Fort

My take on it is pretty simple. The capacity for magical essence is encoded in the genes. Any mage can use magic to manipulate objects and materials; however, it would be impossible to create life by manually inscribing each and every letter of the DNA.

 

Essence contains the essence of life; it naturally helps to guide shapers so they do not have to deal with the specifics of the DNA itself. The permanent, independent creations must have their forms chemically solidified with no magic so that they can persist even without any of its creator's essence.

 

Having your creatures intrinsically tied to you is extremely important when you're adventuring, though.

Heavens no. It would be more akin to using a battery to power a fan for a windmill that recharges that battery. The stored electricity must undergo an eccentric conversion before going back to the source because the shaper's essence is actualized as food in an intermediate stage.

Too bad that wouldn't really get you anywhere in terms of nourishment. Hmmm, I wonder if shapers can shape food out of essence directly.

Good point. Still, would you rather hug a cold cryoa or a warm fyora? Also, eyebeasts are just downright creepy. I don't know if I'd like to go to bed with a floating eyeball staring at me.

Roamers would be excellent if it weren't for the acidic drool.

I agree with Hume on this one; the difficulty didn't noticeably change the enemies' dodging rates in the Avernum games.

So it would be fair to say that difficulty modifies monsters' levels to make them stronger or weaker. You don't get more experience on Torment, though.

It's obviously the most important project he could possibly be working on. He was too busy teleporting anvils around to notice the demons Linda had been summoning in the Tower.

 

I'd love the spell description for it, though.

 

Summon Anvil - This awesome spell summons forth a massive, iron anvil above the head of your foe. When it falls, it deals significant melee damage and often stuns whomever it hits. As you gain skill with this spell, the number of targets increases and the anvils summoned will become heavier and heavier.

If I could wait for Windows Vista, I can wait a week or two for Geneforge 4.

I wonder if you could train a cryoa to cryogenically freeze and preserve you if you were on the verge of death. That would be sweet.

Sure, if you

A) are not a shaper.

have emotional detachment from your creations.

C) are the type of person to put outside all pets before going to bed (even the goldfish).

 

EDIT: If I could choose from all the shaper creations, then I'd probably choose an Ornk, but that's outside of the question's scope.

Fyoras are the cutest creations you can make. If you don't like lizards as pets, then you probably won't want the horse-sized sulfur and brimstone version. But if you like reptiles, then the older Geneforge fyoras are awesome.

 

Would you rather go set up camp and lie down with a slimy artilla, a flatulent and floating vlish, a drooling thahd, a scorpion-like clawbug with an insatiable appetite, or a warm fyora?

 

A cryoa to me seems far less amicable. Unless you live in the Bahamas, I think having your hand frozen every time you want to pet your creation is a major hassle.

That's a cynical jump.

 

Anyway, the most important aspect for me about how to die is how people will view your death afterward. Whatever would make me famous would be the best way to go. I would prefer to be known for a heroic act, but dying while doing a very sinister activity is better than not being known at all. At the top of my list would probably be intentionally killing myself with a grenade as a last resort in order to kill terrorists and foil their plan.

Please tell me that was a googled image and not something ADoS had on hand.

I think blessings work in a very good and balanced way in Avernum 4. The buffs are powerful enough to provide an obvious benefit, and yet the fact that they do not stack prevents them from being overpowered.

I think blessings work in a very good and balanced way in Avernum 4. The buffs are powerful enough to provide an obvious benefit, and yet the fact that they do not stack prevents them from being overpowered.

The Anama must be destroyed because they punish you for betraying them?

If vlish are at all similar to squid or octopi, then they wold in fact have to use gas propulsion. I'd think they'd get tired of blowing out air or flatus 24/7, but they are resilient little monsters.

 

Either that or they are like eyebeasts and telepathically will themselves around, or in TM-context, onto others.

I doubt there are any real records of knights drowning in puddles besides the sickened and drunk ones. After all, I couldn't possibly conceive of someone being effective in a fight to the death if they could not get back up after tripping over.

 

Sadly, though, very young toddlers sometimes drown to death after slipping into shallow puddles because they're arms are not strong enough to perform a push-up. It's a rare but tragic way to die.

Um, roll over?

 

Anyway, even if chainmail was not the most effective armor in the world, I'm sure you'd rather wear it in a combat setting than having only leather. And you really shouldn't let the spear come in direct contact with your chest or stomach either.

What evidence do you have that it was that ineffective? Of course it could not withstand a full on stab, but it could stop all glancing blows and slashes. Also, could a five-year-old pierce chainmail with a knife? I don't have any direct evidence for that, but I'd seriously doubt it considering that I've taken a few token stabs at modern renditions of chainmail.

Don't diss chainmail because you think it was ineffective. Diss it because it was heavy and expensive.

Crossbows were always meant to be superior to a bow of comparable quality. Bows are plenty strong enough already, so crossbows would need a major handicap in order to keep them balanced in gameplay. Either that or the bows would have to be replaced with identical crossbows to preserve continuity.

These buttons won't be used very often, especially because players usually want to be in constant control of their creations during combat. But every once in a while you might find a use for them. I don't remember ever using them myself simply because you could mimic its effects fairly easily, but that's just me.

Wait until you are at least level 30 and then pack up for the only good fight against guards in the game. Make sure you do everything you can in the city before annihilating it, of course.

Control Foes is one of those priest spells that are overpowered just to keep the craft on par with magery.