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So it's like a SW game, with diminishing returns that create a bottleneck of viable builds?

It sounds like a problem that has nothing to do with Avernum -- sounds like your file system is acting funny. Have you tried redownloading and reinstalling (and everything else listed in the Tech Support forum)?

I don't think any Spiderweb games have EVER had multi-disk installs... so that is indeed pretty confusing.

The bandit marsh is in G2, isn't it? So I would imagine he's playing G2...

GREY AS A MOUSE, BIG AS A HOUSE. NOSE LIKE A SNAKE, I MAKE THE EARTH SHAKE, AS I TRAMP THROUGH THE GRASS; TREES CRACK AS I PASS. WITH HORNS IN MY MOUTH I WALK IN THE SOUTH, FLAPPING BIG EARS. BEYOND COUNT OF YEARS I STUMP ROUND AND ROUND, NEVER LIE ON THE GROUND, NOT EVEN TO DIE. OLIPHAUNT AM I, BIGGEST OF ALL, HUGE, OLD, AND TALL. IF EVER YOU'D MET ME YOU WOULDN'T FORGET ME. IF YOU NEVER DO, YOU WON'T THINK I'M TRUE; BUT OLD OLIPHAUNT AM I, AND I NEVER LIE.

"In real life" -- people are more often than not down for the count if a single good blow connects. Maybe dead or maimed, maybe just temporarily incapacitated. So don't bring real life into this stuff.

You really are playing this emo thing for all it's worth, huh? I prefer this old picture:

The AP system was changed entirely -- you can't "fix" that as it's just a different game, different system.

Also, if you're confused about how any capturings could REALLY happen, you obviously did not spend enough time playing BattleChess. (1:15 Knight captures Rook)

"chess piece," c.1300, from O.Fr. roc, from Arabic rukhkh, from Pers. rukh, of unknown meaning, perhaps somehow related to the Indian name for the piece, rut, from Hindi rath "chariot." Confused in M.E. with roc. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=rook&searchmode=none (from just about the least untrustworthy of all the armchair etymology sources out there, which is saying something but not much) Wikipedia also seems to buy the chariot theory for rooks, although it does mention a few cases where the names are switched in India: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess#Early_history Anyway, this makes more sense to me. Chariots moving in a straight line, elephants being surprisingly awkward in a melee.

Being a Pastry Chef is more than just putting the frosting on cakes.

The trick in G1 is realizing that there isn't much difference between creations -- creation level made way more difference, and since that was optimized NOT by levelling up but by pumping stats and re-creating, you could just dump points into magic shaping, mostly ignore int, and have plenty of points leftover for magic or, yes, for endurance.

Slarty Moon always wins. Mwahahahaha. Or something.

Of course you got multiple Icy Rains off of Haste in A4 and A5. In A4 and A5, Haste didn't interact with actions at all -- it only interacted with Action Points. Now Haste interacts with actions; when you make an action, it has a 33% chance of reducing the action point cost. But apparently the AoE attacks don't trigger that, just like they didn't trigger M. Eff., because something about how they are defined is different from other actions.

Two quotes is not a post train. Bad VCH. Cut it out so I don't have to invoke Sailor Moon in its original context of locking threads.

No, and I don't believe anyone's caught that before (assuming it's true). Nice catch. I would guess this is related to the fact that AoE spells used to not work with Magicial Efficiency, and presumably stems from the fact that they were added to the original combat system -- the precursor to the Avernum 4-6 engine, the Geneforge 3 engine, had no targetted area of effect spells.

Yeah, I could never get into KoL either. I suspect I would have liked it a lot better without the whole food economy thing: only being able to play 5 turns a day initially (or have to bargain with clans for handouts) was a real turn-off.

Actually, it wasn't before his time at all.

Thanks, RCCCL. I can only think of one appropriate response (with apologies to Sailor Lilith):

There actually is a hard limit of 90% for armor and resistances. It is, as Dantius says, quite hard to reach. Armor protection is multiplied together. Because of this, it is actually MORE beneficial to have lots of protection in one piece of armor, rather than a little protection in many. Certain traits also contribute to armor, as do certain skills. In your case, Divinely Touched gives you 20%, and you probably have a few points of Hardiness that you didn't mention -- those provide armor at 2% per point, calculated altogether as if they were one piece of equipment. Luck does the same thing at 1% per point. WHAT THIS MEANS IN PRACTICE: Don't stress over armor. I mean, optimize what you have, for sure, but a difference of a couple percentage points in the strength of your gloves or boots or whatever is not going to make any noticeable difference in the damage you take.

Arguably, G5 is the hardest, simply because it's the most evenly balanced game. In any of the others, there is at least one PC build that will demolish almost the entire game on Torment without breaking a sweat (disposable creations, Parry, Vlish, and Wingbolts, respectively). G5 still has some optimal builds, mind you, but nothing so overpowered.

No, it's the Emerald Chestguard.

Race selection does not impact the cost to upgrade any skill -- at all. In any way. All of the starting PCs have way too many wasted points, making Custom the best option. This is long established, but you can look for yourself. For example, the Shaman has 89, which looks tempting compared to Custom's 75, but 3 are in Melee and 1 in Pole for a total of 17 points that are probably wasted -- and that's assuming you want a character who will cast both types of spells. Similarly, the Soldier at 87 wastes at least 13 points by training in both Melee and Pole, which is redundant, plus 3 for that useless point in Defense. Also not considered is the effect of trainers. In A4, there are a few trainers available fairly early on, so points in, e.g., Spellcraft are also kind of a waste. I think that applies to Arcane Lore and maybe Nature Lore as well, but I forget the A4 list exactly.

When I was there in... 2004 I think?... I saw two chainmail bikinis. Specifically, I saw two Klingons in chainmail bikinis. Edit: No, 2003.

No chain mail bikinis for SLC? I went to GenCon once, and it was a surprising amount of fun. There's so much stuff there that there's something to interest just about anyone.