Edward Collins

Not sure if story/cultural questions go here, but I am curious. What's the inheritance status of an Owen if her owner fathers her children?

Because I left the lower level (because I couldn't find the egg), it says it's useless. Is there anyway to get another one for the Fort Precipice quest, or is that quest screwed?

I just got the Maximilian murder quest and went to investigate. But there's no evidence whatsoever. Is this one of those pointless you choose whether or not he's guilty despite no evidence quests? From what I've read (and seen) it's a lot like the "In My Time of Need" in Skyrim. You are asked by the Aldermi to find a person who they claim is a traitor. She says she's a loyalist. And there's no way to get any evidence one way or another.

But mages don't get into gunfights. They get into artillery duels. Or (if you're Erika level power) Hamburg level destruction. It's pretty hard to dodge an explosive artillery shell. And even harder if said explosive shell is armed with a proximity shell and shrapnel. Which is what Fireball (or Icy wind, or Lightning Spray or Arcane Blow) is...

What are good targets for Capture Soul in the early game? In Exile 3, you can't capture basilisks (so that's out), the Vahnatai Lord in Ghikra has been replaced with the mayor, Dervishes are named characters, and the Empire Archer in the Slime Pist has been demoted to a normal archer. Are there any replacements for them that are good, especially long-term summons? And is Demonslayer in this game, or is it as MIA as it was in Exile 3 itself?

I have a few problems with the changes made from Exile 3 to Avernum 3 Ruined World. First problem (and one of the biggest most crippling changes), is the nerfing of Capture Soul and Similacrum. In Exile 3, one of my favorite things to do was capture a the Vahnatai Lord in Ghikra, followed by the Empire Dervish in Silvar, and then (eventually) the Empire Archer in the Slime Pits and a basilisk in the area south of Storm Port. No longer does that work. First, Capture Soul is both level based AND spell based, rather than a random chance based on your level. Second, those creatures were changed from generic creatures to named characters (with the exception of the Empire Archer in the Slime Pits- he was just demoted to a normal archer). Third, you also can't capture Basilisks anymore (atleast that's what I've read, and they were nerfed anyway from stoning an enemy to just stunning them). Second, from what I've read, there is now a limit on the number of times you can do the Squiggus-Libra trade route. But that's not as much of a problem, considering you can't refresh the Job Board and the random merchants anymore anyway. Third, stealing is much harder in Avernum 3, since you can't close doors (I had the same problem in Avernum 2). Another way of effective stealing (particularly in instant death areas like Fort Emergence) was to surround my party and what I wanted to steal with webs. That also worked, but that leads into problem number 4. The removal of spells. Granted, most spells were useless, redundant, or just outright not powerful enough. Why bother with Light when you could just cast Long Light for example? But the removal of Major Blessing, and the general reworking of Haste in general- no longer will it definitely increase the number of AP you have, but it seems to be a random chance, is a major blow. Removing Fireball and replacing it with Pool of Fire isn't much better. A fifth problem is that spells can miss. Even with a maxed out intelligence, a maxed out mage (or Priest) level, and maxed out Sword Mage, I still find myself missing about 25% of the time. Don't get me wrong, some of the changes are great. I love the added quests, and having a named character in place of a generic creature adds immersion, but when it kills some of my earlier strategies, it gets a bit irritating.

So basically "My questions aren't answered in the lore." Maybe I should just play the game and not wonder about the actual backstories...

I have a few questions about the lore in the world of Avernum (and the Empire on the surface). I've been replaying this game, and some things have hit me (or in atleast one case, always puzzled me). First, especially in Avit, the Vahnatai mention how Sliths are invaders as well. But the Slith are native to Avernum, aren't they? Why would they be considered invaders, unless the Slith (especially the ones who weren't exiled- ALL the Slith, both peaceful and otherwise, were exiled from their original lands) are just so far away from Vahnatai lands. Second, is there any relationship between Grah-Hoth and the Vahnatai? Or was he summoned by the exiled Slith? Third, there are also a tribe (or maybe something a little smaller) of Vahnatai on the surface. You deal with a quest with them in Avernum 3. What's the story with them? Also, did those Vahnatai (especially if they were exiles) suffer the same disorienting effects that dwarves in Dragon Age suffer from? Rather than having a cave ceiling above them, they see only open sky. Some dwarves (even ones like Oghren) for a few moments (others don't fully get over it), are afraid of "falling" into the sky. I wonder if those surface Vahnatai felt the same way?

that's exactly how I started as well. Crystal Souls wasn't that bad actually, but Escape from the Pit (for me) was really unplayable.

