Randomizer

For those who obsess, I decided to count the number of wisdom crystals and knowledge brews available in the game. Also the number that can be made by Strine from mandrake roots. You can buy 5 during the game: Grindstone - Jenn West Cotra - Potionary Store Tower Colony - Oliver Patrick's Tower - Julz Dharmon - Oliver There are 4 as rewards from quest: Castle - Ghall-Ihrno - comfort gives 2 wisdom crystals Blosk - Mayor - slaying enraged wrymkin gives knowledge brew Fort Remote - alchemist - ingredrient quests gives knowledge brew and other potions for 2 graymold, 1 mandrake, and eyestalks There are 24 and 1 knowledge elixir (4 points) for usually killing monsters that guard them: Nephil Lands- under checkpoint past fire lizards (need high nature lore to get it without a fight) Slime Tunnels - lower level Haunted Mines - lower level (need piercing crystal) Motrax's Cave - lower level Eastern Gallery - Swamplouse Mertis Spiral - upper level (need piercing crystal) Honeycomb - lower level behind dispel barrier spell barrier Camp Samuels - lower level after golem Great Cave - southeast corner after fighting Aranea Stoneseer Great Cave - lower level area with Abisythe behind icy crystalmists Great Cave - south wall after Dripfang and terror wolves Slith Lands - cultist area northwest part of the city Scree Caves - dragon's hoard Blosk - upper level enraged wrymkin Great Cave - east of Dharmon lower level in mine with crystal basilisk Western Wastes - third map section past Fort Remote beyond gazer guarded bridge and difficulty 40 door Basalt Tower - near gate Basalt Tower - lower level south west corner in crystal workers area Spire - northside with Kring and bandits Abyss - Test #6 reward Harston - lower level - with Cryos demon (need dispel barrier) Giant Warren - lower level treasure chamber Khoth's Ruins - lower level west side Knowledge Elixir (need dispel barrier) Dark Lands - center of map section near wrymkin Erika's Ruins - upper level lich There are 4 that are cached and require a nature lore somewhere between 4 and 12 to find: Great Cave - lower level area with Abisythe behind icy crystalmists Great Cave - below Patrick's Tower tunnels after fighting sparklingmists Patrick's Tower - lower level holding cell with gazer (need dispel barrier) Great Cave - lower level chitrach tunnels northwest of Castle Great Cave - beyond the mage guarding Daggerfall mine west of Dharmon There are 4 marked NY (not yours) that you can steal if you close the door: Almaria - lower level past golem Fissure Inn -upper level guest room Gnass - lower level guarded by hellhound Fort Remote - room Mandrake roots are the hardest to find ingredient of the five needed for knowledge brews. Nature lore 3 will get 16 and nature lore 12 will get 37. The mandrake and graymold in the Basalt Fortress is only accessible from caches after the terror wolves are released and not available later on in the game. Out of the mandrake obtained one is used for the Fort Remote quest as a good use to reward. I used in Bargha some to buy Answering Gloves and Magus Vest. There is one mandrake root south of Erika's Ruins so you will have to go back later to use it. To get nature lore 12 for a singleton: buy 2 levels in Fort Duvno from Walner, 1 level as quest reward in Fort Dranlon, and spend 26 skill points in training for 7 levels. With the Explorer's ring from Eye Krotus you have 12 levels. If you have nature lore 14 there is one more mandrake root northeast of the Tower Colony. If you have nature lore 15 there is a wisdom crystal in the Giant Lands cached in the passage north of the stairs leading to the giant intelligent friendly talking spiders. There is another mandrake root in the Sliths Lands southeast of the altar (need nature lore between 13-15). Another is Scree Caves going east from Fort Saffron's north gate. In the final part of the game, in the north part of the Dark Lands, the Giant's have a camp. There is one wisdom crystal in the center. Then cached are a wisdom crystal and a mandrake root. At this point they aren't much help. Then in the final keep's upper level, 2 more wisdom crystals and a mnadrake root for those that need a few more skill points.

