Nekobasu

The respawns outside Formello can be cleared by killing them once and leaving the area. There are only four (two warriors and two flingers) by the west gate and four more by the south gate. Of course, there is also a large army at each location that is scripted to attack you all at once as soon as you are noticed in the area. If you can get them lined up so that only one can attack at a time - standing in the doorway of the mansion, for example - the fight is tedious but not terribly difficult (my singleton cleared the whole area on Torment).

When Levitt gives you the quest, he advises you to find a way to sneak into Fort Monastery, so that you can get their help in breaking the blockade. They will only help you once you have the quest from Levitt to break the blockade. Tunnels do play a role here, but defeating the giants in Grindstone is not necessary. Just wiping out all the sliths outside also works - you will get the quest rewards, open the front gates, and get access to the pylon. Since you can do this as soon as you arrive by boat, it can be a convenient help in exploring Northern Avernum (that is, if you're like me and you interpret "sneak in and assassinate the leaders" to mean "kill everything that moves.")

It is possible to somehow clear the infinite spawns on the two bridges outside of Formello. I believe that what did this was killing them each once, then leaving the area. Alternately, it may have been a result of killing the slith general SW of Formello. As for the sliths inside Formello, there does not seem to be any way to get rid of them.

Done! My singleton completed every quest and killed just about everything that could be killed, including Gladwell, Melanchion, and the sliths camped in and around Formello (except the ones that regenerate). I finally decided that Minor Heal just wasn't cutting it any more for healing, so I trained up to 6 Arcane Lore and 14 Priest Spells to allow me to get and use Divine Restoration (with the Spirit Cloak equipped). This made a lot of battles much easier, notably the Tower Lich. Some more useful tricks appear once you have 10+ APs every turn: Slicing time: A corner scoot normally gives you just a few rounds of healing out of combat before the enemy gets around the corner. But, if you go into combat, take one action, and then drop out of combat again, you can take as many actions as you want. You can also leave the enemy perfectly positioned and scoot back around the corner at them once you are healed and unfatigued. From their perspective, it looks like you instantaneously healed and rested between turns, while also causing their summons to suddenly vanish. Can't touch me: This is indisputably the most despicable exploit of all, because it allows you to destroy any enemy without allowing them even a turn to retaliate. It actually breaks the game so badly that I didn't use it with my character. But a more scurrilous singleton might position themselves within bowshot of an enemy, but far enough away that they can drop in and out of combat freely (eight spaces away, slightly off the straight cardinal direction). This scoundrel might then proceed to go into combat, hit the enemy with an arrow or spell, drop out of combat again before the end of their turn, and repeat until the enemy is dead. This trick of course does not work if you're boxed in a room with the enemy (as with the Tower Lich or Zahur Firecaller). The never-ending turn: Curing elixirs usually remove at least eight fatigue, and require only five action points to use. Therefore, you can use Adrenaline Rush, then a curing potion, and end up with a net gain of seven APs. You can't go above about 30 APs or your turn will abruptly end. However, by interspersing attacks with potions, you can make dozens of attacks in one turn. It took me 29 potions to kill Zahur Firecaller in one turn (although probably I should have first done as much damage as I could while the lava was rising, because there was no need to kill him that fast). There are 76 curing elixirs available in the game, if you alchemize everything left over after knowledge brews; this is enough to kill Melanchion in one round without even giving him a turn. Having used up some curing elixirs on Zahur, I instead relied on invulnerability potions for the last third of Melanchion's hit points. With Ward of the Elements and invulnerability, you take about 100 damage from his breath and about 200 from the death curse, meaning that you can easily keep up with the damage using Divine Restoration and still have time to hit him and keep up your invulnerability.

A grep on the item list turns up items giving 6 skill points at Nature Lore=15 (making it a wash for a singleton given +4 from items) and only 2 skill points at Nature Lore=16 (not worth it). Training to 15 gives 38 skill points of profit. Dispel barrier gives access to 14 skill points, and also is necessary to access Melanchion's treasure room with the basins adding to basic stats. So, it is definitely worth the investment.

