Synergy

Okay, thanks to Hawk King's handy "Experience of a Dragon" editor/cheater, I have been able to easily test out the rest of the hidden skills. Here are the resulting stats: Parry : 6 Dexterity - 6 Defense Quick Strike : 6 Dexterity - 6 Melee or Pole Gymnastics : 8 Dexterity - 6 Strength Blademaster : 6 Melee - 6 Pole - 6 Strength Anatomy : 6 Intelligence - 8 Melee or Pole Lethal Blow : 8 Anatomy - 8 Blademaster Riposte : 8 Parry - 6 Blademaster Sharpshooter : 6 Dexterity - 8 Bows or Thrown Magery : 8 Intelligence - 6 Priest or Mage Magical Efficiency : 8 Magery - 8 Endurance Resistance : 8 Dexterity - 8 Endurance - 8 Hardiness Hawk, somehow you got the total XP about right too...I wound up Level 33-34 at the end of my last game and you set your editor for around Level 34-35 worth of experience. This will also enable easy testing of how high you can reasonably get Tool Use stats or how hard it is to practically get Riposte, so I will tinker with those a bit and add some more results here. [PAUSE...EDIT] Holy cow...I used up all but one Skill Point making a human fighter with no Traits able to train Riposte...this is all of 35 Levels worth of SP going into what it takes to make Riposte alone. This means, in order to get Riposte, you have to follow the training path pretty much exclusively and give most or all of your Wisdom Crystals and Knowledge Brews to the same fighter. This isn't cool, or Jeff didn't intend for it to really be trainable, only acquired through magical items. I suppose giving a human PC two negative traits could give him a couple more levels worth of skill points to play with, but that would be worth all of 2 Riposte or so. On Tool Use, I used up ALL the Skill Points just to give one non-traited human PC 30 Tool Use. At that point, TU costs 16. That level 35 door is not going to be opened by a thief. It will take a mage powerful enough to do it. I had a mage able to open a level 25 door, but not a level 28 door at the end of my game. If I had streamlined him as a thief/mage with Tool Use and Mage strengths combined, maybe he could open that level 35 door. Hmm, know what else, even if I edit in more SP after level 35, the Train screen will not permit any Tool Use over 30 to stick to my PC. It will definitely take magic to get in that door, because even with magical items to help, max Tool Use is 33. I think the Easter Egg for this game is behind that door.

Okay, thanks to Hawk King's handy "Experience of a Dragon" editor/cheater, I have been able to easily test out the rest of the hidden skills. Here are the resulting stats: Parry : 6 Dexterity - 6 Defense Quick Strike : 6 Dexterity - 6 Melee or Pole Gymnastics : 8 Dexterity - 6 Strength Blademaster : 6 Melee - 6 Pole - 6 Strength Anatomy : 6 Intelligence - 8 Melee or Pole Lethal Blow : 8 Anatomy - 8 Blademaster Riposte : 8 Parry - 6 Blademaster Sharpshooter : 6 Dexterity - 8 Bows or Thrown Magery : 8 Intelligence - 6 Priest or Mage Magical Efficiency : 8 Magery - 8 Endurance Resistance : 8 Dexterity - 8 Endurance - 8 Hardiness Hawk, somehow you got the total XP about right too...I wound up Level 33-34 at the end of my last game and you set your editor for around Level 34-35 worth of experience. This will also enable easy testing of how high you can reasonably get Tool Use stats or how hard it is to practically get Riposte, so I will tinker with those a bit and add some more results here. [PAUSE...EDIT] Holy cow...I used up all but one Skill Point making a human fighter with no Traits able to train Riposte...this is all of 35 Levels worth of SP going into what it takes to make Riposte alone. This means, in order to get Riposte, you have to follow the training path pretty much exclusively and give most or all of your Wisdom Crystals and Knowledge Brews to the same fighter. This isn't cool, or Jeff didn't intend for it to really be trainable, only acquired through magical items. I suppose giving a human PC two negative traits could give him a couple more levels worth of skill points to play with, but that would be worth all of 2 Riposte or so. On Tool Use, I used up ALL the Skill Points just to give one non-traited human PC 30 Tool Use. At that point, TU costs 16. That level 35 door is not going to be opened by a thief. It will take a mage powerful enough to do it. I had a mage able to open a level 25 door, but not a level 28 door at the end of my game. If I had streamlined him as a thief/mage with Tool Use and Mage strengths combined, maybe he could open that level 35 door. Hmm, know what else, even if I edit in more SP after level 35, the Train screen will not permit any Tool Use over 30 to stick to my PC. It will definitely take magic to get in that door, because even with magical items to help, max Tool Use is 33. I think the Easter Egg for this game is behind that door.

