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A singleton journey


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I have played all the Avernum and Avadon games multiple times, but have just begun my very first ever play as a singleton with Ruined World.  I read all of the tips in Randomizer's piece about not sucking as a singleton.  I welcome any other tips you experienced singletons have for me!  As I'm starting out, it's almost impossible for me to imagine defeating the upcoming monsters without backup.  Question:  I'd like to be able to use mage spells as a soldier type and I understand that the heavy armor blocks that.  Is it possible to get to a point where the melee tank guy can use mage spells as well as priest spells?  Mages have some of the best area of effect spells.

Edited by txmimi
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Mages with the natural mage trait can counteract some negative to hit chances. Be careful with how much armor you wear at the start since better armor with no negatives are available later in the game so you can use mage spells all the time.

 

I would swap armor pieces in town until I found a combination I liked and could still cast mage spells.

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Natural Mage is a trait from the original Avernum trilogy, though the new trilogy has the trait Swordmage which increases the maximum To Hit Chance penalty your character may accumulate before being unable to cast mage spells. I believe you can have a maximum of -10% to hit when starting out before being unable to cast mage spells, and every time you take the Swordmage trait the limit should increase another -5%. You can easily get 90% armour by the end of the game without exceeding the -10% limit with the right mix of Hardiness and gear (particularly with the blessings), so I'm not sure that you have to get Swordmage, particularly if you have already played the game and know where to go to find the right items.

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Actually, it's the other way around: mages have a -5% encumbrance limit in the beginning, and every level of Swordmage increases that limit by -10%.

 

Personally, I consider Swordmage well worth it for all Mage Spells users, singleton or otherwise. Wearing the most encumbering armor available isn't strictly necessary, but reaching 90% resistances to all damage types isn't easy with sub-optimal gear. Without any levels of Swordmage, your equipment choices will be very limited in the end-game.

 

Furthermore, the opportunity cost of getting Swordmage is not all that high, since you can pick the best 20+ traits for your character regardless. Thus, while Swordmage may not be as valuable as Negotiator or Sage Lore, it is not really competing with them. On the other hand, getting more mileage out of Swordmage than Improved Endurance (or some other mid-range trait) is less difficult.

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I'm moving right along on this singleton journey and did figure out how to wear certain armors and still cast mage spells.  I keep trying to buy the summon aid spell and it tells me my mage spells skills aren't high enough.  My mage skill is 13.  What needs to be higher to get the better, upper level spells?  I'm having similar problems with the better offense priest spells.

Edited by txmimi
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Ok, thanks.  Here's a strange issue I'm having:  I find objects (such as the fine wine and the bellows) for a courier quest and put them in the junk bag when the regular bag is getting full.  When I go to sell the junk items, I go through and remove items from the junk bag I want to keep.  But when I look through the bag, the objects I tucked away have vanished.  The first time it happened, I just thought I had accidentally sold them, but the second time I'm positive that didn't happen.  Why do things disappear from the junk bag?  I needed those 4 bottles of fine wine I found in Grindstone to complete a quest. . . that stuff is hard to come by. 

 

 

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Good to know the junk bag isn't unlimited!  🙂  I keep coming across unusual things as a singleton that I never encountered in previous playthroughs.  I'm trying to kill the unicorns for the farmers near Bremerton, and the unicorns keep outsmarting and outrunning me.  Text says I'm not good enough at sneaking through the outdoors quietly or some such.  My nature lore is 10, which is max, so what other skill/trait is needed?

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