I'm assuming you're in the training area, right? You don't have to play that part at all if you don't want to. Just tell the instructor guy you're ready to get started or whatever. Or you can just start over.

The training area exists solely to teach you how combat works, because sometimes new players find it difficult. Once you learn how it works, it's not that bad, but until then you'll get your butt kicked.

I think you'll be happiest if you start over and make a non-combat character. That means lower all the physical abilities (strength, constitution, etc.) to 4 and put the extra points in the mental abilities. Also choose a non-combat background like Trader or Loremaster. Avoid Mercenary and Assassin for now.

Concentrate on Persuasion, Streetwise, Lore, Etiquette, Trading, Disguise, and possibly a bit of Crafting. Avoid all combat. You can still finish the game, no problem.

I'd like to give you some pointers about combat too, since you're having trouble. Have you played games with turn-based combat before? This one works the same in most respect but it has some unique aspects too.

You and your opponent take turns, obviously. You both have a certain number of Action Points, and everything you do during your turn costs a certain number of points. Moving one square costs 1 point. Attacking takes a number of points based on the kind of weapon you're using. A dagger attack might take 3 points, or even less, while a huge, heavy hammer might take 7 or 8 points.

You want to make your enemy spend his Action Points moving, so get a few squares away from him and end your turn. Then he'll charge at you and hopefully end his turn right next to your character. Then you can spend all your Action Points in the next turn attacking him.

If that's not enough to help you win, reply again and try to be specific about what you're having trouble with. That will help us give you good advice.

Wow, that was all great advice... thanks for taking the time! I've heard so much good about the game, the tutorial just knocked me on my butt. Not many games I can think of where you couldn't even finish the tutorial.

But I'll restart and skip the combat (didn't know you could do that) and see what happens. Thanks again!

You're welcome! Enjoy the game.

Feel free to come back and ask questions if you have problems when you're ready to try combat.

Yes for a game that continually tells you how hard combat is and that you should avoid it, it DOES present many opportunities to engage in it.

The important thing to remember is that:

1) There's usually a way around/through that avoids combat.
2) Sometimes the only thing you can do is run away or not go in that area. As was stated above, there are some things/quests you will miss out on for a non-combat character (the reverse is also true of course!). I know how tempting it can be to try and do as many things/quests as possible - gave me some frustration in my first few games.
3) There are many things that you can do to make combat easier - but those are advanced tricks. Worth exploring later, but definitely not if you're planning a non-combat run (and especially not when you're still learning the game system).

Well, in AoD, especially if this is your first time playing, I wouldn't worry too much about that. It might sound strange for a cRPG, but AoD is really about playing a role. If you want to be a persuasive talker, take persuasive talker skills and just let the story unfold.

Skill checks that fail or only partially succeed can open new opportunities for you, so don't focus on the numbers so much.

I must reiterate: if you haven't invested in combat skills, avoid combat situations. You'll get squashed like a bug most of the time. I don't know what kind of character you're playing, but just in case...

Yeah combat is comically hard, I didn't do terrible on the tutorial and thought I would be alright with the merchant protection quest but damn that wiped the floor with me.

I don't have much time to play the game over and over so my real goal is to just get as much content as possible, but a lot of the times I just don't really know what the point of what I'm doing is.

It's not a game to be rushed through, at all. One of its strong points is the way the lore (and the point of the game) slowly reveals itself. It's not even possible to get the whole story in a single playthrough. It's not even possible to get to every location in a single playthrough. The first time you finish the game, there will still be lots of things you don't understand about what happened.

Combat seems harder than it actually is. Once you learn the mechanics and what kinds of things to specialize in, it becomes much more manageable. You'll still get destroyed if you're not a combat character though.

Yeah that particular set of skill checks you mentioned (RE the preacher - I assume you mean at the fountain in the first city?) is kind of a "I'll talk to this guy and then figure out what I can achieve half-way through" deal.

I think though that this is the most obscure set of skill checks in the entire game - as in, most of the time you tend to at least have an idea of why it is you're doing something before you do it. Or if you don't, then you'll generally get some idea of what an action might possibly achieve (or consequences of failure) before going ahead with it. For the most part anyway.

In general, just go with the flow. If your character does hit a dead-end or dies, you can always go back to a previous save or possibly even start from scratch. I know you said you don't have much gaming time, but a single playthrough from start to one of the possible endings (not including premature endings due to death etc) doesn't actually take that long - and it leaves so many questions that require a different playthrough to explore.

I personally played through this game with almost all the starting "classes", some more than once - even when choosing the exact same character but slightly different choices and/or stats can open up a whole new area or lore.

2 questions:

1) In dialog when you receive a number of options to select from, sometimes one is marked with the word "success" highlighted in green. At first it seemed to me to mean that that option would receive an automatic success if selected. But (after several failures) this is not the case. So what are they trying to tell us? -edit- My guess is that other options that aren't marked that way are options that everyone gets. But that options that *are* marked that way, are options you receive only because you meet some skill requirement.

2) Can you run away from combat after it has started? I've tried it and failed once. But it may be that I just need a faster character?

-edit- another question

3) Is there any reactivity to the gender of the PC, other than the pronouns changing?

-edit- yet another question

4) Is there any benefit to carrying a shield, if you do not have training in "block"?

To answer your questions:

1) The success relates to successfully using the skill indicated, e.g. "Impersonate (success)" indicates you meet the prerequisite and will succeed the check.

Important to note:
- this doesn't necessarily mean this is the best option to choose!
- this only applies to the current "step" - you may still fail other steps (i.e. additional steps with higher requirements or even different skills).

If it isn't followed by the "(success)", this means that you meet the requirements to ATTEMPT to use that skill - but if it's not high enough you may only get a partial success or even a failure.

2) Sometimes you have the option to attempt to run away before combat starts, but as far as I know you can't escape combat by simply just running away during the turn-based tactical combat phase. It definitely isn't possible in most fights, since they load separately (and/or you're generally trapped in a house or something).

One would think that it SHOULD be possible to run away mid-fight in some situations though, such as when fighting in the streets of Maadoran - I've always thought it strange that you can't escape those, even if you make it to the other end of the map.

If anyone finds out that this IS possible, I'd definitely like to know about it as well!

3) Yes, though not much.

There are a couple of skill checks that are slightly easier as a female, and I'm pretty sure there's one check where the opposite is the case. As far as I know they all relate to the impersonate skill, and the bonus/penalty to the skill check is always 1.

4) None whatsoever - unless you consider having access to the "shield bash" ability to be a benefit (but you will lose the ability to do a "feint"). If your dodge skill is higher than your block skill, then your dodge skill will be used, while your block skill will never be used.

This is as far as I know. I originally thought that shields provide a bonus block chance against ranged weapons (this being the vsRanged value), but can't confirm this since it's pretty easy to have your dodge > block + shield bonus. Also I'm not sure the vsRanged value actually works like that (it probably doesn't - I have no idea how it actually works or what it does).