Update: 15th July 2007. I'm indebted to Kevin Kershner and Magnus Nordenadler, both of whom contacted me with their insights into the game and helped me flesh out the table of hex codes to a much greater degree. Thanks, lads!
I'm a big fan of the classic 'Gold Box' series of AD&D computer games. Some of my fondest memories of computer gaming involve slaughtering my way through Pools of Darkness on the Amiga. I can still recall the frustration I felt when a Pet of Kalistes used its disintegrate spell and one of my fighters failed his saving throw, losing his life and, worse, all that lovely equipment!
Not having much of a gaming budget, I decided to revisit that series, only to find that nostalgia just ain't what it used to be. I started playing the series right from the start, and as soon as I loaded up Pool of Radiance, I found two things that quickly got me more annoyed than a sane human being at a Westboro Baptist Church rally: firstly, a lot of random encounters consist of swarms of monsters which, due to low levels and average starting equipment, take ages to resolve. Second, it costs no less than 1,000 gold pieces to train a character for the next level! A grand! Ye gods. Given those sort of obstacles, I did what any reasonable person would do under the circumstances.
I figured out how to cheat.
Now, years and years ago, I used to fudge around with Pools of Darkness, creating duplicate characters and lots of spare items, not a bad way of creating additional vorpal swords and the like, but at level 1 all the fancy equipment in the world isn't going to change your adventuring party into the gang of super-powered basket cases that are needed to hack their way through hordes of far too many orcs or goblins that can make each combat round last for a good two minutes. No, what you need to do is get into the characters themselves and start playing with the numbers. To do this, all you need is a hex editor and a bit of know-how.
Bear this in mind. It's important.
Character Files
Each character is saved in a separate file.
Characters not assigned to parties reside in .CHA files. The file name consists of the first eight letters from the character's name, and the .CHA extension. A character named 'Hoogajooga' would therefore be stored in a file called HOOGAJOO.CHA.
Characters in saved games are saved in .SAV files. They all follow the same naming conventions. The name of the save file starts with the letters CHRDAT, followed by the letter of the save game (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I or J), followed by a number (1-6, depending on the character's position in the party order), and finally the .SAV extension.