Randomizer

Which bandit? Quickshank is hiding under Cotra. Skunky Joe is on the north road between Fort Duvno and Fort Dranlon. Horsharr (?) is hiding in his keep deep in the Honeycomb.

I can't remember the thread, but someone did get through those doors and reported small empty rooms. I think it was an old thread having to do with tool use and unlock doors.

You need to use the staircase east of Kelner in his tower. Go up those stairs and the west door will now open to a spellbook.

Nicer than the sections in the hint book. It gives a better perspective about how claustrophobic the world has gotten.

Nicer than the sections in the hint book. It gives a better perspective about how claustrophobic the world has gotten.

There is the drake quest for Fort Emerald. The dragon will leave, but by that time I've killed almost all her brood and it will return someday to feed. It becomes a question of whether it is morally justified to do preemtive strikes against future threats like Swamplouse, dragons, etc., or whether you should forego the experience and treasure. Jeff makes attacking a more attractive choice by making nice treasure available if you do it. Swamplouse has Mecuric Leather Armor and a wisdom crystal. Giscard's task to remove the gremlin nets 20% more expierence from killing it rather than giving it the wine. That was a lousy 3 ep for my singleton.

There is the drake quest for Fort Emerald. The dragon will leave, but by that time I've killed almost all her brood and it will return someday to feed. It becomes a question of whether it is morally justified to do preemtive strikes against future threats like Swamplouse, dragons, etc., or whether you should forego the experience and treasure. Jeff makes attacking a more attractive choice by making nice treasure available if you do it. Swamplouse has Mecuric Leather Armor and a wisdom crystal. Giscard's task to remove the gremlin nets 20% more expierence from killing it rather than giving it the wine. That was a lousy 3 ep for my singleton.

Read Sooo Dark. Jeff made a bad choice for backround colors for some lower levels and the contrast makes A4 dungeons very hard to see. Even with your monitor turned all the way up you might miss things. Be sure to move over the entire area to see if anything lights up.

The sliths are the richest source of treasure in the Eastern Gallery for the amount of effort. They are almost as good as the bandits combined and more fun to slay. They also provide good experience per monster.

If you want to avoid too much damage at the start, have your tanks start with dexterity at 8 and high defense. You don't need strength as much at the start and you can add to weapon skills later on as well. Elite warrior will give you parry 2 at the start which will block some attacks. Boost defense to 6 and then add to parry to get it to 5 or 6. Elite warrior also gives a hidden boost to carrying capacity so your fighters won't get encumbered so much by weight. Both elite warrior and divine touch give you blademaster and that will up your melee damage. This means that you can hold off on raising strength as well. You should make at least your archer fighter a nephil since he starts off with bow and thrown weapons at 2 each. This will mean that he improves without you having to do much more. Your pole fighter should be slith to get its pole weapon 2 at the start. It works like missle weapons for nephils. Your spellcasters should raise their intelligence to 5 by Fort Draco. The extra spell points mean that they can quickly eliminate powerful opponents. You should do it at least for the one that doesn't have tool use. It helps at the start to have two spellcasters with the same spells since it gives you more options in combat. Differentiating one to be mostly mage and the other priest can wait to leaving the Eastern Gallery. The mage can get the Clarity Talisman (Skunky Joe quest reward) and later the Incantor Ring to raise his mage spell level. Tool use above 12 is not really needed until after the Castle (party level 20). Unlock doors will work to get past the higher difficulty doors. At the Castle there are difficulty 30+ doors to the higher level spellbooks. You probably won't be able to cast them anyway. A goal of priest spell level 17 and mage level 15 will get you the best spells. Try to have them at priest 6 and mage 8 before finishing the Eastern Gallery so you can get the best combat and healing spells in both spellcasters. It really comes down to personal preference and playing style. The change in awarding experience from the other games means that having a high experience penalty is not a problem and the bonuses in skills exceed the lower character levels.

