Avernum 5 Annotated Maps

Character Stats and Traits

• Introduction
• Statistics Discussion
• Special Skills
• Resistance Bonuses
• Character Trait Discussion
• Races
• Classes
• Spells

Introduction

Character type: I always choose custom. It's not a bad idea to go for a preset class if this is your first time playing the game, but custom classes are almost always superior, as you have much better control over your skills. The most important thing to your character are his/her stats/skills, which are discussed next.

It is worth noting that preset character classes get a few more skill points than custom characters, but they are usually more spread around. Due to the nature of the trainers in this game, spreading points around is frequently not a good idea. Hence these bonus points aren't always useful, and are often detrimental to a character's maximal development.

Of course, you can beat the game with pretty much any character set, so it's not really worth worrying about that much.

Personally I like to go with what I call the 'Mad Monk Squad': two fighter-priests and two mage-priests. The first fighter is a swordsman, the second one is a pole user with lots of tool ability. One of Having everyone enabled to heal, cure, and unshackle mind eliminates the vulnerability of having just one or two priests. Undead monsters and demons don't stand a chance. What is truly impressive is to charge into a room full of baddies with 4 hasted priests and cast up to 8 divine fires; awesome!

Statistics Discussion

++++Basic Stats++++

• Strength (initial cost- 6). Strength influences your damage, some of your resistances, and the amount you can carry. Every point in strength adds 9 to your weight allowance. Increase your strength when you need to increase your carrying capacity, as the other bonuses are harder to notice. This skill influences other special skills, so be sure to increase it occasionally. The bonus to damage really isn't that big a deal.


• Dexterity (initial cost- 6). Dexterity influences your attack position (when you attack compared to when your enemies attack), your to hit%, your dodging ability, and a few other things. It is an excellent skill to increase, and it also affects several special skills.


• Intelligence (initial cost- 6). Intelligence influences your spell strength, your mental resistance, and your available spell points. Fighters can mostly ignore this, as aside from the bonus to mental resistance, it doesn't give them much of a bonus. The bonus to mental resistance is pretty low, anyway.


• Endurance (initial cost- 5). Increases your HP and some of your resistances. This is a skill that's nice to have, but is fairly costly. Give your fighters ~2 added points each, and keep your priests/mages at 0 or 1 added points. At the beginning of the game, it adds maybe 1 or 2 HP per level. Increase it near the end of the game where the extra HP comes in handy, especially when stacked with some of the permanent spells.

++++Weapon Stats++++

• Melee Weapons (initial cost- 4). Determines melee weapon damage and to hit%, other than pole weapons. Any weapon that uses only 1 hand is officially a melee weapon. These items usually aren't too strong, but have great bonuses.


• Pole Weapons (initial cost- 4). Determines pole weapon damage and to hit%. Pole weapons are much stronger than melee weapons, but you can't use a shield. Sliths get bonuses to this skill.


• Bows (initial cost- 2). Determines damage done/to hit% by bows. Allows you to strike from a distance. A nice skill that everyone should add points to (from a trainer though- DON'T add points if you're a mage/priest beforehand). Bows are pretty powerful in Avernum 4, especially near the end game, as bows are very difficult to block with parry. A dedicated bow user is not a bad idea.


• Thrown Weapons (initial cost- 2). Determines damage/to hit% done by thrown weapons. Thrown weapons are much more limited than bows, but much stronger. However, you have to have a good collection to use this regularly. I tend to stick with bows.


• Quick Action (initial cost- 1). Gives you a small chance to attack twice, and increases your attack order. A nice, cheap skill- at about level 5-6, you'll get lots of double attacks.

++++Magic Stats++++

• Mage Spells (initial cost- 5). Determines the level of mage spells you can cast, as well as their strength. Mages should get this up to level 17 (without item bonuses, but with natural mage bonuses, if you're not going to be dependent on a specific item set).


• Priest Spells (initial cost- 4). Determines the level of priest spells you can cast, as well as their strength. Priests should get this up to level 17 (with or without bonuses- note that a few items provide bonuses to priest spells and enable casting of high level spells while equipped).