Nice job, Hawk. I'm using it right now to determine which stats in which quantities give you all the hidden skills. Thanks!

Nice job, Hawk. I'm using it right now to determine which stats in which quantities give you all the hidden skills. Thanks!

I don't remember it at all in my first beta game. I think it was added in later, but I did find it somewhere quite near the end of my second more recent game. I can't remember exactly who had it, but it might have been under E's Ruin where you know who was holed up.

To most efficiently pick up and drop stuff, try this: To pick up, while in a PC's inventory screen, click on the item, type 1-4 and it will be dropped into the inventory of the PC with that number. You can do this while in combat, even, have one PC next to something pick up an item and drop it onto a PC ten spaces away from him...occasionally very convenient. You can also move, equip, and unequip items while in buy/sell mode. Just click on the item instead of the little coins to move it instead of sell it. To drop something, just click on it while in a PC's inventory, and press "a"--it will drop onto the ground, just as you can type a, b, c, etc. to pick up items lying around when you press "g" or "i" to bring up a PC's inventory. I find this in particular very convenient when hoarding thing like heavy iron bars or bags of meal for later transport and sale.

SPOILER ON OOZING SWORD LOCATION I also used that friendly oozing blade for almost the entire rest of the game, only interchanging it with Demonslayer when appropriate and replacing it near the end with the fantastic Radiant Soulblade. The Oozing Blade can be found in the very SW corner of the Honeycomb area—really it's more a part of the wilderness between the Tower Colony and Fort Samuels. You can access it through some tunnels which emerge on the west side of the river there. I remember going under the river through a cave and coming up on the west side and facing several very hard to kill slimes on a little swampy shore with some herbs. The final slime drops that Oozing Blade, which might almost be appropriate since I think the slime liked to ooze acid as well. That other blade you are remembering is the Venomous Blade (12-36 damage, +12 acid and poision resistance, drips poison), which Craftmaster Strine makes for you out of a Fine Waveblade, or you can get one at the very end off the Vahnatai Lord I believe. I think the Oozing Blade is better overall, as acid is more effective than poison.

My human swordsman had Strong Will and my slith pole fighter did not. The slith definitely got charmed or terrified more often, though I didn't do a careful analysis of stat comparison, so it will take more experience and report to get a better grip on how useful it really is. Intelligence doesn't help a whole lot, that's for sure. Not really worth the investment as just pointed out.

My human swordsman had Strong Will and my slith pole fighter did not. The slith definitely got charmed or terrified more often, though I didn't do a careful analysis of stat comparison, so it will take more experience and report to get a better grip on how useful it really is. Intelligence doesn't help a whole lot, that's for sure. Not really worth the investment as just pointed out.

Jeff says, "No character editor for A4, just cheat codes". That web page must be either old or thrown together from templates from a previous game. I played both my first two games with less than optimal usage of my skill points, as I didn't yet understand how many of them or the game worked in the long run. It didn't diminish from either my success or my fun. If you're any good, you'll prevail, despite "mistakes". Just don't neglect giving someone Tool Use, and you have to have a mage to dispel barriers.

Yeah, I like your Slith priest idea. The priest is the one PC who can most affordably spare some points to be a bit of a figher too, as the priest has cheaper spells/faster priest spell level up due to the Pure Spirit trait. The top is 17, not the 18 it was in A3 as I recall, at least to cast all spells. Mages take more to power up, and really need some potency for Lightning Spray in the mid-game, speaking of which...yeah, it can be kind of unpredictable which three foes are going to be the recipients of your lovingly bestowed electrical greeting. I have had Lightning Spray go literally straight forward and 180 degrees to each side if those were the only three targets nearby. LS only hits three targets for the entire game, in case anyone is wondering. I think that my next game may employ a slith priest, and I will makeone or two meat shield melee fighters, probably one fighter/archer and one fighter/thief. I keep wanting to make a fifth PC for this game so I can have: one melee, one pole (or second mage), one mage, one priest, and one archer/thief. It is always a strain to cover all these skills with only four PC's. The mage suffers if you make him your thief or archer, but I don't like sacrificing one whole fighter just to be an archer or thief, especially to be as good a thief as I want to try to make, to get in that L35 door. You know, it's probably not worth pumping up the thief that much for one or two doors in the game. Like I said, my mage opened a L25 door magically. I'd just like to know what's behind those L28 and L35 doors. Hey Ephesos, why don't you use the cheat code to pump up your powerful thief to level 35 and tell me what's behind the door in the library in Patrick's Tower?

