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A:EftP - RaustBlackDragon's guide to fun party building


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If you've read some of the other guides on this forum, you may have been told that half of the abilities, spells, traits, and even STATS in the game are not worth investing in. Thus it's all but guaranteed that one or more of your imaginatively planned party members is, by this logic, dead weight, and you're about to go back to the drawing board.

 

HOLD IT RIGHT THERE. It doesn't have to end this way :)

 

The general verdict on these traits, spells, abilities and stats is only true from a min-maxer's perspective, and I'd just like to make one thing perfectly clear before we continue: Min-maxing is not, by any stretch of the imagination, necessary to beat the game and have fun doing it, no matter WHAT difficulty you are playing on.

 

Don't believe me? Check my signature, I'm living proof of my basic thesis. Avernum: Escape From The Pit was the first spiderweb software game I have ever beaten, and the first time I beat the game, I did it on torment, with a party that had every single skill in the entire game, and I can readily say that the vast majority of the big no-no abilities are grossly undersold.

 

I'm not here to tell you what abilities not to use, I'm here to help you make your dream characters work. Interested? Then read on!

 

1: The One Rule

 

Alright, before we start, I thought I'd get the one big rule for following this guide out of the way, the one that this guide will assume you're going to follow:

 

Don't put more than half of your overall stat points into a single stat.

 

The first thing that may spring to mind is that this is what every single guide on this site tells you to do, and I'm telling you not to do it. Well, basically, what they call "mentally sound stat allocation", I call an exploit. There is absolutely no way Jeff Vogel had those kinds of disproportionate stat builds in mind when he designed the game, so there's no way he would have designed the game in such a way as to require this to survive. Not only that, but as I've said before, I'm living proof that putting everything into one stat isn't required to survive, even on torment.

 

This guide is going to assume you're following this rule, and I highly recommend following it, because, at least in my experience, it made the game a lot more enjoyable. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on to party building!

 

2: The Stats

 

There are 4 basic stats in the game: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Endurance. Each one has both an offensive benefit and a defensive benefit, with the exception of endurance, which is 100% defensive.

 

Strength:

Offensive: Improves melee weapon damage by 1 level, and melee accuracy by 5%.

Defensive: Lets you wear heavier (better) armor without getting encumbered.

Notes: I don't recommend investing too much in this if all you're after is the armor carrying bonus, by the end of the game encumberance won't be too much of a problem for most characters. Plus, mage spell users (not priest spell users) have other disadvantages from armor to worry about.

 

Dexterity:

Offensive: Improves ranged weapon damage by 1 level, and ranged accuracy by 5%.

Defensive: Reduces enemies' chance to hit by 5% for physical, fire and energy attacks.

Other: lets you act sooner in the round.

Notes: Physical, Fire and Energy attacks make up the vast majority of attacks your enemies will be using against you, so for most situations, this is your go-to stat for evading attacks. This is extremely useful for "tanking" against enemies in massive numbers, though the uber heavy-hitters will probably be too much for dodging alone to handle.

 

Intelligence:

Offensive: Improves spell damage by 1 level, and spell accuracy by 5%.

Defensive: Improves mental resistance by 3%, reduces enemies' chance to hit you with a mental spell by 5%.

Other: Improves maximum spell energy by 5.

Notes: Mental effects are a living nightmare, and the defense that intelligence grants you against them is quite valuable.

 

Endurance:

Offensive: None

Defensive: Improves maximum HP by 5, reduces enemies' chance to hit by 5% for cold, acid and poison attacks, increases resistance to poison and acid damage.

Notes: This is quite useful to invest in when fighting heavy-duty damage dealing enemies, and being able to dodge the attacks of ghosts and slimes will be quite nice to have in certain areas.

 

Notice that all of the offensive bonuses improve accuracy, not just damage. This is a large portion of why multi-classing and investing in more than one stat is discouraged by most people, because the to-hit difference (5% per stat point, as well as 5% per level) really adds up after a while. However, if you go for 50% stat allocation into at least one of the three offensive stats, you'll do just fine, don't worry. So what should you do with the remaining 50% of your total stat points? You have a few options. First off, you could just put it all into another stat, essentially allowing you to multiclass, with two equally viable methods of attack. Alternatively, you could distribute the remaining 50% equally between the remaining stats, for a defensively well-rounded character.

 

3: The Skills

 

Characters will gain a total of 63 skill points by the time they reach level 30, and if they grind all the way to 61, they'll get 12 more, but that pretty much isn't gonna happen. I recommend assuming you won't get higher than level 35, so when planning your character's endgame build, assume you have about 65 skill points to work with. Also note that you can only put 1 point in a skill per level, so plan ahead, don't leave the final skill on your plan to level 25, you won't be able to put in all 10 points by level 30. I'm going to go through the skills, and help you decide which ones you want for a character:

 

The weapons tab:

 

Proficiencies: The four bottom skills provide bonuses to the main weapon types. Your combined score in all 4 of these determines what battle disciplines you have access to. Bear in mind that you can purchase a total of 8 skill points (2 in each of the proficiencies) to beef up your battle discipline ranking. Personally, I find that bladeshield is the last extremely useful battle discipline, and you get it at 16 points. If you want (though this isn't necessary), you could be sneaky and get just 8 in your weapon proficiency of choice, move on to the higher level skills, buy the last two points in your main proficiency, later buy the ones in the others to get adrenaline rush and bladeshield, and still be able to max out the skills above it. Of course, this only saves you two skill points, so you decide if it's worth it. At any rate, I don't recommend going above 10 in any one proficiency, as the bonuses aren't particularly dazzling. I recommend moving on to the flashier upper-level skills :)

 

At any rate, which of the 4 you choose will largely depend on which of the 4 weapon types tickles your fancy, so I'll just go over them real quick:

 

SWORDS: Your basic weapons. You can carry a shield with one, or you can dual-wield, but either one will likely cause your accuracy to suffer a tad. Of course, the bonus is either enhanced defense or enhanced damage output, so it's definitely worth it over just having an empty off-hand.