• Arcane Lore (initial cost- 1). Determines your ability to read spells. No more than 20 is needed for the whole game, maybe less.


• Spellcraft (initial cost- 3). Provides a bonus to all spells. Once you've enabled magery, improve this till they both cost the same. It's a nice ability for mages/priests only.

++++Micsllaneous Stats & Loreeees++++

• Hardiness (initial cost- 1). Increases resistances and decreases damage taken by attacks.


• Defense (initial cost- 2). Increases dodging ability, or your ability to be missed by melee attacks. Also opens up parry, which is a potent skill in A4.


• Tool Use (initial cost- 1). Determines ability to unlock doors, disarm traps, and fiddle with things in general. 15 points maximum is all that's needed, though that's a lot of skill points. Add this skill to your mage only. The spell unlock adds to your tool use, giving you a huge bonus, only if they have some tool use.


• Nature Lore (initial cost- 1). This determines your chance of passifying monsters (kill them afterwards, if you like), and of finding caches. If you want to use the best bow in the game, get this up to 25. Otherwise, max it out at about 18-20. Aim for ~12 around Fort Dranlon, ~14 around the TotM, ~15 around the slith lands. I always stockpile a few skill points so that if I encounter a cache and can't get the goodie inside, I add a point or two to nature lore and grab it.


• First Aid (initial cost- 1). Influence the health you get returned to you when you've killed something. Interestingly, this skill only kicks in when you've killed something (maybe only killing something for xp, at that). It's a great skill that can return a nice bit of HP and SP for fights. It'll keep you moving through the enemies.


• Luck (initial cost- 4). Provides a bonus to many things, most notably resistances. I'm not sure what else it does, really, but it's worth investing in occasionally.

Special Skills

Once you've gotten established in your game, you'll notice a few special skills become available with a bit of playing. In order to train in them, you have to meet the following requirements (these notes are from the spiderweb message boards). Sometimes it's a bit confusing as to when a skill is ready, since you may have earned points in the skill through other means. To this end I have stated how many points a skill should cost before you can activate the special skill. For example, say you have a slith and are trying to get blademaster. The slith gets automatic bonuses to pole weapons, and these bonuses can lead to over-investment into a specific skill, which is bad. If you want blademaster and have a character with bonuses to these skills, these notes should help you decide where you want to place your skill points.

It is worth noting that some skills are slightly redundant (Spellcraft -> Magery, Bows -> Sharpshooter), but that putting points in a new special skill is often cheaper.

Another point worth noting is that skill bonuses received from items, blessings, and character traits DO NOT add points towards the skill set requirement, but skill bonuses from trainers do go towards skill set requirement. For instance, one gets a bonus to endurance as a reward for a few quests. However, this bonus does not count towards the resistance / magical efficiency requirements. However, the bonuses also don't increase the skill cost, so it's not all bad.

Key

• Special skill name: Requirement 1 (the point cost per point of requirement 1 when requirement 1 is met) + requirement 2 (the point cost per point of requirement 2 when requirement 2 is met), the initial point cost of special skill name per point. Description.

The Special Skills

• Anatomy: 6 Intelligence (cost is 8) + 8 Melee/Pole (cost is 8), initial cost per point is 4. Increases the damage you do with weapons against humanoid enemies. Humanoids are among the most abundant enemy. Priests are the most likely to be able to train in this skill, since they actually need the intelligence.


• Blademaster: 6 Strength (cost is 8) + 6 Melee (starts to cost 7 pts) + 6 Pole (starts to cost 7 pts). Initial cost is 5. Increases your damage and to hit % for melee and pole weapons. Very powerful.


• Gymnastics: 6 Strength (cost is 8) + 8 Dex (cost is 9), skill points per point = 4. Increases your dodging ability and makes you act faster in combat. Can make you very hard to hit.


• Lethal Blow: 8 Anatomy (cost is 8) + 8 Blademaster (cost is 9). Gives a chance to hit an enemy hard if its level is much lower than yours. I'm not sure how damaging this skill really is, though. It's nearly impossible to get your skill high enough to train it, though, especially given the low return of intelligence for fighters. Don't bother. Skill cost is 4 per point.


