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Different enough to buy?


Commodore Redmark

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I got into this shareware only two years ago and started playing Avernum 1, at first I did not like the games but they grew and I came to love them.

 

Later I discovered that they are, if you will, "remakes" of the Exile series. My question is, are they different enough to buy, or are there parts to the story that are explained in Exile and not Avernum?

 

Add: I'm asking about Exile not Avernum.

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The Exile games have a huge selection of spells. Some are the workhorses like Fireball, Long Light, Unlock, and the other assorted standard healing, buffing, and damaging spells. But there were also things like Conflagration, which can be better than Flame (the Bolt of Fire equivalent, only pathetic), field spells (including null field), spells to create magic barriers, and the always fun Quickfire.

 

No, not all of the spells are useful, but some niche spells have their moments of glory, and there are a surprising number of overlooked but really great spells. Just having fields and areas of effect (along with a few multiple target spells) gives the Exile spell system more spice.

 

—Alorael, who can't argue that the Avernum spells compare with Exile's. Exile wins hands-down. More variety, more fun, and 100% more gratuitous destruction by Quickfire. You have to love the Ermarian equivalent of the small nuclear weapon.

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Quote:
Originally written by Slasher:
The best part about Exile is that you have a HUGE spellbook of interely useless spells. Sometimes I'll try a new spell like venom arrows, or Slow Group...
Slow Group is actually one of the more underrated spells in the game, especially in outdoor combat. For 4 SP, everything within 12 spaces misses every other turn. Definitely more bang for the buck than any other level 4 spell.
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Quote:
Originally written by m's devotee:
Divine Thud-
cool YEAH-YEAH
or even the unresistable Wound was a nice priest spell. With six level 50 priests you could kill Rentar Ihrno with it. Oh the fun fun fun. If/when jeff does come out with A4, better spells is one of the things that I would dearly love to see.
Really? Wound never did any damage to Rentar for me, even though the game always showed a "1" on the battle view. I had to kill her other ways.
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That sounds nice, if horribly evil. I will have to wait till I get through E1 and E2 before E3. I went through Avernum out of order and I regret it, just a little anyway. But it will be fun to kill that alien like freak...

 

Which raises another question for me, does Lady Erika die in Exile? Or does she avoid horrible death by means of UV rays?

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Spoiler, obviously... and the answer is yes and no, depending on a certain decision you make in E3.

 

—Alorael, who would say that the answer is more yes than no simply because most people choose the lethal option and because Erika's death has become part of the Exile/Avernum unofficial history.

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Bah, that is far easier than what I did. You can't just hit her with maxed stats, because no matter what your stats are, you'll end up doing no more than three or four damage per hit, and she starts healing herself at a certain point. But what I did (and this took forever, and Imban's plan sounds much better) is Forcecage her, wait for it to wear off, then hit her with three Cloud of Blades spells, and use the last mage to Forcecage her again before she could move.

 

This required four magic-users with incredibly high Dexterity (and a LOT of patience), though.

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Quote:
Origanally written by Sarachim
Quote:
quote:Originally written by m's devotee:
Divine Thud- cool YEAH-YEAH
or even the unresistable Wound was a nice priest spell. With six level 50 priests you could kill Rentar Ihrno with it. Oh the fun fun fun. If/when jeff does come out with A4, better spells is one of the things that I would dearly love to see.
Really? Wound never did any damage to Rentar for me, even though the game always showed a "1" on the battle view. I had to kill her other ways.
It took me forever because you had to cover her with antimagic clouds and then use the spell on her for one turn at the end of which you recast the antimagic cloud. It took a very long time because sometimes the antimagic on her lasted for a long periond of time. And then when I made a mistake and let her heal herself it took even longer. It really was not worth the effort.
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