and they got me a few times. You can restore drained levels with the "restore" spell (on scrolls or at temples), but it doesn't restore all the experience points that you had gained towards the next level.

The way this game implements poison is particularly galling. In later D&D rules, poison causes attribute drains or continual health loss, which is bad enough, but in this game, a poisoned character "dies" instantly. You have to drag him back to a temple for healing, or you have to take a chance with the second-level "slow poison" spell, which brings the character back to life for a few hours, but if you can't get to a temple fast enough, the character dies for real. In my opinion, "slow poison" isn't worth it.

Anyway, back to melee combat. Barring spellcasters and enemies that drain levels, paralyze, or poison, I vacillate on whether it's best to target the toughest or weakest enemies first. To the best of my ability, I concentrate my attacks on a single enemy until he's down, since a wounded enemy hits as hard as a hale one. Better to face three gnolls at full health and three dead than six at half-health. I generally slaughter the low-level enemies first, but I'm not sure it's the best way.

As in all D&D games of the era, whether you connect with an enemy depends on your THAC0 ("to hit armor class 0") score, which in turn depends on dexterity, strength, the weapon wielded, and the way the enemy is facing. This is a bit of a neat implementation of the rules. The first character to attack an enemy attacks head-on (if the enemy was facing away when the attack starts, he turns to face the attacker). All subsequent characters strike at the enemy's side or rear, with consequent THAC0 bonuses. If a thief attacks from the rear, he has a chance of backstabbing the opponent, but I've yet to get this to work in this game.

As fighters advance in levels, they get a couple of useful abilities. One is naturally a lower THAC0 (like armor class, lower is better). Another is the ability to make multiple attacks per round. A third is the ability to sweep low-level enemies. This third skill is so much fun it makes it worth it to attack parties of kobolds. With "sweep," the fighter can attack every adjacent enemy in the same round. Nothing like wading into a mass of goblins and clearing out seven of them with a single attack.

I only got two this time, but if Zink goes next, he has the opportunity to get four!

Spells add a whole new dimension to combat, and fortunately you learn them slowly, because at these levels you don't have that many spells. "Sleep," which saved my tail numerous times in the slums, is starting to lose its potency against higher-level foes. "Hold Person" works okay, but only for humanoid creatures. I don't have any cleric spells past Level 2 yet, nor any mage spells past Level 1, so I'll cover spellcasting in a later posting. Mostly, I find, you have to get a feel for what works and what doesn't. "Charm Person" seems like an awesome spell--it instantly converts an enemy to your team--but I find that it fails so often I hate to waste a round casting it.

You can flee combat by moving to the edge of the map and making a getaway. If you're facing a melee enemy when you try to flee, you can say sayonara, because they get a couple of free sweeps at your exposed backside, and I find that they almost always connect. I hardly ever flee, but enemies often do, and I find it's a good tactic to get as many characters as possible within melee range before they turn tail. This is especially true with undead. I try not to turn undead until the end of the round, when all of my fighters are next to them and will have a chance to hack at them as they flee. Sometimes enemies feel so overpowered that they just surrender. Whether enemies flee or surrender, you don't get experience points for them, and I'm not sure you get their items, either, so I prefer to just kill them.

That sweep took all the fight out of him.

Now, if a character's hit points go to 0, he doesn't die immediately. Instead, he gets knocked unconscious and loses one point per round until he reaches -10, at which point he dies. I guess he can die immediately if he gets walloped by someone and immediately goes to -10, but I haven't faced enemies that tough yet. Stopping the bleeding requires taking a round to bandage the fallen comrade.

The aftermath of a battle with ghouls.

Finally, if you're sick of fighting manually against low-level enemies, the game offers a quick combat option for each character in which the computer controls him. The AI is fairly simplistic: characters use missile weapons until they run out of ammunition or until an enemy comes into melee range, and then they use melee weapons. Even this isn't consistent, though, because my dwarf fighter never uses his crossbow in quick combat. Sometimes a spellcaster under computer control casts, but I can't figure out the specific rules on this. Computer-controlled characters never guard, use items, or backstab, and the enemies that they target seem completely random. You only want to use it when facing low-level melee creatures. I did use it a bit in the Podol Plaza area, which featured battle after battle with orcs and hobgoblins. I let my characters swing away while I wrote my blog.

He doesn't quite look 10 feet tall, does he?

Again, I don't have a great model battle, but below you can see one between me, a bunch of hobgoblins, and an ogre. This was the boss battle in the Textile Complex area, and I needed to win to recover councilmenber Cadorna's family heirloom. At some point prior to the battle, I picked up another NPC, a cleric named "Dirten" who wants my help clearing out the Temple of Bane.

Knowing I'm about to fight a battle, I cast "Bless" and "Prayer" (Dirten has Level 3 cleric spells), which give combat bonuses. Battle begins at 00:57, and note how the 3D corridor--door to the right, narrow corridor ahead opening up to big room--is reflected in the walls on the combat screen.

I forgot I had the characters in quick mode, so Zink immediately goes charging at the lines of hobgoblins. This is fine, though. There a lot of hobgoblin leaders, which means they have bows. I couldn't have hung back and let them come to me. I stop quick mode before Zink reaches them, and I use him to cast "Hold Person" on three of the front-rank hobgoblins. This means that not only will they stay put for a few rounds, but their fellows behind them won't be able to move either.

Lame Brain heads down at 01:45 and casts "Sleep" on a batch of the little buggers. Now take a look at Karnov, who only has 3 movement points as he begins his round. I have him loaded up with found equipment, and he can barely stumble a few steps towards the battle. I have him take out a hobgoblin with his crossbow, just to damage the enemy's morale.

Koren comes down and holds another trio, and Duskfire puts another group into the land of Nod. Computer-controlled Dirten also casts "Hold." By the time the round is over, over half the enemy is held or sleeping. (Notice in later rounds, like at 04:18, the computer has him try to cast "Hold" again, before checking whether he can see any un-held enemies.) After that, it's a total mop-up operation. Normally, I'd take out the ogre last, but I'm a little worried he'll surrender, so I get him early in the combat. At 07:55, I get my reward, and have the option to open Cadorna's secret heirloom, or take the box to him intact. I opt for the latter.

I hope this wasn't too much detail. I really love this level of strategy in combat, and it's especially exciting when you adopt a "limited save rule" like I do. I'll lose a lot of gameplaying time if I die, so I carefully plot most battles. I love it when a single character saves the day--and then somehow has to get his party back to safety. You can even do some role-playing in combat. When I was a kid, I'd pretend that my lead character was shouting orders to the others ("Lame Brain, cast 'Fireball' on that rank! Quickly!"). Then, maybe a character would go down, and my mage, enraged, would charge a rank of enemies with his quarterstaff as his companions shouted "No!" and looked on in horror. Now that I'm an adult...well, of course I don't do that any more.

I have to catch you up on a lot of plot-related stuff, as I've cleared four more maps since yesterday. This is the kind of game that I like to play so much, it annoys me to have to take time out for blogging.