Any advice for character building?

[RaustBlackDragon]

Just wondering what the general strategy is for leveling skills for Avernum 1.

 

*Is it most important to pump everything into the base attributes and ignore anything that also increases through increasing those stats?

 

*Is assassination's usefulness dependent on the difficulty I'm playing on?

 

*At what point do points in the access stats (potions, arcane lore, decoding, etc) cease to grant me access to anything additional?

 

*Is it a bad idea to train in things that don't increase with the stats you rely on?

 

*I've heard Divinely Touched is bugged and is virtually worthless; is that true?

[Trenton.]

Doesn't Matt P have best character builds in his walkthroughs?

[Randomizer]

Any advice received here will be contradictory. There are level caps in the games, I think its level 40 for Avernum 1, but for a party of 4 you are unlikely to see it.

 

Divine Touch isn't buggy as much as not as useful for a trait in some Avernum games. In the early ones it only grants a once a day use of healing and curing and I think some other things that aren't that much for the experience penalty. I don't remember for Avernum 3. I think in Blades of Avernum it gave temporary invulnerability.

[Alorael at Large]

Temporary invulnerability starts in A3. That makes the ability occasionally useful instead of worthless, but still not worth spending a trait on, probably.

 

You won't get enough derived skills without raising them directly. It's been a long time, but I think Strength and, say, Melee Weapons do the same thing as far as weapons damage. I can't recall the accuracy calculation. At any rate, you'll want to put points in both, especially as you raise one and it becomes more and more expensive.

 

Assassination is based solely on the difference in levels between you and your target.

 

—Alorael, who can't remember enough of the other ones. Going by later games, 20 in Rune Reading and the like should be enough, but he can't promise that was accurate in A1. And it's a good idea to train in skills that are useful to you. Some useful skills don't raise anything but themselves; if you want the skill, you still have to get it.

[Thoukydides]

Not to shamelessly self-promote, but I do have some threads on A1 mechanics around that might interest you.

 

Stats - http://www.spiderwebforums.com/forum/ubb...ects#Post246397

Traits - http://www.spiderwebforums.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/248052/Avernum_1_Trait_Effects#Post248052

 

But to directly answer your third question since it's the easiest, the highest arcane lore necessary is around 30. 19 potion making will allow you to make all potions at 100% success rate. Sadly item lore is even worse - you need 277 to identify steel plate mail.

 

Randomizer hit the nail on the head in his first sentence. The reason we can't really answer you is that it's really difficult to completely mess up a character's skills and the game allows players to win with any character build.

 

This is what I found out for Divinely Touched through extensive testing, so I'll let you be the judge of its worth.

Divinely Touched

Does not affect damage or to-hit, does not give armor, does not increase Spell Bonus, and does not increase AP.

Gives 20-30% confusion resistance, gives 20-30% magic and elemental resistance.

May affect other status effects (stoning, curse, paralyze) or non-combat stats.

Gives Call Spirit, Lay on Hands, and Natural Curing abilities.

[Tycho Maudd]

For Avernum 1 (and only Avernum 1) I like to build my party with at least one front line fighter, specializing in swords, who also handles tool use. I also generally give him 1 priest level early on for buffing himself, and eventually 3 mage levels for casting haste. If I go for a second, I gimp some of his fighting skills to boost up priest skill instead of tool use.

 

Then I make 2-3 mages, starting off with 8 points in mage spells so that they all start off with lightning spray (that spell alone can carry you through all of the starter areas). I also build up their priest spells so that they end up with both at 18 by the end of the game. I've also tried to give them some skill in bows so they aren't useless when they run out of SP, but for A1, it gets too costly to buy arrows, and unless buffed (using up SP that could be used for blasting) they just can't hit anything.

 

For special traits, I just give fighters Elite Warror, and mages Natural Mage. I give both of them sickness prone to cancel out the experience penalty

[Death Knight]

I don't remember which user/moderator said this, but Im using a similar method of playing for Avernum 4. I know its not the same game but I bet it will function the very similar.

 

I like to make parties of 3 or 4, preferably 3 with 2 fighters and 1 hedge wizard. The one fighter gets high evasive skills and usually specializes in spears, dexterity and endurance and some hardiness.

 

The other fighter I usually make my tank with sword and shield. I usually only put his dexterity at 5 or 6 max and focus more on melee weapons, and lots of endurance, some luck and high hardiness. Basically a character that can take large amount of poison/acid damage and general punishment.

 

As for assassination, you can leave it at 2 for all fighters. There are items that add to it I think.

 

 

[Alorael at Large]

I'm the one who recommends mage/priests with bows most regularly and firmly. Having two mages or two priests, as needed, is great. In the original trilogy bows aren't good enough to worry about for priests, but when you don't have to worry about ammo and you get the nice damage of A4 and the easy to acquire skills with gold you won't run out of, it's a perfect match.

 

—Alorael, who just happens to miss the beta when due to a programming error mages did more damage with bows than archers. He thought he reported that one, but SoT claims the same. It's either a case of two people uncovering the same bug (boring) or an inevitable call for a duel to the death. Probably with bows.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

I don't remember for Avernum 3.

I don't remember the name but it gave you something that doubled your AP.

[Harehunter]

I know that my MMS which was very effective in Exile, has been derided as less than optimal in Avernum, but I find it to be very playable.