Hintbook for AV 1.

[Soltedas]

Has anyone got the Hintbook for Avernum? What's it like?

I'm hoping it's really specific.

Also, does the character trait Natural Mage have any effect on Priest spells? The description says, "...all your spells recieve bonuses...". However the trait is Natural Mage, not Natural Priest.

[Thralni]

I don't have the hintbook, but I can tell you that natural mage hasn't got whatsoever of an effect on priests.

[Lilith]

That's not true. Natural Mage definitely does increase the effectiveness of priest spells, at least in BoA. You can prove this with Enduring Barrier, which always increases the target's HP by the same amount, dependent only on the caster's stats; a character with Natural Mage will give more HP with Enduring Barrier than an otherwise identical character without it. And if Natural Mage works for priest spells in BoA, there's no reason it wouldn't work that way in the other Avernums.

 

The bonus Natural Mage gives to your spells is pretty small, though.

[Soltedas]

Never occurred to me to test it. Thanks Thuryl.

Natural Mage does indeed give bonuses to Priest spells. The spells I tried lasted a little longer.

61 turns/steps to 57 for Safe Travel, (Indoor/outdoor)

12 turns/steps to 10 for Battle Rage,

12 turns/steps to 10 for Shielding,

where both characters are identical, one with Natural Mage.

A small bonus to be sure.

[Thralni]

I tried it myself a couple of times, but it didn't do anything useful. I also read in several walkthrougs that it doesn't really do anything useful.

[Kelandon]

Yes, the hint book is very complete and specific. The only thing more complete and specific was Avernum Annotated Maps, but that seems to be down now.

[Alorael at Large]

The hintbooks have full walkthroughs for the major quests, maps of many but not all towns and dungeons, a full map of the outdoors, and brief explanations of how to complete minor quests. As a bonus, the hints are laid out in such a way that you can also easily find every quest in the game, which is good for compulsive completists.

 

—Alorael, who is quite positive that Natural Mage has two effects: it lets you cast mage spells in armor, which does nothing for priests, and it increases your spell bonus (much like getting a few poinsts of intelligence). Look in the manual under spells to see how bonus affects each one. In A3 and BoA you also get an ability to restore spell points once per day just in case you didn't have enough reason to pick the Natural Mage trait.