Edgwyn

Fall just started, he has two and a half months to get it out, until 21 Dec. Hopefully it will come out in November like some of his other games

All of my characters (even the sorceress and shaman) got at least a little extra strength early, just because I do not like having a bunch of cool armor and weapons that I cannot wear/use. Later on, as the characters gained strength at one per four levels, I reduced the sorceress and shaman' strength back down via retraining and put it in more useful attributes for them. The biggest failure that I had in my party is that while both the Shadowalker and Sorceress can have unlock ability, I only had it in one, which is fine for the end game, but I wasted a lot of lock picks during Sevilin's quest as I did not have my character with unlock ability along. That ability is one that you can develop in the early part of the game and then get rid of the duplication during a visit to the trainer later on.

Good point. I believe that is the one in Dhorla Woods and the one in Bandit Roads does not want you to go upstairs.

I have not seen any. I tend to minimize, but not eliminate, my thefts and was still able to complete the game in the loyalist mode. Likewise I have done most of the quests assigned by the "shady guy" without a problem with completing the game. As to the wretches, slaughter away, it makes Nathalie happy (though without any benefit), and almost all of the wretches are located in places where they are not allowed to be.

The lower the difficulty level that you are playing, the more flexibility that you have for non-optimized builds. My current party on normal difficulty has both the blademaster and shadowwalker primarily using their swords, only executing ranged attacks when they cannot close on the opponent that turn. It is not the most efficient way to play, but it is how I enjoy playing. Likewise my abilities and skills are not properly optimized to play on torment, but then I have no plans to play on torment. There is a lot of great advice on builds on this site from folks who know the mechanics, tactics and strategy of the game to an incredible level, but you can still complete the game without following most of it, depending on your difficulty setting.

I guess that I have just gotten so used to Ctrl-Alt-Del that it doesn't bug me. And since I currently have three machines on my desk that I have to frequently shift back in forth between, while making sure that each is locked when I am not using it, I do the combo a lot. I am far more inconvenienced by password length and complexity rules than I am by Ctrl-Alt-Del.

Looking back at some of the graphs of posts that were posted a few months ago, a huge drop off in activity between game releases is completely normal and happens every time. Fall doesn't end until 21 Dec, so Avadon 2 may very well be part of our Christmas/Chanukah/Winter Solstice/Festivus shopping.

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my denizens, That he which hath no stomach to this topic, Let him depart; his passport shall be made And crowns for convoy put into his purse: We would not post in that man's company That fears his fellowship to post with us. This day is called the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:' Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. And say 'These posts I had on Crispin's day.'

I regret that I only have one post to give for my Spiderweb

My opinion is that the Moderators need to be respected more than liked. If one is hated for valid reasons (as opposed to being hated for enforcing the rules) then they should be gotten rid of. I do not know what the criteria are for "those that deserve it" are in the case that you are mentioning, but if I were coming up with criteria off of the top of my head (which is of course not a good approach) it would be a blend of: fairness, willingness to enforce the rules, knowledge of the subject, dedication and how they express themselves. Likability would be a bonus and is probably at least partially tied into the how they express themselves criteria. Someone who is highly knowledgeable but comes across as arrogant can definitely turn people away. Somebody who everybody likes, but will not enforce the rules (eg flaming, trolling, family friendliness, political discourse, etc) can be as big or bigger liability to the enterprise.

You are correct that they are not technically decisions since their affect on the outcome is nonexistent. However, I still found the moral issue stronger in Avadon in terms of staying loyal versus rebelling as opposed to Avernum 1 where an evil corrupt government threw you and a bunch of other innocent people in a hole and now you need to either escape or prevent it from happening to others in the future or kill off a Demon.

The Dragonlance books, especially the original triology are probably worth looking at (at least from what I remember). Also, while they weren't great from a literary standpoint, some of the best of the classic AD&D adventures were turned into novels and of course all contain small party fantasy battles. They were published under the series title "Greyhawk Classics". Titles included "The Temple of Elemental Evil" and "White Plume Mountain".

I wanted to select all three options. The presence of so many junk items forces me to find out what ones to keep by reading Randomizer's guide, but their presence adds to the realism of the world

I am not a min/maxer and I did not find the enchantment process useful. It may be because I waited too late in the game to bother, not wanting to waste enchantment on items that I was going to give up, but the bonuses do not seem to be all that good

To me, they are very different games. Avernum feels more like the classic games I grew up with (Wizardry, Ultima, Bard's Tale) whereas Avadon feels more modern. I enjoy both. In Avadon you have one player character and four non-player characters, but can only use two of them at a time. Their personalities are established. In Avernum, you have four player characters and their personalities do not matter. Also, Avernum is morally simpler. You go out, kill a bunch of bad guys and eventually kill the evil emperor. In Avadon, there are multiple choices that force you to make decisions on the morality of the cause that you are serving, and then a different end game depending on what outcome you choose.