Philologus

Well okay, I agree with that. But the game encourages it, at first, by making "random" encounters in the Corruption near impossible to win. ("Random" refers to groups of monsters sitting around that are not tied to any quest, per se) Don't get me wrong, I have leveled up since, and gone back and faced these initially hard-to-beat monsters. But it's frustrating when one "hits the wall" making one's way through a major quest, due to ridiculously ramped-up boss difficulty due to such an encouraged strategy. Heck, the Miranda encounter was hard even in comparison to "random" monster encounters beforehand, which I avoided in the first place, as much as possible. And to be clear, it's not as if there is some clever singular strategy that the player needs to find (although that would be poor game design, as well). Thus far, it appears as if these boss encounters are super-tanks. For example, there's not a great strategy (that I can think of) right now, for me to fight "The thing in the basement", because it's attacks are brutal; one of them does around 70-80 pts of damage to all of my characters in a wide radius that encompasses nearly the entire viewing screen. Another is a can't-miss charm spell. Her regular attack bludgeons any of my part members for 1/4-1/2 total hitpoints. Conversely, my character base attacks do 10-20 pts of damage to her, and she seems to have A LOT of hitpoints. Right now, there is no strategy to employ against her (regardless of how many potions/items I stock) other than to level up and "tank-up" my characters, and come back. It is not as if any of my spells are going to be useful against her. For that matter (and it's another conversation), it's not as if this game has a such a variety of spells, to offer a multitude of approaches to a given encounter. You essentially have spells that do damage, summon an ally temporarily (which really isn't innovative.. it's basic) and subdue via daze/charm/ensnare. I am sure I miss 1-2 other spell options, but still, that's not offering the player much beyond brute-force. edited to add: It would have been nice to add the element of terrain as part of strategy during a fight. Yes, right now,there are some basics one may use, such as "funneling", and picking-off a few monsters, running to an exit, and then coming back.

I am just playing through Avadon 2, and am on this quest. I must say that two major criticisms I have of the Avadon series thus far, are the general lack of options when dealing with encounters (i.e. you always seem to have to fight), and the recurring theme of ramping up the difficulty of boss battles to an absurd level. For me, both are indicative of lazy game design, and an appeal to the current generation of idiot gamers. The game is still fun, but ONLY because the story is interesting. Otherwise, the game mechanics are very very simple compared to the old-school RPGs that Jeff advertises his games as emulating. This is not Ultima VII. For that matter, it's not even Ultima III. And it sure as heck isn't BG. Gemstone Warrior was more fun, from purist point-of-view. I am sure all of this has been discussed elsewhere, and I am just venting, so I'll focus this a bit more. At the very first entrance of the party into The Corruption, the caravan master tells us to avoid battles and essentially move stealthily in the region. Given the tough monsters in this region, this was good advice. And sure enough, I took it to heart. However, when I arrived at the first Miranda battle, I was SORELY overwhelmed, even when I lowered the difficulty to casual, from hard. I was left thinking, "why design this region for stealth, and then punish me for it, by frustrating the heck out of me?" In the same vein, harking back to Avadon 1, why offer the choice of challenging Red Beard, if the only way most players can win is through a two-hour (approximately) battle of tedious attrition, during which most people will need to use the cheats AND lower the difficulty. This is in part because most people such as myself, had no clue it would be such a cheaply designed encounter. I can only assume Jeff intentionally made that way. Edited to add: Geez, the "Thing in the Basement" is also absurdly difficult. My characters are around Lvl 20, well equipped, and can still be killed within a few turns by this optional boss. Ridiculous.