Exile 3 HELP!

[Rasputin]

How the heck do i level up? It says during combat that a character leveled up but i can't for the life of me remember what i do to add skill points...haven't played in about 3 years so any help would be much appreciated!

[Randomizer]

In Exile games you have to go to a place where there is a trainer and talk to him, then you get to go into training mode. Fort Emergence, Golddale, Sharamik are some places with trainers. The Fort Emergence one is in a room across the hallway from where your quarters are located in the northeast part of the fort.

 

Welcome to Spiderweb Software. Please leave your sanity at the door.

[Harehunter]

As I recall (off the top of my bald head), there are three ways to gain skill points:

1) Knowledge brews, Wisdom crystals

2) Gaining experience points (XP)

3) Completion of quests which give you extra XP

 

XP are gained mostly by killing the enemy characters.

The amount of XP earned depends on the Level stat of the enemy character, which is then distributed among your PC's.

One trick with this process is that a greater percentage of the XP goes to the PC that actually gave the killing blow. If you let your fighters do most of the killing, then your magic users will end up falling behind in XP, and therefore in Skill points.

 

Also note that your base stats in Health points and Spell points are dependent on the level of your character, which in turn is dependent on your XP.

 

If you use strictly specialized characters, then your poor priest will not have the opportunity to make the killing blow, and will therefore fall behind in the XP/Skill point count. (That is why I never played with a pure mage/pure priest combination. All my magic users are trained equally in mage and priest skills.)

 

The term 'leveling up' implies that you will purposely not kill an opponent with your strongest character, so that your weakest player can get a shot at it. That way your weak character will get the lion's share of the XP, allowing him to catch up with the rest of the party.

 

It can be very frustrating when you get into the higher levels of monsters to find that you need a well balanced party, but you keep losing one of your magic users quickly because he is too weak.

 

I think I remember that that is how it works. I hope this helps.

[Harehunter]

By the way, I forgot to mention; arm and train your magic users to at least a level 4. I found out in Exile II how frustrating it is to be attacked by null bugs, and your mages are totally useless and defensless. And don't forget about the dreaded doomguards.

[Alorael at Large]

Actually, against doomguards it's far more effective to just leave your subpar mage-warriors to the rear and have your effective heavy hitters strike the only blows. Weak hits make the doomguard multiply without making either copy much weaker.

 

—Alorael, who doesn't see anything wrong with giving casters some weapons training. It's just not a priority. Giving them some Strength, on the other hand, is a very good idea. Fragile mages are a pain to keep alive.

[Slawbug]

There are other tactics to use against null bugs. Null bugs do not generally radiate antimagic fields the first turn you see them -- that will only happen if they are very near you but not visible due to an obstruction, you are fighting something else, and the bug runs around the corner all of a sudden. With 1 turn warning, you can reconfigure to deal with them, sending your warriors that way, casting summons, or even bombing the not-yet-antimagicked-bug with spells.

[Slawbug]

Dear lord. Alorael, today's moniker is my new favourite of yours -- it's even beat out Fulgurous Ziggurat and Deleterious Alleles.

 

(...although I have to nitpick that it is more of a WPP Bug or WWS Bug, rather than an SPFP Bug: it's an Antimagic Field with a duration of at least 1 round, not an instantaneous burst of antimagic.)

[Harehunter]

That is true, but if you concentrate your attacks against one split, you will wear it down so that the splits from it are weak enough for your mage/priest to kill. Bless and Haste heavily, and keep your backs to the wall to minimize how many DG's can attack you.

[Randomizer]

Exile doomguards are weaker than Avernum ones. All it means is that the fights take longer.

[Harehunter]

That is what inspired this little tale:

 

http://www.hasenjs.byethost33.com/EEE/doomguard.html

[Alorael at Large]

There's no spell with the right name or the right effects. I picked the one with the closest name. The effect works not just on one target but on, potentially, many. Maybe it should be a cDPW bug.

 

—Alorael, who actually thinks a buff-removing field would be terrifying. That's something for consideration in future games.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Non-Hamiltonian Physics

Actually, against doomguards it's far more effective to just leave your subpar mage-warriors to the rear and have your effective heavy hitters strike the only blows. Weak hits make the doomguard multiply without making either copy much weaker.

In addition, I find Shockwave to be fairly effective against multiple Doomguards, and (oddly, since they're supposed to be magic-immune) Wound against their weaker splits.

