The Reverend

Excellent, another way to procastinate working on my dissertation.

I think you need to go and talk to Aydin, and he will tell you where in the black spire to put the royal seal. My recollection is that if he doesn't tell you where to put it, you won't even get the option to put it anywhere.

The events on Sucia Island were really a catalyst that allowed a large-scale revolution to take place. The serviles were free from the shapers influence and able to think for themselves. Some of them decided that perhaps being enslaved was not the greatest thing ever.

I believe you have to at least be able to see the center of the AOE region (the spot that you target). As long as this is the case, it doesn't bother me much (or at all, really). If you threw a grenade through a window (aiming at a spot that you can see), it would also do damage to areas that you can't see. If you view AOE spells as magical explosions centered on the target spot, this makes sense for them as well. For the cone spells, on the other hand it's fire/ice/energy emanating from the casters location, so it makes sense that those would be blocked by obstacles.

The Reverend awakens from his deep slumber. He looks around, and finds the other spiderwebbers on the bus staring at him in horror. Suddenly he feels a bit funny in his stomach. He tries to say "I think I ate too many of those berries", but nothing comes out. He looks down at himself, and finds that he has been transformed into a giant, six-foot long banana slug. Apparently slugs lack the ability to make vocalizations. Even worse, they lack the necessary appendages to play the guitar. After trying to make himself understood by slithering his body in various ways, he gets frustrated and leaves the bus. As he pushes his way out the door, he notices that he is leaving a bit of a slime trail behind him. This gives him an inspiration. The Reverend (writing in slime outside the bus): "DONT ET TOO MNY BERIS!" He looks back on his work, and discovers a few typos. It's hard to erase slime, though, so hopefully the others will be able to figure out his message.

Things seem to have stalled a bit the past couple days. Maybe its time for the Reverend to wake from his slumber...

Yes, medals can be a bit buggy. I had the same problem, but when I reloaded a save from right before I made the last potion I needed, and remade it, I did get the medal. If you have a save like that, it may be worth a try.

