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Loremaster (hybrid) thread

SniperHF

Arcane
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Aug 22, 2014
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Btw, is it possible to
find atrefact as a Loremaster that Feng sells if you are not Loremaster?

Which one?

IIRC the only loremaster exclusive artifact in Teron is in the Tavern not from Feng.
 

Fenix

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Looks like amulet, maybe it called Eye?
I was worried that I heard that allegedly Loremaster isn't the one who can find most artefacts, it is Drifter or Mercenary (allegedly).
 

Saark

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You mean the
eye of thor agoth?
Not that I know off, no.

The merchant in the tavern sells you a respirator, there is more than 1 off those.
 

epeli

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Saark I didn't pay much attention to the house reps until very late in the game. It was an opportunist run that kind of just happened to transpire that way. But the baseline for the reputation:
Basically I worked for all the houses and had nothing to do with the assassin/thief guild storylines. Kept my distance to the jew guild after Teron. Barely interacted with imperial army, only during aurelian quests.

Talked my way into house Daratan while questing in Teron. Ratted Feng to authorities. Worked for commercium for a bit. Got some crassus rep by resisting the urge to stone the crazy preacher (could pass all his dialog checks tho - not enough charisma for that). Talked my way into the mine and grabbed the power tube without fixing the smelter before letting the raiders take care of Aurelian troops. So, solid Daratan rep after Teron.

As soon as I had met Domitius in Maadoran, I took the opportunity to switch over to Aurelian, pledging my "loyalty" (lol) to Gaelius. Saved some Meru's preachers from a lynch mob. Did all quests for Aurelian in Maadoran while staying loyal to the house, but not necessarily to Gaelius. Events transpired, Ganezzar siege happened.

Got into Ganezzar, convinced zealots that I agree with their bullshit (not only to gain rep - Darganus questline seems to be inaccessible without combat skills). As soon as I got into the castle and met Meru's prophet, naturally I lied that I wish to serve the gods. After surviving the test in the bowels of castle Ganezzar, Meru was convinced I was chosen. Got an invitation to join his ritual in Al-Akia. Of course I sabotaged the ritual before it could be completed, killing Meru. Later on I flew the airship to Ganezzar and gave it to the people for a massive reputation boost (bitches love airships) and gained access to late Meru's library.

The word of honor points I got in Teron by returning Aemolas gold instead of keeping it. Thanks to that, I decided to go for 4 alchemy early on. Even with trading skillchecks lowering some prices, non-combat loremaster is an expensive way of life. But money literally grows in trees when you've got alchemy on a non-combat character.
Negative loyalty score doesn't seem to have much effect. :P


Fenix [streetwise] I don't think Feng sells anything but fakes. You've played the loremaster start, so you know he's a scammer. He wouldn't sell a fake amulet to his own apprentice, right?
However, it's possible to find another eye gem similar to the amulet as a thief or fighter. So maybe the amulet actually works? Dunno.

I think characters of any background can find any artifact if you play your cards right. No matter your background, finding everything in a single game is challenging if not outright impossible. But loremaster start is the most natural for, well, being a loremaster. And it has its advantages - you can get two nice things that make getting into Abyss a little easier.
 

Saark

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The amulet itself is fake, but the gem inside can be used for something as far as I'm aware.

Maybe Feng sells you the amulet if you start without allocating any points, since him selling it to other backgrounds is tied to your streetwise/lore skills.
 

IHaveHugeNick

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The best hybrid loremaster build, or in fact, best hybrid build that I found, is a crossbow wielding alchemist.

Here's why:

- Perception gives you civil skills, but it also gives you Crossbow accuracy. With 10 Perception you get both 48 Attack rating and 30 Civil Skills. This is crucial since you won't have enough XP to raise combat skills a lot.

- Crossbows are super versatile. Close range? Hand crossbow. Long ranged? Scoped crossbow. Standard fights? Multishot crossbow.

- as Loremaster you want very high Int, so you won't have enough Strength to raise your weapon damage, and Dexterity to have a lot of AP. Alchemy solves both of those problems. Potions give you extra AP, and high level poisons will rape absolutely everything. I must have went through Teron Outpost fight about 20 times in the demo, and easiest time I had, was with a poisoned crossbow. By the time melee can even get to me, they're already Almost Dead. Madoraan Arena - same thing. By the time people can even get to you, its already over.

- Finally, there really isn't a combat situation in this game that can't be solved with couple of potions or grenades. Close combat? Just throw a liquid fire and hide behind it, shooting people. A lot of people grouped up? Throw a cluster grenade. High armor opponent? Throw bunch of acid at him. With build like that you don't really many combat skills at all to be effective.