If you want to avoid too much damage at the start, have your tanks start with dexterity at 8 and high defense. You don't need strength as much at the start and you can add to weapon skills later on as well. Elite warrior will give you parry 2 at the start which will block some attacks. Boost defense to 6 and then add to parry to get it to 5 or 6. Elite warrior also gives a hidden boost to carrying capacity so your fighters won't get encumbered so much by weight. Both elite warrior and divine touch give you blademaster and that will up your melee damage. This means that you can hold off on raising strength as well. You should make at least your archer fighter a nephil since he starts off with bow and thrown weapons at 2 each. This will mean that he improves without you having to do much more. Your pole fighter should be slith to get its pole weapon 2 at the start. It works like missle weapons for nephils. Your spellcasters should raise their intelligence to 5 by Fort Draco. The extra spell points mean that they can quickly eliminate powerful opponents. You should do it at least for the one that doesn't have tool use. It helps at the start to have two spellcasters with the same spells since it gives you more options in combat. Differentiating one to be mostly mage and the other priest can wait to leaving the Eastern Gallery. The mage can get the Clarity Talisman (Skunky Joe quest reward) and later the Incantor Ring to raise his mage spell level. Tool use above 12 is not really needed until after the Castle (party level 20). Unlock doors will work to get past the higher difficulty doors. At the Castle there are difficulty 30+ doors to the higher level spellbooks. You probably won't be able to cast them anyway. A goal of priest spell level 17 and mage level 15 will get you the best spells. Try to have them at priest 6 and mage 8 before finishing the Eastern Gallery so you can get the best combat and healing spells in both spellcasters. It really comes down to personal preference and playing style. The change in awarding experience from the other games means that having a high experience penalty is not a problem and the bonuses in skills exceed the lower character levels.

Jeff makes the Cotra eyebeast such a nasty dilemma because the next chance to slay an eyebeast to fulfill Cecil's quest isn't until the Great Cave area. You really want to save money and get training in special skills since money is so tight in this game. I also felt sad about killing Fort Dranlon's special prisioner until I realized how badly I needed the treasure it leaves behind to fulfill getting Demonslayer as a singleton. I'm still having trouble getting through that fight, but it seems to be my fault because I keep making mistakes in equipping my character and not bringing all the items I need to outlast the monsters (need more than one Invulnerability potion).

Jeff makes the Cotra eyebeast such a nasty dilemma because the next chance to slay an eyebeast to fulfill Cecil's quest isn't until the Great Cave area. You really want to save money and get training in special skills since money is so tight in this game. I also felt sad about killing Fort Dranlon's special prisioner until I realized how badly I needed the treasure it leaves behind to fulfill getting Demonslayer as a singleton. I'm still having trouble getting through that fight, but it seems to be my fault because I keep making mistakes in equipping my character and not bringing all the items I need to outlast the monsters (need more than one Invulnerability potion).

There are two places in the demo where killing rats that will get you a little treasure. On the way to Grindstone along the Giant Lands section south of the fisheerman a rat blocks a cache with a Smite scroll. On the Fort Draco-Formello road another rat slain coughs up a Smite scroll. Otherwise most calm monsters are not normally worth the effort. There is on real reason to kill them all. When you are retracing your route back to town to revive "dead" party members, if your nature lore total drops too much, then calmed monsters will now attack. I had a bad fight in the Honeycomb when the last member kept getting attacked by Warped Wolves as he dragged everyone back to Mertis.

Go north from Fort Dranlon until you find the stairs that lead under the river to the Slith Lands (you get directions at the fort). There is another stair that goes under the river to the south. Fight some sliths and you should be able to reach them. There is a message that tells you that you are the first human to reach it. This will let you know that you have reached the point that will fulfill the quest.

Talking to him after clearing the Mertis Spiral gets you the key to Athron's lair. Although at difficulty 28 it is possible to open it with unlock doors and decent tool use.

With Nodicuas, kill all his undead and heal up completely before approaching his room. Even with Hrickis he summons undead from behind the party but if you leave one hasted spellcaster in the hall you can deal with them and/or heal party members.

What I would like to see, but this would be 5 or more years away for the grahics to catch up, is the sliths have gotten fed up with Avernum and gone home. Going back to Avernum 1 and that lost city in the Giant Lands, the sliths have found a way through that doorway. The party would be all sliths with maybe that old Exile intelligence bonus scouting out the route from that city through an all new landscape. We could have elevations again, although I'm hoping they'll be back in Avernum 5. The game could end with an epic battle of sliths versus demons or some new hostile force. Make it ten times larger than the ziggurut one in Avernum 2. It will be something to watch for hours.

I think the draining refers to lowering your action points in the next round. It might refer to how draining it is too fight them.

