So, once upon a time, I was a huge fan of the Exile trilogy. I was still a pre-teen at that point, and didn't really have a good enough grasp of strategy to be very successful at that point. I am coming back now, more than 20 years after I first played Exile I on a Shareware floppy, and I am finding that apparently, it wasn't just my undeveloped battle planning skills that were the problem; this game is notably tougher than many RPGs I have played in the decades since. In particular, I am having difficulty coping with Slithzerakai; nothing seems to work that well on them. They shrug off melee attacks, spells appear to do half or even quarter damage against them... they are a pain. Also, does anyone know what the point of Detect Life is? I thought that the spell description said that it highlights enemies on the map, but while using it to try to prevent getting ambushed in the Bandit Fort with my last low-level singleton, it failed to operate until the door was already open... and I was faced with five bandits who quickly slaughtered me; I don't think I got a full turn that combat, I just tried to run and then died.
Survival issues aside, I still love this game with a passion, and I can't wait to beat it again and get back to reliving the others. Also, since I have been out of the loop for so long, what are "original" players' opinions on Avernum? On the one hand, I have no problem giving SW more of my money; the cash I shelled out for the Exile Trilogy all those years ago was well worth it, but since my discretionary budget is small at the moment, I am going to hold off until later in the year if they are not qualitatively improvements upon the original games.