Stupid question but where exactly am I to find the Talisman of Golot? I had assumed that I started the game with it but it's not in my inventory nor am I (or any other character) wearing it. Thanks :)

BTW, to clarify, I have the deluxe edition.

it should be in lower right corner just above the map. it should also be auto-equipped on your 1st character in Neck slot.

if it doesn't seem to be the case, make sure you have actually installed Deluxe files.

Well I went back to my library and checked as I'd thought I'd downloaded everything and discovered listed under Lords of Xulima - Linux - DLC downloads the windows deluxe version installer. Downloading now so hopefully when installed I'll have the talisman. Many thanks for your help +1

EDIT: I now have the Talisman equipped - once again, many thanks :)

That brings up an interesting question: What happens if you equip something else in your neck slot and than install the Deluxe files?

Interestingly enough, I sometimes prefer to have more variety and interesting abilities rather than going strictly min-max. For example, I am playing Quest 64 right now (in the last town), and I only have 36 earth and 35 water. The optimal strategy for that game is to level up water a bit to get through the early game (healing, in particular), than max out earth at 50 (you want Avalanche, the most powerful spell, to be as strong as possbile), and then max water (maximize your healing). I have, however, opted to get interesting spells from fire and air (including Vampire's Touch and Wind Walk).

Another thing I sometimes like to do is look for glitches. I also like testing corner cases. (I did not find it, but in Quest 64, there is a trick that requires the Compression spell (fire 19) and allows you to go out of bounds in one specific dungeon.)

Going back to Lords of Xulima, I have a few other questions:
1. Is the Deluxe Edition Upgrade worth it?
2. If you have the Deluxe Edition files installed, is there a way to get rid of the talisman? (Maybe I want to play the base game which I hope is balanced properly without the Talisman?)
3. What happens if you install the DLC, have something on the main character's neck, and don't have any room in your inventory? (Is this possible?)
4. What happens if I take a save file with the Talisman equipped and load it up in an installation that lacks the DLC?

Edited to add question 4

Edited again to correct a mistake: Water, not Fire, was at 35. (I ended the playthrough with 36 earth, 40 water, 36 (I think) fire, and 37 wind.

I like to replay some games with min-max approach and perfect outcomes unless it totally goes against common sense/enjoyment (like getting Excalibur II under 12 hours in FF IX). Currently I am doing perfect run in Final Fantasy V, with exception that I WON"T be trying to win all 4 Soots from Seal Guardians (chance is 1/65536 per attempt). This way I also discover a LOT of unusual things and mechanics in the games :) Bonus books and map are done quite well (and Game Guide has description of all skills per skill level, which is quite handy). If you aren't fan of such bonus materials, then buying it only for Talisman probably might be not worth it for you. Talisman is the only in-game item which comes from Deluxe Edition. So you can buy Deluxe for bonus books, soundtrack, etc., and not install Deluxe game files.

A lot of people strongly advise to invest ALL stat points in Speed (it works a bit like in FF X here, so you can get multiple turns while enemy gets only 1, and other stats don't scale that well). And unless you play on easy mode (which was renamed to Normal later on), you will have to reload a lot, unless you will try to use Speed benefits. With Talisman you can get more stat points which allow for more interesting character development.

Balance is a bit strange in this game. It starts VERY hard (unless you play it on easy), but becomes gradually easier later on (if you follow good char development plan). You will have to fight RNG a lot. And by that I mean each disease equals to farming a hundred or so cereals in money so you rather reload to not get diseased. Talisman gives more firepower in the long run, when monsters have WAY too much HP and character damage output doesn't scale well at all. You can always choose to play easy mode, though game is balanced around middle difficulty setting (it can be seen from game files). Inventory seems to be unlimited here. Which can be used for easy trick at start of game (when total Weight Capacity is low). When you carry too much, time flies MUCH faster (up to 5 times as fast as normal) - you can quickly farm a lot of cereals in 1st town (you need all the gold in the start and there is no food consumption in town + you can check vendor every 48 hours for +EXP gear and no-Crit Fail weapons).

