Some advice from people on the net: Advice from Travis W. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have a few tips for the game. The first concerns the makeup of the party. The first two characters should be pure fighters. As you have stated, Sliths are the best race for this. They should concentrate on pole weapons, strength, defense, and assassinate skills. These are the ones that will be needing the heavy armor, and will be the ones that are the farthest up at the start of a battle. After you get their most important skills up to maximum, put some skill points into health and maybe into some other skill like look and item lore. The third character I usually make into an archer because it reaaly pisses me off when your spellcasters are out of spell and you've got enemy spellcasters and archers bombarding my party from far away. So I concentrate on archery, dexterity, poison, and some edged weapons for close up. Since you can get in two shots with four action points, I give him light armor. Nephilum are good for this role because of the bonus in dexterity. The last three should be the magic users. Basically what I change from the default mages is I don't waste points on weapons, and concentrate on intellect and spell points. I don't really give any of my characters lockpicking skill since a mage can cast Unlock Doors. The one that has a little of both mage and priest skill I tke the priest skill and funnel it into mage skill since it's better to have two fireball slingers, then it is to have one slinger, a priest, and a moron that's a wimp in both categories. It really doesn't atter to me what race these characters are, although the Slith get an extra intelligenc point. Since I keep them away from the battle, I only give them robes. My second tip involves getting started. First I go and beat the tar out of the goblins in Upper Exile for money and experience. When I go to the surface, I go to Delan since it has pretty cheap food supplies. Then I head for Krizan and either get a job or beat on the poor unicorns. I wouldn' go to Agate Tower until level five. If you accidently run into the spiny worm, you can get your butt kicked. After killing Jordan and getting out of the Agate Tower, I wait till about level seven before going to the slime pit. After killing the Alien Slime and getting the proof, I really don't have much to say since I haven't registered yet. Thanks for reading! Travis W. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This guy knows his stuff. I agree with him on all accounts except for a few. Archers suck, and poison sucks. I also would complete the Slime quest a little faster than he did, but that's my speed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ More from Travis W. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are two simple thing to keep in mind when it comes to archers, One: Don't bog them down with armor as this will encumber them, and thus reducing the number of shots per round, and it will allow more room for arrows and bolts (I have found Magic Bolts to be very effective long range projectiles). Two: Choose your ammo wisely, as having crappy regular bolts for monsters like Haakais is about the worst thing you can do. Use a crossbow and bolts for normal attack as they cause more damage. For special encounters like with demons, break out the bow and special arrows, the Arrows of Light have demon slaying abilities and are very useful against the ugly horned freaks. Arrows of Life slay undead and are useful in the vampire's crypt. If you are afraid of losing ammo, try to find an infinite arrow, and your worries will be over. Just keep your archer out of the main heat of battle, and he/she can pepper the enemy with shafts of death! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I don't like ranged weapons. Some people do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A comment from Mark Meyer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I want to comment on one thing that Travis W. said. He said that when he goes to the surface, he goes to Delan for the cheap food supplies. Why go all the way to Delan when you can get extremely cheap, _farm-fresh_ veggies from one of the farms around Krizsan? There's good bargains to be found at one of Sharamik's farms, too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Boy, seems like this little 'advice' page is turning into something of a forum! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from : Scourge ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have a few words about party makeup: You should have two fighters, one Slith and one human. The human, although he won't be as strong, you will need because he will advance in level faster. They should both have the toughness attribute, and get the best armor you can give them. In my experience it really does not pay to have a second mage, I have one and he and my archer are always the ones that get killed. My second mage just doesn't get as much experience because he is the last one to go, and by the time he can cast, most enemies have been finished off by my first mage. My first mage gets lots of new spells, and gains level quickly, and even a little after the roaches (I haven't registered yet, so I'm just hanging around and doing stuff that I don't have to be registered for) I have maxed out his spell stuff, so I'm just giving him strength and weapon skills, along w/ HP and spell points. I don't really know about archers. My archer just doesn't seem to do much damage in combat-when she doesn't miss, she rarely kills an enemy. One more thing-you should have a Nephil in your party, because that way patrols from the Nephil village in Southern Valorim won't attck you. And some thoughts on what to do first- You should definitely kill the Goblins and bandits before you go up to the surface. I suggest that you go into the Goblin lair first, because it is easier(no spellcasters) and you can easily go to the bandits through the wolf pit, so you don't have to poke around for hours looking for the secret entrance to the brigand lair. While in the wolf pit, be sure to pick up a statuette hidden in it, and give it to Koriba, in Ghikra to get a soul crystal. Now you can go to the surface. