Just bought the game off Gog. How do I make a gambling char?

So I want to make a Gambling master. What other skills would go well with gambling? Let me know.

I just got this on GOG after not playing it for so many years! this is my FAVORITE game of ALL TIME!!!

 

Why do you want to make a gambling master?

 

Why not?

 

Access to much better equipment and a pile of cash early in the game for one. If I recall correctly, one can (if they're also expert at persuasion) gamble nearly anything off of anyone.

Persuasion and gambling, in combination, could theoretically result in a group of max followers with some of the best equipment merchants have to offer paying little to no fee due to gambling for it. Who needs gold when you have an intimidating pair of dice?

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

RunAwayScientist: that sounds like a good idea to combine haggle and persuade with a large social group. There would be no need for haggle on this character right? Any more ideas for this character? Tech/Magick/Neutral? Sounds like a good jew - ahem gnome character.

Actually I've never used gamble except against dock workers. How do you gamble for store items?

 

This is the panel you see on the right of your inventory during shopping. All you have to do to gamble for an item is grab the said item from the shopkeepers stock, move it over the oval with a picture of dice on it and release.

 

Mhm, I recall testing gambling before and getting quite the negative reaction after I won too often against merchants. To the point where they would attack me, actually. Of course my character was someone who took beauty very seriously and thus had an intimidating 3 in this stat, which might have... helped a bit. As far as getting attacked goes.

 

Because that's five character points better spent elsewhere.

I haven't meta-gamed Arcanum to any extent so I may be off base, but it seems as if money is abundant enough, the most powerful items are found or created, and there is only one quest in which gambling has any relevance. Buy an extra spell or schematic with your character point.

 

I remember when I first got here, people were talking about using the gambling ability to get the phattest of lewt.

 

Arcanum is way to easy to power-game, even on Hard mode. It's more fun to role play.

 

Not much of a Sensate, are you? You're loosing a bit of Arcanum, there. I take it you never did try out Spot Traps or Disarm Traps just for the hell of it, either?

 

Muro, your last post baffles me. Would you please clarify what you mean by I'm "loosing a bit of Arcanum" and the relevance of Spot Traps and Disarm Traps?

 

I suspect Muro meant "losing". That is, you are not seeing the essence of Arcanum if you are powergamaing it. What makes this game great, and what keeps people (like us) playing it today is not the fun one receives when powergaming.

I enjoy powergaming too, but Arcanum does not deliver that kind of satisfaction for me. Games like Diablo 2 and other competitive multiplayer RPGs will offer this satisfaction.

Arcanum offers so many possibilities. The best beauty in Arcanum is not seen by minimaxing, but by enjoying the replayability. Part of replayability is making underpowered characters when you have already had your fill of harm mages, dodge/melee ogres, and other common power builds.

Have you ever done the Spot Traps master quest? I've done it twice: once with a technologist halfling rogue, once with a gnome illusionist rogue (phantasm school). Both times the quest felt different and was fun.

This is just one example, now go out there and explore, and enjoy the replayability!

 

First of all, indeed, it was a typo, what I wanted to say was "losing".

As for what I meant, well, I have nothing against powergaming, but I wasn't really talking about that. I'm saying that if one chooses to play characters using the same skills, disciplines and/or colleges over and over again rather than something new with each new game, he knowingly restricts himself from experiencing the whole variety of what the game has to offer.

I mentioned Spot Traps and Disarm traps because those are the two skills most often labelled as useless. Is it true? Yes. But the new dialogue, experience, mastery quests, items and awareness of becoming a master in a skill you never mastered before is by far worth trying them out at least once.

 

That's funny. I read "loosing" as "losing" anyway so I didn't catch the typo myself.

My only character to date has been a character with high intelligence and my plan for him was to make him a gambling master as well. As I continued to play, I found that there were better places to put my points that would offer more utility.

I appreciate role-playing as much as any other Lord, but the sheer uselessness of gambling frustrates me!