The Reverend

A quick update if anyone is still following this. The party is now all at level 21: Brutus and co. have continued to explore Avernum and gain experience, and have joined the Scimitar and gotten a quest to find the exit. They also met with Erika and got a quest to slay Hawthorne. They are a bit conflicted over helping a well known mage like Erika, but they are willing to at least consider it since Hawthorne is such a danger to their remaining Anama brethren on the surface. They also found the return life tome in the Gremlin's Gold (having two priests capable of casting this has been very helpful in some tough battles), took out the ogre mage, cleared the commander of the slith island near Cotra (and his pet slimes), rescued the G.I.F.T. Spider, and killed a bunch of bandits, giants and sliths (but not Sss-Thsss or the Giant overseer, yet). Next major task is to go after Sss-Thsss, although they may try to get a bit more experience first. The builds have continued to go as expected - Brutus has begun investing more points into the Priest Spells/Spellcraft/Resistance, and he's becoming quite hard to hurt (and also a decent healer). Cecilia maxed out Hardiness and Parry, and is now not getting killed off nearly as often (she's actually slowly catching up with the others in terms of XP - only about 150 behind now). Fred and Mini have maxed out Spellcraft and Resistance (and have Priest spells at 17), so they are starting to put a little into weapons skills to get battle disciplines and also access to hardiness. They also bought a couple points of arcane lore, and are starting to train magical efficiency, because I'm finding that priest spells are expensive - they sometimes run out of SP at inconvenient times. My plan is for each to buy 2 AL from Erika, and then train 2 ME, and then buy two ME. If anyone is curious, I can post the complete current builds. If not, I'll wait until my next update. One concern I have is that piercing crystals seem a bit rare, and I know at least a few will be needed for the game winning quests. Right now I have 4, and I can see at least 4 in the item list that I haven't yet retrieved (not counting the one that is behind a level 3 barrier, since I'll never get there). I think there is one for sale in the Freehold that I haven't bought yet (waiting for prices to drop to pretty average - they are at slightly expensive now). That will make 9, which is probably enough for the necessary quests, but I may have to skip out on some other things, like the Slith Fort north of Fort Emerald, which I think requires a piercing crystal to enter (if you are playing a no-mage party like this one).

Yeah, in G3 there really aren't any satisfying choices - the shapers and the rebels are both cray-cray. I'm pretty sure that was intentional.

I don't recall there being anything there, and the Synergizer item list doesn't mention anything either.

Nope, that's all it does - like most of Nicodemus' "gifts", it's not really useful.

Normal horseshoes don't do anything - just the lucky horseshoe charm that you get as a quest reward. My recollection is that the melee and ranged skill training that you get for 3000 from Liese in the Beast's Woods shows up in your special items (like the blessing and boon from Unni), and effect all characters.

I once asked my 3-year-old if she could remember what she thought about before she was able to talk. She said something like "I thought about how much I wanted to be a big girl so I could talk."

I don't remember the details, since it's been a while since I did this part of the game, but I think you need the royal seal to get past the black spire. Did you find that yet? I don't remember anything about Aydin and fungus though, but that could be just because of my hazy recollection. Do you happen to remember what it was that he said about fungus?

My in-laws are French. When we go visit, my father-in-law and I go to the store where he works (kinda of a hardware and garden store, but they also sell booze and clothes) and fill up a few jugs of wine from their big vats. That usually gets us through lunch ...

My agent Angie finished the game at level 22.

Yes, but that requires remembering which ones had previously made it clear. At my age, that is not always easy. I could try writing it down, but whenever I try that, I forget where I put the paper ... If only these games allowed us to create, organize, and edit our own journal entries rather than just copying things that were said to us.

I ran into this problem even when the quest givers didn't move - I couldn't always remember where certain people were. That's where the Synergizer item list came in handy - I'd just search it for the name of the quest giver. It was also useful for knowing whether or not somebody would make new quests available later, so I'd know whether to go back and revisit them.

Elvis

I missed that reloading is also not allowed, but I guess reloading when somebody dies kind of defeats the purpose of not allowing resurrection, so that makes sense.

You could maybe do it by treating the party as a singleton "with support". In other words, pick one character as your main character, and give them the type of build you'd give a character intending to be a singleton (since by the end of the game they probably will be). Give them all the best stuff as well, and devote most of your training $$$ to them. The other characters will give the main character support until they die off.

I would argue that that is at least as much nurture as nature - i.e., they were raised to be obedient. As evidence, I'd cite the fact that when they were left alone (as on Sucia Island) so many of them became Awakened or Takers, as opposed to Obeyers.

You'd have to delete the character to avoid having them automatically resurrect when you enter town. And then you'd lose any equipment they were carrying, wouldn't you? It'd be a bummer if they were carrying the Orb of Thralni ... Edit: I guess you can bend the rules a bit and let them resurrect in town, drop the orb, and then delete them.

I agree with you, which is why I haven't taken a pro-shaper position in any of the three geneforges I've played (1-3). I've seen arguments that what the Rebels eventually become is worse than the Shapers. I can somewhat buy that argument in the later games, but not in G1 - in G1 the Awakened (philosophically) and the Takers (practically) make the most sense to me. The events of the later games haven't happened yet when you are playing G1, so from a role-playing perspective, I don't take them into account.

No, I don't think the stories are different between the versions. I think it's just that some players are pro-shaper, in which case the Sholai would be viewed as the enemies.

I haven't met a Spiderweb game that I didn't like. In addition to the ones already mentioned, a lot of people (myself included) really liked Nethergate, and its remake Nethergate: Resurrection.

For the main gate, the key opens a door to a room where there is gate wheel that opens the main gate. The room is just to the west of the main gate. For the back way, the key opens a door (across the bridge) to a room which has a secret door that lets you exit.

We went to Iceland a couple years - I didn't even consider trying any whale, but it was very common to see signs outside restaurants advertising it. And puffins too (the bird, NOT the cereal), which just seem way too cute to even consider eating ....

The key should let you open a couple doors that give you access to escape routes. The map linked to by Mosquito---Slayer should show you where those doors are.

Did you get the iron key when you killed Onghror? I think you need it to get out.

I would argue that they are still pretty good in the late game. Yes, their damage will fall behind other characters, but their high dexterity can make them an effective tank in many fights. They'll just need something to counter cold attacks (which dexterity does not help you evade). There are some items that give a cold resistance bonus, which helps mitigate this.

Archers are actually very good in Avernum 4 as well - especially once you get the Heartstriker.