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I agree with him on most counts. Two mages can be annoying but one mage should be half mage and half priest. I really found having three mages at the beginning (my party had, at first, no priest ability at all) to be a real benefit. Secondly, I like to have two Slith and one Nephil main fighters instead of a human. For me, humans are too weak to even bother having them on as fighters. I agree with him on the idea that you should explore the goblims before anything else. You'll need the xps and money. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Christof ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It is because I read your comments about partys and poison and stuff. "Poison sucks!" - are you joking? I think youīve never had a skilled archer in your party, envenoming his arrows and bolts with killer poison, sending death to your enemies with every shot! Didnīt you find the alien waveblade in Hawkeīs mansion ? Itīs always poisened and one of the best and effective edged weapons to find in the whole game! Ever tried spells like "venom arrows" or "poison" on your opponents? You slow them, you poison them, then go your way and leave them dying? Itīs the best way to kill enemies out of reach (e.g. giants across a chasm, a.s.o.) The same about throwing weapons: At the beginning, the skill itīs worthless, but buy a lot(itīs cheap) and use poison, for best results on razor disks: It works, and it saves spell points. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To each thier own. My personal style is saving skill points for direct frontal attacks, and more magic points. But hey, different styles will win the game differently. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from : Butter Man ------------------------------------------------------------------------ At the biginning offensive priest magic may seem weak. But NOTHING is immune to offensive priest magic. I killed some Order Mages in the Tower of Magi (don't ask me why I caused chaos there) with the "Wound" spell and Order Mages are immune to magic, fire, cold, and poison. Later in the game, your priests may be the only powerful PCs in your party. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I didn't find priests quite as useful as this (at the end of the game my priest is still my lowest leveld character, but hey, this game is so big and varied you can play it any way you want. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from : Dan Crosby ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I really like Archery. At first I thought it was a waste, because at low skill it doesn't do much damage and I had to keep buying arrows. But when you have the right equipment (infinite arrow plus some high quality arrows for "special occasions") and a skillful archer, who also has good melee skills, it is quite nice. In occasions when I can only engage an enemy in melee with two or three guys, or when you have enough movement to fire an arrow and attack twice, it is VERY helpful and can do significant damage. One thing I would definitely change if I were starting over, though. Be VERY careful with disadvantages! They aren't worth it. I gave one of my fighters "Magically Inept" and he can't use potions (ack!). A priest has "bad back" and I am always running out of room to carry stuff. Real pain. I didn't think too highly of Alchemy until I attacked the Tower of Zkal. Being able to make Strong Healing potions and energy potions saved my hide there. And Knowledge Brew is cool, especially when you max out at level 50 and just want that one more rank of Assassination... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hmm. As I said above, I don't like archery. I started the game for the second time with a highly skilled (well, relatively highly skilled) archer and I still don't like it. None of my characters heve ever had any disadvantages. Dan is right : they just aren't worth it. And the Tower of Zkal is the ONLY place ANY of my characters ever used potions. But then again I never got the recepie for 'Knowledge Brew'... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from : James L. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I've noticed that most people like the second Magic and Priest spell user in their party but I found I didn't like this arrange ment. When I'm trying to avoid monsters in a peticular dungeon I found that if I had 3 fighters, instead of 2, attacking monsters in a dark dungeon helps me sneak through with oust upsetting all the monsters by trwoing fire balls at them all the time and keeping my torches, lanters, and spell points. Accually, the extra Magic/Priest user was a nucance to me in thease accasions because they usally where the first to get killed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, I always had a second mage/priest character but he never got any spell skill higher than level 5. I saved his skill points because I wanted him to be a Sage. A Sage is the character with really high values in the following attributes : Item and Mage Lore, Alchemy. That way you can waste his/her skill points on skills that won't directly help your party. Your fighters will fight better and your Mages will cast better. Sure he'll die more often but that's okay. He also cast 'curse all' and 'slow all' alot. He