A2 - CLEARED!!!

[Bushwhacker2k]

Alright! I beat Avernum 2 on the second hardest difficulty. Took care of all 3 of the major quests, retrieving the Crystal Souls, closing the Portal and defeating Garzahd.

 

I got all the tier 3 spells except Control Foes (though I had been planning on returning to the Empire Archives, now that I have Unlock Door 3), but I had to look up how to find almost half of them (I think...)

 

I'm probably going to move on to Avernum 3 now, maybe Avadon 2.

 

What kind of challenges do people like to take on in A2? I've heard the term singletons thrown around here and there, which I assume means playing the game with a solo character.

[Earth]

yes singleton is playing with solo char and most of time on torment.

[RainbowDashRadical]

Congratz on finishing your playthrough. I just finished A1 now, and am moving to A2. Hope to have as much fun as I did with A1 . Btw, could you explain any differences you saw in A1 and A2? Without spoilers of course.

 

~RainbowDashRadical

[Bushwhacker2k]

Congratz on finishing your playthrough. I just finished A1 now, and am moving to A2. Hope to have as much fun as I did with A1 . Btw, could you explain any differences you saw in A1 and A2? Without spoilers of course.

 

~RainbowDashRadical

 

I can't guarantee total accuracy, since it's been a while since I played A1.

 

Throwing weapons are almost totally unviable in A1 because of the ridiculous weight and how fast you go through them, but in A2 the razordisks are light and still functional so it becomes viable.

 

Mages in A2 are absurdly tanky, your characters will need to be fairly well-rounded and tough, defense-wise, to weather their attacks and still survive while whittling their health down.

 

I got the impression A2 had a lot of quests that you couldn't deal with until way later, which bothers me somewhat.

 

I don't recall how easy the tier 3 spells were to get in A1, but in A2 for the most part you won't be getting good tier 3 spells for a goood long while : / I didn't get haste tier 3 until 90% of the way through the game... which is unfortunate, because 50% of the hostile spells enemies cast are slow...

 

Maybe you could just stock so much food that it becomes a non-issue, but areas with lots of waterfalls (the major waterfall area west of Fort Dranlon / beneath Formello) drain food so constantly that I'd recommend not even bringing any with you unless you're going to bring a ton.

 

On that note, unless I'm quite mistaken you can never return to the area from Formello to Avit after the first time, so be thorough while you're down there.

 

Oh, remembered an important note: There are dungeons which force you to only bring one character, so if you're like me and almost never use potions, since magic can generate the same effects- you may want to have some useful potions on hand for those situations. Energy potions are an absolute requirement, moreso than any other potion type, regardless of situation.

 

Mid-level mages/priests like to spam high-damage fire spells, so anti-fire gear is very useful for pretty much the entire game.

 

I might report back if more comes to me. Good luck!

[Earth]

A1 and A2 are somewhat similar, like bushwacker said few times you need to choose 1 to go on while others wait.

[Vexivero]

Mages in A2 are absurdly tanky, your characters will need to be fairly well-rounded and tough, defense-wise, to weather their attacks and still survive while whittling their health down.

 

Oh, remembered an important note: There are dungeons which force you to only bring one character, so if you're like me and almost never use potions, since magic can generate the same effects- you may want to have some useful potions on hand for those situations. Energy potions are an absolute requirement, moreso than any other potion type, regardless of situation.

 

I don't know if you would consider this cheating or not, but I noticed the spell "bind foe" works on pretty much everybody when in level one. You can trap golems, wizards, Haakais and other spellcasters and tough opponents with this. If you upgrade the spell, then they start resisting it. When combined with haste, this becomes extremely cheap. Especially when they're the only enemy left, because they will never get a turn as long as you cast it once every round.

 

Also, every opponent has the same range. So you can isolate really tough situations very easily. When you're at the very farthest range of your spells(so the longest distance away from your enemy that you can cast a spell) they won't attack or even see you. So you can stay at that range and attack them, then they'll come to you and none of the other enemies will be alerted. So you can pick off every opponent one by one. This, combined with the bind foe spell, ensures pretty much every situation is beatable. I slew Gaddicka at around level 10 without him ever getting a shot at me. The only problems I've had on torment so far is with doomguards and guardians/black shades, but I just reload a few times to gauge the distance so I can take them all on one at a time. Doomguards I had to wait until I had Arcane Shield, Haste level 3, War Blessing level 3, and Divine Warrior.

 

I haven't used any potions yet, and I've gotten Demonslayer, rescued the crystal soul in Angierach and the crystal soul in the vahnatai fortress. It's all about conservation and regrouping outdoors once you lose your energy, although the Demonslayer one was a bit tough. I'm saving it all for the final battle with Garzahd!

 

—Vexivero, who likes Bushwhacker's quotes. Shaper-Master sounds like a sexy stud. I bet he's the ultimate hunk.

[Bushwhacker2k]

I don't know if you would consider this cheating or not, but I noticed the spell "bind foe" works on pretty much everybody when in level one. You can trap golems, wizards, Haakais and other spellcasters and tough opponents with this. If you upgrade the spell, then they start resisting it. When combined with haste, this becomes extremely cheap. Especially when they're the only enemy left, because they will never get a turn as long as you cast it once every round.

 

Haha, it's not cheating to use the game's mechanics to do well in the game. The spell is weird since it actively gets less useful as it's leveled.

