Disarm Trap Expert?

So,

I think I've played this game enough to say that Disarm Traps/ Spot Traps are fairly useless skills, only in the game to add some flavor to a pure thief. Still, since Disarm Traps Expert gives you a chance to obtaining the item in the trap, I was wondering if that's any use? Any good items to be pilfered from some traps?

 

Dynamites, railroad spikes, bullets, arrows, fuel, possibly batteries... That's all, I think. Nothing says fun like having an inventory filled with goddamn railroad spikes several times in a single dungeon, every trap disarming expert will tell you that.

 

What about magickal traps? The ones that do Harm damage, the ones that Entangle, and the ones that Stasis.

 

Don't forget about the worst traps - the disarming ones. I hope they will all burn in hell.

Sadly, magickal traps leave nothing.

 

Oh god, the disarming traps. I still cannot find my Pyrotechnic Axe in the Ancient Temple.

 

:lol:

Car-Arcanum and those thrice-damned stacked traps.....

 

Messer Grindstone, if you're so certain that Spot Traps is useless, may I suggest wandering through the Black Mountain Clan Mines without the skill or using the handy-dandy scrolls? You won't be saying it's useless after that.

 

I just done a run through then and despite having a total AC of 90 or so I -still- nearly died before I found some batteries and the flow spectrometer started working -.-

It's not so important for pure tech/pure magical characters as they usually have spells/equipment that find them for you. More neutral characters sorta need something, though.

 

Like I said I've played through the game several times without ever using Spot Traps or Disarm Traps.

That said, I once tried to run a Gnome with the Miracle Operation background on Hard difficulty w/o reloads. He died right at the start in the Bessie Toone mine, wiped off the earth by a poison "trap" that would have been shrugged off by a tougher level 1 character. So I guess he could profit from the skill (if, as mentioned above, there were no Flow Spectrometer or Trap Springers in the game. They render the skills useless again for a tech character)


edit: I guess Spot Traps is also a neat treat for certain builds that have nothing else to do. Like a Perception based sniper, since the only skills that rely on Per are Firearms, Prowling and Spot Traps. If you forego crafting altogether and skimp out on your Int you would not get to make the Flow Spectrometer anyways.

 

I agree that Spot Traps and Disarm Traps skills are pretty much useless. Both change from nearly none to nearly all with the 4th added CP, and that doesn't happen too soon in the game. It's very unlikely to have such a skill before the BMC mines, and after that there are hardly any traps in the game. Those skills are nice for roleplay, for doing something with redundant CPs, for the fun of being the master, for trying everything out in the game, yet dealing with traps is the last usage for them I could think of. And of course there are very useful for railroad spike collectors.

I never used those scrolls. Using them is like killing my enemies with golden bullets for me. Yes, it would help me survive but hell, I'll better suffer now and sell the gold later for a gazillion coins. It's not like I don't have white Necromancy/Virgil/a shitload of ingredients for healing salves with me.

 

Then again, that seems to be true for a lot of skills in the game, at least on Hard. A pickpocket goes from "fail 3 out of 4 times" to "can steal the pyjamas off a sleeping character" when advancing from 3 to 4 CPs. 4 CPs let you steal 18k gold of the Tarant magick smith every night without ever failing (if you have the patience for that, like I do in iron man games). Dodging is the same, provided you also have high Dex and I think also Per (light armor also lets you dodge better than heavy armor I think, that's my impression).

The only skills that are worthwhile at 3 CPs seem to be the weapon skills, though melee weapons will still critically miss a lot. Melee at 2 CP is too horrible to watch, which isn't a problem because those critical misses will have both your eyes removed in no time.

 

I call that end stretch of BMC "Running of the Virgil." Very effective, plus, with a few mana potions, self repairing!

Muro: what kind of damage would a railroad spike do if you're a throwing master? I sense efficiency.


Disarming traps? There is such a thing?

 

Repair, haggle, backstabbing, healing, persuasion, all combat skills + fire arms - for all of those skills I was able to notice a difference with each CP invested, it was a balanced growth of skill in my games, and I always play on hard. I'm not sure about gambling because I didn't try it out yet. Only the thief/rogue skills (pick lock, spot traps, disarm traps, pick pocket) suffer from the "3=shit, 4=god" rule in my games. Prowling (+ backstabbing unaware enemies) suffers from a similar yet harder to define rule.

Being a master doesn't affect damage, the throws would be just faster and more accurate. Railroad spikes aren't throwing weapons and they weight is 20 stone. I'm guessing that the damage done by throwing items which aren't throwing weapons is based on weight only, and if that is so, throwing leather straps at people should do 50% more damage.

What was wrong with me? I forgot about the two greatest benefits coming from the trap skills:

Spoiler

1) Spot traps mastery - the Staff of K'an T'au. Incredible because of something that some may consider a bug, but I always though of it as its godlike power. I wonder if it was fixed in the UAP. Perhaps someone knows?

2) Disarm traps mastery - the Trapmaker Spectacles. 4 free CPs? Yay!

 

Well then, the day has proven to be good for something after all.

 

L-P thread!

*Runs out to stock up on popcorn*

 

Impossible is nothing. A one and a two, and a three, and a four.

 

haggle - true

can't support all the others because my experience is too inconsistent there. Persuasion at only 3 ranks didn't seem to do much though.