Best class to play?

[Avadon]

I am ready for my third foray into Avadon.

 

The first expedition died a natural death as it was during the time of the 1.0 where the screen was upside down and my Hand could not climb walls like Spiderman.

 

The second expedition was ravaged by the savegame deletion bug and savaged by the whole app went tits up and refused to start up bug.

 

For the third expedition, now that I have enjoyed Avernum, which class should I choose?

 

Let me clarify, I would be the Tourist, to borrow a class from Nethack. I have used the cheats in Geneforge, Avadon, Avernum and the other games, as well as the character editor in Avernum. I am uninterested in exploring the combat mechanics, and am only interested in the role playing aspects.

 

That said, which class and companions should I pick to breeze through the combat in Avadon?

[Randomizer]

Have either a Shadowwalker or Sorceress in the party that can unlock things at level 4 ability so you can visit more places. Those tourist traps are a pain otherwise.

 

Jeff put a few special boss fights in the game where one damage type is either favored or completely out of favor. A distribution of damage types tends to help. Having a Blademaster or Shadowwalker all the time seems to work well.

[nikki.]

My party pretty much always consisted of a Sorceress, a Blademaster and a Shadowwalker; I played through on normal, using the odd cheat here and there, and I really didn't have too tough a time of it.

 

 

 

 

[Jerakeen]

Maine character a high-dex Shadowwalker for best results, Sorceress a close second.

[Alorael at Large]

For best results, you may want to vary who you have in your party. Different classes excel at different things, and more importantly it's interesting to see what the different party members have to say. Bringing Nathalie along to fight wizards and getting Sevilin's opinions on his homeland makes for more fun, in my opinion.

 

Of course, in the course of play you're likely to develop preferences. You can happily rely on those.

 

In general, blademasters and shadowwalkers are the more broadly useful classes, while sorceresses and shamans are specialized. You'll less often want two of the latter, but you might want two of the former, so making your protagonist a shadowwalker or blademaster is probably easiest. Either will work just fine on normal, and if you aggressively min-max I think the shadowwalker gets the edge.

 

—Alorael, who thinks for roleplaying purposes you could happily turn the difficulty all the way down and just have fun. You won't run into many problems like that no matter what you do with your party.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Jerakeen

Maine character a high-dex Shadowwalker

so that's why Jessica Fletcher was so good at snooping around in people's offices

[Jerakeen]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

Originally Posted By: Jerakeen

Maine character a high-dex Shadowwalker

so that's why Jessica Fletcher was so good at snooping around in people's offices

My first thought would have been Hawkeye Pierce.

[Gerry Quinn]

I found Shadowalker, usually combined with Sorceress and Shaman, worked just fine. Some people don't like the Shaman because her DPS is not great, but her pet is a useful meatshield that increases your options, and combined with her heals will keep your Shadowalker alive, even if he isn't the perfect tank.

[Avadon]

I went with the sorceress for the third expedition.

 

What does DPS mean and when I had the shaman in my team during an earlier foray, she seemed well nigh useless.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Avadon

What does DPS mean and when I had the shaman in my team during an earlier forqy, she seemed well nigh useless.

Damage Per Second. It's a term originating from MMOs that basically means "how fast you can do damage". In this case it should actually be DPR, since this is a turn-based game, but...

The Shaman's healing can be very useful for keeping your party alive in some circumstances, and summoning is powerful early on, but there are some situations where you really don't need or want a Shaman, so she's not recommended as your main character.