Marak

Nominative determinism. Nice. I still say authors have a tendancy to do this (whether on purpose or not), whereas in real life it's normally more coincidence than anything.

I sort of agree with you... having a real use for Tool Use would be great. I mean, really, what is it good for OTHER than avoiding the damage from traps? Nothing. Open Doors is better than Tool Use at opening roughly 99.95% of the doors in the game.

I think Pickpocketing would be great. Your Skill vs. the NPC's Level (or equivalent)... failure means the town hates you (like Stealing), success nets you some Coins and maybe some sellable loot of minor value (or great value, depending on the NPC, imagine what would be in X's pockets, for instance...)

Actually, I was thinking more of Patrick in A2 (Mr. OMG! Linda summoned a demon or 3! I am SO outta here *teleports halfway across Avernum and stays there for a long, long time*) and X, who made tracks for safer points the moment Linda started trouble in A3.

Or maybe I should make it

13. When Linda does something bad, the Triad flees in terror, because the most powerful mages in Avernum stand NO chance against Demons; only ADVENTURERS are equipped to fight THOSE things.

Well, seriously. What do Adverturers have in the way of Demon Slaying Prowess that the Triad does not?

Ok, fine, they might have Repel Spirit Level 3 and the Demonslayer, but those are trivial! *goes and hides in the corner*

*Rant Mode: On* I just love how characters in Video Games, Movies, Books, etc. will often have names that give hints as to who they are or what they do. Because, you know, Mom and Dad would be looking at their newborn baby, and one would say to the other, "You know dear, he looks like he'll be a Necromancer some day. Let's name him Necaros!"

Or maybe, "He seems like a loner, honey. I think we should call him Purgatos!" *Rant Mode: Off*

Yeah, not trying to make fun of anyone (like Jeff or J.K. Rowling), but I find it somewhat humorous when characters have names that describe them in adulthood. Especially when said name is their real, honest, legal, given name and not some kind of taken-for-granted nickname.

Any other ironic, too-true names you've seen in Avernum you want to share? I'm sure I've forgotten a bunch of them.

Edit: And how about the Island of Bigail? With the roaches all over it, spreading filth and disease, anyone living there experiences a Big Ailment! Ba bum Ksh!

Granted, the poor sap in Amontillado wasn't a Mage per say, but when I saw that screenshot that's the first thing that popped into my head. I could just see a guy in Anama robes, his ring glinting in the dim light, bricking up the poor, bound mage for past transgressions while the doomed man futilely cried out for mercy.

Poe FTW.

For A2: 4 Human Customs, normally 2 males and 2 females. I go supremely magic heavy, with EVERY character able to cast both Priest and Mage spells, and at the highest level you can start with (usually 6 Mage/5 Priest). I neglect all stats except the Big Four, Mage and Priest spells. One character gets Tool Use, one Potion Making, one Arcane Lore, and one Luck.

Oh, and every Character ALWAYS has Natural Mage and Sickness Prone. Uber Mageness for a 5% XP hit? I can handle that. It's fun to slaughter everything with a party that's able to Haste themselves and cast 8 attack spells per round. Sure, buying all those spells gets expensive, but you never need to buy equipment in Avernum, so what else are you going to spend your coins on? Other than the occasional Special Skill, that is.

For A3: because Melee characters aren't totally worthless in A3 like they are in A2, I make a Party much like my A2 one, but with 2 characters that put a few more points into Melee/Pole Weapons and Strength. That way I can have 4 casters, 2 of which are also able to fight fairly well (and take the hits a bit better) at the expense of having 18 Mage/18 Priest by the end of the game.

I also give everyone a scattering of points in Hardiness and Defense, and the 2 Fighter-types get a point or 3 in Assassination. Works pretty well. The lead character can smite things out of combat if need be, and everyone can wear heavy armor (thanks to Natural Mage and Hardiness).

As for names, I have a few favories:

I pick 4 of the following names for my Custom Humans: Taya, Lanea, Marak, Rallen, Mortred, Mallis, and Nema.

If I put in a Slith of Nephil (I normally don't), I give them bizarre names like Sh1tzu (a breed of dog, har har) and Zard (short for LIzard, get it? Tee hee!). Yeah, I have a Human bias, sue me.

What happens in Delis after 40 days? I don't think I've seen that... do the slimes overrun the whole town or something?

