Ishad Nha

There was a distinct pattern to the placement of the placed specials in the Hall of the Orb.

My party was level 40 when they did the Orb retrieving. I don't recall it being all that hard, it was a tough fight but still not as frustrating as you found it.

If you have not played A2 before, save every 5 to 10 minutes...

"Difficulty spikes", sudden increases in the difficulty of the combat, exist throughout the game.

If it gets too tough, review my suggestion in post #117. This time, getting your hands on the Orb of Thralni is fun...

Word of Recall may sometimes reduce some of the wandering around...

Unlike Avernum 3 there are no horses or boats to get around the need for walking. You can't even use an Orb of Thralni to hop across a river.

You can easily create an item to give you the power of flight in N:R. It will mess with parts of the game that have things happening on bridges, unless you only make it available in a place like the Hollow Hills.

In the Shared Data folder, find the file t16Hollow Hil.txt and add "reward_give(468);" to the script. Here I have added it to state 84 for a Celt party:

For a Roman party:

Black Shades and Guardians, try Beast Ceremony and level 3 Haste.

For the latter spell

Doomguard you won't meet until you get the Gray Pass.

Doomguards: my approach is Sanctuary and Mass Healing. I just evade them, never did figure out how to fight them in a reasonable amount of time. Renew Sanctuary when it wears off. You can switch your front and rear PCs so the best-armored are in the rear of the party. Doomguards will follow you but won't follow you into side rooms?

Crates, same story as the Barrels, all three by the dock must be pushed into the river.

Buy a boat in Fort Draco, I assume you mean the tower to the SW of Formello.

I had all PCs buy a Vahnatai Lore level of 5.

You missed two hidden areas in the dungeon you explored in the previous episode.

I don't recall if you found both hidden areas in Dothtar L2.

Places you have been that have magical barriers:

Egli in Vahnatai lands

Cave of Motrax, laboratory area.

Unfinished Fort

You may have dispelled these barriers, I forget:

NW Vahantai Fortress

SW Spiral Pit

You will see how much tougher the dungeon in the Waterfalls is compared to its A1 counterpart.

One approach, if you hit an impassable barrier or door you can make a note someplace.

Alternately you can record some message in your A# Journal. Some doors and barriers won't generate a suitable message, hence you will have to record any message that you can.

There are three Black Drake Fang quests but only one is given in the Tower of Magi...

It should go away if you use Dispel Barrier. If you don't have that spell, talk to people in Fort Dranlon.

Where the Slugs are in the Giant Fort, you need to be looking for secret doors, the hidden area is not essential.

Four NPCs are found in A2, they can join your party if you have a spare slot. You can create a spare slot by Deleting a PC. NPCs usually have much better stats than regular PCs. (Assuming the player has not been making massive use of the Character Editor.)

If you are new to A2, replacing some of your PCs with NPCs might be a good idea. Do it quickly because their stats may remain the same no matter what your level when they join you. Hence the lower your PC's levels, the greater the advantage of replacing one of them with an NPC.

Becca, Warrior at Formello.

Wendy, Mage at Fort Dranlon

Assotho, Priest at Gnass*

Stewart, Warrior at Kothtar L2

*Must complete a quest before this person will join you.

You might want to keep written notes about where ID can be done.

In A1, Leith did it in Blosk, now in A2 he no longer does! Now it is the prospective Mage, Saffron.

In Dharmon it is the reclusive thief Gunther, hidden in the SW.

When you see a pool that gives you Enlightenment there is an oppurtunity to use it someplace nearby...

Curing is found at the Tower of Magi, after Suzanne's Fire Lizard Egg quest. (Check the three tomes in the room near the pool in the bottom of the map.)

Your party may have picked up a level of Dread Curse in the Crone Caverns when they read the first book, the one that had blank pages.

Bind Foe may keep Giant Slugs inactive while you pick them off one at a time.

There was a Gold Ring quest that you should have already done: "Anhara is a merchant in Mertis. She needs a gold ring. A puny quest, true, but you need to keep busy somehow."

Repel Spirit level 3 is not so easy to obtain, it requires more effort than in A1. You must find a dungeon, explore it to get a Blessed Athame, then go to the Serpent Cult.

Patrick's Tower quests are the way to go for increased level 3 spells...

Fort Dranlon is where you got the Dispel Barrier spell in A1.

You should have a shortcut in your A2 game, it is called "Avernum 2 Map", it leads to the graphic "Avernum 2 Map.BMP", which is found in your main A2 directory.

Rhian loses the ability to cast Unshackle Mind when she has the Emerald Helm equipped.

You won't get Total Healing, Miraculous Revival, Heartshock, Wind Warriors or Call Hunt, you may not get Mighty Beast. You should get all the other spells.

Character Editor would not work, hex editor on the save file should work, that would require some research. Should be easy enough.

"Armor" would include anything that encumbers? Including the Emerald Helm, not just body armor.

Moira can only sell level 1 of Beast/Circle.

Rhian can't cast spells above level 5 without the Character Editor giving her the Druid Mastery trait.

A Sylak item can help with the Annwn food. (You will have to fight Reptrakos.)

My Celt party found the Emerald Helm but my Roman party did not seem to...

Go to Patrick's Tower, there is some nice stuff there...

I think Jeff intends that you next explore the Central Avernum area, Fort Dranlon through to Silvar. You will soon see why.

Mage and Priest spells are sold at different prices by different people, as you will soon learn the hard way.

Are you grabbing gear left by dead monsters and selling it? Tedious but it does raise money.

I enjoyed the ending, I think it is worth experiencing.