TriRodent

To piggyback on that the blessings are the same no matter where you apply them (A3 iirc gave you different blessings at different locations - cold resistance at one, +'x' to hit at another, etc) **** Spineridge tends to have the best paying jobs (1500ish gp on average but doesn't seem to reload the board as fast as others) No reward for chasing goblins near Malloc ... well other than the satisfaction of self appointed monster whomping that is

Another thing to keep in mind is that on Hard or Torment levels, any spells cast will affect everyone in the target zone. A cone of lightning spray cast from the rear can (& probably will) hit your frontline guys too. A misaimed zone of Daze can knock out your fighter right when you really need him. Etc. It's a game played on a well defined grid & not in real time, iow you have time to place your spell right where you want it, use it. (and a very minor early game point - if you're going to use food to recover hit points in dungeons, if possible stick to a vegan diet of bread/mushrooms/fruit. Meat/fish actually have value & can be sold for a little bit of cash)

For A3RW /A3/E3 I always run a human only party, it just seems wrong not to. The whole point of the (early) story was to get out & unobtrusively explore around the nearby surface. Given the Empire's penchant to try to exterminate other races, having one/both of them along just seemed like a dumb idea from the get go. It would be cool to be able to add/trade out one or the other into your party later in the game but... A2 I never really thought that having either in the party would be wrong for the story but usually there too just go with humans (mainly because I tend to run a magic heavy party & their racial bonuses don't add a whole lot to my style of play)

O-o you want to draw attention to one of your guys? In all my decades of playing SW games I've never had a problem finding someone to hit/toss a fireball/shoot an arrow at... Seriously, in a mob fight you're going to get your frontline guys swarmed. As long as your spell casters are a couple(+?) spaces back you should be able to handle things. Traits are precious/important enough that I've never found the need to put a point into Challenger fwiw

Yeah, friendly fire really isn't.... AOE spells that your rear casters can toss over your frontline tanks are where to invest in upgrades.

Time flows constantly inside & out. /spent a few hours here & there trading declassified war stories with Flanagan while waiting for midnight to then go get my stipend from Levy....

They aren't

Even the Anama use magic (of a priestly sort). I kind of assumed that that's how you were going to play things (no mage magic but priest ok). But 'no' magic at all? Yeah, you're in for a rough game...

I found Jeff/Spiderweb with E2 & will 'always' have a soft spot for that game in my heart (Mrs TR may have a different opinion given the months & months of real time spent spelunking/making armies of strange creatures over the decades....alas). That said, Avernum (& later the remakes) win out by far. Over the years Jeff got better & better at creating a playable/getting yourself mentally involved in what's on the screen game. Exile was great but it was a game on the screen. Avernum & even more so AEFTP, at least for me, drew me in & let me BE the guys on the screen. So Avernum...

With only 11(ish) days to wait for A3RW, depending on how many hours you can play, you may not even make it to a place where being a pre-Ahonar Anama member would be a serious problem.... (twiddling my thumbs over here too...)

If anyone's interested...

IIRC, you can buy two levels of any spell from a trainer/teacher. Learning something from a spellbook will bump that spell to level 3 (but only if you already have two levels in that spell). However if you have no levels of that spell purchased then what you learned from the book will only work at L1. For instance you don't have anyone who can cast Fireblast at the moment. In your next dungeon you stumble across the spellbook that teaches it. Now anyone with high enough magic levels to cast it can cast it at level one. After getting that you head to the next town down the line. While there you find someone who will teach Fireblast (woo hoo). You (assuming you have the money) will be able to buy two levels of the spell from him/her, giving you L3 in that spell now. For skills though it is different. Let's use First Aid as an example. As long as you don't add two skill points to FA while leveling up then you can train twice in that skill. If you've already raised it to one point then you can only buy one additional point in the skill. I mentioned First Aid because you said you had 8 points in your party in that skill. If you never picked that skill while leveling up then you could buy two levels each for every member in your party from a trainer (we'll leave aside if that's a good use of your money...) which would be a good way to get that much First Aid as it cost you no skill points that you got from leveling up. Well hell... again iirc .... Jeff changed the way that skill trainers work sometime in the past. The way it is for most games is like I just described. In A2CS you might be able to buy two levels from a trainer at any point... 'but' skills tend to be capped at 10 (other than melee/spells which go to 20ish). For 'really' useful skills (spellcraft for instance) it's better 'not' to train in that skill until you've maxed things out at 10 because then you can add the two trainer's skill points to make 12 (same with using items that raise a skill category, hold off using them until you've maxed things out). For only being able to buy one level, was it a really low level spell? If you've already automatically learned a spell from the start then you're already at L1 & can only buy to L2. You'll still need to find the textbook to get to L3