 

POLES: Two-handed weapons. You can't dual-wield them or carry a shield with one, but they're powerful, and they're also more accurate thanks to the lack of a shield or offhand blade to stick you with an accuracy penalty. The selection of polearms isn't nearly as wide as the selection of swords, but it's not crippling.

 

BOWS: Your standard ranged weapon. If you're primarily a ranged fighter, get this.

 

THROWN WEAPONS: These are technically more powerful than bows, but they're not for pure ranged attackers. If you rely on thrown weapons as your only form of attack, you WILL run out of them. Thus they're really only useful for str-dex doubleclassers. Fortunately, the two thrown-weapon-using archetypes people would most want to roleplay as, Ninjas and Batman, are also conveniently str-dex doubleclassers, so no problems there! While you're at it though, be sure to get some points in gymnastics, you won't be sorry!

 

Right, now onto the main skills:

 

HARDINESS: Defense boost. Worthwhile to invest at least 5 points in for any physical fighter, really, and if you're going for a tank, I highly recommend going the full 10.

 

BLADEMASTER: Damage boost. Get it for any physical powerhouse characters.

 

PARRY: Grants a chance per level to negate melee/ranged damage entirely. I recommend this for characters who aren't STR-DEX hybrids (henceforth referred to as Batman Ninjas for the heck of it). This skill really becomes useful for characters who get hit A TON.

 

QUICK ACTION: Increases your turn order priority, and increases your chance to double fatigue shed by 5% per point. People say it sucks. Does it? Honestly, it's not directly worth investing in for many builds, but it's a prerequisite for two skills that absolutely ARE worth it, so you're probably gonna wind up getting this anyway.

 

RIPOSTE: Chance to damage melee attackers. Again, as with parry, this is at its most useful for characters who get hit a lot, so Batman Ninjas should avoid it. This isn't exactly a must-have, but it can be useful.

 

DUAL-WIELDING: Reduces the to-hit and damage penalties for dual-wielding, and at higher levels actually starts turning the penalty into a bonus. Must-have for any dual-wielders.

 

SHARPSHOOTER: It's blademaster for bows. Moving on now.

 

GYMNASTICS: I adore this skill. It increases your evasion by 2% per level, but that's not the main attraction, oh no. The real benefit is that for every level you have, the game rolls a separate 1-in-10 chance of you gaining a bonus action point that turn. Just 2 bonus action points are enough for you to be able to attack twice in a turn without the benefit of haste, and if you're hasted and battle frenzied, there's a chance that 2 bonus action points will let you attack THREE times. If your double-classed character happens to be in the area, get this skill, it will make your character a spinning whirlwind of destruction, especially if you're a mage. For more information on your chances of hitting the magical sweetspot of two bonus action points, consult this calculator.

 

LETHAL BLOW: The description is mistaken and a bit vague. This skill actually increases your critical hit rate by 5% per level. Totally worthwhile for serious damage-dealers, and while the path to get there is VERY MUCH out of the way for, say, mages, if you get any equipment that boosts this skill, see if you can give it to your mages, they'll benefit greatly from it.

 

SNIPER: It's nice for pure archers, but I wouldn't recommend it for any hybrids. There are better ways to inflict status effects, unless you happen to not be using any mages in your party, in which case I'd recommend this.

 

 

The magic/misc tab:

 

MAGE SPELLS: This is your proficiency in mage spells. The higher this is, the more spells you can use, and those spells will also be a bit stronger. I don't recommend getting this beyond 17, because you don't unlock any new spells beyond that point. Mage spells are extremely useful for a wide variety of reasons. I'll go in depth on this later, but basically, you'll want a mage in your party.

 

PRIEST SPELLS: Same as with mage spells, the higher this is, the more priest spells you can use. I don't recommend raising this above 17, since after that you don't unlock new spells. If you reach a point where none of the more advanced spells tickle your fancy, then I also recommend you stop putting further points in this, and go on to the more advanced abilities. Just as with Mage Spells, it should go without saying that you're really going to want somebody with this in your party.

 

SPELLCRAFT: Like blademaster for magic. Handy, but not absolutely essential. You CAN get away with not getting this, especially if you're a spellslinger who focuses on casting spells in rapid succession. Healers will want to get this though, as healing doesn't scale with intelligence, but it is improved by this bonus.

 

ARCANE LORE: This improves your mental resistance, but more importantly, it gives you access to the spellbooks throughout the game that give you the third level to all of the game's spells. You don't need more than 12 in this, and so if magical efficiency (more on that in a sec) appeals to you for any of your characters, don't worry about spreading this skill around, because you'll need to max this to max magical efficiency anyway.

 

RESISTANCE: It's basically hardiness, but remove the physical defense and replace it with curse and mental resistance. Handy for mages.

 

MAGICAL EFFICIENCY: Basically, every time you cast a spell, you gain a random amount of spell energy back, an amount which is generally higher the better your proficiency at this skill is. This will drastically increase the number of spells you can cast before needing to recharge, and trust me, this is helpful in a great many situations. Of course, it isn't essential, unless you happen to be going for a spellslinger (check my signature, and look at lucille), then it is a must-have.

