chimp

Does offing Thantria affect your reputation? As far as I could tell, it only annoys Mayor Evelyn, which I think we can all live with. I don't think Micah even notices.

Having failed to finish the game with a couple of mega-archers, I've just offed Hawthorne with one mega-archer, an archer/mage, an archer/priest (both more archer than magic-user) and a tank. The problem with archery in most of the Avernum series (apart from that one where Heartstriker did silly amounts of damage) is that you need tens (twelves) in everything before things get good. It _is_ good then, but you've got to get through a third to a half a game of hell to get to that point.

One tip: don't give your best archer the Bow of Storms (or, arguably, Heartstriker). With buffs, s/he'll do lots of damage (2000+ per round) with one of the three big longbows (my duo, of course, didn't stand a chance of getting the First Expedition Bow), while a gifted, but less dedicated archer will benefit much more from the fancy ones.

One more: put a tank in fourth place - archers tenderise, tank charges in, archers mop up. Works on surprisingly numerous/tough opponents. (Even without magic, the three flyweights can use scrolls and crystals to keep the tank moving and conscious.) The key is to keep as much control as possible of who's attacking who, and when, which I find easiest with missile attacks, for a some reason.

But for all the fun to be had from bouncing a beastie (like a demon, or the big guy from the Slith Fortification) between two archers until it falls (and it really is a lot of fun), it's always going to be a grind. I'd go for missiles + low-level magic over magic-free melee, as a fun, off-beat replay, but you just can't argue with magic damage in the end.

Still, the most important reason for making the most of archers in SW games is that they sound nice when they hit things.

Bit disappointed in the dragon fights, this time. Pyrog just falls over, if you can keep the giants from mushing you, and Sulfras is hard, but more in a grindy sort of a way. It all pales in comparison with A6 (got to be the best boss fight of the series).

That's right. Hugely disappointed that she didn't drop her prices, after that favour I did her... Wasted money on her the first time through, as well, before I discovered the benefits of being two-faced in Kyass. Still need her for most of the top-row battle skills, though.

I dunno... 2 points of Resistance without having to invest in Spells or Spellcraft might be very handy for a fighter. Don't think there's anywhere else to get it.

I'd argue that the current skills system provides _more_ support for role-playing. The automatic point assignments and the skills trees give you a safety net, in terms of viability, and let you create pretty much what you want (magic and mental resistance are expensive, if you're not using magic, but then you'd expect a magic-free party to be especially vulnerable, wouldn't you? - just makes it hard to stay alive, surrounded by Hawthorne's golems...).

 

Exile/Avernum has always appealed to me precisely because of the fun you can have, creating extreme and unusual characters (and watching them die, repeatedly). After playing Avadon, I can kind of understand Death Knight's enthusiasm for pre-defined characters but, as others have said, there's nothing stopping you from creating them in Avernum. It's just that the onus is on the player to avoid pressing certain buttons, rather than those buttons being hidden from the player by the software.

The biggest problem I found with a magic-free party is the dearth of items to bless (and haste, although Speed potions will do Battle Frenzy instead). There are hardly any Rods of Battle in this game, they appear fairly late in the game, and at least one of them is behind a level 3 barrier, so that's no good either. It's great fun having physical attacks which curse/weaken/slow your opponents, except when hordes of enemies do it to you...

Yes, I'd been chugging speed potions pretty much throughout the game, partly to get the most out of my Gymnastics, so I rarely got slowed to a standstill. I had been concentrating on just surviving until Grah-Hoth was gone, and then dealing with the mess, reasoning that there's no way I could thin them out significantly anyway. Perhaps I'll go back and take a more pro-active approach to the summoned beasties. It'd take less of a toll on the recovery scrolls, as well.

Although I'd just love an Attack option for the merchant caravans on the way into the Great Cave.

And don't forget you'll need to take out the two eyebeasts pretty sharpish, if you don't want to spend the whole time dazed and/or terrified.

Having eventually had to drop down to Casual to get past Grah-Hoth, I'm currently having a rethink on the archer-duo strategy. They can do a surprising amount of damage to virtually everything, and Sniper is a brilliant skill, but they have no defence, apart from evasion. Shielding/Armor works wonders against mobs, but they have to hit you in order to hurt themselves, so being fragile becomes a bit of a drawback, and there's only so much mandrake about for Invulnerability potions...

Apropos "enhancement", I should clarify that my use of the editor in these kinds of set-up is restricted to Cave Lore and Tool Use (and allowing them to use Blink, in this case). I view this as hacking, rather than cheating, as the game's numbers have been balanced on the assumption that there are four characters to share the load on these skills. Rationalisation's a wonderful thing...

Archery gets a pretty good deal in this game, but the difficulty with magic-free parties is that you need Arcane Lore to resist mental attacks and Spellcraft in order to get magic Resistance. The logic is inescapable, it just makes life very hard...

I'm currently going round with an "editor-enhanced" duo, and to make it more interesting, they're only allowed to use Blink, arrows and Smite (if something's immune to physical attacks). Still on Sss-Thsss, but we're getting there...

The pylons seem to make perfect sense to me: towns on the council, plus an "embassy" in Bargha (I mean, look where it's located...), and Erika's loyalties are clearly still with Avernum, even if she's a bit impatient with the current administration.

 

From a practical point of view: everything's really close now, anyway, and the absence of pylons at most of the outlying points means a welcome return to boating logistics, an area I fondly remember spending a great deal of time on with the original Exile.

 

Just my personal experience. Must say, apart from the odd weird hangover (like inn rooms always being fully booked), I think this is a smashing reboot. Not as expansive as the original, but I found the narrative(s) really sharp and gripping, and the characterisations had gained some of the weight we got in A5 and A6. Whimsical meandering (remember "Meat!"?) might be what I love about Spiderweb's dialogues, but I found e.g. Aydin's terse seriousness really kicked the story into another gear.

 

Bit of a burble there. Just wanted to say thanks for a great game, I suppose.

Or what about Tamer Melisande:

 

"If you ever find a drake egg, bring it to me. I will pay you very well."

 

"Any idea where I should look?"

 

"I suggest looking under drakes."