geoff walker

12 years too late, but have a look at my party guide, it can do the ancient crypt on day 1 at hardest difficulty. https://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/32243-geoff’s-all-new-vague-enthusiastic-guide-to-the-lands-of-avernum-1/ *Is it most important to pump everything into the base attributes and ignore anything that also increases through increasing those stats? at party creation, definitely. wouldn't know at later levels, never tried. well i did, a while back but found them underpowered. would rather chuck my points into more interesting stuff. still alorael at large's idea that you should chuck points into say melee weapons rather than strength as strength gets more expensive is definitely worth checking out. it is the logically correct thing to do. hopefully it works out in practice. NB you may wish to put the odd point into *Is assassination's usefulness dependent on the difficulty I'm playing on? wouldn't know, i only ever play on hardest. basically leave it until your character's built, then have fun. you always got defensive stuff to prioritize. my basic problem with it is it's a bit random. but, when a tank's built he's built, no point making him invulnerabilier, so chuck points in around L20, then he'll tend to do like 95 damage 95% of the time *At what point do points in the access stats (potions, arcane lore, decoding, etc) cease to grant me access to anything additional? rune reading caps at 30 *Is it a bad idea to train in things that don't increase with the stats you rely on? you'll need to train in luck when bolts start hurting you too badly, say around L10. regard it as one of your base stats *I've heard Divinely Touched is bugged and is virtually worthless; is that true? i only ever go elite warrior, natural mage and sickness prone to offset the XP penalty

With less mistakes and everything * I edited out all the bad language I could find but there may be relics of the first draft GLOSSARY 1. Aoe = area of effect – spells which affect more than one enemy 2. Clothie = spellchucker. I mean you have played WOW haven’t you? 3. Inv = invulnerability 4. Mag = mage spells 5. NPC = non player character. The guys you talk to 6. Pri = priest spells 7. Pot = potion 8. Remf = rear echelon mofo – your fashionable mage types at back who trouble themselves to buff the idiot at front then make louche remarks about his combat ability 9. Ret = return 10. RP = role play 11. Sc = scroll 12. Tool = tool use 13. TPK = total party kill 14. Woot = wow, loot PREAMBLE 1. Ive referenced throughout silver harloe’s excellent map and guide to avernum 1 – truly a monster feat and well worth using. Its on the very lovely harehunter site a. http://ironycentral.com/harehunter/Avernum1/Maps/mainmap1.html 2. i went thru the game once, figured id been everywhere and using a walkthrough wasn’t cheating, it was just an aide memoire. Use it if you like, don’t if you don’t. ive referenced it throughout, so this guide wont make a bit of sense unless youre using it. So just half use it. kind of peek around the edges a bit when you need a spot of help. 3. Ive not provided a walkthrough, just a guide to walking through. Mostly cos playtesting a shortest path is beyond my eyes at this moment. 4. Also youre playing for fun – if you want to kill foul hordes of darkness, kill foul hordes of darkness, if you want to wander about, wander about, if you want to talk to people, talk to people. at the end of the day, rule 1 = enjoy the game. if you aint enjoying the game, its time to clean the garage. My sons [and/or possibly daughters] if you want to trek thru the bassikhava deeps, then that is your destiny 5. this nefarious game doesn’t have a shortest path. 6. Quick shout out to the modding community: I propose a means whereby we can slay wandering merchants and cave cows, the most dangerous creatures in all of avernum PARTY CREATION .. this is for the original avernum, the 2000 AD one. here ‘tis: 1. Completely forget any of the recommended characters, create your own. The pre-genned characters will lose you the game. they can’t fight. 2. read everything, think carefully, then build. like, grab your anorak, slurp some coffee and spend an hour reading and thinking about character creation. that way your party will be something like my own and you will enjoy high self esteem 3. Your 4 basic abilities and your mage/priest levels are your prime consideration. And you need a thief. 4. forget anything whose value is based upon another value. which is to say, don’t add to it directly. Add to the thing its based upon 5. for first time players, you might well want to start with this: its got a tank, a mage, a heals and a thief so it does everything you want a. tank i. str2 dex8 int1 end8 elite warrior sickness prone b. thief i. str2 dex6 int1 end3 tool15 natch mage sickness prone ii. take dex7 then dex8. That will take you to tool16. then buy the fine lock picks at fort draco. You will now survive all the demo areas. Until then, don’t untrap nothin 1. there is a trap in anastasia’s bedroom which may go off but I put that down to bad game design. a. You need nimble fingers to completely master every trap in the game and nimble fingers is boring. b. You are only allowed two character traits in the game, one of them has to be a combat trait and the other must be a weakness to offset the XP disadvantage imposed by the combat trait iii. when you get down to the ogre cave, get the rogues’ leather. That and magic lockpicks will take you thru the rest of the game. iv. there are nimble gloves, but they need complex and morally questionable quests. Save and reload if you cant handle a trap, its not cheating, just say to yourself, “I choose this method to deal with an aspect of the game I don’t like” c. heals i. str2 dex4 int2 end4 mag3 pri6 natch mage sickness prone d. mage i. str2 dex4 int1 end3 mag8 natch mage sickness prone e. perfectly lovely party, get remfs some priesthood asap, my only real problem with it is it doesn’t have any rune reading. And really for the sake of your sanity you want rune reading30 asap. Do note that all your characters need dex4 or they will get eaten by anything with dex5 6. my lovely little party which romped through the wilds of avernum and which is capable of doing the ancient crypt on day 1 started out as: a. str2 dex4 int2 end4 mag3 pri6 elite warrior sickness prone b. str2 dex4 int2 end4 mag3 pri6 elite warrior sickness prone c. str2 dex4 int2 end4 mag3 pri6 natch mage sickness prone d. str2 dex4 int2 end4 mag3 pri6 natch mage sickness prone e. full disclosure: this party only got tested to the midgame. My old party, which is almost as good as this, had the 2nd character as a natch mage. And it rocked. This one just rocks harder. i. Had to quit cos of me eyes. ii. So some of this is a tad theoretical, but really only a tad, you should be heaps right f. note that even the tank is a spellchucker. I have a problem with 3 mages looking after 4 fighters, it gets a bit scary. Everyone being able to look after themselves makes a great deal of battle sense i. its not problematic, the guy is equal to the mages at L1 and has nice utility til the end of the game g. so you start out as a party of mage priests and they morph into their different professions. h. elite warrior and natural mage are the only two real choices in character traits. They turn your wannabes into actual sorts. The others are too trivial or weird to bother with. Sickness prone is to offset the XP penalty from warrior and mage. It doesn’t pose any problem – swamps are tedious. i. Which tediousness could be offset by extra levels in pathfinder, I might try that for playability’s sake. The tank’s overbuilt by high level anyway, he’s got points to spare. i. If your mages are too cultural to indulge in the vulgar and bourgeois practice of fisticuffs you may wish to try brittle bones. Me, I like getting a bit stabby with my mages towards the end of a fight, it’s a refreshing change for when they get tired of spells. But look really, its sickness prone. Saves your mana, adds versatility – any mage can be a fighter. Also mages get tired and chuck bad spells if they work too hard 7. This party ended up as a. codbulge [tank] i. str10 dex10 int2 end11 mag3 pri6 ass5 luck6 blade5 gym5 anat5 resist3 path3 ii. you may want to experiment with int4 or something. It might be good. But I doubt it. in a hard working fight, he seems to run out of mana about the same time as everybody else. Anyway the idea is he can summon, heal, buff, haste, slow like normal people. Replication of abilities is emphasized in this party – you need a heal? You got a heal. You need a haste? You got a haste. That way I can fight battles in a more realistic way. I don’t have to read the tale of the tape, I can just react to the changing now. I mean look the guys never going to be more than ordinary in the spell casting stakes, but spells offer such power, such utility, that its worth giving him them. Got too many points to spend anyhow. iii. A note here: if you need something done now in a fight, do it. this turn. Don’t wait for the guy who’s got the optimized skill. You could be dead next turn b. oddjobs [layabout who never worked out what she wanted to do in life – archer, thief, fighter, mage, priest,.. I think she used to take rents off migrant workers. Basically forward battlefield support] i. str8 dex10 int2 end11 mag3 pri6 tool18 luck5 gym5 blade 5 mag3 c. magicthighs [heals] i. str6 dex10 int10 end9 mag3 pri18 luck5 gym5 mag3 d. broomfondle [mage] i. str6 dex10 int10 end9 mag18 pri6 luck5 gym5 mag3 ii. Don’t bother with arcane summon, theyre just irritating nitwits who introduce randomness to your play and create traffic jams 1. Only reason I took em this round was to differentiate the character – mage is her specialty 2. I took a party with a tank and 3 mag9/pri10s once and was halfway thru a battle and thought, “these guys are all doing exactly the same thing”. 3. Repeat after me: “we are all individuals”. 8. ladies and gentlemen, this party completely rocks. they stomp everything. There’s certainly room to play about with mage and priest levels: you could try a mage11 if you like beast ceremony or mage16 if you like arcane summons. A natch mage thief can be mag3 pri6, mag9 pri6, mag9 pri10, mag9 pri12, mag16 pri6. 9. gear's a bit of a morphing thing in avernum, different levels and dungeons suggest different combos. mix n match between your characters until you find something you like. by the time i hit endgame, they had: a. codbulge [tankfeatures] i. icy chain. 45lbs as opposed to 70. Cold and heat resistant ii. flame sword [discarded after grah hoth, you can keep if you like sword n shield combos. The hell, give it to a clothie] iii. frost sword [likewise] iv. jade halberd. for when you absolutely positively have to kill every mofo in the room v. blessed cloak, drakeskin cloak vi. gauntlets of might vii. warrior's ring, armour ring viii. dex bracelet ix. crystal charm, basic charm, chill charm x. speed boots xi. pants of power, purely cos I was collecting. Spiders are irritating 1. at this magisterial stage of my avernum career I can say they are interesting if you want a slow fight xii. no shield, the guy’s a wall. But when he wasn’t a wall I gave him small steel/crystal/blessed/serendipity shield. They tend to swap about. 