Randomizer

Go for a few of the really useful ones so you gain power but still have some control. That way you can goad the ones that use too many into doing stupid things. Let them fight amongst themselves and kill the "winner."

If you have enough health you can survive the pylons. Using augmentation, essence shield/armor, steel skin, and protection you can reach that body. There are some nice things like the oozing blade so if you have the mechanics it is worth it. Just pay attention not to approach the lines by less than 2 squares.

There's a dead one in the Eastern Barrier Zone that left a diary. Both sides are hunting them down as fast as possible. Forgot Nakel in the Northern Fens that you can be hired to kill.

The Shapers are counting on divide and conquer. You get to be the divisor if you listen to them.

I used up skill points when I got them, but most went to spells, tool use, and strength so I could lug the loot back to town. After the Eastern Gallery you pretty much can hit anything so it becomes a matter of damage/round and how soon you go back to town to recharge.

Probably because Jeff didn't want a religious war, he left it vague. TSR (now a subdivision of Hasbro) got rake over the coals about Dungeons and Dragons. They revised the demons and devils in second edition to placate the parents. You can reach where they come from by various portals and in Avernum 4 there is some mention that they live on more than one plane since the Tower Colony one was trapped here after the Grah-Hoth incident in Avernum 3. They did rule Avernum before the humans were exiled from the surface so they must like the place.

This problem has been mentioned before in And now?

Quote: —Alorael, who still hopes for balance comments that lead to a better game. In other words, nerf the servile! Power to the shock troopers! Fyoras for the masses! No chance of reducing the servile. I asked Jeff and he had a complaint that it wasn't powerful enough against Monarch from someone that he relies upon. Shock troopers are a bit weak because of the magic spells, but they are playable if you don't want as big an army as a lifecrafter.

Damage is lower against you for melee attacks as long as you retreat from the energy blasts. Just stay outside of attack range for a few rounds and return. Also there is a chance of charming his golem.

Also Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders (GIFTs) have appeared in Jeff's old Dungeon and Dragons campaigns according to previous threads so they have appeared in all the Exile and Avernum games. Geneforge has been spared for now.

I think Jeff is making a request to see if there are any people out there that haven't applied that have what he wants as the two ends of Windows operating systems. He still wants to test different versions of Windows XP and different hardware configurations so you might have something that interests him. After all the first revision to the final version of Mac GF4 was for an operating system that wasn't among the beta testers.

Chapter 3 - The Fens Using the pass from Alwan, Cordy goes first up the Western Rise and into the Shaper Camp Gamma to pick up some quests. Shaper Darnell increases her spellcraft as well as teaching her strong daze, major heal and creating kyshakks. Now she can add two kyshakks, Shocker and Sparker, to her growing army. After looting and getting General Crowley to help the refugees it back south and on to the Eastern Rise to loot and kill bandits. Into the Golem's Fens and first to kill the vlish and then the mines to get to the golem. After that it's the clawbugs and rats before heading into Rebel Camp Aziraph. Talking to Mose about the refugees, Greta about her mission, and then Jared about the lab before going to kill the rats and loot the place. Back to the fens and into the workshop. Killing the rothgroth is easy with speed spores and blessing to help out the army. Then it's loot and leave. Jared cuts his prices and Captain Archibald provides training. The rotgroth's tooth makes part of a mental focus charm. Then I go back and make Eliza pay for not giving a reward. That agent cloak and the mindwarp seal from Pirik for killing her make up for her rudeness. This makes the party ready to go and clear Sandros Mines. With an army it's easy to clear the Imprisoned Soul and the Soul Twins using mass energize, but the old golem cost Cordy Rime the cryoa before he collapse. The Forgotten One has that nice Shaper's Trueweave to replace the spidersilk robe. Back to the Fens to rescue Cantor from the rogue creations of the Southwest Fens. Then back across it to reach Southern Grosch to find the eight lost serviles. Down into the Pit to destroy the warped creator and the packs of rogues patroling the area. Finally a meet with Khyryk and a return to claim her rewards. Now to go after Monarch, Picking up three servile techs, they go through the Northern Fens through the electrified fields into Northern Grosch. Down through Monarch's old home and deactivating all the traps. Finally Monarch is confronted and destroyed for making her go through all that mud. Then it's back to the top to kill all of his creations and loot. Greta gets Monarch's notes and gives her a mental focus charm. It's time to learn how to create a wingbolt from Shaper Darnell and get the missions to go north into Burwood from both sides. Level 35, health 82, essence 134/622, spell energy 1091, skill points 5 Strength 5, dexterity 3 (+3), intelligence 12 (+5), endurance 3 (-2) melee weapons 5, missle weapons 4, quick action 4, parry 4 (+1) battle magic 1, mental magic 5 (+2), blessing magic 4 (+4), spellcraft 6 (+2) fire shaping 7 (+1), battle shaping 2, magic shaping 7, healing craft 6 (+1) Equipment - shaper's trueweave, shaped shield, oozing blade, acid baton, nimble sandals, gloves of the hammer, agent cloak, lodestone greaves, mindwarp seal, guardian stone, girdle of genius, lucky charm, fyora fang charm, cryoa claw charm, clawbug charm, physician's charm, gruesome charm, and 2 mental focus charms. Alternate equipment - captain's boots and shiv, tinker's bauble and gloves, infiltrator's cloak and tunic, volcanic fetish, and shapers robe. On to Burwood.

