Minion

I’m not entirely sure how to interpret these data, but my guess is that Cave Rats are level 1, and a base Dexterity of 2 and no points in Quick Action on Normal/Hard (3 Dex on Torment and 1 Dex on Casual). I don’t know if enemies have Quick Action, but I guess high-level archer-type bandits and soldiers might have some.

Since I can't edit levels in the character editor, I can't say what, if any, impact they have on initiative. I'll see if I can run a couple of quick tests against the cave rats outside the walls of Fort Avernum.

I did some quick testing on a level one party with no skills, no traits and all attributes set to one initially. As far as I can tell, when calculating Initiative, if one point of Dexterity adds 1 to the character's total Initiative, one point of Quick Action adds 1.91 to 1.99. Or there is some ratio rule where every point of Quick Action is equal to two points of Dex, but Dex wins if the total of both scores are equal (e.g. 1 Dex and 2 Quick Action trumps 4 Dex, but 5 Dex trumps 1 Dex and 2 Quick Action). Since I can only get Quick Action to 10, I can't quite tell if at some point the pattern changes, but I would assume that it repeats all the way to Dex 24/25 vs Dex 1 and Quick Action 12. Otherwise, if Quick Action has a set Initiative value, pure Dex should eventually overtake it permanently, but probably not within the range allowed by the game.

Can you compensate for a lack of Dexterity with Quick Action? It's on the way to Lethal Blow anyway, and fixe or six skill points (and/or two points from a trainer) seem like a slightly more reasonable investment for a non-missile fighter (and mages and priests) than extra Dexterity. I had no idea about that, thanks.

Since A3 is still a week or so away, I am staring at my computer screen at 2 am and obsessing over how to plan my party. However, there are a few things I don't quite recall from playing Escape from the Pit and Crystal Souls, never quite figured out, or can't find here on the forum, and which I hope someone might help me with. 1) Are Dazed, Slowed and Ensnared either Mental Effects or Curses, and can they be resisted by either Mental Resistance or Curse Resistance? I'm considering moving away from dumping all free ability points and ability traits in a single offensive stat for my fighters and dividing one half between Intelligence and Endurance, and getting both Hardiness and Resistance. I seem to recall that these effects were quite nasty and not having to fall victim to them every time some monster or wizard lets loose would be nice. 2) How well does the damage bonus from Blademaster scale if you don't dual wield and don't put all your points in Strength? My feeble mental calculations seemed to indicate that you need something like 20 Strength and 10 Melee Weapons, and Blademaster 12, before the bonus percentage outweighs the benefits of putting an equal amount of points in Melee Weapons. I believe I read that level factors in somehow. 3) Does having a high skill level in Mage Spells or Priest Spells increase your chances of successfully cursing/dazing/slowing an enemy creature, or does it depend entirely on the enemy's resistance and evasion scores?

I have definitely abandoned this idea. I can see that it is viable in the re-remakes with First Aid bonuses after every battle, faster HP regeneration and free resurrections for KO'd party members (and you don't have to pick up their equipment). But in the original A1, where you're left with potions and once-a-day First Aid that will frequently kill your party members, having absolutely no magic at all becomes a very tiring slog, if it's possible at all. I believe you would at least need the basic healing spells in order to manage your HP between battles, even if you tried to go potions only the rest of the time.

I should add that the abovementioned difficulties in HP management became quite clear after I managed to kill the giant rats outside Fort Avernum (with the help of some thrown rocks), but subsequently had my leading fighter die when one of her companions attempted to perform some field surgery on her rather nasty rat bites.

As expected, having no magic leaves your characters very vulnerable to being killed, particularly to First Aid by other party members. And once a character dies (which happens very quickly if you can't bring up your hit points in battle, or as soon as you try First Aid with only six skill levels and a basic First Aid Kit), it costs 375 gold to have them resurrected, which is more than you even have to start with. Also, having no Intelligence or Arcane Lore means your party is unable to recognize basic items and materials, like whether a sword is made of stone, bronze or iron, or whether a leather jacket is in good condition or not, not to mention reading the labels on potions. My conclusion is that playing without magic is very much a challenge, but a rather boring one since getting anywhere takes forever. I think I'll stick to having only a single mage/priest as a way of not having magic dominate the game. PS: And maybe a single point of priest magic for the other three.

I really wouldn't try going without magic in A2 and A3. A1 is more open-ended with fewer mandatory dungeons/battles (like the long trek to the Vahnatai lands), but I still don't expect to get very far. I might have a few hours to spare in a couple of days to try it out though.

As someone who was caught in the spider's web quite young, and missed the pre-isometric era, the updated graphics and interface (fields, combat, NPC interactions etc.) that were introduced in Nethergate and Avernum were a huge boon. I never really managed to figure out how things worked in the Exile demos.

Thank you. I'm only really considering doing this with A1, so at least I won't have to worry about Move Mountains or Sanctuary. I'll see if I get around to it, and I'll see if I can file a report on my progress (or lack thereof) here.

Since the remake of Ruined World still isn't out, I've been getting the urge to have a go at the old Avernum 1. However, I am looking for something other than the standard fighter, fighter, priest and mage party that I have pretty much always run over the last seventeen or so years, and I was thinking of trying out a party with no magic users (scrolls, potions and so on are still fair game obviously). Can anyone help me remember if this will prevent me from exploring critical parts of the game due to a lack of Dispel Barrier or other spells?

