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CHARACTER CREATION

  • General Party Plan
  • Race
  • Class
  • Skills
  • Special Abilites

    GENERAL PARTY PLAN

    I usually go for 2 fighters and 2 magic users. It works quite well. If I want to pick up the NPC Becca, I leave the first slot open, and start with 2 magic users and one fighter. There are 4 NPCs, only Becca is available in the unregistered part of the game, the others can be found in the 4th chapter. NPCs are all very powerful, and usually of high level.
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    RACE

    Avernum 2 has unique races; unlike the typical hobbit, dwarf, elf, you get to choose between the feline nephilim and the reptilian slithzerikai. Most characters do not care if you have a slith or a nephil, but a few say things like "I hate nephilim" or "Sliths are evil." Include at least 1 slith in your team as you can later buy nice, cheap spells from a slith town only if you have a slith in your party. Sliths are great warriors who are skilled with pole weapons. They make decent priests. It's your choice on the nephil, though it's probably not a bad idea. 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!
  • 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).
  • 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).
  • The berzerk bonus goes up from +20% to +40%.
  • Nephilim also gain a bonus to the Parry skill, if you like that sort of thing.
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    CLASS

    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.
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    SKILLS

    Some skills are more useful than others. Here's a general guide
    Strength - Get some of this. Plunk points into this along with dexterity as you gain in levels. Strength is initially more important, as you want to raise you carrying capacity, but once you max it out at 350, slow down and put more points into dexterity. UPDATE: Strength also adds ~.2 points of damage
    Dexterity - Get some of this. Make strength your priority initially, then start plunking points into this skill. This'll affect the speed at which you act in combat, as well as several secondary skills.
    UPDATE: Contrary to popular belief, it does not affect your to hit%.
    Intelligence - Necessary for mages and priest, not much so for warriors. Still, adding 1 point for warriors will give them some arcane lore and cave lore for free. It's up to you.
    Endurance - Not too important initially, as you don't get many bonus hit points for increasing this skill, but later on, a single point will increase you HP by 10 or more.

    Melee - Add a few points if you wish, but it's best to get points in these skills by raising your strength and dexterity. This'll also allow you to switch weapons without hassle. The alien blade, demonslayer, flaming and icy longswords are all melee. UPDATE: DO invest points in these skills! They do increase the damage your weapons do, by a similar amount as strength.
    Pole - See above. The two most powerful weapons in the game are both pole weapons, but you get them rather late in the game.
    Bows - A decent skill, but pretty easy to raise later on. Don't put too many points into as you can get trained by the nephilim near Mertis. Adding a point to archery gives you +5% to hit, and +.25 average damage. From Alex, on the spiderweb message boards: You can buy 4 additional levels of bows skill from the Nephilim regardless of how much you already have. On the other hand, anyone using bows will probably have enough Dexterity and race/trait bonuses (Nephilim + Elite Warrior) to be able to manage without much training in this skill. My first party had a Nephil archer in it all the way to the end, and I'd say it was nice for the variety and for taking out Rakshasi quickly, but magic is still best overall.
    Thrown - It's up to you. Razordisks are plentiful and powerful, and this skill isn't all that expensive, but it's not nearly as powerful as bows.
    Hardiness - A must. Increasing your hardiness will decrease the negative AP effect of armor. If you ever find that one of your characters has 3 AP now instead of 4, put a point or two in this skill, that'll remedy it. It also affects the damage you take, and some of your resistances.
    Defense - Cheaper than hardiness, but not as useful. Still, a few points never hurt.
    Assassination - Useful, but not all that much initially. Killing a goblin by doing 70 damage gets you the same result as doing 15 damage. Boost this up later for very nice results.

    Mage Spells - start with at least one person with 6 in this. Another person could have 1 point, as it doesn't hurt. As you gain levels, make this skill a priority for your mage until you get 18 in it, then you can pretty much ignore it.
    Priest Spells - start with one person with 6 in this, and probably another with 1 point in it. As you gain levels, make this skill a priority for your priest until you get 18 in it, then you can pretty much ignore it.
    Arcane Lore - Necessary for reading tomes and identifying items. Put points into this occasionally, it's a cheap skill.
    Potion Making - Not necessary much at all. Still, plunk a point or two in it every now and then so that someone can make energy potions when you're in a bind, or graymold salves for the miscellaneous quests that require them. It's better than first aid at least.

