After playing a while I found that I had accumulated quite some cash, and decided to thank my trusty party by getting them some new gear. So I went to my favourite weapons dealer in Thorwal and browsed the inventory for a while.

But everything looks the same..? I looked for the stats of the weapons online (assuming the weapons would simply be implemented 1:1 as in the original Pen&Paper rules), but even then, I found it very hard to actually decide what weapons are somehow better than the gear I started with..

Are there any suggestions as to which weapons are really an upgrade over the starting weapons? (Also: is the crossbow better than the longbow..? It is sold for more, so I would guess it is.. somehow?)

I like the fact that the weapons have a 'real' feel to them, as they are presented as normal tools almost, and not the crazy gear dropped by rats in most RPG's. But if there where no weapons I could save my money for during the whole game, that would be somehow disappointing. But I guess there are some nice finds along the way..

So, you'e choosen "hard mode" ... ;-P

And once you are in RoA 2 you will get some better faces. The original selection is quite horrible....

Well, I suppose better parties are possible, but venture forth into the unknown, courageous adventurers, what's the worst that could happen? :P

As for the faces, I'm thinking about converting Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale faces (or some other game portraits) into the proper format and using them for my party. But on the other hand, the six faces I'm using right now are not that bad, being able to choose any face without regard for the class helps somewhat.

Oh, but I also have an actual follow-up question to my original post: How about shields? Are there weapons that don't work well with shields, or should I simply always equip a shield when the game allows for it..?

Also, are the throwing weapons worth it? Can they be picked up again after use..? Also, can one use them in close quarters like a normal weapon and only throw them when attacking from a distance, or are they always thrown without the option of being used just like a normal stabbing weapon? Right now, I only see their price tag and their inability to stack.. which makes them seem kind of useless o_O

Shields are very important. Your "tanks" should use them from the start. Any ranged class (elves) should carry ammunition. But every other fighter should use shields. In some cave (Goblin or Wolve Cave, not sure) you will find a golden shield that can be used by the mage. Very, very helpful. Always go for iron shields as long as your char can take the weight.

If you find weapons in dungeons, take notice when selling them. Magical weapons/armor will be more expansive without a spell check. Your mage sould master odem arcanum or better analüs asap to identify the magical stuff.

I've never used thrown weapons. I don't think you can pick them up in RoA 1, that was only added in RoA 2 or 3.

Oh, and the game is very cruel. Don't climb chasms you're not prepared for, save regularly (the 1 xp hit isn't that important) Never, never, never ever anger the goods. There a many ways to lose a char for good. Always have a rope with you (the wand doesn't always work).

Oh, and the one shot instakill ranged weapon is the slingshot.

Good to know. Last time I suspected the gold shield might be useful, but couldn't figure out how.

I also found some other things during play:

- I seem to remember (very vaguely) that I once read that the first RoA game has a time limit .. I hope that's not true at all?

- When sleeping in the wild or a dungeon, is it useful to carry blankets? I.e., is it more comfy and the characters will regain more points during sleep?

- How many ropes should be carried? I found a hole were four ropes were needed, but I hope that's not common? I usually carry two now..

- When arriving at a new village.. do you check ALL the doors..? It's somewhat tedious, but I can't see any way around, as some buildings are important.

- Is there a key that opens up the menu that appears when right clicking?

- Is there any difference between normal and recommended shops, other than just price? Selection probably.. but a sword is the same no matter where one buys it, I guess?

- Are there limits beyond which it's useless to develop stats? I read once that talents should not be increased after reaching 7, as in that case the talent will succeed always (provided the associated character value is a 13) - is that true? And if so, is this a general rule that talents >7 and skills >13 are rather useless..? That would be weird..

*edit:
- I just saw that one of my party members has somehow accumulated more experience points than all the others - how can that happen? I never split the party, but he's my dungeon leader, if that has anything to do with it..

It has a time limit. About 2 1/2 years. You will never notice it in a normal walkthrough. It is somewhat considered an easter egg because you have to "cheat" (sleep for month at an inn) to get it. No worries. Yes, blankets help. Supposedly cuttleryfor everybody and a pot for the group should also help. I always carried them with me for roleplaying reasons. Two is fine. Only in Thorwal and Phexcear brown houses are special. Then you have the occasional map owner, but you'll get directions to those. Prem and Felsteyn/Oberorken (?) has an unmarked dungeon to which the gossip will lead. Not that I know of. Price and availability. Weapons bought in shops always have the same stats. Only the ones found in Dungeons/events can be different even so the game gives no obvious indication. Check the stats and use magic on weapons found. Weapons found as a combat result are also always normal, but weapons found directly after a battle can be special. The better the better. A roll is made against the main stats + skill points. So 13 + 7 = and automatic win. But difficulty is made by addin -x to each throw. Finding water in the mountains in RoA 2 has something like -15 (theoretically possible, but very unlikely). Therefor combat skills, medicine skills and those two single skills at the end should always be raised. Having some not so crucial skill at five is OK if your main stats are fine. You are using the standard group with horrible stats, so good luck ;-). Strengh is the most important stat imo for all non mages, intelligence for mages.

Keys, btw, can all be sold. they serve no purpose in the game. And remember this is an "oldschool hero RPG" no moral ambiguity or that. Always act honorable, humble and brave.

Again, very helpful :) I thought that there must be a system in place to negatively affect stats, it wouldn't make much sense otherwise.

Also, I don't think I would only increase strength for the non-mage characters. The dwarf just got a +1 on his dexterity, and my fighters with strength 13 atm are scheduled to get an +1 on their intuition, as I think that's quite important for combat as well?