A more complete update, since I know at least one other person is still following this playthrough. Level 26 Update - Sss-Thsss Is No More! I took out Sss-Thsss and then the demons at Fort Remote last night, which was enough to push the last of my party members to level 26. Since the last update, they've cleared out the giants, the two bandit fortresses south of Fort Spire, and all but one of the Slith towns and fortifications (including retrieving the demonslayer blade from the temple). The only exception is the Slith fort just north of Fort Emerald - I didn't want to waste a precious piercing crystal to get into it, since I want to make sure I have enough to finish. They are a precious commodity in a no-mage party like this. They also now have all of the major endgame quests on their quest list. This has led to a bit of dissension among the party as to what their next steps should be. Fred and Mini, as long-time Anama members, are interested in trying to make the surface world a better place for their Anama brethren, so they want to take out Hawthorne (even if it means cooperating with a mage like Erika, although that is hard for them). They'd also like to find the exit so that they could possibly rejoin the remaining Anama at some point. Brutus and Cecilia, on the other hand, are interested in settling in Avernum, starting a family, and possibly starting an underworld branch of the Anama. Thus their highest priority is getting rid of Grah-Hoth - and they are a bit concerned about the danger of trying to assassinate Hawthorne (and also having to submit to being teleported by a mage). Before taking on any of those tasks, however, they all agree that they need to gain a bit more experience. They plan to go after Lord Chuckles (they got to the gremlin's treasure earlier, but never took him out), Pyrog, Drath, and the Haakai in the Tower of Magi before proceeding with the main quests. Party builds Brother Brutus Strength: 33 (+ 5 from traits and items) Dexterity: 8 Intelligence: 8 Endurance: 13 (+ 5 from traits) Melee: 12 Hardiness: 12 Parry: 10 Blademaster: 1 (+1 from items) Quick Action: 0 (+5 from items) Gymnastics: 0 (+2 from items) Priest Spells: 8 Spellcraft: 10 Resistance: 8 First Aid: 1 (from quest in Mertis) Cave Lore: 4 (2 bought, 1 from quest in Mertis, 1 from pool in Giant lands) Luck: 0 (+3 from items) HP: 271 Energy: 200 Armor: 77 Magic: 77 Fire: 72 Cold: 77 Poison: 75 Acid: 85 Mental: 45 Curse: 27 Traits: Improve Strength x 3, Improve Endurance x 3, Mighty Blows, Parry Mastery x 2, Ambidextrous, Good Health, Robust Health, Perfect Health, Negotiator Brutus is the party's main tank, with lots of points in hardiness and resistance and high hit points. He's become quite hard to kill. He is also a decent healer (now that his priest spells are up to 8 he can cast mass healing), and often plays that role since he has the weakest attacks of anyone in the group. When he does attack, he uses his dual-wielded swords (the singing and seeking rapiers). Sister Cecilia Strength: 33 (+ 7 from traits and items) Dexterity: 8 (+ 1 from items) Intelligence: 8 Endurance: 13 Melee: 16 Hardiness: 12 Parry: 10 Blademaster: 10 Quick Action: 2 Dual Wielding: 1 Lethal Blow: 2 Priest Spells: 4 Spell Craft: 1 Resistance: 1 Cave Lore: 2 (both bought) HP: 243 Energy: 200 Armor: 76 Magic: 69 Fire: 68 Cold: 71 Poison: 68 Acid: 82 Mental: 36 Curse: 14 Traits: Improve Strength x 5, Mighty Blows x 2, Ambidextrous, Good Health, Robust Health, Perfect Health, Negotiator, Sage Lore Cecilia's combat skills still make her the most deadly for single target damage, especially in the first round when she can do an adrenaline rush. She is wielding the flaming sword and the nephil warblade. Her survivability has improved dramatically, and as a result she is now only 100 XP behind the leaders (Fred and Brutus). She can also heal in a pinch, and will often handle post-battle healing to preserve spell points for the others who need them more. A level 3 minor heal, with the regeneration it grants, will often be enough to fully heal her friends in a few rounds. Father Fred Strength: 9 (- 2 from items) Dexterity: 8 (- 1 from items) Intelligence: 32 (+ 6 from items and traits) Endurance: 13 (+3 from vampiric knife) Melee: 3 Hardiness: 3 Parry: 3 Quick Action: 2 Lethal Blow: 0 (+2 from items) Priest Spells: 17 Spellcraft: 12 (+2 from items) Resistance: 10 Tool Use: 4 (+ 1 from traits) Arcane Lore: 2 Magical Efficiency: 4 (+ 1 from items) Cave Lore: 3 (2 bought) Traits: Improved Intelligence x 5, Elemental Focus x 5, Good Health, Nimble Fingers, Negotiator, Sage Lore HP: 242 Energy: 350 Armor: 68 Magic: 65 Fire: 63 Cold: 63 Poison: 61 Acid: 77 Mental: 90 Curse: 44 Father Fred has become the most deadly party member. With the mercuric chain and the quicksilver bulwark, he can cast two divine retributions or divine fires every round. I have invested a little in quick action for three reasons: Casting early in the first round (before enemies act) allows him and Mini to thin out some of the crowds, reducing the damage we take from large swarms. It gives access to lethal blow (which I believe helps spells, despite the tool tip to the contrary) The fatigue reduction will actually be useful in long battles once he gets access to adrenaline rush (I've seen it help Cecilia, who has quick action plus some fatigue reducing gear, get access to a second or occasionally third round of adrenaline rush that she wouldn't have gotten to otherwise). Mother Mini Strength: 9 Dexterity: 8 (+1 from items) Intelligence: 32 (+ 5 from traits) Endurance: 13 Melee: 3 Hardiness: 3 Parry: 3 Quick Action: 1 Priest Spells: 17 Spellcraft:12 Resistance: 10 Tool Use: 4 (+ 1 from traits) Arcane Lore: 3 Magical Efficiency: 5 (+ 1 from items) Cave Lore: 2 (both bought) HP: 226 Energy: 345 Armor: 66 Magic: 65 Fire: 62 Cold: 62 Poison: 58 Acid: 74 Mental: 90 Curse: 34 Traits: Improved Intelligence x 5, Elemental Focus x 5, Good Health, Nimble Fingers, Negotiator, Sage Lore Mini currently only gets one spell per round, but once I grab the mercuric sandles from good ol' Lord Chuckles (up next on my list) she'll be able to get two. She is also the group's ward caster - she's the only one with level 3 in steelward and spellward. This leaves her with a bit fewer energy points for battle, which may be a problem when she starts casting two spells per round - but I gave her an extra point of magical efficiency to hopefully help that. You'll notice that I have more Sage Lore traits than I need - I initially didn't plan on getting more than 1 or 2 points of arcane lore for the whole party, but later I realized that I would need magical efficiency since priest damage spells tend to be more expensive that mage ones, and I kept running out of energy in some of the longest fights (or having to switch to just using smite to avoid running out).