1. if you got a luck bracelet you don’t need a serendipity shield etc 2. theres a large blessed shield somewhere I never used cos I was too fashionable. Also a large steel shield in almaria. Please, be sensible and not fashionable. Your oddjobs has a very sharp knife xiii. steel bolts xiv. yew xbow xv. blessed steel helmet 10. oddjobs [arrogant layabout] a. mauling leather. Accept no substitute. Best armour in the game. rogue’s leather at need b. diamond dagger i. situationally, give her assassin’s dagger, ghoulbane, whatever’s fun. the rear two hobos are just for cleaning up wheelchair cases and summons c. gauntlets of might d. Blessed & drakeskin cloaks e. Skill ring, armour ring f. Dex bracelet, luck bracelet g. chill charm, basic charm h. Drakeskin boots i. pants j. Crystal shield k. blessed Steel helm 11. Magicthighs [likes sticking flowers in people’s guns] a. Blessed studded armour b. whatever the front two haven’t stolen – blessed spear’s good c. Blessed & drakeskin cloaks d. Drakeskin gloves [Gauntlets of might if you’ve been very good] e. Strength Bracelet f. immunity ring, armour ring, skill ring g. Nice comfy drakeskin sandals, very this season h. pants i. blessed shield j. Drakeskin helmet 12. Broomfondle [pinches stuff, staff has a knob on the end] a. Drakeskin armour b. blessed short sword c. Blessed cloak, dragonskin cloak d. Drakeskin gloves e. Resistance ring, Shield ring, skill ring f. int bracelet g. knowledge charm [this one’s vanity, it just swaps around between characters, doesn’t seem to do much. I really only collected it cos I like the fight] h. boots i. pants j. serendipity shield 13. so that’s my current evolution of armour. you got a tank whos actually a tank, a pretend fighter with a giant bourgeois great strength buff, a bolshie heals and a mage who can. a. Prior to that I had the tank in mauling leather, layabout in rogues leather, heals in shadow leather and mage in drakeskin. Other shadow if you want b. Which is fine, but it’s rather buff-dependent. Icy chain particularly gives the tank protection vs grah hoth, who is a sadistic mofo and perfectly capable of taking him down. c. And Giving the tank chain and the 2nd fighter mauling leather and the cleric a bracelet of strength means your first 3 characters have str10. No bad thing, makes for ease and versatility. Plus herself gets bored with healing and likes to stick it in quite often 14. A point of this one is it can loot the the ancient crypt on day 1. Got rune reading20 and everything. Just don’t go tripping any traps til you got dex6/use tools16. And spend like $200 on thieves tools cos youll be breaking them every door you clumsy oaf. 15. Where you go with your magic is up to you: I like everyone to have pri6 and frankly ive little use for anything after mag9. Priest’s got perfectly decent AOE spells and what you don’t pump into mage you pump into priest. Be aware that AOE tends to be used to clean up summons/relieve your impatience. But mag16 does win the haste/slow war, beast ceremony is a nice little luxury and the hell, you want everyone to specialize right? pri6 gives everyone condition removal, buffs n heals plus rune reading, which you need to get your L3 spells a. If you want the real story, my only use for ret life3 is grah hoth; the guy’s a little bit too serious and you only have one chance to loot his palace. But it’s on the way to divine warrior so you may as well take it. and ghod help us, deaths in the field have been known to happen. discarding b’loved loot cos you cant carry it is just depressing. 16. And it has to be said, divine restoration is needed to heal the full frontals when they got so many hitpoints 17. Be aware that it’s a four-party: if you got 40xp for the quest, each character gets 40xp. Its not 40xp divvied up between the characters. 18. I don’t take the NPCs; you may wish to. reason being, they can only get elite warrior or natch mage. They’re not edgy, they don’t have the ghastly pallor. a. The hell, give em some grief in the character editor. b. also theres this role playing thing with me that I like to start out with four friends and leave them there. c. anyway, NPCs is good, all mighty warriors. d. I would note that training your starters from the get-go is a learning. You find out where to put your skill points and how to fight. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TIPS 1. Go to dex8 for your murder hobos, dex6 then int8 for your remfs. That way you got traps n runes. then dex8 your remfs and you can swap your characters about at need. Swapping is good, it makes spells happen in a different order... (ß note subtle and class combat advice). Subsequently, morph to your different classes. Don’t worry about str, tank’s just trying to get laid. Put it at need to wear armour. F’rexample, your nice blessed studded wants 4. a. crystal quest wants you to be strong. b. Never let it be said that strength is for tanks. Dex is for tanks. End is for tanks. No, strength is for when you are bored at taking four hits to kill cat people c. NB with the mage thief version of this party, it’s really good to develop your mages’ ints to 8 tout suite. That way theyre interchangeable. Plus of course you get off to a good start with the game – your spells do more, so you have to cast them less. = faster time thru the game. plus safer. Your characters start each battle in different positions – this way, the guy at the front can do the summons, the guy at the back can be the support, the guy in mid can do whatever,.. 2. Think about your party roles: what do they do? What do you want them to do? 3. Keep a few skill points if you can for unforeseen upgrades – for example, I needed to dispel a barrier and I was only mag8. Its not really necessary to spend your skill points every time you level up. The hell, you can do a big U-circuit of the first 6 provinces before you visit the training hall 4. The level of your abilities is certainly a thing but the cost to get those levels is where your action’s really at. a. For example You got 8 skill points. You could spend 5 points on a dex or 4 points on an endurance. So you spend 2 x 4 points on endurance b. generally you can faff about til level10 before you feel the need for extra spellage. So be nice to your stalwarts and give them the str, dex, int, end & luck they need. Make em well-rounded characters. That way they are flexible and can wander about the battlefield. If you want an algorithm, buy the cheapest of any of those skills when levelling until L10 5. He who acts first dies last. Dex is a thing. a. gymnastics is a thing 6. Give almost all the crystals to the tank. a. Theres a go berserk and a lay on hands crystal for your 2nd fighter. b. And theres a magery for your mage. = win the haste/slow war early. The hell, give it to your heals for bigger heals, Its always good. Just don’t give it to the tank. I tried last run in the name of experimentation and regretted it almost instantly. Guy has a poor spell selection and never casts anyway. c. The magery crystal may be just a temporary advantage. all characters can get to magery5 7. Anatomy, archery, Blademaster, Gymnastics, magery, pathfinding; the game implies that the maximum needed level for these is 5. I was dumped in a room surrounded by thugs who were all faster than I was. TPK was a thing. I tested, gym5 did the trick FIGHTING TIPS 1. There is no one way to fight. 2. calculate is good, instinct is good. What’s your preference today? 3. But tanks are main. have a fridge with eyes stand between the enemy and your good selves a. you want a tank so your cunning remfs can buff the frontal idiot then slope off round the corner for a crafty rollup. If theyre standing around commenting on his martial technique youre doing well 4. The first round of a battle is always the most important round. Think about what each player is going to do before you touch the mouse 5. count your squares. All enemies move at 4 squares/round unless theyre hasted in which case they move 6. 6. Win the haste/slow war. If you are fast, youre doing 2 things a round. If theyre slow, theyre acting every other round. a. Think about where you are in the round. b. Speed wars are subtle. If you need to look up the combat log, do so. Boring but instructive c. Haste your people and save your last action for the end of round. That way i. you haste you if they slow you and you slow them if they haste them d. You don’t actually have to be you fast/them slow. You just have to be moving at the same speed. Then you can let your mighty warriors show their miserable tryhards what a blade is e. How fast you are at the end of this round is how fast you are next round f. First up, web the enemy druids. They are now casting once/round for the rest of the war. g. Then slow them. They are now casting every second round h. Your other first round option is just to slow them. That way their first move has to be to haste themselves or they lose the speed war. you now have time to do things like put on clothes I mean spells 7. Have a look at different party battle formations. Theres a few standard ones and they all look good. With the tank at front consider: a. Diamond; small triangle; large triangle; line; box. b. Typically you’ll want 2 squares between your viking and the hunchbacks but its really what doesn’t get em killed. 8. rage, shield, haste, slow – these are the spells the game runs on. everything else is just showing the enemy how to fight 9. Summons are the real a. but summoned from the back line they need 2 rounds to put out their cigarettes and do some sodding work b. So summon them close to the despicable enemy. Here’s how. i. Run your tank forward, haste him, shield him, then have him summon two beasts a round til he feels nice. default is one summon per enemy ii. In the meantime, your remfs can be doing the same iii. Slow the enemy. When you do this is situational, preferably when you can see all the beasts at once. Then you know who you’ve slowed and who you ain’t. but really ask yourself the question: “is slowing survivablier? Or summons?” iv. Rage tank, go kill c. Trust me if your characters feel like sitting around, summons are your friend. Swamp the enemy, stop trying to figure out what to do and congratulate yourself on your sloth i. Freaked out by spiders and their incessant need for speed? This is your advice 10. Control foes – ask for it by name. a. forget sanctuary, prick of a spell, doesn’t stop spellchuckers nuking you. no my friends, what you want when youre busy buffing up is traitors. The enemy AI will almost always revenge themselves upon your new pals. b. Force multiplication ftw; 2 less of them, 2 more of you. c. Mass haste, mass slow, mass heal. Or just let them die so you don’t have show them the price of treachery d. with bind foe3 11. Divine warrior = the I win button. it really is practical in heavy fights; those shielding concerns are so last month a. A little something by way of temptation: a hasted L3 divine warrior with speed boots has 13 movement points/round, hits for 95 points, 95% of the time. i. Endgame version 12. Cover is a thing. Watch your bolts do 30 points in the clear, 20 points behind someone and 10 points behind an altar 13. Standing around is a thing. Relax baby, you do more damage if you haven’t moved 14. Create illusions are a good reset at low level. your fearsome enemies can be relied upon to feel really wary about your paper dolls 15. summon aid is your go-to at mid level; you get almost as many monsters and they’ve got hit points 16. But when you absolutely positively have to kill every mofo in the room, summon shade 3 is your very friend. a. L1 depressed me. b. L2 summons your skinny uncle with the funny smell. c. But L3 summons the fiercest thugs in avernum. One of them could beat any of my characters in a toe-to-toe except my high level tank i. Actually theyre not the fiercest thugs; theyre the 3rd fiercest. But you get to summon 2 a round 1. Curiosity killed the cat but let me indulge you: avernum’s hardest thugs are golems. Then royal guardspersons 17. Ffs give all your players the same dex; that way you can swap their order at need. Sometimes it seems good to put the wizard 2nd, sometimes the cleric, sometimes the thief. play around to see what seems comfortable. It’ll change with levels. a. For example, my typical first round might be: tank slows the mages; priest grabs their tanks; layabout speeds us up; mage waits to see what the enemy does with haste/slow. So you want the heals in 2nd place. b. But that sometimes feels a bit dangerous – keep our nice heals at the back where she feels safe and gives us great big smoochies. Put our ostentatious mage 2nd so he can rule the haste/slow war. Or put the grubby layabout 4th so she can figure out where the mages are. its really how you feel the battle goes and how the level’s going. 18. It’s the rant window! Avernum has one mage spell, one priest spell, one weapon and one armour that are completely and utterly useless: a. Ice lances. It doesn’t even tell you the damage numbers when you cast it. that’s cos theyre pathetic. You’ve got smite anyway. And the quest to L3 it is enormous b. Sanctuary. The priests will laugh at you and cast divine fire. Plus time spent casting sanctuary is time spent not casting control foes. You want a breather? Traitors ftw c. Javelin. Look if I find a brace of steel javs and the fight’s in the next room and I get a good long throw ill save myself some arrows. Javelins cause the enemy a +2 contempt bonus d. Plate. Ive never even tried it myself so im theorizing here. doubtless a soldier party will find it best in summer fashion. But it weighs 70lb and gives you 2 whole extra points of protection! No. what you want is a shielding spell. It weighs nothing and prevents enemy attacks. 19. Crystals will save your tank’s lily ass, don’t forget to use ‘em. I do, but don’t you forget to use em. 20. In the name of Ford, don’t die with potions on your belt. Consumables are just that; consumable. You might need them later, you do need them now SAMPLE BATTLE WITH SOME SLITHS 21. Outdoor fights with sliths are quite instructive. Theyre some of the most difficult stoushes in the game. here’s a little piece featuring my 6th level characters vs 2 mages, 10 sliths and 5 slith warriors 22. BIG NB this instruction was developed using my natural mage thief party, not the elite warrior version. It is tested to the hell and gone. I’d rather give you this advice than some theoretical advice ive adapted for the archer thief. 