TindalosKeeper

Given the fact that there's an hidden penalty in your resistances, then I guess the best approach to eliminate that penalty, is to raise those values higher.

Go for damage, yeah! (Damage skills and traits), but focusing more on the defensive areas (Hardiness, Resistances, Perfect Health, etc.)

It's really not so difficult to figure that out! Anybody who knows about that penalty, would think about it!

Ummm... Did I do good? I mean... Am I ready for other Avernum games with this in mind?

Well, think of it this way: it isn't really any more or less cheating than if after asking for advice on the forum you'd started over with a new build in a second playthrough. You already know you'd have been able to get through the earlier parts of the game since they're the same as they were before, so the only difference is the amount of time it took you to do it.

So... I guess my victory is not as good as the others, maybe since they didn't respec, but it's a pretty simple build... Raising resistances are necessary if you are ever going to get hit anyways, absorbing that damage instead of getting overwhelmed by it is very common.

I barely remember what I have to do, I never killed Hawthorne in Avernum 1, since I was a dumb kid back then, hehe. But I feel like I'm now much better than before!

Also, I was wondering... If I killed the Emperor... Can I kill Grah-Hoth? Or he is way more difficult?

I DID IT!!!

My puny party...

Vanquished Hawthorne with one hit! I was pretty impressed that he went down in a single hit, instead of taking some time to kill... Indeed the old Emperor was frail...

I had to use Speed Potions while saving around on docile sites, I also used my Arcane Summons to block out those hallways where they can't pass... With great effect! Since the NPC's behave like "players", they can't "click" the tiles to chase after me, so they stayed until the summon dissapears.

I ignored Garzahd, haha! I don't care about him, I'm here for Hawthorne! (Not sure if I should have killed him for special equipment or something )

In the final fight, what I had to do was to chug down 2 Invulnerabilty Potions for each member during the full fight, and Speed Elixirs, to keep myself healed and to cast Divine Retribution to slow down those pesky Golems, as well as damaging them enough for Hawthorne to heal them... For some reason, attacking one of them will drain a little, but when attacking all golems, it's like he uses 4 "chunks" of his shield to heal them all... Bad move...

I really had no idea that the golems would use Cold Novas, or something like that to hurt my fighters, but that wasn't a problem, my invulnerability potions kept me safe... And thanks to the Ward of Blades, I kept my good Ranger evading some attacks around...

Then, the golems decided they should beat the crap out of me, which... was... Pretty weak, lol! I was more afraid of the Novas than that!

I think Hawthorne then decided to use magic again for the Golems, and that... that was the moment... The golems could do Novas again, but the shields were gone now (I, actually don't remember if the golems did more magic or just more fists, I was reading the texts, haha!), and I did just one Divine Retribution to see how many hits he'd take... Holy crap...

230+ Damage... One hit KO!

I was glad that his minions dissapear after that, but some remained, trying to kill me, I took Hawthorne's stuff, not caring about his treasury... That was enough Avernum for today, haha!

I stepped into the portal, and... VICTORY!

I could add screenies, but I'm not sure if that might spoil it... I'm so happy...

And I did it on Torment!

*sigh*... I kind of feel ashamed that I had to "re-spec" 1 of my warriors, so he could have the Hardiness I never gave him...

What do you think? Do you think by doing that, I cheated?

I did it only to "re-spec", I am aware that I have 63 skill points in total + 16 Traits (or 65 points at level 35), so I never used more than I should...

Thank you so much! I now have the achievement on Steam!

Now, I should defeat Grah-Hoth... I'm not sure how tough this guy can be...

Well, friends. With everything I changed, I managed to get to the surface.

But I'm now stuck with Hawthorne "Speed" thingy... Yeah, I have resistances, but Empire Dervishes are too "spongey"...

How can you get past these human sponges? Even by trying to as fast as I could, they will appear, anyways. With the other spawning guys as well

They say you have to kill them quickly, but... In Torment? Really? :|

Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it... I have a mage with a teleportation spell, and invulnerability elixirs... If that mage can go and do the run around, while she lets the party die midway... Is it a good alternative? Or I have to do the fighting, yes or yes?

More Endurance? The guys have chugged the 5 levels of Endurance I could give them, and I gave them the three health traits.

A good health amount in particular? Like 350?

So, with several suggestions, I tried to re-spec my party, using the Character Editor... And... In my opinion, it doesn't look that bad!

I have 63 points to allocate on level 30 (65 on level 35), and 16 traits in total!