Yeah, I like your Slith priest idea. The priest is the one PC who can most affordably spare some points to be a bit of a figher too, as the priest has cheaper spells/faster priest spell level up due to the Pure Spirit trait. The top is 17, not the 18 it was in A3 as I recall, at least to cast all spells. Mages take more to power up, and really need some potency for Lightning Spray in the mid-game, speaking of which...yeah, it can be kind of unpredictable which three foes are going to be the recipients of your lovingly bestowed electrical greeting. I have had Lightning Spray go literally straight forward and 180 degrees to each side if those were the only three targets nearby. LS only hits three targets for the entire game, in case anyone is wondering. I think that my next game may employ a slith priest, and I will makeone or two meat shield melee fighters, probably one fighter/archer and one fighter/thief. I keep wanting to make a fifth PC for this game so I can have: one melee, one pole (or second mage), one mage, one priest, and one archer/thief. It is always a strain to cover all these skills with only four PC's. The mage suffers if you make him your thief or archer, but I don't like sacrificing one whole fighter just to be an archer or thief, especially to be as good a thief as I want to try to make, to get in that L35 door. You know, it's probably not worth pumping up the thief that much for one or two doors in the game. Like I said, my mage opened a L25 door magically. I'd just like to know what's behind those L28 and L35 doors. Hey Ephesos, why don't you use the cheat code to pump up your powerful thief to level 35 and tell me what's behind the door in the library in Patrick's Tower?

Well, you guys are right in the facts, though my slith was typically always doing more damage than my melee man. Conversely, and I haven't figured out why for sure yet, my human melee fighter had much more consistent Quick Action double strikes than my Slith pole fighter. The thing about Avernum IV that seems especially poignant this time 'round is that any choice you make in your party makeup and skill-spread is going to mean sacrificing something else, and leaving a weakness of some kind. It is fun to experiment with and try different possibilities. There are a lot of great swords and shields in this game, and at least 2-3 excellent pole weapons and a couple more quite good ones. Having a pole fighter means passing up a good shield possibility for that PC. If you are an especially aggressive offense-oriented kind of player, then a spear-user will probably be more gratifying through most or all of the game, though he will likely die more often too. If you are going to play on Tricky or Torment level difficulty, the better defense with swords and shields may be more effective. That's one fun aspect of the game...there are some significantly different ways to strategize and specialize and still be able to succeed just fine.

Well, you guys are right in the facts, though my slith was typically always doing more damage than my melee man. Conversely, and I haven't figured out why for sure yet, my human melee fighter had much more consistent Quick Action double strikes than my Slith pole fighter. The thing about Avernum IV that seems especially poignant this time 'round is that any choice you make in your party makeup and skill-spread is going to mean sacrificing something else, and leaving a weakness of some kind. It is fun to experiment with and try different possibilities. There are a lot of great swords and shields in this game, and at least 2-3 excellent pole weapons and a couple more quite good ones. Having a pole fighter means passing up a good shield possibility for that PC. If you are an especially aggressive offense-oriented kind of player, then a spear-user will probably be more gratifying through most or all of the game, though he will likely die more often too. If you are going to play on Tricky or Torment level difficulty, the better defense with swords and shields may be more effective. That's one fun aspect of the game...there are some significantly different ways to strategize and specialize and still be able to succeed just fine.

Quote: Originally written by Ephesos: my attempt at an all-magic-user party had a human priest-fighter (using a sword) as the offensive focus until the slith mage surpassed her damage limits. You used that in past tense, Eph...does that mean you gave up on that game? I was curious how it went for you and whether or not it was sastisfying.

Quote: Originally written by Ephesos: my attempt at an all-magic-user party had a human priest-fighter (using a sword) as the offensive focus until the slith mage surpassed her damage limits. You used that in past tense, Eph...does that mean you gave up on that game? I was curious how it went for you and whether or not it was sastisfying.

Which beta version did you play when you got the Emerald Chestguard, Vlish? In the first game I played a month ago, it was pretty easy, at least after a couple attempts. My second game, on V1.0 or the final beta before it, the fight was significantly beefed up and it took me many attempts and strategy experiments to pull it off. Many fights have gotten harder than they were in the earlier betas.

