The Reverend

Or you can just use blade sweep, which is surprisingly effective for archers since it is based off of dexterity instead of strength.

Massively underpowered is an exaggeration - archers are perfectly usable in AEFTP - they just aren't as good as other character types in the mid to late game. In the beginning of the game (which is where many people struggle the most), though, they are one of the more powerful character types. And, the variety is nice (I also like playing four distinct character types).

I played through with an archer until the very end, and even in the late game she was useful in some situations. I had put every available skill point for her into dexterity, which meant she was very difficult to hit for enemies with physical, fire, and energy attacks. That allowed her to play a tank like role in those situations, tying up enemies who kept missing her while my mage and priest took them out with AOE and cone spells.

If you search the item list for level 3, you'll find most (all?) of them:

http://www.spiderwebforums.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=252888

Yeah, after completing all three of the final quests, my party decided that they'd like to retire to the surface. So, they headed back through the final guantlet and were quite surprised to have to refight all the monsters in the final area. I guess they just decided to throw my party a little retirement bash ...

Thanks!

I assume that most of the scarabs that the quartermaster sells are worth buying as well?

Knowledge brews were replaced by wisdom crystals in the re-re-make. The only person who makes them for you is the witch in Dharmon.

I recently started Avadon, after having played all of Exile and Avernum games, and Geneforge 1-3 (I plan to give 4 and 5 a shot after I finish Avadon).

I was just wondering what the economic situation is like in Avadon? Are there a few expensive things that I need to be saving up for, like trainers, and not a lot of cash available for anything else? Or is there excess cash so I can feel free to spend money in shops for weapons/armor upgrades? And when buying lockpicks, how much is too much too pay? So far I've only been buying them from shops that sell them at "slightly expensive" or lower.

I believe there four potion makers in the game:

Walner in Fort Duvno

Kai in Patrick's Tower

Witch in Dharmon

Zanthia in Tower of Magi

I had to check the AEFTP item list to verify the names and locations.

I play strictly on hard - too afraid of what torment would do to my sanity - but I believe the torment penalty is hidden.

Flying in towns and dungeons violates several AAA (Avernum Aviation Administration) regulations. Plus, in a dungeon, you'd likely end up hitting your head on the ceiling ...

What is your total resistance from all other skills and items (not counting any from previous points in ward mastery)? If you have 0% resistance from other skills and items, you'll see the full increase when you add a point to ward mastery. If you started with 50%, you'll only see half. This is the way resistance is calculated in recent Spiderweb games. I think of it as each skill or item reduces the damage remaining after damage that was absorbed by the other items.

For example, if other items give you 40% resistance, then you take 60% damage. If you add a new item/skill that gives you 10% resistance, then that chops 10% off of the 60% that remains. 90% of 60% is 54%, so you are now taking 54% damage. Thus your resistance will show up as 100-54 = 46%.

Edit: This is explained better in the "Armor and Resistance" section of:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/mac/641825-avernum-escape-from-the-pit/faqs/64154

It's for AEFTP, but I'm pretty sure the same rules apply in Avadon.

I liked having him there - having him "let" you kill Hawthorne was a nice twist that sets up the events of Avernum 2 nicely.

It depends on when you attempt Drath's crypt. I did it at a fairly high level, so it wasn't bad. But I could see it being very difficult if I had attempted it a bit earlier.

That was the first of the three major quest final areas that I did, and I actually thought it was probably the easiest of the three. Taking out Grah-Hoth and Hawthorne gave me more trouble.

You can provoke the empire lady under Formello into attacking you, and then take her out, without any real consequences. The Formello mayor will be unhappy if you choose to tell her what you did, but other than that, there's no consequence that I noticed.

If you haven't taken out Hawthorne yet, you can provoke her by just entering her bedroom.

I found that there were a lot more quests that were manageable once I got to around level 10-12. The beginning of the game (prior to level 10 or so) was probably the hardest part. It was even more pronounced in Mac version 1.0, before Jeff rebalanced some of the early areas.

At the end of the game, I had the sword that gives you +8 blademaster in one hand (can't remember the name), and was swapping between demonslayer (for fighting demons), the venomous blade (for fighting fire-resitant non-demon enemies), and the flaming balde for everybody else. The flaming blade gives you extra fire damage in addition to the normal physical damage, so it effectively gives you 3 hits instead of 2 (assuming dual wielding) for monsters that aren't immune to fire.

Have you done the quests for Cotra as well? How about heading south to the Mertis area? I came back at a higher level to handle the giant near formello.

Yes, I never try Spiderweb games on torment ... Hard seems just right for giving me a good challenge whilst still maintaining some semblance of my sanity.

On hard, by mid-game, my archer was rarely getting hit except by enemies with cold attacks (yes, the cold attack issue is a flaw, but not common enough to make it unworkable).

An archery build can work on hard (and thus certainly on normal as well), but by the later parts of the game they'll be dealing less damage than your melee fighter and much less than your spell casters. But I enjoyed playing it because it added a bit more variety. Her high evasion for melee, fire and energy (but alas not cold) from all the dexterity that you need to give an archer made her very hard for many enemies to hit.

But to make it work well, you have to fully specialize - put *every* stat point into dexterity. For ability points, concentrate on bows and sharpshooter initially (the 4% damage boost per level is nice). Once sharpshooter is full (it maxes out at 10), go for lethal blow. One nice thing about archers is that they can get lethal blow without having to waste points on quick action. Gymnastics can also be beneficial because it is easy for archers to access (bows as a prereq) and with enough points gives you 10 AP pretty regularly without needing any AP-boosting equipment (2 attacks instead of 1, or 4 instead of 3 with an adrenaline rush). Sniper is sometimes useful, but fairly unpredictable. The random curses will sometimes cause enemies to be slowed, which is nice when it happens, but not something you can count on.

I played A1-6 (and E1-3 long ago), then AEFTP, and am just now starting Avadon (started yesterday!). AEFTP felt a little different from the previous Avernum games, but no more so than I expected. The difference felt similar in magnitude to the difference between the first and second trilogies. Avadon, on the other hand, feels like a completely different game.

Maybe changing genders is part of the life cycle of dragons ...