Wait, you're putting skill points into your magic user/priest's melee weapon skills? For them I tend to just, over the course of a game, give them a point or two in sword use & bows just to have a last ditch option if they're low on energy or in a null field (also to open up the option of Hardiness & Parry). Other than that though you'd be MUCH better served pumping up their spell levels & spellcraft. If you really want them to have the extra action points then use a potion, scroll or Haste at L3 (once you get it). Your First Aid is really high (unless you bought the skill points rather than using your own). At most, for my typical party they'll have maybe three total. First aid is nice but it doesn't do 'that' much after a battle that you can't get by drinking a potion/eating something or ducking back into town to recharge (& unless you're on the Dark River or deep in Empire territory, a friendly town usually isn't 'that' far away) Gymnastics is nice as it'll give you an extra action point every few rounds. When combined with armor/shields that give you an extra point you can usually have two attacks/round without being hasted. Sage Lore is good to put a point or two into as it counts (iirc) as 3 arcane lore when reading spell books. I also tend to toss a point or two per character into Luck as it does slightly tilt random events (of which there are MANY) into your favor. Resistance is on my 'nice to have but not vital' list. If I've maxed out all the spell levels that I want for my casters (usually two, both dual classed (MU/Priest) with one maxed to the highest level magic & around level 10 in priest and the other maxed in Priest & level Fireblast in magic) 'and' maxed out Spellcraft then I'll think about putting a couple into Resistance (although Hardiness & Parry tend to get them first). Another option that I like doing is letting the melee guys wear less encumbering armor (or a point or three in Swordmage) & get their magic use/priest up to level 5-6 so that in the start of the fights they can haste/bless everyone or cast slow/daze on whoever you're fighting. That frees up the more powerful spell casters to toss the much more damaging spells at whoever you're fighting. If you let whoever you're fighting come to you, that gives you a round or two to buff up & meet them on better terms. Divine Fire is a must as it can be used as a grenade where Fireblast is a cone of attack. You'll need both moving forward as you'll need to do lots of damage quickly to large groups of Empire soldiers who are rolling up on you. The eyebeast in Cotra - I usually leave him for a while after clearing out the Empire troops. Come back later when you've got the firepower to smash hard & fast. You probably won't need to restart with the party that you've got but it's not an optimal build (at least the way I fight through things). Good luck/have fun/etc

Whereabouts? If you're on the top floor, like Randomizer said, Elderan's off to the west behind a secret door. If you can't find the switch then hold down the 'u' key & it will give you choices of different items to 'use'. The hidden switch should be visible/labeled now. If you're further down in the tower then what's holding you back/puzzle that you can't solve? It's been a little while but iirc most of them were relatively easy to get through (you may have to beat on some monsters if you open the wrong door/switch however...)

2nd one looks incredible. 1st one looks good but the 2nd just screams 'I'm magical, take me with you'...

Getting away from the whole medical thing (mainly because I just saw the topic...). My favorite schedule in my working years was a 4/10 week that started at 5:30am & got out at 3:30 (paid lunch). Having that extra couple of hours in the afternoon when most people were working was wonderful as assorted chores were easily done (without the 'afterwork' crowds). So put me down for the 'go to work early' column. It also kind of depends on the time of year. I'd rather have daylight in the afternoon/evening when I'm off so again, go to work early. /that job also had me working the 4/10s on a rotating schedule - M-Th one week & Tu-F the next, a four day weekend every other week.... man I miss that one //HR was always complaining that I never took my vacation... with a 4 day weekend every other week I never needed one...

Well, if the congrats from a random stranger on the internet mean anything.... congrats \o/ /which army? I've got some long dead relatives who were jr officers in one of the Iowa regiments

Depending on where you are in the game, your sorceress should have access to up to four/eight different spells (with different damage types), that should keep you busy for 3-4 rounds. However your staff attack is always going to be fire so there's that. There are potions available that will reduce the cool down period (been a while, don't remember the exact name) but I tend to save those for the bigger battles. You could give her a bunch of the consumable wands to fire off during the cool down period. Or scrolls to read - either to attack or to bless/improve the party's stats. Perhaps a 'group heal' scarab to use during one round when everyone's beat up a bit. Or other scarabs that use a different type of mass attack (ice spray for instance). But (again, been a while), even in a big battle with fire resistant enemies (& it's got to be a big one if you've already fired off all your spells & things are still going on...), there's usually secondary targets you could fire your staff at to keep them occupied while your other companions deal with the main target. There's really no reason for anyone to just hang back & be a spectator during combat, there's always 'something' that they can be doing to contribute to the fight. And once you've done absolutely everything you possibly can, break out into a Bollywood song/dance #. The pause when the boss monster give you the 'WTF?" look might just give your shadowwalker a chance to slip his knife in between the boss' ribs....