I must say that Jeff almost entirely succeeded in his stated intention of removing the annoying, boring, and repetitive aspects of the previous games. Things I don’t miss: • arrows • lockpicks • potion making skill • unswappable PC locations during combat • lost items after battles if you couldn’t pick them all up on the spot • absolute weight carrying limitations (which also once affected the previous point) • item identification • automatic absolute penalty for visible theft • poisonous swamps/the need for pathfinder skill • the need for food (food is pretty worthless in A4 and should have just been done away with entirely) Things I kind of miss but can live without: • light spells and torches • move mountains • far sight Added things which I appreciate: • Fun and useful archery • Even more weapons and armor to choose from than ever • Improved spells and area spells, including useful acid (use acid on the skeletons and undead around Mertis for startling effective results, even before learning how to disrupt their magic). Things that need to be added: • Better info on what certain skills do or affect. I keep not being able to tell for sure if things like Blademaster or Quick Action apply to both poles and swords. • More moddable beginnings. Maybe a game as a duo or singleton would be fun and doable if I had all the skill points for four available PC for just the singleton to match the overall party skill level, but housed in one superman. I don’t want to type cheat codes over and over to set up a game like that A4 is best with four PCs overall anyway, though, so it’s not a big deal. • More, not less PC graphics. Where’d the cute blonde gal go? Not the sprites, which are fine, but the faces and bodies in the PC info screens. Only two slith possibilities? And I have ever only barely liked the look of one nephil. Of course, cat people are hard to take too seriously, period. Things I miss: • Elevation, elevation, elevation. It must be brought back for A5. • Even though perpetual town mode has its advantages, I still kind of miss getting a bigger view of the outdoor world and often felt unsure just where I was. Yes, I know there is a map, but that’s an extreme scale. • Using boats. I spent most my first game waiting for the part of the game where I got to finally make boats work and explore places by water, but it never came. Heck, there were even parked boats here and there you couldn’t hop into that made me think I would eventually be able to. I agree that the solution to the water monster problem was never handled very sastisfactorily. I wanted to be more involved in it somehow. • Group haste. Considering you can still group everything else, why not haste? I think Jeff considered it too much of an advantage, but it isn’t logical to not be able to do when you can mass heal, mass cure, mass shield, etc. • The ability to improve barter, though in a way it’s nice not to have to worry about. I just didn’t feel right getting only 37 gold for a suit of chain mail the whole game. Not that money was a problem, but just the ratios felt so miserly. I’d have been happier to get 33% or 50% as the fixed resale value, but have everything be accordingly more expensive to buy. Same deal for the Skill Points for levelling up. 5 SP feels miserly. I’d rather get 8 or 10 and have skills be more expensive. This is all just psychological, I know. • More quests for legendary items. I like the feeling of going through something brutal and harrowing like the Pit of the Wyrm to get the Fury Crossbow in A3. The only real such quest in the game is for the Emerald Chestguard. Even the challenge to get Demonslayer didn’t seem that monumental once I figured out how to go about it. Something equally amazing in way of a bow or magician’s tool to hunt down in some difficult and farflung location would have been nice. I think there should be four such legendary items per game, at the least, one for each PC potentially. “I have some KILLER ideas for Avernum 5. - Jeff Vogel November, 2005” The plot strongly invites an A5, and Jeff suggests he may be inspired to do it. One day perhaps we’ll see how “killer” it is. Maybe if he’d let some of us help him write the plot...I know I have some fresh ideas.

Quote: Originally written by Alorael of the myriad pseudonyms: Swords/Spears: I have exactly the opposite reaction to spears. They do slightly more damage in the beginning, but by the end they're more or less indistinguishable from swords in damage. You'll encounter stronger swords sooner and in greater quantities, and some of the abilities on swords are easily worth the extra damage on spears. Then there are shields, which provide some very nice skill bonuses in addition to defense. Basically, I'm not a fan of spears at all. Yes, one will be just fine going with either or both weapons in A4, and there are plenty to choose from for each. There are spears with some impressive “extra ablities” as well. I never got my melee ability up to par with my pole use. I suppose it’s how you concentrate your skills. I still think it takes more of an investment to make a good melee fighter than a good pole fighter. Note that the strongest pole weapons outpower the strongest melee weapons by +12 hit points, if I recall all my weapons correctly. Pole weapons will be more potent for a good while into the game or at least much more affordably so, though I suppose someone could beef up a melee figther with nothing else but strength and melee skill and get close. Bottom line: go with which you enjoy more. I think you’ll be happy either way. Quote: Armor: I never had a problem with over-encumbered mages. Mages in melee were practically dead even in the heaviest stuff they could wear. I put them in whatever would boost their casting abilities instead, which was always leather or lighter. It happened to me in a recent experimental game. Heavier armor (basically anything heavier than leather) cut off my mage casting abilities entirely. [EDIT] NOTE that this was on a mage with no Natural Mage ability, as it turns out. But I also seem to recall it happened to my Natural Mage (cutting off all but spells 1-3) when using seriously heavy plate mail toward the end of my second game before I boosted his strength or dexterity a bit, and I think it was actually strength that fixed it. He was very low on strength...maybe 3. Quote: Races: Nephil is okay, but I found myself quite underwhelmed by sliths. In my second game I created an entirely human party and I am quite satisfied with it. My first party was all human because I was focused on minimizing experience penalties, and it did quite well too. Basically, things seem pretty balanced so you can pick and match whatever combinations please you without inordinately advantaging or disadvantaging your party as long as you specialize appropriately. Because experience penalties really aren’t too bad over the whole run of the game, best I have checked so far, loading up a slith won’t be a huge disadvantage, just as making a human with two negative traits is not going to give you any real net advantage either. He’ll level up too quickly and start getting 0-1 experience points per kill and then be hampered by his disadvantages more than anything.

