Profile for Evil_Penguin
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Evil_Penguin |
| Member number | 5632 |
| Title | Apprentice |
| Postcount | 14 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
Recent posts
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| Wheel of Time in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Sunday, August 7 2005 12:12
Profile
Although I haven't read the book you're talking about, if it really is that long and complicated, I would suggest doing it in smaller sections. As in, the first part of the book is a beginning party scenario, the next is a scenario for higher levels, etc. That way, it becomes much more manageable, and even if you don't finish the entire massive project, you still have a playable scenario or two, and you still have continuity. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 08:01
Profile
quote:Now there's an idea. Somebody should try to design a scenario that actually is better off not existing. It could be a true contest of skill. Each of you designs a scenario, and whichever one does more actual harm (probably psychological, but defined however you want) to the player wins. You could have a rating system. Like, convincingly propogating racial stereotypes is a certain number of points. And you would get points for inducing all sorts of things in the player, like an eating disorder, TM-like misanthropy, Mormonism, or just plain stupidity. The trick is not to just make an awful scenario - that's easy. The trick is to make an awful scenario that people will actually want to play and be negatively affected by. Whoever wins will surely have proved the other wrong by showing exactly what's wrong with the other's scenarios through the broken wrecks of human beings that will be the playtesters. Anyway, it's just an idea. Or everybody could just calm down a little. Either way is fine. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| Undead Horde Substitutes in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Saturday, May 14 2005 11:31
Profile
Perhaps there should be a scenario in which there is an enthusiastic necromancer trying to raise an undead horde to terrorize the countryside, only all the local townsfolk have the "been there, done that" attitude. "Ho hum, there's a group of our fallen loved ones trying to eat my brain again. Strange weather we're having, though, eh?" Your party wanders into the area with the intention of killing the necromancer, but ends up feeling sorry for him and engages in a quest to help him make his plague more interesting. You get so caught up in your work that you end up recruiting the aid of various factions, like disgruntled environmentalist dryads/plant monsters, super-intelligent communist sheep (the worker's revolution begins!), a crazy suicide cult of some sort, and maybe militant racial purists. A massive war between the various factions erupts, and all are destroyed, including the now astonished townsfolk. The necromancer, realizing that you make far better villains than he could ever be, gives up his scheming and goes into the music business. Maybe he gives you a wand or something. In any case, the above factions are all ideas for substitutes for the undead that could be fought against, or even with. There should be scenarios where the human settlers are the villains. It would be great if you were actually supposed to slaughter a whole village, guards and all. Maybe some kind of a witch hunt, where you are the witch? Or how about an evil corporation? There could be a Disney-like entity which is using its amusement park (I guess it would more of a medieval fair) to subtly turn children into mind-controlled, mindless consumer slaves. The local parents turn to you for help, but when you go to investigate, all of the lovable, anthropomorphic characters they've created turn out to be extremely deadly monsters, which must be destroyed. Just think: a final showdown in a boardroom, where an unmasked, evil CEO is surrounded by huge, lovable pink bunnies with big claws. Maybe some of the creatures could rebel against their servitude, and you could have a big two-sided battle, with a few Mickey Mouse types on your side. When you win, the wounded, exhausted CEO is surrounded by his own creations and torn to pieces. I mean, come on, people. Everything has NOT been done. [ Saturday, May 14, 2005 11:53: Message edited by: Evil_Penguin ] Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| Phaedra in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Monday, April 11 2005 07:42
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So maybe she's a slut, or maybe she just dresses like one to manipulate people, or maybe she goes swimming a lot. Maybe the gleaming steel bikini distracts her enemies, giving her an advantage in combat that plate mail simply cannot provide. I don't see why that's a problem. I mean, there are people who dress provocatively in real life. Often, they use it to their advantage. Why can't there be in BOA? Does Phaedra have to be the paradigm of virtue? I don't see the contradiction here. Maybe Avernum is just a chauvinistic society. It's hardly unlikely, considering almost every society ever in real life has been. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| Singleton Vs. Spellcaster in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Monday, April 11 2005 07:33