was a support character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from : Dan Lewis ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I recommend a four-character party rather than the usual six. Your experience will be divided only four ways, allowing you to become more powerful quickly. Sliths make good front-liners, but I wouldn't have more than one or they will have to compete for pole-weapons. (Non-pole-using sliths don't work for me; the XP penalty quickly outweighs the attribute bonuses.) And of course, you'll want your priest & mage. I agree that disadvantages aren't worth it, except that making a fighter Frail works pretty well. With their high HP, you will hardly notice. I've found Trap Disarm, Lockpicking, and Throwing Weapons to be a waste of points, and I don't think dual-classes work well. (Would you rather be good at one thing or suck at several?) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I've never tried this, but later in the game when your characters reach maximum level (50) they'll be in BIG TROUBLE. Apart from that I'd like to see how a party of four handles fights and close combat situations. I've really never tried this so I can't comment much. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Wes Lewis: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is an extension of the four-character party suggestion I put up a few weeks ago. (I know the name on the older message is different; at that point I was using my dad's User Profile for Netscape Comm.) Anyway, as I get closer to the end of the game, I am starting to notice an unusually high degree of difficulty. It might be just that that last dungeon is always hell, but then, maybe not. I still think that a four-char party is useful when you're first learning the game. Six characters can be kind of overwhelming. (Maybe it'd work to start out with four people, then create two more somewhere around the troglos.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you're having trouble figuring out the game, finish the Slime quest and then start completely over from scratch. That way you know how the game works a little. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Simon Yu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ When I started out, I had a fighter/priest, another one, another one of those with some archery skills, two mages, and a priest. Most people will find this pretty strange but I beat the game with it in a nice time at high levels. I didn't advance the priest abilities of the first three much at first since they just healed themselves with level 3 spells to make up for less hit points. Once they were pretty well off as fighters, I increased their skills. All of my party was ambidextrous with edged weapons skills except for one who had pole weapon skills. I took my time to level them a bit in Upper Exile. To raise intelligence, I abused the altar in the Tower of Magi where you can give money and pray repeatedly to raise intelligence (to a max. of 16). I made sure not to encumber any party members to the point where they lost movement (defense helped with this once I got some plate mail and breastplates). I gave my guy with archery skill a crossbow that he used in an area where only one party member could fit and he was behind someone. As I increased in levels (and money) I gave my priest mage abilities (at 7th level by abusing the knowledge brew recipe) since he was falling behind in levels. Because I had to raise so many different skills at once, I made all part members human so they leveled quickly, and then made sure they leveled A LOT. I also abused the knowledge brews to aid them. In the end, if you do this, you'll have a party where a seperated member can handle almost any situation (at least once you find the two invincibility spells). And of course I had assassination and poisoning ability on my fighter/archer/priest. It helped when going against 20 alien beasts or rakshasa. The key is patience, making sure the dual classed guys are well off in one before working on the other class, abusing anything that gives skill points, and leveling like crazy. Oh yeah, and delivering exotic herbs from Squiggus to Libras is one of the best ways to make cash. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a good idea, except will all of those skills it will take forever for one of those characters to level. I prefer characters who specialise in specific skills (magic, fighting, alchemy, archery) but to each their own. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from EllBreau ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ARGHH! I read somebody saying that you should have a mage, a priest, and a combined character. THAT IS WRONG AND BAD! You should have THREE mages and THREE priests (the same PC's by coincidence) and you should give your fighters some magic, too. I began with the prefab party, and now, my Jenneke can cast Fireball. And when you buy a spell, buy a copy for each PC. If you are against using the editor to give you money, note the spells you'll have to get (Clarisse, in the Tower of Magi, can give you many, many spells. The Tower will eventually get destroyed, so get your money VERY quickly or else.). I don't use poison much. I will Major Bless my party and will poison my enemies then, but you'll never see me using a Poison spell. Get Major Summoning and Mass Charm soon. In dungeons, Mass Charm will make enemies fight your battles indefinitely. Simulacrum does the same. Capture Soul has less of a chance to work when the Capture Soulee is magic resistant. It does NOT work on a Doomguard, so don't waste your 30 spell points. