Okay, I need help with my Tech character - I'm a Gimp...

"You're gonna backstab him...with a ballista?"
"Uh huh"
"With a fucking siege weapon?!"
"Uh huh!"
"Ok there's gotta be a rule against this."
*scans through rules*
"Well there's nothing against it in the rules..."
*rolls*
"Well that's 264 points of damage.

 

I got the to ore golems in the ancient maze. I used the tactic of running alot and letting dog do most of the damage. when i hit them with my sword I did some minor damage to both them and the sword. I think I am going to take some tech or magic to do some ranged combat. when I repaired my weapons they went from 80/100 to 99/99. ouch.

loving this game!!! the running around towns to get stuff done is a minor annoyance but not a big deal.

 

99/99 isn't bad.

 

yeah that was from the little halfing in the boil. definitely going to use him for all my repair needs. but I lose one point per two ore golems a dozen ore golems my sword will keep losing hp. (is that what the 100/100 are? total hp now/total weapon can have.)

 

Unless you're me.
"What? My weapon is no longer perfect!? Nooo!"
"What was that, Virgil? No, of course I'm not going to used that. Don't be disgusting."

 

Vaz's Basic Primer On How To Kill Everything That Moves Including Dainty Little Elf Spellcasters

Ahhh, young jwh. You've come to the right place. Let me start by saying that there are two weapons that will never let you down, one when you're starting out and one for most of the game. They are the Fine Revolver and the Looking Glass Rifle. The revolver is all you need to get you through the first several months of game time to get to Tarant. It does good damage for a single bullet, but nowhere near enough for dealing with the uglies you find in the dwarf mines.

For that you need a lot more stopping power, and that is the LGR. 40 pts damage for a single shot. And it has brutally long range. With good gun skills you can drop an ore golem with the right tactics before the damn thing moves more than a step or two. It's all in the tactics. Find a long corridor. Get the golem just in range. Say you can shoot three times. Click on combat, shoot twice and click off combat. Fast as you can, click back on combat and shoot twice again. Repeat as often as needed.

Do NOT go into the BMM without the LGR. With it, most of the place is your oyster. Without it, you're in a world of hurt. When I'm starting a character, aside from the minimum one melee point, everything goes into getting me to 12 perception, 15 Int and 5 Gunsmithy. I want that LGR when I hit level 14.

To do this well, you should be an expert marksman with at least 12 perception. Get Charged Rings, 2 of them, because they help greatly with your speed. In fact, at the intermediate levels, always try to have a speed of 13. No less. That way you can shoot the LGR twice and still have an action to click off combat before the target moves.

It's all about stopping power, and the LGR has the best stopping power per bullet of any gun in the game. The only thing that comes close is Droch's Warbringer, and it has too short a range to use as a sniper and comes too late in the game. The Warbringer is for those close range fights with the muzzle pressed against the enemy's belly and where you need to do as much damage as fast as possible. It's good for that because it's got a high rate of fire which the LGR does not.

Target's around a corner? Tricky but still not a problem. Move up to the longest distance that you can see them, click off combat, get them to chase you. and run away down a long corridor. Commence target practice when you're at a great enough range. It's called skirmish tactics. Use it because you're faster than any golem. Followers are just a hindrance in this, and you want to tell them to back off beforehand. Otherwise, the idiots will charge and spoil your aim.

Now there are a few skills useful for any Gunman. Mostly it's about Perception, Speed and Dex. Bullets is a must, but don't waste a point on Explosives. Buy a manual from the University. Buy ammo parts every time you're in town, and you should have an arsenal of ammo materials of several thousand rounds long before the end of the game. Get
Electricity to level 3. That gives you the trap detector (an absolute necessity), along with Charge Rings and electric lights (good for making Miner's Helmets, give one to everybody in the group when you've built up your smithy skill). Don't lug your manuals around. They're too heavy. Leave them at your main storage location and make the ammo you need for the trip at hand.

Since you're going the techno route, this can be a benefit for others. If you keep Raven for example, build for her a Compound Bow. She'll do just as much damage as she does with her dainty little elf peashooter but go through a lot fewer arrows. And just for laughs, give everyone with melee weapons magic reflective shields. And of course charged rings for everyone based on technology, like Jayna, Franklyn, Loghaire, Sebastian or even that little snot Magnus.

After you've got Gun to Level 5 and you have your LGR, start working on your smithy skills. Elite Plate is one of the best armours in the game. Great protection and it's relatively light. As your equipment goes up, keep increasing your Str or Dex to make sure you keep a 13 Speed. Armour doesn't much matter. I never worry about having anything heavier than leather until I'm at the end of completing Stringy Pete's quest. Heavier armour just slows you down for most of the game, reducing your shots per round.