So, here you go! I wanna see your opinions! (Of course, I tried to maximize those skills that are benefitting me, for my ranger, it's almost impossible to give her something worthwhile since I have to spend useless points in other skills that she won't use...)

Dual-Wield Warrior (Perfectly can go for Shield usage, Owns 1 Cave-Lore and 1 First Aid from quests, bought 2 Tool Use from Trainer, Drath's Knowledge is obviously quest-gotten, changed skills to be able to max Hardiness and Parry "legally")

Ranger (2 Tool Use from Trainer... Sadly, she doesn't have some form of defensive skills in her skill tree, so she has to go for the Evasion approach , but the survival traits apply to her nicely!)

Priest (2 Tool Use from Trainer... Unchanged, except for Traits)

Mage (2 Tool Use from Trainer... Unchanged, except for Traits)

Please keep in mind that I'm in no way, trying to increase my skills far beyond what you can get! 63 (or 65 for level 35) skill points and 16 traits in total, you can do the math!

This is also on Torment.

Thanks for reading!

How do you even... Uhhh... Re-configure your party?

(Don't wanna just make me savefile not eligible for the difficulty cheevos by cheating or something )

Really? 90%?

Did I messed up, then?

As of now, I was waiting until I could max out the skills I was training... Heard you can get extra points beyond max, to get even more of the benefits from them!

*Sigh* I know is risky, but it would take an eternity to get "chip" damage on some boss, while my party tries to survive a lucky critical

I went beyond the Cavern of the Giants to take the boat, and... Damn... Most of the stuff beyond that is kicking me really hard, haha.

Dunno how the others made it out as well, but maybe... I might require level ups... Maybe?

I am aware, but I need as much survivability as possible, even I could try and acquire skills via trainers with the gold I have!

I even managed to get a spot to get some cash, which is kind of slow, but it pays off nicely!

Just killed the Giant Overseer Kyass told me about, and I keep most of my enchanted equipment safe for other uses later, perhaps they need an use now?

There is also an option to circle the game map gathering herb ingredients for skill potions...

Wait... Aren't you confusing it with Knowledge Brews from the first Avernum? I've never seen those potions before!

The only ones I think come to my head are Wisdom Crystals! Unless...?

Well, when they don't have support, I can kill Eyebeasts while they are alone (or maybe with other Eyebeasts as well...)

I can reach an almost 70% armor with Ward of Steel, which is nice for me!

Ummm... Is there a way I might just... get stuck in the game? With no progress at all?

Oh no, they don't! But a second blow or something kills them right away, hehe...

My entire team!

Strange that Energy resistances don't appear at all!

Edit: Encountered the Spire Champions... Yeah... That's what I call Blitzkrieg, which I have none, since everybody has like 70% resist in everything xD

Well, my strategy kind of falls in a "Blitzkrieg" type... Making as much damage as possible, but I require the third level of Haste to even be able to do anything worthwhile...

In the Ruined Bandit Fort there are 2 of those hellspawns, and I really need them to at least survive a couple of hits from them... (Maybe I should purchase the Ward of Elements to at least level 2).

I have several strategies that I can try to pull off on them, but I need a good amount of time, hehe.

...Or am I missing something?

Now my party is at level 31, now I became strong enough to defeat a ton of monsters! (Just killed Lagran! Yay!)

But, it seems that those Eyebeasts are OP as all hell, since they can even hit my 40 Dex Archer!

What's going on?

Did I just reached a wall in which I can't pass? I can try and grind more levels, but it's going to be ungodly hard, with the little amount of exp I'll get from monsters around

Thank you for reading!

Edit: The Golems on Athron's Lair are also a big issue... 6 Golems... 95% hit chance on everybody except Archer...

Woah! That's going to be tough!

Oh, so I'm not that of a lost cause! xD

What do you think about the warrior? Is he doing good with the skill I put on him?

For the others, they are obviously focused on Archery, Priest and Mage spells.

I think you are overreacting to this. Most RPGs allow armor to block a pretty huge portion of incoming damage. The main difference here is that AEFTP actually tells you how much is blocked by armor/resistance. And, as Lilith says, you are playing on Torment, so everything seems worse.

 

It also seems like you may be going after higher level enemies. In general, you are best off attacking the lowest level types of foes currently available to you. You've probably cleared most of the goblin and nephil areas already, but giants and aranea are not low on the totem pole.

No no! It's just amusing! I can Adrenaline Rush that Cave Giant with my Warrior and lower him to half health, but his Ogre friends will kill me, anyways.

