A-EftP - Singleton on Torment finished (some silly complains)

[Superba]

It took me a considerable amount of time but I made it, ending as a 61th level Berserker/Wizard, Reputation True Hero (level 50). Self indulgence apart I have one minor complain and a medium size one. First example I feel slightly diminished in my ego going back to the King after Grath-Hoth quest, because even the archers at the gate already know I killed the Demon. I know it's pretty childish, but when this happen nearly all of the times... well, it's not fair

Second complain is about Haste and it is supposed to be a bit more serious: as I assume everybody know you can't count on Haste to strike twice every time, it even happens that you strike twice when not hasted. This confuses me a lot, above all when engaged in long fights.

I really am not particularly interested in a technical explanation about the "why", as I couldn't probably understand it when referred to XP or other obscure matters.

I simply state that this lack of certainty about Haste makes things uselessy harder for players. Hope it will be possible to fix it.

There's one more thing: wouldn't it be allowed to invest the 30.000 coins my hero spared in a real estate property in Avernum?

[Jerakeen]

Congratulations, Superba!

 

Unfortunately, Haste was deliberately weakened a few games back, probably because it was too powerful. It's unlikely to be changed back.

[nearart]

Quick-Action and Gymnastics can give you extra strikes without haste. And of course the higher the level of Haste the more often you will get two strikes.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: nearart

Quick-Action and Gymnastics can give you extra strikes without haste. And of course the higher the level of Haste the more often you will get two strikes.

Quick Action does not allow extra actions in a round: it only improves your position in the initiative order and increases the rate of fatigue reduction. Gymnastics has a chance to give you extra action points, which can give you a second action in a round, and Sniper gives you a chance for a haste-like effect but only when using missile weapons.

[Slawbug]

Originally Posted By: nearart

And of course the higher the level of Haste the more often you will get two strikes.

This is NOT true, either. The chance of Haste activating is always 1 in 3 per attack. The trick is that Haste cannot activate more than once per turn, and if you have both Haste and Sniper, only one will activate per turn.

[Randomizer]

Higher levels of haste increase base duration of the spell and at third level give a chance of getting battle frenzy for the extra action points.

[Superba]

Originally Posted By: Jerakeen

Congratulations, Superba!

Unfortunately, Haste was deliberately weakened a few games back, probably because it was too powerful. It's unlikely to be changed back.

Thanks Jerakeen, you made the situation clear to me. I will survive this disillusion and take side with the Avernum minority party, as a true hero

[Superba]

A question I didn't come through is about the Dread Curse.

On previous playthroughs the party got it in Formello, and this time I avoided to break in the treasure or whatever it is, but I see I got it now in spite of my caution and I haven't the faintest idea where... where else can you get the Dread Curse then?

 

Hope this is the last silly complain: after major quests are completed I went back to kill Thantria. There are two dialogue options to challenge her, one is about the Exit, the other one regards Hawthorne. The second is legitimate but the first one seems pretextual, as both the Scimitar and Erika told you they are going to "spread the news" of the location to all Avernum. So, Thantria being a spy should already know about the exit and doesn't need you to tell her.

[Jerakeen]

The Empire surely knew about the exit, or who was responsible for the Final Gauntlet? I never understood that either.

 

There was a box near an altar somewhere (the slith temple?); prying the gems out of it would give you a Dread Curse.

[Ceiling Durkheim]

There are a few graves you can rob which will give you items and dread curse. Also, I think one or two hermits will give you dread curse if you attack them?

[Randomizer]

Some Dread Curse sites:

 

Formello treasury

Hermit south of Tower of Magi

Aranea Hidden City temple jewel box

[Painted Lady]

Could you answer a question about going single player? Since increasing skills changes at level 30 from every time to every fifth time, doesn't that make it hard to get strong enough for the end-game?

[Kreador]

Makes it a bit more tedious, probably, as you run around gathering the supplies to make lots of Wisdom Crystals.

 

On Normal difficulty, a party of level 30 characters easily overpowers much of the end game, which I think it the level Jeff was going for. I think Randomizer said he got his Torment Singleton to the mid 50s to handle everything.

[Randomizer]

It gets very tedious finding something to do while waiting for herb patches to restock for Wisdom Crystals and getting enough money to buy out the Slith merchants south of Freehold of Kyass so that place restocks.

 

On Torment it's possible to complete the game with the Adze-Haakai fight being the only questionable one because of failing a mental effect save and getting death cursed without being able to do anything about it.

 

You may not get all the caches and pick every lock because it isn't worth raising cave lore and tool use to the maximum for the game. After getting into the 50s you really just get tired and want to kill something to finish the game.

[Superba]

@Painted Lady

When you are over level 30 on singleton it is true that you are weaker than the sum of a party of four, at the same time you have the same money they should share but only for your personal benefit. This way you can buy a number of magical skill levels from the trainers.

One other but similar advantage regards special items like the whole lot of weapons, armor, potions you find after battles that you can use or sell.

There's another difference about singleton and it is the time balance in game, I mean a singleton game is somewhat quicker in the end, because the more time necessary to end a fight is at least balanced with the time you don't waste to equip, change equipment, individually train, look at stats, plan traits sequence for each character, and so on, of a traditional party.