Maybe to make it somewhat difficult to get? I mean, it is overpowered... And since I never use Major Haste, I have no clue on the speed, although Major Blessing gives upto 12 Action points to start. Archery is useless, but I do like to have an archer. However, Picking Locks is somewhat useful (it opens rank one locks, which is anything- bashing, lockpicking, or Unlock. Rank 2 are locks held by a barrier, and I prefer Dispel Barrier to Unlock, since, when it comes to it, I've NEVER seen Dispel Barrier fail to unlock a magically locked door. Rank 3 are plot locked doors, doors you need a key.) That's my second fighter. My first, I prefer a dual-wielder.

True (or atleast I haven't seen it there), but you CAN buy skill potions, which are better than Knowledge Brew. I think (but not sure, I'm really just guessing) Weak gives 1 skill point to spend, medium 2, and Strong 3. You also can't buy artifacts or unique weapons there. No Beastslayer Blade, no Demonslayer, no Alien Blade, no Fury Crossbow ect. It caps an magic weapons.

I never had a problem with leveling. In fact, despite my mages (atleast it seems like) kill most everything, it's my dual-wielding fighter that's my highest level. This last playthrough (although at these levels, the line between fighter, thief, and caster gets REALLY blurry- all of them have 150 SP and level 7 priest spells, with Divine Thud- the "classes" are what they were in the beginning of the game), it was Fighter 1- level 50, fighter 2- 45, fighter/thief/archer- 43, primary mage- 46, secondary mage/cleric- 43, primary cleric- 41. The last two aren't that surprising compared to my mage, because the mage/cleric wasn't as powerful as my mage, and my cleric didn't really get to go on the offensive until she got Divine Thud (and/or mage abilities). What is suprising however, is the fact my primary fighter was the highest level. I see 2 flaws with your strategy. First, as I pointed out, you lack tanks and healing, especially in the early game, where you need to have you mages with cover and healing the most. the second problem is what happens when the enemies are spread too far apart for an effective Fireball or Firestorm, or worse, you get into a general melee where you have allies that can and will get in your way (like the roach/spider battle, or the bridge or blockade battle in Monroe- and to make the latter even worse, golems are magic resistant)? Or in non-random encounters (like in towns) when you face just 1 or 2 enemies, and fireball/firestorm isn't cost effective? And a final problem is that is REALLY hard on your spell points. Sure having 6 casters makes the problem a little easier, but still... I guess it's I'm a bit "conservative" when I play. I prefer to have a defensive line between the enemy and my casters.

The Exile/Avernum series are good games. I don't care about graphics, if I can see what's going on, then I don't have a problem with it. Sounds suck, sure, but again, sound does not make a good game. The only problem I have with Exile/Avernum is a lack of character interaction. These games could be on par (atleast for an indie developer) with games like Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age. Notice anything about them? They all have very good storylines (if a bit cliche, sometimes), but they also have great character interaction and development. Exile/Avernum has the former, but none of the latter. If they did, (and depending on how well it's done), there's a good chance that Avernum 3 would vault from a distant 4th to a mid-gap third. I'd doubt no matter what Jeff did, he could rival Baldur's Gate (much less Planescape: Torment), but he could certainly give it a hard fight if there were any character interaction and development.