Other weapons may look wonderful, like the mechanized gun or the hand cannon. Useless. They use up so much ammo you're dry after less than a dozen firefights. Think of it this way. LGR does 40 dmg per bullet. Mech Gun does 1-25 for 6 bullets. That's only about 2:1 compared to the 40:1 for the LGR. And its range is still too short for my liking.

One other note, find the Eyegear in the Black Mountain Dungeon and make yourself a proper helmet. Every gunman can use an extra 3 Perception. Again, do it all from manuals: don't waste the points on Mechanical, you need them elsewhere.

Need healing? Don't waste your points. Pick up Jayna in Dernholm. Give her all the herbs you find. She'll make and use what you give her, and she can make anything that's really essential. Later on, even that isn't necessary as her healing skill will make bandages virtually automatic.

Next, Elite Plate is good, Electro Armour is better. Get it from the Weapon shop in Tarant.

In all the games I've played I've never found a better ranged weapon than the LGR. Huge damage for a single bullet, which means 300 rounds will take you through an entire dungeon.

Oh, and don't waste your time picking locks. Every single Char point counts and not one should be wasted. Two shots with an LGR and it's open. Don't waste time removing traps; two shots and the trapped chest is smashed and all the loot all nicely lying there waiting to be picked up.

Want more? When you,re 35th level, pick up Franklyn Payne as a follower. He shoots almost as well as you do. Oh yeah, Sebastian in the Boil is a good shot too. Ditch the stupid things they use and give 'em LGRs. For the non shooters in the group, it can be truly awesome what Loghaire can do with a Charged Sword. Or better still a Pyro Axe. Fact is though, the sword swingers and Dog are only there to cover your back. It's all about picking everything off at range. There's one wilderness lair where there's over a dozen huge wolves will tear you apart in melee. No problem. With an LGR you can gun them all down before they get within 30 yards. You've got big perception with gun skill. USE IT. Always look around before you move in and start shooting. Always check the trees. Lots of things are well camouflaged, but if you spot them, they die in their own ambush. One tactic I love in one of the mountain events is shooting through clear firing zones in vegetation. Beasties haven't a clue where you are even while they're being dropped.

So, a properly designed tech oriented group based on guns can tear apart essentially anything in the game. And if you've completed the Gods Quests? Unstoppable.

And never worry about spell casters. Your tech level is so high from fairly early on that while they're trying to figure out why that Charm spell didn't work you've already put three bullets through them. As Vlad Taltos once said, " No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife in the kidneys will seriously cramp his style." Same thing goes for bullets.

NB All of the above presumes playing in turn based mode.

 

I haven't played a techie in a while but I can't remember int being all that important. Why waste CPs to get to 15 int when an Elixir of Int gets you to 18 right from level 1? Sure it's short duration, but it lasts long enough to learn the tech skills you need when you level up.

 

I always like high Int. It opens up dialogue options not available otherwise.
At 20 Int it adds significantly to the character's ability to do anything.