Quote: Originally written by Alorael of the myriad pseudonyms: Swords/Spears: I have exactly the opposite reaction to spears. They do slightly more damage in the beginning, but by the end they're more or less indistinguishable from swords in damage. You'll encounter stronger swords sooner and in greater quantities, and some of the abilities on swords are easily worth the extra damage on spears. Then there are shields, which provide some very nice skill bonuses in addition to defense. Basically, I'm not a fan of spears at all. Yes, one will be just fine going with either or both weapons in A4, and there are plenty to choose from for each. There are spears with some impressive “extra ablities” as well. I never got my melee ability up to par with my pole use. I suppose it’s how you concentrate your skills. I still think it takes more of an investment to make a good melee fighter than a good pole fighter. Note that the strongest pole weapons outpower the strongest melee weapons by +12 hit points, if I recall all my weapons correctly. Pole weapons will be more potent for a good while into the game or at least much more affordably so, though I suppose someone could beef up a melee figther with nothing else but strength and melee skill and get close. Bottom line: go with which you enjoy more. I think you’ll be happy either way. Quote: Armor: I never had a problem with over-encumbered mages. Mages in melee were practically dead even in the heaviest stuff they could wear. I put them in whatever would boost their casting abilities instead, which was always leather or lighter. It happened to me in a recent experimental game. Heavier armor (basically anything heavier than leather) cut off my mage casting abilities entirely. [EDIT] NOTE that this was on a mage with no Natural Mage ability, as it turns out. But I also seem to recall it happened to my Natural Mage (cutting off all but spells 1-3) when using seriously heavy plate mail toward the end of my second game before I boosted his strength or dexterity a bit, and I think it was actually strength that fixed it. He was very low on strength...maybe 3. Quote: Races: Nephil is okay, but I found myself quite underwhelmed by sliths. In my second game I created an entirely human party and I am quite satisfied with it. My first party was all human because I was focused on minimizing experience penalties, and it did quite well too. Basically, things seem pretty balanced so you can pick and match whatever combinations please you without inordinately advantaging or disadvantaging your party as long as you specialize appropriately. Because experience penalties really aren’t too bad over the whole run of the game, best I have checked so far, loading up a slith won’t be a huge disadvantage, just as making a human with two negative traits is not going to give you any real net advantage either. He’ll level up too quickly and start getting 0-1 experience points per kill and then be hampered by his disadvantages more than anything.

Good link, Kel, thanks. Resistance: Dex 10, Endurance 11, Hardiness 8 Crikey! Who wants to dump those kinds of points into either Endurance or Hardiness to get Resistance? Fortunately, there are alternate ways to wind up with each of the hidden skills than merely "qualifying". EDIT ADDON: These 8's are probably sixes for A4... Blademaster: Melee 6 Pole 6 Strength 8 Riposte: Parry 8 Blademaster 6 But, man, I have to have 6 in Pole training to get Blademaster, and therefore to get Riposte? That blows. I should be able to get Riposte without having to know how to use a pole weapon. I'm just really good with my sword! 6 pole weapon is a lot of wasted skill points for a melee fighter. Disappointed.

Good link, Kel, thanks. Resistance: Dex 10, Endurance 11, Hardiness 8 Crikey! Who wants to dump those kinds of points into either Endurance or Hardiness to get Resistance? Fortunately, there are alternate ways to wind up with each of the hidden skills than merely "qualifying". EDIT ADDON: These 8's are probably sixes for A4... Blademaster: Melee 6 Pole 6 Strength 8 Riposte: Parry 8 Blademaster 6 But, man, I have to have 6 in Pole training to get Blademaster, and therefore to get Riposte? That blows. I should be able to get Riposte without having to know how to use a pole weapon. I'm just really good with my sword! 6 pole weapon is a lot of wasted skill points for a melee fighter. Disappointed.

Hmm, interesting discovery, Vlish, on the separation of Dexterity from Tool Use in A4. Unlock Doors by mage does seem minimally useful, unless you never bothered to give anyone Tool Use of over 15 which I didn't. See the end part for what my mage WAS able to accomplish with Unlock Doors. Jeff told me there are some doors never meant to be opened in this game, and some doors (the ones that say they are too intricate to be picked and you don't have a key) probably only open by key or quest reward. I can think of at least two doors I couldn't open which he probably meant never to open, and they are both in the same room nearby rubble which may imply the doors go nowhere anyway and are blocked. There is a door in Patrick's Tower I can't open (L35) and a door upstairs in the Castle that never opens or seems openable—if it does open, I think only a quest could do it, but I didn't miss any, even after having read the hint book. There is a door in a hideout near the end of the game with L28 which I couldn't quite get to open, and I am guessing it houses a spellbook. Athron's door opens with a key you acquire somewhere. Feel free to email me if you want to know what you missed specifically. You weren't the only one who did, by the way. It's a little roundabout happening on the means to getting that key. You WANT what is to be had in Athron's Lair though, trust me. It's worth the bother, and it is a bother once you get in the door too. HINT/MINOR SPOILER: There are two magical items which when combined can boost your Tool Use by +3 later in the game. If you can get your TU to 25, you can open the L28 door. This is achievable. I know Ephesos was nearly there, but he didn't have both magical items to quite do it either. I don't know if the L35 door is possible. You'd have to get TU to 32. I have had my mage near the end of the game able to open doors of level 25 with magic, though it took more than one try. His stats with which he did it are below, and are essentially his ending stats in the game: POSSIBLE ENDING STATS FOR MAGE SPOILER: Tool Use 0 Dexterity 5 Intelligence 12 Spellcraft 7 Magery 11 Magical Efficiency 9

Hmm, interesting discovery, Vlish, on the separation of Dexterity from Tool Use in A4. Unlock Doors by mage does seem minimally useful, unless you never bothered to give anyone Tool Use of over 15 which I didn't. See the end part for what my mage WAS able to accomplish with Unlock Doors. Jeff told me there are some doors never meant to be opened in this game, and some doors (the ones that say they are too intricate to be picked and you don't have a key) probably only open by key or quest reward. I can think of at least two doors I couldn't open which he probably meant never to open, and they are both in the same room nearby rubble which may imply the doors go nowhere anyway and are blocked. There is a door in Patrick's Tower I can't open (L35) and a door upstairs in the Castle that never opens or seems openable—if it does open, I think only a quest could do it, but I didn't miss any, even after having read the hint book. There is a door in a hideout near the end of the game with L28 which I couldn't quite get to open, and I am guessing it houses a spellbook. Athron's door opens with a key you acquire somewhere. Feel free to email me if you want to know what you missed specifically. You weren't the only one who did, by the way. It's a little roundabout happening on the means to getting that key. You WANT what is to be had in Athron's Lair though, trust me. It's worth the bother, and it is a bother once you get in the door too. HINT/MINOR SPOILER: There are two magical items which when combined can boost your Tool Use by +3 later in the game. If you can get your TU to 25, you can open the L28 door. This is achievable. I know Ephesos was nearly there, but he didn't have both magical items to quite do it either. I don't know if the L35 door is possible. You'd have to get TU to 32. I have had my mage near the end of the game able to open doors of level 25 with magic, though it took more than one try. His stats with which he did it are below, and are essentially his ending stats in the game: POSSIBLE ENDING STATS FOR MAGE SPOILER: Tool Use 0 Dexterity 5 Intelligence 12 Spellcraft 7 Magery 11 Magical Efficiency 9