23. Basic ideas: a. Kill the mages as soon as you may b. stick to your party roles closely if you can. it’s optimal i. tank = web mages, summon critters, cut things. 1. also does a handy mass heal at need. He cant haste himself if he’s been slowed, he’s too dumb so give something simple to do ii. oddjobs = slows and summons iii. heals = buffs, heals, hastes, slows iv. mage = likewise c. do the necessary. if the thing that worries you most is the tank’s hit points, heal him. it’s a hand to mouth battle at first, so survive 24. Run your tank forward and hit a mage with hold person 25. oddjobs hits other mage with same. Run her behind tank features at need 26. This nerfs the mages, now they can only ever act once/round 27. Hit em with a slow if youre feeling luxurious, that way they only act every second round 28. Run the heals and the mage 5 paces back from the tank with a space between them. This keeps them out of trouble, trust me the more idiots you got up front, the more you gotta shield and heal. don’t worry about seeing the enemy mages. now you got two up front doing the needed and two at back pulling their backsides out of the fire. Give the tank 2 shields or each frontal lobotomy a shield depending on enemy formation 29. Now your goal is to buff the tank so he can take pot shots at the mages. But that may take a while as you may need to heal, summon or slow first. Be sure to get two shields up on your murder hobos and keep them there. get adaptive; its whatever you need to do. be patient. You want to give your tank as clear a shot as possible so minimize summons. Do it if you need to, they are a fabulous enemy distraction. 30. Take out the mages. If you cant see them, use L3 smite to clear the enemy summonses. Once you kill them, the game’s won, until then they will continue to annoy you. 31. Run your remfs up behind the frontal lobotomies and give em a shield. Summon like crazy and go kill. The remfs can cut cheese and little else so support your fighters with bolts. GAMEPLAY TIPS 1. Shortest path: A lot of RPGs end up about being the shortest path through the game. That’s a convoluted question here. what is the shortest path? Fewest game days taken? Fewest real days taken? Fewest boring bits? What the sam hell is going on? the functional truth is the shortest path is the one that seems most pleasant to you. elegant, serene and fun to play. Ive proposed an actual path below but full disclosure is ive never played the game the same way twice. And the actual path depends frequently upon what you need to do at that time. and what you are capable of doing. Do you need that gymnastics skill to keep your druids alive? would you prefer some more spellage? Gymnastics will cost you $1500 a point, or you could spend skill points. But you’ll want a 22 reputation before herself deems you sufficiently fashionable to teach you. etc. 2. Relax. Money will come when it comes, levels will come when they come. Enjoy some interesting battles and don’t go haring off around the world in pursuit of that vital power-up; there are 50 of them. If you are surviving the battles you are good enough. theres always more than one way to solve a problem 3. Ffs keep some dosh for resurrections. Ideally 3 x $600 = $1800 for those times when one character is left to struggle home with all their gear and the dust of their corpses. A reason to take ret life 3 4. If a dungeon bores you, use the character editor to award you the loot it contains. Its not cheating, cheating is using the character editor to win the game without showing superior tactics or strategy 5. Gear is a swappy kind thing in avernum. Youll be trying to figure what’s “optimal” the whole game. a. have a careful look at the numbers from time to time and see what guarantees a fighter 95% to hit from the get go. b. And see what keeps your mages alive from round to round. They don’t have to be happy. But they do have to be there. 6. To the matter of role play – do it, don’t do it, I don’t give a damn. But here’s a few tips that actually improve your game: a. They fight better when theyre carrying less than half their maximum load b. Spell casting is tiring – be fashionable, abide by the ancient traditions of the cloth and be anally retentive I mean use least energy. in a long fight if your mages cast bolt of fire the whole time they will do half damage by the end. c. Play the game you want to play. doing what you want to do with the party you want to do it with adds an automatic 30% bonus to your abilities d. If youre making potions and ffs don’t, do it once a day, in town, after a rest, straight. Not when you’ve just walked out of a dungeon glad to be alive i. Nb if youre taking a warrior party you will of course need potions ii. Craft potions only works when you’ve got it to level 12. then you can craft most potions automatically. Otherwise you have to mess about with like “75% chance to make energy elixir”. Sorry what? I have neither the time nor the patience to collect herbs and put points into a skill which deems me unworthy of its use. e. If you tired your characters out humping woot back to the barracks, give em a night off on the beer. They’ll fight better afterwards 7. Don’t worry about returning to town with your characters’ maximum load in woot every 5 minutes. Clear the area, pick up nice loot and sell that. My baseline is a 4:1 weight:price ratio. Don’t worry, the money will come, don’t bore yourself with money runs. Play an actual fun game. you don’t exist to sell. You exist to fight and explore and figure out the meaning of game. in the end you need about 4 x $9k for spells and levelling and gear and that will come 8. And I should say you only need that 4 x $9k is youre using silverlocke’s potions and khoth’s magery. If youre being relaxed and efficient, 2 x $9k is fine a. Be aware: silverlocke is called silverlocke for a reason – she locks silver. If you want dem knowledge brews, grab em. But they will cost you trips to the bank 9. And here’s some tips that seem to improve your game play: a. They like it when they get some regular sleep. so rest them in salubrious bars with comfortable bedrooms [and possibly more than one bed, they’re meant to have sex on the floor?] b. They like it when they get fed. Amazingly enough and given that the base item in avernum’s economy is cow dung, there are chefs whove done toothy things with mushrooms. c. If a character dies, don’t ask him to carry anything; take him to the pub for a piss-up, a nice meal and a good night’s sleep d. A happy party is an efficient party. An efficient party is a happy party. The portraits react occasionally. I do believe there is a “spirit of the game”; something which has been coded in to increase your luck when you fight good and act within the value set that jeff vogel has pre-determined. F’rinstance youll get awarded better loot if you fight a battle that you like. i. I think this is basically about killing them quickly but I haven’t seen the code e. You may wish to give them a few things to keep at their home base which aren’t actually worth anything. I don’t know if the creator factored this into his coding or not, sometimes it seems like he did. Depends on how much you role play. pillows are nice. praps play with those things that have a ‘use’ button but don’t seem to have a game world effect. 10. Establish supply bases outside the healers’. So if your thief comes home naked cos there was a slight inconvenience with wandering nephil, she can put some clothes on 11. But ffs keep your nifty gear in a lockup. dem guards like dat shiny bling. 12. if you walk out of a dungeon with few hit points and mana left, youll be jumped by wandering monsters. So don’t. keep dem energy potions on you. This principle applies in-dungeon; if youre in a dungeon with a lot of re-spawns, be well and happy – they know when youre not. 13. Read everything 14. And remember – in an RPG, the game doesn’t kill you, your mind kills you. if youre tired, go to bed. If youre bored, clean the garage. 15. Reputation is a thing. Grab it while you can, theres important stuff you cant get without it 16. Note stuff in your journal. Cross it off when its done. This map is devilish complex and your only way of keeping records is pressing that button. Deciding what to do next is a thing in avernum and its done by thinking: a. What spell do I need to maximise next? b. What piece of bling do I need to get next? c. What quest do I need to do next? 17. I have a stated policy of getting slight retail therapy whenever I hit a new town a. Like everyone I prefer to find my bling. Its so disappointing to find drakeskin when you just bought it. but there is a point in looking thru the shelves. Most shops have some little thing, a quality item going cheap down the bottom of the list. Splash a little dosh, you know you like it. then hit the pub b. buy every energy potion, every energy elixir, every healing elixir [not potion] and the invulnerability potion from every shop. That’ll keep you going til game’s end you addicted little sauce 18. theres a $9k limit on the amount of dosh you can accumulate. If youre coming near it, go buy yourself something you’ve always wanted. Not fighting things cos you don’t want their money is strange and demoralizing 19. use the character editor. its not cheating. And ffs don’t disable it. Theres bugs in the game that may need rectifying. and if you sell that nice artisanal piece you so manfully won last terror dungeon, you may wish to replace it. I aint restarting just cos of a mis-click. [rant window: always save before visiting the healer’s]. 20. PS the church is rich. It gives you nice money for your woot 21. I don’t really care what missiles I got as long as I got em but its always nice to have some steel for when you absolutely positively want to put it in a mage’s neck. Just keep a little reserve in your backpack, theres not much steel in the game, save it for the quality. a. If youre feeling super-organised, keep some stone/iron/steel missiles. b. Or give your stone to the idiot, iron to the tryhard and steel to the guy who actually gets laid 22. If you start with my party, youll have a heap bunch of spells but nowhere to buy new ones. Well, you will, in the tower of the magi, but you may run into nasties down there and that would be depressing. so concentrate on using the ones you have really well – develop your int until you have somewhere to buy amusing new ones. That way you can hit rune reading 30 tout suite and relax about learning expert spells 23. Theres a certain amount of room for meta game thinking here: a dungeon will typically show you whether it is left wall follow or right wall follow at the beginning. Take the hint.

SAMPLE BATTLE WITH SOME SLITHS 1. Outdoor fights with sliths are quite instructive. Theyre some of the most difficult stoushes in the game. here’s a little piece featuring my 6th level characters vs 2 mages, 10 sliths and 5 slith warriors 2. Basic ideas: a. Kill the mages as soon as you may b. stick to your party roles closely if you can. it’s optimal i. tank = web mages, summon critters, cut things. 1. also does a handy mass heal at need. He cant haste himself if he’s been slowed, he’s too dumb so give him something simple to do ii. oddjobs = slows and summons iii. heals = buffs, heals, hastes, slows iv. mage = likewise c. do the necessary. if the thing that worries you most is the tank’s hit points, heal him. it’s a hand to mouth battle at first, so survive 3. Run your tank forward and hit a mage with hold person L1 4. Run oddjobs up behind the tank and hit the other mage with same 5. This nerfs the mages, now they can only ever act once/round 6. Hit em with a slow if youre feeling luxurious, that way they only act every second round 7. Run the heals and the mage 5 paces back from the tank with a space between them. This keeps them out of trouble, trust me the more idiots you got up front, the more you gotta shield and heal. don’t worry about seeing the enemy mages. now you got two up front doing the needed and two at back pulling their backsides out of the fire. Give the tank 2 shields or each frontal lobotomy a shield depending on enemy formation 8. Now your goal is to buff the tank so he can take pot shots at the mages. But that may take a while as you may need to heal, summon or slow first. Be sure to get two shields up on your murder hobos and keep them there. get adaptive; its whatever you need to do. be patient. You want to give your tank as clear a shot as possible so minimize summons. Do it if you need to, they are a fabulous enemy distraction. 9. Take out the mages. If you cant see them, use L3 smite to clear the enemy summonses. Once you kill them, the game’s won, until then they will continue to annoy you. 10. Run your remfs up behind the frontal lobotomies and give em a shield. Summon like crazy and go kill. The remfs can cut cheese and little else so support your fighters with bolts.

