My link in the earlier post links to mage builds and also discussion on mana regeneration formulas

Thanks.

Consider taking some ranks in hide in shadows (3-5, depending on your dexterity i guess), you will be deadly at night. Enemies cannot target you while you're hidden, an easy way to beat large mobs even at low levels.

The most important thing for casters is Perception. Get that up to 38-40. What you want is to make sure your starting roll has 14 in Per, and then put all your 15 starting points into it. Choose the +2 Per race so you start the game with 31. You'll start the game with around 75 mana with great regen. If you choose druidic, it's even faster.

I wouldn't bother will skills like meditation or survival. Pump up your Per and later you can bring your int/wis up to 20. There's plenty of time for the latter. What I do is raise Per to 40, then End to 20, then round off a stat or two, then bring Str to 20, then finish off Int and Wis.

I honestly do not understand the claims that the Spiderweb games are hard. The only time I had trouble with them was when I was wandering into areas that were much too tough for me. If you build a balanced party in the Avernum games or think carefully about where to specialize in the Geneforge games they really aren't that tough. Plus there are difficulty settings if you're having trouble.

Am I really in the minority on this one?

Im currently playing Geneforge 1 and doing a ranged guardian. The first time I played Geneforge 1 with my agent was the first time I played a turn based game. It was my own fault that I ruined my character. However, Im almost done this time around with a little knowledge from last time. Needless to say its much much easier once you know a build that works. I happened to find an almost perfect ranged weapons build in G1, Im killing major monsters in 2 hits. My previous character couldn't do that and was a detriment.

The best thing I can say about all this is that specialize, specialize, specialize in a certain group of skills. Doing that makes you strong.

I really want to give a go at Avernum 1 when Im done but frankly, last time I played it was tough as undead had like 9 attacks per round. If you know of a way to combat that I would like to know as this is some quality roleplaying. The best is when you figure out the skills/way to play.

I don't remember my play of A1, but I don't remember it being insanely hard.

Did you happen to know how to beat those enemies with multiple attacks? Its the multiple attacking ones that get me. Maybe I should just use archers to take them down.

Sorry I don't.

Nine attacks per round sounds like way too many. Were you actually in full combat mode? It's possible to "fight" outside of combat mode, with your party still standing in a line, but when you do that only your first character will fight and it's really inefficient. It's basically to make super-easy fights (like killing a single rat) go faster. But if you're in full combat mode enemies shouldn't get more than 2 or 3 attacks per round. Were they casting slow spells on you or haste spells on themselves? Those spells are really useful and you should use them in fights too to help give you an edge.

The thing about the Avernum series is that they're completely open world, so it can be easy to wander somewhere that's much too tough for you, so if things are hard it's probably better to just explore somewhere else. Maybe these enemies were just way to tough and you should only try to tackle them when you're higher level. There are also some optional bits of certain areas that are much harder then the rest; I remember exploring a cave and most of it was really easy but then there was like a runed door or something and if I opened that there was an insanely powerful demon inside. I had to remember that, and come back to it later when I was much stronger.

Anyway, I always made a balanced party: one standard weapons fighter, one polearms fighter, one priest/healer (I forget what they're actually called) and one sorcerer. That way you can always use the cool gear you find, because you've got both types of weapon covered, and you have access to all spells. If I remember correctly, you can also pick "traits" or something at character creation that let you give special buffs or debuffs to your characters. I usually didn't bother with these but there's a really useful one for sorcerers that allow them to cast magic while still wearing armor. It makes them level slower but I always though it was worth it.

I've heard that powergamers will take more than one sorcerer because the high-level spells are really powerful and can target multiple enemies at once. I was always fine with just one, though, and I liked collecting gear for my fighters. But it's up to you of course.

The tricky part with the Avernum games is that you have to think hard before you start, to make sure you build a decent party. I think there's a default party that gives you an idea of what to pick though. As long as you've got some reasonably well-designed characters you should be OK.


EDIT: Apologies for de-railing this thread, feel free to return discussion to the Eschalon games.

I fucking loathe games that are "hardcore" for the sake of being hardcore.

Playing a fighter, 10 lvl, focused on dex/str and occasionaly endurance. Playing with swords and heavy armor, plus I invested in survival (7 or 8 points on that).

I have explored the first areas, the whole Tangletree forest, Baron's Thicket, Blackwater. I tried venturing into Crakamir lands, saw a Taurax, he hit me with 80%, I hit it with approximately 35% and of course I left. I've only 3-4 side quests left, all of them asking me to go to Crakamir or Goblin Citadel. Crakamir is out of the question, so I decided to do the main quest and head to Vela. Tough one but I managed until a certain point. On the path that leads you to the torture chamber (according to my hunch and certified by a walkthrough) you stumble upon some archers on a plank on water that you cannot reach if you are a melee fighter and even if you choose to ignore them, more archers come from down the path PLUS those annoying goblins with the powder kegs, who also cannot be fought properly without spell/ranged attacks because the only way to kill them is to let them explode on me. I managed once to deal with the archers (not those in the water) and the bombthug goblins using a lot of potions and then a Taurax appeared and I gave up. Seriously? If I knew that before, I'd start with an archer or something. It feels so unfair.

And don't let me start on that damned ossuary. Impossible with a melee build. Full of poltergeists that can be hurt only with magical damage, which means I should somehow find a magical enhanced sword. For your information, I have only found ONE +1 sword in the whole game and that was early in the game, so I sold it, not knowing I'd probably need this later on. Of course no merchant sells these kind of swords.

And to be clear, I am not annoyed by the difficulty of the game (although it gets a tad unfair sometimes) but by the fact that restricts you very much and becomes unplayable. Literally, I don't have any options right now.

Disappointed.

I started playing eschalon 1 when I got it free. So far I like it even if it is a bit difficult. My biggest worry is that I do not know what skills are important and how to splits skills and ability building. I'm hoping a ranger type character with archery and priest spells with work. I'm also concentrating on a couple of skills just like in avernum.

It does not seem more difficult than Avernum. Of course I cheesed the 4 party system to get the early priest spells for 3 characters and that made it much easier. 1 fighter(2 str 1 int) with swords and priest spells, 1 Rogue(2 dex, 1 int) with bows and priest spells. A priest(2 int 1 int) who does polearms, and a mage who also took the armor trait. 2 points in the main skill and attribute to 1 in the minor.

I'll have to play a bit more to know how difficult the game will be.