 

TOOL USE: Another "access skill", like arcane lore. This is used to disarm traps and unlock doors. You're going to want a lot of this, but no more than 13 total among your party members (after 13 it's overkill). It will get you a lot of awesome extra stuff.

 

FIRST AID: I would love to be able to say that this skill has gotten a bad rap from the min-maxers, but unfortunately they're right about this one from what I've seen. I have this one suspicion that if everybody in your party puts points into this, it might be useful, but for the most part I recommend ignoring this one.

 

CAVE LORE: The min-maxers are wrong about this one. They are VERY VERY wrong about this one. I cannot even imagine how I could have possibly beaten the game without investing in cave lore. Cave lore allows you to avoid outdoor fights (The most annoying and difficult fights the game can throw at you), find renewable herb deposits for potion brewing, and also dig up some nifty items in caches hidden around avernum. Like with the other access skills, it's useless to put more points in it after you reach 11, but DO NOT IGNORE THIS. YOU WILL REGRET IT IF YOU DO. That said, you actually only need to invest 1 learned skill point into this in order to get the full effects. You can purchase a total of 8 more levels for your party as a whole, you can gain 2 more, 1 from a quest and one from a place on the world map, and so you would only need a single skill point to get it up to 11. According to these calculations, you'll even get your money back from the training investment!

 

LUCK: Basically, increases your resistances all-around. Nifty, but you can only invest 5 points into it. If you find yourself with an extra 5 points to spare (and the number of points you have at your disposal actually means you often will), this isn't a bad place to put them.

 

 

Alright, next part I'll move on to the traits, spells and battle disciplines! Stay tuned!

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4: The Traits

 

Every other level, you'll be able to pick a trait for your character. These are far scarcer than stat points and skill points, as you stop getting them entirely after level 30. You get a total of 16 (you start off with one). A lot of them are pretty cool, and I'll take a quick moment to go through them:

 

IMPROVED STR/DEX/INT/END: I recommend getting all five levels of whatever trait corresponds to your primary method of attack (And if you're dual-classing, both stats). They're really handy for buffing up your attacks. As for improved END, a tank might want to consider it, but it's not quite as crucial as the offensive ones.

 

SURE HAND: It's half of the benefit of a strength level up, so I'd avoid it if you can.

 

DEADEYE: It's more like a third of the benefit of a dexterity level up, so I'd DEFNITELY avoid this one.

 

MIGHTY BLOWS: If you're a melee fighter, you might want to consider this, but it's not a must-have.

 

SURE AIM: Same as mighty blows, but for bows.

 

CHALLENGER: This is supposed to cause enemies to attack your character in preference to others. This would be great for a tank, but I've heard that this is bugged and doesn't do anything. Honestly, I haven't been able to confirm or deny that, but keep this in mind if you choose to get it and try it out.

 

PARRY MASTERY: Getting this perk (up to two times) is one of very few ways to increase your parry rate once you've maxed out the parry stat. If you're big on parrying, this is probably a good investment for you.

 

RIPOSTE MASTERY: Basically the same as parry mastery, but with riposte. If you're big on riposte, this is one of very few ways to improve it further.

 

AMBIDEXTROUS: This is superior to a level in dual wielding, so if you're big on dual-wielding, this is almost certainly worth your time.

 

DUAL BLADE MASTERY: Not as good as ambidextrous, but then, you can't get this until you've already gotten ambidextrous, and if you want to beef up your dual-wielding prowess further, look at this like you would look at parry mastery and riposte mastery, but for dual-wielding.

 

RECOVERY: Basically takes half of the benefit of quick action (the fatigue shedding bonus) and doubles it. If you're getting quick action for the fatigue recovery, then get this too.

 

BLESSING FOCUS: Increases the duration of your buffs and debuffs by 5% per level. If you're big on buffs and debuffs (and there is arguably sufficient reason to be so), you'll probably want to get this.

 

HEALING FOCUS: Increases your healing by 3% per level. Since healing spells don't scale with intelligence, this is one of very few ways (other than improving your core priest spells skill) to improve your healing.

 

ELEMENTAL FOCUS: Improves your magic damage by 3% per level. Damage dealing mages will not be disappointed.

 

SUMMONING FOCUS: Increases the level of your summons by 2 per level. If you're a fan of summoning (I'm not), you'll want to get this, as summons are even harder to improve than healing is.

 

SWORDMAGE: Improves the to-hit penalty your character can have while still being able to cast mage spells (priest spells are unaffected by heavy armor). If you're a STR-INT hybrid using mage spells, you'll want to get this. Pure mages probably won't find much need for it though.

 

STRONG BACK: Improves your character's carrying capacity (how much armor they can carry before getting encumbered) by an amount higher than what you'd get from a single point in strength. Honestly though, armor isn't heavy enough to pose much of a problem later in the game after a few "every 4th level automatic" increases to strength. If you get this for a mage spell user though, you're gonna want swordmage to make the best use of it.

 

QUICK LEARNING: Increases XP gain by 5%. If you want to get this, get it quickly, to maximize the benefit. The end-game result isn't exactly spectacular though, sorry :(

 

GREAT WISDOM: Increases XP gain by 4%, requires Quick Learning. I'm not sure what mathematical way the two bonuses stack in, but again, you won't be getting much bonus XP over the rest of the party with this anyway.

 

FAST RECOVERY: A 5% bonus to the effects of first aid on your character. Don't get this if you aren't getting first aid.

