Alorael at Large

The Avernum games are remakes of the Exiles, so of course they're similar. Still, there are differences. The ToSF of Exile lost its shifting floors and got lasers everywhere, caches appeared, and little things like that. —Alorael, who knows A1 got Lost B. He isn't sure if A2 and A3 got any really important new places like that.

Go into the Wolf Pit and head to the northeast corner via several secret passages. Go up the stairs. The statue is there. —Alorael, who believes it's technically in the bandit lair. However, since you can't get to the statue directly from the lair, just go through either that or the goblin area to get to the Wolf Pit.

Hathwisa's father gives you the quest to rescue her if you're playing Celts. He won't speak to a Roman party, so the noises are just there for completeness. Galag-Trav still has some nice treasures, including a special item for a quest and one of the few opportunities for Romans to get some Faerie Lore. —Alorael, who wouldn't pass up all the irritating buttons and portculli for the world. Well, not for a very small world.

As someone playing through the Celt side of Nethergate again, I agree with Thuryl. Everyone hits less, does less damage, gets hit more, takes more damage, casts spells with fewer targets, casts spells with lessened effects, gets diseased more easily... Being cursed makes your party rather awful. —Alorael, who originally intended to try playing through the game while cursed. This became painfully irritating and he gave up the attempt.

On Mac OS 9, you can get a nifty program called Pandora's Box that will let you edit experience in Avernum as well as just about any numerical value in any application. I'm sure there are equivalents for OS X (or maybe Pandora's Box still works) and Windows, but I have no idea what they are. —Alorael, who supposes you could also just use the editor to send your character's endurance through the roof. It will make him slightly stronger than the higher level characters, actually, but you can reduce his endurance as his level goes up.

I'd take a single character with decent fighting skill, high priest skill, and some mage skill over anything else. None of the preset skill allocations are something I'd want to use solo, although berserker isn't bad. —Alorael, who thinks there may be a mistake here. Avernum "classes" just assign starting skill points for you. They have no effect at all past level 1. The only advantage is that some "classes" have more skill points than custom, but this is offset by the fact that many points are wasted in worthless skills.

You probably missed at least one of the many secret doors in the Spiral Pit. Keep going further and further towards the center until you reach a central room with corpses and, I think, a magic barrier. Kill some moderately nasty but mostly unimpressive undead thing there and the quest will be as done as it gets in A1. —Alorael, who found the end of the crypt to be a great disappointment. It's only moderately more satisfying when you finish the job in A2. Mostly, the Spiral Pit is an annoying waste of time.

Once a topic is revived, it's not a crime to keep talking. That said, usually topics like this should be permitted to die gracefully again. Also, as Angry Ogre notes, DwtD explains that Vahkos was killed by adventurers, presumably in A3. So Jeff wasn't entirely ignoring it, just ignoring the part were the vampire is permanently and emphatically deceased. —Alorael, who also feels a need to point out that the "Anama guy" Ahonar can only cure Dread Curse and regular problems. For Vahkos' special curse, only smashing the crystal will help.

Formello is a nice city. Almaria is nice too, but I agree with Formello. I didn't notice anything special that shot Silvar ahead of Formello in A2, but in any case the vahnatai cities are more beautiful if you like that aqua wall, green floor, blue crystal effect. I pick Olgai. Krizsan is a nice, quiet, undestroyed city, but Lorelei is the nicest when it isn't too demolished. Gale, on the other hand, is truly stunning when seen through a haze of skribbane. —Alorael, who has just realized that his skribbane blood content is getting dangerously high. Time to dilute that blood back down to a reasonable percentage.

The idea is to sell items that are involved in quests that pay out more than the item's price. Unicorn horns, for example, can be given to Mayor Arbuckle in Krizsan, I think, in exchange for more gold than you spend buying them. That said, if you're going to cheat, why not just use the editor? —Alorael, who would also sell items worth stocking up on if he were going to abuse Levy. A Knowledge Brew will let you get endless skill points with your endless gold.

But yes, you can go back to Ghikra (or just about anywhere else) and buy the spells for any and all of your party members. —Alorael, who has also had fun with forgetting which character is selected when he buys spells. The editor is a perfectly valid recourse for fixing human error.

I stick with my four created characters. Taking the NPCs just isn't as much fun. —Alorael, who grows attached to his idiosyncratic skill point allocations. He needs those 10 points in First Aid!

So it is. I stand corrected! —Alorael, who therefore recommends that you do not look for Vyvnas-Bok in Angierach.

An enemy with a sound reason for being in the scenario at all, let alone your enemy, is by far better than anything else. Evil for evil's sake rarely works well, and insanity is even worse unless it's moderate insanity that plays a supporting role to character background. —Alorael, who doesn't particularly care about species. Humans, especially non-magical humans, are often less likely to fall into the Generic Evil Guy trap, but anything can work and anything can be trite.

