BrownieMix

The floor is empty, there is no eyebeast anywhere, and the little blue box says there is nothing but velvet inside. This is when I access the cult via the tunnels near the bug queen. I busted the barrier, saw the Vanhanatai crystal, got Return Life, but alas no stupid eyebeast. I did nothing special other then walk around and kill everyone...are they supposed to call him or something?

This isn't a bug...is it? Because if so, I'll be annoyed, as I don't have a saved game anywhere really before then.

That is my point - there is no eyebeast. The eyebeast never appears, which makes fighting him difficult

So these guys worship the eye, but there are these doors that are locked...I've wiped out everyone I find, and yet no one gave me a key. I have searched all the chests, and still no key. Anyone know where they key is or how to fight whatever monster there is?

Thanks for the advice - it's my own fault for trying to use a spell that can't work based on the enemy I'm facing. I did end up winning the fight, although I realized afterwards that if I had two people capable of casting Repel Spirit, I might have been able to win using Fael's method. The fight afterwards when you *really* kill the lich was also a pain, but there I used the narrow terrain and and the enemy AI to win - it actually was a fairly easy fight.

I'm going to skip the drake for now - just not worth it at the moment.

This actually makes me feel better, as it figures that the two times I seriously try to use the spell are against enemies that are immune.

As for Adrenaline Rush, I tried that, Battle Frenzy AND speed potions - my party simply could never make it across the platform once the lich started summoning creatures. There isn't that much room to move anyway, and it would just be amusing to try and get my entire party across, have them get one square away, and then die. I probably did this quest earlier then I am supposed to, but at one point, with 2 Vile Servants, 2 zombies and a slime in the center along with the lich, I said screw this and quit - at that point, there was literally NO way to get to the side I needed to.

This is the problem with this encounter. When you have small amount of space to move + requirement to move in order to live + unlimited spawning enemies that prevent said movement, that = death.

These are three separate complaints that came out of two separate encounters.

First, the lich in the Eastern Galley. Frankly, without the use of invulnerability potions, this quest seems impossible. I understand the supposed "trick" - you have to run to the other side of the platform when a pillar is about to explode. However, I feel this encounter is "cheap" because the lich has unlimited summoning abilities. Since he always stays there, he and his summons slow my party down to the point that when he has three summons all in the center area, my party cannot actually get to the other side, which causes them to all die. I tried this encounter a dozen times, and they all ended the same way - death, because there was just no real way to get to the necessary side. I finally said screw it and used 8 invulnerability potions (2 for each party member), ignored the pillars, and won in about 10 rounds. I feel that is NOT the way that encounter is supposed to happen, and would love to know how anyone else got past this.

Second, the drake in the Eastern Galley. I killed the slith, so he let me go on my way, but just for fun I tried to kill him. Again, instant death. The drake on his own would be hard enough, but him + 3 sentinels? Forget about it. I know one of the options is to kill him, but frankly I doubt it is possible without more invulnerability potions, which again feels stupidly cheap. Then again, I don't have to kill him...

Last, Control Foe. More then once, I have seen veterans of Avernum suggest this spell when facing an opponent that summons numerous creatures. I have read this spell works wonders. Well, maybe I'm "doing it wrong" but this spell has proven to be nothing but a waste of time. My priest has a Priest Skill of 17, an Intelligence of 8 and a Spellcraft of 17. Yet for some reason THE DAMN SPELL HARDLY EVER WORKS. Maybe it is because I'm using it in hard boss encounters, like the ones above, but not ONE TIME was I able to charm anything either the lich ever summoned or the sentinels guarding the drake. All I get is "so and so resists the charm spell" I have the Cloak of Arcane spell on just in case, but to no avail. I have yet to see for myself an encounter where this spell was in anyway useful, and it is a bit annoying. Again, in the battles above, I would try over and over and over again, and once my party was dead, I'd reload and do it over. Strangely enough, the Terror spell worked decently, but Control Foe never did. What am I doing wrong? Are there enemies that cannot be charmed?

Anyone know how many fights there are total for the arena? I've managed to survive three so far, but when two gazers come to the party, my band of adventurers last all of three rounds.

So I explored the Darkside Loyalist HQ last night, and man was it fun. First the archers nearly killed me, then the pincer attack really got me down. I knew it would be hard, but wasn't expecting it to be as challenging as it was. However, there is a useful trick to allow a party to have almost free reign of the place well before they should.

Basically, I used the windows to kill all the archers surrounding the entrance way first. Then I opened the door and killed the regular warriors. I then went into combat mode, put everyone at the stairway, and sent one guy to trigger the pincer attack. When it did, he Battle Frenzied his way to everyone else. Near the stairway is a one square bottleneck where you can have three party members allow only one soldier at a time attack. eventually you can clear them all out, mop up the archers, and then explore. This is how I discovered the Divine Retribution spell waaaay earlier then I think I was supposed to.

Unfortunately my Arcane Lore wasn't high enough, and since I didn't kill the boss guy, the pincer attack got triggered again when I left the HQ and then returned. In theory, this could lead to a neverending XP farm, though it would be very tedious and impractical.

So the Enchanter's Robe - a very nice piece of armor for spellcasters - is tucked away in a room in Fissure Post. The box it is stored in has a Tool Use requirement of 12. I discovered a way to get this at the very beginning of the game regardless of what your Tool Use actually is. This trick can be used in other places as well, though it requires certain room placement in order to work.

When you open a box/chest/cabinet that needs a higher TU then what you have, you get warned once. The second time you try to open it, a trap is sprung and everyone dies...or do they? The trap is line-of-sight only, and you can't open these boxes in combat mode. But what you can do is walk your party so that your last member is not in line-of-sight of the box. When you spring the trap, everyone dies except your 4th party member, who can then walk right up to the box and take the contents. In this case, my last party member was outside the room when I opened the chest, so she did not die.