• Magery: 8 Intelligence (cost is 9) + 6 Priest/Mage Spells (cost is 6/7). Initial cost is 4. Increases the bonus to your spells. Pretty much equivalent to spellcraft, though a bit more expensive.


• Magical Efficiency: 8 Magery (cost is 8) + 8 Endurance (cost is 8). Initial cost is 4. Gives a small chance of conserving some SP when casting a spell. Not good enough to try to get to the point where you can train in it as the return isn't the best. However, there are several points to be obtained in this skill, so be sure to get them as it sure doesn't hurt.


• Parry: 6 Dexterity (cost is 8) + 6 Defense (starts to cost 5), skill points per point = 3. Gives a chance to completely ignore an enemy's attack. About 5% chance per point. Very easy to acquire, and very potent. Late game enemies have lots of skill points in this skill making engaging them in melee attacks a dangerous proposition. Also gives some chance of avoiding magic (a small chance) and missile attacks (even smaller chance).


• Quick Strike: 6 Dexterity (cost is 8)+ 6 Melee/pole (starts to cost 7 pts), skill points per point = 3. Gives a chance to add an extra AP point per turn, and makes you act faster in combat. A bit less than 5% chance per point. A good skill, one you should buy some points in for everyone. Don't try to train in it for everyone, though.

Resistance: 8 Dexterity (cost is 9) + 8 Endurance (cost is 8) + 8 Hardiness (cost is 5). Initial cost is 6 per skill point. Gives a chance to decrease the damage taken from spells (fire, cold, energy only). Not really worth getting to the point where you can train in it).

• Riposte: 6 Blademaster (starts to cost 8) + 8 Parry (starts to cost 7). Initial cost per point is 5. Gives you a chance to strike an enemy on a successful parry. About 5% chance per point. Very difficult to train, but there are items that augment this skill.


• Sharpshooter: 6 Dexterity (cost is 8) + 8 Bows/Thrown (cost is 6), initial cost is 4. Adds to damage done by bows. Very potent. Any bow-focused user should strive to access this skill.

Resistance Bonuses

Resistances diminish the amount of damage taken from a specific attack. Most resistances are increased by increasing stats, and the points per point of resistance, armor, and luck are also shown.

                 Luck / point    Armor / point       Resistance / pt
Armor                 +1               +1     
Fire      +2/Hard     +1               +1/2                +4
Cold      +2/Hard     +1               +1/2                +4
Energy    +2/Hard     +1               +1/2                +4
Stun      +5/Str      +3
Mental    +3/Int      +1
Poison    +5/End      +3
Acid      +5/End      +3

Discussion
Armor provides a decent bonus to fire, cold, and energy resistance. This means that it is often better to equip a suit of armor that gives more armor than a suit that gives less armor but a few bonus resistances. For instance, the Ruby breastplate gives 22 armor, and +8 to fire resistance. However, the blessed breastplate gives 34 armor, but no specified resistance bonus (other than to stun). However, it actually provides 6 more points of resistance to cold and energy and only two less points to fire due to the bonus (34-22 = 12, 12/2 = 6) from the armor.

Luck provides a huge bonus to resistances. Thus the clover boots (+3 luck), provide a lot of resistance to the character that wears them.

The resistance skill gives a decent bonus to your resistance, but it's not enough to actually try to get the skill over. If it gave a bonus to mental resistance, it might actually be worth it. Resistance requires a sizable investment of skill points, and you're best off just buying a few points from a trainer and leaving it at that.

Mental resistance is by far the rarest resistance. Having a high mental resistance is also very helpful, as control foes and terror are popular spells cast by bosses. Value items with high mental resistance bonuses higher than items with bonuses to other resistances. For instance, a +15 Mental resistance ring is better than a +15 acid resistance ring.

Character Trait Discussion

General overview: Traits provide bonuses beyond what one normally receives from the skill set. Some traits are very much worth having, like natural mage, pure spirit, and elite warrior. Others are a bit more nebulous, and it's unclear what those traits actually do. Characters can only have two traits, so choose wisely. Races can be considered to be an additional trait, and provide substantial bonuses as well.

