ex post slarto

So I hear there is a First Aid trainer early on. What other skills have trainers (at reasonable points in the game)? Skills like First Aid which are secondary but still useful are especially nice to pick up that way, and are a nice thing to know about when you build characters.

Hiya folks. Nice to see so many familiar helpful faces in the new game's forum yet again! So I read most of the forum posts while waiting for A4 to download, and I've been playing just for a few hours now. A few things struck me almost immediately (especially after reading tasty vlish et al.) and I'm wondering what you guys think, before I restart with a new party, as I probably will soon. 1. Archery. Archery is really, really good. This is not so much because of the unlimited arrows and better skill/trait support -- though that helps -- but because of the new combat system. Ranged attacks become a tactical JEWEL when attacking reduces the amount you can move by more than half (give or take a haste). The fact that archery is strong, and never runs out, makes my archer feel (and play) rather like an Agent. Except better, because unlike Firebolt, archery seems to work when you are one square away from the enemy -- no need to train an archer in any melee weapons at all. So then I read about how there are four super duper special bows, and I ask myself: is there -any- reason not to give EVERY pc points in archery? I haven't played on Torment yet, so perhaps the damage is less impressive there. 2. Races. Since experience is gained relative to level, as it has always been in the Spidwebverse, and the races and advantages give bonuses that are greater than the equivalent of a few levels of skill points (especially at very high levels) there is very little reason to avoid expensive traits, or races. (That's sort of annoying -- while humans have no advantages, they have 8 icons to the sliths' and nephils' 2.) I can't see any str/dex/int bonuses -- perhaps they are hidden or only show up at higher levels? -- but given the visible or implied bonuses of polearms + resist fire for sliths, and of bows + throws + traps + gymnastics for nephils... I am finding it very hard not make all of my pcs nephils. Bows are wonderful, and I have seen no reason to doubt the utility of gymnastics, either. Certainly it seems better than resist fire, and the polearm bonus, while good, seems less useful than the bows bonus, given that polearms seem to have, once again, just barely failed to be competitive with swords. Will I be running an all-cat party, rrrrrrr? Thanks for your thoughts. --slartucker

Are these the same sets of instructions that claim Essence Shield heals you? I wouldn't take those too seriously. I imagine they were composed before the design of G1 and G2 was finalized, and haven't been touched since then.

Ivory Skull on armor increases your to-hit chance with melee weapons (and possibly missile weapons or spells, I'm not sure)

A thorn bazooka. That's AWESOME. Heh.

Actually, without the trainer it would be 8 1/2. It costs 20 skill points to raises an Agent's Blessing Magic to 9 (it starts at 1) and 16 to raise it to 8. A trainer will only save you the first two skill points. (For a guardian, on the other hand, it will give you eight skill points worth of blessing magic...)

YES really, kuc. I am well aware of the basic three-way division, but a better word for it than "generically" would be "stereotypically." Perhaps you should go look at the original analysis here . Just because the Guardian is presented as "the" melee class does not necessarily mean it is actually better at it.

Actually, the health factor was discussed in that thread from the get-go, though admittedly not with numbers. I think that got defused by D.V.'s recurring exclamations about how easily everything dies on Torment no matter how much health you have Student of Trinity wrote: "The point isn't so much that the melee Agent would be a weak Guardian, but that she would be so much like a Guardian that you might as well play a real Guardian instead." You could just as easily say "the Guardian would be so much like a melee Agent that you might as well play a real melee Agent instead." *shrug*

I said that PUMPING blessing magic is not useful. i.e., bringing both it and spellcraft up to 20 as is often done with battle magic -- this would be a waste. I certainly wasn't implying that a melee agent should avoid using blessing magic! Good god no. And there are very few circumstances under which ANY kind of agent should EVER attack something which is undazed and won't die from the attack if you have less than 10 AP remaining. Cmon, common sense people. Melee agents may end up Dazing more often than a battle magic agent, but you won't be using essence or energy on spells much -- especially once you get a Regenerating Claymore. The argument that they are just like weak guardians is COMPLETELY fatuous. There's a thread here (Agent vs. Guardian I think) where I did out the math; by the late game the Agent will only be a few levels shorter on melee stats, but can opt to have a very functional Daze and Strong Daze. The Guardian won't be able to daze tougher creations without completely neglecting other stats; this is a huge disadvantage.

