Backrounds

Yes , i know , you've probably seen alot of these , but they're part of what makes character creation in this game so fun , probably the only game i've seen where that happens.

So , what are the community's favourite backrounds? What do you think of them? What are the backrounds you consider most useful , and if for a specific type of character, which? What backrounds are the most RPG-ish or flavorable?

 

Miracle operation is good for archers and gunslingers (especially in my unpatched version when I still can have DX20 with it). Only child is quite good for mages. The most RPG-ish is probably the "Sold your soul" one.

 

Damn, I have to agree. Troll Offspring is good if you're going to beat people around... but a friend has a dwarf technologist with that background and it works perfect too.

You know that if you beat the game with every background you can start with one called Kerghan's Apprentice? ... :lol: No, who's gonna believe that?

 

I don't like backgrounds that reduce people's reaction to you or the number of followers. I like having at least 3 people in my party, even if just to carry stuff for me.

 

Miracle Operation, Mad Doctor, Beat with an Ugly Stick, Raised by Orcs, Bandit, Debutant, Troll Offspring, Barbarian.

As there are 3 free humaniod followers in the game, & 2 - 5 free CH points early on, there is realy no problem with having a large party even if you start out with a CH of 2.

 

Another one I love is Escaped Lunatic. You have a lot of natural resistance... just people doesn't like you... who would care for that...
...
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...Shadygrove, what you do to get 5 points in charisma??? :-o

 

Gypsy Blessing, Jewel of Hebe, Ring of Influence.

 

you need high magic aptitude to get all 5 points. the ring at full power gives you 3 be and ch and, IIRC, 2/4 in haggle and persuasion.

 

you need high magic aptitude to get all 5 points. the ring at full power gives you 3 be and ch and, IIRC, 2/4 in haggle and persuasion.

 

At full power, 3/4 on haggle & persuasion. But it still does 1, 1, 1/4, & 1/4 at 30% tech. It hits 2, etc. a little over dead neutral, & gets to 3, etc. when it is > 75% MPA, somewhere less than 60% MA.

The JoH & gipsy blessing are dead neutral, so I said "2 - 5". I also said "early on".

 

Frankenstein!
You get to play through with the stupid dialogue!

 

How do you get the Ring of Influence? You have to be a Master in haggle for it already?

 

You can just pick his pocket for it, really, as soon as you reach Tarant for the first time.

 

Only child is my favorite for a mage.

If you really want followers, you can always use the points you saved in WP and CH to use the reflection shield/infinite mind control cheese to get as many as you want.

Circus runaway is good for any fighter

And while it is totally useless, I still use Arsonist for one of my characters for strictly role playing purposes.

 

Lots of replies to reply to , i was "netless" yesterday so here we go.

Hmm... (for easy reference , this backround gives +5 Per +3 Int/Cha -5 Con -3Dex/Str)
I tried two characters with this backround , it seemed perfect for a gunslinger, but there are a number of things that don't quite work out terribly well with it , namely:

- The Perception bonus is really really really useless.

- Perception as a whole isn't terribly efficient point expenditure , by the time you reach 18 for Firearm mastery , you'll have all the range and accuracy you need (from what i could tell).

- Intelligence.. meh. Intelligence is mostly a req for tech disciplines , which in my opinion aren't effective at all. You're spending CP's not to improve your innate abilities , but to create items. Of course , the items will hopefully give you an advantage, but one has to wonder in the end if all those CP's could've been better spend elsewhere. (With a few techies in my party , i've found them to be fun , but not effective , so far)

- Charisma. Now there's a nice bonus. Bumps humans to 11 charisma , which with toussaude's blessing gives you acess to 3 followers and 3 points of persuation. I haven't found the Jewel of Hebe , nor the Ring of Influence , but from what i'm told , they and the last blessing of the third circle would allow nearly maxed charisma for little to no cp expenditure.

As for the penalties , Dexterity is always good to have , though the 17 dex cap can be overcome with items or spells. Strength will usually have to be raised back to 7 at least for a semi-decent revolver , and Con , at least for me , isn't much of an issue at all ,specially when using ranged attacks.

Whew. So in the end you end up gaining very little , and i find the Str/Con penalties to be particularly annoying at the beginning of the game.
What do you think?

 

