ex post slarto

Hmm, yes. Gypsy was a "woman" by 817, but at least A5 calls her an "old woman". It's a little strange to think she spent more than 50 years as a wandering minstrel, but if she's about Prazac's age, it's at least plausible.

The to-hit bonus is irrelevant and on higher difficulty (and even on Normal for many PCs) the dodge bonus is also irrelevant. The resistance bonus is small enough that Hardiness will usually be a better value.

I'm not sure if/how Luck affects item drops in A5. Randomizer seemed to have an idea that, for item drops, Luck was counted when an area is loaded, which is usually 1 area before you actually enter it; that would explain a lot of our weird testing results from A4. There are so many good things to spend money on for a party of four that early investment in Luck might be worthwhile just for the extra cash -- assuming it does affect item drops.

I've been grepping A5 and looking for relative measurements of time, to try and fit A5 into the Timeline of Ermarian .

I've found three important statements. First, the game says twice that "a century ago" Avernites never would have dared to disrespect the Empire. That establishes possible dates for A5 of between 867 (a century after the first people are exiled) and 917 (a century after Hawthorne's assassination).

The second comment is Portmaster Pirro's. He says he's worked with portals for "maybe fifty years" beginning with his work on the Tower of Magi portal. The most likely times for that work would be in the 822 - 830 range, but any year from 817 through 833 is possible. "Maybe" is not a precise descriptor of time but it isn't a hugely vague one either, so let's assume a (liberal) range of 45-55 years. That gives us possible dates for A5 of between 862 and 888, with a most likely date around 872 - 880.

Those dates fit with the century comment. They also fit with all the (quite vague) references to A2, A3, and A4. A2 (823) is "all those years ago," A3 (833) is "a few decades ago," and A4 (855) is "some years back." Even 872 leaves plenty of time for the necessary post-A4 events to happen (the expansion of the Northern Waters, settlement of the Northern Frontier, beginnings of sleep for the Olgai tribe, travels of Shanker and Gladwell, and so on), which requires ten years at minimum and probably at least 12, realistically.

The final statement is Dorikas's: he fought in the Empire-Avernum war when he was young. We know he was at Ornotha Ziggurat in 823. Presumably this means he was born no later than 805 -- only six years after Prazac. Prazac is described as "not young" but Dorikas certainly isn't depicted as being elderly. A date of 872 for A5 makes him at least 67. So I'm inclined to put the date as early as possible.

I'll suggest for a final date 870: a comfortable 103 years after the first Exiles, 65 after Dorikas's birth, 15 after the Time of Shades.

I'm posting here rather than on EE because I may well have missed a detail (seeing as I haven't read the entire script, just searched it). Comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

This isn't such a bad suggestion, or at least, it wasn't prior to G4. I remember suggesting the ability to create an auxiliary, noncombat animal comparable to a bag of holding, with more in common with a living tool or thorn baton than a fyora.

That was back when encumbrance applied to carried items, though. Jeff listened to us about encumbrance, and now everything is happy; so we don't need to sing about being married and holding each other close.

Brian Wilson is reeling.

You can train Nature Lore in chapter 3, though, so you only have to buy 2 points to deal with that battle. That's an investment of 5 skill points, which you'd want to spend that way eventually, anyhow. Not a big deal.

Yes; the Mage Spells levels were added to make chapter 1 doable, and I will need all of them eventually to use all the mage spells (all of which I expect to need access to).

The Tool Use experience should make almost no difference in the long run particularly as it scales nonlinearly by average party level, so singletons get less xp than parties do. I am waiting till I get Nature Lore or Dispel Barrier to go back, to reduce the number of times I have to recheck all that empty land.

For Nature Lore, 3 points are available from training and another 4 from items relatively late in the game, although +2 is in the same chapter as the knowledge brewmaker. There is a fair amount of Mandrake and Graymold buried in caches, and Mandrake appears to (again) be the limiting reagent for knowledge brew. (I can't see any advantage to cratfing wisdom crystals instead, unless you run out of graymold.)