Positive traits (experience penalty)

+ Good Constitution (-8%) Provides a hidden bonus to endurance (resulting in poison and acid resistance), and decreases damage taken from some attacks.

+ Nimble Fingers (-8%) Provides a bonus to tool use and to first aid. These bonuses increase with time.

+ Thick Skin (-8%) Provides a hidden bonus to hardiness, reducing damage taken. It's unclear how large just yet.

+ Strong Will (-10%) Provides a hidden bonus to mental resistance. It is unclear how large this bonus is.

+ Deadeye (-10%) Provides a bonus to sharpshooter that grows with your level. If you want a pure archer, this is the trait to take.

+ Fast on Feet (-12%) Provides a bonus to AP about 50% of the time, and adds to your attack order. Very useful.

+ Pure Spirit (-15%) Provides a bonus to priest spells (+2) and magical efficiency (+2). Both skills grow with your level, and I had about +6 to priest spells and +7 to magical efficiency from this trait by level 30. Priests will appreciate having this trait.

+ Natural Mage (-15%) Provides a bonus to mage spells that grows with level, and a one-time bonus to magical efficiency. Also increases the amount of armor you can wear before hurting your casting ability to -20% to hit (as opposed to the usual value of -5% to hit). Mages need this trait. My mage had a bonus of +6 to mage spells by level 32 through this trait.

+ Elite Warrior (-15%) Provides a bonus to parry and blademaster that grows with your level. Melee fighters will want this trait. The initial bonus is +2 to both skills, which grows to about +6 by level 33.

+ Divinely Touched (-30%) Provides bonuses to blademaster, magery, and sharpshooter which likely grows per level. Makes for a very potent character, though the experience penalty is prohibitive. The bonuses to this skill grow very quickly, though.

Negative Traits

- Weak Mind (+5%) Makes the character more vulnerable to mental spells (like terror, confusion, daze). The opposite of strong will. There are few mental magic users in this game, so it's not too bad a negative trait, though when it's bad, it's really bad. Still, this one is worth some consideration.

- Delicate Skin (+8%) Makes the character more vulnerable to magic attacks with fire, cold, and others. Essentially the opposite of thick skin. This one could be grabbed by those who stay out of the fight and attack slowly (like mages). Counteract this one with a few points in endurance to increase your survival.

- Sluggish (10%) The opposite of Fast on Feet. Not really worthwhile, as you need all the AP you can get.

- Brittle Bones (15%) Increases damage done from melee and missile attacks. Although mages could find this skill to be useful, the AI in this game is programmed to respond to spells with force, which will result in pain for your mage. It's not really worth it.

- Frail (20%) Hurts nearly everything- definitely not worth taking, unless you're trying to do some role-playing.

Races:

= Human: No bonuses, but no experience penalty either. A safe route.

= Nephilim: Provides bonuses to gymnastics, bows, and thrown weapons that grow with time. Bows and thrown weapons have bonuses of +2 initially, which grows to about +7 by level 31. Gymnastics has a bonus of +1, which grows to +4 by level 31. Excellent for archer-type characters.

= Slithzerikai: Provides bonuses to pole weapons that grows with time (2 points at the beginning of the game, +6 by level 30), and a one-time bonus to fire resistance (+10%). Sliths make excellent warriors and priests. Given the strength of pole weapons in A4, having a slith will make you happy

Races

The one new feature of character creation in Avernum 2 and has been continued in Avernum 4 is the choice of race - you can be human or Slith or Nephilim (10% xp penalty, more nimble, bonuses with missile weapons).

One of the effects of race is certain changes in dialog. Most NPC's do not care if you have a slith or a nephil, but a few say things like "I hate nephilim" or "Sliths are evil."

Choosing to be a Slith encumbers the character with a -20% xp penalty, but gives you a +15% bonus to pole weapons and resistance to fire damage. They make decent priests. Having a Slith in your party allows you to get spells in Gnass at a much cheaper rate than otherwise.

