The first is that in all the "walkthrough" descriptions, in many of the places they tell you what to do to get through the area ONCE YOU GET INTO IT. But they do NOT say, for instance, "before you can get into this area you have to complete such and such quest." I thought I was at a serious impasse early in the game because the book described in the main halls that the word of the dragon was required to open one of the doors, and you had to talk to some creatures there to get the right word. When i first went there, THERE WERE NO CREATURES THERE. They did not make any mention of the need to complete previous quests that would activate the creatures in the area. This is not the only section of the book with this flaw. You can't walk through the areas as they are presented in the book, step by step...there are still a lot of things to figure out and finding the right hint can get very confusing.

The second bad flaw this book had was the incomplete index. For instance, I found something called a "stronghold key" that I could not figure out which door to get open. If you want to ask "what is the stronghold key and which door does it open" the "stronghold key" does not appear in the index, nor does "key, stronghold". Again, this makes finding the right hint you want very difficult...unless you know exactly the area you are in and look up the hint IMMEDIATELY after you find something new, the book is just a pain to search through for the correct hint.

If you just want a general overview of the game and area descriptions, and some good maps to follow, this is a good book to get. If you're looking for an answer to a specific problem, this book will only help you if you are willing to spend a bit of time searching through it...it can take time to find the right solution...very disorganized in that sense.


One of the best   October 8, 2001
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

This truly is one of the better guides I've seen in a long time. With Prima being the larget producer of such books, I generally approach these manuals with more than a little wariness, since the experience is generally hit-and-miss, but I have to say that the Prima guide for Pool of Radiance efficiently and effectively covers all the bases that a good guide should.

The centerpiece of the guide is the walkthrough for the game, which is fairly well written. Of course, considering the fact that this is a Dungeons and Dragons game that they were writing a guide for, they probably didn't have much trouble ahead of them (random encounters are rare, and the guide itself is written like a book and paper adventure key). The maps they provide are well rendered and easy to follow in most cases, and the occasional side tips that they offer are helpful, for the most part.

One thing that I would have liked to see is a little more focus on character creation and subjective advice from the book's editors. As is so often the case with these sorts of guides, the sections on gameplay are little more than reprints of the game documentation. A greater number of sample characters, some expanded elaboration on character design, or another fully illustrated sample party or two would have been a welcome aid. The point of these guides, after all, is to allow the player to more completely experience the game, and it seems as though a lot of potentially useful material in that regard has been cast off.

On the whole, however, the guide is still exceptional, with complete coverage of every location or encounter in the game and, if not exceptional, a respectable amount of character creation advice and explanation on elements of the gameplay rules.


Why buy a beta?   October 27, 2001
 3 out of 12 found this review helpful

Don't buy it, it's full of bugs. And if you buy it, wait with installing the game until they have released all the patches.
It crash often, the save games gets corrupted and worst of all, the uninstaller have been reported to making havoc with your windows register.


So helpful!   July 17, 2003
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I was having trouble with Pool of Radiance because there is SO much to do and everything is so spread out. I like to do all the quests and see and experience as much as possible. I got the book for the maps, so I could make sure I got to everything in the game. The book is incredibly useful for that - it has extremely detailed maps and tells you about every single creature/quest/item there is to find and experience in each section of the game.

It also does a pretty good job of describing the characters/skills/traits/etc... but I'm not much of a min-maxer, I just like to play the game. I give it five stars because it did exactly what I wanted it to do - gave me a map and some direction for playing.


A concise, clear guide, and nicely organized.   September 25, 2001
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This is a great companion to Pool of Radiance Ruins of Myth Drannor or the Collector's Edition version. The guide is organized very well by chapter and has exactly what POR fans need for getting started: an outline of each character class, the strengths and weaknesses of same, benefits and drawbacks of multiclass characters and suggestions for a good party. It doesn't lean too far subjectively on what the authors think players should use, giving the player the required information, giving a helpful nudge here and there giving the player plenty of options on assembling a good party of adventurers. Those new to POR will find the book helpful on reommendations if one isn't certain which party members to create. It provides a nicely done walkthrough for getting through the game and emphasizes saving before doing anything dangerous, ensuring the completion of an area before continuing, etc. and warning the player of "spoilers" in the story in case he or she doesn't want to spoil any surprise(s) the game has to offer. I would have liked to see a "level requirement", players given a recommended character level(s) before entering a new area, though.

From a design point of view, the book is done nicely with graphic depictions of the NPCs you'll encounter, screen shots of character creation screens and some pertinent areas, and thoroughly outlined maps for the dungeons and mazes you'll explore. I would have liked this strategy guide designed in full color; it would make the dungeon maps much easier on the eyes and pleasing to look at, but the price would have been much higher. The black and white photos are sufficient and give you the information needed to navigate and satisfy. The only problems I've encountered are with errors; there aren't that many and can be corrected by pen but a couple are errors are more significant. An area where you make one decision, you get one item and if you make a different decision, you get a different item; instead the book says both items can be found in the area which can become confusing. this should have been corrected and I had to turn to another source to find the solution. Aside from minor complaints, this guide is very helpful for the Pool of Radiance fan adventuring in Myth Drannor.