Poll Advantage

[Callie]

The following would be in reference to your typical party, or most recent party if you choose.

[Celtic Minstrel]

I'm not sure if my votes represent my typical party. I just went through and checked the ones I though made sense.

 

I usually try to have different traits on each character.

 

I generally prefer the less specialized character templates.

 

I never use the disadvantageous traits.

[Grail Shadowblade]

I aim for multi role personally, for example my current party leader is a warrior/archer/mage/priest.... Annoying to train but he did start out as an archer warrior.

[Celtic Minstrel]

If I was going to do that, he would start out as a mage/priest, not an archer/warrior.

 

Just my 2¢.

[Enraged Slith]

Strong back is the only way to go for any character other than a mage. With Strong back and a couple points in defense, any character can wear heavy armor which offsets any other bonus. It's also a plus for archers who have to carry around a ton of arrows.

 

The other traits aren't worth their cost, except for Divinely Touched, which is too much of a game breaker to be any fun.

 

As for negative traits, I like to use brittle bones for people who aren't in melee combat (big plus for mages) and sickness prone for everyone else.

[Xaiya]

I only used a singleton in A3.

But I used Divinely touched, and it was great...mainly for the ability. That ability is what allowed me to do a lot of stuff.

[Niemand]

As many poll responders seem to agree, I consider Fast on Feet vital for an archer. Between that and maintaining one's archer with a high dexterity it's possible to ensure that the archer virtually always acts first and can often fire more than one arrow. While arrows don't pack the punch of melee attacks, their ability to immediately target almost any enemy on the field of battle is not to be underestimated.

[Callie]

This is how what my usual party is composed of:

Warrior - Slith, Sickness Prone

Archer - Nephil, Strong Back, Sickness Prone

Priest - Human, Natural Mage, Sluggish

Mage - Human, Natural Mage, Sluggish.

 

I've experimented the most with Archers. I've given him cursed at birth, but it results in too much damage. I've also given an archer fast on feet and nimble fingers. However, I find Strong Back most useful because I can carry a ton of bolts early on.

 

Sickness prone is useful because it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I always give a slith that trait.

 

A sluggish spellcaster isn't much of a setback. They don't need to move around much anyways, and I'm not usually in a rush for them to cast a spell before everyone else.

 

Archers should always be Nephil. They're 10% penalty is easily counteracted by the Sickness Prone trait. Additionally, Nephilim have a bonus to bows and a very useful +2 dexterity bonus from the beginning that increases over time. Because of their dexterity bonus, they also serve as great masters of tool use.

[Imban]

I have to say, I'm honestly surprised that few people seem to use Completely Inept. From my play with Pariah, a human who uses the HLPM to have all five disadvantages, Completely Inept doesn't seem to be adversely impacting his performance at all, once he got past the very low levels. Which, well, he did almost instantly.

[Callie]

Wow Imban, I haven't seen you around in eons.

 

-Now we need Alec to surface.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Alec's been posting recently, actually.

 

I selected "I don't know" for every question, because it's been ages since I played it and I don't remember what I did.

[nikki.]

Typically, I never use Disadvantages. I can always play another scenario to get that next level, so experience is never really an issue, unlike in the Avernum games proper.

 

Usually I go:

 

Slith, pure fighter, sometimes with Elite Warrior.

Nephil. archer/thief, with Nimble fingers.

Human, priest, Natural Mage (eventually I will dual-class this character into a mage).

Human, mage, Natural Mage (eventually I will dual-class this character into a priest).

 

That means that three of my characters level up together, and my Slith a little bit after.

[Callie]

Quote:

That means that three of my characters level up together, and my Slith a little bit after.

The game seems to distribute experience unevenly amongst characters if there's any difference in xp penalty, is this true? I thought the penalty increased the necessary xp required to raise the level, not the xp gained.

[Imban]

It does, but higher-level characters gain less XP because the formula for determining XP gained is based on the level of the enemy you just killed compared to yours.

 

For comparison, Avatar needs 2000 XP/level, but gains XP from almost everything since he's "only" level 28. Pariah only needs 100 XP/level, but as a level-49 character, only monsters of level 25+ give him any experience whatsoever, and even then it takes boss-level monsters to actually give him large chunks of XP.

[DOA Assassin]

really good poll. my opinion of natural mage is a must stays... it always comes in handy.

[aka Ravenwing]

Every character I've ever made with any Avernum game is custom.

 

Here's the party for serious plays:

 

Leader: Human, melee, priest spells, divinely touched

Second: Nephil, melee, bows, tool use, fast on feet and/or nimble fingers

Third: Slith, pole, thrown weapons, elite warrior

Fourth: Human, priest and mage spells, natural mage