For Exile 3, you can start as a Slith or a kitty (I can't say their race, much less spell it), which gives a stat bonus. In fact, one of the guides on GameFaqs recommend you create a bunch of Sliths with maxed out Strength (for fighters) or Intelligence (for mages) which boosts your Strength to 22 or your Intelligence to 21 (and if you go for a kitty thief, 21 Dexterity). I tried that, but there seems to be no difference in 22 Strength to 20 Strength (same wight capacity, for example). It also requires you to sacrifice everything, weapon skill, mage skill, priest skill, thieving skills, and the guide recommends you add points with the editor (you COULD atleast try to use the Libras-Squiggus trade route and the random item shop in Storm Port to get Skill Potions and raise your other stats legimately, although the area around the Tower of Vakhos is really dangerous). My point is is there any difference when you use your race to go beyond the max stat level, or is that pointless?

Haste and Bless are made obsolete by Major Blessing, one of the few truly overpowered abilities (in any game). It's cheap (8 SP), gotten early (all you need is a boat from New Cotra), and highly effective (it's Major Haste, Major Blessing, AND a poison effect all in one). Its only problems are it's a level 7 spell (but even with the default party, it only takes a couple of levels to get level 7 spells) and it needs Mage Lore to get (not sure how much, but it's not much) I was really talking about Exile 3, where farming monsters isn't effective. You can easily make more than enough money doing a Squiggus-Libra trade run (I get about 10k gold after I sell off all the Exotic Herbs). The problem with putting mage abilities on all your characters is twofold. First, you have no tanks that can hold the line and protect your casters (because they are all casters) and second, with the focus on mage spells, you miss healing, which you do sometimes need (or atleast I do). I wasn't really asking about party creation, but instead how you fight, what tactics you use in battle.

I have several strategies I use. Most of them are variations on the basic low-level strategy. At low levels, I form what I dub a combat box, 3 x 3. My dual-wielder holds the right flank, my pikeman holds the left, and my archer/thief holds the center. In the rear is my mage on the right, my cleric/mage on the left, and my cleric in the center. My mages open fire with fireballs, while my cleric and fighters allow them to come in close. Once they get into melee range, I continue with the fireballs (or atleast until my SP runs out, or I feel they are weakened enough to be taken out by my melee) while my melee fights them. For enemies that are a bit tougher, (and this one stays consistent no matter what level I am), I use Simulacrum to summon a frontline of Empire Dervishes or Pack Leaders, and a rear of 2 Empire Archers and a Vahnatai Lord. At mid to high levels (where I have Firestorm and Divine Thud for my casters, and my fighters are specialized in fighting), it's mainly the same, substituting Firestorm or Divine Thud for Fireball. At REALLY high levels (or if I get lucky with skill potions at the random item shops), I turn my fighters into Paladins. They are fighters who can cast divine spells, which gives over double the Divine Thuds, or I use my next strategy. These last 2 are not variants on the primary strategy. Toward the end of the game (once I solve the golem plague and get the Knowledge Brew recipe, I make all my fighters Paladins as mentioned above, and both my dedicated casters into dual-casters) all my characters can fight and cast divine spells. I cast Avatar on each character and send them into the fray, particularly if it's easy to outflank my box party, or it's too dangerous to stay together. I use this strategy, in combination with my Simulacrum strategy plus anti-magic field to fight Rakshasha or when invading the final level of the game. My final strategy are when I don't want to bother with random encounters and therefor want to retreat. Or I'm low level and doing my Squiggus-Libras trade run and run into a group of undead. I cast Major Blessing and run. If the enemy is fast (like Pack Leaders), I will slow them down with summons. Any of you have any different strategies? Maybe making use of other spells? Mindduel comes to mind, but I never found it to be worth casting when I could just kill the enemy. The summoning spells are too random, and none of the others really scream use me. Posion is to slow (and Major Blessing adds poison to your weapons), Slow Group sometimes helps, but it doesn't seem to be as effective as Haste. Wound is nice, but it does pitiful damage (although it does damage to everything).

What sailor's mother? Where is she?

There are a couple of quest items that I'm wondering about. First, there's a silver ring that you get from a shipwrecked sailor corpse on Lake Timor. What do you do with it (if anything)? Second, according to the Editor (and when I add it to my special items category it works,) you can get a message to deliver to General Baziron from an encampment southwest of Tevrono. But I never found the encampment, and I searched pretty well. Anyone have any clue where to get it (best help would be coordinates).