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What kind of skills does your singleton have? It seems like most people go with an archer/priest for a singleton, which tends to be very effective. Archery in general is by far the easiest way to kill spellcasters, since they tend to have high magic resistances and stay out off melee range. In fact, the singletons I've made haven't had any melee or pole weapons skill at all, relying solely on archery and magic, and its worked out quite well. Who needs melee? The damage might be higher (unless you've played through canopy...), but being able to stay out of harm's way and picking your targets is a big advantage, especially vs. spellcasters. As a singleton who uses primarily melee, I don't know if there is an easy way. Obviously war blessing is necessary, for the resistance and the extra AP, which you'll need to chase the buggers down. Those skills that raise magic resistances (hardiness, luck, resistance, magery, etc.) are crucial in my opinion, but some people seem to think they're a waste if you can get your resistances from radiant shield. These people are wrong. :) Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| The Abominable Party-Building Topic in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Friday, April 1 2005 13:25
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I figure Erika started out as a strictly spellcasting singleton. Apparently the trick is not to get a powerful, terribly inconvenient curse put on you that evil Vahnatai archmagi are aware of and can take advantage of. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| A4 wants in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Friday, April 1 2005 13:06
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If it means anything, I've been dying to play as vahnatai ever since Exile 2. That would, I think, be the logical next choice if any races are added as playable. I doubt they would be, though, just because it really would necessitate making the differences between races actually significant, instead of limited to minor bonuses and small, irrelevent special encounters. Anyway, though, the humans, nephil, and slith all have a lot more in common than any do with the vahnatai (life span alone is a huge cultural gap), and there are reasons that would make implementing them difficult, such as being greatly harmed by sunlight. But if they WERE implemented, they would have some truly awesome bonuses AND drawbacks, which would make things very interesting. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| The Abominable Party-Building Topic in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Thursday, March 31 2005 08:52
Profile
It's not that maximillian does poor damage - my warrior generally hits in the low 300s. It's just that my archer does even more. And he does have plenty in blademaster. Incidentally, though, is there some reason blademaster is very powerful that I'm not seeing? I thought it was just equivalent to a point each in melee and pole weapons, meaning its only worthwhile when it becomes cheaper to get all the prereqs in pole weapons and THEN start buying it than to add more points in melee. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| The Abominable Party-Building Topic in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Wednesday, March 30 2005 14:28
Profile
My tank has maximillian, but still does less damage than the archer (though its still a lot), chiefly because the archer has more skill points to spare to raise his damage. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| The Abominable Party-Building Topic in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Wednesday, March 30 2005 12:48
Profile
A word on the pure archer - it most definitely is viable, and extremely powerful. My party consists of a front-line tank (human, natural warrior), a pure archer (nephil), and two mage/priests. The archer kills more than any of them. Why? Well, three reasons. First, adlerauge, the incredibly powerful bow from canopy which does 1-9 per level plus some ridiculous bonuses, is comparable to the highest damage melee or pole weapons. Personally, I think it's rather unbalancing. Ranged weapons usually do less damage for a reason, which brings me to the next two points. Second, unlike a tank, which has to put lots of skill points into endurance and defense and the like, the archer is free to be entirely offensive, since they should only very rarely be in harm's way in the first place. In this way they're much like magic users. Also, while a tank should probably have a couple points in either bows or thrown, so he doesn't waste a turn if the enemies are out of range, the archer does NOT need any points in melee or pole weapons, since these will do less damage than the ranged attack anyway, there's no restriction on point blank shots, and it's easy and cheap to buy lots of arrows often. Thus, the archer's attack level (dex/2 + bows + sharpshooter) should be considerably higher than the warrior's equivalent. And third, the archer should have high dexterity (and therefore high initiative) and doesn't have to move much to attack. Therefore, he will almost always get a very high damage shot or two (or three) before the fight even really begins, and does the same every turn while being in relatively little danger. What this amounts to is being able to pick which of your enemies you want to fight least, and killing them before they even know what's happening. This makes the archer particularly indispensible as a mage-killer, since silencing their spells early is important, and mages usually hang back and are resistant to magic. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| Magery v. Priest-ery in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Tuesday, March 29 2005 15:56
