Synergy

Hmmm, I haven't even talked to the cook yet, in this new actual game, but if I leave the modified file in my game, the following happens: I get 2000 gold for a bar of iron when I give it to Dawdy instead of 20 gold. The bar of iron doesn't go away from my inventory no matter how many times I give it to him. Out goes the file unless I'm testing something.

Hmmm, I haven't even talked to the cook yet, in this new actual game, but if I leave the modified file in my game, the following happens: I get 2000 gold for a bar of iron when I give it to Dawdy instead of 20 gold. The bar of iron doesn't go away from my inventory no matter how many times I give it to him. Out goes the file unless I'm testing something.

You might make that a bit more cryptic, Vlish. That kind of one-liner will read as an immediate spoiler in the "active threads" header, and I think we should keep spoilers in Kel's thread or the Skills thread. But I have a very hard time imagining a singleton enduring many fights. Yet, some whacked die-hard will find some painful way to pull it off.

You might make that a bit more cryptic, Vlish. That kind of one-liner will read as an immediate spoiler in the "active threads" header, and I think we should keep spoilers in Kel's thread or the Skills thread. But I have a very hard time imagining a singleton enduring many fights. Yet, some whacked die-hard will find some painful way to pull it off.

Someone will attempt and eventually succeed at being a singleton, I expect. I think what will happen is this: you will level up thrillingly fast until level 8 or so. By level ten, around Fort Draco, you are getting 0 or 1 point per kill (this is how far I took a singleton game). Completing quests still gives you unknown amounts of XP which your singleton will gobble up. At some point, you will be behind the level up curve for a normal party and will again begin to get decent points per kill. But I believe that by that point, you will be far too behind in skills to match the strength of your foes and will have a very hard time killing anything. I am looking forward to hearing how it goes. I know I don't presently have the patience or masochistic tendencies to follow through with it myself.

Someone will attempt and eventually succeed at being a singleton, I expect. I think what will happen is this: you will level up thrillingly fast until level 8 or so. By level ten, around Fort Draco, you are getting 0 or 1 point per kill (this is how far I took a singleton game). Completing quests still gives you unknown amounts of XP which your singleton will gobble up. At some point, you will be behind the level up curve for a normal party and will again begin to get decent points per kill. But I believe that by that point, you will be far too behind in skills to match the strength of your foes and will have a very hard time killing anything. I am looking forward to hearing how it goes. I know I don't presently have the patience or masochistic tendencies to follow through with it myself.

Define "nothing." I always imagined they connected to the other partially caved-in area upstairs with the gated off area where you can see a book lying on the floor out of reach. Were there rooms or passages past the doors at all? I'm thinking they may have been for something Jeff never got around to employing, along with that door in the Castle barracks.

Define "nothing." I always imagined they connected to the other partially caved-in area upstairs with the gated off area where you can see a book lying on the floor out of reach. Were there rooms or passages past the doors at all? I'm thinking they may have been for something Jeff never got around to employing, along with that door in the Castle barracks.

Because of the diligent efforts of Ephesos last night with his mighty rogue, we know that behind Door #28 lies...... .... ..... 120 coins 1 invulnerability potion 1 Mass Haste scroll and 6 Fine Razordisks Talk about anti-climactic.

Because of the diligent efforts of Ephesos last night with his mighty rogue, we know that behind Door #28 lies...... .... ..... 120 coins 1 invulnerability potion 1 Mass Haste scroll and 6 Fine Razordisks Talk about anti-climactic.

Do tell, Skippy. I could tell the well was trying to do something, but couldn't figure out what exactly. There are many nods to and relics of old familiar places throughout this retread through Avernum, and you can see how time has changed some of them. But I could not find any hint of the crystal caves in the Eastern Gallery, and I was expecting something to be there.

Well, it is fixed in the sense that no elevation means no more overlap for lovingly selecting the recipients of your affections. For A5, I do think Jeff needs to find a way to reincorporate elevation. Area spells won't be affected. A way to pick out the right individual target with an arrow or fireball on the backside of a hill will be necessary.