The Soul twins were the only use I every really had for swarm crystals instead of using essence orbs. The old golem I have only fought as a single character using a servile with all the buffs and some extra endurance to have the 400+ health to survive at the end. I had to spine shield myself and after the second golem form I think all I cast was major heal, major healing pod, major heal. He made the Forgotten one look easy.

I could usually guess in Exile and Avernum where a hidden room would lie by looking at the automap. Geneforge 4 is the first game where I'm really wondering how much I missed in previous characters. I checked back with an early beta to see that the room was there all along and I walked past the control at least 8 times. This game has more obscured bodies, chests, piles of sacks, and levers than any other game Jeff has made, Almost every run through I pick up another one.

You might be able to do the rest of Sandros Mines after getting all the spells from the two camps in the Fens. The Shapers trueweave is a little better armor without the weight of the better armors. You'll probably need a kyshakk for the old golem to suck up damage but it should be doable.

He is a ghost tied to the area with no way to leave.

There is a zig-zag path through the stalagmites. Go east first and check each square until you find the path which includes going through a wall if I remember it correctly. If you keep trying you should figure it out in a few minutes.

Later on in the game you can buy fake Anama rings to explore that level safely. No need to use the character editor.

Did anyone else find the hidden room in the Boiling Mudpits? The control is a spore box behind a pillar in the northernmost passageway just east of the electrified field and north of the three mines, It opens a concealed door to a small room with a living tool, healing spores, and venom thorns. Edit - correct last item

It called the Cultist Safehouse in the zone east of Valeya Road and west of Quessa-Uss. He's just off the west entrance.

Just spent an hour replaying Shardfield from first entering the zone to get different drops. The fights with the artila and the thahds/fyoras after 7 tries gave once with an artila eye, once with a nice fur, once with an extra fyora scale, and the one I kept was a nice fur and a fyoraskin cloak. No thahd tunic in any of them which is what I wanted. Forgot this was with luck at 1.

Most people won't go through the effort to learn to control themselves including to stop using something that is making themselves worse. Consider all the people out there with drug habits, smoking, alcoholism, etc. who derive some benefit from doing something that is killing them. Considering that canister produce some sort of high as well as increased power it takes a strong will to stop, As to the idea of using canisters on children in hopes that it will give them time to control themselves, you might just raise a group of sociopaths that have no moral control in spite of training.

In one of the last betas before release, Jeff increased the effectiveness of charm, mass madness, etc. making the mental spells really useful. Before the change they rarely affected the most powerful creations.

Quote: Originally written by Facepalming Hecatonchire: A couple rounds of Essence Orbs will barely take out a single Fyora unless you also have at least a moderate amount of training in some form of magery, be it battle magic or general spellcraft. By the time you get essence orbs you do have several levels of battle magic and hopefully a few of spellcraft. I wonder how far you could get as an infiltrator without using more than the first six spells in each magic group and no creations. I know the last chapter will be difficult without elemental cloak to reduce the damage and charm to gain allies, but the attack spells should do. If you save madness and torrent gems for key fights you should get through most areas with some care.

Heustess is the last "survivor" of the opponents of the original Shapers. He represents what went wrong with the Shapers attempt to win the war.