QFG4 unable to kill Ad Avis with a dagger

[emxd]

ScummVM 2.1.1 (Feb 15 2020 23:23:06) Linux/Windows

One of the possible ways of killing Ad Avis is by throwing a dagger at him. He's supposed to stumble and then be swallowed by Avoozl (can be seen in this video -> ​https://youtu.be/JWHfEy2XDdk?t=1710). However in ScummVM after throwing a dagger I get a message instead saying that Ad Avis has protection spells set up and the attack was too weak and nothing happens. The attached save file is from the moment right before you need to throw the dagger.

[ZvikaZ]

I haven't seen the video, but are you sure that you're in the same situation?
Maybe that message is correct, and there are protection spells that protect him, and the player in the video has done something against these spells, that you're not aware of?

Check some walkthroughs.

[emxd]

Replying to ZvikaZ:

I haven't seen the video, but are you sure that you're in the same situation?
Maybe that message is correct, and there are protection spells that protect him, and the player in the video has done something against these spells, that you're not aware of?

Check some walkthroughs.

I tried doing the same thing in DOSbox with a thief and there it works just fine. Killing Ad Avis with a dagger is also mentioned in different guides e.g. ​http://www.sierrahelp.com/Walkthroughs/QfG4Walkthrough.html. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether it's class specific (thief) or whether any class can accomplish this. I might replay the game in DOSbox with other classes.

[sluicebox]

This is indeed a difference between ScummVM and the original but it's on purpose.

You were never supposed to be able to kill Ad Avis with a dagger. That is one of many script bugs in this scene that I fixed. Throwing a rock would also incorrectly kill him. As you can imagine, defeating the final vampire in a quest for glory is supposed to require something a little more adventuresome than chucking a stone. A script bug resulted in all projectiles that hit Ad Avis after the joke being treated as staff spells cast by the magic user, and so throwing anything would accidentally trigger the magic user death. Avoozl reaches across the interdimensional plane in response to the burst of a powerful spell, not because some dude hurled a kitchen knife.

Here are the bugs and fixes for this scene (spoilers):
​https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/1691
​https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/commit/a486438c103c42422ae69a15e288111e643af367

I take it seriously that this means a game's behavior is different than what has been written about it but this is one of many intertwined bugs in this deeply and infamously broken scene that until now could often not be completed. The dagger/rock behavior was a bug as evidenced by the real solution, Sierra's hintbook, and the unforgivably high concentration of surrounding script bugs. Also it didn't make sense. Any "guide" that misses the real solution to a final puzzle can't be very good. Might I recommend the real hintbook? =)

Short version: Try something more interesting!