GLOSSARY 1. Aoe = area of effect – spells which affect more than one enemy 2. Clothie = spellchucker. I mean you have played WOW haven’t you? 3. Inv = invulnerability 4. Mag = mage spells 5. NPC = non player character. The guys you talk to 6. Pri = priest spells 7. Pot = potion 8. Remf = rear echelon mofo – your fashionable mage types at back who trouble themselves to buff the idiot at front then make louche remarks about his combat ability 9. Ret = return 10.RP = role play 11.Sc = scroll 12.Tool = tool use 13.TPK = total party kill 14.Woot = wow, loot. Etymology = wow [world of warcraft] PREAMBLE Ive referenced throughout silver harloe’s excellent map and guide to avernum 1 – truly a monster feat and well worth using. Its on the very lovely harehunter site and on this site as well. haven’t linked it cos spiderweb security software won’t let it through i went thru the game once, figured id been everywhere and using a walkthrough wasn’t cheating, it was just an aide memoire. Use it if you like, don’t if you don’t. ive referenced it throughout, so this guide wont make a bit of sense unless youre using it. So just half use it. kind of peek around the edges a bit when you need a spot of help. The order in which you do stuff below is just a guide and is dependent upon what day of the month it is – at some point you will have to enter the ancient crypt. Plus the order in which you get spells L3 depends on when you have spellchuckers high enough to learn dem spells. I would add that youre playing for fun – if you want to kill foul hordes of darkness, kill foul hordes of darkness, if you want to wander about, wander about, if you want to talk to people, talk to people. Like, the main reason I posted this walkthrough is avernum 1 is hideously complex and the shortest path through it occurs only to people like me who’ve done it heaps. So if you got shortest path syndrome, by all means have a glance at my walkthrough. It’s a guide, this nefarious game doesn’t have a shortest path. But at the end of the day, rule 1 = enjoy the game. if you aint enjoying the game, its time to clean the garage. My sons [and/or possibly daughters] if you want to trek thru the bassikhava deeps, then that is your destiny Quick shout out to the modding community: I propose a means whereby we can slay wandering merchants and cave cows, the most dangerous creatures in all of avernum PARTY CREATION .. this is for the original avernum, the 2000 AD one. here ‘tis: 1. Completely forget any of the recommended characters, create your own. The pre-genned characters will lose you the game. they can’t fight. 2. read everything, think carefully, then build. like, grab your anorak, slurp some coffee and spend an hour reading and thinking about character creation. that way your party will be something like my own and you will enjoy high self esteem 3. Your 4 basic abilities and your mage/priest levels are your prime consideration. And you need a thief. 4. forget anything whose value is based upon another value. which is to say, don’t add to it directly. Add to the thing its based upon 5. for first time players, you might well want to start with this: its got a tank, a mage, a heals and a thief so it does everything you want a. tank i. str6 dex6 int1 end7 elite warrior sickness prone b. thief i. str2 dex6 int1 end3 tool15 natch mage sickness prone ii. take tool16 at 2nd level. then buy the fine lock picks at fort draco. That will take you thru all the demo areas. Until then, don’t untrap nothin iii. when you get down to the mage tower, get the rogues’ leather. That and magic lockpicks will take you thru the rest of the game c. heals i. str2 dex4 int2 end3 mag3 pri6 natch mage sickness prone d. mage i. str2 dex4 int1 end3 mag8 natch mage sickness prone e. perfectly lovely party, get remfs some priesthood asap, my only real problem with it is it doesn’t have any rune reading. And really for the sake of your sanity you want rune reading30 asap. Do note that all your characters need dex4 or they will get eaten by anything with dex5 6. but my lovely little party which romped through the wilds of avernum and which is capable of doing the ancient crypt on day 1 started out as: a. str2 dex4 int2 end4 mag3 pri6 b. the top one is elite warrior sickness prone, the rest are natch mage sickness prone c. note that even the tank is a spellchucker. I have a problem with 3 mages looking after 4 fighters, it gets a bit scary. Everyone being able to look after themselves makes a great deal of battle sense d. its not problematic at low level, the guy can buff himself to hell and gone and has vast utility e. so you start out as a party of mage priests and they morph into their different professions. f. elite warrior and natural mage are the only two real choices in character traits. They turn your wannabes into actual sorts. The others are too trivial or weird to bother with. Sickness prone is to offset the XP penalty from warrior and mage. It doesn’t pose any problem – swamps are tedious. i. Which could be offset by extra levels in pathfinder, I might try that for playability’s sake. The tank’s overbuilt by high level anyway, he’s got points to spare. g. If your mages are too cultural to indulge in the vulgar and bourgeois practice of fisticuffs you may wish to try brittle bones. Me, I like getting a bit stabby with my mages towards the end of a fight, it’s a refreshing change for when they get tired of spells. 7. and ended up as a. codbulge [tank] i. str10 dex8 int2 end11 mag3 pri6 ass8 luck6 blade4 gym8 anat8 resist3 path3 ii. im thinking of putting him at int4 or something. I think that would be good. That way he can summon, heal, buff, haste, slow like normal people. Replication of abilities is emphasized in this party – you need a heal? You got a heal. You need a haste? You got a haste. That way I can fight battles in a more realistic way. I don’t have to read the tale of the tape, I can just react to the changing now. I mean look the guys never going to be more than ordinary in the spell casting stakes, but spells offer such power, such utility, that its worth giving him them anyway. Got too many points to spend anyhow. b. oddjobs [layabout who never worked out what she wanted to do in life - debuffs, summons, aoe, extra cutting. Good to send her the other way if 2 fronts develop in a fight] i. str6 dex8 int8 end9 mag9 pri12 luck6 gym8 mag5 c. magicthighs [heals] i. str6 dex8 int7 end9 mag3 pri16 luck6 gym8 mag5 d. broomfondle [mage/thief] i. str6 dex8 int7 end9 mag16 pri6 luck6 tool17 gym8 mag5 ii. Don’t bother with arcane summon, theyre just irritating pricks who introduce randomness to your play and create traffic jams 1. At least in my limited experience, I haven’t played with em much 2. Only reason I took em this round was to differentiate the character – mage is her specialty 3. I took a party with a tank and 3 mag9/pri10s once and was halfway thru a battle and thought, “these guys are all doing exactly the same thing”. 4. Repeat after me: “we are all individuals”. 8. ladies and gentlemen, this party completely rocks. they stomp everything. There’s certainly room to play about with mage and priest levels: you could try a mage11 if you like beast ceremony or mage16 if you like arcane summons. The thief can be mag9 pri6, mag9 pri10, mag9 pri12, mag16 pri6. You may like to start the thief as elite warrior; myself I like the utility that magicness provides. Trouble with thumping types is they only do 2 things: attack and take hits. Oh, plus a ranged attack. Clothies do everything 9. gear's a bit of a morphing thing in avernum, different levels and dungeons suggest different combos. mix n match between your characters until you find something you like. by the time i hit L27, they had: a. codbulge [tankfeatures] i. icy chain. best armour in the game. cold immunity, fire resistance. 45lbs as opposed to 70 ii. flame sword [discarded after grah hoth, you can keep if you like sword n shield combos. The hell, give it to a clothie] iii. frost sword [likewise] iv. jade halberd. for when you absolutely positively have to kill every mofo in the room v. blessed cloak, drakeskin cloak vi. gauntlets of might vii. immunity ring/armour ring [& warrior's ring if the game thought I was fashionable] viii. dex bracelet ix. crystal charm, basic charm, chill charm x. speed boots xi. pants of power xii. no shield, the guy’s a wall. But when he wasn’t a wall I gave him small steel/crystal/blessed/serendipity shield. They tend to swap about. 1. if you got a luck bracelet you don’t need a serendipity shield etc xiii. steel bolts xiv. yew xbow xv. blessed steel helmet 10.oddjobs [arrogant layabout] a. mauling leather. Accept no substitute b. diamond dagger i. you might want to play with this a bit. Give him assassin’s dagger, ghoulbane, whatever’s fun. the rear two hobos are just for cleaning up wheelchair cases and summons c. gauntlets of might d. Blessed & drakeskin cloaks e. armour ring, [warriors ring if available] f. luck bracelet g. chill charm, basic charm h. Drakeskin boots i. pants j. Crystal shield k. blessed Steel helm 11.Magicthighs [likes sticking flowers in people’s guns] a. Blessed studded b. Assassin’s dagger & ghoulbane or whatever the front two haven’t stolen – blessed spear’s good c. Blessed & drakeskin cloaks d. Drakeskin gloves [Gauntlets of might if you’ve been very good] e. Strength Bracelet f. Resistance ring, armour ring [& warrior’s ring if available] g. Nice comfy drakeskin sandals, very this season h. pants i. blessed shield j. Drakeskin helmet 12.Broomfondle [pinches stuff, staff has a knob on the end] a. rogue’s leather b. obsidian spear [if you can be bothered with shattered fortress, I think theres another blessed spear lying about] c. Blessed cloak, dragonskin cloak d. Drakeskin gloves e. Armour ring f. int bracelet g. knowledge charm [this one’s vanity, it just swaps around between characters, doesn’t seem to do much. I only really collected it cos I like the fight] h. boots i. pants j. serendipity shield 13.so that’s my current evolution of armour. you got a tank whos actually a tank, a pretend fighter with a giant bourgeois great strength buff, a bolshie heals and a thief who can. a. Prior to that I had the tank in mauling leather, layabout in shadow leather, heals in other shadow leather and thief in rogues leather. b. Which is fine, but it’s rather buff-dependent. Icy chain particularly gives the tank protection vs grah hoth, who is a sadistic mofo and perfectly capable of taking him down. c. And Giving the tank chain and the 2nd fighter mauling leather and the cleric a bracelet of strength means your first 3 characters have str10. No bad thing, makes for ease and versatility. Plus herself gets bored with healing and likes to stick it in quite often 14.A point of this one is it can loot the the ancient crypt on day 1. Got rune reading20 and everything. Just don’t go tripping any traps til you got dex6/use tools16. And spend like $200 on thieves tools cos youll be breaking them every door you clumsy sod. 15.Where you go with your magic is up to you: I like everyone to have pri6 and frankly ive little use for anything after mag9. Priest’s got perfectly decent AOE spells and what you don’t pump into mage you pump into priest. Be aware that AOE tends to be used to clean up summons/relieve your impatience. But mag13 does win the haste/slow war, beast ceremony is a nice little luxury and the hell, you want everyone to specialize right? pri6 gives everyone condition removal, buffs n heals plus rune reading, which you need to get your L3 spells a. If you want the real story, my only use for ret life3 is grah hoth; the guy’s a little bit too serious and you only have one chance to loot his palace. But it’s on the way to divine warrior so you may as well take it. and ghod help us, deaths in the field have been known to happen. discarding b’loved loot cos you cant carry it is just depressing. 16.Be aware that it’s a four-party: if you got 40xp for the quest, each character gets 40xp. Its not 40xp divvied up between the characters. 17.I don’t take the NPCs; you may wish to. reason being, they can only get elite warrior or natch mage. They don’t have the advantage of being permanently ill. The hell, give em some grief in the character editor. also theres this role playing thing with me that I like to start out with four friends and leave them there. still, NPCs is good, all mighty warriors. a. I would note that training your starters from the get-go is a learning. You find out where to put your skill points and how to fight. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TIPS 1. morph to the individual roles ASAP a. characters start as mage priests b. give them +2 dex then morph i. tank ii. thief iii. priest iv. mage c. +2 str is an option – depends how much loot you wanna carry out of dungeons d. youll need those individual abilities quite soon 2. Think about your party roles: what do they do? What do you want them to do? 3. Keep a few skill points if you can for unforeseen upgrades – for example, I needed to dispel a barrier and I was only mag8. Its not really necessary to spend your skill points every time you level up. The hell, you can do a big U-circuit of the first 6 provinces before you visit the training hall 4. The level of your abilities is certainly a thing but the cost to get those levels is where your action’s really at. a. For example You got 8 skill points. You could spend 5 points on a dex or 4 points on an endurance. So you spend 2 x 4 points on endurance b. generally you can faff about til level10 before you feel the need for extra spellage. So be nice to your stalwarts and give them the str, dex, int, end & luck they need. Make em well-rounded characters. That way they are flexible and can wander about the battlefield. If you want an algorithm, buy the cheapest of any of those skills when levelling until L10 5. He who acts first dies last. Dex is a thing. a. gymnastics is a thing 6. Give almost all the crystals to the tank. a. Theres a go berserk and a lay on hands crystal for your 2nd fighter. b. And theres a magery for your mage. = win the haste/slow war, means you don’t have to go as high level mage. The hell, give it to your heals for bigger heals, your oddjobs for bigger battlefield support, whatever you like. Its always good. Just don’t give it to the tank. I tried last run in the name of experimentation and regretted it almost instantly. Guy has a poor spell selection and never casts anyway. c. The magery crystal is frequently just a temporary advantage for whoever as all characters can get to magery5 by the end anyway 7. Anatomy, archery, Blademaster, Gymnastics, magery, pathfinding; the game implies that the maximum needed level for these is 5. Ive certainly found that in one very deadly fight gymnastics 5 was all I needed. I was dumped in a room surrounded by thugs who were otherwise all faster than I was. TPK is a thing in there. FIGHTING TIPS 1. There is no one way to fight. 2. calculate is good, instinct is good. What’s your preference today? 3. But tanks are main. have a fridge with eyes stand between the enemy and your good selves a. you want a tank so your cunning remfs can buff the frontal idiot then slope off round the corner for a crafty rollup. If theyre standing around commenting on his martial technique youre doing well 4. The first round of a battle is always the most important round. Think about what each player is going to do before you touch the mouse 5. count your squares. All enemies move at 4 squares/round unless theyre hasted in which case they move 6. 6. Win the haste/slow war. If you are fast, youre doing 2 things a round. If theyre slow, theyre acting every other round. a. Think about where you are in the round. b. Speed wars are subtle. If you need to look up the combat log, do so. Boring but instructive c. Haste your people and save your last action for the end of round. That way i. you haste you if they’ve slowed you and you slow them if they’ve hasted them d. You don’t actually have to be you fast/them slow. You just have to be moving at the same speed. Then you can let your mighty warriors show their miserable tryhards what a blade is e. How fast you are at the end of this round is how fast you are next round f. First up, slow the enemy druids. That way their first move has to be to haste themselves or they lose the speed war. That gives you time to do things like put on clothes I mean spells 7. Have a look at different party battle formations. Theres a few standard ones and they all look good. With the tank at the front consider: a. Diamond; small triangle; large triangle; line; box. b. Typically you’ll want 2 squares between your viking and the hunchbacks but its really what doesn’t get em killed. 8. Heal, rage, shield, haste, slow – these are the spells the game runs on. everything else is just showing the enemy how to fight 9. Summons are the real a. but summoned from the back line they need 2 rounds to put out their cigarettes and do some sodding work b. So summon them close to the despicable enemy. Here’s how. i. Run your tank forward, haste him, shield him, then have him summon two beasts a round til he feels nice. ii. In the meantime, your remfs can be doing the same iii. Slow beasts that have stopped [gathered round your tank]. That means you can know which ones you have slowed and which ones you have not. In any case, be orderly about it iv. Rage tank, go kill c. Trust me if your characters feel like sitting around, summons are your friend. Swamp the enemy, stop trying to figure out what to do and congratulate yourself on your sloth 10.Control foes – ask for it by name. a. forget sanctuary, prick of a spell, doesn’t stop spellchuckers nuking you. no my friends, what you want when youre busy buffing up is traitors. The enemy AI will almost always revenge themselves upon your new pals. b. Force multiplication ftw; 2 less of them, 2 more of you. c. Mass haste, mass slow, mass heal. Or just let them die so you don’t have show them the price of treachery d. with bind foe3 11.Divine warrior = the I win button. it really is practical in heavy fights; those shielding concerns are so last month a. A little something by way of temptation: a hasted L3 divine warrior with speed boots has 13 movement points/round and hits 95% of the time. if you’ve maxed his damage, he does 95 points 12.Create illusions are a good reset at low level. your fearsome enemies can be relied upon to feel really wary about your paper dolls 13.summon aid is your go-to at mid level; you get almost as many monsters and they’ve got hit points 14.But when you absolutely positively have to kill every mofo in the room, summon shade 3 is your very friend. a. L1 depressed me. b. L2 summons your skinny uncle with the unusual smell. c. But L3 summons the fiercest thugs in avernum. One of them could beat any of my characters in a toe-to-toe except a high level tank i. Actually theyre not the fiercest thugs; theyre the 3rd fiercest. But you get to summon 2 a round 15.Ffs give all your players the same dex; that way you can swap their order at need. Sometimes it seems good to put the wizard 2nd, sometimes the cleric, sometimes the thief. play around to see what seems comfortable. It’ll change with levels. a. For example, my typical first round might be: tank slows the mages; priest grabs their tanks; layabout speeds us up; mage waits to see what the enemy does with haste/slow. So you want the heals in 2nd place. b. But that sometimes feels a bit dangerous – keep our nice heals at the back where she feels safe and gives us great big smooches. Put our ostentatious mage 2nd so he can rule the haste/slow war. Or put the grubby layabout who never got past her gap year 2nd so she can pretend to fight. its really how you feel the battle goes and how the level’s going. 16.It’s the rant window! Avernum has one mage spell, one priest spell and one weapon that are completely and utterly useless: a. Ice lances. It doesn’t even tell you the damage numbers when you cast it. that’s cos theyre pathetic. You’ve got smite anyway. And the quest to L3 it is enormous b. Sanctuary. The priests will laugh at you and cast divine fire. Plus time spent casting sanctuary is time spent not casting control foes. You want a breather? Traitors ftw c. Javelin. Look if I find a brace of steel javs and the fight’s in the next room and I get a good long throw ill save myself some arrows. Javelins cause the enemy a +2 contempt bonus d. Plate. Ive never even tried it myself so im theorizing here. doubtless a soldier party will find it the best in summer fashion. But it weighs 70lb and gives you 2 whole extra points of protection! No. what you want is a shielding spell. It weighs nothing and prevents enemy attacks. 17.Crystals will save your tank’s lily ass, don’t forget to use ‘em. I do, but don’t you forget to use em. GAMEPLAY TIPS 1. Shortest path: A lot of RPGs end up about being the shortest path through the game. That’s a convoluted question here. what is the shortest path? Fewest game days taken? Fewest real days taken? Fewest boring bits? What the sam hell is going on? the functional truth is the shortest path is the one that seems most pleasant to you. most elegant, serene, fun to play. Ive proposed an actual path below but full disclosure is ive never played the game the same way twice. And the actual path depends frequently upon what you need to do at that time. and what you are capable of doing. Do you need that gymnastics skill to keep your clerics alive? would you prefer some more spellage? Gymnastics will cost you $1500 a point, or you could spend skill points. But you’ll want a 22 reputation before herself deems you sufficiently fashionable to teach you. etc. 2. Relax. Money will come when it comes, levels will come when they come. Enjoy some interesting battles and don’t go haring off around the world in pursuit of that vital power-up; there are 50 of them. If you are surviving the battles you are good enough. theres always more than one way to solve a problem 3. Ffs keep some dosh for resurrections. Ideally 3 x $600 = $1800 for those times when one character is left to struggle home with all their gear and the dust of their corpses. A reason to take ret life 3 4. If a dungeon bores you, use the character editor to award you the loot it contains. Its not cheating, cheating is using the character editor to win the game without showing superior tactics or strategy 5. Gear is a swappy kind thing in avernum. Youll be trying to figure what’s “optimal” the whole game. a. have a careful look at the numbers from time to time and see what guarantees a fighter 95% to hit from the get go. b. And see what keeps your mages alive from round to round. They don’t have to be happy. But they do have to be there. 6. To the matter of role play – do it, don’t do it, I don’t give a damn. But here’s a few tips that actually improve your game: a. They fight better when theyre carrying less than half their maximum load b. Spell casting is tiring – be fashionable, abide by the ancient traditions of the cloth and be anally retentive I mean use least energy. in a long fight if your mages cast bolt of fire the whole time they will do half damage by the end. c. Play the game you want to play. doing what you want to do with the party you want to do it with adds an automatic 30% bonus to everything d. If youre making potions and ffs don’t, do it once a day, in town, after a rest, straight. Not when you’ve just walked out of a dungeon glad to be alive i. Nb if youre taking a warrior party you will of course need potions ii. Craft potions only works when you’ve got it to level 12. then you can craft most potions automatically. Otherwise you have to mess about with like “75% chance to make energy elixir”. Sorry what? I have neither the time nor the patience to collect herbs and put points into a skill which deems you unworthy of its use. 7. Don’t worry about returning to town with your characters’ maximum load in woot every 5 minutes. Clear the area, pick up nice loot and sell that. My baseline is a 4:1 weight:price ratio. Don’t worry, the money will come, don’t bore yourself with money runs. Play an actual fun game. you don’t exist to sell. You exist to fight and explore and figure out the meaning of game. in the end you need about 4 x $9k for spells and levelling and gear and that will come 8. And here’s some tips that seem to improve your game play: a. They like it when they get some regular sleep. so rest them in salubrious bars with comfortable bedrooms [and possibly more than one single bed, they’re meant to have sex on the floor?] b. They like it when they get fed. Amazingly enough and given that the base item in avernum’s economy is cow dung, there are chefs whove done toothy things with mushrooms. c. If a character dies, don’t ask him to carry anything; take him to the pub for a piss-up, a nice meal and a good night’s sleep d. A happy party is an efficient party. An efficient party is a happy party. The portraits react occasionally. I do believe there is a “spirit of the game”; something which has been coded in to increase your luck when you fight good and act within the value set that jeff vogel has pre-determined. F’rinstance youll get awarded better loot if you fight a battle that you like. e. You may wish to give them a few things to keep at their home base which aren’t actually worth anything. I don’t know if the creator factored this into his coding or not, sometimes it seems like he did. Depends on how much you role play. pillows are nice. praps play with those things that have a ‘use’ button but don’t seem to have a game world effect. 