Profile for Thuryl

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Field	Value
Displayed name	Thuryl
Member number	869
Title	...b10010b...
Postcount	9973
Homepage	http://thuryl.desperance.net/blades.html
Registered	Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00

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Author	Recent posts
Party Useful Skills? in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 17:42 Profile Homepage #6 quote: Originally written by Slartucker: Hmm. Parry didn't reduce damage consistently when I tested... perhaps I should try some more. Well, my fighter was taking negligible damage from melee attacks for some reason, anyway. Parry seems the most sensible explanation. I also noticed that enemies with high Parry tended to take much less damage from melee attacks (although they still took normal or close to normal damage from missiles). quote: Does it also reduce missile damage? And more relevantly, does it reduce magic damage? No; it only seems to reduce melee damage, unfortunately. It's still pretty useful for what it does. And on Torment, I'm not sure if you're ever going to be able to rely on dodging everything with Dexterity, Defence and Gymnastics, so Parry may be the safer option. (Mind you, this remains to be seen; I haven't tried making a committed dodger on Torment.) -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Party Useful Skills? in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 17:11 Profile Homepage #4 The thing about Parry is that apart from having a chance to block attacks completely, it also reduces the damage you take when you do get hit. With 10 Parry, my fighter was consistently taking only 1 or 2 damage from nearly all melee attacks, despite frequently having less armour than my mage (who was taking considerably more damage). [ Friday, January 06, 2006 17:12: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Moral dilemmas in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 16:11 Profile Homepage #11 Well, I'll be. What an unfortunate misunderstanding. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Party Useful Skills? in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 15:31 Profile Homepage #2 quote: Originally written by Eigenvalue: First of all, what do you think is better: the main fighter with the sword or the main fighter with the spear? I believe that some enemies take more damage from the sword, while some enemies take more damage from the spear, but still... Of course, using spears means no shields, so less protection and less additional bonuses coming from shields... The lack of defence is less of an issue once you have Parry or Gymnastics -- a high level of one of these renders you almost immune to melee attacks. (Some people swear by Gymnastics, since it helps you dodge missile and magical attacks as well, but I found that Parry was usually good enough for my purposes.) Also, the best halberd in the game raises your physical and elemental resistances by a significant amount. And there are some very good pole weapons available early in the game. On the other hand, there are some excellent shields available late in the game, which increase your offensive abilities as well as protecting you. I gave my only fighter swords throughout the game and did fine with that, but man, I do kinda wish I'd had a character capable of wielding the Jade Halberd... quote: My second question, I did not have an archer in my party when I played the game first time, how much damage can an archer really do? That is, does it even remotely compare to a mage with, say, the kill spell? Mage spells will always have the highest potential to do damage. But some enemies are immune to all or almost all kinds of elemental attack, and other enemies parry melee attacks, or riposte or do other nasty things if you try to hit them in melee. So mages and fighters aren't always very useful for doing damage. Missile attacks do physical damage and are rarely parried, so sometimes an archer is actually your best offensive choice. quote: A similar question is for throwing weapons. Count on throwing weapons to do about 50% more damage than bows throughout the game. Unfortunately, I found that even this very substantial increase in damage wasn't worth the pain of dragging around throwable items. Plus, there are a few bows that have nice side benefits other than direct damage. (Well, and there's one near the end that does better damage than any thrown weapon anyway.) quote: How much should my main fighters invest in bows to make significant damage in the long-range combat. I mean, if my fighter can do, say, 20 bow damage, while a mage can do 100, there does not seem to be any point training bow skills. I didn't bother training bow skills for my fighter -- fighters have enough trouble finding skill points for everything they need to do as it is. Having one or two characters with high Bows skill in your party is definitely worthwhile, though. Obviously, if you want your characters to do any archery, make them Nephilim -- those bonuses to missile skills are very significant, and increase as you gain levels. quote: Or there was something that mages and priests cannot wear some armor to cast some spells? What was that? Some items give a penalty to your hit rate. (These are described as "bulky items" in the item information window, and the penalty is shown). If a mage doesn't have the Natural Mage trait, he can only have up to a 5% penalty -- with a penalty of 10% or more, he can't cast mage spells. If he DOES have Natural Mage, he's