My Quasimodo

In Avernum 3 the Dark Wyrms I summoned just stood around (wriggled around?) without doing anything. Demons were much more helpful. From a summoning standpoint, using the character editor to give my player rods of arcana worked much better. But the game loses its interest pretty quickly with that kind of supernatural help.

I only played Avernum 3 and BoA but I have the hintbooks for both and I thought they were quite good. Rache's site is also excellent. In addition to the point about helping support Spiderweb software, you might not want to have to quit the game and go online to the forums or Rache's site just for a couple of minor things you could look up in the book. Also, I tend to print things out and refer to them, so the hintbooks make more sense to me than online help.

The Anama priests give a singleton player the option of becoming a crusader-type character. It's a roleplaying choice, if not everyone's favorite. The game is quite playable that way, probably easier than being a singleton mage. You get some powerful spells early and a cheap source of crystals that unlock doors and dispel barriers. As an Anama player, at the end of the game you even hear the Empress say something about maybe having to rethink her position on the Anama.

I guess The Church of the Divine Lucre would have televangelists if Avernum had TV...

My favorite mage was Nan in the port town N of Fort E, (Farport?) because she was the first mage outside of the Fort I stumbled across, and she gave me some early help in exchange for doing pest control at her old house. Also, she sells a scroll of dispel barrier, so you gain access to this spell very early relative to when you could actually learn it. Certainly she isn't a very powerful mage, but she was the first one I thought of for the poll.

I don't think you miss anything by killing the tunnel guardians. You gain experience by fighting them. The payment to the head thief is just for convenience if you don't want to have to fight the group.

Sorry, I should have referred you to the Avernum 3 walkthrough at the top of the page. That site has an item list.

Look here: http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/avernum_3_items.txt I don't know of a legal way to get the game without buying it. Personally, I think it's well worth the price when you see what other games cost.

My choices would probably be a haakai and a vampire, because they summon more creatures, thereby magnify your original summoning. There's a haakai in the temple in the GIFTS lair who appears after you sanctify the altar. You get a really good spear after you kill him.

If you talk to the Troglo King, he tells you about a secret exit from the castle. Then you could kill him. He did threaten to eat all humans, after all. According to the hint book, you can bypass the Troglos altogether and get the tunnel map from the Giant caves. The problem with doing the Troglo/Giant plague elimination that way is that you don't learn dispel barrier from the Sharimik Mayor's library...

You can destroy the crystal with physical attacks, but it takes a long time because the attacks only do a few points damage. It's much faster to destroy the crystal with the laser beam on the same level, which you redirect with mirrors so it focuses on the crystal.

I think anyway you play the game that is fun for you is great. I've used the character editor lots of times in my games, and I enjoy the game more for it. After getting through the game a few times, I use it less, because it's fun saving some problems to solve another day.

My favorites are Lightning Spray, Haste at level 3 and Mass Healing at level 3.

If you don't have a saved game that lets you start at the beginning of Rentar's keep, you can reset the basement beams at the control panel in Rentar's Great Hall (after being teleported back 5 times) by pressing the upper left button. There are ten buttons in the basement. The NE area is tricky; press the southernmost button first to avoid a lot of confusion. If you accepted Erika's amulet, she will show up in the Great Hall if you pushed all the buttons correctly in the basement.

For a melee weapon, I like the Pirate's Blade which you get after fighting shades on an island N of Fort E. It gives you back hit points as you melee and does good damage. For a pole weapon, I like the spear you get from the Haakai in the temple in the GIFTS lair. It has an extra bonus, I forget exactly what, but it's better than the radiant spear IMO. While there are definitely better weapons than these in the game, it takes a lot longer to get strong enough to get them, so you can't use those other weapons until much later in the game. The earlier you can get a good weapon with bonuses, the more valuable it is.