It was kind of fun to cut the Linda/Portal in half with the Blassed Athame (sp?). She certainly deserved some kind of messy end like that. Talk about not learning from the past...

Hrmm, I guess the question is this: Are you willing to get you Potion Making up to 12-15? Is it worth about 5 Levels' worth of Skill Points to be able to make Elixers and Knowledge Brews at the end of the game, and the occasional MP-restoring potion for the bulk of the game?

If you answered "NO" to one or both of the above, it's probably not worth it to invest all the time, coins, and skill points in Alchemy/Potion Making.

All I can say about this topic is...

"For the love of God, Montresor!"

The short answer: Yes.

The longer answer: you start off by getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% of an item's actual value when selling to vendors. You can incrase this value to roughly 60% by getting 16-20 points in Barter. Obviously, in order to "max out" your sell-to-vendor value, you need to give each PC 4 or 5 points in Barter.

I'd also recommend doing it sooner rather than later; yes, you'll be poorer now, but it will make you much richer later, which is important if you want/need to buy new Spells, Level 2 Spells, Steel (or better) equipment, etc.

Both, I think.

11. No one - Adventurers and townsfolk alike - is able to resist the urge to sit in any and all chairs that they happen to be walking past.

12. Half the people in Avernum are described as being pale to the point of having semi-translucent skin, while the other half are somehow "dark skinned". ???

13. When the going gets tough, members of the Triad get going.

Ok, I'm serious here. If you haven't played through A3 to (almost) the very end, STOP READING NOW.

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Ok. I just fired up an old save of mine after reading through Draky's A3 FAQ on GameFAQs, and I noticed that he kept STRONGLY hinting that something would happen to the Tower of the Magi after Day 160. So, I bought a ton of mushrooms and Rested about 100 times until I got to day 161, walked my Party back to the Portal to the Tower, and...

It's all destroyed! Infested with Demons! All the NPCs that weren't part of the Triad nothing but bloodstains and mangled corpses laying about!

Shattered walls! Pits of fire/lava! Imps EVERYWHERE! Demons standing sentinel at every path that leads to the Portal in the tower's center!

A badly injured and harrassed Solberg telling you how Linda finally f'ed it up big time and all but summoned Hath-groth (sp) back into Avernum!

Man. It's one thing for a game to hint that trouble might be brewing... but to actually go ahead and have the WORST happen, to utterly destroy a bastion of power like the Tower of the Magi... to kill everyone present indiscriminately, as would be the case if a demonic invasion were to unexpectedly occur...

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I have to give massive Kudos to Jeff for doing it. To penalize you for lingering overlong in a very real, very disturbing, and impossible to fully rectify way. I think going back to the nuked Tower is one of the BEST Avernum moments of them all.

Uh, that's all. I just wanted to vent. Comments are, of course, welcome.

Since you have the Radiant Slith Spear and are using "War Blessing" I can only assume that you're fighting an A3 Doomguard. Here's what I did to defeat them with my Party:

1. War Bless and Haste whomever has the Radiant Slith Spear. Back everyone else off.

2. Have the RSS weilder attack the initial Doomguard.

3. Attack the Doomguard with the smallest bar/least HP until you snuff it. Your allies should only attack IF there's a Doomguard clone with a sliver of life that they're guaranteed to kill. Otherwise they should just be standing around, offering moral support, buffing, and healing for Mr. RSS.

4. Repeat step 3 until all the clones are dead. GG Doomguard.

8000 Coins might seem like a lot, but I personally find it to be a worthwhile investment:

-Just the fact that you have your very own house to explore, and "decorate", and plunder (none of this "NY" crap here ), is pretty sweet to begin with.

-Toss in the fact that the game rewards you with a couple of nice items if you do purchase Hawk's Manse, and...

-The place is the Ultimate Inn: no cost, and FULL HP and MP restoration every time you sleep there. Oh, and you get a room to leave a character behind in, so it doubles as a "barracks" as well.

-Finally, it makes a convenient location to drop stuff you're not using but don't want to sell. Those little side rooms off the foyer make great dumping zones.

I guess it's sort of misleading, because in that promotional blurb for the game, they make it sound like you have several houses to choose from, instead of just one, but oh well. I'd rather have one choice than none at all, you know?