Choosing to be a Nephil encumbers the character with a -10% xp penalty, but you get a +15% bonus with bow weapons, more nimble which gives you extra action points in combat, and a bonus in parry skill. Having a Nephilim in your party allows you to buy archery skill in a Nephilim village near Mertis (after you have healed the town with graymold salve). They make excellent archers and thieves.

Additionally, from Alex on the spiderweb software message boards: Nephilim act much sooner in combat, especially at higher levels. Yes, Haste and Slow matter more, but some monsters are very fast. Measured in terms of DEX/GYM required to get the same result, Nephilim start with +1, and gain an additional +1 bonus every 8 levels or so. In comparison, Fast on Feet gives you +2, whereas Sluggish gives you -3 and 1 AP less EVERY round. How can you even consider Sluggish? I love speed!

Also from Alex: Regarding Races and Elite Warrior, to get an estimate of how useful the bonuses are, at level 1, non-humans get +15% attack rating with their traditional weapons, while Elite Warrior gives +5% (+20% more when going berserk). These bonuses seem to increase by +5% every 8 levels or so, and the damage bonus is probably proportional to the attack rating bonus (+5% attack rating => +1HP damage).

Even more from Alex: In both cases, the attack rating is indeed increased every 8th level. As for the damage, I haven't done any statistical analysis, however, it seems as if Elite Warrior does more for the damage, while the Slith and (especially) Nephil bonuses do more for the attack rating (it's a bit like Gauntlets of Might/Warrior's Ring).

Slith pole weapons bonus:
Level 1: +15%
Level 8: +20%
...
Level 32: +35% etc.

Elite Warrior:
Level 1: +5%
Level 8: +10%
...
Level 48: +35%

The berzerk bonus goes up from +20% to +40%.

More from Alex(!): Nephilim also gain a bonus to the Parry skill, if you like that sort of thing.

Character Classes

Always go custom, unless you really want to start playing right away. There are some skills you probably want to avoid at the start of the game which the predefined character classes have some points in.

It's true - these are the same classes as in Avernum 1 (including the same "bugs" in the cleric, rogue, and hedge wizard classes, but, anyway, never take the Rogue class).

Spell Analysis

Overview: There are two classes of spells- mage and priest. Unlike previous Avernum games, the bonus you get from learning spells at a higher level is minimal. Most spells incorporate a factor known as the "spell bonus." The "spell bonus" is a combination of your spell skill, spellcraft, magery, and spell level. Thus having a level 2 spell is the same as having a level 1 spell and an extra point in spellcraft. You do not need to buy every level of spell to make your spells stronger- instead, focus on selected spells and maximize your return. Save your money instead for trainers and purchase skills, which will benefit you much more in the long run.

Mage Spells:
• Bolt of Fire: You start with this spell if you have one level of mage spells or the Natural Mage trait. It casts a fireball at a single target.


• Call Beast: You start with this spell if you have one level of mage spells or the Natural Mage trait. It summons a single monster to your aid.


• Spray Acid: You start with this spell if you have two levels of mage spells or the Natural Mage trait. This will drench an enemy in acid, causing damage over time. It's useful against enemy wizards and other monsters who are resistant or immune to direct-damage spells.


• Daze: You start with this spell if you have one level of mage spells or the Natural Mage trait. Sorta useful if you're outnumbered, this will have a chance of stunning a target, taking it out of action for a round. Otherwise it's easier to just flame their behinds.


• Haste: You start with this spell if you have at least three levels of mage spell skill or the Natural Mage trait. This will speed up a single character, letting them act faster and move farther in battle.


• Slow: You start with this spell if you have at least four levels of mage spell skill or the Natural Mage trait. The anti-haste. Slow down your enemies. More often than not, though, it'll be cast on you.


• Icy Rain: You start with this spell if you have at least five levels of mage spell skill. A much better combat spell than Bolt of Fire, it will hit multiple enemies in a given area.


• Unlock Doors: If you run up against a lock you can't pick, cast this spell to open stubborn or otherwise magically locked doors. Its power is determined by a combination of tool use and the various mage skills (magery, etc.)


