Hondero

I'm playing Exile 1 for the first serious time and it's a lot of fun. There are some things I'm confused about, though, mainly about armor and items:

 

1.) If a piece of armor says [defend: 8], for example, does it work like a weapon? In other words, does that piece of armor block anywhere from 1-8 physical damage whenever the character is hit?

Let's say I add a piece of armor to this character that says [defend: 5] in addition to the armor above. Does this mean the character is now protected from 2-13 physical damage or does the armor system work differently?

 

2.) In the beginning of the game, the Bat Cave dungeon held some Silver Gauntlets. They have no defense value, but their ability is "Protection." Does this mean it offers resistance against fire, magic, and poison? I have noticed that the PC wearing these has sometimes avoided light damage from things like Flame spells. Rings of Protection also have the Protection ability, but also have a Level value (which I think adds defense value like armor in my above question)... do they not offer any magical resistance?

 

3.) One of my PCs has a Silver Ankh, which "Protects from Undead" -- how does this exactly work? I haven't noticed Liches running away from my party or anything like that since I equipped it.

 

4.) I have never really duel-wielded in an Exile game before but have read that in E1 it is especially useful. Any opinions vs. sword/shield and two-handed sword, and should I hold off duel-wielding with my edged-skilled PC until I find two particular swords?

 

Sorry about the question overload and thanks for any help!

I never got farther than the Golems, and never finished the Giants. I agree, the beginning (pre-plague) and middle (slimes and roaches) were the most fun. It would have been cool if the Upper Exile area was longer and more-challenging, so you'd spend more time there. After finishing that, you could tackle the slimes and roachs -- but they would have to be beefed-up so they wouldn't be too easy compared to Nephils, Sliths, and Bandits.

I chose E2 because it has much of the same world as E1 -- same area for most of the Exile caves, but it seems "expanded" compared to E1, and it has different encounters -- and more, with all of the Vahnatai stuff at the beginning.

 

I would love to try E1 because it has the same area with different dungeons and quests, but I just haven't been able to get into it. I am too used to the monsters and spell systems of E2 and E3, and E1 is very challenging because of that!

 

But, one thing I do like about E1 and E2 are that magic items are few and far-between. So many games have weapons like "Sword of fire", "Axe of fire", etc. But in E1 and E2, every magic item is almost unique... I really like that. It's also neat how your party has to parcel out magic items like the Boots of Speed in E2 -- in any other game, you would probably be able to find six of a certain useful item and just give them to every character, but in E2, you have to really think about who you want to give those two pairs of boots.

While Exile I is the original, it is *tough* in the beginning, and it has a more primitive engine than the other two. Exile II is my favorite, but the game sort of throws you into the action early on, which can be a shock. Exile III might be the best to start out on -- at least that's what I started out playing (when I thought that creating a party and "PCs" were about Personal Computers!)

 

All in all, you can't really go wrong with any of them, so just have fun.

Thank you for the help again. At first I told the commander to launch the attack and the barrier still wasn't down, but then I triggered the changed special at the entrance of the fort, which gave the option of starting the attack. The Ziggurat was a lot of fun and so was the battle on the Guardian Plains; this game rocks. I might go back to level 2 and see if there's anything special because the quickfire made me run for it.

 

I plan to go to Ft. Kothar for the Orb next, just to get the Crystal Green Mace (a magic flail for my 3rd fighter just isn't enough) in the chasms near New Sulfras's Lair, and the chasms need the Orb to get across.

Thanks for the reply. Raiding Kothar for the Orb sounds like a good idea, so I will give that a try.

Today, I just delivered the Orders to Fort Haledon to the commander there, and he said he'd help assault the Ziggurat. The tunnel right to the east of the fort still had an impassable barrier (it leads to the Ornotha Ziggurat), so I think I did miss the evidence step you mentioned.

I thought I loved Exile 2's non-linear quality, but after taking a 3-month break, I am overwhelmed at all the quests I need to do. Those other RPGs that have a self-recording quest book really makes things easier (little to no thinking needed, LOL). But after firing up Exile 2 again, I don't know exactly which quests to do.