Well having experience of playing both archer and gunslinger with miracle operation background, I think you're wrong Caine.
Constitution is quite useless for a tech, especially ranged attacker. With miracle operation you gain 5 CP that go into useful stats instead.
DX is easily regained in unpatched game, you can still boost it up to 20 and have 25 speed.
Gunslingers and archers don't need much strength since ranged attacks make heavy armor much less important (I usually wear gnomish chainmail and its more than enough, most enemies don't get the chance to come close). You need to fit into the minimum requirements for weapons you carry and that's about it (with STR12 you can have the mechanized gun, which is probably the best one around).
Your comment about intelligence wasn't...ahem...very intelligent. Making items is just as much an "innate ability" in Arcanum as any physical or mental stats. I don't see the basic difference between making and using items and researching and casting spells. Leaving alone the fact that the most powerful melee and ranged weapons in the game are all tech (pyro axe, pyro bow, mechanized gun), many of the items you can make turn out to be by far more effective than spells. I like grenades, especially Molotov and stun ones- easy to make in huge numbers, don't take APs to throw as much as you want and make even the most difficult battles easy.
The techies you can find as followers aren't designed to be 100% effective (most of them at least). If Vollinger had enough STR to use a mechanized gun, he would be incredibly deadly, though his chemistry skills are pretty useless. Sebastian is simply awesome if you did not research explosives, since he can offer my favorite stun grenades as secondary weapons, and once you have stun grenades there is no such thing as a difficult battle. Even the pitiful Magnus can supply you with eye gear (2CPs saved) and axes. If you're playing a mage, techies are quite useless, but for neutral or tech player they are nice to have around. Only Jayna with her drugs can save you 6 CPs.
As for intelligence in general, it might not always be necessery for certain types of characters (a gunslinger, for example, can steal or get in some other way enough good guns and there is no need to research them), but if you want a pyro bow (which at the moment is on my list as a number one tech ranged weapon) you need to research explosives till the end. (and yes, its more than a worthy way of spending CPs). Also, if you want to get certain followers,like Waromon and Loghaire, and/or get/solve certain quests you must have a high intelligence. Potions help of course, but I wouldn't call spending CPs on intelligence a waste.
As for perception, its a very efficient investment, especially when using weapons with range 20 and more. You can shoot enemies who are on the edge of sight and finish them off without messy melee (especially useful against some annoying hard-to-kill beasts like Ore golems).

 

The best subject for a Miracle Operation is the 1/2 Orc female. She comes through with ST, CN, & DX all 5, BE 6, IN 11, WP 8, PE 13, CH 9. I give her 1 in DX, mele & dodge to start. Pick up Sog, she needs a porter, get the blessing & social jewelery in Tarant & pick up Janya. The 6 points she saves a techie are indeed worth it.

An archer needs a certan minum ST to draw a bow. Stick with Elemun's Bow. As fast as the famed Mechanized Gun, it has the same MSR as an Elven Hunter's Bow, which has to be below 7 as that is what my Halfling, Raised by Orcs has. (A fine start for an archer or gunslinger BTW.)

 

All good points , and some i agree with, lets see...

This is what i said in the post previous to yours. From what i can tell , you're agreeing with me , so far
It IS inconvenient to have such a low con when your equipment and skills and followers aren't adequate. Even lowly Kites can be a bit of a struggle early on in these conditions. I'm not saying Con is essential or even worthy of cp's , i'm just pointing out a drawback of the backround.

I personally find this irrelevant. If a patch is released , i assume its purpose is to make the game closer to what the developers intended in terms of balance and gameplay (bugs et al). You're entitled to disagree , of course , but this is one point i'm forced to disregard.

True , but i wasn't suggesting ranged attackers need high strength at all , i'm just wondering what exactly is the purpose of having a stat lowered if it will subsquently need to be raised anyway. The added flexibility (having points when you need them) is nice , but i believe strength is most useful at the crash site , not later. There aren't many advantages to extra intelligence or perception early on , so i fail to see the advantage.

There are disadvantages to Tech Disciplines that make them inferior to spells and regular skills in my eyes , but i agree my "innate ability" comment was a bit silly.
If you were to disregard Tech requirements , intelligence has very few other uses (which you thoughtfully pointed out). It's 20 bonus looks very useful , but the reasons to get there aren't strong enough.
I'm not saying i'll absolutly refuse to invest in tech disciplines , as they can be quite fun, but they don't appear to be the wisest investment of cp's.

Followers in general aren't effective , even without taking their level schemes into account, they enrich the roleplay experience , give limited acess to skills not available to your character , and sometimes , just sometimes , prove their worth in battle. I'm not proposing all followers to become Worthless Muts in Arcanum 2

The range advantage is useful , but really dependent on the relative difficulty of the opponent. Remember ,those cp's could be used elsewhere to ease battles. I'm happy in investing in it to the point where it turns my weapon into a completly reliable damage source. I usually raise it to 18 for the mastery , but after that its diminishing returns.

I'm glad you decided to express your opinions , it certainly helped change my view a bit.

 

Where exactly do you suggest to spend CP's to ease the battles? I haven't seen easier battles than the ones where a pyro bow and stun grenades are used. The only one difficult to kill for me was Stringy Pete's crew (mostly because my stupid followers didn't let them all gather around me so I could keep them stunned). I had moments when I simply didn't know what else to spend CPs on, everything seemed to work perfectly fine as it was.
About why I play unpatched game. I bought a Russian release of Arcanum, perfectly legal but translated in an extremely annoying way, with lots of mistakes. Having my English on a somewhat decent level, I prefer playing the original English version, which they had wisely put onto the same CDs. Unfortunately, when I tried to download patches for the English version, they refuse to see my CD as a legal copy. Russian patches are avaliable of course, but you have to admit that the well written dialogs are an essential part of the pleasure of playing Arcanum. So I'm stuck with an unpatched game, which has its advantages (LGR does 40-40 damage, background doesn't affect top stats).

 

Well , i can't deny the Pyro Axe seems like a very worthwhile weapon , but it still is the exeption. Disciplines do have their advantages , i won't deny that.

Oh , sorry to hear about that , i would've done the same thing. Darn 40-50 rifle *drool*