    Tool Use - A decent skill that's pretty cheap. Only buy it for one person, though. If you have this skill at a high enough level (~30), you can rip off Motrax without fear, though this is quite an investment.
    First Aid - Ignore this skill. Why? Because to use it you need first aid kits, which aren't that hard to find, but which weigh a lot. That, and you need a high level in order to use this without fear of doing more harm then good. Plus, healing spells make this kind of useless, especially given how cheap they are. Arguments about ignoring first aid:
    Longshot: I'll say myself that I disagree on some level with you about first aid skill. It was incredibly useful to me at low levels, and my skill in it was only 6 and I was using normal first aid kits. The reason it was so useful is because I would always run out of spell points while in dungeons. Also, first aid kits are all over the place, and can be bought for a fair price anywhere. Healing herbs, on the other hand, must be scavenged for. They are MUCH rarer than first aid kits (My note: at the beginning, anyway).
    Enzo7za: And also at high levels first aid does not heal only 30+/-. If your intelligence, anatomy, and first aid skill is high enough it can heal 150-300 HP (I checked with the editor[raised stats]).
    y0d1n2a3: Also, Priests with high first aid skill can heal PCs without fist aid kits (but the effect is much weaker).
    shrodinger: Although you could just as easily invest those points in something more useful, like priest spells, this gives you more MP and stronger spells. Still, give it a try if you're up for something different.
    Cave Lore - Useful for dodging monster attacks and occasional special encounters. I plunk a few points in it sometimes.
    Luck - A nice miscellaneous skill. I would recommend ignoring it if it weren't so damn pervasive! There are a lot of encounters in which this skill is checked, and having a lot always helps. Plus it helps your resistances. Plus, it can save your life if you're down to 0 HP and get hit. But it is quite expensive.
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    SPECIAL ABILITIES

    This is a rather subjective area. Still, for the sake of completeness:
    Great Renown - Gives a reputation point or two occasionally. Skip it, reputation is easy to come by.
    Nimble Fingers - Gives bonuses when attempting to disarm traps and unlock doors. Not bad and may help, though not necessary.
    Beastmaster - Allows character to start with the summon beast ability. Useful at the beginning, but not at the end. The call beast spell is better, and doesn't have an XP penalty. Skip it.
    Good Education - Gives a bonus to rune reading and item lore. Not bad, though you should quickly have enough rune reading for this half of the skill not to matter.
    Toughness - Gives damage protection. Go for it if you want.
    From Alex: The character trait Toughness allows you to regenerate health points at twice the normal speed. Of course, it's still not worth the experience penalty.
    Fast on Feet - Makes you act faster, and occasionally gives you an extra AP. I like this one, though it's hardly necessary. With this skill and boots of speed, you can attack as many as 4 times in a single round if you're lucky and have a lot of spells. 3 times is the maximum without this skill.
    Natural mage - Gives you spell-casting bonuses for both priest and mage spells, and enables you to cast mage spells while wearing armor. VERY nice. Allowing a mage to wear plate mail and still cast fireblast is a big advantage. The bonuses (+4, which may increase by level) are nice too, but not nice enough to warrant this getting this skill for a priest, since their spells can be cast without fear of encumbering armor.
    Elite warrior - Gives a lot of combat bonuses which improve with level, as well as the go berzerk special ability. An excellent skill that keeps on giving, even at higher levels. Definitely worthwhile.
    Divinely touched - Gives small bonuses with everything- it acts kind of like it's a lesser version of all the above abilities. It also gives the lay on hands, natural curing, and summon shade special abilities. Not so hot, because of the significant experience penalty. It's an excellent starting ability, however, especially on harder difficulty levels. Still, I say skip it.

    Of the bad abilities, sluggish, sickness prone, and brittle bones are the only ones you should consider, even then, with great hesitation. The experience bonuses are nice, but the difference is not too significant, maybe a couple of levels at the end. Still, it's fun to try something new.
    from Alex: Completely inept makes you 1.5X as vulnerable to fire.
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