Mav

The final reward for passing the five advanced Shaper's quests (the Bejeweled Bracelet) is, IIRC, exactly the same thing as the Five-Fanged Bracelet from Sharon's Grove from GF2. It provides a +2 boost to Fire/Battle/Magic Shaping as well as +1 to the Strength, Dex and Endurance of creations. Great if you have lots of creations, and useless (except for 10% protection) if you don't have any.

_18_ AP! Wow! Here I thought 16 was the practical limit based on what I've found so far (8 normal, 12 hasted, +1 Quicksilver Bulwark, +1 Quicksilver Sandals, +2 Crystalline Shroud/Emerald Chestguard). If I ever find those Demon Claws (and I bet they're in the lower level of the Monastery of Tears), I'll go forge more artifacts just for fun and fill everyone in on the stats.

Keeping opening that book (and ticking Alwan off ). After the third time (the Iceborn Shade will show up), the book can't be opened again, and the gate will open. There's some nice things inside, including what looks like an extremely rare artifact component. Note: The shades get stronger each time you open the book, so you might not be able to open the gate the first time you reach the Dhonal Docks.

Supposedly, I can convince Litalia to let Akhari Blaze get a shot at me before she does, getting 50 xp and a good ol' Alwan snort of amusement in the process. But as soon as I try going anywhere, Litalia shouts "that's far enough! It is time!" and goes aggro on me (though given her 16% hit chance vs. Alwan, I somehow don't think I'll have a problem winning that fight). Am I not going in the right direction (I've pretty much tried going in all directions)? Is this a bug? Or is my Leadership skill only intended to get Litalia's goat and some xp before she inevitably goes the way of Master Hoge?

Unlock, huh? I never did use it in GF2, in part because it never seemed to work on the harder locks and in part because manually unlocking things is great for xp. I'll give it a try. EDIT: Hmm. Still only useful for the weaker locks, probably due to my low Spellcraft skill. But it's useful enough.

Is it just me, or is my lvl 35 Guardian both a little on the weak side and a damage magnet to boot? On the one hand, he's decently durable with the double-buff of Augmentation and Essence Armor (over 450 HP), has good armor, and has a 100%+ chance to hit in melee. On the other hand, despite having a fair Strength of 11 and a Melee Weapons skill of 10 (yep, that's part of why I can cast Essence Armor), he often does as little as 40 or less damage (without Quick Action and weapon enhancements) per strike in melee against decently durable foes. Also, though his Dex is admittedly only 2, he got sliced around big time by the Runed Serviles in Spharon's Lands despite the huge level disparity (they're only worth 1 xp). I often send Alwan out to tank and have enemies whiff at when attacked in large numbers, since it's pretty much open season on poor Dakro and all that damage does add up. So...does this sound a little unusual, or is it just the way GF3 is vs. GF2?

More Living Tools. They're incredibly scarce in GF3, and I've tried my darnedst to conserve 'em and keep my Mechanics skill at a decent level (currently at 14). Btw, if this more properly belongs in a separate thread, just let me know and I'll start a different topic.

Thanks. I'll take that as a "Spharon's Lands is a self-contained area, so I can feel free to raid them for every last Living Tool I can get my hands on without fear of missing out on the story. (I can't believe how scarce they are in GF3, and my Mechanics skill of about 14 maxed isn't exactly low...)

Spharon maybe-spoiler question: Can I feel free to blithely storm my way through Spharon's Lands without fear of missing out on certain plot/story details that you only found out at the Isle of Spears, or some other place I haven't looked at?

Really? What are the more appealing specs, and what components were you short of?

It'd save quite a few clicks and a lot of hassle. Btw, I always wondered why you couldn't just "zap" through islands like you could through cleared areas (at least where the islands are on the same map), even though the boats never "move" when you use them.

Yup! Take one weapon or piece of armor, place on forge, add a stone to forge, combine, remove from forge, and equip it. Easy as that. Handy list. I think I'm gonna go forge myself an All-Protector right now, now that I know that I don't need the guy who told me the recipe (whose name escapes me) to do it. Now if only I could find some demon claws to craft that Emerald Chestguard, my favorite item from GF2. Why do I have the sinking feeling I'll only be able to get that last component from the Isle of Spears (or, alternatively, the freakin' difficult Monastery of Tears) (hey, that rhymed!)?

