jlsgaladriel

A note on that, though: look for hidden switches *elsewhere in the complex.* In this case, switches aren't necessarily close to what they control, at least not in an "I can get there easily from here" sense of the word "close."

Fnord, it is so entirely your fault that I've spent the last two hours reading tvtropes.org . On the other hand, at least now I know what a Bolivian Army Ending is.

I actually *did* that, VCH, *and* was in college at 16. But four years of learning to give only half of your attention to any problem, so as not to do too well at it and thus be socially unacceptable -- it took me twenty years to unlearn that. Forcing one solution on all kids isn't the answer.

There *is* more to school than academics. I enjoyed high school -- I was a music geek, and a drama geek, so I had a crowd of friends who weren't just "brains." But college -- oh, my heavens, the freedom, finally, of being surrounded by other kids who were also the 'smart' ones, of being able to breathe, finally, and take on new identities: it was exhilerating and freeing and life-giving. Noone should deny that to kids who are yearning for it, especially not over some rigid bureaucratic concept of age-driven grouping.

My question is, what kind of college lets 16 year olds in? Meh, I went to college at sixteen. It was even one of those 'leet ivy-encrusted ones. But then again, our alums included Dr. Seuss, Mr. Rogers and Cpt. Kangaroo -- I kid you not -- so perhaps youth seemed not so foreign there. Hopefully by the time those students make it through school, they'll have all of their assumptions challenged, and they'll begin to work through the ways in which they are working to reinforce necessary identities* rather than to question them. Four years can make a world of difference. *( I highly recommend the Walker book: http://tinyurl.com/3qoerjh )

At that point I believe he's in the courtyard just west of the throne room where you've met the duke, as far west as one can get in Castle Vebeaux. He's near the outside wall -- I like to think he's gazing into the distant woods from the battlements. Welcome to Spiderweb. As one of the mods regularly says, "leave your sanity at the door." edit: I just realized I'm not sure exactly where you are in the sequence. If you've already spoken to him in Vebeaux, your next step is to go to the Beraza Woods, and after exploring, leave that map to the West. Beraza Pits will be reachable, then, and Monitor Shigaz is waiting for you there.

I found the various teleports (to a creature for the blademaster, from the creatures for the shadowwalker, to anywhere for whoever's wearing the teleport scarab) to be immensely useful here -- and I was willing to use a potion or two to reset those abilities. Teleport is even better in combination with summoning: if you summon a creature and then teleport away, your summon will distract the undead for long enough to make good your escape. Teleport as far north as you can see, or west if you're in that furthest-south spot, and run back to fight the sorceress. That way everyone can be together to kill *her,* without worrying about the adds one has left behind.

Glenmac, the wolves she's summoning aren't what you're looking for: you can ignore them. As echoes and the turtle moves says, you need to send a character down behind the trees to look for the spirit wolf. It will have "spirit" in its name. There's no use continuing to try to kill antje when she's immune -- you're not going to suddenly hit on something that works("aha! acid damages her!") or even slowly wear her down. There's only one way through: kill the spirit wolf, and the battle is straightforward.

I played a shaman on my first runthrough, and brought the blademaster and shadowwalker with me on most missions. My second runthrough, I played a shadowwalker, and used the blademaster and sorceress. The second runthrough was much, much easier. I'm sure this is partly due to realizing just how vital dexterity is in this game, so my choices were better. But largely I think the sorceress is just an easier addition. Even if one likes the shaman, it's much worse to use her as PC, because the solo missions are significantly more difficult. I'm in the shaman camp, because the healing does become useful later I did, however, give my sorceress not only the healing scarab, but the group healing scarab. The only thing I really missed from the shaman's repertoire was the mass-curing spineshield.

Quote: Would it have a 'Build Character Who Isn't Useless In Combat' skill? Well, one could give such a class tinkerish combat abilities: tinker-only weapons which, when they work, work twice as well, but which only work half the time, or which risk to explode and be lost (black-powder ranged weapons?) Working out the game balance of such a class would be crazy-making, though, although as Jeff has pointed out, balance isn't quite as important in a non-multiplayer game. I'd think especially as an elite class (unavailable on first runthrough,) something like this would be more acceptable, and add interest.

Hmm, I'm not sure if the sequence breaks upon leaving, but I imagine you can still get back in it. Each battle/confrontation opens the next area. Normally the beginning part of this sequence is: Click to reveal.. 1. Speak with Carsta'Arl in his throne room, until he flees 2. Follow him out the eastern door of that throne room, and kill whovever's there 3. Head up to the northwest part of the Tor, where there's a little lake surrounded by trees, and deal with the shaman, Lady Antje. Step three should open the next area, to the east.

Save the Shadow Creature instead of killing it Yes! In old sw games one could attack friendly creatures -- I very badly wanted to kill M'k instead, although clearly for game reasons he would need to escape at that point if one attacked him. Choose from more character classes: barbarian, archer, monk, scholar, tinker Well, I want more flexibility, period, with old-style prerequisites, but not trees. I don't think Jeff's going back that way, though. What I *could* see him doing is adding an elite class that one could play as PC after having beaten the game once. It would add replayability, if nothing else. Smash doors, force gates, and rip open locked boxes Given the new tree-style skillset, I think I'd rather see just a straight up dex requirement for lockpicking, or strength for bashing, rather than the current system. Use a boat Oh, my, am I salivating at the thought of Exile/Avernum with the new engine!

