Mea Tulpa

That isn't the first battle. It sounds like Dareva is talking about the fight with the four terrified serviles and the bugs.

Note that in Exile and Avernum, "rakshasi" and "rakshasas" are used as plurals and "rakshasa" only as singular. This is different from the typical morphology of the word, where "rakshasa" is plural.

I think the smell comes from the perfume, incense, and hookahs -- that was the impression I got from the Rakshasa cave in E2, anyway. http://encyclopedia.ermarian.net/wiki/Rakshasi

I wrote an analysis of the place of adventuring in society for EE a long while ago: http://encyclopedia.ermarian.net/wiki/Adventurers

No, those dialogs show the symptoms of being modified. Using canisters is one way to be modified, but you can be modified in other ways -- for example, by using a Geneforge. Something you are more or less told you have done at least once in the past.

Iffy, you need to give more information than that. It's a graphics problem: what is your graphics card? What are its settings at?

Nice!

Unfortunately, you can't change the scroll keys. I'dve loved to, myself.

It does sound like it would make sense to add a note about graphics card requirements to the system requirements list.

I liked ZKR as well. I didn't like everything about it, and I didn't like it as much as more plotful scenarios, but I did enjoy it. DWTD, not so much. It alternated between being confusing, boring, and weird. Ultimately it was just very unengaging.

And to clarify, Haste absolutely does not increase the chance of getting two strikes. That's Quick Action.

Right, that's what I meant; it doesn't increase the AP you start with each round.

Haste does not increase AP in Geneforge 5. I'm guessing the other effects did take place, and the lack of increased AP just jumped out.

From the manufacturer's own forums: "ProsavageDDR is really a legacy product. If you wanna play up-to-date popular games, I badly recommend you buying a new graphics card!!" You do appear to have the latest version of the drivers. But the drivers were last updated in 2004. The chip technology came out in 1999. I think you've gone as far as you can with it!

No. G4 was both more linear, and hyperfocused on Shaper/Rebel reputation; almost every quest affected it and many were affected by it. It isn't nearly as significant in G5. If you want to, you can just do a batch find of the scripts folder for the SDF associated with your reputation, and it will show you every instance your reputation is modified or checked.

Altair -- there were a number of different ProSavage chipsets made under the S3 name. Can you find the model number? For example, the ProSavage PM133, or the ProSavage KM266. From what I can tell, Wikipedia suggests that all the ProSavage models recycled elements of chip models first produced in 1999, but I'm not clear if the article covers all ProSavage models ever made. Presumably, if your graphics hardware is 10 years old, that is the problem...

I have the same graphics card on my Mac, and I've ironically run into the same issue with other games, though not any by Spiderweb. Oh well.

Don't do the fights, refuse decisions from dice, skip the entire section on creating your statistics, ignore all references to your statistics... based on the web site, that seems to cover most of the books. Just in case it's not clear, "Choose Your Own Adventure" is a specific brand of gamebook, not a type of gamebook. To make an analogy, Shadowrun is not D&D, although both are pnp rpg's. I think those two probably have more in common, though, than what's being compared here.

They do take them into battle, but where does it say they are flat out more powerful? In X2, Rentar and one of the crystal souls (I forget which one... Vyvnas maybe?) work together to pierce Garzahd's barrier. Certainly, in X3 and X4, Rentar is significantly more powerful in terms of game mechanics than any of the crystal souls you meet.

Originally Posted By: ixfd64 Hmm, this is very interesting. Does anyone think any of the supposedly more powerful Vahnatai mages will show up in future SS games? No. As for the handcuffs example, it isn't that simple. Exile 2 goes into some detail about the (apparently much weaker) curses -- wards -- whatever you want to call them -- that Elderan places on his victims, and they don't seem to come off easily, even with outside help. Presumably, if there was any way to get rid of the curse, Erika would have gotten somebody to do it. She consorted with all the most powerful mages and dragons in Exile, so I think it's fair to say it just wasn't possible.

Not really, and certainly not by definition. An ihrno is an honored mage, presumably one of great wisdom; I believe someone (Iglit? Bon-Ihrno?) translates it as "speaker". A bok is a greater honor, presumably, but the honor is given to great leaders, who may or may not be great mages. As for crystal souls, there are clearly both strengths and limitations to their magical powers. If mediocre mages can fly and teleport, why are crystal souls unable to do those things?

No. We mean exactly what we said. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_your_own_adventure

It's worth pointing out that, in Exile 2 at least, it is implied that Rentar is _not_ the strongest of the Vahnatai mages. She is stated to be the strongest of the ihrnos "currently awake," which implies there are others, not yet awake, who are stronger.

The most reasonable sounding answer, to me, is that they each had different strengths, so a simple head-to-head comparison would be hard to do (the Erika-Rentar duel is as close as you'll come to that). This makes particular sense, given that there are weaker mages who appear to be more accomplished than any of the three in certain specialties: Aimee in divination and Solberg in minddueling, for example. Rentar is particularly accomplished in the magic of transforming and transmuting: she created the Barriers and mastered Quickfire in 2, made numerous species modifications in 3, and in 4 she created the Black Shades, sea monsters, and she made some powerful liches _and_ turned herself into some kind of demonic Crystal Soul. Garzahd we know less of, but it is clear in 2 that he is a master of wards and enchantments (like Erika's curse, the guardian runes, and the enhancements on Limoncelli and on Garzahd himself). I think we can also consider him a master demonologist, given that he is the _only_ mage in the series who has successfully mastered demonic forces on a large scale. As for Erika, there are references to her involvement and innovation in practically every field of magic. Her success in transformations (cavewood, fast-growing mushrooms, and possibly glowing fungus (in-game evidence is contradictory on that one)) is notable since the only other mages shown meddling in that field are Rentar and X. Based on her success fighting Rentar and her apparent fondness for extensive fire traps, it might be fair to label her a master of the evocation of elemental forces as well.

Scorpius posted a choose-your-own-adventure book on the forums once. IIRC it was about Super Mario.