Pumping blessing magic is not very useful, as there seems to be a 'ceiling' effect -- after a certain point, bless doesn't get more powerful, etc., although they do last longer. It is however very possible to play agents melee-style. Compared to guardians, the loss of a few points on some melee skills is more or less balanced with the significantly easier time you'll have keeping Daze functional. The agent is more flexible, though. There's no real advantage to this over the standard battle magic agent, but it's extremely doable.

Yes, that's it. I can see it now... GENEFORGE 4: REVENGE OF DIWANIYA I guess he enlisted those minotaurs for aid, huh.

I'm not exactly a fan of the minotaur idea, SoT, but it's not much more far-fetched than the Vahnatai were in Exile II — and they were a huge hit. Similarly, the change from subterranean to surface in the next game was extremely drastic, yet Exile III was even more popular than its predecessors. If Jeff wanted to get rid of the canisters, I'm sure he's capable of recombining (hee hee) the things about them that people like — the 'free' stat boosting, the corruption, the decisions — in some other commercially viable way.

Some people mostly use Torment. Some of them post a lot. Most people mostly use Normal. However, they are plenty of both here, so you really ought to identify this when you post about strategy. The game is a drastically different experience on these two settings. They also tend to lead people to very different strategies, since Normal allows you to play in a number of different ways, whereas Torment really forces you to use only the most efficient tactics.

Yes, this was discussed quite a bit when GF3 released originally.

Did we ever conclude whether the "weightless armor" effect reduces damage from all attacks, or just the plain physical ones that regular armor is good against?

There are both rebel and loyalist research notes quests, and they are both on the third island. I think (though I don't remember) they provide equal gold and XP rewards.

What Hume said. I don't know why no one listens when people explain this. The experience penalty is ridiculously temporary as a result of this, and you will generally just float along 0-3 levels behind a solo character.

A-vlishing we will go! A-vlishing we will go! High ho the merry-o, a-vlishing we will go!

No, there is no other place to undergo the test or upgrade the bracelet. (Rather annoyingly. Boats, boats, boats...)

Well, there is a slowing enhancement, which is essentially the same thing as stunning (melee attack, Glaahk or Stunning Blade stunning, not Stun spell stunning). I think it's from the blue crystal (Runed something). The Stunning Blade is ABSOLUTELY BRUTAL if you are only fighting a single enemy. My melee agent used it to dice up golems and other highly resistant enemies. The Stunning Blade will get you 2 stuns regularly with good Quick Action and melee stats, whereas the enhancement will only get you 1, and not even 1 every attack. I think the regeneration enhancement fits it better -- if you don't have to pause for healing, that's 2 extra stuns you get in, which is huge even if you are hasted and attacking 3 times per round. However, against multiple regular strength enemies you are much better off with the raw damage power of the Claymore. The Stunning Blade would also be extremely effective for a Guardian supported by Glaahks. Actually -- that sounds like a fun theme, eh Delicious Vlish? The Glaahkmeister.

I suppose exitzone is fair play? Waiting for those ornks to cross zones takes forever...

It seems like bless and shielding have a ceiling as to how strong the effect is, although they (and speed) certainly last longer with better skill. By halfway through the game a guardian will be nearly as capable as an agent at buffing.

All of them work both ways, except for regeneration. Steel spines on a sword do extra damage the same way that fire cold and acid enhancements do, except the damage is physical. I think it does slightly more damage, but I haven't tested much.

>What do the "Strikes faster" and "Dodges blows" enchantments do (from >Tiny Orb of Mist)? One improves your Quickness skill and another reduces the damage from blows slightly. And what, if anything, does the "Regeneration" >enchantment do on armor? I think this was bugged and didn't do anything, but will have a clear effect in 1.0.2. Forget what it was, though.

indeed. I think I got confused by the redundant "no battle magic." in that case, all you're really doing is running a guardian with weaker skills.