Having played EOB2 so many years ago, I decided to get this one here. I made a party that I can eventually transfer to and continue with the sequels... always wanted to do that. It's great fun! If you've only played one of the sequels, I strongly recommend going back and starting here. There are items in EOB1 you can get nowhere else, and they can be transferred.
Having gotten through EOB2 with the typical 2 fighters, 1 mage, 1 cleric setup, I tried a janky multiclass team with 1.
½Elf Ranger/Cleric
½Elf Ranger/Cleric
½Elf Mage/Cleric
Elf Mage/Thief
Yeah... this party levels slowly. But all that means is that you have to do lots, and lots, of killing. I cannot say I'm too bothered about the issue. I mean, isn't that the whole point of games? Killing?
The manual advises that RANGERS have an interesting capability in the game, and I think players overlook it. When wearing Studded Leather or less, they can attack with weapons in both hands without penalties. Having a slew of spellcaster levels spread the party means it gets lots of utility spells, too. I haven't verified anything about the rangers. I don't know what the normal penalties are for using two weapons, and I don't know what counts as light armor (just leather and robe? Scale? Banded? Maybe it's broken and Plate works fine?). It will take a lot of testing.
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Other stuff I noticed:
After a long key puzzle and battle with skeleton warriors across levels 7-9, the party gets their choice of reward. The +3 Shortsword is the best sidearm (2-weapon fighters love it), the +3 Bracers stack with magical armor bonuses, and the Ring of Wizardry gives the wearer 2 bonus 4th-level and 1 bonus 5-level mage spell slots. They can memorize the extra spells and freely transfer the ring to another mage in the party.
The loot in EOB1 is far better than EOB2. This must be because they didn't expect to make two sequels. All the crucial weapons and armor can be transferred to the sequel.
I am flummoxed, bamboozled, and perhaps even slightly confused over how many hitpoints multiclass characters gain. When it levels, a single-classed Fighter, Ranger, or Paladin gets d10+Con Bonus. Multiclass characters behave strangely.
Testing level advancement on a Mage/Thief with 16 CON (giving the maximum allowed bonus for non-martial classes) yielded the following MAXIMUM hitpoints possible for each increment of leveling:
Code:
Thief Mage Exp Max HP
3 2 2,500 17
4 3 5,000 24
5 4 10,000 31
6 5 20,000 38
7 6 40,000 45
7 7 60,000 49
8 7 70,000 52
8 8 90,000 56
9 8 110,000 59
9 9 135,000 63
10 9 160,000 66
11 9 220,000 69
11 10 250,000 73
11 11 375,000 77
No effing clue what the logic is behind these values. It's some kind of average, but I can't figure out the formula. I even consulted my brother's copy of the 1977 AD&D Players Handbook (no collectible value, we colored in it when we were kids
) and the official rules do not appear to produce these values.