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, this would be an incredibly expensive party to run. Some of us don't cheat and with a party like that (near the end of the game spells can cost up to 16000 gold) you'd never be able to afford anything other than spells. But hey, if you like the scenery between Libras and Squiggus go for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Todd Logsdon: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I noticed in some of your help on quests it mentions that the monsters are immune to magic. Well, I've found a little secret to that. ANY I repeat ANY monster I have found so far even ones that are suppose to be MAGIC RESISTANT or have MAGIC IMMUNITY are still subceptible to the priest spell WOUND (Even Raksashas). Just thought you would like that little hint, it might help others out as it has me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The wound spell doesn't do much damage and you priests could put their spell points to better use, but if you're in a jam, the wound spell could save you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Patrick Tam: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Having read your very good Exile page, I found one thing missing in your general tips section. I agree that when playing earlier Exiles (I & II) the priest always ended up the weakest. So, in Exile III, after about level 10 I made my priest a figher too. His spells are slightly compromised but his level is going up much quicker than otherwise and this is good compensation. So how about it? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I argree wholeheartedly. Priests can use somewhat more aremor than mages so fighting skills can make a priest a MUCH more effective character to have. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Stephen Yasunaga: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There is a very well hidden place where you can buy mandrake. It is horrible expensive, at 900 gold for 2. To find it, go over to Libras and ask Dot for directions on where to go. Look around where she told you until you find islands which are covered with trees and seem impossible to get to. Try walking off a corner into the water. If you found the right one, you can keep going to a hermit who sells mandrake! Also, what you said about the enchantments... there are many different ones. The one in Farport is +1, one somewhere in SE Valorim is +2, Gale has a +3, Sharimik has the +1 and a 'weenie' Flame spell, Lorelei has +1 and Heal, and Tevrono has someone who will make your weapon a flaming weapon(although by then it's not of much use). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Great tips. Enchanting your weapons CAN be useful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Vincent: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 'm Vincent and I was wondering: have you all gone UTTERLY LOONY!!!! I mean, MAGE spells , slith fighters only, only 1 or 2 spell casters and sage's I'll start at with the first thing, Mage spells. In the beginning don't buy them, after you've raided the goblin's and bandit's Head to the surface and join the anama where you will learn the spell Flame-strike which is 2 time's as good and doesn't cost 2 time's the SP that fireball cost's. After you've learned the spells. Now leave the aname by buying mage-spells and you now still have the flame-strike spell and some others. After this raid the goblins and bandit' s a couple of times for the EX and learn up to level 3 mage for the unlock door spell and you're about ready for the slims. you won't need the major bless spell jet so wait on the level 7mage spells. (O, Dispel barrier crystals are very cheap in the south light-house they'll come in handy sometimes ). The second point of interest is Slith fighters only. get A BRAIN MAN!! I have 2 human fighter's in my party both with Ambidextrous (so you can use 2 weapons ) and these guys do more damage then my slith does with the black halberd especially the one with the alien blade in one hand and the flaming sword in the other. Yes I have 3 fighter's. Next point is 1 or 2 spell casters. 2 in the beginning works fine but in the golem quest this doesn't work to well. I started out with 3 fighters, a archer and 2 mage's but the archer got really behind on EX (even with the fury crossbow) so a gave him some priest spells and now he's gaining quickly. And about the last spell-caster getting behind this will turn around later on, but is it really gets out off hand just switch places. I have don it like this in all 3 exile's and it worked perfectly every time. And the leas of the point's of interest sage's, I can be brief about these, They suck. Spread the mage and item lore around, it works a lot better this way (it even sag's so in the help file). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Everybody has their own startegy; they all work. That's the beauty of Exile 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Geralt Riv: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Greetings, I have found a way to create REALLY powerful party from the beginning. Make 1st PC a fighter, ambidextrous with Nimble Fingers. For the rest: humans, Magically Apt, Ambidextrous. Spend ALL their XPs on spell levels (for example, 6 Mage & 6 Priest - it gives you 36 SP for free!), leaving only 4-5 levels of inteligence. Buy 3 Mage levels even for the first fighter. You have to fight your first battles carefully, since most of PCs will have only 6 hit points (but imagine a fight when even low-level party casts 6 fireballs every turn...) Buy A LOT of strength as soon as possible, up to 15 or more, and 3 points of Mage Lore for everyone. After getting rid of slimes, boost your party intelligence in Tower of Magi temple. Get Major Blessing from Ghikra and buy Slow Group and Curse All in Shayder, and you'll be almoust invincible (I was able to wipe out the demons in Tower of Magi with frontal assault without even breaking a sweat, having PCs with level 20 or so) Some tips: - In Fort Emergence, pick up a stone lying west of gate to Upper Exile. And you say diamonds don't lie in the streets... - In wrecked Tower of Magi, take a look at a room north of teleporter, filled with quickfire. It has some REALLY nice items in it. - West of Farport, there are some islands you can walk to. Do it. - There is an easy way to get Jordan in Agate Tower. Just remember your Move Mountain spell... