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Originally Posted By: Thuryl Apart from having two humans in your party and not picking any traits, your build choices aren't really that bad. (But please tell me your polearm fighter and priest got those points in Melee Weapons from Taddeo and not from skill point investment.) Unfortunately, suboptimal race and trait choices can't really be fixed except by starting over. You can try to soldier on, of course, and the game should still be quite manageable on Normal difficulty with good tactics: it's up to you. OK, I got the idea - and decided to start a new party. However, I am still trying to find the right mix with my personal taste; For main characters, I need a fighter, a mage, and a priest; Secondary would be thief, archer, and another healer. So how about this: Tank: fighter - Human; Elite Warrior, Divinely Touched (-45% exp) Wizard: mage/priest - Human; Natural Mage, Pure Spirit (-30% exp) Healer: priest/archer - Nephil; Pure Spirit, Deadeye (-35% exp) Ranger: fighter/thief - Slith; Elite Warrior, Nimble Fingers (-43% exp) And before anybody writes "all divinely touched, no humans," this is just personal taste; I just don't want the uber-pary, and like the mix with all races, no real tactical reasons. And, having EW/DT and NM/PS somewhat balances the human disadvantage. Not _exactly_ your setup, Thuryl, but I guess it might be good enough. Skill-wise I'd then keep more or less to what you posted, again adding a bit of my own choice. I'll let you know how I fare with this party now (or, at which difficulty level I manage to play this time...)!

Here's my (miserable, compared to Thuryl's...) party, to complement your post; seems, BTW, just before the first levels up to 9; At least, I got the thing about having STR 3 on my spell-casters wrong, they do have STR 2 only. Fighter Polearm Fighter Dual Wield Priest Mage

Originally Posted By: Thuryl What traits did you pick? They make a huge difference. Divinely Touched makes every character better, Elite Warrior greatly improves the effectiveness of your fighters, and Natural Mage and Pure Spirit are incredibly helpful for spellcasters. If you didn't load up on positive traits, the game is going to be a bit harder for you. Also, humans are objectively inferior to nephilim and slithzerikai, since the latter two get bonuses to their combat skills, making it easier to unlock battle disciplines (which are very useful). Experience penalties don't matter in the long run. And concerning this issue: I didn't pick any, I though the exp penalties might be worse than having traits... Another good reason to start over, I guess.

First of all, @Thuryl: thank you so much for your guide!!! Great information, thorough and very condensed, which I wasn't able to find so far! However, I guess, my party sucks - I did about everything wrong you are writing about, having only one priest, spell-casters with strength and DEX at 3 and 4, etc. etc. (I gave them STR 3 so they could wear more armor, they were often quite badly hurt by range attacks, and the mage draws aggro like nothing with ice rains...). And not to mention that I invested mostly ALL of my money into buying higher spell levels... Well, given that I'm not very far into the game, I might just start over from scratch using your advices about char design. BTW, one more question: What is the issue about food - I remember getting a message at the castle that I have to look after food, but I never saw any sign on my characters that they are "hungry". Would there be any indicator for that somewhere? Maybe my party is that bad just because they are hungry... (just joking, seriously)

I have some decades of experience with RPG games and do not consider myself too stupid to build decent characters - until now, at least. After playing for a while with the demo, I decided I really like Avernum 6 and got the app. However, now I am a bit in trouble: after playing this awesome game for a few days, I am now around Level 9 or so with my characters, and have completed all missions I could find and master before being sent off to the Portal. If I go and do that Portal mission with the massive attack of those impish demons however, I get plastered, completely - even if I set the difficulty to easy. Also, for example if I try going after the Skribbane guys (there is one below the city to the west of the castle, and one in an abandoned fort), I get plastered - no avail. I am a bit lost - I cannot find any simpler missions I can do and the ones I have are too hard for my party - even if I set the difficulty to easy (which I despise, really). As I am new to this game, maybe I am not understanding the game mechanisms and am developing my characters wrong? I have, at Level 9, each of the characters main (STR,DEX,INT,END) two attributes at 5 or 6, the third att at around 4 and the unimportant one at 2 (depending on their role). Then, their fighting/mage/priest skill is at 7 (dep. on role, again), and the rest is spread out across such things as the lores, defense, luck, etc. My mage also does the lock-picking (at 7, too). Am I doing something utterly wrong with character development (1 pole fighter liz, 1 ambidex fighter human, 1 neph priest, 1 mage human)? If so, could anybody give me an idea what to emphasize - what is a good starting build, where to aim at for early levels, say Level 15, and what build do endgame characters have? On the other side, maybe I am entirely wrong and at Level 9 I should simply not be wandering off to the Portal Gate mission? But if so, are there any missions apart from boards and the guy at the castle I can be doing? Help, please - I am stuck! Thank you!