Magick/Tech Aptitudes and the storekeepers who hate them...

The first time I played through Arcanum I used a Dwarf who by the end had an insanely high tech aptiitude. Nothing could bring it down. The problem was that magic storekeepers wouldn't talk to me. It didn't affect me that badly, but I dearly wanted to be able to buy great magic items for my mage companions and I couldn't. My questions are as such:
1. What is the max tech aptitude you can have before a magick shopkeeper won't talk to you?
2. I'm considering creating a neutral character equally balanced in magick and tech. What would be the best disciplines and colleges for this? One thing I'd have no matter what however is Mechanics technician (Enhance glasses, buy the parts for 130 and sell for 830... easy money!)

Cheers,
Rogue Trader

 

Heh... I go back and forth between which way my character leans, but I always have enough skill with pick locks and prowl to steal from whichever people won't talk to me (and a good many of those who won't).

One thing that is fun when playing as a mage is to build up to invisibility, you can steal anything in the game by then.

Unfortunatly though, I have no clue how to answer your question.

 

1. 70

2. Anything you like as long as you keep it balanced. Try to avoid things that require high MA to be effective. There are plenty of ways to get money in this game without resorting to wasting CPs on them, and besides there's always Magnus.

 

for every 1 cp you spend on a tech skill, spend one cp on a spell. - guaranteed to keep you relatively neutral.

plan ahead so you know how many cps you need for each side.

or you could use the dark helm to reduce your TA. (at a cost though!)

 

But if you're tech is too high it won't help.

 

Hmmm. It would seem that Technology and Magick do not reconcile well or easily with one another. Spells generally require high Magick aptitude to be effective which is something that a neutral character just won't have. I'll just have to make a Tech character with tech aptitude less than or equal to 70. That'll either be a Half-Ogre Smith or a Human Grenadier then. Actually, the Half-Ogre Smith would be awesome. Make himself and his fellow Half-Ogres suits of Elite Plate Mail. Now whos protected eh?

But thanks for everyone who has posted so far.

Cheers,
Rogue Trader

 

So a Doctorate adds 41 Tech aptitude points? A smithy melee with spells would be good, but I was almost hoping for a gunslinging mage. I guess the game mechanics just don't favor a mage/tech person much...

Cheers,
Rogue Trader

 

It seems that the only way you can balance the Tech and Magick is the use of the Arcanum Edit. (The thing that lets you give your character points in skills without actually... playing the game.)
I did it once, I baught all spells, maxxed out all Tech Colleges, maxxed out all skills, and using the Character edit cheat thing and set my aptitude to 0!

 

Aren't there 64 character points available in a game? 10 cps spent on tech equals 11 spent on magick. No need to cheat.

Disclaimer: I'm tired and I suck at math.

 

A gunslinger mage is easier to make than a warrior blacksmith. I recommend using low level support spells that require WP 12 or less: Haste, Shield of Protection, AoF, SoE, Wall of Force or Entangle for gunslinger, Weaken and Stun for melee.

 

Staying with absolutely neutral apitidute can be a pain - you can't effectively use neither magick nor tech items and those items of neutral nature generally suck.

 

Not really. You CAN use anything tech to full benefit, with the exception of charged rings (from which you will only get 1DX per ring instead of two. You also receive part of the benefits of magic items (Gloves of Dexterity will also give you +1DX instead of two). Lock picking works ok for neutral aptitude. Besides, there are some excellent neutral items, mostly for a melee player (Barbarian Heavy Blade, for once, or the Isle of Despair pit sword). Heavy armor is usually not without bias, but again, with neutral aptitude you can safely use anything tech, and the worst that can happen while using magick items is not getting full benefits.
I think neutral character is quite playable, though I prefer using each side to full advantage.