allowed up to a 20% penalty -- but with a penalty of 25% or more, he still can't cast mage spells. This applies only to mages, not priests -- priests can wear all the armour they like, as long as you're sure you won't need them to cast any mage spells. quote: I think that for most damage I would like to have two mages, but then priest spells are also great. So maybe: a pure fighter + fighter/priest + 2 mages, or a pure fighter + fighter/mage + mage + priest, or 2 fighters + mage + mage/priest, where say by mage/priest I mean a character developing both mage and priest skills. What do you think? There's no party that will deal out the maximum possible damage to everything, because different monsters have different vulnerabilities. The best advice is to make sure that your party is balanced. Personally, I felt that one fighter was too few early in the game (say, before Parry or Gymnastics), but quite enough late in the game. I suspect the best solution to this is to have only one fighter, but try to get him Parry or Gymnastics as soon as possible. [ Friday, January 06, 2006 15:33: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Uh... Mayday? (possible issue/ spoilers warnng) in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 15:12 Profile Homepage #2 Yeah -- the barriers in Fort Emerald are supposed to be impossible to dispel on your own. Jeff goofed. It's still apparently possible for you to finish the game, but Almaria will remain hostile forever, which kind of sucks. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Any chance of seeing the old good graphs? in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 15:07 Profile Homepage #3 Graphics from the rest of the Avernum series are the wrong size to fit onto Avernum 4's tiles. Resizing would make them look blocky and ugly. [ Friday, January 06, 2006 15:07: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Firebolt in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 14:49 Profile Homepage #4 I'm guessing you didn't give your priest any Mage Spells skill until AFTER level 1, am I right? There's a very subtle oddity in the way that Bolt of Fire and Minor Heal are handled. If you start with enough Mage Spells or Priest Spells skill to know a level of Bolt of Fire or Minor Heal, it counts as a bought level (i.e. you can only buy one more level from a trainer). However, if you put a level into Mage Spells or Priest Spells after character creation, having had 0 levels in it when you first created your character, you still get a free level of Bolt of Fire or Minor Heal, but in this case it counts as a found level, so you can still buy two more levels from a trainer. Try it for yourself. Start a character out with 1 Mage Spells and another character with 0 Mage Spells. Then, immediately after finishing character creation, use the second character's spare skill points to buy them 1 level of Mage Spells. Lark will train your first character up to level 2 in Bolt of Fire, but will train your second character all the way up to level 3. [ Friday, January 06, 2006 14:52: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Moral dilemmas in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 14:36 Profile Homepage #7 quote: Originally written by Ephesos: I felt genuinely bad about those adventurers... particularly once I realized that they were on the same mission as me. Fear not; those are bandits disguised as adventurers. You even get a quest to report their location to an agent in Mertis. quote: 4. Gremlin The last of his clan. Killing him felt almost like genocide. If you talk to him enough times, he eventually attacks you of his own accord, in which case you can at least claim self-defence. [ Friday, January 06, 2006 14:41: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Swords or Spears? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 14:12 Profile Homepage #23 quote: Originally written by Slartucker: Seriously, in Exile the ambidextrous edged weapon setup was RIDICULOUSLY more powerful than anything else. Not against things with heavy armour it wasn't. Sure, your strength bonuses get applied twice if you're wielding two weapons, but so do your target's armour bonuses. Having at least one character who's capable of doing high damage per hit is very advantageous when you're fighting, say, Doomguards. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Is this Legal? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 14:03 Profile Homepage #7 The "Buy" link goes straight to RealArcade, which is a company which we already know that Jeff has an agreement with. There's nothing shady going on here. Move along. (By the way, as I understand it, they're able to offer lower prices than SW because they buy fewer copies than they have players and relicense them out to players while they're playing. Players play through an online client, and can only play if at least one copy of the game isn't already in use by someone else. Something like that, anyway.) [ Friday, January 06, 2006 14:17: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
The nephilim language in The Avernum Trilogy