 

SAGE LORE: Reduces the amount of arcane lore required to read spellbooks by 3. Note the wording. This is not a +3 bonus to arcane lore. You don't get the mental resistance or the ability to spot magical traps later on. Still, If none of your characters are getting magic efficiency, then this is almost certainly a better investment than arcane lore. If all 4 party members have this trait, you'll be able to read every spellbook in the game.

 

GOOD FORTUNE: Boosts luck by 1. If you like the luck stat, go for it.

 

GREAT FORTUNE: Boosts luck by 1, requires good fortune, and my comment is the same.

 

NIMBLE FINGERS: Boosts tool use by 1. You can get this two times per character, and it's one of many ways to get through the game without investing any skill points into tool use if you find yourself needing to do that.

 

BACKSTAB: You can get 3 levels of this, and for each one, you get a 5% bonus to damage whenever your target is adjacent to another of your allies. An EXCELLENT way to boost your damage output for melee fighters, and very easy to set up as well.

 

GOOD HEALTH / ROBUST HEALTH / PERFECT HEALTH: These are stacking percentage bonuses to your max HP. They're not as good as a point of endurance, but if you're going for the absolute tankiest tank in the land of tankmen, this is probably part of the ideal setup for you :)

 

ENERGY BLESSING / ENERGY BOON / UNENDING MANA: Same as above, just for energy. Again, not as good as points in intelligence, but if you're going for the most energy-efficient mage imaginable, this is probably part of the best setup for you.

 

NEGOTIATOR: Increases the sale value of all items by 10%. When you get this for all 4 party members, this stacks to 40%. Note that I said when, not if. I STRONGLY recommend you get this trait as soon as it becomes available, for all of your party members, and if you can, don't sell anything until then. Money is not infinite in this game, and this is one of very few ways to improve your available funds, so I strongly recommend taking advantage of it.

 

 

5: The Spells and Battle Disciplines

 

Finally, I'm going to go over the spells and battle disciplines the game has to offer, as well as my advice on their use. Let's start with the Mage Spells:

 

FIREBOLT: Your standard offensive magic spell, it costs 1 spell energy (With magic efficiency there's a chance of this actually being free), and does fire damage to one target. The cheapest spell in the game. If your mage doesn't have a melee or bow attack (and sometimes even if they do), you'll want to use this if you can't spare the spell energy for the heavy-duty higher spells.

 

CALL BEAST: The first summoning spell. I don't particularly care for summoning spells, largely because you can't control them and they don't scale with difficulty, but I'm not about to write them off as worthless, as I've never actually devoted a build to summoning before, and I have no idea what the result would be. I may wind up doing that in the future though, and I'll post my updated opinions on it then.

 

CLOAK OF CURSES: Your first cloak spell. Basically it lasts until you go back to town or you cast another cloak spell, and it grants an offensive bonus to your entire party. In this case, it's a chance to inflict a random status ailment whenever you successfully hit in melee. This can be quite useful, and it's quite cheap as well, so I recommend using it.

 

DAZE: A lifesaver in the early stages of the game on higher difficulties, this allows you to daze all the enemies in a targeted area. Dazed enemies will lose several turns and can't slow you down when you pass them, but will snap out of it early if they're attacked. Later in the game, you'll encounter stronger enemies that are highly resistant to it, but at level 2 this can ensnare, which can be handy for crowd control almost the whole game through, and at level 3 it stuns, which is tempting. If you find it getting less useful overtime though, don't worry, soon there will be other options to mess with your foes, don't worry :)

 

HASTE: You will become addicted to this spell, I assure you. It hastes all nearby party members, which basically gives them a 33% chance whenever they do a full action to only use 5 action points instead of 9. Not spectacular on its own, but when you get it to the 3rd spell level, it will also cast battle frenzy on your party 30% of the time, and that gives you 5 more action points every turn. Combine the two and throw in gymnastics and/or AP increasing equipment and you've got yourself some serious rapid-fire attacking. You will find yourself spamming this move constantly, in battle, to make sure the battle frenzy is refreshed before it wears off. It's really valuable.

 

SLOW: Inflicts slow on all nearby enemies. Slow basically has a chance of taking away 8 or 9 (can't remember which) action points from the afflicted character at the beginning of their turn, which will either end their turn or negate their battle frenzy for the turn. Obviously not as good as daze, but it's also a lot easier to inflict on opponents than daze is, and undead aren't immune to it either, so this is quite helpful at surviving undead zerg rushes early on.

 

ICY RAIN: First area attack, this inflicts cold damage in a small circular area. At level 3 it also can immobilize them, which can be quite useful in certain situations. It's also the strongest cold-type attack you will ever have at your disposal, and the only area-targeting damage spell that mages get their hands on.

 

SPRAY ACID: Inflicts acid, and I think lightning when maxed out. Lightning and acid are nightmares in the early-mid game, but sadly your enemies have a lot more HP than you do, and the damage from status effects is static, so it's not as devastating as you might hope.

 

CLOAK OF BOLTS: Your second cloak spell. Note that you can only have one cloak spell active at a time, and from this point onward they mostly focus on improving damage output from certain attack types, in this case ranged attacks. If you have a group of shooters, use this one. Otherwise, you should probably stick with cloak of curses until you get the next one.

 

MINOR SUMMON: No further comments at this time.

 

LIGHTNING SPRAY: Your first cone-area attack spell, this one inflicts energy damage. It's the first multitarget attack spell mages will get that can harm the undead, and I strongly encourage you to take an early trip to the tower of magi to buy this for exactly that reason. At max level it can inflict weakness curse, which makes enemies easier to hit and more vulnerable to damage. SCORE!

