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.

The Mayor of Sharimik gives you access to his library where you can learn dispel barrier at level 2 after you complete a quest for him. (It's a complicated one) I don't think there is anyplace you can learn it at level 1.

You can buy a scroll of dispel barrier from Nan in the port town NE of Fort E.

Nan, the Mage in the port town north of Fort Emergence, will sell you a scroll of Dispel Barrier. Since you don't have to complete any quests or cross any water to buy the scroll, I believe you can get it even in the demo. If so inclined, you could sell the scroll to Levy in Fort E and then buy back an unlimited supply of them, thereby bypassing the need to learn the Dispel Barrier spell at all.

In the registered game, joining the Anama gives you access to a cheap supply of piercing crystals, and those dispel barriers and unlock doors.

Reviving dead people is a fairly high level priest spell and also requires a potion. I recall you can buy the potion in the Tower of Magi Pharmacy, but you might be able to learn how to make the potion yourself with the right ingredients.

As far as I know from personal experience, and from what I have read on these boards, when capturing a soul for simulacrum the player can't choose the slot and it's just a crapshoot which one gets overwritten or not.

It's a fun and interesting spell, but realistically by the time you can capture something really powerful and survive the encounter, you don't need the spell anyway.

The priest spell Divine Host summons multiple vengeful shades - you get 3, 4 or 5 of them at once depending on the level spell you learned, and the shades are pretty strong. I think the best use of summoning spells is against Rakshasi or Demons so you don't get overwhelmed by swarms of enemy summoned creatures when you're playing a singleton character.

As far as legendary quests go, I'd recommend going after Pachter's Plate Mail. It's a lot easier than the Black Halberd quest and you also get Arcane Shield at level 3 in another area of the dungeon. I believe you need to enter the library in Gale to learn the location of this dungeon, and to have it appear once you get there. Some dungeons don't become accessible until you have done some background research.

Do you have a cleric who knows mass healing, preferably at level 3?

That helps a lot. Find level 3 of this spell downstairs from the NE corner of the giants cave. You need good rune reading ability.

I was disappointed by the Dark Wyrms I summoned; they just stood there and didn't do anything. If they had fought my enemies as hard as they fought me they'd be great.

The Mung Demon worked fairly well. I'd just as soon rely on the Arcane Summon spell and let whatever comes up work for me.

You have to get permission to visit Empress Prazac to proceed to Footracer Province and the endgame. She will allow you to visit her if you complete either the slime or roach quest AND either the troglo-giant tunnel barrier or golem quest. You only have to complete two plague elimination quests.

(I recommend doing the roach quest even if you don't have to because the mayor of Shayder gives you a ring with excellent resistances, which is a much better reward than the gold you get for completing the slime quest. Just a personal preference.)

The vendor who sells a sling is in the western town of Marallis. (sp?)

Very interesting singleton, Gavinfox. I like the ranged attack with unlimited ammo and 50 damage points, even if you only get one shot per turn. I'd suggest a couple levels of priest skills soon, so you can cast heal, cure and war blessing.