 

If it helps, here is some info on my party:

The characters are level 43, 45, 43, 23, 22, and 20. You can tell which ones do most of the killing.

I have royal clearance, all three Empire passes, and my keys are: BIM LVFR

 

 

So far, I still have a lot to do. But I'm not exactly sure what order to do these things:

 

 

1. Get the Onyx Scepter, use it to destroy the empire teleporter? Mahdavi tells me that information on the teleporter and the scepter are in a tower north of Fort Dranlon (Tower of Elderan). However, I already killed Elderan and sacked his tower much earlier as a previous quest, and I must have seen everything there was... should I re-do his tower to find this information?

 

2. Get the Orb of Thralni. I went through most of Fort Kothar before, but stopped at that nasty room, where walking certain directions generated monsters and fields.

 

3. Teleport to Akhronath and retrieve Vyvnas-Bok (I have quickfire and have talked to Erika, Athron, and Ostoth)

 

4. Free Caffren-Bok from the Ziggurat.

 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

I actually was wondering the same thing a while ago and asked here, but Alorael said that the book didn't actually have anything to do with missiles.

 

http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthr...19313#Post19313

I forget exactly where it is (maybe in the treasure area of the commander's quarters), but the Shield Mace is a very nice item in this stage of the game. Decent damage and bonus defense without any encumbrance, and only one-handed.

Thanks for the advice all. I have started to boost my thief character's mage and priest skills, as well those for the three fighters, and so far it is a major help to have the little casters use their SP on healing and curing poison, so that the main priest has SP freed up for the party-buffers and damage spells.

 

Interestingly and off-topic, I was playing through the Vahnatai Fortress in the northern chasm area and I noticed that every Vahnatai Bladesmaster didn't die. At first I thought they were really tough, then I cast Scry Monster, and noticed an HP of 1500!! And after taking a hit, they lost no health and were still listed as "unwounded." Fortunately a reload of the same save file fixed everything.

That is a good idea - in my current E2 party, my fighters are all maxed out as far as weapons skills and defense skill. I planned to pump points into assassination but forgot that priest spells aren't penalized by encumbrance, so I will have to get them some priest spells.

Thanks for the Wound spell tip, Thuryl. I knew it did damage different from regular 'magic' damage but kind of forgot about it since my casters are usually all in the back and out of range. Is there a way to increase the damage that Wound does, as well as other spells in general? My priest PC has 20 intelligence and magical aptness, but does caster level factor in also?

I started with Exile 3, but Exile 2 is my favorite. I like how the whole cave setting is there just as in Exile 1, only expanded. Lots of games have big outdoor areas which are easy to imagine, but imagining hundreds of miles of expansive caves is something different... kind of a mysterious quality I can't really explain. But it's original.

 

Also, how it has nearly the same combat and spell system as E3. IMO, E2 combines the best of both E1 and E3.

I am curious as to what people pick for their parties for Exile 2 or 3. It's neat that the whole Exile series doesn't have restrictive classes like so many RPGs.

 

I usually take:

1. Human "tank" - Bladed weapons, only weapons-related skills.

2. Slith "tank" - just like #1, but with pole weapons.

3. Human "tank" - just like #1, but with bashing weapons for diversity.

4. Nephil "thief" - some skill in bladed weapons, some archery, lockpicking galore.

5. Human mage

6. Human priest.

 

Yes, it is a might-centered party - I mainly use the spellcasters to buff up the party with things like Major Blessing, or heal when that is needed, and let the fighters do 95% of the damage. A lot of the high-level monsters are magic resistant, so physical always seemed like the best choice.

The fighters in this party are all similar, but I usually give the #3 tank lots of armor, so they can stay at the front lines and be pretty much immune to any physical attacks. The #2 Slith might have less armor but a ring or boots of speed so that they can flank the enemy spellcasters early in the battle (less encumbrance + added speed is a real advantage).

