I'm continuing the game after a year of pause and I'm in Tarant with a strong tech-sided pg (and finally after a lot of suffering I'm beginning to do some significant damege to enemies). Anyway, my questions: - Planning my tech build, I've decided to totally ignore herbalism and smithing. I don't know if I did good but i did so because I desired a pc focused on the other tech trees from the beginning of the game. Even ignoring them, considered the points i have to spend to boost perception, intelligence, Firearms and maybe Repairing, I have 30-31 points to distribute among Chemistry, Explosive, Therapeuthical, Gunsmithing, Mechanical and Electric. Not having spent any points in Throwing, I should abandon Explosives, but damn, I'd really like to reach the sexy Dynamite! XD And the stun grenades would be very useful. So, where should I spent these 31 points in your opinion? what is the least useful of them? - I assume that the stat boost derived from blessings dosn't allow you to bypass the requiremnts to boost skills, am I right? Before I wrote there where other questions, but I really can't remember them right now XD Thank you!
* I have already some points in Chemistry, Explosive, Therapeuthical, Gunsmithing, Mechanical and Electric, and adding 30-31 pints only 2-3 slots would remain empty. So, a better question would be: what slots shouls I keep empty among those of these tech trees?
You should not skip Herbology, at least not entirely. Even if you're going to pick up any technological healers as followers, you would need to be able to heal yourself somehow. Either put one point into Herbology so you can make many Healing Salves, or waste many points on the Heal skill (which I've never found quite helpful at all). And when it comes to explosives, you do not really need Throwing unless you want to make grenades. Dynamite is extremely useful, but that does not need the throwing skill as it is a placeable object. Molotov Cocktails are thrown, but they don't need to directly hit the enemy, making them an effective weapon even if you are a bad thrower. You should not throw around points in all disciplines, take only a few useful ones that you need and focus heavily on two or maybe three.
Damn... My intentions at the beginning of the game were build a somekind of mad scientist, and now I have 3 points in Healing... It's good to heal yourself but definetely not during battles and only using bandages... Yep, it's not really good. Maybe I could try to save some points buying a lot of tech manuals, but I wouldn't be very happy to play a tech-pc in that way, and also manuals weigh a lot... Thank you anyway!
Oh, yeah, another question: I'm trying to keep Virgil with me until his part in the story come to an end, but the more I level up, the more he keep wasting his mana because of my tech aptitude. I am in Tarant right now and I know that I have to go to Stillwater. How long does his part n the story keep developing?
I've always found the tech healer NPC to be sufficient, and seldom spend any points on Herbology except during solo runs. Just remember to stop every once in a while during travel to collect those ginkas and kaduras. Healing is pretty useless unless you gain mastery level, and even then it's not worth it. Still, if you're a scientist you'll be spending points on Intelligence anyway, so you might as well spend those two remaining points anyway. It's pretty convenient if you get injured. As for Virgil's part in the story, I'd say your getting pretty close to another update, provided of course that you picked up something for him i Tarant. As I'm sure you understand, it's rather hard to get into without spoiling it for you.
ok, so then I'll try to make some use of the 3 points I've wasted on Healing and... hmmm.. let's say that my pc cannot deny the usefulness of herbology, but since he thinks it's inferior to the other sciences, he doesn't want to study too much on it and he will be able to craft something only with the tons of herbology tech manuals he keeps in his secret shelter XD yep, maybe I could use the "buy tech manuals (not too many) but you can't carry them" as a rule not to be too overpowered, so that I can spend some points to max Reapairing and Int. Thanks again!
