Food...

[SherlockTAS - MSW]

In the first Avernum, does each person have to carry food or can one person carry enough for the whole party?

 

I'm finding that the food takes up an unnecessary amount of space in the inventory.

[Dolphin]

Doesn't food just heal you a little (very little)? I carried one piece of bread because I wasn't sure if I needed it or not, but I never had any problems when I didn't carry any food at all.

[xxo]

You can just give it to one person. If it takes up too much room, keep in mind that you only need one unit of food each time you rest in order to benefit your whole party.

[Kelandon]

Or you can just walk back and forth to heal and never bother carrying food at all.

 

EDIT: Much as Dolphin said, but just to stress the point.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

at later stages walking back and forth for healing can be very exhausting. i always have 1 type of food (greens, mushrooms or bread) on only 1 character, but lots of it. that way, it only takes 1 place of the inventory, but is very nice for longer expiditions.

[Alorael at Large]

Food heals you a little bit in Geneforge, if memory serves. In Avernum, you need food to rest. You actually only need one piece of food for your whole party to rest, as far as I can recall, but since I never rested except when deliberately trying to make time pass, my memory could easily be faulty.

 

A little advice: if you do carry food, carry greens (the green balls that supposedly look like lettuce). They're the lightest food available, and since all food is equal in utility, that makes greens the best.

 

—Alorael, who is in the don't rest if you don't have to camp. You can walk and waste less time in A3, you can walk and waste less money and inventory space in all three Avernums, and you don't have to remember to stock up on food. Not that you don't find enough in dungeons.

[Tom]

There are places where food can be useful, but I generally have to leave and reenter dungeons anyway to haul stuff, and there's usually an inn in whatever town I use to unload.

 

For that matter, all I really need is an energy potion for my priest and Mass Healing. I don't use inns unless I get a significant return on the investment--in other words, the time spent in the inn is less than the time I'd spend walking around trying to recover MP. Usually, this is an issue only when dealing with the Trogs or the Giants and they have raiding parties running about, since that constitutes a drain on my MP (either because I have to heal it when they beat me with sharp things, or because I have to fry them before they get the chance).

 

Magic regenerates at least twice as fast as health, and Mass Healing, especially at level 3, is a bargain in restorative power.

[The Yeoman Cheesemonger]

In A1 I don't worry about food: that's what inn's are for. In A2 I collect Lizard Meat from the Hydras on the way down to Avit. In A3 I give my characters a treat by giving them Steak.