Randomizer

Quote: QUESTION: +4 Levels Damage In Combat which the Lodestone Greaves are currently giving me..this would be like adding 4 to Melee or Missle Skills, yes? If I remember from my own experience they show up in melee weapons only on the statistics page. You can check quickly by taking the off and on again. Not too many items that help missle weapons except dexterity items like footgear and belts and the farsight plate reward. I'd go with spellcraft for increased damage and intelligence since later on in the game the powerful spells burn through spell energy even though you have plenty of essence available. I hated wasting an essence pod just to get one more mass madness or aura of flames.

Fire creations tend to work the best if you want to concentrate on one shaping skill. Fyora, drayk, and drakon all never run out of power for their missle attacks. Kyshakks are the perfect shield since their health is so high you don't need to increase their health with augmentation or essence shield/armor for most areas. Even the roamer is nice since the acid attack adds to early damage. The creation 3 versions are best for the cryoa and cryodrayk even though they may run out of power. The ur-drakon comes so late that it is almost useless. For magic creations the artila is great at the start but runs out of power in long battles. The wingbolt, gazer, and eyebeast are better for their high missle damage and decent melee attacks when they run out of power. They have enough health to last through most fights.

I think I read that Jeff didn't like the missing class as a glass cannon. However since it is easy to add a little to endurance it isn't that weak and I ran an effective endurance 1 lifecrafter through the betas to near the end. Having an effective endurance of 4 with the gruesome charm gives plenty of health at the end with augmentation and essence armor. A few powerful creations and that class would have been even nastier than what we have now. Spells are deadly at the end. A mass madness with high spellcraft can turn most of your enemies into allies. Two aura of flames will destroy all the wingbolts on the screen. Two essence orbs will almost destroy war tralls. With elemental cloak, steel skin, and protection (I think that is a 25% reduction in damage) you can withstand half a dozen kyshakks and most other attackers to finish them in the next round.

The Anama spellbooks dumbfound you if you try to read them with fake rings. You still can rob the treasury.

Since all of the games that started in Avernum were in the northeast it will probably be the river near Fort Avernum, near Formello, or Fort Draco, The Formello river is closest to the Vahnatai area. I hope Solberg gets a bigger role than Avernum 4. Also X should have more than the one quest.

Synergy - to get past the Soul Twins as a singleton you need the spells from chapter 3. First slip just north of the pile of skulls out of their attack range and finish with a haste or mass energize. Then move one step forward and hit each with essence shackles to even up the game. I found a pair of swarm crystals followed by a healing spell for myself kept me healthy enough to finish them off. You may need another endurance point for more health or remove the gruesome charm for this encounter. You pretty much need major heal for the old golem. Spine shield actually does more damage to him than you usually do, I found having a pair of channelers in chapter 3 to be awesome since each add +7 to spellcraft, Firebolts were doing 150+ and the other spells were over 200. Since you start getting no experience on kills here there isn't a point in running singleton too much.

Reading The Saga of the Insidious Infiltrator will give you some hints on how to pick up extra experience and what order to do things in to avoid getting in over your head. There are ways to get easy experience that will help you early in the game. Lifecrafter, servile, and infiltrator are the most powerful classes in the game. The warrior and shock trooper are handicapped by their low magic abilities and are harder to play.

When training in chapter 3, you might want missle weapons as well since that helps with hitting for missle spells I think and with the battle crystals. When I ran the path to the Forgotten One I mostly used swarm crystals and then healed up at the end of the round. I didn't need help from creations even though I had to wait until chapter 4. I like how in the zones over the bunkers you can pick off the creations one by one with the passage bracelet keeping all the others calm.

Actually if Jeff changes the combat system enough then some dialog boxes will be needed. Still after the first time it would be nice. Bring back starvation and the spell - sticks to steaks.

I'd have reduced the strength and put it into intelligence myself. A little lower armor and higher battle magic to attack with spells especially firebolt or burning spray after seeing what didn't get dazed. If you augment and then get in the face of a drayk it will usually only get the weaker melee attack for about 50 damage instead of the stronger missle attack of 170+. Did you try the battle alpha and glaahk at the Shaper camp? I found them easier to kill them I expected with my base stats shock trooper and a cryoa before meeting Crowley. Blessed and a 2 icy crystals followed by a discipline wand got each. If you position yourself properly only one at a time will attack.

Quote: Originally written by Chitrach Exterminator: BOVINE THUD! I keep seeing the catapaulted cow from Monty Python and the Holy Grail unless you mean a gigantic hoof from the sky crushing the non-believers.