I'm just curious how high some of you have been able to get your Reputation up to. Personally, I got mine up to 94 (Legendary), but I'm pretty sure I got my Rep lowered by a point or two somewhere along the line, and there's bound to be a quest or three that I haven't completed (or completed and never got the reward for).

I guess my question is, what's the max possible Rep? 100? And is there a better "title" than "Legendary"?

Yes, stupidly enough, attacking monsters that are currently "friendly" due to a Control Foes spell will lower your reputation, which is just a huge pet peeve of mine.

Think about it. You're in the depths of some dungeon, and you attack a monster that is currently helping you for a few moments but will try to slaughter you the moment the spell wears off, and somehow word of this ATROCIOUS deed makes it's way out of said dungeon and ALL OVER AVERNUM, thus lowering your reputation. Sure.

Video Game Logic strikes again.

Yeah, Melee is much fixed in A3. My 30th Level Fighter with a Shining Slith Spear, 10 Str, 6 Polearm, and various Str/Blademaster/Anatomy/Assassination-boosting jewelry can Assassinate for over 175 damage now, and he typically deals 140 damage normally (that is, with Bless, which I almost always cast on him first thing). High-level Magic still kills things faster, but at least my fighters can actually make themselves useful against magic-resistant and boss-type monsters.

Interesting note: for whatever reason, every time one of your Big Four stats (Str, Dex, Int, End) increases to an even number (6, 8, 10, etc), you seem to get some MAJOR bonuses. This is especially true for Intelligence: that "every other point boost" will typically grant all your offensive spells an additional target. Dexterity boosts make you noticably faster in combat. Stuff like that.

I'm a wuss and am playing on Normal, so that shouldn't be a factor.

Slasher: No, that would be my Priestess, who doubles as my other fighter-type for when things get hairy.

She does some decent damage, but again, only shines when under the influence of Divine Warrior.

Macrsp: I'll have to get some more coinage and try that. Thanks for the tip.

Wanna make life easy?

*****Spoiler Alert*****

Go to Erika's Tower, and read all of the books that she's standing next to (you can take them all, none of them are NY). One of them will teach your Mages Haste Level 3.

Enjoy!

Well, if you do, let me know how it turns out. I'm curious.

Could you fire off your skill set, like I did above with Dirk? I'd like to see one of your fighter-types full set of stats, for comparison purposes.

Are you kidding? Divine Warrior also gives you a HUGE damage boost... like Bless, only about 3x stronger! Of course, it slowly wears off over the next 6 rounds or so, but it's great for beating down Demons and Doomguards and the like.

I probably should have trained in Blademaster, too. But it's too late now, I'm only going to get 6 Skill Points, and that's only if I somehow find a way to get enough XP to advance Dirk to Level 50 (unlikely. Even slaughtering Athron and all her cronies wasn't enough XP - not that I saved with Athron dead or anything, I just wanted to see if I could win the fight).

But yeah, the nice thing is that the damage bonuses from Divine Warrior and Bless stack. But the point still remains... the only way to do good damage is to spend 20 MP on your fighter for Divine Warrior, Haste, and Bless, and even then they only REALLY shine for a few rounds until the damage bonuses from Divine Warrior start to wear off.

Bleah. I'm glad they fixed this for Avernum 3. It's SO nice to have my Str 10, Level 12 Fighter doing close to a 100 damage per attack with his Shining Slith Spear.

Slasher: haven't you seen the picture for Luck? That's why.

I think what I'm getting at here is that you shouldn't need to have Divine Warrior cast on your Warrior to make him viable. Dirk sucks - hard - unless he's buffed to high heaven. You'd think with all those points in Gymnastics he would occasionally get 5 AP per round, but no. Unbuffed, Dirk gets 1 attack per round and does very mediocre damage. I'm just wondering if there was something I could have done to make him better...

Someone suggested more points in Assassination, but the whole "you need to be a higher Level than your foe" aspect of it really limits it's usefullness, imho. Sure, it's great when you're Level 49 and Assassinating Dervishes for double damage, but it's one of those skills that isn't reliable when you really need it.

Would more Dexterity have helped, perhaps? Can you get the occasional "extra" AP with a high enough Dex, you do you HAVE to have Fast on Feet and/or be a Kitty?

I dunno. I did everything I could to make Dirk this powerhouse in both Melee and Ranged combat, and I'm not sure if I spread him too thin (and thus failed somewhat in my build) or if it's just the game itself that's limiting him...