Falconhurst

Is there any way to change the race pictures? i.e., have a nephil or slith character with a human picture? This used to be possible on some old Avernums IIRC but not on Avernum 5. Is there an easy mod or fix to this?

I like playing sliths and nephils but would rather look at the human pictures - perhaps silly, but it is nice to have characters that one can identify with better when playing for a long time. Thanks.

Awesome. Since they have by far the cheapest training in many disciplines, it sounds like the only way to go for character optimization.

Any thoughts on this?

The cheap training for darkside loyalists looks EXTREMELY attractive. However the walkthrough on gamefaqs.com is only written from the empire perspective. Any comments on pros/cons of darkside vs. empire? Thanks!

Ouch.

Leaving the path of sanity, indeed.

Thanx.

Can anyone lay out the pros and cons of anama?

Besides no mages spells, and +3 to your priest level?

Thanks!

Okay, this is the party I went with:

Slith heavy pole warrior/light priest

divinely touched

elite warrior

Nephil Archer/tool user/light priest

divinely touched

deadeye

Nephil heavy priest/light archer

divinely touched

pure spirit

Nephil mage/light priest

natural mage

divinely touched

I wonder really if DT is worth it for the final mage...I am almost inclined to go with NM/PS instead of NM/DT, because the DT bonuses are pretty low for a mage, whereas the priest bonuses seem to have better synergy with NM at lower experience costs. True, the armor bonus is nice for a mage, but the skill bonuses with DT are slow and come at a high experience cost better suited for a hybrid warrior/mage than a pure spellcaster.

I also wonder with the archer if I should have gone with nimble fingers instead of either deadeye or DT. DT is nice; but also saving some 42 SP on tool use over the course of the game is also a big deal.

I am a newbie starting a new game. I am considering a custom party like this and would appreciate any critiques.

Slith - Pole Weapon Fighter

Elite Warrior

Fast on feet

Nephil Archer

Nimble Fingers

Deadeye

Nephil Archer/Mage/Priest

Natural Mage

Pure Spirit

Nephil Archer/Mage/Priest

Natural Mage

Pure Spirit

For the last two, the magic classes would be primary and archer points only secondary. One would be first devoted to magery and the second to priest spells, with some catchup later on. The synergy between many of the mage and priest skills (INT, magery, spellcraft, magical efficiency) seem to make this a fairly natural combination, whereas a magic/melee build requires buildup of entirely different primary attributes and secondary skills. I am debating however whether the mage/priests should be human or nephil. The -10% penalty doesn't seem too bad and I don't plan on casting spells every combat round, so nephil seems to be a logical choice that at least offers some bow skills (even if not fully developed) at minimal cost.

Man, Romans rock, no question!

I start with one guy with War 5/Healing 2 and the other 3 as warriors. With Beast Ceremony & healing, the warriors are practically unstoppable. When you get good equipment, normal monsters have a hard time even wearing them down. Put the Romans on autocombat and they can eat most anybody for breakfast.

The Celts, without armor and poor equipment, have soft outsides and sustain damage quickly. It requires a lot of micromanagement to keep a Celtic party alive, at least against harder foes in the early game. They certainly don't compare to Romans with Hero of Old or even Beast Ceremony.