9. Establish supply bases outside the healers’. So if your thief comes home naked cos there was a slight inconvenience with the wandering nephil, she can put some clothes on 10.But ffs keep your nifty gear in a lockup. dem guards like dat shiny bling. 11.if you walk out of a dungeon with few hit points and mana left, youll be jumped by wandering monsters. So don’t. keep dem energy potions on you. This principle applies in-dungeon; if youre in a dungeon with a lot of re-spawns, be well and happy – they know when youre not. 12.Read everything 13.And remember – in an RPG, the game doesn’t kill you, your mind kills you. if youre tired, go to bed. If youre bored, clean the garage. 14.Reputation is a thing. Grab it while you can, theres important stuff you cant get without it 15.Note stuff in your journal. Cross it off when its done. This map is devilish complex and your only way of keeping records is pressing that button. Deciding what to do next is a thing in avernum and its done by thinking: a. What spell do I need to maximise next? b. What piece of bling do I need to get next? c. What quest do I need to do next? 16.I have a stated policy of getting slight retail therapy whenever I hit a new town a. Like everyone I prefer to find my bling. Its so disappointing to find drakeskin when you just bought it. but there is a point in looking thru the shelves. Most shops have some little thing, a quality item going cheap down the bottom of the list. Splash a little dosh, you know you like it. then hit the pub b. buy every energy potion, every energy elixir, every healing elixir [not potion] and the invulnerability potion from every shop. That’ll keep you going til game’s end you addicted little sauce 17.theres a $9k limit on the amount of dosh you can accumulate. If youre coming near it, go buy yourself something you’ve always wanted. Not fighting things cos you don’t want their money is strange and demoralizing 18.use the character editor. its not cheating. And ffs don’t disable it. Theres bugs in the game that may need rectifying. and if you sell that nice artisanal piece you so manfully won last terror dungeon, you may wish to replace it. I aint restarting just cos of a mis-click. [rant window: always save before visiting the healer’s]. 19.PS the church is rich. It gives you nice money for your woot 20.I don’t really care what missiles I got as long as I got em but its always nice to have some steel for when you absolutely positively want to put it in a mage’s neck. Just keep a little reserve in your backpack, theres not much steel in the game, save it for the quality. a. If youre feeling super-organised, keep some stone/iron/steel missiles. b. Or give your stone to the idiot, iron to the tryhard and steel to the guy who actually gets laid 21. If you start with my party, youll have a heap bunch of spells but nowhere to buy new ones. Well, you will, in the tower of the magi, but you may run into nasties down there and that would be depressing. so concentrate on using the ones you have really well – develop your int until you have somewhere to buy amusing new ones. That way you can hit rune reading 30 tout suite and relax about learning expert spells 22.Theres a certain amount of room for meta game thinking here: a dungeon will typically show you whether it is left wall follow or right wall follow at the beginning. Take the hint. PATH 1) This section’s giving me the pip. There is no path thru avernum anyway, just your miserable prayers for a clue. 2) I mean there are ways but they are dictated by the starting date and your party composition. Four fighters are gonna do it a different way from four mages. 3) if I say to you, “get divine fire L3” that assumes you’ve bought the spell, you’ve got pri10 and read runes 24. Which you might do if you follow my amiable and efficient walkthru. But if you insist on doing it your way you may find yourself at the bottom of some awful dungeon without the common literacy you need to read simple words. At which point you will go out of your mind and break for coffee. Another reason to go with a priest party – you get rune reading 30 asap 4) Also ive rather something against mechanical guides. You wanna go for a wander? Go for a wander. You wanna talk to people? Grab a jar. You wanna piss on the altar of the spider god? It’s that way. This walkthrough is the way I did it with my party. 5) Further ranting on this point, theres no particular need to do it in the exact order I set out, wander around that map, do things in the order you feel and that’s probably good enough. More than one way to win a fight. if you aint got this spell, use that one 6) the path assumes you’ve got some time before the first of the month. There is an area in the motrax maze called the ancient crypt which only opens that day. otherwise you need unlock doors 3. This crypt has some neat gear and a spell which you would be wise to grab but it’s a bit of a haul doing it early 7) BIG NB I only do the kill grah hoth and slay hawthorne big quests. The final gauntlet one bores and irritates me. I have however provided the clues you need to do it. 8) NB 2 don’t detrap anything til you’ve got tool use 16. That’s not far away, it’s a cheap skill. kinda necessary to faff about the north eastern areas until you’ve got that level. I don’t like the death screen and I want to see it coming. 9) NB 3 im a collector. I like to collect all my bling then hit the final quests. that is by no means the way it needs be done or even should be done. 10) NB 4 while youre journeying round the eastern provinces, keep a graymold, a mandrake, a toadstool and an energetic herb for the bring herbs quest in mertis. It much big way to earn heaps XP at once, a most pleasing thing. Also keep your energetic, spiritual and healing herbs for balms of life FIRST AREA FORT AVERNUM 1. get gear 2. get Warrick quest FORT DUVNO 3. Buy lock picks 4. get slay bandits quest 5. get kill brigand leader quest, 6. get slay Nephil leader quest, NEWBIELANDE OUTDOORS slay thugs n archers for bow n arrows at need but it’s a hard fight. you may wish to do it later. Do it like this: 7. Run your tank up front as little as possible, he hastes himself. 8. Run your clothies down the back & they shield him 2x 9. He summons like crazy, they summon until we all feel comfortable about the party/victim ratio 10.Also the remfs slow the foes as they stop 11.Put 2 rages on him, refresh his shield, go kill 12.Watch the chance to attack numbers. Refresh at need. Buffs decline quickly at low level. If you cast rage and shield in the same turn and your chance to attack has declined, it means your shield has declined too. BANDIT FORT 13.do kill brigand leader quest, 14.get light L3 GOBLIN CAVE 15.do slay nephil leader quest, 16.get bronze key, 17.free hinthek rep+1 NEPHILIM FORTRESS OUTDOORS 18.get call spirit crystal FORT DRACO AREA FORT DRACO 19.buy fine lockpicks, 20.get healing elixir and curing pot, 21.enter boutell’s forge, 22.buy boat $300 23.[theres metal bars and bags of ore in a warehouse you can rip off and sell to sue if you need the money] SPIDER CAVE 24.Get rescue spider quest OUTDOORS 25.Kill spiders rep+1 if you want. It’s a detailed fight. NEPHILIM FORTRESS OUTDOORS 26.get blessed dagger, 27.get graymold salve recipe NORTHERN AVERNUM 28.Buy 2 piercing crystals [$120 fr memory] 29.Be aware these things have a 40% chance to pierce a barrier, youre buying them to pierce a barrier between you and haste L3 early. Its down at tower of the magi. Theres another crystal available from roving soldiers in the eastern cave, central avernum. Failing that, you got unlimited crystals available at grossly inflated prices in Spire. The hell, its not everything, its a nice thing, going without will teach you proper haste/slow management NEPHILIM FORTRESS OUTDOORS 30.enter Nephilim fortress thru secret back entrance 31.ffs don’t go in the front way NEPHILIM FORTRESS 32.Get Aranea fangs UPPER NEPHILIM FORTRESS 33.healing L3, 34.bolt of fire L3, 35.get evelyn’s gold necklace a. I usually just make a run for the exit when the demons appear but im gonna fight them next time. carefully. And I did. Only with arrows though. They kept summoning beasts in front of them, for which I was grateful 36.you may wish to sail back and forth to formello to sell gear and level up. Do beware of roving bands, the highway is a fond crook route UNDER NEPHILIM FORTRESS 37.tell kneedler you killed Anastasia rep+1 FORMELLO 38.Ret find gold necklace quest, you now have flaming sword 39.get blessed short sword 40.get find scroll quest NEWBIE LANDE OUTDOORS 41.do slay bandits quest, FIRST AREA FORT DUVNO 42.ret slay bandits quest 43.ret kill brigand leader quest 44.ret slay Nephil leader quest 45.set up your 1st storeroom in the lockup near your bedroom SILVAR 46.ret find hot spring quest, 47.do Warrick quest, NEPHAR FORT OUTDOORS 48.Kill brigands soldiers & evil priest for an energy elixir if you want. Frightening fight if youre a beginner without shielding L3. NEPHAR FORT 49.Kill everybody in this fort, its your source of iron arrows. Also yew bows if you’ve been a virtuous little swot. PS luck 5 guarantees a yew bow but im not at luck 5 till late game. the hell, the game will reward you if it likes you and you can always buy the things. besides theres a huge great crossbow up the hall 50.talk to renn for secret entrance 51.get xbow 52.curing L3 53.when youre done killing everybody, release the prisoners 54.talk to renn again rep+1 55.get demonslayer pommel [you don’t actually need this to kill grah hoth, the icy longsword will do + demonslayer is a two handed beast, icy longsword gives you a b’loved sword and shield combo] 56.get diamond dagger. a. You may wish to learn from your ghastly experience in the neph fortress and haste first. then make a run for the exit or fight the dark ones with consumables. Should you elect to give your life I mean fight with honour do me a favour and run down to the exit and fight them there. Its marked by a first aid kit. that way if it all goes to hell and undoubtedly it will you can end combat and sod off quickly. Ive saved this fight under a different name and im gonna revisit it until I get it right. its an ugly, ugly fight, probably the hardest one in avernum and im not even sure its supposed to be won. i. The question has to be asked, “do you want to spend an hour and all those consumables?” b. nephar fort’s full of bows and arrows so I thought I might wait for demons at the exit, use consumables to summon and slow and kill them with arrows. Also the silly moos summon critters so they cant actually touch you. ill let you know how it goes COTRA 57.Talk nance re fort avernum crystal, 58.Get graymold, 59.buy energy pot, 60.get find erikas tower quest, 61.ret rescue soldiers quest, 62.get iron xbow bolts & steel dagger FORT AVERNUM 63.Ret Warrick quest 64.Get summon beast crystal MERTIS AREA MERTIS 65.ret herb quests, 66.get stop the undead quest 67.get call beast scroll, gloves, FORT AVERNUM smite3 MOTRAX MAZE MOTRAX LAIR 68.do find scroll quest, 69.get stone key info & permission to loot lizards fr motrax 70.rob him of his immunity ring, dex bracelet and assassin’s dagger. Jump the blue field by entering and exiting fight mode. If at first you don’t succeed, rinse n repeat. Remember: tool use 16, fine lockpicks. Or try shielding L3, that probably works OUTDOORS 71.find hot spring 72.get stone key, FORMELLO AREA FORMELLO 73.Ret find scroll quest 74.Get ask khoth quest 75.Grab gauntlets of might if you want them, a. it’ll cost you $500 at tower of the magi to cure the dread curse you get. I just consider my budget, really. there be expensive spells at the tower, you might want em. b. You jump the traps by entering then exiting fight mode. This manoeuvre tends to jump you forward two steps. If it don’t, rinse n repeat. The traps hit 1 person once each, so you can heal whoever between traps c. dread curse is a subtle hint to play avernum in a considered manner. You can run round the world getting this, getting that and getting awfully bored. Youre far better off just sorting whats in the area then moving on. so get the gauntlets when your next destination happens to be tower of the magi TOWER OF MAGI TOWER OF MAGI 76.NB have tool16 by here. Theres a crucial suit of armour your thief will wear for the rest of the game in the nearby ogre cave. Or not. Depends whether the traps kill you 77.Get name of adze-haakai 78.Buy create illusions, far sight and lightning spray 1. Nb create illusions is a fine spell at low level but its utility is eclipsed by summon aid L3 at mag9. You may wish to save yourself the expense 79.Get haste L3 use piercing crystals to dispel barrier 80.Talk to Kelner for location of password to hidden tower 81.Get find library in bargha quest [not that you need it but it gives you options] 82.Get balm of life recipe 83.Cure dread curse 84.Buy unshackle mind L2 for $450. You’ll need it for the spiral pit + it’s good insurance til you hit khoth OGRE CAVE 85.do kill ogre leader quest, 86.talk to bantam rep+1 87.get rogues leather & go berserk crystal, 88.far sight L3 if you have mag8 TOWER OF MAGI 89.Ret kill ogre leader quest, Get shielding L3 OUTDOORS 90.Visit stone pillar after talking to kelner FORMELLO AREA HIDDEN TOWER 91.Battle rage L3 92.Get crystal key MERTIS AREA SPIRAL PIT 93.Get icy longsword & pearl brooch 94.Don’t walk in there without energy, lamps, arrows, dispel barrier L2, unshackle mind L2 and return life L3. Its an awfully long way back up to the top 95.And don’t for heavens’ sake run about with the lights off. this place extinguishes your light spell every 30 yards. Which makes it tempting to run back thinking, “ive cleared the level!”