I’m trying to play Avernum 3 straight after using the character editor for the first two games and I rage-quit yesterday trying to wipe out the insect infestation in the caves southwest of New Formello (so they can chop firewood for the sliths) after something like the tenth attempt. I’m almost all the way to the back, but I’m stuck on the first battle with the null bugs. I’m almost there – I can kill the null bugs and all of the chitrachs, but by that time I’m so weak that the remaining larvae kill me. I might try focusing on the larvae first since they’re weak and it would reduce the damage taken, but I probably need to find a cave and grind out one more level. I keep missing in combat! It’s irritating. And I think I’m on the lowest difficulty, though I’ll have to check (low difficulty should mean you can brute-force your way through the game without developing strategies like killing the larvae first, and I’ve killed every battle so far so I’m at the regular maximum level for this stage of the game).

I have custom characters, level 7 – a human sword-user (high strength and endurance), a pole-using slith (balanced strength, dexterity, and endurance), a human healer (high intelligence and endurance) and a nephil mage-type (high intelligence and dexterity), with the magic-users using bows, so it’s not an unbalanced/poorly composed party.

What’s the difference between a sword and a pole, besides dividing looted weapons more evenly? They have the same reach (the halberd in Ultima IV attacks two squares away, which makes it interesting in theory but useless if you’re backed into a corner, and the battle screens don’t have choke points where you can block the way with melee characters and take swings ftom behind the line, making it a terrible use of resources buying one.)

Is there a way to distribute healing potions? That would help tremendously, since my priest’s healing spell keeps getting nullified. The guy ih front of my party has seven potions, the second has one, and the two magic users have none. When I tried passing the potions around the party it just made matters worse, since it pooled the number of potions to eight and kept them all with one character.