I actually defeated the final boss by just throwing bombs at him, after speed running 2-3 times and failing hard with various combat builds.
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Looks like amulet, maybe it called Eye?
I was worried that I heard that allegedly Loremaster isn't the one who can find most artefacts, it is Drifter or Mercenary (allegedly).

There is another gem that serves the same purpose. You don't even need it, ultimately, because you can reach the same location without any gems.

Loremaster gets easy access to gas mask and no charisma check for Feng's story about the Abyss and training. You also get the little bead, which is difficult or impossible for some characters.

All this means you get to skip a 6dex6con check and have lower checks when exploring abyss. Other characters will need higher perception and intelligence, or have 7 charisma to get Feng talking. Abyss is one of the coolest parts of the game, at least when you first go down there, and can make a major difference in the story.
 
Last edited:

Nikolaj

Educated
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Dec 7, 2013
Messages
52
I've been trying to avoid spoilers and figure things out on my own, and my second loremaster playthrough started with 4-4-7-8-10-7 stats. Pure talker, not a hybrid. A physically inept weakling with keen senses and good intellect - The harsh world of AoD is a surprisingly welcoming place for wimpy intellectuals. And it was my favorite playthrough so far! So many awesome accomplishments.
- Had a very good reputation (15+) with all the houses despite switching sides at every opportunity.
- Learned much of the old world; from storytellers and loremasters (Cassius, Abukar, Erebus, Ordu Keeper of Tales) and from ancient databanks (Saross, Inferiae, Zamedi, Ganezzar, Hellgate, Al-Akia).
- Found (and repaired) what I assume are most, if not all, fragments of old technology. Power armor, bolter, nullifier, the bomb, the airship, the arch. Had to skip repairing the mine and the energy bridge though.
- Killed a god, Glaath-Zor, in Abyss.
- Stopped another god, Balzaar, from entering the world.
- Entered the arch portal and returned alive.
- Would have killed a third god, Agathoth, as well... if the game wouldn't become one-way trip when entering Ziggurat. Meh. So, I never went to the Ziggurat even though I had opened multiple routes in.
- Became the One God.

Stats right before ascending:
kwYiMqB.jpg

Sounds like a great playthrough! But how did you manage to increase your stats so much?

Also, how did you get the airship working? I thought you needed the scroll from Teron to do that, but maybe a high lore skil is enough?

Saark I didn't pay much attention to the house reps until very late in the game. It was an opportunist run that kind of just happened to transpire that way. But the baseline for the reputation:
Talked my way into house Daratan while questing in Teron. Ratted Feng to authorities. Worked for commercium for a bit. Got some crassus rep by resisting the urge to stone the crazy preacher (could pass all his dialog checks tho - not enough charisma for that). Talked my way into the mine and grabbed the power tube without fixing the smelter before letting the raiders take care of Aurelian troops. So, solid Daratan rep after Teron.

How did you manage to steal the power tube without sneaking? When I talk my way past the guards I only get the option to repair or destroy the smelter.
 

IHaveHugeNick

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Sounds like a great playthrough! But how did you manage to increase your stats so much?

Also, how did you get the airship working? I thought you needed the scroll from Teron to do that, but maybe a high lore skil is enough?

You don't need a spoiler if you have Lore 9

How did you manage to steal the power tube without sneaking? When I talk my way past the guards I only get the option to repair or destroy the smelter.

Pay the Bandits to clear the Outpost, Esbenus gives you the tube.
 

Nikolaj

Educated
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Dec 7, 2013
Messages
52
You don't need a spoiler if you have Lore 9

Thanks! That's good to know.

Pay the Bandits to clear the Outpost, Esbenus gives you the tube.

Yeah, I know, but he said he talked his way into the mine and stole the tube first (presumably for extra SP and reputation), but that doesn't work for my character, so I'm wondering if I'm missing some skill to be able to steal the tube.
 

epeli

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Sounds like a great playthrough! But how did you manage to increase your stats so much?
Yeah, everything just clicked there.. my first loremaster missed a lot.
Fully powered and unlocked power armor plus ancient medical technology in nice green jars.

How did you manage to steal the power tube without sneaking? When I talk my way past the guards I only get the option to repair or destroy the smelter.
Hmm. I've been playing and progressing with many characters at the same time, I'm not 100% sure how it went. However, I'm sure that I got the power tube from the mine - I remember that because my first loremaster wasted the tube repairing the mine. Not for SP or rep, but otherwise I wouldn't have had enough tubes for other purposes.