Some humble interface improvement suggestions: 1) The ability to travel within a zone more quickly. For example, if you could just option-click to zap straight from Dhonal's Keep to the front door leading to the Inner Keep, or go from the edge of Fort Wilton to the skiff instantly. If "game-breaking" were a concern, you could limit it to function only in areas you've cleared. Or heck, even make it a magical item that you could purchase. It'd make navigation much quicker. 2) Make the "see abilities" tab more conspicuous. I didn't notice it was up there in the top right corner of the stats page until checking just now. 3) Character input repeating when saving games (e.g. if you want to rename a saved game, just hold down the delete key instead of having to hit it each time to delete a letter). 3b) Related: Being able to navigate the save menu with arrow keys. 4) Inventory navigation: The ability to use arrow keys, and the ability to use keyboard commands to, for example, drop selected items on the ground with a single keystroke. 5) The ability to use keystrokes to attack in combat, like in Avernum. Occasionally enemies right next to you are positioned such that there's a good chance you'll click on yourself and end your turn instead of attack.

Note: You can get an improved blade for Alwan by visiting Shaper Jolana (in the SE corner) at the Breeding Caverns at Gull Island for 4000 coins, or 2000 coins with sufficient Leadership.

I play a completely-loyal-to-the-Shapers-but-kinda-pro-servile Guardian. My Leadership of 12 wasn't enough to convince Greta to stay, but then again, I suspect that all the Leadership in the world wouldn't do the trick. Has anyone been able to keep Greta in addition to Alwan as a party member on Gull Island without doing something as evil and drastic as fixing the Dhonal Creator (which I'm quite sure would cause Alwan to bail)? My Guardian may clash with her apparent pro-rebel (or at least quasi-pro-anarchy) ideals, but I sure could've used her help and Searer spell when I was getting repreatedly shredded by that crazy mass of servile cultist spellcasters in the Cultist Woods. ("The Mass Energize! It does nothing!" OR "I wish I'd put more points into Mental Magic for Strong Daze!")

Thanks for the research Slartucker! I was wondering exactly why the enhancements were phrases instead of percentages. I'll rummage through my modest gem stash and maybe turn my Shaped Blade into the Flaming Sword I loved so much from Avernum.

Thanks again, Seletine!

Hm. I'm lovin' the Searer upgrade for Greta at the SE corner of Dhonal's Keep, but where's the trainer for Alwan (it's not Guardian Koerner, is it?)? Thanks in advance to whoever can fill me in!

Yep, it's probably a minor quest even for Harmony Isle. Yep, I'm a completist. But, going the extra mile or two has some nice rewards. (Selectively) cleaning up Diwaniya's underground lab (carefully avoiding the incredible bag-jumping small canister/hot potato!) netted me tinker's gloves, and going on the not-really-a-quest hunting expedition at the Dhonal Docks scored me a skein of wisdom (also something I wasn't expecting to see so early) and restoration spores! But I digress. Do I just have to keep hopping through every zone and actually walk all over the place until I feel "a soft chill"? Or is there a better way? Thanks!

Haven't seen any battle alphas (!) in Greenwood yet, aside from the one blocking the Shaper school. But if we're talking Greenwood Isle, I've tried reasoning with the Warped Creator with a Leadership of 8 and it still doesn't work. And speaking of fyoras, one of the odd things I found out when re-playing Geneforge 2 with a Guardian is that I only needed creations once (to give a bunch of Submission Vlish more targets too choose from). As antithetical as it sounds to not play with creations, so far I'm doing OK with Alwan and Greta, though one or both of them seems bound to leave/betray me once I register the game.

Just wondering. (A Leadership of 8 doesn't seem to do the trick.) Thanks!

Actually got through that part just today when replaying as a solo Guardian at around lvl 23 or so (at level 28, I'll finally have enough spell energy to cast Speed once! Woohoo!). Even with 10 levels of Parry, it's no picnic Darn those shades and their AP-sapping attacks Go back when you're in the level low-20s...with all those creations, it should be a breeze as long as you get the heck away from the shade once it pops up.