I keep tinkering around with party construction experiments and I usually make it with them as far as Fort Draco or Formello before wanting to try something else, mostly because I keep learning more about how the game, skills, and stats work lately. I've just put a new party together, and I play on Tricky or Torment always now. I relate to the conundrums of party construction you're going over. Here is my latest brainstorm, and it's not unlike yours: 1) Meat shield human melee man with Elite Warrior & Strong Will. 2) Nephil archer/mage with Natural Mage and Deadeye 3) Human thief/mage with Natural Mage and Nimble Fingers 4) Slith priest with Pure Spirit The two humans are at 25% penalty and the other two are at 35%. These are not bad penalties at all. If you level up at flat or negative rates, you hit diminishing XP returns early in the game. I think it all evens out, but the difference here is the benefits of races and positive traits. My idea is also that mages are more important earlier on, especially through the Eastern Gallery where fire and ice is the best weapon agaist the bugs—especially fire. Two mages and two abilities to hasten in one turn can be very useful offensively when every turn counts. I've settled on Tool Use of 12-15 being enough for one mage, and, combined with decent mage ability, he will be able to unlock doors just fine till the end. The other mage can develop very reasonable worthwhile archery skills, and will also have a sword and shield to offer various benefits. I may stop this mage at Lightning Spray, and focus the rest of his skills on archery after that. The other will be a full mage. Arcane Blow does rather blow. Nothing comes close to the divinely destructive delight of Divine Retribution all in all. The priest follows your blueprint for a slith-priest, actually, though I think a human or nephil variant would work fine or even better. You'd have to accept that no one gets the Jade Halberd in the game. It might be better actually, if playing Torment, to make the priest very focused on his priesthood and archery alone. I give archery skills to every PC in every game. It's just too darn useful too darn often to neglect. All this requires is 4-5 Bow skills and some dexterity which I want them to have anyway. There are exactly four killer bows in the game, and each PC will want one by the end. If you don't do a slith priest, I'd make a Deadeye Pure Spirit Nephil and focus entirely on bows and priest skills. I can see how the Eastern Gallery would start kicking just about anyone's butt on Torment. He who lives by the bow, also dies by the bow. This is why I think two mages where one can drop back partway is a good approach to getting through the game on Torment.

I keep tinkering around with party construction experiments and I usually make it with them as far as Fort Draco or Formello before wanting to try something else, mostly because I keep learning more about how the game, skills, and stats work lately. I've just put a new party together, and I play on Tricky or Torment always now. I relate to the conundrums of party construction you're going over. Here is my latest brainstorm, and it's not unlike yours: 1) Meat shield human melee man with Elite Warrior & Strong Will. 2) Nephil archer/mage with Natural Mage and Deadeye 3) Human thief/mage with Natural Mage and Nimble Fingers 4) Slith priest with Pure Spirit The two humans are at 25% penalty and the other two are at 35%. These are not bad penalties at all. If you level up at flat or negative rates, you hit diminishing XP returns early in the game. I think it all evens out, but the difference here is the benefits of races and positive traits. My idea is also that mages are more important earlier on, especially through the Eastern Gallery where fire and ice is the best weapon agaist the bugs—especially fire. Two mages and two abilities to hasten in one turn can be very useful offensively when every turn counts. I've settled on Tool Use of 12-15 being enough for one mage, and, combined with decent mage ability, he will be able to unlock doors just fine till the end. The other mage can develop very reasonable worthwhile archery skills, and will also have a sword and shield to offer various benefits. I may stop this mage at Lightning Spray, and focus the rest of his skills on archery after that. The other will be a full mage. Arcane Blow does rather blow. Nothing comes close to the divinely destructive delight of Divine Retribution all in all. The priest follows your blueprint for a slith-priest, actually, though I think a human or nephil variant would work fine or even better. You'd have to accept that no one gets the Jade Halberd in the game. It might be better actually, if playing Torment, to make the priest very focused on his priesthood and archery alone. I give archery skills to every PC in every game. It's just too darn useful too darn often to neglect. All this requires is 4-5 Bow skills and some dexterity which I want them to have anyway. There are exactly four killer bows in the game, and each PC will want one by the end. If you don't do a slith priest, I'd make a Deadeye Pure Spirit Nephil and focus entirely on bows and priest skills. I can see how the Eastern Gallery would start kicking just about anyone's butt on Torment. He who lives by the bow, also dies by the bow. This is why I think two mages where one can drop back partway is a good approach to getting through the game on Torment.

