Is spending gold the only way to stay alive at low levels?

I'm playing Bard's Tale 1 (remastered). My party is made up of a paladin (scale armor), fighter (scale armor), hunter (plate armor), rogue, bard, conjurer and magician. Everyone who can equip a tower shield, helmet and gloves has them. My bard can only heal 1 HP per round while in combat, and my magician runs out of spell points quickly. I frequently leave combat with my party barely alive.

The only way to cope with this is to spend gold on healing and on spell points from Roscoe's Emporium. Spending so much gold just to stay alive isn't normally required in modern RPGs.

Is this the only way to stay alive at low levels in Bard's Tale 1?

Solution 1:

Yes, gold for healing is very important at low levels. The remastered version does make this a bit easier than the original in that healing costs are lower, and magicians get access to the level 1 QuickFix spells which heals 8hp, making it cheaper to replace the spell points than to heal at a temple. Theoretically, if one were patient enough, you could heal for free by casting the spell and then sitting outside in town during the day to regen spellpoints. It'd be slow and boring though.

The good news is that as your casters get higher in level and access to more healing spells, you'll eventually stop needing to visit the temple for anything other than curing things like being petrified, level drained, or dead, and your main healing will all come from spells and spell points. Once your magician gets to level 13 and can fully heal your party for 25SP with Restoration, you're at the point where it's < 500 gp for a full party heal. And by then, the monsters are dropping a lot more cash.

This game is at it's most difficult in the first few levels when you're struggling between using your gold for healing versus gearing up your guys. I focus on healing, and roll a new character if anyone dies before about level 5, since the resurrection cost can hurt. An exception would be spellcasters who you've already bought spells for at the review board, since that's a sunk cost you'd have to repeat on a new caster. Upgrade gear as you can. Eventually through battles you'll get decent gear and have more money for healing both because there isn't much gear left that you need to buy at Garth's, plus your better gear means lower AC means less incoming damage.