Soloing thief character build?

My magic and melee chars usually become boring to play approximately when I reach Caladon in plot. There just is no challenge.

I was gonna try something different for change. I'm thinking of halfling thief with bow, prowling, lockpick, pickpocket and trap detection. I'm going to try playing without companions. Do I need dodge? Is this survivable?

I'm probably going to need force Caladon early to get master at prowling. That enables me to fire arrows while sneaking in combat, right?

 

Dodge isn't really that critical for an archer. If you're going to finish the game alone, what you really need is Heal or at least Healing Salves- until you get a medical arachnid, that is.

 

I'd actually push therapeutics up to stop poison. That will turn out to be very useful later on. Maybe tech enough -- or enough manuals -- to build a pyrotechnic bow, since you are an archer and there aren't any worthwhile neutral bows.

I agree wholeheartedly with Solaris. No solo is finishable without some way to heal yourself. I'd take healing salve construction right off the bat, since you'll need the poison cure anyway and there are many Kaduras and Ginkgos in the beginning.

 

How do manuals work? Do I still need intelligence or is carrying them enough? How many can you carry at a time?

Concerning pyrotechnic bow: I read that you can get one somewhere in the game, where? Where can the schematic be found?

 

I assume you meant Herbology, not Therapeutics.

As for the Pyro bow, PekkaM, you can find it late in the game and in the least likely place- in Tulla. The Fire Master mage has it :roll: .
I recommend you invest into explosives to Fire Obstruction and make your own Pyro bow.
A small tip for a tech archer: on your very first visit to the blacksmith in Tarant, he will have a Compound bow for sale. Buy it immediately, he won't be selling it ever again. Another ready made Compound bow can be stolen from Bow guard captain in Dernholm. It does fairly decent damage (5-18b ) and is required to make a Pyro bow or an Envenomed bow.

 

Yeah, I got the compound bow and it's by far the best I've gotten so far. What I meant is that my character is not very intelligent (halfling with run off with circus-background). I've never bought any manuals, can I use them without intelligence? What it is that they actually do? Can I make fire obstruction with them? Can I buy the schematic for pyro bow somewhere? Also what do charged rings exactly do, should I invest few points in electrical engineering?

 

Yes, but the higher your intelligence- the bigger the bonus you get from the manuals.

The manuals increase your skills in certain disciplines, allowing you to make items that you don't have enough expertise for. You do NOT get schematics from them. You will have to learn Fire Obstruction yourself.

The schematics for the Pyro bow can be found in the Black Mountain Clan, guarded by a Seething Mass in a special room.

Charged rings give you +2DX each. They are a must for every technologist.

 

I'm sorry but I've never played a technologist character so one more question: You get expertise by learning schematics, but by having manuals you get expertise without schematics? So they are only good for using found schematics, since when learning schematics you also get the necessary expertise, right?

Oh well, my thief will never learn to make fire obstruction with his low intelligence Some other game I'll try it.

 

I've looked around a little but not yet come across a way to do those. Got a link to guide?

 

Yep. You got it right. And they only raise your expertise while you have them in your inventory.

How high is your intelligence? A Potion of Intellect gives you temporary+10INT for a very short time- but enough to learn schematics.

 

I just completed the game with solo thief. This was by far the easiest and quickest so far. My char was halfling raised by orcs. I got PE to 15 and prowl to 4.5 as soon as possible with bow following and forced into Caladon to get master at both. After that it was a walk in the park on return trip I cleared Gorgoth's Pass without anyone ever noticing me.

Rest of the points went to Explosives (fire obstruction, used IN potions), lock pick, spot trap, WP 18 and teleport, pick pockets and in the end dumped rest to ST, melee and dodge. I also forced Vendigroth ruins to get Vivifier and sneaked around doing the gods quest pretty early.

I never needed any healing skills just used found and bought salves.

 

how many arrows did you get through?

would you recommend throwing instead of bow next time? ----- grenades and returnable weapons, instead of shooting off how many arrows?

 

Lots and lots of arrows. They are cheap and light though, so no problem. Throw needs ST, right? I'm not sure if it would fit as well with thief character...

 

You don't need a lot of ST for throwing to work well. I play it almost exclusively because you can get by with LESS ST for throwing than for bow. So I would say it actually fits a thief better than bow. Only problem is if you carry all those nice techie goodies around to throw at people along with your weapon - molotov cocktails, stun grenades, etc. - you can fill up your backpack pretty fast with them or the makings for them. Of course, that's one of those trade offs that everyone has to decide on. I usually carry some molotovs because they are so effective when you're in a tight spot. If you want a good backup weapon for times when a throwing weapon doesn't cut it, a katana is great and doesn't require a lot of ST to use or a great deal of investment in melee. The worst part is finding one, unless you have the inventory hack installed. Of course, I think a katana sort of fits the whole thief image to some degree, too, but some might disagree.

Are there any other swords that anyone would suggest that are not currently available in Arcanum that would fit thieves better? For that matter, does anyone have any suggestions for other weapons for thieves that are not currently available in Arcanum that fit the story framework? If you have suggestions, or better yet, prototypes, let me know and maybe I can include them in my new mod.

 

Well, if we have Katana, we can have ninja-to, which is way more thiefy. Scimitar doesn't really fit Arcanum, but it's more thiefy (or bandity) than the Katana. Blowgun? Poison darts? Dual stilettos? A better silenced pistol, or better yet a pistol version of the blade launcher. Concealed weapons that improve the chance to backstab because they opponent thinks you unarmed.

 

There's already a scimitar in Arcanum, so I don't need to add that, either. I'm afraid I don't know what a "ninja-to" is, so I'll need some specs on that one to be able to do anything with it. The blowgun and poison darts could work, but I don't think dual stilettos will work unless you mean a stiletto with two blades. How about scissors katanas ala Diablo II LoD? I'm not sure the concealed weapons would be possible, but if you can give me some suggestions on how to implement it, I'm willing to try it. By "implement", I mean make it work, not design, but designs are also welcome. I also thought about possibly introducing some of the other ninja throwing weapons. Just out of curiosity, what skill classification would you use for the blowgun? If the poison darts are thrown, they are simple enough, but if they are used in the blowgun, they are simply ammo. So do you want to create a new skill of "blowhard" - LOL - or would it fall under backstab, bow or firearm because it has "gun" in the name? Another alternative to your pistol version of the blade launcher would be a pistol version of the crossbow that could be used to fire those poison darts or other projectile ammo. Thanks for the feedback and ideas.

 

I've always wanted to make a gun for arcanum that I actually had.. I could take a picture of it and use that as that art....

 

I would realy want to use a crossbow in Arcanum,
sadly they haven't invented it yet. :cry: :-( :thumbdown: