Ultimate Showdown of Magickal Handwear

There should be an Epic Rap Battle between them.

 

I assume all options are Muro, yeah?

Dexterity look better, if I recall correctly, and as we all know... nothing is more important for the modern Tarantian gentleman than to be fashionable.

 

I prefer gloves of dexterity, but only because I'm a whore for saving character points. I also think the benefits of the arcane gauntlets are pretty marginal when you could just use a decent shield for added AC.

I always thought it was weird that even though they're called gauntlets it looks as if they're still made out of leather. Also I think the developers should have included magickal gloves with added BHD; without them the only really good fist fighters you can build are tech.

 

Naturally.

It's a matter of opinion, I guess. I personally think Arcane Gauntlets look more stylish, being long, covered in mysterious runes and looking quite velvety.



Gloves of Dexterity, on the other hand, look more roughly, are shorter and have a single rune which is pretentiously big and rather blasé.

However, nothing says fashionably like costly clothing. Gloves of Dexterity are worth 125 coins whereas Arcane Gauntlets - 3090 coins, being by far the most expensive handwear in all of Arcanum.

And, after all, they are arcane. If arcane (and costly) equipment wasn't the shit, mages in Tulla would wear Red Barbarian Clothes rather than Arcane Robes.

Then again, one could use a decent shield and Arcane Gauntlets for even better AC and DR.

Agreed on both points. I always considered the use of the word "gauntlets" rather than "gloves" a mistake and - while using the original name for correctness - think of them as gloves anyway. Magick fist fighters would be fun as well.

 

You are partially wrong there. best gear for fist fighting are indeed tech (vendigrotian war gauntlets & machined gauntlets) while best support for a fist fighter is definitely elemental magic. My half-orc "old chap" tecno-magical fist fighter was my ultimate fighter in Arcanum ever.

Best part is you can go with any elemental type except air. Water means you will knock them out of fatigue in a few hits , while fire means huge damage which may be supported with agility of fire (which can be cast several times). while earth means having max STR with just body of earth and even benefitting some bonus damage and good damage resistance. When you add haste or even tempus fugit from magical support, you will hands down be way better than any pure tecno fist fighter.

By the way I am really disappointed with hardened hands spell. it is the worst spell I guess. if you put that point into strength of earth or agility of fire, your combat boost will be much better, not to mention they can be cast multiple times.

 

Sweet pugilist builds, symban.

 

I always found that the elemental forms hit dreadfully slowly though even with max dex (I play real time) - does tempus fugit and haste remedy this or not?

As for a "pure" techno fist fighter, I think pure techno anything isn't that any more; with the current tech characters I make I always throw at least temporal into the mix if nothing else. The last fist fighter I played was a half-ogre technomancer with temporal 5, strength of stone and hardened hands as well as 100 technical aptitude and vendigrothian war gauntlets - he was pretty great and it was also immensely satisfying pounding the Big Boss to death at the end of the game. Hardened hands is pretty poor but still doing a smidge extra damage is always nice if you have the character points to spare.

 

Tempus fugit work well with elemental forms as it is based on action point calculation. I always thought something was broken with real time Arcanum engine. first thing it is far too fast to control or click on an engaging enemy before it's too late. Also some weapons are not working properly like throwing weapons. When you let it go your character waits till it return (which is logical) but this means speed stat is completely irrelevant and in some cases thrown items goes far too away. Long word short I always prefer turn based (not fast one) to play, mainly because I love traps too and using unorthodox skills like force field. Fast turn based mode simply make mobs to pass through traps and obstacles.

About hardened hands, the disappointing part for me was that, well to put it simply for a skill which only works with hand to hand (which does not benefit from marvelous apprentice melee bonus) its effect in my combat output was much less than more overall elemental skills (which can be cast multiple times to get upto +20 stat from single talent) even when they were cast only once! 4 STR or DEX was adding much more bonus for combat compared to 2dmg. Other part is it was requiring me to use 1 of my precious sustained spell slots.

About pure technician part, I totally agree. My only oure tech character was a persuasion master with all followers carrying tranquilizer guns. Still I disliked him because he was not techo magical like other chars and even though I had almost all tech disciplines and schematics through manuals, it was kind of boring.

I strongly suggest throwing in a few points to WP and Body of XXX with your melee next time. I always found it awesome when this happened;

"I dont like your kind half-breed"
"ARrrG......" turns into Hulk (body of earth) *hulk crushes!!"

 

For throwing you just have to keep clicking, that way you throw the right amount of projectiles in accordance to your speed. I guess I just like real time because it seems more dangerous having to react to sudden threats and at times try desparately to keep your health up, but I do agree turn based allows you to be much more creative in combat. The only way I ever get creative in real time is by using invisibility first and then doing horrible things to my enemies.

This does sound like a lot of fun, when or if I give turn based another try I'm sure a build similar to this will be top of my list.

 

Hardened Hands seems to stack when you supermegameta multiple spells of it onto yourself. Just saying.

Also, aesthetically, I like Body of Air best of all, although its useless for fistfighting. The DR and +10 APs are an excellent advantage for mages wearing light suits, but the best part of all is when you coagulate out of the mist when making your entrance.

It's also useful when you're turnbased-sprinting across town because you can't accidentally punch a policeman as you fly by.

 

You mean you accidentally do those things? I should look into that, you know, for RP purposes. Accidentally slug an officer, and become a fugitive in Tarant/Caladon/Anywhere there are police! Though, sometimes I wish a system of fines was in place, like Fable; "I'm really sorry I killed the whole town, and every guard who tried to stop me, and then I ran away when I got bored killing you guys so easily. Here's some money. Friendsies?"