Based upon Synergy's singleton you reach level 45 with a 55% experience penalty before the final area. Since he didn't have dispel barrier he missed out on converting ingredients into knowledge brews. I've been running singletons on torment level and at 55% penalty I got to the Castle at level 30 and found or bought 11 wisdom crystals and/or knowledge brews. Since then I found 2 more and 2 that were not yours, but easily stealable. The consensus is that you can get about 30 knowledge brews made but I'm not sure what nature lore you will need. It should be possible to get more knowledge brew ingredients than the cost to boost nature lore. While running a singleton is hard, I've found that if you think out your character somewhat in advance and pay attention it is playable without using the cheat codes. You do use information from previous games to plan ahead otherwise you will die alot. Save your money for buying wisdom crystals, knowledge brews, spell training (but not spells for parties like unshackle mind), and skill training. Try not to buy too may potions and other items since if you are careful and don't press your luck you can find most of what you need. Just go back to town to recharge health and spell points. Put a lot of skill points to dexterity and defense at the start and most monsters won't hit you. Hold off on nature lore until the end. Get arcane lore after you can train for it cheaply in Cotra and don't get too much. First aid is useless so only buy it. It can be more fun than a full party, but it requires a different strategy. Good Luck and Enjoy

The experience penalty for level seems to be based on the highest one in the group. By the time you finish the demo part, most experience comes from doing quests and fighting the most pwerful monsters. A singleton gets penalized sooner than a party of four because he goes up in level faster. As a result there are places like near Fort Draco where it takes a long time to go up. The chitrachs in the Eastern Gallery are nuisances because of their low experience.

Well after a lot of cutting with a herringbone and three days lost when I overwrote a character's file, I got all three singletons across the Sulphorous Flats, through the inadequate trap, cleared Camp Samuels, reached the Castle, and visited the nicer parts of Almaria. All that only got me two more levels. Heading south to get rid of two more bandits and the fourth test pushed them up another one. I'm putting the human PS EW and nephil NM DT on hold for now. The first is being hampered by not having the intelligence to boost magery for a few more levels so my damage is less than I would like. The Natural Mage is going to need almost every point in his remaining levels to get priest spell up to 15 and tool use over 12. I need an accurate count of the number of wisdom crystals and knowledge brews that I can get before confronting the shades, Meanwhile the nephil PS DT is slogging his way through the slith lands for extra money. I can't buy anymore spells until I get more spell levels. I'm using up more energy potions than I want to when I get swarmed. Fight and retreat to town for recharges is going to be very boring.

Well after a lot of cutting with a herringbone and three days lost when I overwrote a character's file, I got all three singletons across the Sulphorous Flats, through the inadequate trap, cleared Camp Samuels, reached the Castle, and visited the nicer parts of Almaria. All that only got me two more levels. Heading south to get rid of two more bandits and the fourth test pushed them up another one. I'm putting the human PS EW and nephil NM DT on hold for now. The first is being hampered by not having the intelligence to boost magery for a few more levels so my damage is less than I would like. The Natural Mage is going to need almost every point in his remaining levels to get priest spell up to 15 and tool use over 12. I need an accurate count of the number of wisdom crystals and knowledge brews that I can get before confronting the shades, Meanwhile the nephil PS DT is slogging his way through the slith lands for extra money. I can't buy anymore spells until I get more spell levels. I'm using up more energy potions than I want to when I get swarmed. Fight and retreat to town for recharges is going to be very boring.

Was it my imagination or are Terror wands more effective against him if used by a Natural Mage trait character? Terror slows him to only one offensive attack per round. Invulnerability potion helps for a short time to reduce damage, but don't use it before he completes his summoning.

Like The combat system because it makes more sense. You no longer delay action in order to have the last spellcasting of haste and slow. The magic system seems to be better although I miss mass haste. Dislike No elevations and the game is one continous closed in board. The new experience system is like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (3rd Ed.) with the ratio of adventure to monster level. But that means that very soon all the major experience is from doing minor quests. You plateau between job boards and quests in the cities is boring. Also there is no point in taking disadvantage traits or low penalty advantage ones. Even less in running a human in this game. Maybe Avernum 5 will have NPC reactions based on party racial makeup like A3. Comparing two singletons with 30% and 55% experience penalty, after leaving the Eastern Gallery there is an almost constant 2 character level difference, Miss the old terrain and watching for their effects.