A tremendous source for playing the game can be found in getting "BANE OF THE COSMIC FORGE COMPILATION" by Baser Evil, which contains many helpful maps to the game with marked locations.

When you create your characters, it may be a good idea just to make all of them Dracons. This is untested, but unless you have at least one of this fire breathing race you surely won't survive the game. So maybe it would be good to have more. Use a good mix of the classes, try to take one of each spell class and a good solid thief that is at full strength. Get a good enough thief and you don't need a fighter. It may be slow, but keep rolling until you get the best character possible. Be sure to make at least one character female, there are places in the game where this is a must. Don't do it and be sorry later!

Diversify your skills. Have each character specialize in a few skills relative to his class. Do not worry about developing weapons skills, you have no use for them if you created your party correctly.

In fights early in the game use Dracons breath attack, just be careful not to overextend yourself. Rest after each encounter, backing up your hard work. Always search the area after a combat.

Search each square you step in. Not only the square, but search facing all four directions, many things can only be found that way.

Thieves are not always true. If you find a lock and have your thief open it, always guess it is POISON unless you are 100% sure (i.e. you've tried it before) because it is better to suffer something else than to die by getting this wrong.

Don't bash doors early in the game! If your characters aren't very strong, you'll be sorry. Jammed doors do you no good, as you might never be able to open them again. Same goes for picking the lock. Wait until you get a caster capable of conjuring KNOCK KNOCK with at least 18 points (preferably 24) and do it this way. It is much more sure.

Once you know there are secret panels or buttons, keep walking past them until you discover them. You can find them by looking at the maps and know where they are, sometimes it takes awhile to sense them.

These are the maps for Bane of the Cosmic forge. Not included is a map of the endgame area. These maps originated in the games roundtable of Genie. Thanks go to P.D.J for creating them in IFF format. They have since been converted into PNG format, deinterlaced, and modifed (Ed).

Castle Entry Map      
Castle Upper Level Map
Chasm Map             
Crypt Map             
Dungeon Crypt Map     
Forest Map            
Pyramid Map           
River Map             
Swamp Map