It's a good thing I saved my characters for these DOS games...wait, I can't transfer them over? Oh, right. So as it stands, the Pool of Radiance sub-series is separate from the Dragonlance sub-series as well as other sub-series in the Gold Box games. Have I mentioned that yeah, I am churning through these games again? Might as well, there's a little of that DOS charm along with some hardline tactical RPG gameplay. But in any case, I modeled my party after the ones I used up to Pools of Darkness, with only a few minor exceptions as usual.
Champions of Krynn is delightfully a lot shorter and actually easier in most regards compared to the other games. There's not too much in dawdling around for sidequests this time, and the plot is...honestly quite typical. That is something of a problem I guess, it's really just "find missing maidens to rescue" as well as "defeat dragonkin characters, including the big bad who is one himself" with a little dose of tragedy when your mentor and troop leader ends up perishing. Though there's a little more intrigue plot-wise, as not only are some of the guest characters very interesting, so are the races themselves. When Maya decides to join you, the twist of her becoming a dragon in combat was not something you expected, was it? What about Skyla, that doofus guy who actually gets new orders to kill you? Or how about the ogres, who are actually good characters, except for a select few, but you still get them to form a nice alliance? Oh yeah, and two flying fortresses, they crash into each other, and there's drunken Draconians, civil conflict in the final town, honestly, it's these little things that produce a nice charm to a fairly average Gold Box game. Not too much to really look back on, but it is the little things.
