jeffgoddin

I just love how many board games these people play! Useless topic, I know, but board games for the win! Axis and Allies, Conquest of the Roman Empire, Settlers of course, Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, ah the board games of my life! So many more, any memorables or recommendeds from you guys?

Just finished my first play on normal. Built a naive party, and did just fine, aside from a few wipes when, well, you know what happened. Sword and board, halberd, archer, and mage/priest. Only invested in primary stats. The frontliners could both take a pounding, max hardiness and parry, and endurance/health traits. Sword and board would run up, Andrenaline Rush, hit three times and maybe kill a tough opponent. Halberd run up to two targets, AR, usually kill both. Archer takes out 2-3, or softens up 4 (once 5 shots in a turn) for the mage, who wipes out everybody who's been softened up, is usually how it would go, many first turn victories, and most of the rest of the time at most a few opponents left. Handled waves fine. Frontliners got some priest spells for buffing or would pop a haste or quaff a battle frenzy often later in the game as I kept to the edge of a large battle area and worked the opponents in waves instead of all at once, letting them come to me. Well, except when one of the frontliners gets charmed and one-shots my archer and mage... Recognizing that's there's nothing I can do to prevent this happening on occasion doesn't sit well with me. There's no way this party could have made it through without a wipe. So I was thinking about a second party to try on Hard. Was considering just one frontliner with challenger and no intention of doing much damage (and so no big deal when charmed) so more Dex and End, with some Int as it would still be annoying to have my meat-shield piss his pants and run away every time somebody goes boo... Then I read this! Great analysis! I think mage-tank, archer-tank with a side of priest, DPR archer, and mage-priest.

I feel like I can't finish this area, been everywhere, cleared everything. Except I can't walk to the middle cell of the four monoliths at the southern tip... Yeah, I sanctified an alter and killed a lich, and understood some runes in a cemetery? Move on for now and wait and see?

Walking in blind, stumbling around, pushing buttons as they come. Getting bit in the ass and having to use resources, or go back to saves. Most RPGs have very clear clues, not Avernum, lol! Yet I figured the Golem Factory out, somehow! Great puzzle! After first wandering around on the surface trying to find a tunnel to the 4th ring, I dive in regardless, and sure enough, I find a map. I don't really get what the glyphs are, alpha, etc. But I know I have to explore to move forwards. I figure out combat mode is helpful here, I find a door that needs a key, I go down and find one, I go up and realize I need to go back down to find the tunnel, I felt like a true bumbling idiot hero! Bravo! One of the best areas I've ever explored in any CRPG!

Okay, and I just realized Gymnastics, and I'm guessing all skills above the basics, max at 10. So that's a lot of points to spread around coming up. Glad to hear my notion of turning the frontliners into sideline buffers works for you, too.

Okay, so I missed Exile but caught Avernum, and this is my first foray into the reboot, which I'd missed until now. Some great dialog and story! But as expected a fair bit of tedium running down side quests, but I wouldn't have it any other way! I didn't go right to the cockroaches after slimes, and so got redirected by death back to the cockroaches, lol! Going off the story path is not very forgiving... But I think I'm going okay, this isn't a roguelike so no permadeath, and I'm enjoying the exploration and strategic challenges and puzzle-solving (though I have no idea with the Cockroaches how I figured out what buttons to press... but hey, only 4 buttons, I got the time to do trial and error on that without punishment, so I guess I finally guessed correctly, what was the clue?) But now I'm pushing level 20 and I'm wondering if I did builds right before I try to get the rest of the way through... All human, sword&board, halberd, bow, and caster. Nothing but strength into the melee, dex to the bow, and int to the caster. Caster ignores all other skills, the other three cover tool use, nature, and a bit of first aid. Also gave a point of priest spells to the non-casters, and a point of arcane, then trained another 2 points in arcane as much as I could afford. Caster is now 12/12 Mage/Priest, have been building Spellcraft and Resistance for a while, up to 8 or 9 each now. Playing on normal, do I ever need to put stat points into Endurance? And I'm thinking of having a noncaster or two pick up a sideline in casting, a buffer. First frontliner, sword and board, take Mage to Haste, halberd take Priest. I shouldn't need to put any points into Intelligence. But can I afford to hold back points from melee skills in order to achieve some good utility for my melee guys? I'm loving stacking gymnastics with sniper for the bow, so that one I'll keep focusing my development there.

How do I get into that room in the basement of the bandit lair that I can see into with the blue box??