A-EftP - New player question.....

[baldy158]

Hi guys,

Just downloaded A:EFTP about a week ago on the ipad, loving it so far. Brings back a lot of memories.

 

I have seen the various posts on min/maxing in this game, but I (and i am sure there are others new to the series) would appreciate some beginner tips.

 

For example, the other posts give you suggested party setups but I have no idea on what to concentrate first. Currently I am running 2 warriors, one specced for tanking the other for dps, one priest and one mage, fairly standard stuff. On hard. But I am at a bit of a loss as to which skills need maxing first. Should I get Tool Use up to begin with or concentrate on combat abilities? Are there certain spells that I absolutely need? Will I need to pump Arcane Lore to get them? Speaking of Arcane Lore, if i plan on getting 2 Sage lore traits, how many arcane lore do i need to get all the spells.

 

Sorry for long post! Help and any other useful tips would be much appreciated....

[Lilith]

The most important tips are to raise your character's attacking stat (Strength for the fighters, Intelligence for the mages) on the majority of your levelups, and try to put a point in a character's primary combat skill (Melee Weapons, Mage Spells or Priest Spells) every level, at least early on. Everything else you can be a bit flexible with, and just put a point in what you think you need most at the time. Getting Tool Use up early is nice, but not essential if you're having trouble with combat.

 

The most critical spells in the early to midgame are area-effect damage spells for your mage and healing spells for your priest; buffing spells are almost universally worth getting as well. Two Sage Lore traits plus 6 points of Arcane Lore is enough to get any spell in the game at level 3.

[baldy158]

Much obliged....

[ShieTar]

Also: Do not buy equipment, like Weapons and Armor. You will need all the money you can get to train skills and spells at Trainers.

 

And there is a trait you can get at Level 8 which will increase the money you get from selling loot. It is generally advised to take it for all characters, and not sell anything (valuable) before you have it.

[Matchstk]

You may also consider investing a few points in Endurance. It gives you better resistance to poison and acid, as well as increasing your health by another 5 points. And as many will attest, the early stages of the game can be tough. Being able to take a bit of damage can smooth the ride a bit.

[The Reverend]

Personally I was kinda underwhelmed by the effect of endurance in AEFTP. Poison and acid did not seem particularly deadly in this iteration of Avernum. And while the 5 points of health makes a bit of a difference in the beginning when you don't have very much, once you've levelled up a few times 5 points is a pretty small percentage of your total health. I spent maybe 3 points in endurance early on (first 10 levels or so) for my front-line characters, but nothing after that.

 

Hardiness seemed to do a lot more for long-term survivability, by reducing the amount of damage you take.

[Aoslare]

Yup, Endurance is just not as useful as other things.

[Juan Carlo]

I think I stuck 1 point of endurance into my front warrior/tank to give him more durability (at a point when I noticed he was dying too much), but otherwise I ignored endurance for everyone else and was fine.

 

However, especially with your warriors, you definitely should use traits like "increase endurance" and the "robust health" type traits (of which there are three) to increase their health somewhat. You get a new trait every even level and there are enough that you can easily spend those on making your tanks more durable. Plus there are also plenty of wearable items in the game which increase endurance.

 

As to skills, for you warriors I'd say get Melee, Hardiness, and Parry to 10 right away for your front warrior--followed by blademaster. Same with your second in line warrior, but with him you can focus on leveling blademaster up sooner if you want for DPS .After that you can decide to focus on dual welding, lethal blow, or some combo of both (it's usually good to have a few points in lethal blow, though, just because crit damage is so effective when it happens).

 

You might want to get melee to 20 just because it unlocks "Battle Frenzy" which is really, really, handy. However, there are lots of items in game which raise the melee skill, so you don't necessarily have to put 20 skill points into melee (and I even think an argument could be made that it'd be better to only level melee to 12 or so and put the spare points in dual blade or lethal blow instead, as they will give you more damage output than melee and you could always use haste spells and speed potions to get battle frenzy. Although they are less dependable so that's your call).

 

Also, while it doesn't help you in combat at all, I'd actually recommend upgrading first aid to 12 on both your magic users. They can spare the skill points and this will mainly allow you to not have to revist a town every other minute to restore mana/health. This gets really, really, annoying late game so if you have first aide it will literally shave hours off your playthrough and make things alot easier on you.