Balanced Character Help..

I know this is a pretty tough forum but lets see if you guys can help me..

I have some questions about a jack of all trades character or perhaps a tech only character.

1. I Have noticed that Harm is an excellent spell. When I start a new game and compare it to pistol damage it is laughable. I have to fire the pistol many times to kill a creature whereas Harm takes down massive chunks of health. Is it always like this? Is a gunslinger always going to be this bad even in higher levels?

2. Can you do reasonably well in this game with having a Magicka and Tech balance right in the middle? I was thinking of specializing in these areas: harm, gun damage, pick pocket, pick lock, melee, and maybe a few others.

2. Is there alternate ways of healing other than spells? I noticed a "healing" skill. How does this work?

3. Is a battlemage a good choice for a build? Harm spell until they get close and then melee damage? Is there gear that can take advantage of both at the same time?


Thanks!

 

1. Indeed, Harm is a very powerful spell even more so as your magical aura increases. A gunslinger on the other hand is one of the weakest character you can play, especially if you're comparing it to a harm spamming caster, but if you want to go for it, you can very much finish the game as one.

2. Like i said, as your magic aura increases, harm does more damage so playing with an aura of 0 can be pretty gimped so i wouldn't recommend it.
If you wanna go with a "middle ground" character, you can just specialize in a combat skill which doesn't affect your aura and choose other skills along with it like pick-lock or pick pocket.

3. There's a technological branch that creates "healing salves" which are sorts of healing potions but for tech characters.
The healing skill allows you to heal with bandages so yeah, it's pretty useful especially when you become a master at it.

4. A battlemage is a really really powerful character and there are a lot of magical armors all over arcanum fit for one.

 

Generally speaking Arcane Armours and weapons are your best bet for battlemages. There are of course a few unique items here and there that are even better however the added bonus of Arcane items is you can buy them from the wise women. I'd put 1 point into the healing salves as being a neutral character you would get more benefit from them. This also means that the several Kaldura stems and Ginka roots you come across can be used. Never actually used bandages before so I couldn't tell you how useful they are. General rule of thumb is your spells become more potent the more magical aptitude you have. Like Sorg said, its not worth gimping yourself if you plan to use spells.

 

Pick locks will raise your technological aptitude and lower your magickal aptitude, so it creates problems for someone who wants to use Harm.

I played one time as a gunslinger with a couple of spells. You can do it if your magickal aptitude is fairly low, but if you learn too many spells, your chance of critically failing with a pistol gets really high and using your sidearm gets to be pretty foolhardy. You start wounding yourself accidentally and/or damaging your gun often enough to be annoying.

If you want to change things up by using both spells and ranged attacks, throwing is a nice way to go. Archery is another option, because there are some good magick bows and you can use a compound bow that does a fair amount of damage. But archery uses up ammo, whereas throwing doesn't really have any drawbacks.

A serrated chakram is a great equalizer if you have some magickal aptitude. You can usually find one for sale in Tarant. They do a little more damage than a fine revolver. Especially when you get critical hit bonuses. You still might have to nail a target three or four times to kill him, but at least you're not using up bullets. Or constantly worrying about your weapon blowing up in your face.

If you want to get into guns and picking locks, you should really just be a technologist.

 

I don't have to have guns. But I DEFINITELY want picklock and pickpocket.