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Weird spells in Exile 3


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Originally Posted By: The Mystic
Here's my list of weird spells:
Minor Manna - Almost totally useless. The most food I've gotten with this spell is about 3, as opposed to an average of 10 or 11 with Manna.


Minor Mana was extremely helpful for getting past Chapter 2 in Exile 2, it let you skip a boss completely if you had an energy potion on you. Energy pot, minor mana, rest! Curse Solved, time saved!
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Also, "Mana" and "Manna" are two entirely different things; "Mana" is a synonym for "spell points" in role-playing games (the word originates in Polynesian culture), while "Manna" is something that was supposedly ground up into flower to make cakes (this word originates in the Bible). Though "Manna" is occasionally spelt with a single N, this spelling is archaic, probably due to the introduction of the unrelated word "Mana".

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I never once casted a manna spell outside chapter 2. Buying food was just so much easier than wasting time casting manna a bunch of times personally. and more enjoyable. But the spell does serve a purpose all the same if you need to save up that gold.

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Normally I forget about how much food I've got, and need to cast manna to get food in the middle of nowhere. Though, if there's lots of monsters to kill, you can get lots of their food, depending on the monster, which is nice.

 

But yeah, very useful spell for me, though I think you regenerate faster than you starve anyway, at least with the right traits and items.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm a bit surprised that no one has mentioned ... using walls to ROB TOWNS BLIND! Quite literally, when you cast fire or force walls (sp?) to block the line of sight of storekeepers, guards, etc., and then could steal stuff right in front of their noses. You could also use this to block the line of sight of guards to loot boxes (or simply push moveable barrels to other rooms to loot them).

 

The greedy capitalists deserved it anyway - why wouldn't they just give their best stuff away for free to the saviors of the world?

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That's true, yeah...though at the level you need to be to cast them, most of the stuff you can nick isn't really worth the effort.

 

Moving barrels and stuff is great, though.

 

I remember one bit in Sharimik where troglos attack the guards...afterwards, it struck me that if I'd not helped so much, the people there would have died and left all sorts of stuff unattended.

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  • 2 weeks later...

What I liked with the spells in the Exile series is that you could cast essentially the same spell at different strengths, even after you learned all the spells. For example, Light Heal, Heal, and Major Heal are basically the same spell, but with different costs and strengths. The same is true for Minor Poison, Poison, and Major Poison. The list is actually quite long.

 

I absolutely hated the spell system in the earlier Avernum games, where you couldn't cast a spell at level 1 once you learned it at level 2 or 3. This is especially true of Bind Foe in A1-2; at level 1, it's helpful for slowing down enemy wizards, but at higher levels, it's totally useless against them due to the wizard's immunity to magic.

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The only spells in the original Avernum trilogy where I thought that was a real hindrance were Bind Foe and Arcane Summon (before A3 for the latter). What I find most unfortunate about the transition from Exile to Avernum was the loss of space based (rather than creature based) targeting, and somewhat as a result the loss of field generating spells. The creature based targeting is really great most of the time for casting spells quickly but accurately, but it accomplishes this with a corresponding loss of flexibility, which showed up in some frustrating cases like the way that invisible creatures became immune to magic, for the simple reason that spells couldn't be launched at them.

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Yeah, in A1 and A2 Bind Foe at level 1 was a great spell, since nothing could resist it. In my playthroughs I purposely avoid getting the spell at level 2 or 3.

 

Invisible monsters are very annoying to deal with because you can't target them with magic. At least they are only two invisible monsters. Any more would be even more frustrating.

 

Back to E3, I liked to the vast number of spells too. Some spells were useless, but others really come in handy sometimes. My favorite spells are Firestorm, Divine Thud, Bless Party, Major Haste, and Major Blessing. Wound also deserves a mention. It is very useful for taking out monsters that are immune to everything, as the damage type is physical and unblockable.

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Ugh...the one monster that everyone hates the most....

The invisible ones... Or the drakes from A3, with their stupid forcecage making them near impossible to kill (quickly at least) when playing as a singleton. Also, as a sidenote, smite is the most effective spell on Melanchion on A6, I just stood far enough from him that he wouldnt/couldnt hit me with that aoe fire attack, but not far enough that he would charge up next to me. I havent played any of the exile games in about 10 years now, so I dont remember many of the spells, but I do remember the huge selection of spells and weapons. Avernum just doesnt have the sense of custimization that the Exile series had...

Forgot to mention, you can hit invisible monsters with magic, just has to be a aoe spell like...crap cant remember its name... the priest spell that made all the blades... anyways, invisible monsters just cant be targeted with Any ranged attack. Which is why a party with nothing but archers and spellcasters is a bad idea.

