Good Race/Background combos for a Mage

Greetings! I have just begun playing Arcanum, and I have a question concerning my first character. I chose an Elf with the Only Child background. The bonus to Wisdom is nice, but I am wondering how badly the Charisma/Persuasion/Haggle loss will penalize me throughout the game.

So for those of you with more experience at Arcanum, is the Wisdom bonus worth the penalties in the long run?

Any other suggestions for a mage character (the concept I am going for is the traditional spell slinging wizard)? I'd appreciate any comments...

W-K

 

The penalties to Persuasion and Haggle will only kick in if you try and put points into them. Add a point, and you'll see that you don't get the full skill for the point the first time you add it. If you just leave both of them alone, you'll just pay regular price and have regular conversation options.

The charisma loss will impede your ability to gain followers, but if you choose the right combination of spells and equipment, that will eventually have no effect on you. There's a topic on this forum about becoming an invulnerable mage with no followers fairly easily - forget what the post is called, it's pretty recent though.

Overall, you can work around the penalties eventually. It's the same for all characters - pretty much everyone has a weakness and a strength, and everyone has to have some sort of work around. Good luck with your mage.

 

Deadly mage

Start with a half-orc and the raised in the pits bacground. Build up melee, conveyance spells through unlock cantrip, temporal thru hasten. Get his dexterity up to 21 ASAP. With a good weapon and 5 points of Melee (expert or master) and Hasten running his speed will be 52. Add the enchanted war boots to get to 56. Also get the heal speal if you don't want to listen to Viril. By level 35 you'll be nearly indestructible. If you get the dog it's even easier. The best weapon is the Arcane Great Sword , followed by the Arcane Axe. You can kill those ore golems and seething masses with any charmed or arcane weapon and they don't suffer much damage. I played the game alone with this character, although the female elf mage casting Harm is almost as good. Get your magic as high as possible.

 

Actually I have found that having a gnome with only child background is better than using an elf. The plus to magical aptitude is kind of nice in the beginning, but there are less character stat penalties if you go with a gnome. :grin:

 

Thanks to everyone for the replies :grin:!

Jarinor, thanks for pointing out the topic on becoming an invulnerable mage - I will be implementing it shortly :smile:

Eldritch, I assume you are talking about a Half-Orc melee/mage, rather than a straight mage? The template you describe sounds interesting, I'll give it a try at some point...

W-K

 

Half-orc melee/mage

Yes. I was in error about the dexterity: his only goes to 20, so subtract 2 points from those speed numbers. If you keep your magic around 50-60 until you get the ship you can still ride the train if you want to. This time I went in with beaten with an ugly stick. People hate you anyway as a half-orc so you might as well be ugly as well. Don't wear barbarian or dread armor. The wise women in Tarant attacked me when I donned it in front of her. She is now dead and I have to go to Ashbury or Shrouded Hills to ID stuff. I kept Virgil this time, we're at level 30 and he's a great healer, as well as a decent fighter. Melee is the most fun, it's hands on. With 21 strength and hands of stone you can open most locked doors and chests without damaging a weapon. (I always get a rush when I waste Garrick Stout.)

 

My current mage is an Elf with the 'Sold Your Soul' background. You can start with 50 magical aptitude if you spend your points right (which means at Level 1 you can pop almost any lock and easily kill anyone level 30 or below) and it's a good start if you want to play an evil character, though I think the maximum alignment of -20 you have with that background is high enough to get good followers in your group if you want.