aaaand, another question XD: I'm beginning to regret the choice I made to put two points in Perception. I made it because I desired to put the 4th points in Firearms, but now I think that maybe I wasted that points and that Firearms at 3 is still good (Luckily I have a previous savegame). Do you think it's a good choice? The savegame it's not too old but it's a little old. Do you now if using a savegame/character editor could do some harm to the save file (I have win7)? I promise that I will use the cheat only for this XD Maybe even for the Heal problem but probably I'll even keep my Healing the way it is
If you're using Firearms a lot, then you should go all the way to the Master level. Perception is really useful for Firearms, but not much else - it makes you see further but if it's at 8 then you don't need to upgrade it unless you're a gunslinger. Do not reload an old save, Arcanum is a role-playing game. Everything does not have to be perfect, just like in real life you learn from your mistakes - your character, your role, should also learn from their mistakes. When it comes to Virgil, you should not worry. I cannot tell you exactly when his part of the story ends, because as Ruda also said, it would spoil your game. However, I will say that depending on a choice you make later in the game, he could stay with you for the entire game. If he does not stay with you after that choice, you can get him back almost immediately. If you have found P. Schuyler & Sons, I recommend talking to the dwarf standing outside of it. He is a good follower for you since you're a techie.
Also, there is a tech healer NPC. Spoiler Jayna Stiles is a tech healer in Dernholm. She will come with if your tech is high enough. She also does herbology and therapeutics.
XD Too late! in some hours I've already loaded and redone the thing :/ Yeah, I've quite finished Tarant and I've already met Magnus... and with him another problem.. The problem with Virgil is his use of magic, the problem with Magnus is that he doesn't like evil behaviour (and in my plans my pc should be an evil genius). the problem with Firearms is that to reach Master level I should have to put 6 points in Perception (to reach 18) and 2 in Firearms. Also I'd like my evil genius more "genius" than "precise sharpshooter". I've already met Jayna, but I can have only two followers for my Charisma, and I don't think that keeping only Virgil as a melée fighter could be a good idea. Moreover I've read on a low spoiler guide that Virgil and Magnus are the followers with the most developed dialogue and background, and abandon one of them could be a loss of entertainment... But I think that sooner or later I'll have to dismiss Magnus for Jayna Thanks to everyone! Now, a new technical question XD I've a revolver with Speed 17 (crafted yesterday) and a rifle with speed 9. I have DEX 8. Is normal that I'm able to shoot only two bullets per turn with both of them? I could understand with the rifle, but the revolver has almost double speed...
You're free to make your own choices, but I personally do not recommend being evil during a first playthrough - although it is possible (and interesting) to finish the game as an evil character, it is much more difficult. People in big cities will have a general dislike for you, many good followers will be impossible to get, and the game will play out rather different. However, since you've already played for quite a bit with your character that cannot be changed now of course. I do recommend boosting your Charisma to 20, if you do so then any followers will ignore your alignment, so you can get for example Magnus as a follower even if you are evil. Also, every fourth point of Charisma allows you to have an extra follower, with 2 being the base amount of followers (unless you have the Teacher background, which decreases it to 1). Unfortunately I cannot help you with the revolver/rifle concern, I always play in real-time combat myself. With a good character, it is easy to avoid damage in real-time, and different strategies are also easier to execute with leading the enemy to particular places, retreating, and other things. I prefer it, but it is different from person to person. Speaking of combat, here is a useful little hint: Always place your healing items (Healing Salve, Bandages, etc) on an easily accesible key near the Shift key. I always have mine at the 3 key for some reason, used it during a couple of playthroughs and just got used to healing myself on button 3 I guess. If you press Shift combined with the button for an item in your hotbar, you automatically use it on yourself, allowing you to quickly heal yourself without having to click on yourself after selecting the item. Here's another hint for combat: When in mêlée combat, remember to always keep your fatigue up. If the enemy has fatigue-draining weapons, you're pretty much dead, because they will cut you into a thousand pieces when you're unconscious. "Fatigue Restorer" is an extremely useful item for any non-magickal character.
the thing about the fire rate is that Dex is the single most important stat in turn based combat, most tech builds/guides will tell you that the electric2 schematic is almost a must. personally Ive found charged rings X2, a huge benefit.
If you get your dexterity to 20, you will always go first in turn-based combat. So yes, Charged Rings are incredibly useful, considering you do not have to waste character points on boosting DX.
true. with some metagaming and for site a chariter that starts with 10 dex never has to put points in to dex: charged ring (x2): 4 dex Trapmaker Spectacles: 2 dex the final god's blessing: 4 dex ... and that is 20.
And there is a pair of Gloves of Dexterity, being magickal I recall. That boosts your dexterity by 2 as well - even a character starting at 8 DX wouldn't have to spend a single point at it!