Woo hoo! So far, the Mac users have full crack at Avernum IV at last, and I know many of you are quick out the gate to give it a whirl. Do buy the game if you like the demo...it’s well worth it, and the game is huge. Help put little poo-bomb Princess Cordelia Krizsan Vogel’s next meal on the table. There are no significant spoilers in this post, but some HINTS/MILD SPOILERS have been bulleted off if you want to avoid them (••). SOME OF SYNERGY’S SIMPLE SUGGESTIONS FOR NOT SUCKING AT AVERNUM IV I've fully played the game twice now, and partially several more times, so I thought someone trying to get used to all the changes in Avernum IV might appreciate a few tips from some testers to get off on a decent foot. Here are some of my tips and observations so far. PARTY SIZES: Forget playing as a SINGLETON. I doubt it's possible to win a game with one unless you are a serious glutton for punishment, mind-numbing tedium, multiple reloads, and crippled leveling up early on leaving your singleton way behind the level-up curve. Jeff designed A4 for a party of four in particular. Jeff’s word on this matter was that playing A4 as a singleton should be like playing Civilization campaigns with nothing but phalanxes. This challenge of course will only prompt someone to prove that it can be done. More power to you. Let’s hear how you did it when you pull it off......you deranged lunatic. If you are going to try it, a Divinely Touched slith with Natural Mage is probably the way to go. Invulnerability potions no longer protect you 100% from damage...more like 90% now, so you can still get poisoned and whittled away at while "invulnerable". This will add up quickly if you are surrounded by nasty foes as a singleton hitting you for 7-10 points damage each once to three times per turn, and perhaps poisoning you at the same time. A party of THREE should be readily doable for skilled players, but it wll start becoming very tough with only TWO. One reason for this is a plethora of very tough foes and the threat of being frozen, terrified, or charmed at various points. Another reason is that to get in many doors or past traps you need high enough Tool Use, which is hard to afford with only a couple PC’s to consider. You really need a pooling of strong and diverse skills in your party to meet the varied challenges throughout the game successfully. Kind of like real life. PC SPECIALIZATION: Yes, do yourself a big favor and specialize specialize specialize your PC’s. Your available skill points are going to feel much more miserly in Avernum IV, and not just because you only get five more to work with per level up. You will really have to focus skills on each PC to be effective, rather than making them broadly but shallowly skilled. For your fighters, focus weapons skills, Strength, and Quick Action, the latter of which begins to become very useful at around level 4 or higher for getting frequent second blows. Don’t have hopes of winding up with priests or mages with full carrying strength of 10 by the end of this game. You might never get your magicians past 2-5 strength if you want to make them properly effective. Specialization does mean sacrifice. Do make your mages and priests powerful with Intelligence and Spellcraft. Start your mages and priests off with at least 5 in their respective magic levels. There are some good non-encumbering armors and garments to put on your magicians to spare weight or spellcasting interference for mages—even with Natural Mage, you will hit encumbrance issues if you don’t level up appropriate skills to counter encumbrance. •• [MILD SPOILER] When you get the special skills Magery and Magical Effficiency boost these instead of Intelligence, and perhaps Magery instead of Spellcraft. I think Spellcraft and Magery are more effective at boosting spell strength than spending too many points on Intelligence in the long run. You can probably stop adding intelligence anywhere from 8-12 and focus on the other skills. •• TRAITS: Don’t be afraid to select positive traits and pile them on sliths or nephils. My first game I balanced my human mage and priest with Brittle Bones along with Natural Mage and Pure Spirit respectively, which effectively gave them a penalty/bonus of 0%. But without level up penalties, you will actually much earlier hit monster kill Experience Point washout in your party, even in a party of four. If you have 30-45% or even higher penalties due to sliths, nephils, and positive traits throughout your party, don’t worry that it will put you too much behind. You will be getting more experience points from monsters a bit into the game to balance out the difference. Load ‘em up to your satisfaction. Elite Warrior and Divinely Touched both give a great bundle of advantages and special traits, especially useful if you are playing with less than four PC’s. I like a Elite Warrior slith with a pole and Strong Will for my front meat shield fighter. Also, I find almost none of the negative traits worth the drawbacks or sacrifice of choosing positive traits in A4, personally. POLE WEAPONS: Pole weapons rock in A4, and there are several great ones to wind up with ultimately, including at least one familiar old friend. Don’t hesitate to make two or three pole fighters in your troupe if you especially enjoy creating carnage while speaking softly and carrying a big stick. Poles are throughout the entire game more powerful than any melee weapons you will get your hands on, but there are none you can wield with a shield in hand, and there are some impressive shields to be had eventually. Impressive armor can make up for the lack of relatively minor shield help however. •• [HINT/MILD SPOILER]: If you want to find iron spears early on, there are two to be had near Fort Monastery. There is one south of the goblin caves near the fisherman by the river. It is in a sinkhole by a body you will find in that pit. Be sure to examine that body and do what seems obvious. It will be significant in some way later on. You will have to fight past goblins, rats, and bats (oh my!) to get all the way down there, but nothing you can’t handle, you big powerful brute, right? A second iron spear can be found on another body in another pit, this one in the nephil camp just to the NE across the bridge from Fort Monastery. You will have to fight some nephils to get to it, and then something even more nasty down in the pit, so be prepared to hack your way to this one. It’s quite doable right out the gate of Fort Monastery if you constructed your party well, and the quickest one to get to, especially if you don’t want to buy bronze spears at the Fort. These two iron spears are the best weapons by far anyone will