 

What kind of parties do other people take? The reason I'm asking is that in other Role Playing Games, I only usually play with one type of party. When other players wrote about different party make-ups that I wouldn't have thought of, it opened some doors of possibility and made the game even more fun.

It's been a little while, but thanks for converting this over! Very helpful item info.

I've downloaded the file "exile2.book.of.items.sit.hqx," which I believe to be a book of all the items in Exile 2 (I got it a while ago, but I think I downloaded it from the Spiderweb site).

 

Unfortunately, I remember the file being marked for Macs only, and I have Windows. I tried opening the .hqx file with Winzip, but it didn't work. It just contained the .sit file which can't be opened by Windows either.

 

Is there any way to open Macintosh files like this on a Windows PC, or perhaps a Windows-compatible version of the list? I want to get back into Exile 2, and this would be very useful, since the editor doesn't show every item like Exile 3. Thanks for any help!

I recently started Exile 2, and I love it. It's perfect, except for one thing:

 

What's the deal with monster respawning? I can see the point of it if you leave a dungeon for a while, and then come back. That's realistic. But when I am playing Exile 2, the monsters seem to respawn while I am still walking around the same dungeon. Personally, I think it's obscene. In areas like Elderaan's Tower, it's ridiculous. It seems more like something an old 80's rpg might have, but not the Exile series.

 

Fortunately, I haven't noticed this in Exile 3 or Blades, but I still am hooked on Exile 2. Can someone explain how respawing works, such as its schedules? Maybe there is a way to disable it. It's such a good game, but I'm getting frustrated! >

 

Thanks,

Rob

Well that's not very good! Still has a cool name though

(sorry, double post)

Well, I sent Mab a PM yesterday, because I read in an old topic that she had made a list that had all the items. Mab sent me the list today, and it really does have all the items, and what they do and where the uniques ones can be found. Incredible work, Mab. If you would like a copy of the list, send me your email and I can send it out.

Sturg, I bet you're right on that. I like how Exile has few magic items, compared to other games where they are scattered everywhere. So when you find a magic weapon in Exile, it is actually special.

 

Randomizer, I haven't gotten that far yet (demons and lava kill me!), but I'll remember for when I do.

I have had trouble finding lists of all the items (esp. weapons and armor) for E1. It seems to be because unlike Exile 3 and later, the editor doesn't have a complete list. Also, it's pretty old, so there's not as much out there. There are some faq/walkthroughs which have some items, but they don't seem to show everything.

 

The only site I found which had a complete list is http://www.angelfire.com/games2/exile/exile/items.html

and even the author says that not all of the items are available in the game. Curiously, I was looking through the exile.exe file with Textpad, and found that there is a list of items (only the names) in that file, with things I have never seen in the Exile game- like Frost Axe and Mace of Augvah.

 

I guess my question is, is there some kind of list of items that I haven't found while searching around online? Or, is there a way to decode the exile.exe file so I can see the stats for "secret" items (and I have no programming skills whatsoever)?

I've done the bat cave and the undead pit. They had some nice treasure! I remember those slith islands from Exile, but the demo of A1 only goes a little past Cotra, and doesn't include them. I'm not sure if the editor has the "resurrect dragon" feature anymore, but I'll check. Maybe I'll try the original Exile again. Never really got that far.

I know I am getting the full version in a couple weeks, but I still want to play Avernum through then!

 

I have done most of the quests I think, so now I want to do some non-quest adventures. In specific, I want to take Motrax's treasure. I have already killed Athron and taken her treasure, but that was easy because it was a one-on-one battle. Motrax is harder because my demo-party can't take care of his guards and then kill him.

Is there a way to steal his stuff w/o having to fight him directly?

Even if you do play slowly (IMO the way to go), it doesn't really matter. Besides the special thing that O Soberano said would happen, the only thing that occurs if you wait a while is that a couple of towns will be destroyed, people will move, etc. Don't worry about it.

Okay I thought it would work. Thanks.

 

Btw, I am going to get the Avernum Cd trilogy but it should work on that too.