madrigan

I think there is a Kill Dorikas quest, though. You get it from Redmark, but much earlier on, after the Howling Depths maybe.

Could you explain what you mean? The characters have one speed as far as I know.

Be vewy quiet -- I'm hunting Elners.

Does A4 really involve Empire politics? I suppose the Darkside Loyalist subplot is related to Empire politics, but your interaction with them really just has to do with Avernum.

I see what you mean about the nature of the enemies, but I don't think that the actual final battle in A4 is as good as the actual final battle in A5. I think the battle against Dorikas in A4, as well as the one in A5, is more exciting than the final battle in A4. In both battles, Dorikas pulls out a variety of tricks, and keeps running away from you, forcing you to hack through a bunch of minions to get back to him. It's a chase as well as a fight.

Rentar in A4, on the other hand, can't move. There is some dialogue in the final battle with her, but if you've gathered the right items and use them correctly, her attacks don't amount to much.

Maybe the battle against Redmark is cooler, but I've never fought him.

It's funny that you have to make these purchasing decisions without knowing exactly what you're getting. "A sword." "A pair of bracers." It's like buying "a car" or "a watch" without knowing the details or how it compares to what you already have.

 

Hence the saving and reloading.

You can also get the Heartstriker Bow from Helft, which can be important if you have a dedicated archer. I don't recall the ingredients but it's a lot of stuff. I think the list includes a gold bar.

Personally, I hold onto as many of the crafting ingredients as I can. I use most of them for Energy Potions and Knowledge Brews, but some of the crafters can make VERY useful stuff. It's true that in some cases you can find the same things laying about, but sometimes you want more than one or you want to sell one thing or another. And a few things cannot be found.

 

Some of the crafters are way better than the others, though. I deal mostly with the weapon/magic item guys in Tranquility, Highground, Muck, and Melanchion's Isle. They're the best ones.

Thanks everybody. I couldn't figure out why I had never hunted the traitor down.

I can't believe I don't know this after playing through the game about five times, I guess I never thought about it. There's a mine in the Azure Gallery where you're attacked by some skribbane addicts. You find a note from Dorikas to Elner. Where the heck is Elner? I am almost certain that you encounter this character, but I can't find him anywhere.

I think I have had this problem. I'm pretty sure you have to make sure you've gone through all the dialogue with Houghton in the Castle.

That reminds me -- Almaria. I'll add that to my list. Dharmon is ok but it's under-underground.

Bargha could be fun for a few years when you're young.

Not Highground, though, that's for sure.

Formello or Silvar, in the present day. Big, old cities are best. Cotra as a third choice, as it is also on a river. Avernum is mostly at peace, for now, it is expanding, and I think that the wizards will solve the food shortage.

Yeah, I think changing the scripts is going to work.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. Three reasons I can think of why people get to the end without being level 52 or whatever.

One, they focus on the main plot and don't do every side quest. I have about ten side quests left and no desire to complete them. This also means I don't go to every area. I approach it this way: If I were the PC, would I spend time trying to end the war, or would I spend my time running errands for jerks?

Two, they don't kill everything they can find.

Three, no canisters.

Also, keep in mind that if a PC is ten levels behind at the end, they've probably been ten levels behind almost the entire game. This means that as they've proceeded there have been areas they had to run through that a more powerful character would have walked through, killing everything. So the problem gets relatively more severe as the game progresses.

I don't think it's very hard to understand, actually.

Well, I'm nearly to the endgame as an Astorian, I'm level 35, I've read other posts about the final battle and I don't see how to get this character through. I've played the assault outside Gazaki-Uss at least fifteen times and got all the way across the map once, at which point I was killed without reaching the exit. Actually I'm wondering why the shapers would send like ten creations to assault the fortress of their most powerful enemy instead of, say, 1000 creations. But anyway.

 

This is my second time through the game, both times on the lowest difficulty setting, and the last time I ended up in the same situation, except that in my first try I never made it to Shaper Citadel at all. I could finish up various minor quests, but frankly at this point I would just like to see the end and wait for Avernum 6. So, is anyone working on a PC Steroid Machine like there was for G4?

 

I'd say A4 and A5 are far easier than G4 and G5. On my first run through A4 I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, only had 8 points of Tool Use and still was able to finish. I've never had a character higher than 35th level in Avernum and can still finish and have a ball, I've played both A4 and A5 four or five times each.

 

I think G5 is freaking hard. I never made it through G4 without an editor, either, but in that I case I realized very early what was going to happen instead of spending two weeks on a character only to discover there was no way to win.

 

Sigh, whine, etc.

By the way, this seems to be working out pretty well. I'm around 14th level, have a fyora and a clawbug. Fights are ok except for the optional Rotgroth in the Mera fens, I'll go back to that later. Trying to jack up my Intelligence as much as possible based on Strategy Central. Working on Mechanics and Diplomacy, having a little problem getting Battle Magic high enough. I'm trying not to use any canisters, so this might get more challenging.

 

I didn't realize the clawbug was so formidable. For the most part, I am hanging back doing some healing and throwing the occasional fireball while the creations beat people up.

Found it. Thanks. I had to create three alphas just to distract the other creations long enough for me to reach the tunnel. I took no pride in that. Now I'm in the Cells, and I'll figure out what's going on in there later.

Let me make sure I understand this. There is a small building attached to a power conduit which travels down towards the lower right hand corner of the screen. I go into that building, activate the machine, and run towards that same corner. As I reach the corner, I am getting messages about the failing power, and then the power stops and the creations flip out. So you're saying that in that lower right corner, there is a passage that is not the obvious exit area running from that corner to 3/4 of the way to the lower left corner of the screen?

I have tried this at least a dozen times and I can't find any small passage down there. A bit north of that lower right corner, there is a little area with a nest where some of the creations were hanging out, but that's it. Can I find this passage once combat has started?

I see an exit that covers almost the entire east to south side of the map, which goes to the tower gate. There's one to roughly north, and one to roughly west. None of these three seem to take me to anywhere that I could sneak into the tower from.

I must be even more lost than that. I can find a northern and a southern exit from the Pacification Road. One goes back towards where I came from, and the one in the south goes to the gate area.

I've sworn allegiance to Astoria and I'm up to the "sabotage Taygen" quest. Is it possible that the only way into Kayar's Tower is to fight the army of soldiers and creations that are at the main gate? I can sneak along the edge and make it into the Dera South Shore with the vlish and the Unbound walking around. Or, I can get around to the outside south corner by the main gate and fight rats, but that seems pretty pointless. Where is the back door?

After playing through what I think is about half the game with a Warrior, I got bogged down and frustrated after being killed by the same rotgroth in Okevano like six times. I am actually way past that point, but I discovered that I don't have enough mechanics to beat Traval's Crypt, and I am going back trying to gain skill points, in this case by finding the Ornk Scholar or whatever it is.

 

So, I am putting that game aside for a while and starting over with a Lifecrafter.

 

Strategy Central says that a Lifecrafter should not engage in direct combat and avoid drawing attacks if possible. I'm only up to Minallah, and it seems that my melee attack is more effective than Firebolt, and Rawal just took away my one creation. My question is, at this early stage, should I go stabby-stabby with enemies, or am I supposed to send a fyora up there and heal him or throw fire as necessary?

The choice is yours, young Shaper.

Thank you.