In hand to hand combat that's likely true. The sacrifice is less protection against magic and other elemental effects. It's one perfectly good strategy, one more offensively than defensively geared. I may have to give it a try in a future game. Elite Warrior, Fast on Feet with several AP-enhancing items ultimately could be good fun.

OK, I posted in the Hidden Skills thread what I was finally able to find behind that pesky L35 door we've been bantering about. I think it would be good to keep this thread free of spoilers, so the new gamers can get tips here without ruining the fun of discovery. Here is some resulting advice from my experimenting with Tool Use and Unlock Doors, also now knowing what is behind the two most difficult doors in the game. Giving a mage Tool Use skills definitely does help his magical ability to open doors, so you might want to consider making a Mage/Thief PC, though this will cut into his overall magical strength somewhat. For traps in the game and many doors, Tool Use of 15 is adequate. If you don't want to give Tool Use to your mage at all, any reasonably strong mage by the end of the game can open a difficulty 25 door, of which there is at least one not otherwise opened. If you want to conserve all possible Tool Use points, you can acquire items by mid to late game which will add +3 to your Tool Use, so conceivably, you could stop at 12 Tool Use to get by all traps. There is a slight possibility that there is a trap of 16 difficulty, and if someone determines so, please let us know. Bottom line: The 28 and 35 difficulty level doors aren't hiding anything to die for, and for everything below that difficulty, any decent mage or a very strong thief will be able to open it. A thief with Tool Use of 15 can also serve as a decent fighter, archer, or mage no problem.

OK, I posted in the Hidden Skills thread what I was finally able to find behind that pesky L35 door we've been bantering about. I think it would be good to keep this thread free of spoilers, so the new gamers can get tips here without ruining the fun of discovery. Here is some resulting advice from my experimenting with Tool Use and Unlock Doors, also now knowing what is behind the two most difficult doors in the game. Giving a mage Tool Use skills definitely does help his magical ability to open doors, so you might want to consider making a Mage/Thief PC, though this will cut into his overall magical strength somewhat. For traps in the game and many doors, Tool Use of 15 is adequate. If you don't want to give Tool Use to your mage at all, any reasonably strong mage by the end of the game can open a difficulty 25 door, of which there is at least one not otherwise opened. If you want to conserve all possible Tool Use points, you can acquire items by mid to late game which will add +3 to your Tool Use, so conceivably, you could stop at 12 Tool Use to get by all traps. There is a slight possibility that there is a trap of 16 difficulty, and if someone determines so, please let us know. Bottom line: The 28 and 35 difficulty level doors aren't hiding anything to die for, and for everything below that difficulty, any decent mage or a very strong thief will be able to open it. A thief with Tool Use of 15 can also serve as a decent fighter, archer, or mage no problem.

Sounds...um...Delicious, Vlish. [spoiler AHEAD] I finally opened the L35 Door in the Patrick Tower. It took 12 Spellcraft and 16 Magery to do it with zero Tool Use. Maybe more Spellcraft and less Magery would have the same effect. Leaving my Spellcraft at 8 and Magery at 6, 9 Tool Use did not open the door on about ten tries, but Tool Use of 10 enabled my mage to open it the first try each time. Oh, what is in there you want to know? An Enduring Armor spellbook. Nothing too exciting, and not an Easter egg. There are two doors in the Tower Colony I am going to try next, though I am pretty sure those are not meant to open. EDIT: The doors in the Tower Colony above X and the one in the barracks area upstairs in the Castle do not open. I think that accounts for every last door in the game now. So, if there is an Easter egg, it remains elusive.