Oh, speaking of gaining levels: since experience seems to be rather sparse, what level can I reasonably expect to reach by the end of the game? (I'm playing it for the first time, so I'm quite likely to miss some stuff o_O) Just so I can plan ahead a bit better.

Why do you say the default group has horrible stats? Their values seem quite okay to me, there's not a single below 10, and even that's rare? As for the talents, despite infecting every wound I try to heal (always great fun), most of it works fine? The only thing that worries me at the moment is that my mage has a horrible stat for saving someone who is turned to stone..

Intution is also important, but nowhere near as much as strengh. Btw, each character should raise climbing as a skill, there is a certain monolith in the game that will give the character +1 intuition if climbed.

With a 6 person party you should end the game around level six. Maybe some chars will still have five, maybe the dwarf(or the dungeon leader in general) will have seven.

About the stats, let's put it this way. My group always had 13 in every good stat (and corresponding bad negative stats) the negatice stats hardly influence the game at all, so tinkering with the char creation was no problem. To get such a group however, always takes the better part of an afternoon.

Petrification can be a killer. You need a spell at at least -5 to have a chance in casting it. Therefore "hartes schmelze" should be raised asap. There is only one healer who can cure a petrified char, and even he doesn't have much of a chance. I'm not sure if gods are able to depetrify a char.

I recommend raising only strength at level up even for your mage. You can carry more stuff without penalty, do more damage per attack and get the biggest benefit (together with agility which doesn't offer the other benefits, courage and intuition are even only half as useful, charisma and dexterity are even useless in combat) attack/parry base value.

Be aware that armor class is subtracted from damage taken. So if you use a sword doing 5-10 damage to attack an enemy with 5 AC you'll only do 0-5 damage per successful hit, imagine how helpless you'd be versus even better AC. You get +1 to damage for every strength point higher than 14 or so (depends on weapon), this will make a difference.

How AC is handled is also the reason using weapons which do high damage but are hard to handle are preferable and wearing a shield and heavy armor is worth it.

Outside physical combat the positive attributes are used for skill and spell checks but all attributes are checked relatively evenly, quite some skills and spells check for strength and you have to raise all three checked attributes by 1 to get the same result as if doing a single point skill raise at level up.


The pregenerated party is quite powerful (far more powerful than the RoA2 party for example) and you can afford to develop your characters as you wish without loosing the ability to finish the game but raising only strength will yield a more comfortable playthrough.

Thanks for the second opinion. The +1 dexterity I gave my dwarf was more for picking locks than anything combat related. But the next upgrade will probably be a +1 strength for most of them, as it would apparently a bad idea not to.

Also, I arrived now at the temple of the nameless with my second party, and fights go much more smoothly than the first time, when I essentially got my backside handed to me - in a very rude manner, I dare say o_O

So glad to see all this learning pans out :)
(I also buy a round at the local tavern every time I get a bunch of these helpful hints, as I imagine my rookie party sitting down with the scarred veterans and learning from them ^^)

@Pantalaimon: You said you hexed the savegame. Is there an editor for this one or a DETAILED format guide? I've been working for several years (on and off) on deciphering the format and a link posted somewhere on the forums here redirected to something weaker than what I already have.

As for what SimonG said:
- the unmarked dungeons in towns are in Prem (singled out house) and Upper Orcam (Oberorken) (top of the leftmost column)
- the negative stat "superstition" greatly influences magic resistance (hence I never played a Thorvalian)

Also as a hint - two words: USE POISON
Poison rules. Poison is instakill. A poisoned wand in the hands of a level 1 magician pulverizes Heshot without fail.
Poison is the most awesome on stacked throwables (throwing stars), as if you poison the whole stack (let's say 16-20 stars) and divide them into groups of 3, you will simply switch stacks when the poison runs out on one of them. Also there's an exploit with poisoned stacks: when an unpoisoned stack is combined with a poisoned one in a certain way (can't recall exactly) the poison is applied to the new stack. Endless poison.

Another exploit allows to have both a shield and a 2-H weapon in your hands.

And as for magical items - I never cared much, as the temple of Rondra (if used correctly) magickifies your party's weapons (which allows them to damage magical enemies).

Using poison takes away the challenge in combat so you might not want to use it.
Rondra doesn't like the use of poison.

Thanks for the additional info.

If poison is really that powerful, I don't think I will use it much, especially since I don't have any problems with my current party and the current enemies I'm facing. It's good to have such an ace up one's sleeve though. However, I have to say, once the initial hurdle has been taken, the game seems to loose a LOT of its threatening difficulty.

The most important things I learned are that fights take some time, so I don't need to worry if it doesn't go as fast as I'm used from current games; and that the key to winning fights merely seems to be concentrating as much force as possible on only one guy, while positioning the warriors in a way that they block the path to the casters.

I still love the insane amount of options the game offers in terms of party management, equipment, and so on, but I can now see that all of this is essentially "only" flavour, and not at all required to master in order to being able to complete the game.

Now I just need to buy me some winter clothes, as its getting colder, and there's this one guy who keeps reminding me that winter is coming (he almost seems to lose his head over this..)

Not that I know of, but all you really need is the offsets to the important parts, i.e., where do which values start. Once you have that (I linked this in another post), you can do whatever you want with your characters. I was thinking about writing an editor for this, but I'm kind of lazy ;)

Once you get into the game, I don't really see any need to use any exploits at all, to be honest. Maybe really hard enemies are just around the next corner, but at the moment the game is quite a breeze.