 

BLINK: Lets you teleport in a straight line to any visible space. You can go through enemies, but not obstacles, and you can't go up stairs or change elevation with this spell either. You won't be using it a lot, but there will be quite a few places where you will REALLY want to have this spell.

 

CLOAK OF BLADES: Improves melee damage for the whole party. See my comments on cloak of bolts.

 

DISPEL BARRIER: Lets you dispel barriers without the use of piercing crystals. Also, piercing crystals can't break level 3 barriers, but this spell can if you get it to level 3. The quest to be able to buy this spell is quite tricky, but when you can manage it, the rewards are great.

 

SUMMON AID: No further comments at this time.

 

HOWL OF TERROR: The best debuff spell in the game by far. At first it's just a player-centered area spell that inflicts terror (at a notoriously low success rate), but the next two levels in this spell will throw in war curse (reduces enemies' accuracy and damage output) and then slow. This is an absolute lifesaver against massive mobs and in outdoor fights, and it's one of my favorite spells in the game.

 

FIREBLAST: A fire-elemental cone attack. The first really expensive offensive mage spell, but it's really powerful as well.

 

ARCANE SUMMON: No further comments at this time.

 

CLOAK OF THE ARCANE: The 4th and final cloak spell, this one improves magic damage. I'd recommend working out which makes a larger part of your party's damage output and sticking with the corresponding cloak from now on. But chances are that the answer is going to be magic, and this spell will make your magic attacks absolutely DEVASTATING.

 

ARCANE BLOW: The ultimate mage spell, it inflicts heavy energy damage in a cone, and at level 2 it has a 100% chance to inflict war curse. The final level throws in daze as well, and I wouldn't worry too much about reaching level 3 in this spell for this reason. But the first two levels are TOTALLY worth getting, as this spell is absolutely devastating. Get it. You won't be sorry.

 

 

Right, now for the priest spells:

 

MINOR HEAL: Your standard healing spell, it heals some HP to a single target. At level 3 this also casts regeneration on the target, which is quite useful early on (and you can get level 3 early on too, fortunately). This is the most efficient healing spell in the game, but certain situations may call for you to use others.

 

CURING: Cures one hostile effect per level in this spell to a single target. Hostile effects are not the only negative effects, however: there are also mental effects, which the curing spell will be useless on. This is a wonderful spell to use if somebody in your party is afflicted with acid or lightning. Later on, however, you'll probably want to use group curing if you find yourself needing to cure things urgently.

 

SMITE: A single-target damage spell for priests. It's more expensive than firebolt, which is sadly a recurring theme for damaging priest spells, they're always more expensive than their mage spell counterparts. Still, this will probably be more powerful than your melee or ranged attacks.

 

PROTECTION: Casts protection on all nearby party members, which reduces all damage they take by 10%, and increases their evasion rate by 10% as well. The first part is kinda "meh", but the second one makes this extremely useful for any dexterity characters. Even if you don't have any dodgers in your party, this is so cheap you might as well have it on your party at all times. At level 3 it has a 50% chance of casting regen on all party members as well.

 

WAR BLESSING: Casts war blessing on all nearby party members, which increases their chance to hit by 10% and increases their damage by 10% as well. You're going to find this incredibly useful. At level 3 this has a 50% chance of granting your nearby party members spine shield as well, which damages anybody who attacks you in melee.

 

CALL THE STORM: Cold-elemental cone-area damage spell, it's useless against the undead (which is odd for a priest spell), but inflicts knockback and later has a chance of inflicting weakness curse. It has its uses, but it's not the sort of spell you can spam without some setup, as it tends to scatter its targets everywhere. Also, according to The Reverend, "With careful planning, and two priests, you can use call the storm to make yourself unhittable by melee attackers in certain battles. The key is that the knockback occurs even if the spell "misses". For many monsters, if you are fighting in a wide open area, two Call the Storm knockbacks will push them far enough back that they can't get back to you and still have APs left to attack." Of course, he would know, he's currently doing a playthrough with a party made entirely out of priests, check it out here if you have the time :) Handy knowledge to have, definitely something to keep in mind if you have two priest spell users. Alternatively, combining this with an ensnaring AOE spell (such as level 2 daze) or an immobilizing AOE spell (such as level 3 icy rain, though it's less reliable) can also keep your enemies away from you.

 

 

SUMMON SHADE: No further comments at this time.

 

WARD OF THOUGHTS: Mage spells have cloaks, priest spells have wards. Wards basically reduce a certain type of attack's effectiveness. Ward of thoughts protects you from mental effects. It's useful in a great many situations, especially when facing enemies with a lot of mental attacks.

 

UNSHACKLE MIND: LIke curing, but for mental effects. It can also cure hostile effects as well, I'm not sure at what point it gets this ability. There's no AOE upgrade, so you have to cure each afflicted party member individually. This spell is absolutely essential, and I recommend getting it to level 2 as soon as possible, because it's slow enough without having to use it multiple times on a single party member.

 

HEAL: Stronger than minor heal. If minor heal isn't doing the job, use this.

 

MASS HEALING: Casts minor heal on all nearby party members. Almost indispensable.

 

MASS CURING: Casts curing on all nearby party members. Lower priority than mass healing, but don't ignore it!

 

WARD OF STEEL: Get this as soon as you can, it's an extremely useful ward that reduces physical, poison and acid damage. It will help you greatly in the early-mid portions of the game.

 

DIVINE FIRE: A circular area attack spell, fire elemental. It's really powerful, but really expensive as well, particularly at the point when you can first lay your hands on it. Extremely useful against the undead.

