Some thoughts and questions about Arcanum

Hello, I have just finished Arcanum for the 2nd time. The first time I finished Arcanum was with a good female elf wizard, and the second time was with Medoc Spiritwarden the good male technologist dwarf. It was so fun playing this game again and I enjoyed every minute of it
I wanted to ask you some questions about the game.

Do any of the following actually have a use in the game:
1. Mustard Gas Grenade (My followers always got angry with me for using it and started attacking me)
2. Knock Out Gas Grenade (Same)
4. Spike Trap
5. Bear Trap
6. Clockwork Decoy

Why would anybody learn Meta College Spells when wizards barely attack with spells?

Why would anybody learn the Therapeutic Discipline when it is just easier to invest those points into the desired stats and get them permanently? (instead of having to spend 7 points in Therapeutics and to collect 6 different ingredients for Revitalizer that gives you a temporary bonus)

Near the end of the game I wanted to master Therapeutics to see what's it like, but it was useless. I created some of those elixirs of hypnotic suggestion but didn't have to use it on anything.

The guy selling Littani statue (the one that is needed for the Ancient Gods quest) didn't want to talk to me because I was a technologist. I wondered how did you get it from him. (he is not carrying it). I just acted like Jokey Smurf, gave him one of my Time Bombs, said "I've got a surprise for you!" and run away.

By the way, I once tried playing an ugly character (I tried many characters but only finished the game twice) and it was just annoying having to convince every living being to listen to you during the first time you encounter them. But playing a beautiful character was just too easy.

Most of the quests in this game are about people needing your help, so if you want to complete quests it's kind of hard to stay Evil. I think I want to play an Evil character for the first time, maybe even dumb and evil (I heard the dialogue options are funny when you play a dumb character). Any tips?

 

I played a dumb half-ogre once. He was dumb and ugly (raised in the pits INT = 1). Funny thing is if someone insults you (most of the time), you have a dialogue option to threaten them, and most of them usually give in to threats and become nice. For example Ristezze, eventhough he was a Level 12 "collector of antiquities" and I was just a Lvl 1 dumb half-ogre, gave in right away when he was threatened with strangulation. It's really funny, if you're a half-ogre that is. I tried this using a human character and received a beating from Ristezze instead. :lol:

 

There were some mistakes in spell scripts, this will be fixed in the upcoming version of the unofficial patch.

 

To answer the OP, the Disperse Magic spell from the Meta college is really good. With just a low-cost level 2 spell, you can unsummon ANY summoned magic or enchantment. The Dweomer Shield is also nice for battling mages.

 

I'll give you my take on the issues, from a gameplay POV and leave the technical stuff tho the others:

1. If the poison effect worked faster, it could have been useful, but uslaly no.

2. If you have room and are facing a large group of enemies or are outnumbered..it's a great weapon.

4. Yes and No. Not useful for everyday gameplay but you can use it to set up a trap system to wear down your enemies a bit. For example, the bridge theives in SH or whenyou have to kill Pollock or Maug in the boil, you can trap the area of the guy you're actually helping as you go to get the quest, so that wehn you have to whack him later on you get a minor "dial down" HP.

5. Same as above.

6. If you're playing a solo character and have patience, you can use it draw an enemy out and IIRC, weapons get damaged when they strike them, so if you like complex long-term fights, there is some use.

Good Question. Although keep in mind that the anti-magic stuff can be useful against summoners...especially the kind who call Fire Elementals.

See my other post inthe single thread about Therapeutics.

Like all shopkeepers....what they sell is "stored" somewhere close...

LOL! True!

Well tehre are quite a few quests where you have the option of doing things that are "evil" or "wrong"...even though itis "helping" the bad guys.

There was a Evil Character Guide published a few years ago that told gave you an "evil walkthrough"...

 

If I recall correctly, destroying he steam engine in Shrouded Hills for the mage is an evil quest.

 

What happened to 3?

 

typo?

 

number 3 was "Charges" but then I remembered some device I made to detect traps and deleted it.

Do you know where I can find that Evil Character guide you were talking about?

 

And here it is: http://arcanum.rpgplanet.gamespy.com/questinfo/evilwalkthrough.php