. Don’t. you will die. It is just asking the game to spawn a ghast to hack at your characters before you’ve had time to pull up. 96.really the order in which you do spiral pit/shielding L3 + rage L3/haste L3/str+2/dispel barriers L2 is a bit optional. I may play with this then swap stuff round. I wouldn’t mind grabbing the cold sword before I kill many sliths cos theyre fire resistant 97.But it’s one of the dungeons in this game I find so irritating and so boring I leave it til high level when I can just conquer it without entering battle mode. Or I just award myself the cold sword from the character editor plus a level or two of points. 98.Unfortunately you cannot award yourself the pearl brooch and if you do not have the 5th brooch in this game then you cannot return from killing hawthorne. 99.full disclosure I tried this dungeon so many times before I could navigate it competently it causes me grief. Undead dungeons in this game are evil. You have to think of every thing before you go in. you have to think of every thing while you are there. they are designed to wrap you in depression and close the door as a good scolding for your worthlessness as a gamer. Fair call, it’s a hard game, you choose a hard game, you get hard. MERTIS 100. Ret stop the undead problem quest 101. Have a rest at the pub, slum it with crackers and enjoy avernum’s finest hotel NEPHILIM FORTRESS UNDER NEPHILIM FORTRESS 102. Ring of skill, healing elixir, steel chain COTRA COTRA 103. Buy boat $250 104. Call beast L3 [L6, rep20, read runes20] OUTDOORS 105. Get island crystal piece NORTHERN AVERNUM OUTDOORS 106. Get return life L1 107. At this point some poor schmo is gonna have to take potion making 5 and brew up some balms of life. Probably your fighter, dumb brat’s got skill points to spare. Once a tank’s built, he’s built. There’s little interest in making him invulnerabl-ier. You need to branch out. a. press the stupid button until you’ve got a 3 balms for each priest. Then carry them round for the rest of the game ARANEA CITY 108. Get defensive glow crystal. Best small bling in avernum. Arcane shield once/day 109. Do rescue spider quest FORT DRACO AREA SPIDER CAVE 110. Ret rescue spider quest, 111. Get malachite brooch, rep+1 OUTDOORS 112. Kill spiders rep+1 FORT DRACO 113. Get 4 lamps for foul cavern 114. Cave lore 5 for everybody if you wish. a. Youll need it if you go making potions cos it shows you needed herbs b. otherwise its just permission to say “no” to outdoor fights. This is a good idea if you are a new player, foes get worse the further west you go. c. but it does cost you $2200 the lot and that’s $2200 you don’t have for needed buys around fort emerald d. Be aware that like most things in avernum it only works 95% of the time CENTRAL AVERNUM: OUTDOORS 115. Get Island cave crystal piece 116. Get resistance ring if you’ve got unshackle mind L2 or divine fire L3 or an inv pot or the defensive glow crystal or the immunity ring; it’s a quality fight and we should all do quality fights, be aware theres a real TPK risk here if you don’t carry one of the above SLITH ISLAND FORT 117. Get crystal piece 118. Get str bracelet, blessed buckler 119. Get slith attack plans FORT DRANLON AREA SWAMP CITY 120. Get slith magic tome 121. Get repel spirit L3 122. Get onyx key 123. The temple before these items is a very difficult fight; youll want to use your defensive glow crystal FORT DRANLON 124. Ret slith magic tome quest, buy dispel barriers L2 125. At this point youre good to go get haste L3 in tower of the magi but you’ve already got it if the piercing crystals worked FORT DRANLON 126. Ret slith attack plans quest for luck bracelet 127. get iron bolts, 128. ret find slith magic tome quest OUTDOORS 129. Get $200/steel arrows/3 food, 130. Get Hut crystal piece 131. Get human prisoners/slith slavers crystal piece 132. Rescue the other prisoners if it’s an RPG thing for you or you want a rep +1 a. Kudos points for keeping all the prisoners alive CENTRAL AVERNUM OUTDOORS 133. Get old drake crystal piece with 3 food COTRA 134. Ret crystals to the crystal cavern for str+2 NEWBIE LANDE BAT CAVE 135. Get divine fire L3 [read runes 24] 136. Get assassin’s dagger SLITH TEMPLE 137. Get crystal charm 138. Get return life L3 139. Get demonslayer blade if you want it; like I said, the icy longsword will do just fine to kill grah hoth, take it if you want to, it’s a large beast of a weapon. Long dungeon, take much energy/arrows/light SLITH ISLANDS NORTH OUTDOORS 140. Get recall crystal 141. Get ring of skill FOUL CAVERN 142. Nasty little piece of work this. As with all undead dungeons Be Prepared. Take plenty energy, arrows, light. The only thing that annoys me about it is the drakes that spawn on your way out. To me that’s more of this game scolding you for having the temerity to swagger out when you’ve won. challenging. 143. Theres a secret door between the NE and SE rooms 144. Watch out for the wights. They Drain Life which means they Drain your Experience Points. 10 XP at a time. not much but you may wish to neck an invulnerabilitier potion. Think your battles through carefully 145. Get bind foe L3 a. Bit of a play style choice here. bind foe 3 is great, swat giants with a wizards dagger if you want, but it does get rid of bind foe 1. Which is the premier enemy wizard beater. Forget the haste/slow wars, chuck a web on each enemy wizard at the start of fight and forget about them. 146. Get anatomy crystal 147. Get mithral chain. I don’t use much chain meself but its worth a bomb. You may wish to put it on for the final quests, take str8 if you do, that way you can carry stuff. Some of the best armour in the game SLITH FORT 148. Get chill charm 149. Get warriors ring if you’ve been good or everyone has luck 5 150. Don’t bother getting sanctuary L3, it’s a prick of a spell and this map is just the game’s silent and laborious way of lecturing you for not having the game smarts to completely understand every point and take every hint. 151. Get wand of arcana. See above point. Wands of arcana are great, can’t be bothered RIVER FORK 152. Go and get 4 amber. You may wish to buy everyone cave lore 5 if youre feeling ticklish. It’s a very big quarry GIANT LANDS OUTDOORS 153. Get steel greatsword, theyre worth a mint 154. Get far sight L3 GIANT BASEMENT 155. Get free hrethra, zed quest 156. Get ghoulbane [nice little weapon this, quality spear, extra damage vs undead. Give it to one of your remfs. Was thinking of giving it to the layabout] 157. Get tin key OUTDOORS 158. Open giant gate with tin key NORTHERN ISLANDS OUTDOORS 159. Get dex+1 LAIR OF KHOTH LAIR OF KHOTH 160. Run past the door guards the stupid clods 161. do talk to khoth quest [for claudette, formello] 162. Get find dragon scroll quest 163. Fight the guardian 50xp FORMELLO 164. Ret talk to khoth quest 165. Get unshackle mind L3 COTRA COTRA 166. Talk to Asp for secret of meena’s chest trap 167. Buy a boat ALMARIA OUTDOORS 168. Talk to SE corner former adventurer about dexter ALMARIA 169. Get Inv pot, a. im just coming here for the invulnerability potion, its one of those places you can do whenever 170. Get large steel shield. I don’t use them but theyre worth a mint 171. Get Dexter quests if you want them but theyre evil. a. Bit of a moral question occurs to me here: I mean I think its rather pathetic of OP adventurers to kill a beggar, but the guy’s a grass [that’s Australian for snitch]. And if youre doing the whole Find the Exit quest then you are hanging out with thieves. Perhaps you should execute the guy. I dunno, its years since I talked to NPCs so I don’t know exactly how I should regard the crims. Perhaps they are repaying a society which has rejected them, perhaps they are stealing from honest folk. Do it after you get slow L3 anyway. And do it out of sight of the guardsmen, you’ll have the whole town against you. b. there are nimble gloves available in the bassikhava deeps but that dungeon requires you to go down to the bottom then up to the top then down again to pick up the main loot! Look this is an excellent game but I would fault it for its tendency to lecture you for lacking the patience of a saint. c. Bassikhava deeps is an interesting dungeon crawl the first time, put on your anorak, grab a coffee, contemplate deeply your every move. But after that it’s a long, long run. I just award myself a blessed buckler, speed boots, magic lockpicks, nimble boots and a couple of levels from the character editor. that’s if I want them, one of each will do d. In the end I figure the dexter quests are a rough guide to where you should go in what order. Or perhaps they are a rough guide to where you shouldn’t go in the wrong order. There that was useful, wasn’t it? THE CASTLE 172. Don’t go to the castle. Bureaucratic nightmare BLOSK AREA FORT EMERALD 173. Give Hodgson aranea fangs 174. Get tell elizabeth quest 175. Get gymnastics L1 176. Talk to liaison randall for a spot of commentary on CIA and the forever wars GNASS 177. Set up your next store room in the lockup near the healer’s 178. Get kill chief of nearby slith fort quest if you want to a. This is problematic for me: i. Role playing reasons. I just feel like im bullying a desperate crew on the losing side of a horrible war against some arrogant settlers. See slith island south section ii. The only point of going in there [apart from the $750 in the NW corner] is the icy chain mail. Now this is good gear, best in game. and it is certainly the best armour to wear against grah hoth. But I don’t like heavy armour 1. RP reasons – the characters sweat 2. Logistical reasons – by the time they suit up, they got like 15 lbs of carrying capacity left. That’s if you want them to fight well. by staying under the half max carrying capacity point] iii. While im ranting on about it and this is good policy, I like str2 for cloth, str4 for leather, str6 for studded, str8 for chain. If you try carrying studded under 6 or chain under 8 you will lose a movement point. What happens to plate I don’t know. Str tops out at 8. Carrying wise anyway 179. Pray at shrine 180. Get invulnerability elixir 181. Don’t buy blademaster. Your tank gets blademaster from the slith king and s/he’s got a ton of skill points to spend. Theres another crystal for your second fighter up at sulfras’ OUTDOORS 182. Buy knowledge potions from silverlocke the witch and keep buying them til she runs out. Then go to BLOSK 183. And level up your poor thief whos been hurting and making do all game cos he had to level up in lock picking and the mages were laughing at him. Were looking at mag9 pri10 here 184. Get take message to shaynee quest 185. Buy magic lockpicks 186. Talk to Royce about calder and scimitar in bargha 187. Do serpent ring quest if you got it off dexter in almaria 188. Now its time to head off to the dharmon/chasm of the spire/fort remote areas until you’ve bought silverlocke out of knowledge pots. Rogues are fun and there’s some butch little power-ups to be had DHARMON AREA OUTDOORS 189. Do message to shaynee quest, get mass curing L3 190. Do a little shopping. These outdoor area shops are often tempting but they can really mess with your budget. Think young adventurer, think 191. Get steel helmet. Then go back to dharmon, enter battle mode and see how many movement points your fighter has. 192. Have a look at the smelters. Don’t buy the crystal shield, there’s a few lying about. you may wish to spoil yourself with drakeskin helmets, youll find them anyway. This is the place to go if you’ve come limping back to town without armour of heaviness. Cheap prices, good gear. Tell your friends. DHARMON 193. Buy divine fire, control foes. Buy sanctuary. The hell, play around with it, I mean it will grant you much breathing space if you aint fighting clothies. 