For me, it's simple. In E3 (never really use it in E2), it's Vahnatai Lord, Empire Archer, Ur-Basilisk, Empire Dervish (although I switch the last one out for Pack Leaders). Perfect blend of magic, melee, ranged, and special abilities. Although I'm half tempted to switch out the Ur-Basilisk for a Null-Bug, for two reasons. First, the Vahnatai Lord loves to summon basilisks from his Soul Crystal (that's what I love about him, he can and will summon high level monsters constantly. Aside from Rakshasha, who are really hard to get, most summon low level monsters. And even Rakshasha limit themselves to daemons). And second, as mentioned above, Null Bugs are great for anti-magic fields. Pack Leaders seem to be Dervishes on steroids. Harder hitting, and have a virulent poison in those claws. Plus, like the Dervish, they are FAST. And all of them (with the exception of the Ur-Basilisk) are gotter really early on. You get the Lord from Ghikra, the Dervish from Silvar, and the Archer from the second level of the Slime Pit.

I meant Elite Warrior and Divinely Touched. They give special abilities that you couldn't get elsewhere (although how useful they were I couldn't say- I skipped the first Avernum series, and only got the 2011/2015 remakes of EftP and CS). And in the remakes, the traits act more like D&D's 3rd edition feats, instead of choosing a couple ( possibly all of them) at Character Creation (and gaining an xp bonus/penalty depending of how many disadvantages/advantages you took).

Question about mages. Can anyone become a mage, if they have the smarts for it, or do you have to have magical abilities to become a mage? Example. In D&D 3rd edition, anyone could become a wizard (although you had to train, and had to have a higher than average intelligence to become a wizard, sorcerers it's inborn). In Dragon Age, you had to have the ability to cast magic to become a mage (and if you did have magical abilities, you're forced to live in a prison- the quality ranges from "just slightly better than a Nazi concentration camp" - like Kirkwall's Gallows, and you might be safer being a Jew in a Nazi concentration camp than in the Gallows - to a prison just slithly worse than Pablo Escobar's hotel prison - like Fereldan's Circle.)

Which series do you prefer, Avernum or Exile? For Escape from the Pit, it's Avernum, hands down. I could not play Exile, because of the poor graphics (and when I complain about graphics, you know they are bad). For Crystal Souls, it's Exile. I like the 6 person Exile party over the 4 person of Avernum (that's 2 more pack mules to haul treasure out from caves). And a second reason is the re-release of Avernum (i.e., the Steam version) is more "streamlined" (no traits, for example- hopefully that won't follow into Avernum 3, but I doubt that), and I like the traits (Divine Warrior sounds really interesting). Oh, and I hear people complain about the bad graphics, but I don't have a problem with that. It's graphics are on par with Baldur's Gate, although much less interaction of characters. Granted, they suck compared to modern games, but so what? Graphics shouldn't matter (within reason) if the story is good. And the Avernum/Exile story is good.

I saw a post on the passage of time for Avernum 3, and it's wondering if that also applies to Exile 3 (although I did check, and Cholchis is destroyed when you start up- got there on day 1 and it was destroyed)..

of this upcoming year, or will it be much later? From what I read, it took 4 years for AV2 to come out, and I'm hoping it won't be that long... this is my 4th favorite series. It's only competition (and honestly, it can't tough my 3 favorite series, but it's not really supposed to be able to) is Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect. But imo, it does beat out Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda, though. Not sure why, however. They are better games, but I prefer Exile/Avernum. Oh, and will an editor (rather than just cheat codes) come out for it, please?

Anyone know when AV3 will be released on Steam? I sincerely hope it won't be a couple of more years, because I'm playing through AV1 (right now, never could play the original Exile: Escape from the Pit- hated the fact that doors didn't show as opened or closed like in E2 or E3), and gonna be playing through Crystal Souls. Would love to be able to play AV3 soon...