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Originally Posted By: Tirien
Forgot to mention, you can hit invisible monsters with magic, just has to be a aoe spell like. . . the priest spell that made all the blades

Cloud of Blades. This was probably my favorite spell in A2; it was tricky to use, since each target would be surrounded by a 5 by 5 area that was as deadly to my characters as the enemies, but very powerful, and its uniqueness made it fun. It's also an important spell in BoA due to the way that fields inflict level based damage, so that at very high level where the game's balance starts to break down badly, Cloud of Blades is the only spell that can still inflict appreciable damage. (While other BoA designers have gone so far as to prohibit its use, I did sort of the opposite and taught the NPCs to cast it, though only in my personal copies of a few scenarios to date. That made for some tough fights indeed.)
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Cloud of blades! Been awhile since I've played the classic (aka best) Avernum games. Worked great in A2 against large bands of empire soldiers, i'd just spam it around the battlefield and retreat some, then spam it again. Kept the melee fighters running through the blades. Most of the time my melee characters never really got a chance to attack becuase of that. Ahhh.... good times...

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Originally Posted By: Niemand
Originally Posted By: Tirien
Forgot to mention, you can hit invisible monsters with magic, just has to be a aoe spell like. . . the priest spell that made all the blades

Cloud of Blades. This was probably my favorite spell in A2; it was tricky to use, since each target would be surrounded by a 5 by 5 area that was as deadly to my characters as the enemies, but very powerful, and its uniqueness made it fun. It's also an important spell in BoA due to the way that fields inflict level based damage, so that at very high level where the game's balance starts to break down badly, Cloud of Blades is the only spell that can still inflict appreciable damage. (While other BoA designers have gone so far as to prohibit its use, I did sort of the opposite and taught the NPCs to cast it, though only in my personal copies of a few scenarios to date. That made for some tough fights indeed.)


In Blades at least, I found Simulacrum quite good at high levels(since monsters scale with themselves), especially when used in conjunction with CoB, and getting the simulacra to act as a choke point and then hitting him repeatedly to slice everything around him to bits. I recall killing Vahkos with ease by just cloning him and watching him kill himself.
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Originally Posted By: S M Adventurer
Wound also deserves a mention. It is very useful for taking out monsters that are immune to everything
This is actually one of my favorites from the Exile series. Apart from Shockwave (another favorite), it's one of the best ways to take out anything with a resistance/immunity to magic.
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Originally Posted By: The Mystic
Originally Posted By: S M Adventurer
Wound also deserves a mention. It is very useful for taking out monsters that are immune to everything
This is actually one of my favorites from the Exile series. Apart from Shockwave (another favorite), it's one of the best ways to take out anything with a resistance/immunity to magic.


I agree, Wound is great. I am re-playing E2 and am in the early stages on Chapter IV, so there aren't any real magic-immune monsters yet, but it is still great to give experience to the priest.

Another spell I always like was Ice Bolt . . . not sure why though. It's a little expensive for what it is and I can never really see the improvement in damage over Flame (does Ice Bolt do about the same as an individual square of Fireball?), but it has a special place in my heart.
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  • 3 weeks later...
Originally Posted By: Hondero

Another spell I always like was Ice Bolt . . . not sure why though. It's a little expensive for what it is and I can never really see the improvement in damage over Flame (does Ice Bolt do about the same as an individual square of Fireball?), but it has a special place in my heart.


Did anyone else notice that it seemed like every scroll of Ice Bolt you found was a poison trap? : D
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  • 4 weeks later...

Enemy mages didn't have access to the exact same set of spells as PCs. They had a different list, and some of the spells on both lists had slightly different mechanics depending on who cast it. The lists are not all that different but there were a few unique enemy spells and a handful of unique PC ones. Sleep Cloud may have been one of those -- I can only ever remember enemies with the Sleep Cloud special ability, not spell, using it.

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Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES
I can only ever remember enemies with the Sleep Cloud special ability, not spell, using it.