194. Get recall crystal, bolts of life 195. Talk to eldin re bertraud in mertis. Or possibly Bertrand in mertis 196. Get organizing the bandits quest 197. Get summon aid, beast ceremony, fireblast if you want em. I kinda got a thing for summon aid but its quickly eclipsed by summon shade L3. I reckon its got a place but the way I written this walkthrough, it just don’t make sense. In any case you can get all these spells cheaper at erika’s. 198. summon aid is a completely fabulous spell, its just less fabulous than summon shade L3. Use it when youre fighting shades, when you want to create traffic jams and when you want ranged fighters. Otherwise just use the 3rd heaviest thug in avernum 199. Get pot recipes if want em. Again, cheaper at erika’s. im not a great money gatherer, but I do like being parsimonious with the stuff 200. Get valorim bestiary quest. This is for the dreaded ice lances spell which I don’t even bother buying but the hell its worth XP. I figure its some sort of rough guide to the order in which you should be exploring places. Or maybe it’s not! Maybe it’s jeff vogel’s way of telling you you’re a metagaming wannabe! [sputter, twitch] SLITH ISLANDS SOUTH OUTDOORS 201. Get shielding charm if you want [this is a role-playing problem for me – I don’t like desecrating the tombs of their sacred ones. Theres this whole game allegory going on about the American wars and the sliths are the Indians. 202. Get priests bracelet if you want. Same. Like, if you got the orb of thralni [which you haven’t if you’ve been following this walkthrough out of sheer laziness and desperation] you can fly over the slith village. But if you don’t then you have to slay a whole bunch of poor people. Its pathetic. That’s one of the very great things about this game – superior gameplay. You got moral questions, you got allegories, you got rants about American imperialism [nothing personal yanks, I just hate your government. The hell, I hate my government. If I went to Armenia, I’d probably hate the Armenian government]. a. Like I was just killing pixels but in the course of despatching the sliths’ evil king I managed to steal from the poor, kill their children and desecrate the tombs of their sacred ones. b. And you start the game in fort duvno and this cracker of a captain brags about torturing nephilim, then you got Nephilim torturing us. Arrive at fort emerald and were torturing slithzerikai. im supposed to deal with these people?? c. Finally, our noble outcasts have created their own outcast area [spire], but it’s a bit more justified than the empire’s. subtle. 203. I always end up using the str/dex/int/luck bracelets 204. I insist you do the wandering piles of slithzerikai outside the castle early when you feel youre not quite ready cos theyre tough, just really don’t go before L7 yeah? 1. I tell you what, fighting random piles of slith outside is some of the best battle instruction you’ll get this game. careful young adventurer UPPER SLITH CASTLE 205. Get dexterity bracelet, armor ring, invulnerability potion 206. Get blademaster crystal 207. Get control foes L3 208. Get mauling leather SCREE PITS 209. greymold, create illusions sc, steel helmet CHASM OF THE SPIRE 210. invulnerability pot SLITH ISLANDS SOUTH - A SHORT COURSE IN BOAT HANDLING 211. Move your boat to the SE beach and recall back to fort avernum 212. I park this boat on the SW beach when im on the west side of the map and the SE beach when im on the east side. That’s all it does. Little taxi from west to east. 213. And I like to park a boat at the swamps north of the slith temple – that’s my eastern boat 214. And a boat that scoots between the northern tunnel out of slith islands north and fort dranlon 215. And then I like to hope I haven’t forgotten where I left my boats THE CASTLE THE CASTLE 216. ret sss-thss quest, get fort remote quest, healing elixir, pot ingredients, restoration brew, beautiful fur, 30 iron arrows. Don’t get the chevyn quest or you’ll feel guilty for being boring WATERFALL WARRENS STAGNANT TUNNELS 217. ring of thralni, mithral chain, haste elixir, knowledge brew, rod of arcana, 1st 7 mag & pri spells L2, armour ring a. I have no use for the spells except the safe travel L2 but the armour ring’s nice. [censored] of a fight. try moving your tank in first then move the others in one at a time if and when you feel safe SPIRE SPIRE 218. Get in there by boat from the south or walk in thru the secret entrance in the NE 219. Win twice in the arena 220. Then talk to Scab for location of silver key and for secret that Asp in Cotra knows how to get past Meena’s chest traps OUTDOORS 221. Get silver key SCREE PITS: CRYPT O DRATH: 222. healing pot, energy pots, gymnastics crystal, energy elixir, 2 heals elixirs, magery+2, safe travel3, inv pot, tip of demonslayer 223. this is an optional spot for those of you who like dungeon crawls or demonslayer; nothing in there is particularly necessary. do it without the map unless youre stuck. I do it cos im a collector. I also tend to do it at the end of game cos I know it and the main interest is in figuring out how the hell you are going to survive. It’s a long undead dungeon, so plenty of light/arrows/energy. youll want return life L3 and far sight L3. theres a nasty little map down the bottom which you should slow down and think about, plus a very entertaining fight. youre at the bottom of a horrible dungeon and you don’t know how to get out SLITH FORT 224. kill chief, icy chain, GREMLIN CAVE 225. lightning spray3, rod of illusions, armour ring, blessed spear, illusions scroll, heals elixir, str elixir BLOSK AREA: OUTDOORS 226. silverlocke if you feel like it/have the money, GNASS 227. ret slith chief quest, pray at altar FORT REMOTE AREA FORT REMOTE 228. do fort remote quest TOWER OF PATRICK TOWER OF PATRICK 229. 1st 6 mag spells, do Patrick quest OUTDOORS 230. blessed shield, DHARMON AREA DHARMON: 231. ret Patrick quest, get Erika quest, beast ceremony1 FORT SAFFRON: 232. healing pots, energy pots, drakeskin gloves CHASM O THE SPIRE: RUINED BANDIT LAIR 233. drakeskin armour, magery crystal, blessed short sword, BANDIT LAIR 234. summon spirit L3, do deBry’s organizing bandit quest FORT SPIRE 235. ret bohman’s kill bandit chief quest ERIKA’S TOWER 236. purple mold quest, blessed halberd, bone key, pword Phaedrus, do witch’s valorim bestiary quest, get aydin divulge quest, beast ceremony1 237. It’s the rant window! I should mention this theory I got for getting past the guards in erika’s garden. I played with control foes like 4x in the hope the lizards would munch the golems but the ornery beasts keep wanting to munch their new friends at the most inopportune moments. This time im thinking, “sanctuary L1, run past the lizards, open the gate, wait for the golems, control the lizards, haste the lizards, slow the golems, take pot shots at the slimes”. The reason for all this tomfoolery I mean sophisticated battle technique is golems take forever to kill and lizards munch hard HONEYCOMB LAIR OF ATHRON 238. when rep30 or when I can be bothered 239. slow3 BARGHA 240. wand of lightning, get/do/ret warriors ring quest, do bargha lby quest GIANT LANDS GIANT CASTLE 241. 2 heals elixirs, tin key, pathfinder crystal, energy potion, yew bow, blessed arrows, STRANGE CAVE 242. arrows of light, serendipity shield, illusions scroll, spray acid scroll, dragon scroll. Don’t walk in here til you got dex6 acro5. TPKs cause me to restart NORTHERN ISLANDS 243. drake fang, do aydin quest, dispel barrier3, josie re blue field, toadstools, life balm herbs LAIR OF KHOTH 244. buy $9k worth of magery skill, ret dragon quest, beast ceremony3, 50xp guardian SPIRE 245. summon aid3 ERIKAS TOWER 246. ret divulge quest, THE CASTLE 247. ret fort remote quest, grab speed boots ALMARIA 248. divulge statue, ret dexter spire quest FIRST AREA FORT AVERNUM 249. int bracelet FORMELLO 250. unshackle mind, gauntlets of might MOTRAX MAZE ANCIENT CRYPT 251. crystal shield, blessed studded armour, shadow leather, mass healing3 252. The ancient crypt happens when it happens. If you get it on day one, do it on day one. and you can. just make sure you’ve got invulnerability pot, 2 resist pots and every energy pot you can buy from the seller. That means scamming and selling everything you can find until you got $1k. a. Not hard as it happens. If you start on day 1, you have time to get everything you need including nice armour n weapons n potions n lamps n lockpicks. Just do it like this: i. Fort duvno Get 9 lockpicks, steel knife, get kill bandits north of duvno quest ii. Silvar Get pants, gloves, shields iii. Do Kill bandits north of duvno + the archers to the west of them. Careful with your mana. iv. Formello sell loot, get motrax clerical history scroll quest, rip off everywhere for some more loot, sell it, by this time you’ve got over a grand, grab the invulnerability pot, resistance pots and energy pots from bernie v. Fort draco get fine lock picks, lamps, energy pot vi. Motrax maze hit the ancient crypt 253. It’s a ranged dungeon half the time cos you don’t want to get up close n personal with wights or vampires cos they Drain Your Experience Points [eurgh]. Use the inv and resist pots with Transylvania features. 254. Watch out for spawns, like all undead dungeons in this game its sleazy as hell and likes to get you right when youre not expecting it. 255. DON’T speed thru the dungeon. take it nice n slow. 256. Your first tip is: never assume that you’re safe. 257. Oh yes, dump all your gear as you collect it outside the door. Keep it nice n safe. You got just one day to rip that dungeon clean and you don’t want to go to all that effort for nothing do you? LAIR OF MOTRAX 258. rod of major call 259. if you haven’t already, loot his stash for ring of immunity, dex bracelet and assassin’s dagger. Mmm, too nice. 260. The trick here is to enter fight mode just before the blue field then exit it. you jump past it without actually tripping it. Might take a few goes DHARMON AREA DHARMON 261. ret Erika quest, ret de bry’s bandit quest, web scroll [I think] – keep it for grah hoth. By now you’ve all got bind foe 3 which is great, but it aint gonna do squat to grah hoth. FORT REMOTE AREA GREMLINS GOLD 262. archers ring, rod of major call, resistance crystal OUTDOORS 263. Gauntlets of might DRAKE TUNNELS PIT OF THE DRAKE 264. [if you want these things] smite, freedom charm, crystal shield, fine leather helmet, steel plate EXIT GAUNTLET 265. slith merchant TOWER OF SULFRAS 266. blademaster crystal, yew xbow, jade halberd ERIKAS TOWER PRISON OF GRAH HOTH 267. free grah hoth FORTRESS OF GRAH HOTH OUTDOORS 268. black iron key FORTRESS 269. use web scroll on grah hoth – prevents him waiting a turn then hitting you with 8 attacks 270. crystal [forget what but its good], chill charm, basic charm, blessed plate, gauntlets of might, blessed cloak, blessed greatsword, graymold salve, blessed steel helmet, dragonskin cloak, knowledge brew, polished plate mail 271. once youved finished here you may as well give the flaming/frost swords to your layabout and jade halberd to the tank. Grah hoth’s the only mofo in avernum he’s really worried about SULFUR CAVERNS 272. alien blade THE CASTLE 273. ret grah hoth quest, divine warrior3, arcane summon3 LAIR OF KHOTH 274. Go kill khoth for torturing those humanoids if you want. I tried it once he cant fight worth a damn BLOSK AREA FORT EMERALD 275. kill captain scarlet for torturing that slith prisoner. You could kill all the guards if you want but theyre tedious mofos – lotsa hitpoints, carve hard, 20 rounds later youre still killing them the hell im off to the pub FIRST AREA FORT DUVNO 271. kill captain johnson and the torturer for hurting that nephil BLOSK ARE FORT EMERALD 272. kill captain scarlet for keeping that slith in a fridge ALMARIA AREA ALMARIA 273. retire to rhiannon’s to get drunk on almaria yellow ‘91, hardonnay ’85, mushroom merlot ’91 and a jug of cheap wine, awarding the yellow to the bestest, hardonnay to secondest, merlot to 3rdest and jug to the mycroftiest, then lie about in a great big pile FIXES I HAVE YET TO DO - WILL DO IN A DAY OR TWO · Chuck the get onyx scepter, talk to scab, get silver key, buy secret of meenas chest off asp, get silver circlet items in the appropriate areas for the 2nd quest doers