I unfortunately don't get as much time to play as I'd like, but it's coming along slowly but steadily. They are all at level 24 now, and about to take on the main slith castle and Sss-Thsss. Since the last update, they've cleared the giant castle and taken out the overseer, and cleared most of the Slith forts and settlements. I plan to post another update after Sss-Thsss.

Some of the preset character types aren't that bad. Custom is probably best, but I made it through on hard difficulty with a hedge wizard and a shaman (I picked them for role playing purposes, to give my characters a back story). And mage-priests and priest-mages are perfectly viable in A6, so neither of those character types has very many wasted skill points (the weapons points are useful because they give battle disciplines, which help spell casters, too).

Archers have blade sweep (DEX based), and there is often (admittedly, not always) at least one enemy who is not right next to the archer - either a ranged attacker or a melee attacker attacking someone else. If not, the archer can still retreat one square and then attack.

Nice guide, thanks for putting this together!! A few comments/observations: This gives a bonus to healing spells, as well. Remove physical, and replace it with curse and mental. Which is very nice. You're right, cave lore is absolutely worth it - and you can get it up to 11 with only 1 skill point. You can buy 2 points for each character in Formello, for 800 each, and get 1 free from a quest, and 1 point free from a pool near the giants. You'll end up more than making your money back. See this post for details. With careful planning, and two priests, you can use call the storm to make yourself unhittable by melee attackers in certain battles. The key is that the knockback occurs even if the spell "misses". For many monsters, if you are fighting in a wide open area, two Call the Storm knockbacks will push them far enough back that they can't get back to you and still have APs left to attack. This is fun for pure archers, too, if they get surrounded, because they have high DEX. Unfortunately, if you have a dual-wielder, this knock back eliminates the second attack (disciplines always apply to the first attack) - so I don't recommend it for them.

Now that most of the velociraptors have left (except for one who seems to be trying to talk to everyone), The Reverend stops playing. He feels a wave of exhaustion come over him - whatever that tune was, it was quite draining. He heads back to the bus, sits down, and promptly falls asleep. As his eyes are closing, he thinks he glimpses a blue box appear outside, but he doesn't have the energy to investigate it. (OOC: The Reverend will be sleeping for a while, since I am out of town for work meetings the next couple RL days, and will not have much time for forum browsing or posting.)

I used this.

Limitless power without control of that power is not really power at all ....

Whew! I was pretty sure I remembered using nephils as spellcasters so that the free bows points would help unlock battle disciplines for them, but it's been long enough that I started to doubt my memories ...

Dikiyoba's original post about them said "over a dozen".

Sliths got free extra points in pole weapons as they level up, so if you want to take the best advantage of that, it makes sense to make them pole users. However, even non pole users can get some benefit from the pole weapons points because they unlock battle disciplines.

2 melee fighters aren't necessary - my first party had a melee fighter (dual wielder), an archer, a priest, and a mage. The archer would often camp out in front near the swordsman to help hold off the enemy advance (her high dexterity meant that melee attacks hardly ever hit her). She would plunk away at enemy spell casters/ranged attackers that were behind the front lines - often taking out a couple of the "AOE leftovers" (those enemies that are left with a small number of hitpoints after the casters spammed AOE attacks). Her gymnastics skill plus 1 AP boosting item meant that she could often take out two of these leftovers in a round.

I think that guide would add a valuable perspective. The min-max approach is certainly the easiest way to beat the game on torment (and even more so if you are playing with other restrictions for roleplaying purposes). But as you showed, with the right strategies and tactics, it is certainly possible to beat it other ways. In fact, I think that hearing about the tactics you used to beat the game without min-maxing would be valuable in their own right. I'll look forward to the guide if you decide to write it!