 

Also, every opponent has the same range. So you can isolate really tough situations very easily. When you're at the very farthest range of your spells(so the longest distance away from your enemy that you can cast a spell) they won't attack or even see you. So you can stay at that range and attack them, then they'll come to you and none of the other enemies will be alerted. So you can pick off every opponent one by one. This, combined with the bind foe spell, ensures pretty much every situation is beatable. I slew Gaddicka at around level 10 without him ever getting a shot at me.

 

I'm not sure I ever really noticed or made use of this particular exploit. Gaddika gave me a lot of trouble at first, I actually gave up and returned later to beat his tanky mage arse.

 

The only problems I've had on torment so far is with doomguards and guardians/black shades, but I just reload a few times to gauge the distance so I can take them all on one at a time. Doomguards I had to wait until I had Arcane Shield, Haste level 3, War Blessing level 3, and Divine Warrior.

 

Guardians can be really annoying because they're actually quite powerful and invisible, so they can end up next to your casters and then it's reloading time. Black Shades are definitely annoying because normally mages would be dealt with with extreme ranged prejudice, but they can't be targeted!

 

Now, Doomguards are one of the most dangerous enemies in the game... I actually had less trouble in A2 than in A3 (I may have been playing on Hard instead of Torment), but Divine Warrior really makes the difference. Keeping your casters somewhere where they can't be targeted is really important, I've found.

 

I haven't used any potions yet, and I've gotten Demonslayer, rescued the crystal soul in Angierach and the crystal soul in the vahnatai fortress. It's all about conservation and regrouping outdoors once you lose your energy, although the Demonslayer one was a bit tough. I'm saving it all for the final battle with Garzahd!

 

Nice. I found the Demonslayer part to be difficult too, had to stock a few potions, but once I actually ended up using a Heroic Brew it was all over. They just died.

[Randomizer]

Guardians and Black Shades were easy to kill in Exile because area effect spells could be targeted to terrain instead of the Avernum requiring specific targets. So in Avernum they could only be hit by melee attacks or cloud of blades.

[Bushwhacker2k]

Guardians and Black Shades were easy to kill in Exile because area effect spells could be targeted to terrain instead of the Avernum requiring specific targets. So in Avernum they could only be hit by melee attacks or cloud of blades.

 

Hmm, interesting. I'd like to play Exile someday, not sure how I'll manage it with newer computers though.

[Vexivero]

Guardians can be really annoying because they're actually quite powerful and invisible, so they can end up next to your casters and then it's reloading time. Black Shades are definitely annoying because normally mages would be dealt with with extreme ranged prejudice, but they can't be targeted!

Guardians and Black Shades are probably the most annoying enemies other than Doomguards before you get Arcane Shield. That hut by Fort Dranlon wiith a few Guardians and Black Shades was the toughest outside encounter in the game for me.

 

Now, Doomguards are one of the most dangerous enemies in the game... I actually had less trouble in A2 than in A3 (I may have been playing on Hard instead of Torment), but Divine Warrior really makes the difference. Keeping your casters somewhere where they can't be targeted is really important, I've found.

I agree divine warrior and arcane shield are a must. I don't know if you can survive a doomguard encoutner without those. I don't know about you, but my players are all spellcasters. I just level up their mage and priest spell skills until 17 and then start dumping points into strength, dexterity, endurance and intelligence. All other combat skills are complemented by special weapons[i don't even need to use hand to hand combat until later parts of the game, and by then I have the Jade Halberd, Blessed Halberd, Bloodthirst Spear, and a Steel Halberd], non-skill point skills[like magery and acrobatics] and spells like war blessing, haste etc give you all the combat skills you need. At least I really like this strategy. The game begins to get really easy though once you get around level 30 or so.

 

The 2 doomguard combo at the second guardpost is without a doubt the hardest part of the game. What I did was switch to combat mode and keep 3 players outside the portcullis, then activate the doomguards while in combat mode so only one character could fight them. Then put your character in the corner so only three doomguards can attack that character at any given time(in my case arcane shield would always run out of the invulnerability part before I recast it and doomguards would have a free round to attack my character). This way your best character is guaranteed to attack the doomguards every time, and I had more than enough spell energy to cast arcane shield, divine warrior, and war blessing on that one character until all the doomguards were dead.

 

Nice. I found the Demonslayer part to be difficult too, had to stock a few potions, but once I actually ended up using a Heroic Brew it was all over. They just died.

Yeah, I had a character with 117 spell points and barely escaped. I think I had like 2 or 3 spell points left. I ended up casting arcane shield and using the demonslayer to kill the last mung demon. The tricky part for me was the first batch that appear around the demonslayer box. if I went to either side of the box, the demons would cast slow and eventually a mung demon would come into the mix and would hit me with a dumbfounding ray. They still do if you stay in the middle, but the chances are a lot less. Then when I fought the Haakai, a mung demon would come around the corner and hit me with a dumbfounding ray a lot as well. It was hard to isolate those guys.

 

 

I would definitely recommend playing Exile if you can find a way to get it to play on your computer. Some people have used one of those virtual box things or whatever to get it to play on Vista and beyond but I couldn't figure it out. I haven't played Exile in probably at least 5-8 years, but I still love it a lot more than Avernum, and you get 6 characters instead of 4. I also think the sound effects are a lot cooler but that's just my opinion. And you could choose the spot where you summon creatures. That's one of the really annoying things about Avernum for me. I usually only summon creatures to provide distractions for enemies, and when the creatures are summoned behind you it really defeats the purpose.

 

—Vexivero, who has now figured out how to get dosbox to work on his computer. Exile is indeed the superior game!