Matchstk

Did I read somewhere here that in the Windows version of A:EFTP the second point of a trainable skill/spell is the same price as the first point?

(spoilers) - Stealing from Formello's NE vaults will afflict you - Taking items from a certain Aranea chest will afflict you If there are other instances, I know not.

Wow, I wish Randomizer had put that information into his List. I gave the tomes to Thantria for the gold, but if I'd known I could get the top Priest spells for "pretty average" then no way. Plus cheaper ability boosts. Should have known helping the Empire was a deceptive choice. Next time ...

Tower of the Magi, the temple next to the potion maker. Costs 500c.

So now that I'm almost done with a Torment run (1st time, very tough, though easier now that my team is 37th level) I'm thinking about a singleton run. I get the vibe of a multi-class character, little bit of everything, the Stagnant Tunnels for free level 2 spells, the easy Steel Broadsword in Giant Lands. It's difficult to imagine how a single character will face the overwhelming hordes. Lots of Speed potions, Mercuric Plate. Summoning seems essential. Any advice for a first-timer looking to avoid mistakes that will make me restart. Thanks.

... would that give a 50%/critical strike bonus? Sold it quickly the first time around, assuming the bonus was only for attacks the bow made. But now that my Torment team (almost at 35th level) has it, I'm curious if that assumption was wrong. Does anyone know?

So, on my Torment rerun through EFTP, I've paid more attention to stats. I noticed that the estimated damage for my priest and mage don't go up after equipping +% magical damage items. Do these items make a difference? I assume if they're bugged someone would have noticed by now, but thought I'd ask.

So ... replaying EFTP on Torment (tough going) and managed to defeat the Spiral Pit center room, started wandering back out to return to Metris and get my reward. But a pack of ghouls and a specter await me near the entrance. And that specter is really messing my team up. I can manage to get away by tossing a summoned creature at it, but I dislike running from a fight. And if I escape and return, it's gone. Does the specter drop anything good? Does it have an Achilles heel? Level 15 party, no Inv potions or Spellward scrolls.

It was very nice of you to take the time. Thank you very much. Worked like a charm.

After enjoying EFTP, I decided to play through A5 and A6 again. Almost done with A5, but I mistakenly sold some Fine Leathers and now I can't give the +5 Spellcraft gloves to both my magic users. Is there a cheat code for giving items? I found a thread with an item list, but reading about columns in Word and Excel gave me a headache. And I don't think it was about getting items anyway. Is A5 item-hacking proof? I just want 5 Fine Leathers, how hard could it be? Thanks.

Your Blademaster and Melee Weapons skills are underdeveloped. Bump those up a bit and you'll start hitting them.

I think I just realized something. Are the statistics listed in Medals and Stats for a single game or for all games played? I remember noticing something. During my first attempt to banish Adze-Hakaii, I took a swing at him while he was still friendly, to try and get a few cheap shots in before the dialogue kicked in. Well, he never turned red, so, just to see what would happen, I took his HP down to nothing, initiated the dialogue and banished him easily. (Then the Tower swarmed me when I returned to the first floor.) After I reloaded an earlier game, the Medals and Stats still showed I had defeated him. So, that 41st cache must have been that. I found one, reloaded before finding it, found it again, and thus ... 41. Gonna test this. Ok no. Went to an earlier save, rediscovered a cache, and the Stats still say 41. Wish I'd kept notes for you Randomizer.

Almost done with the regular game on Hard, just got to Hawthorne and am starting that run. Grah-Hoth is dust (that was a great fight) and I found the Exit, told Erika and the Scimitar, then told Thantria for the talisman and immediately betrayed her. Party near level 35, pretty tanked up; I have 40 Wisdom Crystals. I don't always bother to buff them up, they can take most anything. Once I get Hawthorne, it'll be time for my party to turn to the Dark Side, covet and steal any treasure anyone holds, destroy any powerful individuals who could threaten me, take on the dragons and then lay waste to everything. An interesting curve with difficulty. As many have noted, finding things to do around level 6 or 7 was tough. But once my party got to level 25 or so, the fights became quite easy. I waited too long on getting Sss-Thss and wiped out the slith city with barely any effort. Which happens in a big open-ended landscape. I went into Drath's lair far too early, but still managed to clear it out. Barely. Glad I didn't read the book. A fantastic gaming experience. The skill tree took some getting used to, and I wish I'd known about the cut off at level 30, but looking forward to a replay. I'm thinking of trying the game on Torment to make the latter half of the game more challenging. By the by, I found 41 caches. I thought there were only 40.

