A6 - Torment Singleton attempt- Meet "Strayer"

[Pharm Phresh]

Long-time Avernum fan here. I haven't registered this one yet, but will soon. In the mean time, there's still plenty to do in the trial area.

 

So, decided to do a torment singleton attempt. I tried this before with a similar prototype character but messed up with his development.

 

The rules: No altering the character in any way, and no cheat commands, however tempting they may be.

 

Meet Strayer, my Nephil Natural Warrior/Divinely Touched character. The emphasis I'm going for with this guy is going to be lots of a avoidance (dodge, parry, riposte eventually), highly armored melee user. I'm going to be using barely any magic, probably going to limit it just to Priest level one.

 

His starting stats:

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Strength 6

Dexterity 6

Intelligence 2

Endurance 2

---

Melee 1 (This is one of the first things I'll improve)

Pole 0

Bow 2

Throwing Missiles 2

Quick Action 2 (This too)

---

Mage 0

Priest 1 (Minor heal and minor cure)

Arcane Lore 0

Spellcraft 1

Hardiness 2

---

Defense 5

Tool 0

Nature Lore 0

First Aid 2

Luck 0 (I'll improve this too)

---

Parry (Unlocked) 2

Blade Master (Locked) 3

Gymnastics (Unlocked) 1 (This is going to be great)

Sharpshooter (Locked) 1

---------------

 

So, no mage spells, very basic priest spells, and no points in any of the 'lores' (tools, nature, arcane). I'll be missing out on a lot of treasures sadly. But at least I save money on expensive spells.

 

As for attacking I'm going to focus on single swords and stuff, no dual wielding. No points in bows or throwing weaps, because the Nephil's natural aptitudes for such things should suffice.

 

I'm going to aim at unlocking Blademaster, Riposte, and Quick Strike, and eventually getting anatomy and Lethal Blow.

 

I guess that's all. Wish me luck!

[La paix]

Welcome to Spiderweb!

 

Good luck using little magic. I've been wanting to try just this, so I might copy your interesting build. Have fun!

[Pharm Phresh]

Thanks! A couple tips I've learned will perhaps be helpful for anyone trying something similar. Hope these aren't too obvious.

 

#1. Learn how to draw enemies one by one.

Many times, merely letting an enemy "see" you (engaging in combat) will draw the poor sap right to you without any of his friends. Just wait on the periphery of your targets vision and they'll usually engage you. If not, move a little closer. Attacking with a ranged weapon usually results in a bunch of guys coming at you simultaneously.

 

#2. Fight on your own terms!

If you can't help drawing more than a few enemies at once, squeeze yourself into a corner, or if available, a bottleneck. Take 'em on mano-a-mano.

 

#3. Save those potions, scrolls and wands

The ability to pinch off an extra attack, or cure or heal without using your entire turn is vital. Never underestimate food as a substitute for healing potions.

 

#4. Save all the damn time!

Nothing sucks worse than having to replay the same area over again because you were too lazy to press f3 before fighting that giant spider. You're gonna die a lot.

[Randomizer]

Welcome. The only changes I would have suggested was waiting on melee weapons, parry, and spellcraft until you hit the trainers to save skill points, but whatever works for you.

[Øther]

Are you sure only level one priest? Some of those spells have been extremely useful to me.

 

And I'm guessing that you mean elite warrior instead of natural warrior, but there isn't a big difference.

 

Good Luck!

[Student of Trinity]

What's going to hurt is when you get enemies who, in the engine's curious wording, "take on the aspect of a wild beast". In other words, become all spiky, so that you take wicked damage from hitting them. Some enemies stay like this almost constantly, and the ability becomes much more common later in the game.

 

But maybe you can collect a lot of wands just for this. Tough, though. The good wands are good in A6, but there aren't a lot of them.

[Alorael at Large]

You're playing a basically spell-free game, and that's a tough job. I'm not enough of a singleton or Torment player to advise on inadvisability, but at least A6 seems to give the combat edge to the fighters. You're just missing healing and buffs, and those can be mostly provided by potions and scrolls, especially with only one character consuming them.

 

—Alorael, who suggests less dodging and more parrying. By the late game you basically can't dodge anymore, or so the received wisdom goes. Parry's flat rate remains viable.

[Dikiyoba]

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

What's going to hurt is when you get enemies who, in the engine's curious wording, "take on the aspect of a wild beast". In other words, become all spiky, so that you take wicked damage from hitting them. Some enemies stay like this almost constantly, and the ability becomes much more common later in the game.