Since that character had Manipulator trait, I must've talked the raiders into attacking the mine. But I recall grabbing the tube from the chest inside the mine (not from Esbenus) and then reporting that I couldn't fix the mine. IIRC I talked my way into the mine as a skilled loremaster (but not impersonating their loremaster), promised to see what can be done about the machinery, pocketed the tube and said I couldn't fix anything. Then unleashed the raiders on the mine.
 

Saark

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Yeah, I was also a little surprised by your stats, +3str from the power armour and 2 more points on dex/con from the medical machine makes sense, but I still come out 1 point short.

My own loremaster playthrough went a little differently since I didn't have 8 perception (seems like that is required for the surgical kit in saross) and I went for darius helm of destiny so I had to leave Teron "early". Early meaning after doing pretty much everything except the last commercium quest. Left maadoran intact aswell, finished the game as an aurelian praetor and helped Gaelius become God Emperor.

Already started with another character, this time I'm gonna go for a thieving loremaster though. I really want all the artifacts and missing out on the surgical kit is kind of a big deal. :(
 

epeli

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+3str from the power armour and 2 more points on dex/con from the medical machine makes sense, but I still come out 1 point short.
Count again. :)
All I'm using there is the Power Armor's Ra mode and 1 green jar - and to be honest, the jar was wasted on dex. I should've put it into str instead for the hangar power tube. Didn't even realize it had an str check on my earlier playthroughs.
 

Saark

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The one in the pipe next to the big gate? I got that one with 4 base strength and like 1 or 2 power armour upgrades.

Also, you got 21 additional statpoints, 16 from creation and I dont quite get where the others are from, except for the healing machine and the power armour. :MSince you only got +2 strength and you say you only used the machine once you should have lower stats, shouldn't you?
 

Mozg

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Oct 20, 2015
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Spoilers don't read my posts

What is the int/lore needed to be able to open the portal in Inferniae to Maadoran if you killed the demon? Also what do I need to be pals with the Z-tower demon?
 

Nikolaj

Educated
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Dec 7, 2013
Messages
52
Count again. :)
All I'm using there is the Power Armor's Ra mode and 1 green jar - and to be honest, the jar was wasted on dex. I should've put it into str instead for the hangar power tube. Didn't even realize it had an str check on my earlier playthroughs.

You can get that tube with just 4 strength (no power armor) if you have at least 5 crafting.
 

Nikolaj

Educated
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Dec 7, 2013
Messages
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Spoilers don't read my posts

What is the int/lore needed to be able to open the portal in Inferniae to Maadoran if you killed the demon? Also what do I need to be pals with the Z-tower demon?

You mean to figure out the system? I needed 10 lore on a 10 INT character, for the one in Zamedi. You might be able to get by with less intelligence, though, but I'm not sure.
 

epeli

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Saark Yeah, I also got it in the end, but I tried to avoid powering my armor until the last moment - just in case I could find a better use for all the precious tubes I had been collecting and saving... :P

Mozg
Inferiae: I don't know the minimum but 7 int 6 lore is enough. You should be able to talk with the demon in Zamedi without any skills and get into the upper tower. I think you'll have to give him the ring when you return if you can't beat him in a fight nor run away. If you pass a lore check at the databanks, you can learn the ring's function and use it to reduce the demon's power. Makes the fight/flight choices much easier.

Nikolaj Oh, that explains why I didn't need str earlier!
 

Mozg

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I don't see the point of spoiler tags if I don't give a hint about what's in the tags so I don't use tags for this kind of thing, gtfo out of this thread if you haven't played through the game a couple times. Also no one but Infinitron is following this account so I don't need to worry about people getting spoiled from their news feed

I thought I read someone saying you could actually make friends with the Zamedi demon and he'll answer a lot of questions about the war and shit, not possible?
 

epeli

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He answers your questions in any case, but won't let you leave with the ring.
 

Mozg

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I've gone there with combat characters and never gotten any significant conversations, did I do something off? If I didn't, what did I need to get those conversations?
 

epeli

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Beats me. Could be that you need to understand the ring's function. I've been there with talker and hybrid characters, but I don't remember seeing any speech skillchecks in the conversation with him.

The damaged demon in Inferiae on the other hand has a bunch of speech skill checks and is fairly easy to bullshit (or sneak past), but he doesn't know much.
 

Saark

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The "answer my questions" option only shows up after figuring out how the ring works and weakening it with it. After getting your answers you can give him the ring and he will leave (and slaughter the group of guys camping outside on his way out). As far as I know giving him the ring without knowing what it does means you still have to fight him
 

Mozg

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Is 7 int enough, I don't really wanna fuck around with a crossbow STR dumper hybrid
 

Saark

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It should be, seeing how the "examine the image" check was doable with 10int/5(?)lore. You also get an option for a critical strike takedown btw.
 

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