You don't need your character to be level nine to cast Simulacrum or Capture Soul. You need the character to have nine points in the skill called Mage Spells. You can't cast any spell without enough of the appropriate skill. —Alorael, who thinks this sounds like the most likely cause of grayed-out spells.

It doesn't work like that in A1-A3, just BoA. You have to get the special skills through various quests and purchases. Also, Fast on Feet is a trait, not a skill. The only way to get one of those is to pick it while you are creating your characters. Anatomy can be learned from someone in Paulsbo, I think. Find the giant spies and you'll get a few points. Barter can be purchased from a Divine Lucre priest in Lorelei. Blademaster can be bought from a drake in Northwestern Valorim, but I believe you need the Orb of Thralni to reach him. It's 10,000 gold for 1 point per party member. Find Herbs is the reward for killing some ogres for a vampire somewhere in the northwest. Note that while the ogres also give you a quest with a good reward, you can only help one or the other, and there's no other source for Find Herbs. Gymnastics is for sale somewhere, but I have no recollection of where. You can get a point from a pool in the place called the Woodsy Tower in E3 (and called the Fading Tower in A3, I believe). Magery is sold by Erika. It's expensive but worth it. Parry is allegedly taught by someone in Tevrono after you defeat the golems, but I've never gotten it from a steady source. There are a few points to be grabbed here and there, though. Resistance comes from a handful of Mind Crystals, and your entire party gets one or two points from Ivanova in Golddale for completing her quest. It lowers your reputation, but it's easily worth that slighty setback. Vahnatai Lore is taught by one of the Crystal Souls in Ghikra, but you can get plenty by doing a quest for Mahdavi. There are a few other places with some of this skill, too, and it's not very useful, so save your money. —Alorael, who hopes all this was helpful. And if he's totally wrong... Well, it's been a while since A3.

There is no Crystal Soul in Sulfras' lair. It's in the fortress where Pyrog's lair once was. Another is in Angierach, and the third in the Ornotha Ziggurat. If you want more specific spoilers, post and ye shall find. —Alorael, who doesn't think a little thing like Quickfire would phase a Crystal Soul. They're rocks!

The stat system, definitely. Nether spells are also fun, although few of them were worth the effort or the spell points. —Alorael, who has to admit that he really enjoys playing the plot from two points of view. It would be even better if he didn't find the Romans painfully difficult to play as.

Happy fun ball! —Alorael, who notes sadly that the original product was shipped to "troops in Iraq," and that the "commercial" aired slightly over a decade ago. Funny how these things work out!

Actually, everyone carries change around because everyone knows that roving bands of adventurers come in the night and take everything that isn't nailed down. —Alorael, who always thought soldiers carried money around because they were members of the Church of the Divine Lucre.

Another consideration is that while mages can dish out lots of damage quickly, a buffed fighter can keep on dealing damage indefinitely. With Divine Warrior, he's invulnerable, too. Keep tossing Fireblasts at every Empire soldier that comes your way and you'll run out quickly or spend a fortune in potions. —Alorael, who always had higher damage from his casters as well, assuming no resistances. Still, his unbuffed fighters were a bit more impressive, and they had the key advantage of almost never taking a hit in melee.

The whole place turns against you, and guards are tough, but they're not unbeatable. In fact, in A2, you have to kill several of them. But for low-level parties, wiping out towns is impossible. Confine your pernicious deeds to areas where nobody can see them. —Alorael, who has given the matter of guards some thought. Since they are much stronger than ordinary soldiers, there must be a reason. It's obvious: magical steroids! Sure, they're tough, hulking brutes, but they were unfortunately cerebrectomized in the process. Such is the price of defending the homeland.

In general, I've found that all the potions except healing and energy are of limited utility. You can get the same effects from spells, and often better. While I occasionally use potions I find, the only ones I ever carry around just in case are for invulnerability. You never know when you'll run into something that just does too much damage. —Alorael, who acknowledges that this isn't exactly the question asked. To finish, most potions are useless, and potions that give invulnerability or Divine Might are best when used in combat after you've discovered that you need a buff very, very badly.

They obviously use silver as clubs, and think about how many tiny things you may lose in your pockets. Consider how much larger giants are. They obviously lose bits of money and never notice. Large bits. —Alorael, who doesn't think anyone would want to carry sweaty, bloody, and huge pieces of giant clothing or armor.

I'd make a backup saved game before going out the back. You're not supposed to do it, and you might just get stuck. —Alorael, who can't remember if it's possible to enter Blackcrag from the north. If you can, just use the editor again, walk south, and you're back to where you started.