For those who obsess, I decided to count the number of wisdom crystals and knowledge brews available in the game. Also the number that can be made by Strine from mandrake roots. You can buy 5 during the game: Grindstone - Jenn West Cotra - Potionary Store Tower Colony - Oliver Patrick's Tower - Julz Dharmon - Oliver There are 4 as rewards from quest: Castle - Ghall-Ihrno - comfort gives 2 wisdom crystals Blosk - Mayor - slaying enraged wrymkin gives knowledge brew Fort Remote - alchemist - ingredrient quests gives knowledge brew and other potions for 2 graymold, 1 mandrake, and eyestalks There are 24 and 1 knowledge elixir (4 points) for usually killing monsters that guard them: Nephil Lands- under checkpoint past fire lizards (need high nature lore to get it without a fight) Slime Tunnels - lower level Haunted Mines - lower level (need piercing crystal) Motrax's Cave - lower level Eastern Gallery - Swamplouse Mertis Spiral - upper level (need piercing crystal) Honeycomb - lower level behind dispel barrier spell barrier Camp Samuels - lower level after golem Great Cave - southeast corner after fighting Aranea Stoneseer Great Cave - lower level area with Abisythe behind icy crystalmists Great Cave - south wall after Dripfang and terror wolves Slith Lands - cultist area northwest part of the city Scree Caves - dragon's hoard Blosk - upper level enraged wrymkin Great Cave - east of Dharmon lower level in mine with crystal basilisk Western Wastes - third map section past Fort Remote beyond gazer guarded bridge and difficulty 40 door Basalt Tower - near gate Basalt Tower - lower level south west corner in crystal workers area Spire - northside with Kring and bandits Abyss - Test #6 reward Harston - lower level - with Cryos demon (need dispel barrier) Giant Warren - lower level treasure chamber Khoth's Ruins - lower level west side Knowledge Elixir (need dispel barrier) Dark Lands - center of map section near wrymkin Erika's Ruins - upper level lich There are 4 that are cached and require a nature lore somewhere between 4 and 12 to find: Great Cave - lower level area with Abisythe behind icy crystalmists Great Cave - below Patrick's Tower tunnels after fighting sparklingmists Patrick's Tower - lower level holding cell with gazer (need dispel barrier) Great Cave - lower level chitrach tunnels northwest of Castle Great Cave - beyond the mage guarding Daggerfall mine west of Dharmon There are 4 marked NY (not yours) that you can steal if you close the door: Almaria - lower level past golem Fissure Inn -upper level guest room Gnass - lower level guarded by hellhound Fort Remote - room Mandrake roots are the hardest to find ingredient of the five needed for knowledge brews. Nature lore 3 will get 16 and nature lore 12 will get 37. The mandrake and graymold in the Basalt Fortress is only accessible from caches after the terror wolves are released and not available later on in the game. Out of the mandrake obtained one is used for the Fort Remote quest as a good use to reward. I used in Bargha some to buy Answering Gloves and Magus Vest. There is one mandrake root south of Erika's Ruins so you will have to go back later to use it. To get nature lore 12 for a singleton: buy 2 levels in Fort Duvno from Walner, 1 level as quest reward in Fort Dranlon, and spend 26 skill points in training for 7 levels. With the Explorer's ring from Eye Krotus you have 12 levels. If you have nature lore 14 there is one more mandrake root northeast of the Tower Colony. If you have nature lore 15 there is a wisdom crystal in the Giant Lands cached in the passage north of the stairs leading to the giant intelligent friendly talking spiders. There is another mandrake root in the Sliths Lands southeast of the altar (need nature lore between 13-15). Another is Scree Caves going east from Fort Saffron's north gate. In the final part of the game, in the north part of the Dark Lands, the Giant's have a camp. There is one wisdom crystal in the center. Then cached are a wisdom crystal and a mandrake root. At this point they aren't much help. Then in the final keep's upper level, 2 more wisdom crystals and a mnadrake root for those that need a few more skill points.

Natural Mage and Pure Spirit boost the damage of their respective spell types, mage and priest. They also give free levels starting at 2 in the beginning. Natural Mage also seems to make spells like Terror more effective. The AI has monsters go after the last character that hit them. So spellcasters get attacked even in the rear. Since the game doesn't punish high experience penalties like the earlier ones it helps to give Divine Touched to everyone.

The plot was the weakest point. The main villlian wasn't that good and the second one wasn't used that well. Maybe the Darkside Loyalist plot will come back in a better form someday. The "new" monsters from Geneforge were used because they were available to insert quickly into the game. Someday the graphics will ready to bring back all the great monsters of the old Avernum games. The combat engine is better so there is no longer the delay command. We finally have the true area effect spells from the Exile games, but I would have like a targeted multiple target spell like the Exile Flame Arrows. Also now that you could use spells to hit invisible creatures there are no black shades and guardians. It's not like Jeff needed a graphic for those monsters. The game is still fun with limitations. Money is tight, you can only get 2 levels of training, items are not available in quantity, etc. but you can work around them.

You will have to go back later to get through the difficulty 8 door to the undead. Start with what you can reach from the surface and use the skill points from going up a level for a spellcaster with mage spells. I started out with no tool use and found that you still can do enough, but it helps to have initially at least tool use 5. You don't need more than 8 to finish the demo.

After you finish the Slime quest you can get Farsight spell to help map out secret passages. At least you narrow down where to look.

The family's got a little quest that gets you an armor ring. I think they also give you some money for helping out the son at Fort Monastary.

Never found a use or quest for marsh worm fangs. Of course I never got any either.

Destroy all the pylons in the Western Wastes on the way to Rentar's fortress. The jewels left behind are worth about 3000 in money. Also it's a bother but gather up all the equipment left behind by the Avernite soldiers. There are other places like the refugee camp south of the Castle that have minor items that you can grab for money. It's time consuming, but over the course of the game it adds up to real money.

