Avernum 5: A warrior's worth

[Brocktree]

I've recently undertaken a playthrough of Avernum 5, which has given me the opportunity to clarify a number of thoughts I have held regarding the relative value of warriors.

 

Mages. Mages have access to virtually every damage type (excluding physical and disruption), most at a multiplier much higher than the 2.5 multiplier offered by a pole weapon. Area of effect attacks hit multiple enemies, and ignore riposte. With a high mana pool, you can spam Arcane Blow for a reasonable period of time to lay on the hurt. The benefits of mages are so numerous, that warriors just seem to have little relative worth. Warriors can deal reasonable physical damage? Um, ok. Mages not only deal damage (in multiple damage forms!), but can terrify, daze, slow, protect, haste, and summon.

 

Given the numerous benefits of mages, it almost seems like a no brainer to power through the game with a 3 mage/1 priest party, as has been advocated in the past.

 

However, what I have noticed throughout my playthrough is that one also needs to consider the *skill point cost* of mages. Just investing in the bare minimum of mage spells and intelligence to cast an appreciable number of Arcane blows will take up over half the skill points available to you in the game. If you are creating a mage like character, you will have close to *no* skill points to spare on other ancillary skills, most notably parry, hardiness, and strength. The skills which make a decent meat shield.

 

So my first observation is this: A decent mage, and a decent meat shield, are *mutually exclusive*. You cannot have a character which is both.

 

Now let us consider physical damage. Almost every enemy in the game resists physical damage, but these resistances range from low to moderate. Alternatively, only some enemies have resistance to fire or energy (the mage's highest die damaging attacks). However, when they resist, they resist a lot, virtually nullifying the mage's primary attack. Yes, you can get by on archery for such enemies, but prepare for long drawn out teeth grinding fights.

 

So my second observation is this: Having a source of appreciable physical damage is at best, invaluable, and at worst, useful.

 

Finally, there are a lot of ancillary skills that you can purchase/obtain from items which scale up physical damage reasonably. However, one really sticks out. Quick strike. 50 skills points in quick strike, + 10 from items and training, + mercuric plate, will always allow for a third attack when hasted and battle raged. This is not achievable for mages, simply because of skill point deprivation.

 

So, my third observation is this: When playing to a warrior's advantages, they can (and will) do the most damage to a single target.

 

Now, the final question. Melee or pole? Popular opinion gravitates towards pole, simply because of the damage multiplier. However, is it possible that the bonuses from the assassin's shield and radiant blade outweigh the multiplier?

 

To test this, I compare damage output for a slith and nephil who had been developed to level 24/25 (respectively) over the course of a game. They were virtually identical in all stats, except:

 

- The bonus the nephil obtained from the radiant blade and assassin's shield

 

- The pole bonus the slith gains for its level

 

They wore no other equipment.

 

My results?

 

Slith - Average damage per round: 172

 

Nephil - Average damage per round: 121

 

Melee does 70% of the damage of pole. Ergo: Actual gameplay supports the math performed in the past. Those few points of lethal blow/qa/anatomy the nephil gains don't make much difference at higher levels.

 

Pole just seems to blow melee out of the water. Or does it?

 

Consider:

 

Defensive bonuses. The shield provides a small defensive bonus. Radiant blade also gives 3 parry (translating into 9% to block melee, 6% to block missiles. On closer inspection, the armour bonus is neglible (due to the multiplicative nature of the armour system). And the skill point value of 3 points in parry is not equivalent to 50 damage (equating to *25* levels of damage for a meleer). As a side note, choose the Hero's necklace as your reward from Melachanion.

 

Flaming sword. Yes, the flaming sword provides an alternative form of damage against physically resistant foes. On the surface, this hands an advantage to a character who invests in melee. However, on closer inspection, this advantage is *tiny*. Because there is absolutely nothing preventing a pole user from wielding the flaming sword effectively! The vast majority of your damage comes from blademaster/strength/ancillary skills, not the melee/pole skill. So, at worst, a pole user will be dealing 20 less damage with the flaming sword than a melee fighter.

 

The quicksilver bulwark. This is probably the most convincing reason to invest in melee over pole. The quicksilver bulwark + mercuric plate + qs sandals means that you don't need to invest any points in quick strike. That's a saving of at least 50 points.

 

However, there are numerous disadvantages on such a character

 

- You have to kill Ruth to get those sandals, meaning you don't get all those cheap trained skills from Tholmen.

 

- One of your mages misses out on three attacks per round, since the warrior 'hogs' the AP boosting items. As I mentioned earlier, mages will not be able to get enough quick strike to guarantee 3 strikes a round.

 

- Finally, crunch the numbers with the values I obtained earlier. A nephil sword user with three attacks per round does 121 * 3 = 363 damage. A slith pole user with *two * attacks per round does 344 damage.

 

Note that those damages are for 'naked' characters. I suspect that when equipped, the damage die would close the gap.

 

So, you're sacrificing a mage with three attacks, and all those awesome cheap skills from Tholmen, so that a sword user gets the *same* damage as pole user. A pole user, with an investment of 50 points to get 20 quick strike (+ items and Tholmen's training), can reach 516 damage a round.

 

Final observation: Swords do indeed suck in Avernum 5.

 

Conclusion: A slith pole user makes a welcome addition to a party with a priest and two mages. This is borne out by my gameplay experience.

 

 

 

 

[Earth]

some monsters have high resistances to several mage/priest spells so fighters are needed and also fighters protect casters who have low health from monsters.