The following table summarizes the cost of reaching a certain level of NL, the level you get with the +3 and the +5, and the amount of skill point return for both levels of NL.

Invest  Lore    Lore +3  Return    Lore +5  Return    Lore +7  Return2	1       4        --        6        --        8        48       3       6        --        8        4         10       1216      5       8        4         10       12        12       1821      6       9        4         11       12        13       2426      7       10       12        12       18        14       4638      9       12       18        14       46        16       48

The optimal investment is 7 points, for 26 skill points, and a return of 46 skill points. You can invest it at the time you get the explorer's ring (the first +2 item) and get most the investment back immediately. Immediately, of course, means after you spend 2 hours clicking through every single game map again.

I may have missed a detail in here somewhere, so feel free to correct me.

Smooth Sailing!

My DT NM Nephil Torment singleton (Groul, in honor of Nephil's Gambit) is having a breeze. He got to level 4 quickly fighting weak enemies, then moved on to deal with the rest of chapter 1, one piece at a time. I waited on several tough fights, the giant and the altar demon, until after doing Hirickis and getting to chapter 2.

The reason: Shanker. Lightning Spray and the second Summon spells are great, and +3 to Spellcraft and Magery (plus an extra couple points from skill points) makes everything happy. Since then chapter 2 and the rest of chapter 1 have been ridiculously easy. Seriously, I've never had such a cake walk on Torment (with the exception of running seven broken Vlish in G3).

I'm also having a lot of fun, way more than with any of my past Torment or singleton playthroughs of any game. I think it's because every encounter is eminently doable but requires cycling through a variety of different tactics. There's also less rinse-and-repeat clicking than with my Torment party of four.

Things are actually so easy that I've been saving a bunch of a skill points (currently around 35) for later investment into trained skills, Endurance, or into Tool Use when needed, etc. I just don't need them.

Current stats, after most (but not quite all) of chapter 2:

(Skills I have actually put skill points into are marked with an asterisk; as this list includes item and special bonuses.)

Level 17

Skill points: 40

Health: 85 (augmented)

Spell Energy: 155

Str 4

Dex 2

Int 8 *

End 2

Melee 0

Pole 0

Bows 4

Throws 4

QA 1

Mage Spells 10 *

Priest Spells 3 *

Arcane Lore 0

Spellcraft 7 *

Hardiness 1

Defense 0

Tool Use 7 *

Nature Lore 0

First Aid 0

Luck 1

Blademaster 5

Gymnastics 2

Magery 9 *

Magical Eff 2

Sharpshooter 5

67% Armor

43% Fire

37% Cold

37% Energy

43% Stun

25% Mental

20% Poison

45% Acid

Equipment: Ratskin Shawl, Iron Bracer, Shield Ring, Shielding Knife, Swamp Boots, Leather Pants, Steel Shield, Tribal Symbol, Ruby Breastplate, Girdle of Might

The equipment is mainly optimized for highest armor value within my weight allowance.

Useful tactics:

Haste, Bless, with Bolt of Fire or Lightning Spray kills most regular enemies. For bosses, Minor Summons with buffs plus Slow makes things almost too easy. The Wights and Ghasts in particular are great with their stunning and slowing effects -- reminds me very much of the old Vlish army.

I am sure that in a chapter or two, things will be much harder, as I won't be getting any more sudden +8 bonuses to spellcasting skill, and my own summons may start to run out of steam.

I figure as a singleton I can buy all the training, so that's 9 battle skill right there, 10 with the bonus point to poles. I was ignoring battle skill due to Spray Acid being such a prodigious damage source, but the disciplines might be worth it anyway when I need to branch out.

You may be right. The question is how many levels you get as a singleton. If a 4 member party nephil has 2 levels on a slith, and a singleton gets twice the xp, I assumed a 4 level difference, but I'm now realizing that's a very bad assumption, and it's likely to still be just 2. So perhaps a nephil is worth it for the battle skills. Probably so. Oh well; this time I can do the basement the right way and not use any energy potions. Although I will miss the Agent graphic.