 

~~~ Muro's response to Vaz's guide-with-an-awkwardly-long-title ~~~

To learn, yes. But once the essence wears off, you no longer can use the schematics which require higher Int, meaning you have to drink an essence whenever you want to build something using a higher level schematic. It makes you an Intelligence cripple and an essence of intellect junky, and that pretty much sucks.

 

I'm playing vanilla Arcanum with the 1.07.4 patch, and the LGR got downgraded to doing 10-30 damage like the long range pistol.

Still, that's pretty good. You'll still get some one-hit kills. And you still get the massive TH bonus. The only drawback is that it's slow.

As far as Intelligence goes, my current character has an IN of 15 and I'm enjoying it more than I expected.

If you're playing as a mage, you can fake it with IN of 12 (enough to maintain three spells and get all of the good dialogue options I know about). But if you're planning on making a lot of stuff, it sure comes in handy to be up around 15. At the very least, you don't have to rush to make stuff before the potion wears off or cheat and use turn-based combat mode to slow the game clock down.

And then there's the whole critical success thing... I'm playing a Sickly explosives expert and it's crazy how much damage I do in spite of crappy physical stats and mediocre skill levels.

 

Another Option Non-Gun

I was a little annoyed about the weakness of technologists at first. So I started as a human barbarian.

Fist couple levels I dabbled into strength (this is especially good for carrying arachnids and heavy tech components). Next I hit up dexterity enough to max my melee.

After that defending myself was easy and I believe it only took me to about level 12 to get max melee and about 15 strength. From there on I packed intelligence until it was maxed.

Next I started doing smithy, which gave me the faster weapons (feather-weight axe). And by the time I mastered smithy i had some nice armors as well. Next I pooled points into mechanics, which with the thanks of schematics made me and some of my companions mechanical armors, made me one tough foe, and with the help of strength carrying it all was a breeze.

After mastering mechanics and smithy, not only did I have good hand made weapons for myself, but also for my sidekicks as well as good armors. With schematics I had thrown in 3 automatons into the mix, though tough to place initially their fast walkers and good attackers. Expensive though they may be by that time I had a decent amount of cash (especially since i hadn't have to waste money on bullets).

Next in line was electricity, which added on charged rings to make my fighter even faster, flow disruptor shield to ward of the mages, and a miner helmet for those annoying caverns.

Somewhere along the line I picked up herbology but only for the salves, since I could not rely on Virgil anymore.

in the end I had mastered herbology as well, and mixed in with electricity, aside from healing it also gave me the option to make my own revitalizers.

In the end myself, and magnus had mechanized plate mails, i had the iron clan hammer, he had a shocking-something sword (made from large capacitor and the smithy sword), miners helmets, flow disrupotor shields, charged rings. Topped off with revitalizers, salves, fatigue restorers, the fjve of us (+ dog and virgil) were highly resistance to damage and spells, and dealt some serious damage.

 

Mechanical spiders? Electric rings? Dried plants? I think your barbarian parents will be very disappointed at you. The youth these days, no respect for tradition.

 

Indeed. Somehow, it seems more out of character for a barbarian to be an awesome inventor than for, say, somebody who was raised by monks to become a gunslinger or for somebody who ran away with the circus to become a master swordsman.

 

He had an epiphany during the crash, that the ways of the traditional barbarian are no more

 

what's up with all the people saying maxing dex isn't important?
aside the ac bonus it makes you run faster if someone manages to get close, and you can outrun pretty much anything so you can turn and keep shooting

of course you can just spend the points to master haggle and live with haste pots

 

I actually like that explanation.

Dexterity is a must be for anyone playing Turn-Based. Not that useful for Real Time, but still I like my characters to move quicker than crippled turtles and drinking a Potion of Haste just to get from one part of the city to another would be such a waste (not to mention the burden of carrying dozens of those with you).

 

sure, but the point of the gunman is shooting down things before they get close, and if they manage to you'll need to run faster than 'em and dexterity allows so regardless of combat mode

while in cities i move around with fast turn combat mode on, unless there is a crowd or some hostiles it takes much less "real time" to move (sometime i did so in bmc to bypass traps and sell the scrolls later urgh)
just becareful to not pass out in early game due to low fatigue and never do it while going out from shrouded hills otherwise the game won't allow you to go back unless you use 5 points on conveyance (true story)

that's why virgil & co. are there for, also i tend to overburden the people unable to fight so they won't reach the core of the battle until all's over
if you are talking about the price, well you really don't need them much in early game, and later i usually crap out money unless i buy bates mansion

 

I had a tech character. My suggestion would be to use a human. A dwarf cannot use most of the armor you learn to make and a half elf or elf has tech disadvantages. Half orcs and half ogres have intellectual disadvantages which are needed in a tech character. For a background I usually use raised by monks. I use it mainly because money is the only disadvantage.

With my character I stole the key from Rizzettle, (I think that's how it is spelled) the junk shop owner from Shrouded Hills. With his key you can open the chest in his bedroom and take his money which regenerates each day. That solves my issue with money, because money is a highly needed item for tech characters.

For bullets I buy most of them. The general store in Tarant will get you 250 each day along with the gunsmith you can get another 120. I spend a few days to collect up over 1500 bullets after that you really don't have to deal with them for a while.

The secret to having great power is with the extra techs, especially the guns, that are not on the tech discipline scheme. For example while storing up bullets also check out the gunsmith, blacksmith, herbalist, and inventor for schematics as these are usually much better uses of technology. Also in Ashbury there is a man standing outside his house. The quest he has you go after will bring you to face an automaton. If you look around you will find in one of the chests or barrels (I can't remember) the schematic for an automaton. I give back the armor you find it isn't the greatest. The automaton however is a much better follower then a mechanical arachnid.

My advise towards guns is at first focus on faster firing rates because at first you will suck at shooting so more faster firing means more chances to hit the target. After you get better at shooting you can use more powerful firearms like the hand cannon. Droch's Warbringer is probably the best gun I have found in the game.

For armor I would use electro armor. That seems to be the best armor out there. NPC's will pick this over any other kind.

It takes a while for a tech character to be powerful. To be all you can be with a tech character of course you will need to cheat. You might try a character editor or hex editing some character points. The reason I say this is because you cannot actually attain all tech disciplines and become proficient with firearms. Spot traps would help also but there is tech that can help there. The problem is even by level 50 you can't get all the tech you need to rival a magical character. The character I used I didn't cheat with but I did use some magical items, a shield of force and enchanted war boot that kind of stuff, and had several followers (who used magic). I would suggest the dog if you want to stick to strickly non magic characters. I also used the graveyard in Ashbury to train and level up.

 

you can make smaller version of the armor by using "Small leather armor" versus regular size leather armor, works, tried it

 

Thanks for that. I never would have thought to have tried. In that case it is a toss up. A dwarf will give you a stronger character but you must also consider the game play. With different type of characters you get a slightly different experience, mostly in the side quests.