Specific, beginner questions. Av 1.

[Soltedas]

I am new to Avernum.

 

1. Does the experience you recieve for a particular enemy decrease as your level increases, as in Geneforge?

 

2a. Should Cave Lore be concentrated in one character, or is it just effective when spread throughout the entire group?

 

2b. Besides helping to avoid encounters, what else is Cave Lore useful for?

 

3a. Is the Barter skill worthwhile, and if so does it's effectiveness vary with the person/shop you are dealing with? I notice that shops seem to have unlimited gold, and that it would therefore be possible to amass a fortune simply by killing enemies and selling the loot.

 

3b. Can Barter be purchased anywhere else above level 5 in order to conserve precious skill points?

 

4. At what point are you wasting skill points on Tool skill? What is the maximum necessary level?

 

I love this game. I originally started playing it because I had exhausted the Geneforge demo and thought I would kill some time while waiting for my credit card to arrive, but now I will have to register both games.

 

Thankyou to anyone who replys.

 

-

 

I've been reading the Av wish list topic, I realise how boring my post is in comparison. I haven't played the Spiderweb games long enough to include my own opinions, but there is one thing

in particular which, despite the lack of 3-D graphics, cutscenes, music, etc, which makes these games the best I have ever played. Games like these rely on the players imagination. I don't care about how things move/look so much, because I can imagine them in my head so much better. When I read text describing my surroundings, I imagine the huge cave, the green light from the fungus.. It's awesome. When I am fighting a battle, I imagine different moves used by the fighters, the bloody wounds, the complexities of casting spells, It's a tense, exciting event. The problem for me with the bigger, more flashy games is that they're too explicit. I can't immerse myself in them. Perhaps if you don't have a good imagination...

[Alorael at Large]

1. It decreases, or so I believe. The effect is less dramatic, though. I don't think I ever found myself getting absolutely negligible amounts of experience from anything that I was fighting.

 

2a I believe it can be spread out. The manual can tell you more definitively.

 

2b. Aside from wandering encounters, there are some special enounters that are affected. You can avoid some traps, for instance, and some alchemical ingredients can only be harvested with enough Cave Lore.

 

3. It's worth buying points of barter from the trainer, but don't train it. Five points for four characters is more than enough, because you can't ever sell items for more than you buy them for. The actual effect does vary somewhat by shop, as do selling prices in general. Yes, you can make a lot of money by selling stuff, but only as much as what you sell is worth. (Money tends not to be a problem at all by mid to late game.)

 

4. If you use the Unlock Doors spell, not a huge amount. You can survive most traps anyway. Some late game traps and doors can require quite a lot of Tool Use. I can't remember exact numbers, but I had 15+ by the end of the game, I think.

 

—Alorael, who has couched his responses in so many careful maybes that he hasn't actually said anything, probably.

[Walter]

1. Does the experience you recieve for a particular enemy decrease as your level increases, as in Geneforge?

 

Yes it does, but its far less noticeable as you don't get experience readouts for each enemy. Note that because of this characters with exp penalties from traits will not be behind as many levels as you'd expect.

 

2a. Should Cave Lore be concentrated in one character, or is it just effective when spread throughout the entire group?

 

What matters is how much total you have I believe.

 

2b. Besides helping to avoid encounters, what else is Cave Lore useful for?

 

There are several encounters spread throughout each Avernum game where it mentions some benefit you recieve is due to cave lore. Don't have the slightest clue how much is needed to get all of those though.

 

3a. Is the Barter skill worthwhile, and if so does it's effectiveness vary with the person/shop you are dealing with? I notice that shops seem to have unlimited gold, and that it would therefore be possible to amass a fortune simply by killing enemies and selling the loot.

 

It is best to as earlier as possible buy 5 points for each character but don't put in skill points. Different shopkeepers give different prices and that is sufficient to get the best price (around 60%) from most, though not quite all of them.

 

3b. Can Barter be purchased anywhere else above level 5 in order to conserve precious skill points?