Reputation existed in the earlier games, Avernum 1-3, where having a high reputation got you things. That no longer exists. There are some actions that can help or hurt you in conversations. Stealing a NY (not yours) item in sight of an NPC can cause them to turn hostile is the easiest example. In Bargha, Gladwell asks you to feed his slimes and if you kill them he will not help you anymore (If you kill one it doesn't matter). Fulfilling that request gets you free access to a spellbook behind a barrier.

I don't know if there is a fix except by reseting the flag that you ended the undead. If you've killed off the ones in the center that ends the cauldron born. The quest only gives you experience and a disruption wand so you don't miss much. If it means that much you can always start over unless someone knows the command to reset the appropriate flag in the game. The main quest to end the problem has Aaron giving you his blessing so fighters get blademaster increased by 1 and spellcasters get magery increased by 1.

I think I read that someone got into the rooms above X in the Tower Colony. Solberg is in Patrick's Tower. There was nothing in them and they did not connect to the area with the notebook behind the gate.

I never had that much trouble finding them. They shouldn't have gotten killed because the Cauldron Bones don't come into Mertis.

I always hated Call Beast, because the choices were so bad at low levels. At least with Summon Aid you got multiple monsters to distract your enemy. Doomguards were just boring hack and slash. Spells didn't do much so it was just haste, bless, and fight. In A2 you also had to make sure they didn't swarm the spellcasters. But it was just a half hour I'll never get back. In Exile they were so pitiful in attacking that even my spellcasters could kill them and almost never take damage.

I found it's just better to stash items for later sales to keep away from the limit. By the end of the game you don't need the money anyway. Each game has a different limit. In Blades of Exile I found a bug where I actually exceeded the limit and got a negative money amount. I had to use the character editor to fix it.

Maxwell is wearing blue and Vorhees is in brown. They move around a bit, but they are both on the northside. It pays to talk to everyone, just in case there is something important like that. You will have the same problem with a job in Dharmon. Use the tab key to see the names of people.

The third test is in the chitrach tunnels. The quickest way to get to it is to start at Fort Dranlon and enter the tunnels from the building to the east. Go north and make a left at the top of the map section. Follow the path until it splits in 6 directions, the one you are on is southwest. West leads to aranea, southeast leads to another map section, east and northeast lead to cavewindow spiders, so norhwest leads to the test. Have fun. The best I've gotten with 3 plus action point items and quickstrike is 11 and then 16 or 18 when hasted. I used the Cryos spear, Mercuric chainmail, and Quicksilver sandals. It helps for a spellcaster to use at least 2 of these items to have a base action points of 10 and then 15 hasted.

The letter is on a body in the southwest part of the Eastern Gallery. Go west from West Cotra and I think it was a little north. The quest is to remove a gremlin from his storehouse, the gated area where you can't pick the lock in the demo. You get some gems as a reward and his storehouse has a lot of items that you can sell. Easy quest and there is slightly more experience for killing the gremlin. The barrier is upstairs in Giscard's house. The vengeful shade appears when you rob Giscard, I guess. I only looked in the box at the Ruby Breastplate and some other things.

For the Mac version you need to download version 1.0.1 (about 20M) and then the patch v1.0.3 (1.2M) to upgrade. The preferences file from the v1.0 should still work so you can play the full game. There were too many changes for the patch to work with the original game. The icon when you move the cursor over it should show the version number. The Windows version was done later so you only need the patch. Update: The Demo version that is currently downloaded may have the patch. Check what is written about it.

The route involves going down and up between the two levels several times. A clue that you are on the right path is that you pass Sleater. After seeing him to the north, keep going west . There are several minor side trips to get items. When you run into a group of four adventures blocking a route then you are near the Bandit Keep.

To deal with the golems that keep coming see the old thread about Demonslayer.

Singleton in Torment Finished the Western Wastes, Basalt Fortress, the 3 shades, and the Gnass quest. I'm at level 40 and 250 experience away from the next level. I can finally open difficulty 40 doors which opens the 3 doors in that area, one of which just saves time in moving. I killed everything that moved and the pylons for fun and money. Although I probably got a third of a level out of the pylons alone. I'll take a break while I figure out what I want to wear for my assault on the Spire Fortress and what to do with my skill points. I thinking of saving them for moving my mage spell level up so I can have Strong Daze and later Arcane Shield.

Singleton in Torment Finished the Western Wastes, Basalt Fortress, the 3 shades, and the Gnass quest. I'm at level 40 and 250 experience away from the next level. I can finally open difficulty 40 doors which opens the 3 doors in that area, one of which just saves time in moving. I killed everything that moved and the pylons for fun and money. Although I probably got a third of a level out of the pylons alone. I'll take a break while I figure out what I want to wear for my assault on the Spire Fortress and what to do with my skill points. I thinking of saving them for moving my mage spell level up so I can have Strong Daze and later Arcane Shield.

I was too lazy to look it up and just used what was originally posted at the top.

Hardiness increases armor at 1 point equals 1% reduction. So Hardiness 20 means 20% less damage which is what you got. It works better versus fire, energy, cold where it does 2% per point of hardiness. It's hard but you can raise enough skills: dexterity, endurance, and hardiness to 8 to get resistance which does 4%. Helps your fighters but not spellcasters.