Edit: On question 4, I can't say as didn't try that (I always fear to try such things to cause some bugs), but common sense tells me that neck slot will be empty and Talisman will be disabled. However, all the benefits you already got from Talisman (bonus stats/skills/gold) will remain with you.

Regarding the strange difficulty and looking at a skill list online, it looks like a few of the skills are investments that don't provide much immediate benefit (Learning and Herb Gathering). If i neglect those skills, choosing instead to put points in areas that are of immediate benefit, will the game still get rather easy later on? A few things about Final Fantasy 5:
I recommend not trying to reach level 99 in that game. It is not practical (plus Shinryu can annihilate a level 99 party with Level 3 Flare if you're not careful).
If you are playing the SFC or PSX (not GBA) version, there is an item underflow glitch that lets you get 99 of any item you can steal (or 255 of any stealable item that can be used up with Item, Throw, Drink or Mix). Soot is stealable from a boss later on, so you can easily get 99 or 255 of them.
Here are some interesting setups:
A Blue Mage with 2-Handed (Knight skill) can be very effective early on.
With Excalipoor, a Blue Mage with Barehanded can do lots of damage from the back row (use Goblin Punch).
A White Mage with 2-Handed and the Morning Star is surprisingly effective at the end of the second world.
A Blue Mage with a Rune Edge and 2-Handed can be an effective physical attacker later on.

You can make easy game by stacking all resistances and focusing on Speed stat. More EXP just means higher Lv, means higher HP, MP and better skills, which leads to higher efficiency and you will want every tiny bit of bonuses for very fat monsters later on. Later monsters aren't that much hard at all, they are just very very fat. I play SFC version and I am planning to have 4 NoJob characters. They get all stat benefits from Jobs, most Passive skills, can get 2 of any Active skills and have no gear restrictions. For Shinryu's L3 Flare - there are Mix abilities which can temporarily increase your level, they should work I think (Bard song won't work), but even if they won't work, at lv.99 you should be able to outheal Flare damage. Only problem with Lv.99 is learning specific Blue magic spells, but it is easily solved by learning those spells as soon as possible.

I am not going to use various glitches and exploits as it defeats the purpose of perfect game for me, so I will have to deal with just a few Soots :)

A few things:

The problem with Freelancers (what you are calling NoJob) is that you actually have to master other jobs to get stat benefits and passives. Before than, you will need to actually use other jobs to level them up, and the setups I mentioned (and many others) can be useful.

Against Shinryu's Level 3 flare, if you don't avoid it or have shell up, it does 9999 damage. There is no way to heal up after that.

There are two interesting Freelancer setups to look into:
1. Blood Sword + RapidFire (X-Fight): Blood Sword does full damage with each hit (but does not ignore magic defense). Blood Sword's damage is based on Magic Power. Aim also works, but only at one quarter the effectiveness.
2. Rune Axe + 2-handed. Like the Rune Edge setup I mentioned above, but actually more powerful.
(By the way, if using RapidFire, I recommend Thor's Hammer because it is one-handed, long ranged, and quite strong. Alternatively, steal some Dragon's Whiskers from Shinryu (and run away afterward so you can steal some more) and dual wield those.)

A few other things to consider:
1. The Power Staff, I believe, can only be dropped from an enemy that appears at the end of the second world. If you try to get 99 of those, you will likely to be burned out before you even get to the third world.
2. Getting 99 Light Staves, while possible without glitching, will take a while. Alternatively, you could just glitch steal 99 of them from Helicarnasos.
3. Reaching level 99 is not practical, so I suggest not trying. It takes much longer than in other Final Fantasy games. Also, enemies in the final area of the game give no experience.