 

No skill you can buy can be bought above level 5. Note I think there exists trainers for some normal skills including cave lore (in fort draco I think, some guy in a building with cows) so you can save skill points and archery (think in silvar not sure, but you need a high reputation to get it, its from the guy in the store selling missle weapons). And as I indicated buying above 5 levels of barter for each character will not produce any effect except in a few rare shops that give horrible prices.

 

4. At what point are you wasting skill points on Tool skill? What is the maximum necessary level?

 

Not sure, but there exist doors you will unlikely ever pick without using the character editor, but for those there's unlock doors level 3, so its only really needed for traps. Not sure what the most difficult traps are though.

[Kelandon]

For a number of skills in which you can buy levels up to 5, there also exist mind crystals or other one-time raises that can raise your skill beyond 5 without spending skill points. I typically end up with a character with Magery at 8 because of this, and I think it's true for Barter in A1 too.

[Zeviz]

Quote:

Originally written by Soltedas:
...
I've been reading the Av wish list topic, I realise how boring my post is in comparison. I haven't played the Spiderweb games long enough to include my own opinions, but there is one thing
in particular which, despite the lack of 3-D graphics, cutscenes, music, etc, which makes these games the best I have ever played. Games like these rely on the players imagination. I don't care about how things move/look so much, because I can imagine them in my head so much better. When I read text describing my surroundings, I imagine the huge cave, the green light from the fungus.. It's awesome. When I am fighting a battle, I imagine different moves used by the fighters, the bloody wounds, the complexities of casting spells, It's a tense, exciting event. The problem for me with the bigger, more flashy games is that they're too explicit. I can't immerse myself in them. Perhaps if you don't have a good imagination...

In that case have you considered Exile? It sounds like you might like it even more than Avernum. The graphics feel more "natural" and there are more fun spells to play with. (Avernum has better skill system and some other improvements, but that is a tradeoff you'll have to judge for yourself.)

[Student of Trinity]

Here are some more specific questions:

 

1) There's a tough door in the NE corner of the Bandit Fort. How do you get in there? Is it worth it?

 

2) With a duo, I can't get enough rune reading to learn spells. Is this just the breaks, or am I doing something wrong? What's the best way to pump my rune reading so I can learn those spells?

[Thralni]

i have been some time in that closed off room. If I remember it well enough, there is a very nasty creature in there, a demon or so. I immediatly reloaded my game when I saw it. I this bandit fort is your first quest in Avernum 1, go away and return with a much stronger party.

[Micawber]

Re rune reading, A1 can give an exaggerated impression of how much rune readings skill is required. This is because the first couple of map areas contain a few high level spells, which you won't need till much later on in the game. On the other hand, if you're unable to learn light level 3, then you do have a problem! You'll have to pump up your PCs' arcane lore to learn spells (both PCs' rune reading are taken into account).

 

Re the bandit fort, you don't need to unlock the door there is a secret passage (in Avernum, there is nearly always a secret passage). You can enter from the room immediately to the south of the locked room - the secret passage is the second segment of wall counting from the east.

[Bobba]

Another thing (it's late because I just came back a bit after a year away from the boards) but with cave lore it is also possible to avoid getting poisoned from swamps if you have enough of it.

[Micawber]

That effect comes from pathfinder skill doesn't it?

[Kelandon]

Pathfinder does that for sure, but I've noticed that swamps sometimes don't poison my party even without Pathfinder, and I've never known why. I'm willing to believe that it's related to Cave Lore.

[Drakefyre]

Well, being poisoned is a random value, too, so even with no Pathfinder or Cave Lore, it won't be 100%. But it's definitely possible that both of those affect it.

[Micawber]

What effect does the poison resistance stat have? Does it reduce your chance of becoming poisoned in the first place, or your choice of taking damage from poison?

[Bobba]

I'm not entirely positive but I think it effects both.

[Drakefyre]

It does affect both.

[Micawber]

OK - so a 20 stat poison resistance would mean you had 0% chance of ever getting poisoned?

[Drakefyre]

Very few things in the games ever go to 0%, but I'd say either 1% or 5%.