Assuming you roll a few times to get good stats but don't set them all to 18, could you beat the final battle in Pool of Darkness?

I'm currently halfway through Dark Queen of Krynn and getting my ass kicked even with all 18's, and POD is supposed to be harder.

Amiga version, yes, since Ring of Lightning Immunity works.
DOS version: you need max DEX or else luck and lots of trying.
I beat the Amiga version with a non maxed party, but for the DOS version I had to give all my characters 18 DEX. Other stats are irrelevant in comparison. STR can be boosted with spells, so that's no problem. But even with 18 DEX all around It's hard; when I won on second try after editin DEX my Human Ranger/Mage was last man standing at the end of the battles.

Dark Queen of Krynn is more evenly hard than POD which has some extreme difficulty peaks. It has some easy areas (Giants' Steading, Marcu's Tower), and some ultra brutal areas (Dragons' Arie, Heart of Moander, final battles).

I do have the option of playing either version (on original hardware no less) so I may factor that in.

Appreciate the feedback though.

The "enchanted bozak" hordes and a few encounters with trillions of vampires are doing me in right now, but I may have to change up tactics a bit.

You can beat Pools of Darkness even with low stats and at Champion difficulty, with the right strategy.

The spell that a lot of people miss is Confusion; that is way better than Delayed Blast Fireball or other damage spells in major combats.

Another key is to attack using bows against certain enemies; this is especially important against beholders (whose deadly attacks are all short range) and blue bane minions. You can pump up bow damage very high if you combine a fine long bow, Enlarge, Haste, and Fire Touch.

In Dark Queen of Krynn, don't multi-class all your magic-users. The ability to bypass draconian magic resistance depends on the level of the magic-user, so you want one or two single-classed magic-users and get their level as high as possible.