Incidentally, when I play Final Fantasy V, here are the rules I use:
1. No throwing money at the enemies. That ability is far stronger than it should be.
2. No using Kiss of Blessing on enemies. (Using it on allies is fair game and is actually quite useful sometimes.)
3. If I allow Freelancer and Mime to be used (I don't always), no dual-wielding without the dual-wield ability equipped. That ability is too powerful for it to not take up a slot. (I don't apply this restriction to Ninjas, whose job command isn't that great without a Magic Power boost from a spellcasting skill (or Equip Harp).

By the way, with glitches it is possible to fight Mellusion with Leena in your party. If she is the only survivor, your entire party will be dead when you are on the world map. You can now walk around and save the game with a party of dead characters, but getting into a fight will cause a game over. (To recover from this, use an item or Inn to revive someone.)

Outside of some monsters/bosses FF V isn't that hard. When I played it 1st time I didn't have a clue on what I was doing. I didn't upgrade gear properly, I switched jobs only once if ever and so on. When I met Omega and got demolished, I was surprised how did I manage to even get this far. Still I have beaten the game (I didn't kill Omega and Shinryu though), though I remember I had tons of problems on last boss :)

Also I am calling "Freelancers" NoJob, because I don't like official inconsistent translations of FF 5 (Krile? And official translations were made far later after people got used to fanmade translations) with PS1 translation being especially horrible, and SFC version didn't show job name for Suppin :) Even more so, official name for FF V villain seems to be Exodus, but as such it is only used in FF XII (it has all main villains from FF I-V in form of Espers)...
That's why I concurrently play other games, when I get burned out on one, i can play other game a bit :)
Eventually it will be reached :) Some enemies give good exp in Cleft.
1. I also don't throw money at enemies in any FF game. It goes against my principles, and I hoard stuff in games.
2. Kiss of Blessing seems to be bugged. I also don't like to use bugged abilities :) Shadow leaving 1-man party in FF VI was more hilarious... :)

One of my favorite tricks of this sort: In Bard's Tale 3, form a party containing only monsters and illusions, then D)rop everyone from the party. Now you are walking around with an empty party. (I actually discovered this trick playing on an Apple IIgs (which can emulate an Apple II) back in the day.) Now get into a fight and let an enemy attack (who does the enemy attack?).

The problem with Shadow leaving a singleton party is that the game fails to function sensibly after that. Both my FFV example and my BT3 example allow you to walk around and even save the game. (The BT3 case also allows you to run from battles.)

FFVI actually has an easy way to get an all-dead party outside of combat: have your only living party member battle in the Coliseum and lose.

FFV's Kiss of Blessing is bugged in a way that allows it to break the game when used on enemies, but is fair when used on party members. Berserk is actually sometimes a useful effect (especially if you use Spellblade first), and it doesn't trivialize every single battle in the game.

(On the other hand, using the !Mix/X-Magic glitch to cast Spellblade Drain on an enemy, berserking the enemy with Kiss of Blessing, and having someone equipped with Bone Mail does trivialize every battle in a rather humorous manner: The enemy keeps reverse draining your character until it dies!)

FFV has a couple nasty bugs to be aware of. One is the Mix/X-Magic bug; I suggest not equipping both abilities at the same time if you want to avoid it. Another involves Jump or Hide: if an enemy's physical attack has no valid target, memory can be corrupted in strange ways, possibly making you lose many of the items you have obtained so far. (Could this bug maybe be used to execute arbitrary code in some manner?) (Also, Zombie Powder on a Jumping/Hidden character will crash the game.)

These bugs are easy to consider unlike FF VI, which I won't be seriously replaying for this very reason. And Jump/Hide bugs aren't exclusive to FF V, they can cause quite unusual bugs in every FF game which has those abilities.

Btw, you were right about Shinryu, raw damage from his L3 Flare is 13208-13572. Facts for fun, you need at least 2208 Magic Defense to bring Shinryu's damage from any L3 Flare attack to below 9999, and you need at least 8352 Magic Defense to become totally immune to it. Such numbers are not really achievable, but they are results of damage formulas (L3 Flare is barely affected by Magic Defense).