I'm sorry, Sylae. It seems like you're keeping yourself remarkably together in a terrible situation. Know that there's nothing you can do to make your mother deal with her anger/unhappiness/whatever's leading to this behavior. All you can do is take care of yourself as well as possible, and as Slarty says, think through how you might get out, if you needed to. Get yourself through school, keep yourself healthy, and try to touch base with people you trust. Is there a pastor or a teacher whom you trust with whom might speak? When your mom is yelling damaging things at you, even when you *know* they're not true, it helps sometimes to have someone to help ground you in reality, someone who can see clearly.

Hmmm, for party-based boss fights, I'd point to WoW as having created a large number of unique bosses. I haven't played in the most recent expansions, but Kara had good fights from beginning (Attuman: meat shield in front, everyone else behind... NOW off-tank, gather him in!) through the maddening-but-ever-different Moroes, to the Prince at the end. As to rpgs, I'd say the final fight in NWN2 is fun (although I hate the roomsful of trash mobs on the way to that fight.) I'm not sure it counts as an rpg, but the final boss in HOMM V is very interesting, I think partially because one fights him with different heroes who've been developed with vastly different skills, so one needs to win a similar battle four times in very different ways -- and those ways are tied to the skill choices one has made throughout the campaign. In both of those games one ends up fighting, at least partially, someone whom the player has designed and used, so that one's skills at character building come back to roost. MAN, this boss is hard... I did this, I made this crazy kick-butt boss! I've also generally liked Spiderweb bosses, not only the end bosses, but especially the fun side areas like the monastery or -- heck, it's been too long since I've played older sw games, was it Geneforge 4 that had a completely optional side-island with a monastery-like bunch of bosses? I loved those boss-filled extra-hard areas Jeff used to put in. Likewise, in Avadon, I was satisfied with the Beloch battle, for example -- I'd certainly do that again.

@Clocknova -- I gather it's possible to circumvent chucksum integrity-checking, but while I'm perfectly comfortable editing scripts, that's a whole different level of file modification I'm not comfortable with. I'm happy buying directly from spiderweb. If the different pricing structures are annoying users, though, it might behoove Jeff to link first to his own servers for the full version, and then below that to the app store, with a note that this is a more narrowly targeted version.

Quote: But it sounds like the real complaint is that it's too long and the tactics you have to employ during the fight are themselves not interesting enough, or at least not interesting enough given the length of time you use them. Repetitive. Is that right? Exactly, Slarty.

Wait, the complaint is that the optional super-boss is too hard when you're playing on Hard? *blinks* No, see, that's not it. I would have gladly thrown myself against him and died twelve times to learn the fight, if needed, in the time it takes to bring him down. That's why I said I don't want an *easier* fight. It's just that I don't want a tedious one. Although I'm having trouble putting my finger on what makes this particular boss fight tedious rather than challenging for me. Some of it's just about the length of the thing, I think. But I don't think it's reducible just to length. I like to feel as if I've beaten a boss because of my clever strategy, or excellent skills, not just because I've worn him down over the course of an hour. Did most people enjoy that fight? What did you enjoy about it?

Well, there's a couple hours of my life that I'll never get back. Yes, I actually never finished the final fight on my second runthrough. (On my first runthrough, I went loyalist, so it wasn't an issue.) Not because it was too hard: I think I could have won. (This was only on hard, not on torment.) I had redbeard more than halfway down, and still had a handful of res scrolls and group heals and mass frenzies. But because it wasn't fun, and I realized I'd have to sink another huge bit of time in to finish. I need to think more carefully about what makes a fight fun for me, but I do like a challenge. I don't want an *easier* fight.

@Hoplite, I know you've spoken with Faiga, but have you told Faiga you're hunting the shadow beast? I think you might have missed the conversation with her that triggers the new area being open on the map. edit: Oh, and welcome to Spiderweb! As one of the mods regularly warns: leave your sanity at the door.

If you've already spoken with her in the wretch warrens, and she's fled, you'll find her Click to reveal.. just south of the entrance to Zepherine's hall.

Speak with Zephyrine: she'll gladly pounce on you if you provoke her enough. I recommend buffing first! Click to reveal.. "I want to ask about you and the ogres." "You were helping farlanders. That is a crime." "I am a Hand of Avalon. The matter is closed when I say it is, and you must answer for your deeds." "If I have to fight to bring you to justice, I will."

You'll get to the deep woods shortly after entering that trap door. But that's endgame, so you should definitely finish up anything you've left undone. Bring back any NPCs you've left out there, kill a demon or a dragon if you're in the mood, stock up on whatever you can afford, and *then* enter the trapdoor.

At level seven or so it's fun, because it's possible. At four it just wasn't possible to do anything but run like heck, and reload from saves when one died. Not fun! At eleven, it's a cakewalk, and rather boring. It's all about hitting it at the right time!

The way Neverwinter Nights and NN2 make lockpicking viable is that while one *can* bash in chests and some doors, said bashing is likely to damage breakable items like potions and scrolls. It's not a bad solution.

Quote: The +15% to healing means your character heals 15% faster, not that the healing spells are more effective. Oh! I'd misunderstood. Well, that's less good!