I haven't encountered that yet, but I did just encounter a condition called "Dumbfounded"...strips me of my ability to use magic. Think I'll avoid triggering that encounter for a while.

Ah... Mung Demons, right? You'll learn to hate them. ^^

I hate Mung Demons so much.

So much.

Its been several days since I posted about A1, and that's because I'm doing just fine with it. Absolutely loving the game, playing at least an hour or two each night. I've completed the bulk of the northeast so far. Haven't been tempted at all to use the in-game character editor, although I did take a look at it just to see what its capable of.

The only thing I am using is this interactive map I found. I'm still exploring and questing on my own, but I refuse to drive myself nuts looking for every secret passage. I just dismiss it as "Oh look, my party of adventurers has a magic map of Avernum." But otherwise, I'm not using an actual walkthrough or anything else.

I actually enjoyed searching for secret passages. It was really satisfying when I managed to find a secret treasure or other reward, and these often made a huge difference in my adventuring. But I can see how it could be annoying to constantly feel you have to look for secrets.

One thing I didn't like about Avernum 4 was that there were no more secret passages.... perhaps others would consider that a plus.

Definitely too many secret passages for my tastes. In Might & Magic 1-5, every tile (iirc) was accessible somehow so it made it easier to know when I should search for secret doors.

In other news, by the gods, this game is huge. I still haven't covered half the map yet (but I'm getting close). No one can accuse Jeff Vogel of having limited imagination with his first Avernum!

Do you think you'd ever give the precursor games a try, that is his Exile series?

I thought the mini-maps in Avernum made it pretty clear when there might be a secret door nearby. Perhaps it was a little harder on the world map, but for interior areas I usually had a pretty good idea of where to look for them.

But anyway, I'm glad you are able to refer to a map to avoid frustration.

That's a good question. I grew up side-by-side with home gaming (I was born in 1972), so I'd have no problem trying something as retro as the Exile series. But if its pretty much the same story as Avernum, I don't know if I'd want to play the same story again. So far, Avernum 1 hasn't shown me nearly as much replay value as the GeneForge series (of which, I finished G1 and G2 just before starting Avernum).

GeneForge offers so much in the way of true role-playing that I could replay any of them with differently aligned characters & get different end game results, while Avernum 1 has only now (I'm guessing about 1/3 of the way through the game) given me the chance to take some down-repping quests rather than being a hero.

You have to consider the perspective of 1990s Jeff VS now Jeff. He may not have had the skill or programming or storyline in mind for such choices.

Here. He made them free some time ago.

How significant are the differences between the original Exile games and the original Avernum games? I've only played the Avernum games. I've heard that combat was more complex in the Exile series, but I don't really have a good sense for the rest of it. Are there reasons to prefer the Exile series over the Avernum series?

One of the major differences between Exile and Avernum is a bigger spell list. That's not to say many of these spells would ever be used or much less learned, but otherwise its the same click to bash sort of thing. There's also darts and you have to remember to equip things.

There's no reason to prefer, unless you want something more stylistically retro.

Took a 3 1/2 week break from Avernum, and now I have a new question.

I have two Balm of Life potions that I made. It says it allows me to cast Raise Dead. How exactly do I cast RD? It doesn't let me "use" the potions the same way as other potions with that little yellow "*" on it.

A: Do you have dead?

B: Do you have the spell?