Randomizer

It's not a bug, it's a feature. Goagh-Nar is set up so you can't go back through the secret door as a Celt once you exit the area. To maximize loot you need to transfer it past the secret door so you can come back later for it. Similarly as the Romans, you have to place stuff outside the porticulls. Once you go to the lowest level, there is no extra trips.

If you don't see a significant return at 40 luck then it doesn't really help. Too bad I wasted early points on it.

I'm not sure, but luck seems to have some effects in the special item drops for quest like scuttler eyes and acid etched stones in chapter 7. I had a high luck group (11) and was piling up the stones when others seemed to be having no luck during beta testing.

It's been done. Somewhere there is a topic mentioning it.

Walk back and forth and watch for messages in the text box at the bottom that tell you when you're getting its attention. This takes a while for it to appear. Stay buffed when you get the first message.

When you get to the area with the red and blue stone ringed pools, there is a spiraling path in the northeast that circles into the pit crawler area. This is the zone north of the elevator. Those lava spewing caldera only get worse. The trick is to have someone with healing spells hang back to heal the rest.

Quote: Originally written by Elastikon: This change was mostly unnecessary but it was helpful against Hssrotis in the Fang Clan test, with those fire-breathing bats of his. Daze is essential here to keep the bats from fighting and sometime keep Hssrotis in place while you clear the area and recharge spell energy. You don't want to deal with those nastier bats and him at the same time. Quote: I didn't realize before that there were zero required encounters between Shanker and Harkin's Landing, so you can actually train Hardiness quite early. The clover boots and jeweled wand are nice in the rapid area, plus it's hard to carry all the good stuff as a singleton. You have to make a second trip to do one quest so it easier to clear part of the area each trip downstream.

Jeff does place some subtle remarks in the dialog. For instance in Rivergate Keep when you first meet the Shaper, the living tool objects to its being misused. In Poryphra Ruins, Shaper Grim finds a way to rationalize working with independent creations during the war by how they will have to serve afterwards or be destroyed as rogue. How much of the long debates will show up in Geneforge 5 will depend on the characters that appear for the different viewpoints.

You are stuck with the sizes of the different areas. The text box at the bottom is very useful since most combat clues are there in brief one line sentences. Being able to see how effective the damage you are doing is to the monster and how much damage you are receiving out of total damage makes this game better than the earlier Avernums.

No. You can expect to use other tactics to deal with swarms. This is why infiltrators and those using battle magic excel as lone characters. Area effect spells can nail a swarm in one or two rounds. Mental magic with charm type spells can shift enough enemies to temporary allies to allow you to nail individuals. Those long scripted fights like Moseh are ones where you can't just hack your way through. Eventually you reach the point where you have to be able to outlast them.

It was Landsman, the head of the Avernum Survey Expedition, that give the advice. It's possible to kill Gladwell about levels 20-24. It depends upon what spells you have and how powerful your party is when you do it. You need some good area of effects spells to take out the shades that Gladwell summons and unshackle mind to deal with mind effecting spells. If you are under the geas, then go into the reward area and destroy the undead in the east before going in the backdoor. There's no reason to make this harder than necessary.

This doesn't count skills that you get due to traits and races. It sounds like that is the problem.

There are some weird results with luck drops or extra items drops. The best case is for luck of 1 with Captain Newsom. You can get additional items of iron shield and studded belt. I've played through that area enough to have seen usually one of them about half the time. It probably isn't worth doing anything until you can get the cheap trainer in Thalants and you want to maximize all your trainable skills.

There is the return of Gypsy as a musician in the New Harston Inn. This is probably the oldest returning character without magical powers to sustain life.

There is another way out. Search to the west past the altar for a lever (knob) to a secret door leading to an emergency exit portal that takes you to the south on the route to the Chitrach nest area. You may have to fight some farmers, but it's easier than doing the whole city. Anama don't use magic, bah humbug. At least there is some loot for killing the Anama to make it worth effort.

Talk to the alchemist Fortunado and one of the lower dialog options mentions a monster that's keeping his apprentice inside. The mongobat quest isn't available until you finish the Baquba the Arenea quest for Lark.

They are all near Exodus, but in different directions. One is west of the city and the others are more to the southwest.

Quote: Originally written by Taliesin: While we're at it, why don't we just shape a few serviles and make them carry our stuff? That's how this whole rebellion started. They got fed up with carrying stuff.

*bump* Update the list to include the final crafted items from Melanchion's Keep using mandrake tincture. I think the only things of importance still missing are in the Pit of Abominations where the items weren't stocked during early beta testing.

It's a long explanation so see here. It takes several trips up and down the ladders before you can enter the right path. Each time if you don't leave the zone, then a new one opens up.

The walkthrough calls them rough crystals. They were cheap crystals that could be use to make swarm crystals or the guardian claymore.

Each time you suceed a statue nods and the ground shakes. It's obvious when you completed what's needed for that trial. Jeff was dripping with sarcasm in this area.

The only problem is Jeff made it required that nature lore be 5 to do the final battle in the Sentinel Workshop. It is possible to fight your way out of the southwest quadrant by avoiding all sentinel encounters until you reach the corner just before the road out. There you have to fight 4 sentinels and another 8 that later guard the road (these are easier to deal with because you can do 1 or 2 at a time). You might be able to go this route and then do the Anama Lands and the next few regions to get the Explorer Ring. Of course this means bypassing the weapons trainer too. Endurance helps here to reduce acid damage and give the health to shrug off damage. You also need it for Lysstak in chapter 3 because it's a long scripted fight. The upside is that the areas after Tranquility aren't that hard for a singleton. You can pick up the discipline knife for 3 combat skills, there are cheaper places to get spells, and once you reach Muck you can get knowledge brews made. I found that mandrake is the limiting factor to making knowledge brews. The next is energetic herbs because because they are required for both knowledge brews, wisdom crystals, and energy potions/elixirs. Making wisdom crystals is a waste of time and money. Graymold becomes so plentiful at the end of the game that it's never a problem. Clicking through all those caches is a pain. It's hard for a regular party to go back for that one cache that needed a higher NL.

Since you got the saved skill points, you might want to raise TU 10 to get the few missed locks and the minor XP from opening them. Raising endurance is also helpful since at this point you actually get some health from it and can reduce acid/poison damage. I don't think raising nature lore above the 5 for chapter 4 is helpful unless you want money. NL 8 only gets you the one wisdom crystal but lots of crystals in chapter 3. I did all the hard ones before moving on to chapter 2 and that's a grind. You could go downstream to chapter 3 and visit Harkin's Landing for the priest spells up to mass curing and the other trainers depending upon your cash flow (resistance is expensive). Then take a pylon back to finish up chapter 2 since you need a second trip anyway to do the quest in the rapids. You're ahead of schedule for the chapter 4 mage spell levels to get dispel barrier and prismatic shield.

I did it recently and they went neutral and stopped attacking. It's a pain to do it as an Anama since you don't have an area attack that damages them. Picking them off with smite is slow.