Moref the Shade

[Californian]

I keep getting slaughtered here. The hint book says that a little mote of light will swirl around the sentinel he jumps to, but there are so many motes of light swirling around my own crew that I've never been able to spot it.

 

Anybody come up with a strategy for this guy?

[scottk]

You can't go by what you see on the screen.

If you are effective at killing the stone men, you'll be at the point where there are only 2-3 on the screen.

 

You can just keep killing the stone men or you can wait until you get the message that the shade jumped positions... then keep killing them.

 

Look for a message that you hear a spectral scream, meaning you damaged the shade. Eventually that part of the battle will be over and you get to fight the shade another way.

 

Persevere!

[Californian]

Thanks! You're right--look at the text, not the screen. Got him, but I had to cheat with "imdrained."

 

My only complaint about A5 is that there aren't nearly enough energy potions. I never had that problem in A1-4.

 

I'm a wuss. I'm not like you guys who smash through the game with a singleton on torment. Yes, it's cheating, but Jeff put that in there for wusses like me. I wouldn't be able to finish the game without it. Shoot, there's no way I could get through the Howling Depths without that cheat.

 

It makes the game playable, but still plenty tough, for me, anyway. I play for fun, not frustration.

[Randomizer]

Jeff makes you choose between knowledge brews and energy potions in this game. It really pays to retreat and recharge in town rather than push through and use energy potions when you don't need to do it. Save them for the major fights where you need one more potion to finish it.

[Californian]

I do that constantly. It takes a bit of time sometimes to trek all the way back to the town, but in the Howling Depths, for example (I'm only halfway through there), what town are you supposed to retreat to?

 

I have my priest & mage shoot arrows as much as possible too, and they've both got good blades.

 

Plus, I managed to get just a few potions--enough to win the chitrach fight or the Moref fight, but not both. And that's WITH treking back to the town constantly.

 

So I appreciate Jeff's cheat. This is my first playthrough. Next time I'll try some things differently. But right now I'm still gettin' killed even with the cheat.

 

Anyway, I've always been more of a spellcaster than a fighter. I generally plug my wisdom crystals and knowledge brews into my spellcasters. My goal in Jeff's games includes finding all the levels of all the spells, as well as "winning" the game. I want to do all the quests. I want to find all the hidden stuff. I know that's not necessary to win, but it's what **I** like to do.

 

Jeff's games (especially Avernum) are the only RPGs I play. I've bought some others, and will probably play them eventually, but normally I'm a pure adventure gamer--solving puzzles and the like, not fighting. I love Jeff's games for their imagination and humor.

 

So I'm gonna use the cheat when I have to, just because it makes the game more fun for ***me***. Which is why I play. (and btw, i'm the one who came up with the "dead character" trick for getting the Nephil ceremonial items out of the trial--takes an adventure gamer, to figure that out, I guess! so i'm not a complete wuss!)

[*i]

Californian: I don't think anyone is attacking you or your play style. It's your copy of the game and you can do with it what you want. On the same token, there is no need to lash out at the rest of the board when no one has said anything to merit it.

 

As for the Howling Depths: Don't kill anything if you are having trouble, just haste everyone and run. When you encounter resistance, summon a shade at the end of the turn to slow down everyone chasing you. Being shielded helps with being peppered with arrows.

 

I do think A5 is a bit less lenient to players that do not allocate their skills as well. My first playthrough was fairly naive with skill building: I didn't take any traits and didn't really plan ahead and a lot of fights were tricky. My second playthrough I used good planning and the whole thing was significantly easier. If anything, this is a weakness to the game.

 

Finally, I hope Jeff gets around to fixing the dead character work around for leaving the testing grounds.

[Californian]

Lash out at the board? Huh? (scratches head)

 

Golly, I'm just explaining my game style--not bashing anybody else's. I admire you folks who are better at this stuff than I am. I did go through A2 once as a twofer, but with both characters as natural mages. It was an interesting challenge, but I sure lost out on a lot of loot that I couldn't carry. I like loot.

 

I am rather proud of the dead character trick though. Hey, that stuff is there and I figured out how to get it. Why else was it there? (To tell the truth, though, that Nephil blade is, ahem, a double-edged sword. It gives you the strength and the fatigue reduction, which is great, but it really isn't that good a blade otherwise. And without the strength you can't wield the flaming sword if you're wearing decent armor. It's gonna cost me a pile of knowledge brews to get my strength up enough to switch blades.)

 

I appreciate that Jeff allows us to tailor the game to our own needs. Without the "imdrained" cheat (which I really don't use that often) I personally would find the game tedious. Yet even as an adventure gamer, these are still my favorite games. Very few people have this kind of imagination, and you rarely see humor at Jeff's level in other games. Plus, I kinda see the fighting as puzzles. Figuring out how to allocate skill points is a huge part of the overall puzzle, though. I'm still struggling with that. Next time through I may do better with that aspect.

 

Good tip on the howling depths, but I'm through it now and collected a lotta loot on the way.

[playongrass]

What is the "dead character" trick?

[Randomizer]

Quote:

Originally written by playongrass:
What is the "dead character" trick?

This allows you to keep the items from the Fang Clan's testing area by placing them on a character that dies in the trials and then not returning to the area with the items.