Fighting unstable monsters will be a pain as well, though at least they're generally low health and so easier to plink away at.

Dikiyoba.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba

Fighting unstable creations will be a pain as well, though at least they're generally low health and so easier to plink away at.

Wait, what? Since when are there unstable creations in A6?

[Zummi]

Is the idea of pumping Arcane Lore, Tool Use, and maybe Nature Lore in character creation good for a singleton in Torment?

 

Quote:

"take on the aspect of a wild beast"

An effective way I found around this unholiest upon unholy ability is to put up Bladeshield since the damage is physical. Even works against those f.o.e. with riposte's.

[Dikiyoba]

Originally Posted By: Azuma

Is the idea of pumping Arcane Lore, Tool Use, and maybe Nature Lore in character creation good for a singleton in Torment?

You don't want to add to arcane lore or nature lore at the beginning, since there is a trainer for those skills in Gnass.

Originally Posted By: Dantius

Wait, what? Since when are there unstable creations in A6?

Creations, monsters; if it explodes when it dies, that's what Dikiyoba is referring to.

[Øther]

The only problem with melee and exploding creatures is that there tend to be several exploding things whenever one is around. You hit and kill one, it explodes, hurting you and the other monsters. Not too bad. You jit the next one. It explodes, hurting you, and killing the other monsters, making them all explode and hurt you. My worst expierience with this was with the abulatory goop near Fort Monestary. I hit one. It died. I got hurt slightly. There were several new goops to kill. I hurt kill one. Boom. I kill another. Boom. My whole party died. I had to be very careful to take those out quickly from far away.

[VCH]

Originally Posted By: meAzuma

Is the idea of pumping Arcane Lore, Tool Use, and maybe Nature Lore in character creation good for a singleton in Torment?

Quote:

"take on the aspect of a wild beast"

An effective way I found around this unholiest upon unholy ability is to put up Bladeshield since the damage is physical. Even works against those f.o.e. with riposte's.

Yeah that's an excellent way to do it.

[madrigan]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

Wait, what? Since when are there unstable creations in A6?

Click to reveal..

The slimes in the old goblin fort/alchemy lab near Fort Monastery, for one.

[Pharm Phresh]

So far, I've managed to complete both Gnass and Dharmon's main quests, and a host of side quests. Most big fights I usually make it through by the skin of my teeth. Sometimes I just got lucky with the dodges/parrys. There are plenty of fights where I had to reload a dozen times. Gnass's was especially challenging, until I figured out how to kill the bosses pet wolves before drawing him out.

 

Also, I really can't underestimate food. Eating in the middle of a tough fight has saved me countless times.

 

Finally unlocked Blademaster, and soon Riposte! I'm still fragile, however, seeing as I haven't put any points into endurance yet. The worst offenders for me are any enemy who can poison/acid. Curing potions are very rare and expensive and the poison can easily kill me in a turn if not cured.

 

Next up I guess is Patrick's Tower, which should be pretty tough.

 

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

What's going to hurt is when you get enemies who, in the engine's curious wording, "take on the aspect of a wild beast". In other words, become all spiky, so that you take wicked damage from hitting them. Some enemies stay like this almost constantly, and the ability becomes much more common later in the game.

 

But maybe you can collect a lot of wands just for this. Tough, though. The good wands are good in A6, but there aren't a lot of them.

 

I've had to fight one monster like this so far, and you're right. Ran away and lived to fight another day.

 

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

What's going to hurt is when you get enemies who, in the engine's curious wording, "take on the aspect of a wild beast". In other words, become all spiky, so that you take wicked damage from hitting them. Some enemies stay like this almost constantly, and the ability becomes much more common later in the game.

Fighting unstable monsters will be a pain as well, though at least they're generally low health and so easier to plink away at.

 

Dikiyoba.

The worst fight I've had so far is those Splitting Slimes that lumberjack wants you to kill. That fight lasted at least 30 minutes.

[Øther]

Ah the unstable mass.... I always really hate those, and had a very bad experience with them in A5. Whenever I see one now, I bring the full attention and full power of my party to annihilate it as quick as I possibly can. In one fight where I went up against three of them, I remember that I killed one, damaged the other two about half, but neither of them split. Then I killed them. But whenever I face them, I get paranoid that I will end up facing a roomfull of enemies.

[waterplant]

Daze comes in handy with Splitting slimes.

[Randomizer]

You really need some endurance to raise your health. It allows you to avoid having to heal as much in combat so you can concentrate on killing. Torment requires endurance of 10 to 12 just to avoid being killed in a single blow after the demo area or from poison.