Mechalibur

Thanks for the correction, updated (yes, that took me a while)

I think in general I'd like to see lower armor values on late game enemies. It's just not fun having 80-93% of your damage just flat out negated. Or, as you suggested, giving armor penetration would be an interesting mechanic, but since it's all percentage based, it might just seem too similar to a generic damage boost.

Double checked those 2 and found them. Adding to the list.

But it's confirmed that the Resistance crystal needs 13 "real" AL points, right? In that case, I'll just get 13 AL + 4 VL, and that will definitely get me both the crystal and all the spellbooks - though it'll probably be overkill for even the toughest spellbooks in the game, from what I'm reading now.

 

I had 12 AL and 4 Vahnatai Lore and the crystal wouldn't give resistance. Once I leveled up to 13 total, it worked.

I have two games going, and the caches opened is staying constant at 46, so I think that one actually tracks the most opened per save.

Casters can use the Runed Breastplate (34% armor, and magic damage bonus) without needing the battlemage trait.

I found a total of 46 48 caches, and wrote them down as I went along. All of them (except one that was in the middle of nowhere) are written with a map landmark as a reference point. If I say something is past a hidden wall, I mean one of those vine covered walls that you can walk through.

 

You only need 40 caches for the medal/achievement. 11 cave lore is required to be able to get every cache (the Putrified Gauntlets are 12, but you can wear the First Expedition Ring to bring that up).

 

Caches in chapter 1:

 

1. Scroll of Lightning - SW of Lizard Lair past hidden wall.

2. Healing Potion - N of Aranea Web. Fairly out in the open

3. Battle Crystal - S of Fungal Clearing behind a stalagmite. This one is actually impossible to see because of the angle its at.

4. Fiery Wand - N of Tiny Slith Fort. Next to a tiny 1 tile pool of water.

 

Chapter 2 (can't go back and check these, except #8)

 

5. Razordisk x6 - NW of Herb Patch. Through a hidden wall past a waterfall.

6. Energy Potion - SE of Barrier Tower. North of #5 by some purple trees.

7. Healing Elixir - W of Coffin Caves behind some purple trees.

8. Graymold - SW of Long Tunnel, through a hidden wall.

 

Caches in Vahnatai Lands

 

9. Scroll of Return Life - E of Test of Speed, by some stalagmite.

10. Corrupting Baton - NW of Ominous Crypt, in a crystal wall.

11. Fine Steel Waveblade - W of Crystal Shrine. Fairly out in the open.

12. Fine Razordisk x6 - W of Vahnatai Castle, through a hidden wall.

13. Gold Necklace - SSE of Test of Strength, near a Vahnatai statue.

14. Wisdom Crystal - E of Lava Dome (need the Orb of Thralni)

15. Rod of Defense - E of Fort Haledron (need the Orb of Thralni)

 

Return to NE Avernum

 

16. Speed Elixir - W of Spider Caves. The barrier must be down.

 

Eastern Galley

 

17. Scroll of Acid Shower - N of Kosdad's Hut, by some houses.

18. Speed Elixir - W of Fort Duvno, by some stalagmite.

19. Gold Necklace - SE of Circle of Pillars. It's tucked away behind some trees near the lake.

20. Gold Bar - N of Cotra, right in the open.

 

Eastern Galley Sea (all require boats, these can be reached by the boat you purchase in Silvar)

 

21. Foil Helm - Across the river, SW from the Abandoned Farmhouse, also N of Trapped Halls.

22. Scroll of Return Life - In the caves N of cache #21, take the river N until you reach them.

23. Energy Elixir - SW of Shipwreck Graveyard.

24. Platinum Ring - NE of Black Cube.

25. Ensnaring Wand - N of cache #24. Take the river up and there will be a clearing for a cave directly north of the previous cache.

26. Speed Elixir - W of Fort Dolthar, through a hidden wall, near some herbs.

27. Blessed Breastplate - On the W end of the Waterfall Warrens. Just take the far left waterfall, and you should see this cache.

