YMMV / Gold Box

• Adaptation Displacement: For Pool of Radiance, Neverwinter Nights and Curse of the Azure Bonds, the last of which was based on a book.
• Demonic Spiders: Hostile clerics are a nightmare in any Gold Box game. Each one will always cast Hold Person on their first turn. Each casting of Hold Person targets up to three combatants. Even if you make your first few saves they will break through, leaving your characters vulnerable to a one-hit Coup de Grâce.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • You can individually save characters with their equipment, and you can save entire parties with their equipment. Through careful manipulation of this feature, you can duplicate money and items.
  • A character that was under the influence of a spell that raised his or her Strength, such as Enlarge, when Curse of the Azure Bonds wrapped up was treated as if that spell were permanent going into Secret of the Silver Blades. In a melee-heavy group this could trivialize many encounters.
• Nintendo Hard: A few optional battles that can usually be avoided (such as the Kernen gate battle in Champions of Krynn and the Mulmaster Beholder Corps in Curse of the Azure Bonds), and the aforementioned Shrine of the Dark Queen and Dave's Maze.
• Polished Port: The NES version of Pool of Radiance was surprisingly quite faithful to the original computer games. While not a perfect port, the maps and puzzles were completely identical. The game is somewhat easier, as it doesn't throw as many enemies at once at you, but it's pretty good for what it is.
• That One Boss: Pool of Radiance had many.
  • The first is the group of trolls and ogres in the slums of Phlan. This will likely be the first mission you undertake, and these monsters are well beyond the difficulty threshold of the rest of the area (your characters are probably at level 1 at this point). Fortunately you don't have to do this encounter to clear the zone and complete the mission, but woe to you if you stumble across it by mistake.^note If you seriously intend to do this at a low level, the best approach is to put the ogres to sleep or otherwise stun them, fire at the more dangerous trolls in the back (who can't get to you because of the ogres in the way) with arrows and ranged weapons, and then finish off the ogres. In fact, in the NES version you have to do this because in that version you have to clear this encounter to get credit for the mission. Fortunately, the NES version replaces the ogres with far less dangerous kobolds.
  • The next one occurs in the abandoned library. If you leave with any books in your possession (which you have to do to get credit for the mission), your party is attacked by a specter. Much like the previous encounter, you're probably far too low level to face it, and it drains two levels every time it hits a character, effectively permakilling them if they're level 2 (which they probably will be). It's only vulnerable to magic and magic weapons, which only makes things worse.
  • Then there's the kobold caves, which are probably the most infamously difficult encounter. The kobolds themselves would pose little threat if not for the fact that there's so many of them, and while they won't hit that often, they'll hit enough times that the damage will eventually add up. On top of this, there's three waves, and each wave is accompanied by a group of far more dangerous enemies (trolls in the first wave, giant boars in the second, and trolls, boars, and two human fighter/mages in the third). To top it all off, between the first and second waves, ballistae will fire on the party for extra damage, and there is no chance to heal or rest in between the three waves.
  • There's also the fire giants. These things are on a difficulty level well beyond the scope of this game, and they always appear in groups of four, making them the most difficult encounter in the game (even more so than Tyranthraxus). They're also completely immune to fire attacks such as fireball spells. However, all fights with the fire giants can be avoided entirely if you negotiate well enough.
  • Finally, there's the final fight with Tyranthraxus' guards at the titular pool. You'll have to face a full dozen of 8th level fighters (who are probably higher than your fighters' level). If you manage to take them all down, you'll probably be pretty banged up. Then, surprise! NOW you fight Tyranthraxus (in the guise of a Bronze Dragon), whose breath weapon is likely to kill any of your party members if they make the save or not. Mercifully, once you've won this extremely tough fight, you're essentially won the game, and instantly get teleported back to New Phlan. So if you can inch over the goal line with one survivor at 1 hit point, it's all the same.