Profile
In my most successful party, I had two almost pure magic users, both of which started with 6 mage, 5 priest, with one getting high level priest and the other getting high level mage. Since they both boost spell points, its not really a waste, even if you don't use most of the spells. But you will use some all the time. Practically all the tough fights I was in, they both hasted themselves first. Next turn, they would almost certainly go first, and so that's four spells I can cast a turn, starting probably with hasting, blessing, and radiant shielding my fighter and archer. And, you know, not everything is undead or demonic (even if it might seem that way sometimes), and its good to have attack spells that actually work. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| effects of special skills in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Sunday, March 27 2005 12:27
Profile
Oops, my bad. It was a nephil. I didn't realize their dex bonus didn't count for the prerequisites. It's changed now. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| effects of special skills in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Sunday, March 27 2005 11:30
Profile
I noticed there seems to be a lot of questions about this, which leads me to believe no actual database exists. I, for one, am not sure what some of the skills actually do. Therefore, if anyone does have a complete list, it might be helpful to post it or provide a link. If not, maybe you could just fill in what gaps you know or correct my errors, and I'll edit the list to include them. This is what I've determined, myself: MAGERY: Adds one bonus point (the "B" value in the spell calculations in the manual) to both mage and priest spells, one magic resistance, and one willpower. Requires: 10 intelligence. MAGICAL EFFICIENCY: Unknown chance to reduce spell costs by unknown amount. Requires: 8 magery, 11 endurance. SHARPSHOOTER: The same as one point each in bows and thrown weapons. Adds one level of damage in and +5% to hit in each. Requires: 6 dexterity, 8 in either bows or thrown weapons. BLADEMASTER: The same as one point each in melee and pole weapons. Adds one level of damage and +5% to hit in each. Requires: 8 strength, 6 melee weapons, 6 pole weapons. QUICK STRIKE: Adds one point to intitiative (who acts first in combat, otherwise determined only by dexterity) and gives unknown chance for extra action points. Requires: 8 dexterity, 6 in either melee or pole weapons. ANATOMY: Unknown bonus to damage vs. humanoids and to first aid. Requires: 6 intelligence, 8 pole weapons. GYMNASTICS: Adds one point intiative and reduces chance to be hit by unknown amount. Requires: 8 strength, 10 dexterity. PARRY: Theoretically gives a chance to greatly reduce damage received from an attack.In practice, not much - only works against weapon users? Requires: 8 dexterity, 6 defense. RIPOSTE: Theoretically gives a chance to deflect damage back onto an attacker. In practice, not much - only works against weapon users? Requires: 8 parry, 6 blademaster, 8 in either melee or pole weapons. RESISTANCE: Gives one point each in resist elements, resist poison, resist magic, and willpower. (5% bonus to resist fire, cold, magic, mental, poison) Requires: 8 strength, 10 dexterity, 11 endurance, 8 hardiness. PATHFINDER: Reduces chance and severity of damage from hostile terrain (swamps, lava, etc.) by unknown amount. Requires: 8 intelligence, 8 nature lore. LETHAL BLOW: Unknown chance to do hugely enhanced damage to a much weaker enemy. (like a more extreme version of assassination) Requires: 8 blademaster, 8 anatomy. [ Sunday, March 27, 2005 12:38: Message edited by: Evil_Penguin ] Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |
| High level scenarios? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 5632
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written Saturday, March 26 2005 11:39
Profile
Well, I've taken a party through the four pre-packaged scenarios, canopy (twice), and basshikava (all on torment), and now I'm left with an uber-powerful level 60+ party that's desperate for something to challenge it. Sadly, while there are many low-level scenarios, there doesn't seem to be any scenarios designed for a party over level 50. This is a clear case of age discrimination. I hereby demand that someone else spend hours and hours constructing a creative scenario to satisfy my bloolust. Comply. Posts: 14 | Registered: Saturday, March 26 2005 08:00 |