question on classes

[General_Jah]

Just picked up Avadon escape from the pit and created my party.  

 

My question is this:

Are there any unique skills/spell to each class?

 

Seems to me your starting class just affects a few base starting skills/spells but upon leveling up any character can learn pretty much anything.

 

Is this a correct assumption or am I missing something?

 

Thanks

[Ess-Eschas]

Hello General_Jah,

 

I'm guessing from how you've phrased this that you're referring to Avernum: Escape from the Pit, and not to the Avadon games. The titles are pretty similar!

 

There is nothing unique in any of the starting classes in Escape from the Pit. As you say, these classes simply assign some starting points in the character stats. The amount of stat increases is the same for all classes: three points in the primary stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Endurance), five points in the secondary stats (those on the righthand side of the training screen) and one trait. So, in terms of numbers, there's no particular advantage in choosing one class over any other. No class gets any unique skills or traits.

 

The reason these classes are there, I feel, is to provide a starting point for building certain types of characters. Sure, you could customise every party member from scratch, but since most players will be playing a lot of the same sorts of characters (a priest, a mage, a melee pole-user etc.), it makes sense from a game-design perspective to include templates for them.

 

So, think of the classes as a template for starting your character out. You could always start with a template and then develop the character into something completely different, but that could waste those initial few points. That might not sound like much, but it could make all the difference later on, especially on higher difficulties!

 

P. S. This hasn't always been the case. In earlier Avernum games, some classes got more (or less!) skill point investment than others, and starting skills directly determined what spells you had access to at the start of the game. This isn't the case any more.

[Alorael at Large]

This is definitely true for Avernum, and definitely not true for Avadon, where classes have entirely different abilities. I think you confused the names and posted this in the wrong place. I'm going to move the thread.

 

—Alorael, who will continue Ess's line of reasoning by saying that the original Avernum games, of which Avernum: Escape from the Pit and Crystal Souls are remakes, also had classes as ways to pre-assign points but without significance after character creation. In those games, though, some classes got more skill points total than custom characters built from scratch. Since those points were often assigned in much less than optimal ways, most min-maxers would still use custom characters, possibly with a handful of exceptions.

[Sss-Chah]

I think soldiers in the original avernum 2 had more clearance

[Slawbug]

They did not.  The whole party started with Soldier Clearance, however -- that's just what it was called, because they were all soldiers in the army, regardless of specialization.