Your characters?

Half-Orc Pacifist, Troll Offspring. It got worse when a Wolf managed to scar 'im. I've got to use Prowling, Illusion and Mental to avoid getting chased out of town.

Ed: "Wolf" instead of "wolf", to differentiate from Ailings, Timbers, Patriarchs and Brutes.

 

Why don't you pick up the Jewel of Hebe in Tarant Panarii Temple? You simply sneak place a dynamite on the chest that contains it, wait for it to blow up, walk over and pick it up. An instant +2 to Beauty, AND it's not magickal, meaning a neutral/techie can use it.

You then go to Doc Roberts or any other doctor, really, and heal up the scar, for 1 more Beauty.

 

Started my cursed character, Atok. Nietzsche poster child background, Hard difficulty. Harm and some points into willpower. Killed Arbalesh, didn't get any curse unfortunately, I remembered incorrectly. Got the Hexed dagger and Sogg though. Tried to wipe out Lukan and his band several times, but they kicked my ass. Shouldn't have sold those explosives.

 

I just read your first post, Muro. Ah you were so young and innocent, apologising for your english and waxing lyrical about not hurting Virgil's feelings. Not at all the lean, mean corrigendum machine you have now become.

Using the level cap remover, I have finally just achieved every single spell and every single schematic, with just exactly enough points remaining to get throwing mastery.

It's a sickly gnome and I'm roleplaying him as an utterly ruthless and power-hungry gentleman. Plotting to breed half-ogres for slaves using kidnapped women to increase the gnomish power-base? Jolly good show, old chap.

He has a smoking jacket, two half-ogre servants (of course) and every kind of grenade. Also, apart from the two bodyguards, he has Vollinger as a wee weapons platform, trying out all the very cool guns.

By the way Frigo, of all the cursed weapons in the game, I think the hexed dagger is the lamest of all. There's a great sword north of Roseborough which I'd recommend: 5-30 damage with random hailstorms. Very cool. The next one from Shrouded Hills is probably the Staff of Hypocrisy in the sewers under Vermillion St. Randomly applies shields of protection to all and sundry; should be a lot of fun to play with.

Oh yeah, another thing: if you get your CN to 20, you can wear the Baneful Gauntlets all the time without dying, and you get a constantly repeating pentacle/curse animation, which adds a great atmosphere. Which is the guy who's totally cursed? Oh the one with the glowing pentacle appearing under him all the time.

 

I love you Muro, lets have children together!

 

Staff of Hypocrisy and Fool's Dagger is a must, the latter having a cool name, but I'm nowhere near that in the story. I only have access to the Hexed dagger, straight from the Bessie Toone mines. It goes well with the Nietzsche poster child background, when I run out of Harm, I start slicing. Mostly myself. I already have a scar and a crippled arm. Had to give Virgil the rapier, since I killed myself at every other swing.
There is also some time slowing axe at either Hardin's or Gorgoth pass, that is cool as well. And something I hear about a Kite wielding a cursed weapon?

Does this apply only to normal difficulty, or it's the same with hard as well? I'm not sure what changes at hard difficulty; I remembered something about magic costing twice as much fatigue but now as I checked it's normal, Harm is 5 :S Most difficult game I have ever started, that's for sure.

Now I'm going to get the entire party drunk and then with their newfound strength, have them beat the shit out of Lukan.

Edit: Yay, now I have the gypsy blood curse, -2 CH! And a nice little chat with Delores!

 

Thank you. I didn't think anyone would recognize or remember me.

I've changed things up a bit after some test runs and playing with the character planner. I decided to go with a "theme" for Arthur (I changed his name so that loot would be a surprise again). The theme of-course is "pacifist" so I went with skills and tech degrees that would theoretically be employed by somebody who doesn't want to kill anyone. Chemistry is a no-brainer since most of the concoctions made are intended to immobilize, terrify, put to sleep, or avoid enemies. The tranquilizer gun is the natural result of this as well.

Explosives combines naturally with chemistry, especially the first four degrees. In particular the stun, flashbang, and smoke grenades are all about disorienting foes but are non-lethal. Combine a stun grenade with a hallucinate (and not a paralyizer, oddly enough) and you get a paralysis grenade.