 

DOMINATION: Never actually used this, so I can't speak for its effectiveness, but it seems pretty useful. Give it a shot.

 

WARD OF ELEMENTS: Eventually you'll want to switch from ward of steel to this, when your party gets some better armor an when magical attacks start becoming increasingly common.

 

RETURN LIFE: Revives all party members. Expensive, but always worth it. Additional levels in the spell don't do anything more though, so if you can manage it, you might want to try and wait until you can get the 3rd-level spellbook for it without buying it, to save some money. Also remember that dead party members gain no experience, so continuing the fight with dead party members can sometimes have long-term consequences. Final note: This spell tries to place your party members in a random spot around you, and can often fail in tight spaces. You have been warned.

 

DIVINE RETRIBUTION: Arguably the best AOE spell in the entire game, as it hits the most spaces of any spell. It's centered around the caster, and inflicts heavy energy damage in a large radius around them. Costs the same amount as arcane blow as well!

 

DIVINE RESTORATION: Supposed to be a combination of a mass healing spell on steroids and a mass curing spell, but I haven't actually seen it cure any status effects. Then again, I've never maxed it out, so it might do it then.

 

DIVINE HOST: A summon spell. No further comments.

 

 

 

Finally, the battle disciplines:

 

Quick note: Battle disciplines don't cost spell energy, but they inflict fatigue, which normally decreases at a rate of 1 per turn (though fatigue shedding bonuses add to a chance for it to decrease by another 1 that turn), and until the fatigue is gone, you can't cast another battle discipline.

 

MIGHTY BLOW: Stronger than a melee attack. No reason not to use it if you don't have any stronger disciplines to use, as there are no side-effects to fatigue apart from not being able to use another discipline.

 

FLAWLESS SHOT: Stronger than a ranged attack, ensnares (reduces the afflicted unit's movement to 1 per turn). If you're an archer and this is available, there's no reason not to use this.

 

SHIELD BREAKER: Stronger than a normal melee attack, inflicts knockback and ensnares the target. Useful for trying to keep a powerful melee foe at bay.

 

LEG SWEEP: Stronger than a normal melee attack, inflicts weakness curse and immobility (immobile characters can't move at all, but can still attack). Can be useful for making an opening on a high-evasion foe.

 

BLADE SWEEP: Attacks all enemies in a 2-space radius. While it's described as a melee attack, it scales with dexterity, so non-dex characters may be disappointed, but batman ninjas will probably like it a lot, as of course would pure archers :)

 

FOCUS SPIRIT: Cures 3 hostile effects. Would be more useful if the most devastating hostile effects didn't prevent you from being able to use this.

 

MIGHTY BLOW: Heavy melee damage, knocks enemy back. Pretty nice, and the knockback can be handy. Dual-wielders be warned, however, the knockback actually cancels your second attack.

 

ADRENALINE RUSH: This is the first of the big two, the ones people recommend for absolutely any build imaginable. I do as well, for the most part. Basically, it gives you 20 bonus action points, allowing you to perform 3 more attacks after using it. The cooldown is immense compared to other disciplines (8 turns), but the damage output is worth it for fighters, and the utility for mages is ridiculously high. This discipline, if you can get your proficiency totals to the necessary 15, essentially functions as triplecast for mages, and I don't think I need to bother explaining why that's awesome. However, it's not essential. While it's extremely useful to make a big impact with your first move, this doesn't have TOO MUCH of an impact on your overall average per-turn damage output. Nevertheless, it's totally worth the skill points for any build, though anybody avoiding weapons for a character should try to spend as few skillpoints as possible getting it. If you use some weapon-skill increasing equipment like the discipline blade, and if you buy points in the weapon skills, you can get away with spending very few actual skill points getting this. Of course, don't worry about minimizing the spent skillpoints for warriors, obviously, and Batman Ninjas won't need to buy any points at all to get this.

 

BLADESHIELD: The second of the big two everybody recommends, and I recommend it too. 8 Turns of fatigue, grants you 4 turns of bladeshield, which grants 30% resistance to all damage types, and gives you a 50% bonus to riposte. This requires 16 proficiency points, and is totally worth it for any physical fighter, whether melee or ranged. If you stack up enough fatigue-recovery bonuses, it's even possible to keep this awesome blessing activated continuously!

 

BLINDING SHOT: A ranged attack that immobilizes. It's pretty cool and has its uses, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get this.

 

STUNNING BLOW: A melee attack that does high damage and stuns for 2 turns. I've never used it.

 

BATTLE FRENZY: Gives you the battle frenzy status for 5 turns, gives you fatigue for 12. By the time you get this, you'll already have level 3 haste, and so you'll probably already be frenzied most of the time anyway. If that's not available for whatever reason though, it's handy to have.

 

 

 

That's my guide! If you have any suggestions, corrections, complaints, or questions, feel free to post them!

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Nice guide, thanks for putting this together!! A few comments/observations:

 

SPELLCRAFT: Like blademaster for magic. Handy, but not absolutely essential. You CAN get away with not getting this, especially if you're a spellslinger who focuses on casting spells in rapid succession.

This gives a bonus to healing spells, as well.

 

RESISTANCE: It's basically hardiness, but remove the physical defense and replace it with curse resistance. Handy for mages.

Remove physical, and replace it with curse and mental. Which is very nice.