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Friday, January 6 2006 03:47 Profile Homepage #4 He made that bit of text up for his novel, as he says. Do try to read people's posts more carefully. The only word I can think of (other than a character's name) that was used by Nephilim in a SW game was "Ghath", which is the password to get into the Nephil Castle in Exile 2. This may or may not be an actual word in the Nephil language. [ Friday, January 06, 2006 03:48: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Swords or Spears? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 23:10 Profile Homepage #18 So it would in fact be most accurate to say that "If Alorael or not Alorael" is half of a tautology. :P [ Thursday, January 05, 2006 23:11: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Swords or Spears? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 21:40 Profile Homepage #13 quote: Originally written by Akai Hoshi: "If Alorael and not Alorael..." is a tautology. No, it isn't. "Alorael or not Alorael" would be a tautology. "Alorael and not Alorael" is a contradiction. quote: In Exile, swords and spears are superior. If you want to dual-wield, two flails are almost as good as two waveblades, and much cheaper and easier to find. (Besides, in Exile, spears suck. Halberds are superior. :P ) -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Game speed in combat mode in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 21:00 Profile Homepage #1 Yes. On the other hand, beneficial enchantments generally seem to last longer in Avernum 4 (and there are quite a few of indefinite duration), so having them wear off while you walk around in town mode isn't quite as much of an issue as it used to be. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
anyone got an xbox? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 20:16 Profile Homepage #25 As I have nothing nice to say, I will not say anything. And neither will anyone else, at least in this topic. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Swords or Spears? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 20:12 Profile Homepage #7 It's not a poll about any specific game, so General is fine. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
I Want to Crush Your Dreams. in Blades of Avernum
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 19:44 Profile Homepage #8 quote: Originally written by Ephesos: Instead, you could just have the party discover a spellbook belonging to the prophet. This could be accomplished through the party having to return a quest item to the prophet, and the prophet's convenient and temporary absence. Now there's an idea. It even suggests a moral dilemma; either kill the prophet and use your knowledge of his magic to replace him as leader of the village, or expose him as a fraud, earn the gratitude of the villagers, and move on. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
anyone got an xbox? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 19:38 Profile Homepage #16 Inthrall, MyBuddy, if the two of you are just going to talk to each other, it might be more efficient for you to use private messages instead. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
anyone got an xbox? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 19:19 Profile Homepage #7 quote: Originally written by MyBuddy: you lucky son of a can i say the rest here? Please don't. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
2 Questions in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 18:52 Profile Homepage #25 And of course, it's well-known that a great deal of colloquial black American English originated in nautical slang, as the first exposure to English many African-Americans' ancestors had was aboard a ship. [ Thursday, January 05, 2006 18:54: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Avernum:4 vs Blades Of Avernum which is the best? in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 18:48 Profile Homepage #50 Topic drift happens. No sense in being a stuffed shirt about it. [ Thursday, January 05, 2006 18:49: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
I Want to Crush Your Dreams. in Blades of Avernum
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 18:12 Profile Homepage #5 Then what do the three quests have to do with the plot at all? -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Avernum:4 vs Blades Of Avernum which is the best? in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 18:11 Profile Homepage #47 This has been pointed out already. We don't care. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Swords or Spears? in General
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 18:04 Profile Homepage #4 Exile series: Usually two edged fighters and one polearm fighter. And I give at least one character a few points in bashing weapons, because hey, why not. Nethergate: Spears for spellcasters (who can't afford to be encumbered with shields anyway, and occasionally benefit from being able to get a few good hits in), mostly swords for fighters. (Although my Roman party does have one spearman as well as two swordsmen, just because.) BoA: Swords. Scenario designers have an unfortunate tendency to make powerful swords and neglect polearms. A4: Swords. [ Thursday, January 05, 2006 18:06: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Unique Item Locations. in Avernum 4
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, January 5 2006 17:40 Profile Homepage #39 Not much point killing Starrus, seeing as how doing so is fatal and all. On the subject of dubious ways of earning treasure, there's the mage in the mines near Dharmon, whose claim you can jump to get a Wisdom Crystal (and a few other valuable crystals). He puts up quite a fight when you get back to him, lugging your ill-gotten gains around with you. [ Thursday, January 05, 2006 18:13: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00

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