I never seem to know what to do with them, other that say, pickpocking a hand cannon right after I first get to Tarant, (or a good sword in Dernholm) which sort of seems like cheating. So I was curious what others do with theirs.
First: Welcome to the forum, Wradcliff. I tend to use them up picking locks. My favorite character is a techno/gunfighter but it takes forever to get enough points to spare some for lockpicking.
I too almost always use mine for pickpocketing. I usually get rings and such though. I agree with you Wradcliff, getting hand cannons and the Sword of Baltar that early just seems like cheating.
Pick pocketing some of the best equipment in the game sure seems like the worthwhile thing to use those points for. The rest of the uses just don't seem to have the same kind of impact. I think I even had my half ogre mage pick pocket the Looking Glass Rifle in Ashbury, even though no one in the group can use firearms. Maybe I thought that I'd try to pick up Vollinger later on? That'll never happen though.
If I've been going on a speed-run and happen to garner a fate point or two along the way, I normally forget to grab any sort of healing items like salves or potions. So, I use the fate points to heal more than anything else. I also like to find NPC's that'd look better in pieces on the ground, and force a critical hit with the heavy barbarian blade on a melee master with a strength of 24.
I hoard them all until the very end, and then use them on the last enemy in the game and still feel guilty about giving them up.
When it's needed I usually follow the manual's guidance (use them to do things my character usually can't do), though this often leaves me with: "Okay... let's recap... I'm about to die, have no ways to heal myself and all of my followers who should be able to heal are currently unable to do so... Should've saved a fate point."
One fun thing about Fate Points is that you get to keep them when you export your character to the multiplayer folder. Though I guess that doesn't prevent you from using them all in the very last fight. As for healing, that's what I use the reload option for. Arcanum is just too difficult for me to play it in ironman mode. At least for now.
I was thinking of going rogue-like style and not saving my game ever during a game. It would be epic hard. Especially since I usually get killed by trial & error at least once in the Toone Mine.
Thanks for the ideas! Picking locks is a good idea -- I always seem to need to do that in Tulla. What would be really useful would be "Critical Success at Persuade". It could allow you to skip the Dredge, or (as would be useful when I played through with Clarisse -- or any nonpersuasive technologist) it could allow the charged ring maker to appear in the Boil.
I've used fate points to p.p. the best armor or items (not so much for weapons yet). I can agree with the desire to get a great gun, but don't remember doing it. Mostly I save them.