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Very good advice! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice frim B Chan: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I find that Archery and Alchemy are good skills to have and that dual class charachters rule. When you've got every skill for a Mage at it's maximum, why not become a Mage/Priest. You already have the Intelligence and spell points. I also find that pole weapons SUCK (I find that any two-handed weapon sucks). You can do more damage with two Magic Waveblades than with a Magic Halebard (But make someone a Slith in case you get the Black Halebard. Then again, two magic waveblades can do more damage than a Black Halebard and they weigh less than a Black Halebard). When I created my last party (I created quite a few) I made everyone have every advantage and no disadvantages (I feel like creating another party and also make everyone a nephil because missile weapons RULE) > Some Problems : > -Right at the beginning of the game the only place that you > can train at is Fort Emergence. Though I'd hold out on training till > you can afford to train the important skills and don't waste your > 'trains' on lockpicking or on luck. Don't waste your trains on luck???? Are you crazy???? High luck can get you a crossbow by killing a Goblin!! High luck can save your life!!! High luck makes you lucky!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another person who like archery and alchemy. You all know my opinions on them. Yes, high luck will save you, but with a high mage skill you'll kill said goblin before he attacks. With high defence the goblin's attack will never work. And even with a luck of 20 (which will cost you 100 trains, and you only get 250 the whole game) it doesn't allways work! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Wildting: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I really think that having an archer that is skilled is important. this archer must be able to have a good poison skill. Thrown weapons are garbage. If you are getting attacked by wizards, or more importantly Troglo Khazis from far away, it is good to use a good crossbow, with magic bolts, and If you can afford it, killer poison. Most magic users are immune to magic, fire, and ice. They can be hurt with offensive priest spells like Divine thud, or wound. I like to have my skilled archer to kill and poison the opponent spell casters. Another thing, I like to have all of my warriors able to use 2 weapons. I like having 2 Magic Wave Blades,(or 1 alien wave blade and a magic wave blade)on my swordsman, and at least 2 magic flails on my bashing weapons Guy. Also a slith with the black Haberd And level 20 assasination works cool. I only need one priest and one Mage. A priest with divine thud is very effective, and so is a Mage with Firestorm. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Archery. Bah! I agree that thrown weapons are garbage tho... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Dennis Williams: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Go to the goblin lair and beat up the goblins and beat up the bandits and get lots of gold and skill points. When you go to Ghikra go out the top exit and go far west and you will get a crystal. If you don't know the dispel barrier spell go to Ilse of Bigail and then go to Southpoint Lighthouse and buy piercing crystals (pieracing crystals can dispel barriers and break magic locks! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tips for newbies... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Advice from Matt Lahut: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My best method to date for creation of parties is to make ONE edged-weapons fighter, FOUR wizzies, and one priest. The magic makes battles (and thereby XP) go by MUCH more quickly. In EX3 I didn't find myself running out of MP in dungeons as much as EX2, and there are more mana potions in EX3 that make life easier. In the tower of Zkal I found myself having little, if any, trouble cleaning out the last room and killing the lich. Just had to load up on a few weak energy potions, walk in, and shockwave them to bits. Oh, another thing: I LOVE the shockwave spell!!! As someone said before, it can kill ANYTHING regardless of immunities. I found myself taking trips between the Squiggus caravan route and the magic place that sells shockwave just so I could get the spell! It is IMHO the best EX3 spell. Rakshasas and ruby skeletons were much easier to kill, and with 100 MP times 4 wizzies, I could do a lot of zapping. A word on Alchemy... I found that getting the recipe for weak energy potions made the whole thing worthwhile. Little dinky healing potions I never used, and rarely used poisons. But I used and abused weak energy potions ad nauseum. Case in point: Tower of Zkal. Many other places too. Perhaps I just have a fondness for this because of my large wizzie population, but a party with only 2 wizards should find these useful as well. And, for the record, I finished Exile 2 using FIVE wizards and one priest. That was a lot of fun too, and worth the challenge for an experience hand-to-hand combat Exile player. ------------------------------------------------------------------------