difficulty ranking of 1-3?

[Qualicide]

I've been cruising through A3 on maximum difficulty without much trouble. The golem tower was a little tough, but mostly because of the residual damage draining my sp and not the golems. So far I have ended all the plagues, cleaned out footracer, and finished 4 artifacts with only the ring of magery left. I started with this one because I distinctly remember it being the easiest of the 3, and once I pass through the final gauntlet I'll be moving onto A1 and 2. The ending should be a little tougher though, I've fought a few of you-know-who and they are a notch above everything else.

[Orifushi Mafuyu]

Coincidentally, I'm in the middle of playing A3 as well, although not because I view it as the easiest. I'd played the heck out of E1 and E2, and only spent a bit of time on E3 before I got distracted with other things. Then I picked up A1-A3, and again I ended up finishing the first two and only dabbling in A3.

 

So I'm finishing off A3 now. I'll probably do A1 after, and save A2 for last. Mostly because I like to do things sequentially. So far it's been great, although I kinda miss some of Exile's spells, especially the aoes and field-type spells. Oh yeah, and mindduelling. Kinda sad we can't crush lesser mages with just our minds anymore. Stabbing things is only entertaining for the first couple thousand times.

 

Edit: you were asking to rank the series in difficulty? Hmm, can't really say. E1 was brand new to me, and although I'd say E2 was definitely tougher I'd already become used to the game, sorta. E3's move to the surface was kinda nice on one hand, but on the other hand it lost a little of the claustrophobic charm. I'd put it between 1 and 2.

[Untamed Banana Slug]

I always found E1/A1 the most difficult, simply because you were given the least direction. You were just thrown into an alien world with no clear objectives.

[S M Adventurer]

Hmm, good question. I always found A1 to be the hardest, at least combat in it is. A2 was kind of hard during the first three chapters, before you get more powerful magic and items. It got easier in Chapter 4 though. A3 was definitely the easiest, especially at the beginning, considering the way the melee damage multiplier worked. Even at the beginning, my Slith warrior was one hitting most weak enemies.

 

So yeah, I'd rank them like this, from least to most difficult.

 

A3

A2 (Chapter 4)

A2 (Chapter 1-3)

A1

[Qualicide]

I fired up a game of A2 on torment and you gain a new respect for archery when things have a 95% chance to take 95% of your health in 1 swing.

[Sleeping Dragon]

When I try to think of how I'd rank the games based on difficulty, I end up with the newer ones all being easier than the older ones. This could mean a few things. It could mean that Jeff has been making them easier to attract a larger audience, or that they're just easier because the engines have been getting more user friendly. Or it could simply mean that I'm getting better or more comfortable with each passing game.

 

I don't feel that Avernum 3 is the easiest Avernum, but Exile 3 was certainly more difficult than any Avernum game, in my opinion.

[Qualicide]

For most of A3 my characters never got touched. It's too easy to have enemies at 5% hit rate and max out your resists to everything. By the end of the game all my chars had 80-100% resist in every element. Exiles(and earlier avernums) did not have this which makes them harder. You might have 1 chill charm in all of exile 3.

[Slawbug]

On the other hand, Exile had its own engine abuse opportunities, ranging from locking out enemy damage with armor and bless, to the overpoweredness of Antimagic Field and Simulacrum, to easily obtainable +AP items for 6 PCs combining with incredibly powerful and cheap mass haste spells... using these correctly required more thought than using the best strategies in Avernum. But, the game could still be easy, and there was no difficulty setting to adjust.

[S M Adventurer]

Adding to what I said, perhaps the reason I find A3 easier is because I play on Easy difficulty. I played on that level in all the Avernum games. I play Exile 3/BoE with the Make Game Easier setting enabled. It must definitely be different if you play at a higher difficulty level or without that setting enabled.

 

Although it's surprising how much damage certain enemies can do to you even on Easy difficulty. See a few BoA scenarios for instance, like perhaps Canopy or In the Shadow of Dragons.

 

As for the trilogy, it seems that the high level spells enemy spell casters use left still exceed 100 damage sometimes on Easy, which is noticeable with Fireblast and Arcane Blow. Of course, that's without protection.

 

If you got the nerve to play Avernum on Torment, I can't imagine how much damage the enemies will do in all those situations. I have to say though, if you do manage to beat any of the Avernum games on Torment, I salute you.

 

Another comment on Exile, I find Exile 1 and 2 to be very difficult, which probably is due to no "Make Game Easier" setting. While the Exile engine has many game abuse options, until you get access to the stuff that allows you to do that, it's very hard. Exile 3 doesn't really get hard until the Golems. In BoE, it depends on the scenario you are playing.

 

Anyway, that's just a few things I noticed about the difficulty of Exile and Avernum.

[Qualicide]

On torment most stuff hits you for 100% of your health at the start(20+ a hit). By the end of the game things are hitting a char with patcher's plate and everything else you can think of for 100+ and have 400-600 health, but it doesn't really matter because they have 5% to hit and your chars have 450 health. Mass healing healing level 3 heals for like 180 which is a big jump for A1 and 2, and makes it easy to keep your guys topped off in health. Rhaksasha and such that like to spam fire blast only did 5-10 damage a cast. Dark wyrms can hit you for nearly 300 damage in 1 turn, but like I said invulnerability elixirs will take care of the ~4 groups you will find.