Sounds...um...Delicious, Vlish. [spoiler AHEAD] I finally opened the L35 Door in the Patrick Tower. It took 12 Spellcraft and 16 Magery to do it with zero Tool Use. Maybe more Spellcraft and less Magery would have the same effect. Leaving my Spellcraft at 8 and Magery at 6, 9 Tool Use did not open the door on about ten tries, but Tool Use of 10 enabled my mage to open it the first try each time. Oh, what is in there you want to know? An Enduring Armor spellbook. Nothing too exciting, and not an Easter egg. There are two doors in the Tower Colony I am going to try next, though I am pretty sure those are not meant to open. EDIT: The doors in the Tower Colony above X and the one in the barracks area upstairs in the Castle do not open. I think that accounts for every last door in the game now. So, if there is an Easter egg, it remains elusive.

I can see how combining enough Mercuric items could really pump up the AP, though you'll be sacrificing a certain amount of better possible armoring of feet and body to do it. As it seems strength is not nearly so useful in A4 as previously, maybe the penalties aren't so bad and the sacrfice is worthwhile, especially if you had Fast on Feet already. I'd just be afraid of getting mercury poisoning. I hear that makes your Hardiness, Dexterity, and Intelligence go way down.

Ah, acid and poison combined...Alo, sometimes I think you're too smart for your own good. Naw, not really. You've got great attention to detail. That Emerald Chestguard does seem to become available oddly early in the game (not that I was complaining), and the Oozing Sword was the first I found, followed closely by the Flaming Sword I believe the demon upstairs in the Tower Colony drops. There are a couple anomalies in armor and robes like the one you mentioned where the "better" more expensive one is somehow more disadvantageous than the normal equivalent. And don't get me started on the annoying Mercuric garbage which tantalizes at a cost not worthwhile.

What's the problem, Vlish...hard to hit the Edit button instead of the Quote button with that tentacle? EDIT: Doh, you fixed that fast. (Advantages of being a Moderator) I bet no one else noticed, heh. Now I'm the moron stuck with a useless post.

What's the problem, Vlish...hard to hit the Edit button instead of the Quote button with that tentacle? EDIT: Doh, you fixed that fast. (Advantages of being a Moderator) I bet no one else noticed, heh. Now I'm the moron stuck with a useless post.

Dexterity adds to armor? How's that? It does look like Dexterity is perhaps the most useful and pivotal skill overall. Strength contribution has definitely been toned down from A3 where I could kill an Alien Beast with two hits at the end. Seems like the path to follow to make a powerful fighter is 6 Dex + 6 Def to get Parry, add some Parry, get Strength, Melee, and Pole all to 6 to get Blademaster, then pump Blademaster. If you want Anatomy, you have to add 6 Intelligence. 8 Anatomy and 8 Blademaster make Lethal Blow trainable, probably not the most useful trait. I never noticed Lethal Blow doing anything with the mild levels I had acquired from magical items later in the game. I just checked Lethal Blow. If you streamline a human warrior straight through to Lethal Blow and nothing else, you can achieve 4 levels of Lethal Blow with 4 SP left over.

Dexterity adds to armor? How's that? It does look like Dexterity is perhaps the most useful and pivotal skill overall. Strength contribution has definitely been toned down from A3 where I could kill an Alien Beast with two hits at the end. Seems like the path to follow to make a powerful fighter is 6 Dex + 6 Def to get Parry, add some Parry, get Strength, Melee, and Pole all to 6 to get Blademaster, then pump Blademaster. If you want Anatomy, you have to add 6 Intelligence. 8 Anatomy and 8 Blademaster make Lethal Blow trainable, probably not the most useful trait. I never noticed Lethal Blow doing anything with the mild levels I had acquired from magical items later in the game. I just checked Lethal Blow. If you streamline a human warrior straight through to Lethal Blow and nothing else, you can achieve 4 levels of Lethal Blow with 4 SP left over.