I bought a new Macintosh and thought about playing Avernum 6 again. I transferred the Avernum 6 folder and the Documents/Spiderweb Software folder over, but the game now states it is unregistered. There must be a file somewhere. The old mac is 10.4 and I've searched through it and cannot find anything. Thanks for any help.

Let me see if I have this right. You dislike the skill system because your character had the option to learn Tool Use, and it doesn't make sense to you that a fighter could learn to be handy. Of course, you don't have to take a point in that. If you want your fighter to learn riposte, parry, increase their health, it's all up to you. Not sure what the complaint is. And if you had bothered to play the game straight, you would have discovered that as you level up, class-specific skills do emerge in the Traits. Mages and Priests can focus on increasing spell energy or summoning strength, increased magical damage or armor bearing abilities. Fighters can focus on riposte, backstab, increased Endurance. Archers can become wicked snipers. It's all up to you. I think the new skill system is great and the new Avernum is fantastic.

Thanks for the response. I could have sworn I'd already found that tome and made note of the lvl 3 barrier. Hm. Probably asked Athron about it the first time I saw him and forgot. By the by, many thanks for putting together the Item Lists all these years. I try not to use them unless I'm truly stuck; still, very useful resources to have and not a small effort to catalog everything in Jeff's games. Thanks for the effort.

So, I went to Athron to get part of the password, and the dialogue allowed me to ask it for a special reward for the things I've accomplished so far. It says ok, a unique encounter box comes up, saying my party gets dizzy and then realizes that the room is different. I cannot figure out what changed, and it isn't mentioned in the Item List. Anyone know what the bonus is? Thanks.

A similar event happened to me at the Tower of the Magi. I attacked Adze-Haakai before initiating the dialogue, on accident. Then I went with it for a while, got him down to no HP, initiated the fight and finished him off quickly. Upon emerging downstairs, the entire Tower came after me, it was quite funny. I never intended to keep that save as my real game. (I still run back to towns to recharge my spell energy when I could just use the editor.) I just wanted to see what would happen.

It worked ! Thank you, HOUSE of S, thanks very much. My quest list feels so zen now.

Well, there you have it then. If you kill Lagran at the beginning of the game, this quest is unfinishable. Without Lagran being there, the script doesn't kick in. Hmm. Given that the player is given the option to dispose of him (hey, he was an armed thug making life worse for folks already in a bad spot) it doesn't seem fair to deny us the Ice Hydra helmet. Not to mention the Reputation bump, the XP. Fix for 1.01?

OK, I went back to a saved game before I did the Ruined Bandit Keep. Let the fight play out a while in case I preemptively killed a character before a dialogue. Nope. And Ward Allison still doesn't respond in any way. I did notice one thing though. In the walkthrough, it says a character named Lagran is supposed to be down there. I had someone named Raider Gavroche. Same guy? Very curious.

Sadly, I have this bug too. I went back to a saved game before I cleared out the Ruined Bandit Keep to see if there was a dialogue option for the quest before doing it. Nope. It looks to be a special pop up quest completion, one where the window pops up, not a dialogue option, but the trigger isn't there. Has anyone fulfilled this quest? Does anyone remember Ward Allison responding to it?

Whenever I get to the end of an Avernum game, I play out a story with my party. Having been transformed from ordinary people into powerful demi-gods, they start losing touch with reality, driven insane with power. They start by destroying anyone with dubious power, then any powerful individuals who might threaten them (dragons, powerful mages) and then they move on to any form of centralized authority. Then, having completely lost their humanity, they annhilate everyone. It's really about seeing how levelled my party can get and not wanting a new game to end. But playing an evil party is kinda fun.

I'm having a great time with Avernum: EFTP. The new sound effects are great, the monster and spell animations look cool (can't wait to see what the higher level spells look like) and having played Exile 1 and the original Avernum, can't wait to see some of the final battles. The World Map looks fantastic and the Quest notes are very helpful. Really like the mystery of the unexpected bonuses on 3rd level spells. Third level Haste allowed me to finally start crossing things off the list. Man, Hard difficulty really is. This game almost made me downgrade to Normal, but I've hung in there so far. Really solid work Jeff. And seeing this engine makes me really anticipate the next two games. Just please take it easy on us with the Golem factory, ok? Beautiful work. Really fun game. Thanks.

Wait, after Level 30, the player only gets points to allocate every fifth level? And no more traits? Why was this choice made? So much for creating an uber-party. And is it confirmed that the 5% experience bonus is a waste of a trait? Man, I'm going to have to start over.