The *ATEAM

[Horpner]

Anyone else take the sample party, the ATEAM, all the way to the end of the game?

With the exception that I eventually replaced the useless MARKUS with a Monk, that was my very first winning party. They even made it quite a way into The Destiny Knight before the disk got trashed with no backup. Getting a full party of original characters started from scratch can be difficult, and I never managed it until years later.

The sample party has some weaknesses that added something to the game. For example, I remember SAMSON and OMAR as acting last or nearly least every round of combat for most of their careers. A slow spellcaster has some interesting advantages, e.g., a REST is best at the end of a round of combat. It was fun to watch SAMSON get the last lick in--it often seemed like instant revenge.

When I roll my own characters I generally re-roll until I get the best stats I have the patience to get. It's more effective, but renders the experience slightly more boring.

Incidentally, the Apple ][ version of this game is the most difficult to get started in. The reason is that the battle generator pits you against up to two groups at a time in the city streets. 8 Berserkers is enough to wipe out a fledgling group--on the Apple ][, a bad roll could double that.

[Quantum Reality]

I didn't know that about the Apple ][ version. Hmm, now I know why I always got so darn frustrated seeing two groups a fair chunk of the time

I think I did work most of the time with *ATEAM, but I couldn't swear to whether I replaced any characters or not... that said I did have to drop one in order to make room for a superpowered character a friend gave me who I could include in my team so I could go out and kick much butt.

I got all the way to that ruddy Kylearan's Tower and then got stuck on the magic mouth. Grrrrrrrr.

I should make a project of it to actually start with a proper *ATEAM and do it with no "assistance" of any kind. Heh.

[Flanimal]

I leveled up the paladin Brian the Fist into such a high level that his hit points were around 2500- when he hit it would be for many times to cause hundreds of points of damage. BUT... even at this high level, he would generall miss most of the time when fighting the more powerful characters, such as those in Mangars tower. This always disasappointed me. I suspect he had a low dex value?
Later in the game I duplicated 3 of him at the front, but it was my three archmages at the back that did all the damage.