Alchemy

[Igor]

Can you not produce your own potions anymore? Is there any point to keeping all the herbs and such I find?

[Ephesos]

Yes. Certain people in the towns will make potions for you, provided that you cough up the appropriate ingredients. Quite often, there's no gold involved.

 

On the plus side, this means that there's no risk of failure when making a potion. On the other hand, many powerful potions are out of reach for a while, and some people just don't make the right types.

 

But hold on to them, because it's not like they weigh much anyway.

 

(Wow... post #666)

[Niemand]

Personally, I have about decided to give up on herbs and potions; I've found that I use the things even less than I did in earlier avernum games. First-Aid really renders energy potions largely unnecessary; I haven't used one yet. And, since I have so much spell energy, I find that I might as well use it on blessing, hastening, and so forth. Of course, if you choose not to use magic, I'm guessing that you would depend on potions.

[Delicious Vlish]

Play on a higher difficulty. You will cast spells more often, and after just a midsized battle, you can be completely drained.

 

On normal it is still possible to run out of spell energy.

[Synergy]

Craftmaster Strine might make you wish you held on to all your herbs if you didn't. Otherwise, a talented player, or one with multiple magicians and enough First Aid will find little need for herbs and potions, and um, scrolls and wands while we're at it. I keep thinking that would make a decent game challenge..Torment, any PC construction you like, no cheats, no potions, no wands, no scrolls. Anything else goes. Not being able to use the occasional Invulnerability Potion would make my game more difficult, for sure..though I rarely truly need one.

[Niemand]

I always play on torment, and I have found that Av4 on torment looks a lot like BoA on easy. My level 15 Av4 mage has more spell energy than my level 92 BoA mage. I suppose that I would never really throw away all of my herbs, my item hoarding tendency is too strong. On your tip, Synergy, I will keep a look out, though, for particularly interesting opportunities.

[the horned slayer]

what poatians are there

[Synergy]

Awl thu uzuelle poatians arr thair, ecksept thu bawlm ov lyfe, whitch iz noa longrr needead, annd thu graemould sallv.

[Delicious Vlish]

Argh, if you actually played the game, you would know.

 

These posts need to stop. You are becoming annoying.

 

Prepare for a tentacle lashing if you continue.

[Tunes]

Quote:

Originally written by Synergy:
Awl thu uzuelle poatians arr thair, ecksept thu bawlm ov lyfe, whitch iz noa longrr needead, annd thu graemould sallv.

Hahaha. I've been lurking for a number of days and feel the same way. Synergy, you float my boat. This is comedy platinum.

I've been saving every herb I find, and buying every herb I can get my hands on. Stockpiling them in hopes to come across someone capable of making knowledge brews.

edit: I also though I'd mention, I'm not finding much use for any potions, scrolls, or wands, and I'm playing on torment. Nearly every consumable so far has been sold with the exception of invulnerability potions.

[Kelandon]

Quote:

Originally written by SinVulture:
I've been saving every herb I find, and buying every herb I can get my hands on. Stockpiling them in hopes to come across someone capable of making knowledge brews.

Good idea. Eventually you do.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Synergy:
Torment, any PC construction you like, no cheats, no potions, no wands, no scrolls. Anything else goes. Not being able to use the occasional Invulnerability Potion would make my game more difficult, for sure..though I rarely truly need one.

I usually sell wands and scrolls on sight. I'm hanging on to a few potions, but so far the only ones I've actually used are a few armor elixirs and augmenting potions for extra HP before a tough fight. And now that I have both Augmentation and Enduring Armor, I won't even be needing those.

[Synergy]

Yeah, for me, the challenge would be not having Energy Potions or Invulnerability Potions for occasional use and convenience.

 

Acquiring the Emerald Chestguard, for instance, can be exceedingly difficult on Torment without at least one Invulnerability Potion. Ephesos, I tried using daze in that battle, which worked for you, but I failed to Daze the foe every time I tried except once with my two mages. Your mages must be more potent than mine. I was forced to face my adversary's summons on Torment.

[RAmpaGE]

Quote:

Originally written by Synergy:
Yeah, for me, the challenge would be not having Energy Potions or Invulnerability Potions for occasional use and convenience.