I just got back from killing Ess-Kalyn, which I expected to be nearly impossible but instead turned out to be one of the more enjoyable battles so far as a singleton. It turns out that Solberg deals most of the damage; you just have to keep him from being swarmed. I wiped out the Horned Gate guards myself first to keep the old man from taxing himself unduly. Because I anticipated great difficulty with that battle, I wiped out nearly everything else first before attempting it. Hrickis was the only really difficult fight, because his scripted summons are "real" creature that appear even when you aren't in combat and don't fade if you run around a corner and pop in and out of combat for a while. I ended up having to lure them away, come back and beat on him until they got back, and repeat until I finally wore him down. I still haven't been able to defeat the Tower Lich or the slith warrior east of Formello with the nice pants. The lich seems to require invulnerable potions, and I need to figure out how to budget between him and Melanchion. The slith just heals too fast for me to damage him; I figure he will be easier once I have the Jade Halberd. I lifted the Fort Monastery siege immediately upon reaching Northern Avernum, which was a big help for healing and carting out loot - the pylon even becomes active as soon as you lift the siege. I've run into an unexpected snag - I just reached level 61 and apparently that is the maximum. My training budget had counted on getting to at least level 80 by endgame, which would have gotten me another 100 skill points and a lot of bonus from traits. My first plan on cashing in my mandrakes at Tenavra is to pump up my Nature Lore and go pick up all the mandrake and wisdom crystals I've missed. I haven't done the analysis yet to figure out what level is still cost-effective. The things I will definitely train next are: One more Quick Strike to get me to 20 with equipment (cost: 8) Three more Riposte to get me up to 10 after the reward from Melanchion (cost: 25) Five more Mage Spells to get me up to 8 so that with +3 from equipment I can dispel barriers. I hate being unable to access any loot, even though both my experience and money are capped. This also gets me high enough for Cloak of Blades, which will significantly increase my damage output (cost: 36) Once those things are done, I have to decide between pumping up Resistance until I have 90% in most categories, pumping up Mage Spells until I can cast Arcane Blow (useful for places where damage must be dealt quickly, such as Cotra, which I have yet to complete), or just pouring it all into Endurance.

On further investigation, 2d6 per level (with no constant offset) seems to be the best fit. Here's the graph for Riposte=6: Damage here means total damage, counting the amount blocked. The actual numbers are: 3 Riposte (n = 616) Mean: 22.9 +/- 0.4 Variance: 19.1 +/- 2.2 6 Riposte (n = 849) Mean: 41.3 +/- 0.4 Variance: 35.0 +/- 3.4 (error bars are +/- 2 sigmas) Rolling NdM has a mean of N * (M + 1) / 2 and a variance of N * (M^2 - 1) / 12. So, 6d6 should have a mean of 21 and a variance of 17.5, and 12d6 should have a mean of 42 and a variance of 35. In both cases, the variance was within an acceptable tolerance of the expected value, but the mean was significantly off. This may mean that some other factor affects Riposte which I forgot to take into account, perhaps something like enemy blessing state. Alternatively, it could be a roundoff artifact in how damage is reported. In any event, 2d6 per Riposte level seems like a fairly accurate model.

Yes - at 10 Riposte I collected twenty data points with and without a weapon equipped, with ridiculous amounts of combat skills, with ridiculous amounts of anatomy (against humans), and against several enemies (high-level enemies in the Eastern Gallery, the sentinels near Dharmon, and the rats and goblins in the Food Depot). I also tested with both a low-level and a high-level character. In all cases the average damage (counting amount blocked) was roughly 58. Once assured that damage was based only on Riposte skill, I started collecting a larger data set to try to characterize the actual damage formula. I kept my current character at 3 RPT, on the assumption that a smaller number of dice would make it easier to see where the extreme ends of the range were, and I collected this data set: Here, the blue bars show experimental data, and the red line shows the distribution of (6d6 + 2), which appears to be the best fit. My guess is that the +2 is a constant offset, but I'll collect more data at higher RPT levels to verify.

I used the character editor to build a character with just riposte and endurance, then fought the rats in the Food Depot. Plotting the average damage done for every riposte value from 5 to 20 showed a linear trend when using the 10-capped riposte values. Actually, my dice estimate is off because I failed to account for armor - I was killing the rats in one hit and in that case the amount blocked is not reported. It looks like perhaps two d6's per level is more correct. I'm doing more extensive testing now with my current character, who I'm keeping at 3 RPT for that purpose; I'll post again once I have enough data to be certain.

My tormented singleton is currently level 42 in the Eastern gallery. So far I've found it a lot easier than in A5; bosses tend to have a lot fewer hits (though more potions and other one-shot tricks) and I have a better idea now how to build my character. Character type: Divinely touched slith natural warrior The rationale here was to focus on pumping up melee damage to ridiculous levels. In retrospect, pure spirit may have been a better choice than warrior; I will eventually want priest spells and the cost is prohibitive otherwise. Currently I'm getting by with no mage spells and only two priest, which gives me access to the absolute necessities: bless, shield, cure, and heal. Character building strategy: Don't be hit Like most other attempts logged here, my basic strategy is to evade melee damage. With so many monster attacks having nasty side effects, mere armor is not enough. I'm currently at 15 Parry and 3 Riposte, aiming for 10 or perhaps even 20 Riposte; already I can stand among a crowd of Chitrachs and take basically no damage. Questionable tactics Of course, a singleton would never work if you just waded into each fight and started hitting things. Most of my tricks involve exploiting the mechanics of entering and leaving combat: Corner scooting: Fight a single enemy near a corner, then when your hits get low, dodge around the corner (out of sight) and drop out of combat. You get a few round to heal and buff before he comes back in sight; then repeat. You can also completely clear your fatigue and other negative effects if you wish, since going into combat and then dropping out at the start of your turn applies all these effects once and doesn't give slower monsters a chance to move. Combat flopping: If you press the "peace" button with monsters visible, you will drop out of combat at the start of your next turn, even if you are frozen, dazed, stunned, etc. You can then take one turn to heal (or even cast Restore Mind) before you go back into combat. As an added advantage, that extra turn clears stunning and reduces other effects like ice. It also doubles your Fatigue decay rate, so that with 20+ Blademaster you can fire off Mighty Blows every turn. This only works against enemies that are slower than you - otherwise you're giving them double hits on you, since combat ends at the start of your turn. It also fails with poison or acid, since these effects are applied at the start of each combat turn and thus end up being applied twice. Luring: As you move around, A6 gives each enemy in sight a chance to decide to attack you. If one decides to do so, you immediately drop into combat, without the other monsters being checked. You can then back away and reliably lure just that one monster away from its pack. This doesn't work with monsters scripted to attack in groups.