I then decided on the first four degrees of electrical in order to get the stun rod. I imagine it being more of cattle prod weapon... something you would theoretically use to give a foe a shock so that they'd hopefully reconsider engaging in fisticuffs with you. Of-course in-game I find that the stun-rod is actually quite lethal.

At the same time of-course it is not very compassionate to knock people out with a tranquilizer and then stab/shoot/stomp/burn/ect... them to death. Got to get experience somehow though, right?

I really like this idea, but now I'm torn between this and another character concept:

Alistair Graves

Human (male)

Background: Miracle Operation

His father was the owner of a small but profitable firearms manufacturing business, somewhere overseas. Alistair used to entertain guests by target shooting, quite a feat for a blind person. Being quite familiar with his father's line of pistols Alistair learned to dissemble and reassemble them on his own.

The disease which blinded poor Alistair took quite a toll on his physical body, as can be discerned from the background description.

My idea with this fellow is that he'll invest in skills and technological disciplines meant to overcome his physical handicaps. First and foremost he'll go with firearms (pistols at least until he can build his strength up to that of the average healthy man) because he's familiar with them and a slow-moving weakling like himself can't hope to overpower even a gnome in melee combat. He'll soon turn his attention towards therapeutics hoping to undue the damage suffered to his body by the degenerative disease he once had. (or at least cover it up)

As he continues his research he'll learn about charged rings and eye gear. Much later when he finds the schematic for the machined plate-mail he'll finish up his smithy degree (previously pursued most of the way for the goggled helmet and weakling-friendly feather-weight chainmail) so that he can build one. He'll need to after all in order to wield his elephant gun properly.

I've never actually used the theraputics discipline... so it should be interesting.

Charisma and persuasion come naturally because someone so fragile can't afford to make a lot of enemies. (plus charisma and persuasion is fun and makes for a good story when you get all the followers together)

In the end he'll get at least one point in melee and dodge because it doesn't make much sense to learn smithy and then not learn to wield any of the weapons you make, even if only barely more competently than a novice.

Another reason for wanting to play this character is the ability to start out with three ranks of firearms. Playing with my previously listed character has been fun, but I get tired of the misses and critical fails that come naturally with the first two ranks in the firearms skills (or any skill, really). Seriously, I'm more of a danger to myself than to the enemy.

Nonetheless, playing a more morally-rigid character who will not fight any badguys that can be talked down no matter how despicable and who won't take any lawfully-grey quests was a refreshing change from the way I used to play. Plus "Raised by Monks" doesn't let you min/max at all (unlike Miracle Operation), which was also a nice change from my previous habits. Still, I think playing a Miracle Operation character will be a new experience with the previously mentioned theme of "tech compensating for weakness".

Well I think The Langoliers is worth watching, but your mileage may vary. The CGI used in the production hasn't aged very well. It was a made for TV movie after all. Secondly some people find the acting very hammy. I enjoy it though because it is a very faithful adaptation, right down to the dialog. At least as far as I remember. It was actually seeing this as a kid that got me interested in wanting to read the novel (or short-story).

In any case...

Speaking of dwarves, I've always wanted to make a dwarf based on the one pictured on the manual and install CD. You know, the fellow wearing chainmail and wielding a flamethrower. I might have actually done this a long time ago... and I recall the flamethrower being pretty lousy. Still, I should try it again.

Sometime I also want to try a technological bowman. I'm thinking maybe a snobby fellow with few friends who stuns enemies with grenades and then sends in his mechanical spiders to ripe them apart whilst peppering them with flaming arrows from afar.

Background would be "Only Child".

Might be a good roll for a half-elf.

 

I considered that initial apology in force for all the posts to come, so no need to repeat myself, you see.

Not hurting my follower's feelings is still an important factor for me whenever I roleplay a character caring about it as much as Bartholomew Ashford, the character I was talking about there.

Still, the Muro from back then gives me the shivers.

Okay, what did I miss?

Regardless, I love you too, Zanza.

Indeed.

The only time-related axe is the Axe of Lost time in the Dungeon of the Dragon Pool.

The is a different hexed axe at Hardin's Pass, though, namely the Axe of Dark Lightning.

You probably mean the Shadow Hand Dagger, wielded by a Kite Berserker at the Strange Ceremony site.

You should find different loot with the exact same character as long as he was created on a different date.