28. Wand of Death - S of Elderan's Tower, through a wall.

 

SE Avernum (Tower of Magi and Mertis region)

 

29. Momentum Gauntlets - N of Mertis, behind a hidden wall.

30. Invulnerability Potion - NW of Tower of Magi, by some stalagmite. SE of an unmarked ogre village.

31. Fine Leather - NE of Caravan Stop, behind some lava.

32. Lemonwood Longbow - N of Brigand Madhouse, behind hidden wall.

 

Great Cave (Almaria through Dharmon)

 

33. Powerlash Scroll - S of Almaria, by some stalagmite.

34. Fine Steel - SW of The Castle, by the logging signs.

35. Wisdom Crystal - W of Blosk, through a hidden wall.

36. Healing Elixir - SEE of Dharmon, near a watchtower.

37. Energy Elixir - SSE of Dharmon, near some stalagmite.

38. Rod of Succor - SE of Sliverlocke's Hut, fairly in the open.

39. Focusing Crystal - SW of Well, through a hidden wall.

 

Scree Pits

 

40. Crystaline Wand - SE of Unfinished Fort, by some stalagmite.

 

Invaded Territory

 

41. Scroll of Speed Burst - N of Harston, past a lake. Requires the Orb of Thralni

42. Invulnerability Potion - W of Moldy Cavern (requires northern boat)

43. Scroll of Return Life - NW of Pyrog's Cave (requires northern boat)

44. Rod of Alacrity - N of First Guardpost (requires northern boat)

 

Fort Remote Tunnels

 

45. Armor Elixir - S of Despain's Shop

46. First Expedition Ring - S of SW3 checkpoint (this is unmarked, read the sign by each checkpoint), across some water that requires the Orb of Thralni.

 

Deep Empire Territory

 

47. 10 Blessings Band - N of Erika's Tower

48. Putrified Gauntlets - SE of Garzhad's Fortress

 

Let me know if you need more specific instructions for any of these, and I might be able to provide a screenshot. Also let me know if I'm missing any!

Ah, guess I just wasn't paying attention.

 

I think I'll post the cache list tomorrow as its own thread.

Battle Alphas often drop chain mail instead of chitin armor, so I think it's safe to assume they can wear armor (or they just like carrying it around for some reason)

Regarding Aranea fangs, as soon as I turned in the 8 for the job board quest, another job board quest was available asking for 5. I think the total should be 13, then?

 

So far 132 quests and 43 caches found/completed. (if that helps any completionists)

(after finishing Bags of Meal , Wine and Crafting turn ins in the post game)

 

I've got 45. I made a list of them while playing, so I can post all the locations if needed.

So to clarify, you mean that you can only get the 11th and 12th points for skills like hardiness, dual-wielding, blademaster, etc. (everything but the weapon skills) if you use the trainers AFTER reaching 10 in those skills through training using skill points? And that you can use trainers for the weapon skills before reaching 10 and still reach 11 or 12 after putting enough skill points in? Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah, but hardiness can go to 14, and spellcraft can go to 13 if you get the party bonuses (I posted above where you can get those).

Cave Lore question, just to be clear. With nine points (8 of which can be trained), a quest bonus +1, and an item bonus +1 you get everything right? The CL 11 gives you access to the First Expedition Ring, and then you can use the CL bonus on that for the CL 12 check?

 

Sounds about right. I had 12 end game (didn't realize I'd get a free level up), and was able to every cache (I think I opened them all. I ended with 45 or 46 opened - but I definitely got the Putrified Gauntlets)

If you switch to a lower difficulty level, then you can't get a medal for the higher one even if it was just one combat.

 

Torment, as Slarty said, has long boring battles punctuated by some truly terrifying one like watching Sulfras get even more frenzied and moving past 4 attacks a round.

 

Eugh, Not only that, but her fire breath starts doing around 1,500 fire damage (before mitigation, of course). And all the guys she summons... that fight is hands down the toughest one in Avernum.

Why does it matter if no legs on Earth work that way? This isn't Earth.

That's because we're not playing as cats or lizards, we're playing as nephil/slith.

His fate was a bit of an anticlimax, especially considering his questline involved doing a bunch of quests to prepare Kyass for an invasion. I wonder if more was planned for him, but had to be cut due to time concerns.