For anyone just wanting to know what order to train in to maximize damage per turn, here's the program to follow. Damage per turn amounts assume you started doing 100 damage per turn without any skills. The optimal program is affected by how many +APs you have from equipment. If you have +0AP, then quick strike is basically the only thing to bother to invest in; if you have +1AP, things are more interesting. +2AP would follow the +1AP pattern with all Quick Strike omitted. Percent increases here are given per skill point of investment. So, for example, the first point of Anatomy increases damage by 3%, but costs 3 points; (1.03)^(1/3) - 1 = .74% per skill point. If you have +1AP from equipment: Train 2 Quick Action for 1 each (108/turn, +3.92%/sp) Train 2 Quick Strike for 3 each (129/turn, +2.94%/sp) Train 2 Quick Action for 2 each (138/turn, +1.80%/sp) Train 2 Quick Strike for 4 each (158/turn, +1.68%/sp) Train 2 Quick Action for 3 each (169/turn, +1.12%/sp) Train 2 Quick Strike for 5 each (187/turn, +1.05%/sp) Train 2 Quick Action for 4 each (199/turn, +0.78%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 4 each (211/turn, +0.73%/sp) Train 2 Quick Strike for 6 each (229/turn, +0.69%/sp) Train 2 Quick Action for 5 each (243/turn, +0.59%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 5 each (257/turn, +0.55%/sp) Train 2 Quick Strike for 7 each (274/turn, +0.46%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 6 each (289/turn, 0.44%/sp) Train 2 Lethal Blow for 4 each (298/turn, 0.39%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 7 each (314/turn, +0.35%/sp) Train 2 Quick Strike for 8 each (330/turn, +0.31%/sp) Train 2 Lethal Blow for 5 each (340/turn, +0.31%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 8 each (356/turn, +0.30%/sp) Train 2 Lethal Blow for 6 each (367/turn, +0.25%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 9 each (384/turn, +0.25%/sp) Train 2 Quick Action for 6 each (395/turn, +0.24%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 10 each (412/turn, +0.22%/sp) Train 2 Quick Strike for 9 each (428/turn, +0.21%/sp) Train 2 Lethal Blow for 7 each (441/turn, +0.21%/sp) Train 2 Quick Action for 7 each (453/turn, +0.20%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 11 each (472/turn, +0.19%/sp) If you have +0 AP from equipment: Train 10 Quick Action, spending up to 5 per point (140/turn, +1.13%/sp) Train 6 Anatomy, spending up to 6 per point (165/turn, +.55%/sp) Train 20 Quick Strike, spending up to 12 per point (330/turn, +.46/sp) Train 2 Lethal Blow for 4 each (341/turn, +.39%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 7 each (358/turn, +.35%/sp) Train 2 Lethal Blow for 5 each (369/turn, +.31%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 8 each (387/turn, +.30%/sp) Train 2 Lethal Blow for 6 each (399/turn, +.25%/sp) Train 2 Anatomy for 9 each (417/turn, +.25%/sp) Train 2 Quick Action for 6 each (429/turn, +.24%/sp) Both of these assume a total budget of 300 skill points. Training to strength, blademaster, and melee or pole would be inserted at a point dependent on how much skill you already have in these categories. You will probably be at the point where these cost 8 points for the next level; this means that training this will get you... +.41%/sp if your combined combat skill is 30 +.31%/sp if your combined combat skill is 40 +.25%/sp if your combined combat skill is 50 +.21%/sp if your combined combat skill is 60 +.18%/sp if your combined combat skill is 70 +.16%/sp if your combined combat skill is 80 Here "combined combat skill" means Strength + (Melee or Pole) + Blademaster + Dice count of your weapon.

Damage done by riposte is proportional to your riposte skill. Damage done is unaffected by your weapon or melee skill or the strength of the enemy's attack. My best guess for the formula would be (RPT)d10, where RPT is your riposte skill after applying the 10-cap. (So, if your riposte skill is 20, the damage done is the sum of 15 ten-sided dice.)