Not being able to summon more than two creatures isn't generally lethal. Neither is the fact that enemy wizards can summon more than two. In fact, summoned creatures are sometimes less of a problem than direct attacks are.

What I don't get is why you are acting like you know better than Jeff. It would be one thing to say "I don't like the two summon cap." That's <i>feedback,</i> and I think Jeff generally appreciates it. You could state the reason why you don't like it. That's feedback too.

When you post long rants about something, however, rants which say (in bold print!) you are a dissatisfied customer, rants which make ultimatums about future registrations on your part, rants which present sharply worded judgments about what is best for the game, you start to sound like you think you know better than the designer. And when you argue at length with anyone who has a different opinion, it becomes clear that you think you know better than everyone else.

As for me, I'm open to you knowing better than me. But the hubris in your manner of making this argument makes me skeptical. I'm open to you knowing better than Jeff too, but I'd like to see some proof. If you really know better than him, then where are the RPGs you've coded and published?

What's that? There aren't any? Then stop acting like you know how to make a game better than somebody who has actually made a game!

I just did the basement with no combat skills. A human no less. DT, NM. 4 extra points into Mage Spells and 4 into Intelligence. Acid Spray, Acid Spray, Acid Spray. A single shot kills anything there, and three kill Newsom (whilst running away from him). I did have to use two energy potions, but that's okay -- very few areas stop me from "retreating to town" so I don't actually expect to need a ton of them outside of boss fights. Could have gotten by with just one energy potion use if I'd held off on Tool Use (I'm always too lazy to wait on that) until the level 2 and 3 points came in, and plugged more into Intelligence.

My character's name? Shanti, in her honor...

There are basically 4 concerns overall, I think.

1. Defense. You need enough defense to be able to stay alive without spending all your actions healing.

2. Offense. You need enough offense to be able to kill tough enemies without burning through loads of potions or items.

3. Coping skills. If there are any encounters that provide a particular problem for a singleton for any reason, you need a way to deal with them.

4. Tool Use, Unlock, Dispel, etc.

Defense is probably doable at least for low numbers of enemies, but I'm not sure there's any way to deal with swarms effectively, or even single enemies with multiple strong attacks.

I think offense is doable, but I'm not sure. After reading Randomizer's notes, I wonder if it would make any sense to ignore physical attacks, go all out with spells and just make liberal use of running back to town (or the faster version used only at times you could go back to town, "imdrained"). Spell damage actually pumps faster than pole damage does, surprisingly, with Spellcraft and Magery cheaper than Strength and Blademaster; and you need to put something into spell skill either way for healing and utility spells.

The tutorial may actually be pretty deadly for such a character, but I'm tempted to try it. Sort of a Geneforge Agent style Avernum game.

Speaking of highly reactionary: wow. If you expect perfect consistency and balance from every mechanic out there, I recommend you never play another RPG again. Seriously.

It strikes me as a little bit odd to say that you like the rest of the game, but because of one not overly significant aspect of a mechanic, it's ruined.

If I were a gamemaker, I wouldn't want customers who are going to make a big fuss if everything isn't perfect.

My testing failed to produce any noticeably different results. The protection spell is definitely an undesired unknown variable (that might well have a random aspect to it). I'd be interested in any harder data on shields though.

How does one run a singleton in A5? Particularly in Torment?

Dodge-maxing already didn't work in A4 (and Essence Shield/Armor provide much less of a bonus in A5), armor-maxing didn't work in Nethergate and that was with Armor Use, and you can't rely on Daze or sneak attacks like in G3, or Parry like in G2.

Not being able to block damage consistently means you need to heal consistently, so you need priest spells. Of course you also need mage spells for haste and slow, unlock and dispel... However, I don't think there's any way you can rely on your limited spell points to dish out damage, not even for bosses. Since dodging is a joke and the enemies will all come to you, and you can't even get a natural 10 AP until practically the end of the game, I suppose you may as well go for pole weapons over archery. This also lets you go for Strength for better armor, and go Slith. The 2 level penalty sucks, but the bonus to poison and acid resistance actually looks pretty darn good.