Originally Posted By: Non-Hamiltonian Physics

—Alorael, who doesn't see anything wrong with giving casters some weapons training. It's just not a priority. Giving them some Strength, on the other hand, is a very good idea.

I find a level or two of Dexterity helps, too, to make them a little harder to hit before applying buffs.

Originally Posted By: Non-Hamiltonian Physics

—Alorael, who actually thinks a buff-removing field would be terrifying. That's something for consideration in future games.

Terrifying indeed, especially for anyone who relies on a lot of buffs.

[Trenton.]

once i could get about as far in the demo as i could and finished both the slime and roach plauges and got most of the demo spells. the best one for me was the major blessing

Click to reveal..

found behind the vahnatai town in upper exile only reachable by boat and with quite some arcane lore

once i got that i would use it along with quite a few other buffs. over all i thing that major blessing was the most helpful buff of all

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: The Mystic

(oddly, since they're supposed to be magic-immune) Wound against their weaker splits.

Well, that would be because Wound deals "unblockable" damage instead of "magic" damage.

[The Mystic]

That kind of explains things. I never suspected any spell would do unblockable damage.

[Harehunter]

Actually, the Wound spell is unblockable. That is one reason I trained my fighters in Priest spells. Wound worked better than archery. Of course, having all 6 PC's able to cast Heal etc helped a lot.

But the main reason for training your fighters in Priest spells was getting the Avatar; bless, haste, protection, invulnerability, all at once. You can only cast Avatar yourself, so the only way a fighter can achieve all the benefits would take several rounds of spell casting and potion drinking before you even get started.

[Slawbug]

Avatar is great -- except for bless. It doesn't add to bless, it sets bless to 8, and given how disgustingly broken bless is, this is a huge drawback.

[Alorael at Large]

Only if Avatar is your last buff, not your first.

 

—Alorael, who also considers it an acceptable slightly-but-not-actually-very-poor man's substitute for blessing spells.

[Slawbug]

Blessing enough makes invulnerability irrelevant. Major Blessing plus five Bless Party spells will accomplish more than six Avatars, IMHO.

[Harehunter]

You provoke an interesting thought. With a party of six high level priests (3 fighters, 3 mages), such as I tend to use, your combination of blesses is doable in one round. The power of multiple blesses is often underestimated and the bless effect of Avatar is minimal. I would always have to Bless Party on the next round, but by then my fighters would have closed with the enemy while taking zero damage.

 

Now I need Haste, Magic Resistance, Invulnerable, and Martyr's Shield to complete the spell. I would not use Martyr's Shield at all if it were not part of the Avatar. Of the other three attributes, Haste is the only one of major importance. Multiple Blesses will provide about 90% of the protection of Resistance and Invulnerability (+ protection, + defense), while giving a great boost to your own attacking skills (+ %hit, + damage).

 

BTW, I call my party The Mad Monk Squad. They all start out with L3 Priest, with the front 3 adding skills for combat and the other 3 starting out with L3 Mage. By the end of the game, all 6 PC's reach L7 Priest, 3 as strong fighters and 3 L7 Mages.

 

Tarl Kudrick's BoE scenario Tatterdemalion really challenged me. I had gotten used to playing with multi-skilled PCs, and he forced me to play with a homogenous group. Well worth playing in all three roles.

[Slawbug]

Major Blessing gives everyone Haste. I don't remember how many levels it provides, but it's probably more than Avatar. I believe it also envenoms weapons, which is a pretty irrelevant bonus.

[Harehunter]

You are correct in that. It has been quite awhile since I played any of the Exile games; I had hair on the top of my head back then .

Playing and mapping the Avernum games has taken up a lot of time. I really need to get back into the BoE games I have downloaded.

I still think it is cool to have at least a round or two of complete invulnerability in situations where there are multiple spell-casters (picture Exile 2, Garzahd's throne room). A round of 3 Major-Blessing followed by a round of 6 Avatar just before you charge into the room gives you a good advantage. Alorael is definitely correct, in that Avatar, should you use it, must the last buff you cast, because the Invulnerability wears off in two or three rounds.

[Slawbug]

That isn't what Alorael was saying. He was saying that Avatar only restricts your bless level if you cast it last (since it sets your bless level to exactly 8 rather than adding to it as other spells do). Thus, a round of Major Blessings plus Avatar is pointless, you might as well do Major Haste plus Avatar since the bless component will be overwritten anyway.