have in your party for a while. •• MELEE WEAPONS: You are going to have to really focus strength and melee skills on a melee fighter to make him powerful. This is harder than for a pole wielder, especially a slith. But there is good use for at least one melee fighter in any party. There are a diversity of very cool melee weapons throughout the game, many of which will add traits and bonuses to your PC not necessarily useful just for inflicting damage offensively. •• [HINT/MILD SPOILER]: Pay attention to the knife you pick up at the goblin altar near Fort Monastery. It is easy to carelessly sell off if you aren’t paying attention, and I think your Priest or Mage might really enjoy having it. It may seem like quite some time before you really begin to find any great melee weapons. You’re going to only have bronze and iron swords for a while, so get used to feeling wimpy with a sword early on. •• ARCHERY: It’s very useful in this game, really! Bows for everyone are well worthwhile. There are numerous highly worthy bows to be acquired in time, and not necessarily just because of the direct physical damage they will inflict. There is no more bother of buying and carrying around arrows...your bows are always happily loaded and ready to deliver for you. The difference in bow damage is caused by the type of bow itself and your Strength, Dexterity, Bow skill level, and whether you have Sharpshooter skill. The trait Deadeye gives you Sharpshooter from the get-go, and is of course ideal to give an archer, but can also be fun to give a mage or priest. Make your archer powerful if you have one designated. A strong archer can do very effective damage and there are many times in this game where you will want or need to do ranged assaults, and—mind you—sometimes only physical damage will prevail in a fight, and additionally, at times you’d rather not touch someone you want to kill. I give all four of my PC’s around 4-5 Bow skills fairly early on, which is plenty to make even a glass cannon priest helpful at contributing some decent bow damage from a distance. Even bow skills of 2-3 seem to make a mage or priest able to hit most of the time. I sometimes like to make a good archer/thief nephil PC with Nimble Fingers and Deadeye traits to capitalize on his native Dexterity. •• [HINT/MILD SPOILER] Speaking of thieves and archers, the first and only Yew Bow you will see early on can be stolen from a house SE of Fort Monastery by the swamp. It is well worth equipping your archer with this right off the bat as there is virtually nothing standing between you and it except your flimsy conscience, you shamelessly sneaky mercenary, you. •• THIEVES/ROGUES: Hooray! No more pesky lockpicks to worry about, just your Tool Use best we can tell so far. It is very useful, and all but necessary at times, really, to have a good thief/rogue of some kind in your party. You are not going to be able to unlock doors magically for some time, and there are doors and traps of difficulty 7-10 in the beginning area of the game, which are well worth your bother getting past. Unless you want to come back to get items and loot of diminished value much later in the game, starting one PC with Tool Use of 7-8 and bumping it up to 10 quickly is very helpful. You’ll need Tool Use of 15 total for traps ultimately. There are some doors with difficulty levels of 25-35, two of which I have never yet been able to get open, even with a fairly powerul mage with Unlock Doors level 3 spells. Note also that a mage’s ability to magically unlock doors is actually improved by the mage possessing Tool Use skill. Has someone found a way to pump up some combination of Tool Use, Dexterity(??), and spell abilities to open that level 35 door? If so, do tell. Also, you thieves might take note that in any zone or town you can actually steal some number of times right in front of anyone’s eyes before they will turn on you and string you up. Generally, to the minor degree I have pushed this envelope, it appears to be that typically three strikes and you are out, but it varies depending on how friendly and forgiving the environment is to begin with. Experiment at your own peril. But this means when you see something in someone’s lockbox you just can’t live without, and that person is standing behind you, you can probably steal it and no one will stop you. So choose carefully what you covet most in each area before committing to committing a crime. MAGES: It will be difficult to play A4 through with no mages due to the need to dispel barriers, though there are a scattering of piercing crystals throughout the game. Has anyone successfully played a game with only priest spells? Early in the game, and for quite some time magically, Icy Rain rules as a frequently very effective area spell (yay, area spells!). Your priest will not have any damaging area spells until he acquires Divine Fire a long way down the road. If you make a mage strong enough early on, say with 6-8 level Mage Spells and one or two Spellcraft and 4-5 Intelligence, he alone will make mincemeat of goblins and nephils from the start. If you have two mages with Icy Rain at the start, you are going to kick ass for a while. A party of all magic users could be a fun challenge too, because there are foes that basically require physical damage to beat, especially later on. You may want to add some pole, melee or strong archer ability (cheapest) to your magicians later on, if you have lots of them. PRIESTS: Note the cheaper priest spells than mage spells. Be sure not to overlook the new Pure Spirit trait designed just for your priest. A strong priest is your best friend to bring along to the party. Don’t neglect your Repel Spirit skills. There seem to be plenty of nasty undead variants lurking around, and I’m not talking about hordes of simple mindless zombies to dispatch. Note also that Repel Spirit is NOT an area spell at any level. Two PC’s with priest abilities can be very useful in a party. I usually give my meat shield fighter one level of priest skills so he can heal, cure, or bless himself a bit. Hold on to all your herbs collected. They are light and eventually most of them will be useful in one way or another. It is quite possible to do just fine without using any wands or scrolls and most potions. You can afford more spells and special gear if you sell off things like wands and scrolls instead of hoarding them all. This concludes Some of Synergy’s Simple Suggestions for not Sucking at Avernum IV at this time. I am sure other players will have plenty to offer, modify, or correct hereafter, including myself, as there is much more that can be said. EDIT: Fixed my “Divine Warrior” to “Elite Warrior.”