But... Am I terrible? I'm level 18 in a four-group party and I'm still getting pummeled by these... Ummm... "Supposedly", low levelled bosses, Formello is kind of like a "early-mid level" settlement, so I should make some advances.

I'm also going around other towns to find some quick and easy exp quests to avoid the grinding too much. I learned Graymold Salve and I might turn a profit by getting Graymold on that Island with Kai making it. (Unless there's a cooldown...)

Yeah, that's normal. Pretty much all high-level enemies will block a very high percentage of the damage you do, especially physical damage. The only thing you can really do about it is find ways to do more damage by improving your stats and equipment: there's a reason why most advice for playing on Torment recommends investing in each character's primary offensive stat as heavily as possible.

 

In general, if you can consistently get a 95% hit rate against an enemy and survive its attacks, you're probably strong enough to beat it, it just might take a while.

Ehhh...

Yeah... All my points into STR, haha!

http://imgur.com/xwJVPcI

Just look at that! It's a ludicrous blocking on the Formello Cave Giant! Like I said, if this thing is a common monster later, then I must be a terrible Avernum player or something! xD

(That was with melee, by the way... Pure STR Level 18 Dual-wielding warrior!)

If the block didn't existed, I'd have him insta-killed, pretty much, haha!

Well! I'm sure those one-shot critical hits from Aranea Watchers are going to be less... Ummm... One-shot! xD

When one of those pests did some sort of Ice Breath on me (Don't remember the spell name...), I got one-shotted by a critical hit proc for 180+ damage... My team is now 135 HP... Which means I need more levels, maybe...

And about that thing that you said, Randomizer... BRB! I'll go see the floor in Almaria! *Runs*

EDIT: YOU WERE RIGHT! It was an Energy Elixir that was left in the ground!

Thank you so much, pal!

I went back to Almaria, but... I don't get it, what message did I missed?

I also can provide some screenies in a bit... Tried my luck with a Cave Giant from Formello quest... (If those things are normal monster encounters later on, then God save us all...).

I think I dealt 30 and 27 with Dual-wield... Totally blocked by resistances... It's crazy!

1. Happened outdoors. I want to know if the item you should get outdoors is lost with full inventory.

2. Well... Currently I have the Singing Rapier and another sword I don't remember, but both are physical still.

Even then... It seems like I'll not get enough damage to hurt the big guys with my pure STR warrior... (Supposedly being a very high damage dealer, since I invested all my points in STR...)

And the goblins I talked about were the small goblins... They resisted like 20 damage or so, while I dealt to them a deadly 170...

It's like I'll be stuck until I grind levels and money to get spells and stuff...

Thanks for the welcome!

1. Nope, never had a Speed Elixir before! And only the 50 coins displayed as "gotten", if somebody could test getting a special weapon while having full invejtory, that'd be nice!

2. Then I'm looking at a grim future in my Torment run... Currently on level 17 (4-party) and still getting killed by Ogres near Tower of Magi... (My warrior still gets overwhelmed and hit at 95%...). I must be doing something wrong... (Last I saw, my warrior dual-wields nearly 300 damage swords and still hits around 120...) So I thought the blocked damage might go away to deal almost full damage on them... (I can't imagine Grah-Hoth... Probably 10 damage while 290 blocked...). Unless that's normal, and I should still up my levels...

I currently own both Escape from the Pit and Crystal Souls on Steam (Waiting for Ruined World to appear eventually ), as well as the second trilogy of the games. AND the entire Geneforge Saga (Woah! I'm having endless hours of fun, huh? xD)

Well... Currently, I'm on my first Torment Run on Escape from the Pit (I completed the game in Avernum 1 from a friend that owned the game, but sadly, I lost the game...)

So, here are the questions...

1- On special encounters, when you defeat a certain group of monsters, you might get a special Item (Treated Leather or Nephil Warblade, as example). If you have your inventory full at the moment of getting that weapon... Is the item lost? (I ask because I visited the Scimitar Cave, where you could see what they did with some Empire guys or something, I should have gotten 50 coins and a Speed Elixir, but I only got the 50 coins...

2- Is the level difference going to affect the monster's block/resist damage to every source of attack? (Example, at level 1, a Goblin might absorb 60% of the damage I dealt, but when I'm around level 15 or something, that damage reduction is now around 15%) I'm playing sort of a "glass-cannon" party (Pure STR Warrior, Pure DEX Archer, Pure INT Priest, Pure INT Mage, currently at level 17 from some grinding around Fort Draco)

Thank you for answering!