[Alorael at Large]

Avatar is a good spell for, say, a singleton. It gives you a heavy helping of buffs in one round, and you have invulnerability to help you pile on more blessings. With a full party, I agree. Major Blessing is a much more useful spell.

 

—Alorael, who didn't even often have anyone with all 7 levels of priest spells who was also any good in a fight anyway. And in Exile it's much easier to arrange your front line in a circle so your casters stay safer.

[Harehunter]

Which is why my mage/priests have also trained in strength, endurance, dexterity and defense, as well as a few levels of melee; not nearly to the level of the fighter/priests but as much as I can spare. I just have to watch that their armor does not encumber them.

Granted that priest attack spells are fewer, and generally not as powerful as the mage attack spells, but divine thud is very effective, and wall of blades works very nicely on anything that is not invulnerable, because its effect lasts for several rounds.

Just for fun I used wall of blades on a doom guard once, after I was buffed and well ensconced in a corner. Sure the damage was minimal, and sure it made multitudinous splits, but after the room was filled with doom guards, there were no vacant spaces for more. Then I would concentrate on one at a time. It did not matter if I killed it in a particular round, it still couldn't split; no room. Only when that one was dead could another split happen. Meanwhile, I kept up with a major blessing from time to time (no real need for invulnerability) and spamming the room with wall of blades to keep damaging as many splits as possible (they couldn't split either) for as long as possible. By the time those outermost splits got to me, they were half strength or less. I think that was my briefest battle with them.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Harehunter

Actually, the Wound spell is unblockable. That is one reason I trained my fighters in Priest spells. Wound worked better than archery.

As I said, I wasn't counting on a spell to do unblockable damage; I'm just not that into figuring out a game's inner workings. And I agree, Wound is a lot better than archery.

Quote:

Of course, having all 6 PC's able to cast Heal etc helped a lot.

Yes, it does help.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

Blessing enough makes invulnerability irrelevant. Major Blessing plus five Bless Party spells will accomplish more than six Avatars, IMHO.

I wouldn't be surprised. However, I've learned that Major Blessing plus two or three Bless Party spells plus about ten levels of luck per PC pretty much adds up to six steamrollers.

[Harehunter]

Having been a combat engineer, I am very fond of steamrollers. Essayons!! Now I have an urge to watch "The Fighting Seabees" again.

[Trenton.]

with a 10 leveles of luck? why not put in twenty. or is ten the max.

[The Mystic]

Like Bless, Luck is fairly overpowered in the Exile series. The maximum for Luck is 20 levels, but I rarely buy more than 10 unless I'm powergaming.

[Trenton.]

so if you get twenty levels of luck your basically a dodging and hitting god?

[The Mystic]

Pretty much, based on my experience; however, there's always a chance you'll get hit, and your attacks can still miss. In terms of getting hit, I basically use Luck to supplement my PC's dexterity, and to have a greatly reduced chance of dying from would-be lethal blows (a benefit from luck in the Exile series). Like I said above, I don't try to figure out how a game's code works.

[Slawbug]

20 levels of luck means you have only a 1 in 101 chance of dying any time you are supposed to die, IIRC.

[The Mystic]

Yeah, I knew it gave you a really high chance for survival. Still, I find it comes in handy, especially during big fights.

[Trenton.]

you mean like in special encounters?

[Alorael at Large]

Those too, which has made it something of a pain for BoE designers, but Luck's mostly intended to keep your characters alive in combat. You can pretty reliably ignore healing with a party that all has 20 luck.

 

—Alorael, who hasn't noticed or particularly cared about other dramatic bonuses from luck. It's the immortality that really sells it.

[Trenton.]

and if you were a luck charm,braclet, and otbers to add with your luck youl be more powerful yet

[Slawbug]

The Exile series did not have any items that added to luck. The Lucky Bracelet first appeared in Nethergate and I'm not even 100% sure it added to the Luck stat, specifically, there.

[Trenton.]

It didn't? Than was the luck charm giving wizard in Krizan lieing to me? And I got his bracelet back!

 

 

EDIT: Fixed many grammar changes

[Alorael at Large]

In A3, I'm pretty sure the wizard does sell something, bracelets or rings, that give you +1 Luck. Unimpressive, but it works. In E3, he sells you rocks called Luck Charms that do nothing.

 

—Alorael, who was very saddened to discover no cheap and easy immortality in Avernum.

[Ishad Nha]

Fellows in A3 sells a Lucky Charm that gives you +1 to your Luck.