I discovered this by accident on my first play through, but have used this trick at the Fissure Post and at Valerie's clothing shop to get goodies I would normally have to wait for. It is not easy to do, and requires a bit of party movement to get everyone in the right spot and a particular room setup, but my level 4 Mage really likes the Enchanter's Robe that she'll likely wear for the remainder of the game.

I just noticed that this morning - yeah, it's not exactly fun. It does go away after awhile, but I got really tired of having my party cursed and weakened all the time. I just started a new game, and this time I'm not going to kill the skribbane dealer until waaays into the game - the xp and gold I get for selling them is nice. and it keeps me from using it. Plus, I found that once both my fighters got Battle Frenzy, I barely used it at all. I keep a small supply just in case of emergencies, but the rest of it is getting turned into cold hard cash.

Actually, I just started a new game after having just gotten to Spire, with the primary reason being that my DW Nephil was just not cutting it. I don't know whether it was the way I built the character, or something I just made up, but my pole user was consistently hitting more and doing more damage. It got to be so bad that I decided I really wanted to try two pole users, which is what I'm doing now. I haven't finished the demo part yet, but I can definitely say the two pole users are treating me very nicely.

Anyone have a list of what can be crafted and how?

1)I agree that Dual Wielding is huge - I just finished the first set of Castle main quests, and my dual wielding fighter has kicked some serious ass.

2) My spellcasters are actually very powerful, because at level 9, with items, my mage has a Spellcraft of 11. This is mostly due to items, but his spells do massive damage.

3) Thanks in large part to the blessings found in Dharmon, my Slith pole fighter has maxed out Battle Disciplines already, and with a Pole Weapon skill of 11, he's really good with a long stick.

4) I completely agree with you on bows - it's no longer optimal to have a dedicated archer.

More as I get further in...

For reals? Holy cow! I thought it was a scam - that's where my money is going for the foreseeable future!

Anyone know what the weight requirement is to use a weapon in your off hand? In other words, what's the heaviest weapon you can use - 4 lb. ? 5? I noticed there's no way to boost that, even if you add strength....

Good to know - thanks! I guess my last question is is there a negative effect for using skribbane? The positives are pretty frickin crazy - group old school haste? Sign me up! However, the game hints at drawbacks...anyone know what those might be?

Also, just a thought - you can buy an infinite amount of skribbane from the dealer, then sell it back to him. If you get XP for each one you sell, wouldn't that result in an XP farm? I'll test that out tonight

Wow - really cool stuff. Any thoughts as to whether it's better to kill the dealer or sell him the drug? Also, has anyone discovered what happens when to take too much? Or what triggers too much? Or what downsides there are to taking it in the first place?

I'm a little annoyed, because I ran into Koepp before getting either the quest to save him or to kill him...and he and I got into a fight, and he died. Which means that I am unable to save him, and can only get the reward for killing him.

Does anyone know which of the rewards was better?

hmmm...you make an excellent point. I guess I'm used to having a dedicated archer, but I could go dedicated sword/dedicated pole and have everyone use bows as a secondary attack....

One of the more significant changes this game has is the ability to dual wield. In previous Avernum games, I had a Slith pole fighter, and three kitties - one archer/tool use, one priest, and one mage. I choose the Slith because the poles were amazingly powerful, while the swords were not as much.

The ability to wield two swords at once, however, throws everything out of whack. I don't know which is more powerful anymore. Specifically, I'm struggling with:

-Do I choose swords over pole weapons? Are swords more powerful now?

-If I do go swords, do I choose a Slith or a Nephil as my fighter? Slith get 2 points in pole weapons, which is a great starting point for Battle Disciplines, and they supposedly get a higher starting HP. Nephil, on the other hand, have a smaller XP penalty, get bows right off, and have nifty defensive bonuses.

Anyone have any general thoughts?

Thanks for posting this - I was using precursor skill levels from previous games. It seems some skills are easier to get while others are harder...maybe? I think Blademaster is harder to get this time around, while Sharpshooter seems easier...my starting archer could increase Sharpshooter right off the bat.

This game = awesome. Haven't gotten very far at all, but man oh man. One thing really jumps out at me - thanks to dual wielding, swords now become potentially very powerful. Which mean that playing as humans might actually be superior in some situations. I'm sticking with my traditional party of one Slith and 3 Nephilim at the moment, because that's what I'm best at, but I tried dual wielding swords, and man is it fun(grin).

So now that G5 is out for Windows, I will bring up the two issues that, to my knowledge, no one has been able to solve. They are:

-In the Foundry Repository, there is a door to the southeast that no one - let me repeat, no one - has been able to open. I don't know whether anyone is supposed to get in there, but as far as I know, no one has.

-In the Southwest Wasteland, there is a room with a large amount of mines and one chest containing a pretty nice item. However, it is absolutely not possible to get the chest without having the mines explode and your character dying. Although it's been suggested that there is a way around this, I haven't seen or heard of any definitive way to open the chest without dying.

So, to all you G5 experts out there - can anyone solve either of these mysteries?

I couldn't agree more - on Normal, this build absolutely destroyed everything. I ended up with 5 Rotdhizons and one War Trall. My character was level 51. I had enough essence to cast all necessary healing spells and attack buffs. The optional dungeon was tricky only in that I was confused as to how to approach two of the bosses. At worst I lost two Rots in one fight.

Bottom line - this build is unstoppable. Thanks very much to DV and everyone else for coming up with it.