A servile and an infiltrator are not meant to be pack leaders although an infiltrator has the essence to do it. A lifecrafter and a shock trooper are not meant to be singletons, They are designed to summon an army and then lead it by different means. The warrior is the left over guardian in the middle with a little better ability to summon creations than in the earlier games. The idea is that they are optimized for their playing styles. Although a servile is the closest to a generalist in this game since he can run by himself or lead a few powerful creations in the endgame.

It's a two part quest. Bevan, the mayor of Almira send you on the quest and mentions that a lady wizard knows something about where he might be hiding. The first place is going north and then a little east to land on the coast. You have to go inland and I think you need to find a secret passage to his hideout. After exploring and killing you find a golem that gives you a message about his new hiding place at the north end of the swamp on the west coast. There is a piece of paper with the lever code to access his new place. If you use move mountains at the right spot you can find a back way into to Sixus so he doesn't kill himself. It's a better quest ending but it doesn't change the reward.

The difference between Exile and Avernum is the greater spell lists and the ease for adding new ones. Avernum requires removing a spell to make room for a new one. So we might as well start nominating our least favorites spells again to be voted out. I want to see the end of the mage's call beast and animate undead. You don't get to pick which one is summoned and they are usually fairly lame. Replace arcane blow with shockwave to bring the mage on par with the priest's divine retribution.

This is the problem with cheat codes. They change flags in the game and the flags determine the dialog options.

Maybe you are thinking of the fyoraskin cloak.

A shock trooper is a different approach to playing. ST and warrior are for the player that wants to fight and not use spells. A few powerful creations that don't need to be healed all the time and you get to spend your time hacking away. With the number of items that give blessing magic +2 and less powerful mental magic, you can run a powerful character. It's just a different emphasis. An infiltrator and a servile are both the combination of spells and fighting where you don't need support creations except in a few special areas. Lifecrafters rely on an army and use spells to power it. Those three classes are all overpowered even facing the armies of hostile creations in the Fens and certain other areas.

I carry all the charms, infiltrator items, tinker items, and a stealth boots plus a few swap items like captain' shiv. Then there are a set of pods/spores for quick healing, etc. The rest I store at Southforge Citadel at the start and later the north end of the Eastern Rise. I used to use other places just to keep things neat. I do tend to sweep areas for every last item that can be sold. I now tend to sell most items that I will never use just to have the money and keep the areas neater.

I am surprised that BoA hasn't sold that well. While I haven't had the time to play the community created scenarios since I am going through the older games, some day I will get to them. I'm hoping a successful year of the new games will revive sales in BoA so you will reconsider.

I think it was ET that played the no canister game and finished at level 5. There have been some no canister games and running as a guardian would be the easiest. There are some places to pickup skills without using canisters.

Exile is the only game where you can equip your fighters with 2 one-handed weapons. Once hasted they give a buzz saw effect with multiple strikes per round to quickly destroy their opponents. By the end of the game they can do 6 strikes per round with all the blessings and hasting spells for ridiculous damage.

ET - you can die and be forgotten without becoming a martyr (except in your own mind). Getting to explore an adjacent area will allow for starting characters to build up before getting into trouble. Of course this ruins my idea that we start off as surface tourists with no really useful skills going off the beaten track.

Synergy is right since I've played most of my games and found that mechanics of 8 at the start and leadership raised to 6 in chapter 1 gives you all but 2 trapped chests. Raising mechanics to 10 is the most that you will need for the rest of the game since you can use items for the rest. Leadership of 7 to 8 with items will give you most of the remainder of the game. The extra experience from disarming traps and mines, and opening doors will raise you quickly so you can put points into the other skills. The game is designed so you don't need more combats or magic skills until the middle of chapter 2. Even then you can find areas that will give you lots of experience with the geek skills of leadership and mechanics.

A shock trooper won't be able to train as quickly in mental and blessing magic as a lifecrafter, but by choosing the right creations and using items like the captain's shiv and boots all you really need to do is concentrate on mental magic. With enough creations you don't have to get mass madness and charm to convert the opponents to your side. A force of 5 tier 3 and 4 creations will work fine on mass energize. I'll try it next week and handicap myself with a pro-Shaper path with no canisters and only Shaper approved creations.

The west panel is used to turn off the security electric field for the east panel in a few endings where there isn't a combat. but that is a different control then the ones asked in the beginning.