 

CAVE LORE: The min-maxers are wrong about this one. They are VERY VERY wrong about this one. I cannot even imagine how I could have possibly beaten the game without investing in cave lore. Cave lore allows you to avoid outdoor fights (The most annoying and difficult fights the game can throw at you), find renewable herb deposits for potion brewing, and also dig up some nifty items in caches hidden around avernum. Like with the other access skills, it's useless to put more points in it after you reach about 11 or so (I can't quite remember at this point), but DO NOT IGNORE THIS. YOU WILL REGRET IT IF YOU DO.

You're right, cave lore is absolutely worth it - and you can get it up to 11 with only 1 skill point. You can buy 2 points for each character in Formello, for 800 each, and get 1 free from a quest, and 1 point free from a pool near the giants. You'll end up more than making your money back. See this post for details.

 

CALL THE STORM: Cold-elemental cone-area damage spell, it's useless against the undead (which is odd for a priest spell), but inflicts knockback and later has a chance of inflicting weakness curse. It has its uses, but it's not the sort of spell you can spam without some setup, as it tends to scatter its targets everywhere.

With careful planning, and two priests, you can use call the storm to make yourself unhittable by melee attackers in certain battles. The key is that the knockback occurs even if the spell "misses". For many monsters, if you are fighting in a wide open area, two Call the Storm knockbacks will push them far enough back that they can't get back to you and still have APs left to attack.

 

BLADE SWEEP: Attacks all enemies in a 2-space radius. While it's described as a melee attack, it scales with dexterity, so non-dex characters may be disappointed, but batman ninjas will probably like it a lot.

This is fun for pure archers, too, if they get surrounded, because they have high DEX.

 

MIGHTY BLOW: Heavy melee damage, knocks enemy back. Pretty nice, and the knockback can be handy.

Unfortunately, if you have a dual-wielder, this knock back eliminates the second attack (disciplines always apply to the first attack) - so I don't recommend it for them.

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It's worth noting that level 2 Daze, which is easy to get fairly early, also ensnares. This is incredibly useful against hard-hitting melee attackers, and extends the usefulness of the spell beyond the point where almost everything is resisting the main effect. I even use it against undead - it saved my party in the ancient crypt. And again when I went to clear out the nepharim in the underground fort.

 

Edit: Combining level 2 Daze with Call the Storm can let you de-mob your archer or herd enemies where you want them, too.

 

And nice work, RBD!

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It's worth noting that level 2 Daze, which is easy to get fairly early, also ensnares. This is incredibly useful against hard-hitting melee attackers, and extends the usefulness of the spell beyond the point where almost everything is resisting the main effect. I even use it against undead - it saved my party in the ancient crypt. And again when I went to clear out the nepharim in the underground fort.

 

Edit: Combining level 2 Daze with Call the Storm can let you de-mob your archer or herd enemies where you want them, too.

 

And nice work, RBD!

 

Thanks, and I updated the OP with this new info!

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Unfortunately, if you have a dual-wielder, this knock back eliminates the second attack (disciplines always apply to the first attack) - so I don't recommend it for them.

You can still get the second attack if there's a wall behind the target so he can't be knock-backed, It's rare but useful sometimes.

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You can still get the second attack if there's a wall behind the target so he can't be knock-backed, It's rare but useful sometimes.

 

Yeah, but I think in that situation there are better battle disciplines for raw damage, I don't think you're going for pure damage if you're using the knockback attacks.

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Yeah, but I think in that situation there are better battle disciplines for raw damage, I don't think you're going for pure damage if you're using the knockback attacks.

I found it useful against enemies who stun/terrify you on the first blow like that spider in the first aranea cave , you can get at least one good attack before staying quite for sometime, otherwise my fighter was pretty much useless in such cases.

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I might have to think ahead with some of this information. All three of my party are at level 28. What Im getting ready for is the end. It seems that everyone is saying that once you reach level 30, the game leveling ends and you are not allowed to place skill points until every 5th level. Is that true? I was under the assumption that you can at least still place points into stats every level after 30.

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After level 30, you still gain the hit point and spell point bonuses every level, as well as the automatic stat increase (rotating between strength, dexterity, intelligence, and endurance). However, you only get the chosen stat increase and the skill point allocation every 5th level. Which, realistically, means that it will probably only happen at level 35 if at all, since most people finish the game with a levels somewhere in the 30s (unless they are playing singleton).

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if you want to go beyond level 30 then you need to do alot "farming" aka killing random encounters (those few places they appear) and do Final Gauntlet few times per day for a couple months.

You can also save all of your wisdom crystals (found and made) until after you hit level 30 - unlike other types of experience, wisdom crystal experience doesn't scale down as you get to higher levels.

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Wisdom crystals scale down, but not as fast as other things. I've seen them go from 200 XP down to 186 as a singleton. But using them in combat to go up a level to recharge spell energy is a great use.

 

Hey Randomizer, any thoughts on my guide? I'd be curious to hear feedback from a seasoned veteran who's heavily studied the game mechanics :)

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sure but for that player still needs to do visits to FG for herbs to replenish.

I just meant saving the wisdom crystals that you find and make in your travels until later in the game, when you are a high enough level that only a few combats can give you noticeable experience. I don't bother doing extra stuff or trips around the world (what Slarty called the "Golden Girl Grind") to get herbs to replenish. I don't have that much patience. :)

 

The point at which I usually use them all is right before I attempt the first of the final quests (either grah-hoth or the final gauntlet - I always save Hawthorne for last). This allows me to get 2-3 extra levels before I attempt those final quests, at a time when it would be really hard to get those levels through other means. In my current playthrough (with no herb grinding), I'm up to almost 50 crystals (and I still have a couple more things to do before the final quests - namely Drath and the Tower Haakai). This is my no-mage playthrough, which means I've also missed some crystals that are behind barriers, so it could've been even more. (I've discovered that piercing crystals are scarcer than I thought, unless you are willing to completely buy out the stock of crystals and herbs at the Slith Village near the waterfalls in order to get them to replenish - but that is too expensive unless you are out of piercing crystals and have a barrier that you really NEED to get past.)

