The Reverend

Wasn't woad an item in Nethergate? Speaking of which, I'm surprised nobody chose that for the OP's question ...

Maybe this is something X could work on, rather than his silly anvil-flinging spell - it seems that the people of Avernum would be much more appreciative ...

The ASA (Avernum Security Agency) must be monitoring the facebook and twitter feeds of all adventures: "OMG I just wasted the slith king FTW #onlygoodslithisadeadslith #adventurersrule"

Avernum ... I've always wanted to see what's so great about that Almarian wine.

Some of the quests that you can potentially receive early are not meant to be done until you are a higher level. The open-world nature of Avernum makes this sort of thing almost inevitable. In some of Jeff's later games he was better about providing warnings in the dialogue, or even in some cases not issuing quests until you were a certain level. But A:EFTP is a remake of a remake of his first real game (Exile I), so it is easier to end up in those types of situations. In general, if a quest seems to hard when you first attempt it, the best thing to do is come back and try again when you have gained a few levels. It can make a huge difference.

Check in your special items (things like the brooches appear there rather than in your regular inventory). Edit: The special item list is accessible from the same window as your journal and quest log, IIRC.

Wow, so I'm not hallucinating (for once)?! Sweet!!

Even with that change, dexterity ended up way overpowered in Avadon 1 - (arguably) the best offensive stat for two classes and the best defensive stat for every class. DEX heavy shadowwalkers and blademasters seemed too powerful. Hopefully it'll be a bit more balanced in Avadon 2. I guess we'll find out this fall!

I seem to have a vague recollection of one of the older engines/games also allowing you jump off ledges (and killing oyu if the drop was too large), but the more I think about it, the more I think I'm completely imagining this/making it up in my own head ... Ah, the joys of ageing ...

Excellent review - I agree with many of your points, especially about the hit point based scripting. A few comments... I agree that it would be nice if there was more incentive to raise multiple stats. However, I will say that the game is quite beatable even on torment without allocating the "vast majority" of your points to your primary attack stat (I realize that is the standard advice, but I don't think it's necessary). RBD beat torment with the self-imposed restriction of not allocating more than half his points to any stat (I believe there is a link to an account of his playthrough, and his character builds, in Strategy Central). And my preferred build on torment is 2/3 primary attack stat, 1/3 endurance (still a majortiy, but not necessarily a "vast majority"). With the reduced effectiveness of hardiness and armor on torment (due to the 30% penalty), I find extra endurance to be more useful on torment than on hard or lower. They can be useful in the early game when your party's damage is relatively weak, but yes, after getting to around level 6 or 7 I rarely used them. This is mostly true, but you can sometimes visit some areas earlier than intended. The main trick I've used is to position my party such that they can lure the boss' minions away, and take them on before taking on the boss. Taking on bosses by themselves can sometimes make them more manageable for a lower-than-intended-level party - especially if you can spread your characters out, and either spread return life scrolls amoungst all your characters, or else keep your main healer out of the room so they will always stay alive to cast return life. Yes!! I 100% agree - changing this would make the game more strategically interesting.

Nicely done! And thinks for putting together a list of the tips and strategies you used. It's a great addition to A:EFTP knowledge base.

Nethergate: Resurrection is a great game, but with a different feel than other Spiderweb games. The Geneforge series is very unique - I've never played another game like it. The first couple games (especially the first) have somewhat dated engines though, but if you can get past that (try the demo and see), they are a lot of fun. Great stories (I even liked G3, although some don't). A:ETFP and Avadon have the most modern engine, if that's a concern for you. Exile was my introduction to Spiderweb, so I'll always be somewhat partial to the world of Exile/Avernum. Avadon is fun too, though, and you can look forward to the sequel coming out later this year. Reading this over, I guess it wasn't terribly helpful. Basically, I'd say play them all.

Like "Tow Truck Tycoon"?

I think of jesters as typically being very intelligent people, who use their humor to manipulate/control the situation. Of course that may just be based on all the Shakespeare I read in high school. King Hawthorne's laughter seems very different - more like the laugh of someone who is mad/drunk with power. Lowering his defenses goes along with this - he's convinced himself that it won't matter because he believes himself to be invinceable.

I'm interested, but realistically I probably don't have enough time to devote to it in the near-term. Perhaps it'd be better for me to just observe, and maybe join a future instance of the game (or substitute if someone needs to drop out part way through).

My four year old daughter loves Hendrix. If I've done anything right as a father, it's that.

I've always thought of those in terms of a combination of age and experience. I think of a "newbie" as someone lacking both, and an "oldbie" as someone having a great deal of both. And everyone else is somewhere in the middle. But those terms may have different connotations here ...

Anyone whose post count requires 4 digits can hardly be called a "newbie" ... Not necessarily an "oldbie", but at least a "midbie".

I knew a guy in high school who only liked country and rap. I once listened to a mix tape he made (do the young 'uns even know what those are anymore??) that was basically Snoop Dogg and Garth Brooks. The transitions were .... interesting.

They often are fixed. For example, parry in Geneforge 2, versus later Geneforges. I suspect it will be at least somewhat more balanced in Avadon 2.

The games aren't the same, but I think all that was meant was that the story is similar enough that you could plausibly use the same soundtrack for both.

I don't recall the exact numbers (and it's been a while since I played), but I seem to remember archery being very powerful in A4.

I played all of the second trilogy games with a pretty standard 4 character party - 1 mage, 1 priest, and either 2 fighters (typically 1 w/ sword and 1 w/ pole) or 1 fighter and 1 archer. With those parties my priest was mostly focused on healing and other restorative actions. I didn't really start playing around with party variations until A:EFTP, and so that's where I have experience with truly offensive oriented priests. It might be fun to go back and try things like that in some of the older games, but I doubt I'll get time to do that before Avadon 2 comes out.

I found having a priest (or priests) with level 2+ divine retribution was really effective here - at level 2 DR adds a slowing effect on all enemies, and the golems seemed fairly vulnerable to it, even on torment. It also does a lot of damage to a lot of bunched up enemies (which tends to happen in the throne room), especially if you pair it up with an Andrenaline rush so you can cast it 3+ times (and this also gives you 3 chances to slow).

I actually find the surface exit to be the easiest of the three, and usually do it first - but there isn't a big difference in difficulty between that and Grah-Hoth, and I could easily see others finding Grah-Hoth to be the easiest. And with Grah-Hoth you don't have to deal with the annoying perpetual darkness ... Hawthorne is generally considered the hardest, though, and I definitely concur.