• Augmentation: This increases your HP, but it's only temporary, and it goes away if you enter a town. Good to use if your party is low on HP and your priest can't handle it all in time.


• Minor Summon: Another summoning spell. If you need a meat shield, this spell can provide.


• Lightning Spray: A further improvement on direct damage spells, this spell lets you select multiple targets. Toasty!


• Terror: Sends a target fleeing from battle. One of the few crowd control spells, if you need it. It actually works on more monsters than you might think. Try it out once in a while.


• Prismatic Shield: The mage version of the priest spell Protection, this guards against magic spells and from being frozen.


• Dispel Barrier: Ah, the ever-useful Dispel Barrier! All those pesky magical barriers around Avernum will fall before you now.


• Summon Aid: Yet another summoning spell. Meat shields abound!


• Strong Daze: A more powerful version of Daze, it works on every nearby monster.


• Fireblast: The way this spell works is similar to Icy Rain now. It'll damage all monsters in a small area.


• Arcane Summon: Now we get into the most powerful trio of magic. This summoning spell brings out a single ultra-powerful creature. Since you don't get soul crystals in this game, you'll want this if you need an extra ally.


• Arcane Shield: A much better version than in Avernum 3, this will affect all nearby allies and protect against quite a bit of harmful effects. If you're fighting a monster that causes terror, throw up arcane shield and be safe.


• Arcane Blow: Yet another spell that now targets an area of effect rather than selectable targets. However, the damage you deal will put all the other damage spells to shame. There's just the question of SP cost...

Priest Spells:

• Minor Heal: You start with this spell if you have at least one level of priest spell skill or the Pure Spirit trait. Your basic healing magic, it will restore some HP to one person.


• Curing: You start with this spell if you have at least one level of priest spell skill or the Pure Spirit trait. This will remove such negative status effects as poison at the first level, then acid and disease at higher levels.


• War Blessing: You start with this spell if you have at least one level of priest spell skill or the Pure Spirit trait. This will increase the chance to-hit for a person, and increases their damage Affects all nearby allies.


• Protection: You start with this spell if you have at least two levels of priest spell skill or the Pure Spirit trait. It will lower the enemy's chance of hitting you and will do less damage. Affects all nearby allies.


• Repel Spirit: You start with this spell if you have at least three levels of priest spell skill. This will do a lot of damage to undead. Very useful early on.


• Smite: You start with this spell if you have at least four levels of priest spell skill. While it says it fires ice bolts, it will damage enemies who are otherwise immune to ice (but do less damage).


• Summon shade: You start with this spell if you have at least five levels of priest spell skill. It will summon a ghost monster to fight for you.


• Enduring Shield: Improved version of Protection, this spell lasts longer and is more effective, but is removed when you enter a town. It's a single-target spell rather than a group buff like Protection.


• Unshackle Mind: On occasion your party will be assaulted by various negative mental buffs like confusion or fear. This spell will cure them.


• Heal: More effective than Minor Heal. Always useful.


• Mass Healing: Exactly the same as the above spell, but affects all nearby allies.


• Mass Curing: Same, but cures all nearby allies instead.


• Steel Skin: A very powerful single-target version of Enduring Shield, but it works against magic as well.


• Divine Fire: Now affects an area rather than several targetable foes, but still a priest's best damage spell.


• Control Foes: Occasionally enemies will confuse or charm you. This spell lets you charm them. Fun.


• Enduring Armor: This version of protection will not only help with physical attacks, but give a boost to the target's HP. Combined with augmentation, you have quite a fighting force.


• Return Life: Party member got slaughtered? No problem! This spell will save you a trip back to town, and at higher levels, they'll be restored with more HP.


• Divine Retribution: A very powerful area of effect spell, with an insanely large range on it. As long as you can see it, it's going to get toasted.


• Divine Restoration: Think Mass Healing on steroids. This spell will pretty much save every nearby ally from the brink and cure all status afflictions.


• Divine Host: The requisite summoning spell. This will call forth a single shade, albeit a very powerful one. The higher the skill, the longer he stays.