Frankly I wonder if this is even doable at all. Tool Use? Mage Spells? Hah...

Things that affect evasion:

5% / pt Dex

5% / pt Gymnastics

3% / pt Defense

2% / pt Luck

The 10-cap applies to all of these!

Enduring Shield: 8% + 1% / 2 pts of spell power

Enduring Armor: 18% + 1% / 2 pts of spell power

Arcane Shield: 20%

As far as I can tell, there is no "hidden evasion bonus" from equipping a shield. Somebody said there was; can they back that up?

Conclusion:

Without the 2% / pt of the old Enduring Armor spell, there is no practical way to have a reasonable dodge rate in Torment, or for that matter, late in the game in Normal.

Except for the Flaming Sword. But yeah, melee is still weak, and pretty hard to justify using.

I stand corrected. It looks like Augmentation always gives 50% of your HP back if you have 2 Endurance and are Human, but doesn't scale with Endurance or the Slith HP "bonus". If I'm right, this means it gives

19 + Level

While the regular HP formula is

38 + ( (Level + 1) * (Endurance / 2) )

and the Slith bonus is

4

Actually, I think the second one at least is more complicated, because there is a slight variation in return on endurance. There's a fraction in there somewhere, possibly a 9/8.

One of the nicest new features of A5 is that the resistances displayed in the character skills window are calculated accurately -- for the first time since, well, ever. Taking advantage of this, I've done some exploring in the area of resistances and have discovered the following.

Every resistance listed here is applied as if it is a single extra piece of armor; it multiplies with other resistances. So if you wear a 50% armor suit of armor and have Thick Skin, you have 55% armor total. Similarly, having 2 points of Strength provides one 6% stun resistance, not two discrete 3% stun resistances.

EQUIPMENT:

Armor provides half its value in armor rating to the fire/cold/electric/poison/acid resistances. The last two are new and were not given by armor in past games.

When I say "armor" in the below lists however, I only refer to the armor rating and other resistances are not affected at half or any value.

Hostile effect resistance provides points to every resistance AND to the armor rating.

TRAITS:

Strong Will - 50% mental resistance

Thick Skin - 10% armor

Divinely Touched - 20% armor (!!!)

Good Constitution - 4% H.E.R.

...additional poison and acid resistance of about 28%

Slith - 20% fire, poison and acid resistance

...and bonus HP. I can't figure out the math - is it really a flat bonus of 4 HP at any level and endurance skill?

SPELLS:

Enduring Shield - 3% armor, fire/cold/elec/pois/acid resists

Enduring Armor - 6% armor, fire/cold/elec/pois/acid resists

SKILLS:

Strength - 3%/pt stun resist

Endurance - 3%/pt pois/acid resists (a change)

Dexterity - nothing (a change)

Intelligence - 3%/pt mental resist

Arcane Lore - 2%/pt mental resist

Hardiness - 2%/pt armor, fire/cold/elec/pois/acid resists

Resistance - 3%/pt fire/cold/elec/pois/acid resists

Luck - 1%/pt H.E.R.

One more thing -- there appears to be a hard cap of 90% on every resist stat. I have only tested this a little, so I can't be positive, but that appears to be the case.

Conclusions:

- Divinely Touched is even more overpowered than we thought.

- Sliths are not really more survivable than Nephils. If anything the Nephil dodge bonus from gymnastics is more valuable.

- Hardiness is much, much better than we thought. 6 skill points reduce ALL your damage by 8%. 20 reduce it by 16%.

- Buying those 3 points of Resistance is definitely worth it.

As Duke Ellington said, "Limitations are wonderful things. Everybody should have them."

The logic problem tests such as you can find online aren't real IQ tests, which normally involve a "battery" of different types of tests. Real IQ tests don't test consistently for what we consider intelligence, either, though they do test consistently for certain subsets of it.

Wait, does that mean that a singleton can't complete the fight?

It's a job board quest, and it doesn't show up the first time you look at the board. You need to finish other quests first.

You'll be able to get there later in the game, after a certain event. Until then, you can't get to 'em.