Just announced on FB - http://www.avernum.com/avernum3/index.html

It's been a while but I'm fairly certain that there is one around there somewhere. Perhaps the trash pit area over on the left, or maybe outside the dome (but within the map)

Sadly yes. We're too far down the road with such companies being in private industry (making/skimming billions of dollars) for it ever to be nationalized. When there are billions involved, it's FAR cheaper to spend several million on lobbyists who in turn will drop thousands in reelection money on as many Congressmen (or senior aides under the table) as it takes to throw up enough roadblocks to kill the idea. The really disgusting part about that isn't that Congressmen are willing to sell out the nation's health, but that they're willing to do so so cheaply....

As a MD she at least acknowledges the usefulness of vaccines, so not an anti-vaxxer per se. However apparently one of her pet theories is one that most anti-vaxxers believe too so that's probably where the accusation came from.

I've heard really good things about the game, but as it only came out a week ago, I haven't played it yet (mainly because I'm too cheap & am waiting a while for it to drop in price/go on sale). The most common complaint that I'm seeing though is that it's too short (for a single play through anyway). But whatever, it's certainly on my 'someday to buy/play' list. Thanks also for the confirmation that it will be a game I'll enjoy (in it's broad similarity to SW games).

Kind of sounds like the ancient Microprose Master of Magic (iirc it came out about when Jeff got started, so really old.... :-p ). It's been a looong time since I've played but in addition to building up your cities & advancing your heroes, the combat was quite tactical with you moving various units & heroes around the battlefield. It was more than just a hack & slash or a Civilization style auto combat anyway. I can't think of any RPG where you're the trainer sending out units to do battle. The closest that you may find is something like Civilization or Age of Empires where you've got the God level view, building up your civilization/cities & on a strategic level sending out units/armies to do battle for you. Even that though isn't exactly what you're talking about.

If there is any good to come from this election cycle, hopefully it will be the multiple case studies on how NOT to run an election. Coming out of the primaries it completely befuddled me as how, in a nation of 320ish million people we wound up with pretty much the two most disagreeable candidates possible (of those available) to select from. When each candidate is polling at +/- 60% very unfavorable feelings towards them within their own party, there is a serious problem going into the election. Essentially we were being offered two slightly different feces flavored sandwiches & told that we MUST eat one. Do you vote for Mrs. Clinton & perpetuate the absolute corruption that seems to follow her around like a lonely puppy wanting a belly rub? Or do you vote for the narcissistic blowhard of a reality tv 'star' who seems bent on trying to say the most outrageous things possible just because? That's it, those are the choices, you are going to have one of those vile sandwiches as President of the US. We knew for months that we'd have one of those, dare I say, deplorable people as President. It really shouldn't come as a surprise that lots of people are unhappy when, in both parties, the majority of people thought that the candidate that they were putting forth was a lousy choice. Combine that with a campaign season where each candidate is trying to hide themselves in ketchup, mustard, relish & most anything else to disguise their own flavor of sandwich all the while trying to convince you that the other 'sides' sandwich was oh so much worse. If either of the parties had stepped back, realized that they were offering voters a vile [censored] sandwich, scraped off the [censored] & replaced it with a piece of reasonably acceptable lunch meat, they could have had the election in a landslide. However at the end of the day, the fact remains that all we were offered & forced to eat was a [censored] sandwich. Third parties? Here's where I start to really cry. In an election cycle that was tailor made for a 3rd party to come along, not to win, that would be impossible at this point in time, but to take a big bite out of the traditional two parties. This was THE time for them to make major gains, never again will both major parties put up such abhorrent candidates at the same time. So what do the Libertarians (& to a lesser extent the Green, Constitution, etc parties) do? They trot out the same worn out politicians & worn out party platforms to run off of. It makes me beat my head against my desk, it really does. So, here we are, roughly one week after choking down the preferred flavor of crap sandwich that suits you only to find that the narcissistic blowhard flavored one turned out to be the winner in the end. So be it, the Constitution is strong & there are plenty of checks & balances built into the system to either gum up the works or provide enough time for cooler heads to prevail. We as a country have survived much worse than this. It may not/probably won't be a fun four years but we'll get through it all. What's going to be really interesting though is to see if either party learns something from this & in four years we actually get something edible to work with.... **** (the only thing scarier than the two miserable choices that were put in front of us is the idea that voting should be something mandatory for all. I consider myself a reasonably informed voter but last Tuesday I had NO idea who many of the people on the ballot were (local judges, state rep, city council, etc). Do you really want someone who doesn't want to be there to begin with randomly choosing names because 'that one sounds cute' or against someone because 'there's too many vowels in his name'? Voter turnout may be abysmal most of the time but that just means that your vote is all the more important)