Oh man! I remember the Gorgon in E3 using it on me in the far Eastern coast (Gremlin land). When I first started playing the Exile games, I always cheated by giving my single character full stats/spells and amazing items . . . but when an army of Gorgon appeared, my one character fell asleep and would not wake up for the entire battle.
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Originally Posted By: Hondero
Oh man! I remember the Gorgon in E3 using it on me in the far Eastern coast (Gremlin land). When I first started playing the Exile games, I always cheated by giving my single character full stats/spells and amazing items . . . but when an army of Gorgon appeared, my one character fell asleep and would not wake up for the entire battle.
Ive done much the same thing in A3, and ended up stuck in a forcecage for over an hour. Its why singletons should stay as far away from large mobs of drakes as possible. And why (in your case) you shouldnt have your dex so high that nothing can hit you. At least if you die quickly once stuck asleep you can get it over fast.
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  • 3 months later...
Originally Posted By: half0tempo
Sleep cloud is where it's at.... Nothing like a bunch of sleeping enemies lying around the battlefield, priests and mages could beat them with bare hands!



/agree but probably the best part of it was that sleeping enemies cannot avoid or mitagate your attacks. My Hard hitting pole weapon fighter could dish out horribly rediculous blows on sleeping creatures.
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  • 1 month later...
Originally Posted By: Venom
Reading this thread makes me want to play Exile III all over again! For the fifth time!
Only the fifth? I've played all the way through E3 about a dozen times, at least.
Quote:
Why oh why did Avernum lose all the cool spells?!
Different engine, different spell system. My only real complaint with Avernum's spells is that you can't cast a spell at a lower level once you learn it at higher levels.

I really miss Shockwave and Divine Thud myself. I can (mostly) live without Avatar, but once or twice I've cursed the day Jeff decided to get rid of Recharge (I can see his point, though; it's kind of overpowered). And Identify I found extremely useful, albeit expensive.
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I remember dumbfound being quite useful against magic users.

 

Web was great since no one can resist it.

 

Magic map was an incredibly useful spell. I always carried a couple of sapphires with me.

 

Mind duel lets you stockpile spell points.

 

My favorite spell system has to be the one in Realmz where you can adjust the power of every spell you cast.

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Originally Posted By: The Mystic
once or twice I've cursed the day Jeff decided to get rid of Recharge (I can see his point, though; it's kind of overpowered).
Recharge was only in Exile 1, right?

Originally Posted By: Vicheron
My favorite spell system has to be the one in Realmz where you can adjust the power of every spell you cast.
As I recall, I found it to be too complex. Realmz was just too complex in general, really.
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Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel
Originally Posted By: The Mystic
once or twice I've cursed the day Jeff decided to get rid of Recharge (I can see his point, though; it's kind of overpowered).
Recharge was only in Exile 1, right?
And in Exile 2; I just checked. I was just wishing it had also been in Exile 3.
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I kind of miss the 6 PC setup in Exile. It made it easy to split into multiple task forces to clear a level.

 

My favorite group was 3 fighter/priests (Avatar is a really effective spell on your combat troops), and 3 mage/priests (They really need the protection from Avatar). The fighters would charge the room, stopping short lob a volley of Divine Thud against the bad guys, followed by the mage/priests who spam Anitmagic Cloud on the enemy magic users, making them completely ineffective until the fighters can swarm them and take them out. That was about the only way to take out Garzahd (Exile 2), who was flanked by a couple of (ugh!) magic-immune Rakshasi.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh wow! Just found this thread and it's a great read! I'm currently hacking my way through Exile II again, having just recently finished the first game (again). I swear E2 is by far the hardest of the bunch! If I make it out the end, it'll be E3's time.

 

My magic repertoire is fairly mundane. bless & haste for the fighters, then flame / fireball the monsters. The natural progression is major haste, bless party and firestorm and (predictably) on to M.Bless, avatar and divine thud.

 

Still, I do love having an odd moment of insanity when I throw around a bunch of random fields, summon shedloads of cannon fodder, then sit back and watch.

 

Originally Posted By: The Almighty Doer of Stuff
If you have high strength, any door that can be picked can also be bashed. Unlock has the added benefit that it's the only thing capable of unlocking magically locked doors.

 

In E3, you can use piercing crystals on magically locked doors. I don't know if this works in E1 or E2.

 

They also have an additional use in E3...

Click to reveal..
You can use them in the same way as Dispel Barrier in the Tower of Shifting Floors to take out the Golem-making machines

 

Originally Posted By: The Mystic
Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel
Originally Posted By: The Mystic
once or twice I've cursed the day Jeff decided to get rid of Recharge (I can see his point, though; it's kind of overpowered).
Recharge was only in Exile 1, right?
And in Exile 2; I just checked. I was just wishing it had also been in Exile 3.

 

Recharge is in E1 and E2, but not in E3/Blades. Identify is one item for 15sp in E2, but all items for 50sp in E3/Blades. My reckoning is that Jeff decided not to build the code to cast a spell on an item into the E3/Blades engine, since they were the only two spells to use it.

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