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Yes, hold the SHIFT-key while clicking on the item. Also, if you hold the CTRL-key while clicking you get the item description which can be quite useful.

You can indeed join the Darkside Loyalists. From a power gamer perspective, this is the preferred option because Dervish Tholman will train you at Extremely Cheap rates in most combat skills and, less importantly, Ruth will sell the best spells at similar rates. On my second play through I made a mad dash for the Darkside Loyalists to get this option. Some analysis on Gladwell and the Anama: Joining the Anama AND Gladwell are mutually exclusive to a point. Getting one of Gladwell's items will anger the Anama. Unfortunately, this is the second item so to join both you would have to live with the curse for a while. Doing the third and fifth rewards also make it impossible to get the best Melanchion's Desire reward (which almost balances out Gladwell's bonus). Also, when you kill Gladwell and break the geas, the stat bonuses go away leaving you with just the items. I'm assuming you can skip an item and do the next in the sequence; I've never tested this assertion. If this is false, it invalidates this analysis. So let's say you got Gladwell's geas, did the first, skipped the second and third, and did the forth, but not the fifth. After doing so, you went back and killed Gladwell. All you come out with are two items. Now by joining the Anama, you cannot do Shafrir's or the last Melanchion's desire quest. All you get for doing them are a decent sword and armor, really not all that great. You are far better to forego the Anama and do the other two, in my opinion as the stat boosts from Melanchion's desire outweigh these two. So reflecting on it, trying to power game here really only comes out ahead by three decent items and the stat boosts from the Melanchion's Desire quests +1 RES/STR/DEX/INT. Not really worth the trouble. In conclusion: Gladwell is worth it if you follow all the way through for the additional treasure although you have to make towns angry; getting out of the deal is really not that beneficial. The Anama really only give you the ability to learn priest spells early; their rewards do not make up for the losses. IMHO, what you get from Gladwell is really not all that worth it and the Anama are a waste of time. I would say to pick a path most comfortable to you and just work with it.

Let's not forget about Heartstriker, the Putrified Gauntlets, or the Talisman of Might. Too bad you only get two of the three because of the lack of a third eyestalk. But yeah, I'd suggest holding on to a bunch of fine leather, fine steel, and a few other things. Consult the item list under either Muck or Melanchion's Keep for a list of ingredients: Item List

Harkin's Landing. He walks around just north of the mayor's office.

There is another crystal that stores your geas. Look around a little bit more.

Also, depending on the path you take, it does have a small impact on the ending.

Aside from the items in the stores, not really. I would make sure you kill the Mindwarp Chitrach first before stealing the scrolls. Kingsley says something valuable with respect to this.

Consulting the hint book would lead to those questions. You get these only if you join the Anama. Melanchion is near the end of the game. He's kind of hard to miss once you get there.

If you came out in Harkin's Landing, you went to far west. Head north instead when you reach the section just west of the one with the colored pools.

There are two ways. The first is speaking with the Mayor after killing Lysstark the Beast. The other way is going through a locked door just north of Harkin's Landing.

The cheats are there for players who want them. If they make it more fun for you, go right ahead. However, don't complain how combat was unchallenging if you do use them.

You need to use the lift in the Nephil mine with the rats. After that, proceed north, then west, and then north again.

Jeff is usually pretty efficient, but he may be busy with personal things. I would say wait another day, if you don't have a reply by then, send off an e-mail.

I don't know of any retail place that lists these games. You pretty much have to either get them online of via mail. I recommend the online option.

You need to kill the Slith Horror upstairs. You can find the way behind its chambers.

Your assessment of my BoX scenarios is correct. All I was saying is that you should not expect great character development in A5 as opposed to what you saw in GF 4. However, you can still expect a very good game. Just an honest assessment.

General consensus is yes. While the game is fairly linear, there are new lands to explore and a fresh plot to experience. The game mechanics and combat are by far superior to A4. My one personal complaint is the weak character development, but otherwise it is a really good game.

Quote: Avernum 5 is about exploring an alien world, full of cool, weird people and situations. The Dorikas storyline has interesting bits and provides a good framework and forward momentum, but it's not the point of the thing. Fair point. The game did a good job in this respect and the game is very rich because of it. Hollistically A5 is a very good game. I think the one area it is weak in is character development. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it. Quote: His real role throughout the game is as a puppetmaster... My problem is not that his role did not make sense, it's just that we've seen this base architype before numerous times in the Avernum series. While the names and situations have been different and made to fit the world around them, they are fundamentally the same. Hawthorne, Garzahd, and Rentar were in some ways the puppetmaster of their time. While I think Dorikas is the most interesting in this respect, I don't see much a departure here. So I guess my problem is not with Dorikas himself, but with the frequent use of this type of main villain from game to game.

The problem I had with Dorikas is that he was so removed from the party, much like Garzahd or Hawthorne. Now his role made sense within the constraints of the plot, but there is no reason the plot had to be structured as it is. I'm not saying Dorikas should be out to kill the party himself; that would not be ideal for the reasons SoT stanted. Instead, if Dorikas had continually been one step ahead of the party trying to reach his hidden outpost, the main mission would have felt more urgent. Climax points would be where the party meets Dorikas, but he is able to escape for some reason and he travels deeper into the underworld. So there are ways without utterly revamping the whole storyline that could have worked here and made Dorikas truly an effective villain versus the static one he is.

It comes down to reality versus gameplay in several (not all) cases. This is especially true with the shopkeepers. Being able to kill shopkeepers and loot them would be very unbalancing to gameplay unless the consequences were made sufficiently high. For example, it could be no merchant would ever deal with the party again. Unfortunately, any such thing would be just as arbitrary, so better off to do what Jeff already does in the first place.

If you extol the virtues of Rentar to make a comparison to Dorikas, it is unfair to deny people the right to counter those assertions. Again, problem with Rentar is she was too predictable. Her character development proceeded exactly as anyone would've expected after E3/A3. In fact, years before A4 was ever conceived there was a lot of talk about BoE scenarios using Rentar with similar aspects (her becoming a cystal soul, new plagues in Exile, etc.). During beta testing I even guessed the plot before Jeff finished the game. I was not alone. Dorikas was new enough, but I feel his character was a bit of a disappointment. It would have been neat to see him do more of the heavy lifting in the game when it came to interacting with the party. Rather, he is just another mastermind with a large staff of henchmen that do his bidding. In some ways he was like Hawthorne II. I haven't really liked any of the villains Jeff has written in the Avernum series. They have never really grabbed me that much. I guess the issue comes from the fact that the Avernum series have largely featured very static worlds where the party is the primary actor.

Jeff already has it in Geneforge, so it would not be too difficult to implement. However, the question is should he do it.

I personally prefer the no animation, it speeds up the moving from one part of the map to another.

You have a few of them switched around. A hint, the NW one should have no orb period and the SE should have no sparkles. The other two should have them. You should be able to figure out the colors from the clues above.

The trick with the Doomguard is to buff your party as much as possible in one turn. Use the Battle Frenzy battle discipline on your main fighter if you have it. Let the Doomguard attack you. After it does, release everything you can on it so its copy is at as low a life as possible. A copy will form, continue this procedure and always focus on the weakest of the copies. Hope this helps.