Acquiring the Emerald Chestguard, for instance, can be exceedingly difficult on Torment without at least one Invulnerability Potion. Ephesos, I tried using daze in that battle, which worked for you, but I failed to Daze the foe every time I tried except once with my two mages. Your mages must be more potent than mine. I was forced to face my adversary's summons on Torment.

Ouch. When I found the secret passage, I thought "what the hell, I'll go down the hole and leave my quicksave outside". Of course, I overwrote it after a couple of battles.

I had pretty much cleared all the missions in the eastern cavern and was thinking about heading to Mertis, but had just started exploring the Slith islands. After clearing the cave, my party's levels were between 14-17.

So, Nociduas pounded me hard. And harder. And even harder. And then I decided I had to use everything I had or start another game right away (which would be even more vexing). In the end, I used 2 or 3 group heal scrolls, a mindshield scroll... and THREE invulnerabilty potions, leaving me with four total. Oh, and a couple of healing elixires.

Nicocidua is now officially my personal Spiderweb nightmare boss.

But then, this is my first time playing an Spiderweb game on a higher difficulty level (Tricky...), and my first time through Avernum 4, so I made some mistakes with my money and skill points... Well, what do you guys think? Was it to be expected (having my ass kicked), trying to fight him at that point? Or is this party hopeless?

RAmpaGE, deeply regretting underestimating this game's combat difficulty.

[Lilith]

Don't feel too bad. I'm nearly at the end now, and Nociduas is definitely the hardest fight I've had in the game so far. At that point in the game you just don't have the resources to survive being hit for 100 damage on one character or 60 damage on your party every round.

[*i]

Nociduas is pretty much the toughest fight in the game, namely as Thuryl said, because of the difficulty at the time you meet him. Of course, if you wait on the Emerald Chestguard, he's not that bad.

[Alorael at Large]

In my first game I had far more trouble with the large fight under the Sulfurous Flats than with Nocidua. In subsequent games Nocidua has been harder. I don't know whether it's from party changes or balance changes in later betas and the final version.

 

—Alorael, who actually liked the Flats battle a lot more when he could barely get through it alive.

[RAmpaGE]

Thanks for the input guys, but nevermind the "vexing" part. I'll start over anyway. The "overpower syndrome" is afflicting me. Guess that's just another way of saying "I have nothing better to do".

 

On to my nephil divinely touched elite warrior+fast on feet nephil archer+pure spirit divinely touched slith hedge wizard (equipped with Vlish's The Big Poke™)+human nimble fingers natural mage party!

 

Yeah, I just NEED that sexy witch on those cold cave nights. And I *DO NOT* want to see two of my precious characters looking like each other but with different clothes. ¬¬

 

RAmpaGE.

[Synergy]

Quote:

Originally written by *i:
Of course, if you wait on the Emerald Chestguard, he's not that bad.

But what fun would that be?

I definitely noticed Nociduas seeming tougher my second and third times facing him. I'd say Jeff beefed the battle up as he did for numerous battles. I wonder if the gamers would be shocked to know that the first beta had HP for all monsters 25% higher? The first time I hit those cave worms on Normal, they were a real pesty problem. Now they seem too easy on Torment, but that's also because I've honed my skills.

[StephanA]

Why fight Nociduas? I got my Emerald Chestguard with the help of speed and nimble fingers

[Lilith]

Hmm. I wonder if that might even have been what Jeff intended players to do. Three or four rounds is certainly ample time to run past him in combat mode, grab the Chestguard and get the hell out of Dodge before he starts attacking.

[Synergy]

It's funny how something this obvious might not occur to somelike like, um, me. I guess I like the challenge and the XP gained from killing a boss. I might try it just for fun this time though, and see how easy it is to do, steal the loot instead of fight to get at it. I also want to see how many XP Nociduas is worth and his summoned pet too which I usually wind up fighting as well.

[Lover of GIFTS]

How I'd love to know who Nociduas is...

 

Ah, well, doubtlessly I'll get round to registering in a couple of years. I'm always rather (extremely) tardy about this.

 

I hate consumables: I can never bear to sell them, in case I need them; I can never bear to use them, in case I need them later. They turn into dead weight, and overload my feeble mages, who always carry them (which is stupid from a gameplay point of view, but seems sensible).

 

As for the lack of alchemy – pfagh! Of course, I rarely used that in Avernum, but in Exile I'd often have a character devoted purely (well, mostly) to it. Besides, it gave me something to give to Priests (as an equivalent to the Arcane Lore for Mages).