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You're absolutely positive that Blessing Focus improves the effect of curses as well? Spells like "Slow" or "Howl of Terror"?

 

Absolutely positive? Not on a technical level, but yes, I know it's supposed to. You'll notice that there's no distinction at all between blessing and curse bonuses, all equipment that boosts one boosts the other with the same stat.

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Hmm. I may have to invest in that. I've been trying a Sword Mage and I'm increasingly learning that he is significantly more effective when I focus on summoning and debuffs, and just look at damage as a secondary thing...

 

I've been testing out summoning and buff builds, they seem to be working out for me so far :)

 

Of course, you can always go int/str doubleclassing, that works out very well with this ruleset I recommended.

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Even the damage is decent. You lose out on damage overall, but having versatility shouldn't be ENTIRELY underrated. Sword Mage is basically the "Ninja" class with melee and missile weapons with magic instead of missiles. Though I expect Healer-Knights probably are better overall, it's just fun to see a knight slinging fireballs and shooting lightning. :)

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Even the damage is decent. You lose out on damage overall, but having versatility shouldn't be ENTIRELY underrated. Sword Mage is basically the "Ninja" class with melee and missile weapons with magic instead of missiles. Though I expect Healer-Knights probably are better overall, it's just fun to see a knight slinging fireballs and shooting lightning. :)

 

Paladins are awesome, especially their combined survivability and ability to cast return life. But a spellblade sounds cool too. Personally I go for paladin and mage-archer (for obscene rapidfire action), but I'm sure spellblades would have advantages, even if I can't think of any at 3:24 in the morning :)

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Paladins are awesome, especially their combined survivability and ability to cast return life. But a spellblade sounds cool too. Personally I go for paladin and mage-archer (for obscene rapidfire action), but I'm sure spellblades would have advantages, even if I can't think of any at 3:24 in the morning :)

 

Funnily enough, I did the opposite. My first file had a Healer/Archer instead of your mage archer, which worked quite well, and now on my second run I'm going Magical Knight instead of Paladin.

 

And just to gush, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS about this game. I mean basically any RPG class you've ever wanted to use is in this game. It's fantastic.

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Funnily enough, I did the opposite. My first file had a Healer/Archer instead of your mage archer, which worked quite well, and now on my second run I'm going Magical Knight instead of Paladin.

 

And just to gush, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS about this game. I mean basically any RPG class you've ever wanted to use is in this game. It's fantastic.

 

This is precisely why I wrote this guide. There are people who would have you never do anything even remotely this fun :)

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  • 3 months later...

If you are looking for a more positive assessment of summons, I have some experience to share. I am using a Mage/Knight crossclass character, with emphasis on debuffs and summons. So I can't speak for the Shades or for a more specialized caster, but I have some thoughts to share.

 

In terms of damage output, summons never become particularly useful. They will never do as much damage as another party character, and rarely do enough damage to be worth noticing. Their main use is actually defensive. You have to remember that you are facing opponents controlled by a computer, and these opponents do not know that your summoned creature isn't a threat. Thus, they are just as likely to waste attacks on your summoned creatures as they are to attack you. And while investing in summoning doesn't do much to improve their damage output, it DOES improve their survivability.

 

Think of this in terms of attrition. Summoning a monster costs you a single action. Let's say you've invested in summoning, so your creature has a decent amount of health. If it takes 8 attacks for your opponent(s) to finish it off, then it has done its job. Your team is now 7 actions ahead of the competition. If you're casting Group Heal endlessly, you'll do even better. I remember this most vividly from the Grah-Hoth battle, where you are overwhelmed with summoned creatures. At one point, my summon was surrounded by about 7-8 monsters, slowly chipping away at his health. As long as those creatures continued to engage my summoned creature, they were essentially wasting all of their actions--they were essentially all "dazed" for the number of turns it took them to defeat the summoned creature.

 

So basically, the more you invest in summoning, the beefier your meatshields become. This doesn't work as well in every situation, of course. Area of effect spells sort of throw this out the window, though in my experience monsters don't seem interesting in hitting multiple characters, so spacing can help here. Also, they are much better when fighting large groups of enemies than when fighting a single, powerful foe. But unless Shades are more offensively oriented--and they may be--that is the primary advantage of summons.

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  • 1 month later...

So basically, the more you invest in summoning, the beefier your meatshields become. This doesn't work as well in every situation, of course. Area of effect spells sort of throw this out the window, though in my experience monsters don't seem interesting in hitting multiple characters, so spacing can help here. Also, they are much better when fighting large groups of enemies than when fighting a single, powerful foe. But unless Shades are more offensively oriented--and they may be--that is the primary advantage of summons.

 

That's been my assessment so far as well actually, thanks for posting! Yeah, they are extremely useful shields. NPCs in general seem to be TANKS compared to player characters.

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That's been my assessment so far as well actually, thanks for posting! Yeah, they are extremely useful shields. NPCs in general seem to be TANKS compared to player characters.

 

It's because the PCs' HP is balanced around the assumption that there'll be someone casting healing spells most rounds in serious battles, while NPCs and monsters don't normally have access to healing so they need higher HP to compensate.

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