The Reverend looks up from his latest shovelful of berries, and notices that Excalibur is bleeding on the floor of the bus. He quickly heads over to patch up his wound. The Reverend: "Hmm, it seems that your thigh is healing itself - does that glowing sword have anything to do with it?" Just to be safe (gotta prevent infection, especially in Cretaceous - who knows what bacteria grows in that era?), The Reverend pours a bit of his Skribbane Bourbon over the wound, and bandages it with a handkerchief from his bag. Exacalibur: "#$!%#! THAT HURTS. What's in that bourbon???" The Reverend: "Apparently something called Skribbane, but I have no idea what that is. Some strange Gremlin gave it to me back before all this craziness started happening." The Reverend finally notices the velociraptors clawing at the door, and sees the others preparing to defend the bus. He is suddenly inspired to grab his guitar, and starts playing a strange tune that he's never heard before. As the music picks up, the guitar starts to glow, at first imperceptibly, and then brighter and brighter. An aura extends from the guitar and surrounds the bus. The velociraptors look dazed and begin to back away. The others look at The Reverend questioningly. The Reverend: "I have no idea ... It's never done that before. I wonder what will happen if ..." The Reverend heads towards the bus doors. Before the others can stop him, he opens them and steps outside. In order to fit through the door, he has to stop playing momentarily. The velociraptors begin to advance again, more cautiously this time, but as soon as he clears the doorway he resumes the tune and the velociraptors retreat from the aura. He also notices that he has no trouble hearing the guitar, the velociraptors, or his singing. It must be those berries Sylae brought - perhaps eating something from this time was necessary to retune his senses to be in sync with the current era?

The Reverend continues to strum on his guitar and ponder the situation. He notices that the pony (now dressed in a nice set of armor) has brought some berries, and they appear to be piling up on the seat in front of him. He idly grabs a handful and eats them. And then another, and another. The seem to have an almost addictive quality to them. After a few more handfuls, he notices that his ears are beginning to tingle. And the quiet forest is just a little less quiet ...

The Reverend was just finishing his Hendrix/Dire Straits/Fleetwood Mac set when the bus lurched forward and the scene outside shifted. He follows Excalibur out of the bus, and attempts to start playing "Voodoo Chile", but finds that no sound comes out of his guitar. The Reverend: "..." Strange - no sound comes out of his mouth either. He steps back onto the bus, and finds his guitar works again, and then steps off, and it goes silent once more. What was in that Skribbane Bourbon?? Edit: The Reverend notices that the pony seems to have no trouble talking outside the bus. Curiouser and curiouser.

The Reverend dives out of the collapsing hall to avoid another chunk of falling wall. In the process he gets a nice grass stain on his robes, to match the rest. He approaches Trinit Eye. The Reverend: "Should you feel the need to make peace with your demons and find focus in your new ... state ... I find that transcribing the live performances of the Great One can bring mental clarity." The Reverend attempts to hand Trinit Eye a vinyl, but being unable to find any hands to hand it to (just eye stalks, which seem to lack fingers and opposable thumbs), he leaves it on the ground underneath the floating eye. He then hops on the bus, takes a seat, and takes out his guitar. The Reverend: "Any requests?"

As the Reverend is admiring his new smiley face button, and how it is just the right size to cover up one of the hoof prints on his robes, the room begins to shake violently. He looks around and sees that the floor is collapsing and the walls are beginning to crumble. Or is that just a hallucination brought on by whatever was in the bourbon he bought from that strange gremlin he met a few hours before the bus appeared? Come to think of it, he fell asleep under that tree after having his first couple sips of it. And ever since he woke up, everything has seemed a little ... off. He doesn't even remember this building being here before. What did he overhear someone calling it? Spiderweb? A chunk of wall hits him on the arm, rousing him from his reverie. He resumes his trek towards his bus, but with a bit more urgency now that the walls are collapsing around him. As he starts jogging, he is inspired to take another look at the bourbon bottle. The Reverend: "Hmm, 'Skribbane-brand bourbon'. Has anyone ever heard of that before?"