I just found an even more effective assassination technique: Rotdhizon Poisoning All you need to do is to continuously send Rotdhizons to stand next to your target, absorb them, wait for the ensuing poison to wear off, send in the nex Rotdhizon etc. I just used it to kill Platano without upsetting anyone and was still able to collect the reward from Rawal. Seeing as how Isenwood's Spire has an essence pool, it is tempting to try this on Rawal despite his high HP.

I've only tried it in G1 and G5, but if exploding pyroroamers turned people hostile it would cause a lot of trouble in fights featuring allied NPCs. Had I discovered this in the earlier games (particularly G1-G3), it would probably have been more useful. In G5, all important NPCs seem to have high HP scores, so the most profitable use I can think of so far is assassinating the Mera customs officer and plundering the toll chest. I will probably explore such opportunities the next time my Shaper runs low on cash.

As I have been playing through the Geneforge Saga these last few weeks, I've read a number of threads and guides on creations and Geneforge in general. However, I don't recall any of them ever mentioning that pyroroamers can be made to explode outisde of battle by using the Absorb command and harm any nearby, non-hostile NPCs without turning them hostile. I only just realised this as I was playing Geneforge 5 on Torment, where even simple innkeepers have hundreds of HP, so I went back to Geneforge 1 and tried assasinating Rydell by exploding two pyroroamers next to him using absorb. No one turned hostile, and I was awarded the Pentil Key. I assume that this could be used to assasinate NPCs like Ellrah without turning everyone in Ellrah's Keep hostile, or just to get keys, nice loot etc. from people you normally can't kill without upsetting important towns. Has anyone else ever tried this? It seems that it could be a very useful feature indeed.

I found one possible solution: Switching windows using Alt+Tab, this seems to help.

Update: All white text messages at the bottom of the field screen causes the game to stutter until they disappear. Does anyone know if there is another fix I can apply to help this?

Does anyone know if it is possible to prevent the tip of the day that appears at the bottom of the screen whenever you load a save or move to a new area from appearing? Whenever one appears, the game comes to virtual standstill until it disappears again. I have Windows 8.1 and I have implemented the standard ForceDrawEmulation fix.

Seeing as how I couldn't get the aforementioned codes (SDF 17 10 0 & SDF 17 11 0) to work and instead got the "out of range" error message, I thought I should add the solution I used to this thread. Using Shift+D and typing "pleaselikeme" appears to reset any unjustified hatred the serviles in Medab might have for you.

Thanks! Then my prospective Guardian can at least nibble on the fruit of forbidden knowledge before he rejects it.

After replaying Geneforge 1 for the first time in over ten years, I am about to have my second ever go at Geneforge 2. My memories are a little hazy, but I distinctly remember the ending being affected by using canisters, and I thought it would be nice to see the one where people don't look askance at you because your eyes glow in the dark. However, I am unable to find the exact number of canisters you can consume before the ending changes. Is one enough to brand you as an outcast or are you allowed to at least use a few before realising that you should stop?

Unless this post may be of use to other people with the same issue, the moderators can delete it at will.

Issue solved: Save game path found in this thread: http://spiderwebforu...d-games-folder/ In Windows 8.1, Geneforge saves games and settings to the folder C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Geneforge, which is not deleted when uninstalling the game. Deleting the file GFPrefs.dat erased the demo settings and allowed the full and registered game to be installed correctly. --- This issue has been mentioned before, but the poster never mentioned if they found a solution. I am running the Windows version on Windows 8.1. After finishing the demo of Geneforge 1, I bought the Geneforge Saga bundle from Humble Bundle and ran the installer for G1 without uninstalling the demo first. When I started the game, it was still unregistered, and uninstalling and reinstalling it did not work. The strange thing is that no matter how many times I uninstall the game, my save files and preferences remain, and I assume this is related to the issue. I did find one solution: Installing the game in a different directory. This seems to bypass the "ghost demo", but when I try installing the game in the default directory, the issue reappears. Since Geneforge doesn't take up much space, I am not that worried about having an invisible copy of it lying around on my computer, but if anyone has any idea of where the ghost files might be found on, I would appreciate it. I hope this might be of help to anyone else who happens on the same issue. PS: After reinstalling the Humble Bundle version in the new directory, I noticed that it also remembered my settings (Always Change Resolution) from my previous, experimental installation. So it appears that the Geneforge data is being saved somewhere on the computer and not deleted properly. PSPS: It appears that Geneforge does not save games to the save file folders in Windows 8.1. I copied the save file folders from the demo into a separate directory and just tried copying them back into the data directory of the new, full install, but the save slots are all blank. Considering that the temp files in the folders are all 1 KB, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

It was a long time since I played the first Avernum trilogy, and I only recently started playing Avernum: Escape from the Pit (pretty much only the major quests left) and I haven't played the second Avernum trilogy, but is there ever anything to indicate that Nepharim are ostracized by their Nephil tribes? I believe the female Nepharim prisoner in the Giant Castle explains that the Nepharim in the Underground Fort gather there in honour of the great Nephar hero buried there with a piece of the Demonslayer, not because they're outcasts. And isn't there a Nepharim leading the Nephil occupying the fortified waypoint on the road to Fort Draco in Avernum 4?

Thank you for clearing that up. While it is very practical not to have to resurrect characters by finding a healer and having to lug their dropped gear around, it does seem easy to abuse this privilege when you're close to a town.