 

Hello everybody, I have been reading these forums for a few days now, and it has inspired me to replay Arcanum for the first time in roughly 7 years. That said, I've been tossing around an idea for a character, but I am not quite sure how feasible it is (my knowledge of the game being quite rusty), and was wondering if I could get your input on it.

Now, I've been thinking about making sort of a steampunk summoner character. I figured I would invest in Mechanical (I think? The one with the robot arachnids, forgive me if I am remembering this wrong), Electricity (for the Tesla rod eventually), Summoning, and eventually firearms (I believe it effects the Tesla Rod). I just love the idea of having a small army of demons and robots attacking the enemy while I hide in a corner and shoot electrical death everywhere. I was thinking of playing either a female human (for no particular reason) or elf (for the bonus to magickal aptitude to help offset the tech aptitude I acquire). For the background, I was thinking of choosing sickly, but I honestly don't remember if that would be a good choice or not (don't have it installed on my laptop as of yet, need to get to my home desktop and transfer it over). Do you think this is a good build, or am I spreading myself too thin?

Also, my apologies if this isn't exactly posted in the correct area, and thank you all in advance for your help.

 

Personally I like to keep my characters human, except for my greatest achievement in Arcanum being Zanza the half elf who punched his way solo to the end. Perhaps you would like to try out a half elf if you cannot decide between the two?

 

That is, of course, a consideration. However, I find the half-elf portraits to be exceptionally ugly and I'm the kind of person who can't play a game if their character is ugly.

I can't even lie and say I'd be able to ignore it. I'm a sufferer of Chronic Restarter Syndrome and have been known to unthinkingly delete savegames and start new characters for exceptionally trivial reasons.

 

I champion the Sickly background at any opportunity. For the character I've wished to play, the attributes are scrambled almost perfectly.

I would not worry about choosing an elfish character to offset any magickal aptitude. You may want to crunch the numbers yourself, but it's possible your pursuit of Summoning will balance your technological studies.

 

You're not alone.

 

In my opinion reload gaming is the most frustrating way to play.

I recommend going with some random character concept you have never played, on Hard difficulty, and reload only when you die. Don't try to do everything. Don't try to do it perfectly. Roleplay much, powerplay never. Trust me, it's much more fun that way.

 

I'm an addict of the quicksave+quickload combo and can't say I'm not enjoying my games.

Here's some useful info for you:

1) This is the aptitude you would achieve with a character with maxed out Electric, Mechanical, Firearms and Summoning:

Human - 79 Tech Aptitude
Half Elf - 74 Tech Aptitude
Elf - 64 Tech Aptitude

2) As far as spells from the Summoning College go, Orcish Champion, Guardian Ogre and Hellgate don't care about aptitude (you summon the very same creatures at 100 TA and 100 MA), but Familiar does (the familiar your character would summon would be very weak). Not sure about Plague of Insects.

3) Elves and Half Elves suffer a penalty to Firearms (-1/2 full point for Elves and -1/4 full point for Half Elves) and can't max that skill out normally, though there is a way to do so eventually.

4) The effects of Sickly can be summarised to:
Strength: - 2
Constitution: -4
Dexterity: -1
Intelligence: +6

5) You are correct that the skill needed to operate the Tesla Rod is Firearms. Be aware that the Minimal Strength Required to use it without penalties is 8, so if you'll choose the Sickly background, investing in Strength may prove necessary.

It is possible to play a Half Elf with an Elf or Human (or any other, in-game or custom) portrait, if that would interest you.

EDIT:
Follower, Familiar, what's the difference. Anyway, corrected.

 

I usually play as D'ren Le'Lor.

 

What's the point of playing a pre-generated character when you're not using his auto-level scheme?

 

There is the possibility of importing your own images into the portrait selection if you were inclined to do so. Personally I don't but I must admit the avatar you are using now was always my favourite female. I guess that is another reason why humans are the coolest.

You write fan fiction about him don't you... DON'T YOU!!

 

I've never been able to get any of the extra avatars to work. They are always glitched when I look at them in-game.

 

I think that avatar is what put me in such a helpful mood in the first place.

More likely than not the their color depth was too high (eventually too low). Portraits need to be bitmaps with a color depth of no more no less but 8 BPP in order to work properly.