I think in general, I'd like a change to how levelling up creations worked. They get experience based on the rate you get it, regardless of what level they are compared to what you're fighting. This means if your high level vlish dies, it's going to more difficult to level up the next one because you'll have to fight comparatively higher level monsters for the same exp. I think I'd like one of the following changes:

 

1. Creations get exp separately from the shaper, based on what level creatures they fight. So a level 3 fyora would get experience after killing a level 3 enemy, even if the shaper himself wouldn't.

 

2. Instead of getting exp, the strength of your creation is based on your shaping level, skill in that individual creation, and any equipment/story bonuses. As it is currently, levelling up your battle shaping or Create Thad skill won't give any bonus whatsoever to thads that you already have created.

 

3. Strength of creations is improved based on your character level, so that you don't have to keep track of the exp of each individual creation you have.

It should give you a 5% chance/level for your ranged attack to only take 5AP instead of 9. This isn't the same as an extra shot, so the description is a bit misleading.

Do you need a certain reputation to get her to craft it? I have the materials but it doesn't show up as a crafting option for me. I'm in the mage's guild (or whatever that group is called).

 

It should show up if you have all the materials. Nothing else needed.

Unless your suggestion was that level 2 and 3 get the same 20% bonus

 

That's what I was thinking, yes. Either way, I think we can agree that levelling up slow really doesn't matter that much

It doesn't contradict my hypothesis either. It's just not enough data to support the claim.

 

But yeah, this was largely just to see if there were any evident abnormalities. It did help me get an idea of how enemy resistance works. I would need an entirely new game for extensive testing (and maybe more free time ), because I can't get rid of that pesky level of spellcraft. It is also possible that the duration is affected by ranks in mage skills, which could further throw things off.

If you have a pole weapon user, get the chaotic halberd from Dharmon.

Okay, I did some testing with slow. Results were interesting, but not entirely conclusive.

 

Method: Used the editor to give my warrior 10 points in mage spells, then unequipped all of her gear. Unfortunately, she has 1 rank in spellcraft from the drake which the editor cannot remove. Because I got the slow spellbook, she started with 1 rank in slow. I then went outside the Tower of Magi, and would enter and re-exit until there was a group of ogres to the NW. The group contained 5-7 ogres and an ogre mage. To make sure the testing was only against one enemy type, the ogre mage was killed off right away. I got a bit over 100 slows, and recording how many turns they lasted. Then I went back to the Tower, bought a level in slow, and repeated the process for levels 2 and 3 of slow.

 

In addition, I decided to test haste at levels 1 and 2 with the same character since it has the same number of turns listed (3) and would show the results of a 20% bonus from the level 2 increase.

 

Results:

 

Level 1 Slow:

0 turns ("Ogre resists the attempt to slow it): 1

1 turns: 5

2 turns: 29

3 turns: 53

4 turns: 18

5 turns: 0

 

Total slows: 106

Average: 2.77 turns

 

Level 2 Slow

0 turns: 0

1 turn: 1

2 turns: 12

3 turns: 55

4 turns: 34

5 turns: 3

 

Total slows:105

Average turns: 3.25

 

Level 3 slow

0 turns: 1

1 turn: 1

2 turns: 20

3 turns: 54

4 turns: 31

5 turns: 4

 

Total slows: 111

Average turns: 3.12

 

Haste level 1:

 

3 turns: 48

4 turns: 51

5 turns: 1

 

Average: 3.53 turns

 

Haste level 2

 

3 turns: 18

4 turns: 29

5 turns: 22

6 turns: 11

7 turns: 2

8 turns: 2

 

Average: 4.47 turns

 

Analysis: Results weren't thorough enough for any definite conclusions, but the data suggest that enemies roll to resist each turn of slow individually (that's why in over 300 attempts, there were only 2 ogres that resisted the slow). It would also account for why sometimes slow lasts a shorter amount of time than the listed duration (3 turns). It's possible that slow has a duration increase at level 2 (I would imagine 20% to match haste), but absolutely no further effects were observed at level 3. This could probably use more testing, though, to make sure, with more data collected.

Mass genocide...? That certainly sounds powerful. And maybe morally questionable.

I think it's just for selling. Put it in the junk bag to avoid damage.