Half-Orc Bandit

Greetings my fellows!
I've already finished arcanum with an Elven archer/mage character, and i'm planning on replaying the game.
My next character will be a Half-Orc bandit, being an expert an both melee, dodge, lockpicks, and pickpocket. I'm also thinking of earning a doctorate in Gun smithy and mechanics.
So what do u guys think?
I don't know much about technology, actually to come think about, i know nothing about it! So i donno how on earth am I supposed to kill those pesky Ore Golems and Granite Rats. Everything is so simple when your MA is 100 and u have those formidable Harm and Disintegrate spells...
So could u please assist me in creating my character, and yes i'm quite satisfied with the Half-Orc race, and I wanna stay clear of magick.
Anyone?

 

I think you should choose your background as barbarian because:

1. you get great armor at the beginning
2. start with some meele and dodge points (added to half-orc points)
3. every time i started like that i found great charmed sword in a magick box on crash site (place where kite shaman and ailing wolf is)

You should also spend 2 points in smithy so you can make pure ore (blacksmith's quest in shrouded hills) and you can make balanced sword (charged or envenomed later) for virgil. He becomes a killing machine with those swords.

 

Okay, technology works like this; you puts points in colleges to learn new schematics. Schematics are blue prints to item creation. Each schematic shows 2 items you need to combine to make whatever it is the schematic is for. Once you get to necessary ingredients, you can combine them into a new thing.
i.e.- Metal Tube+Broken Flintlock Pistol=Crude Flintock Pistol

If you are headed off down the fine road of the technological arts, the College of the smithing of guns is quite useful. You can build a quite inpressive array of weaponry, including Pistols (of both the noisy and silenced variety), Hand Cannons (use your imagination), and the Looking Glass Rifle (my personnel favorite). Also you can find schematics thoughout the world which open up other weaponry like the Flametrower (duh), and the Blade Launcher (doom incarnate).

The only problem with a good gun is that one tends to run out of bullets in areas away from civilazation. For this reason, you should also learn the first Explosives schematic, which gives to access to the Molotov Cocktail (a VERY useful weapon when surrounded) and will allow you to use a very important schematic which can be found, the schematic for Bullets. It is much cheaper to by the ingredients for bullets (Saltpeter and Charcoal) than it is to buy the bullets themselves (unless your haggle skill is good, you will be charged approximately 5 coins per bullet!). To conserve amunition, stick to powerful weapons with a low rate of fire. (The reason for me liking the Looking Glass Rifle so much is that it does 40-40 damage per one-bullet shot while the Elephant Gun uses SIX bullets per shot to do 30-60 damage!)

A final word about guns, they are not so great without training. If you aren't trained, you'll miss alot and suffer more misfires. Believe me, you do NOT want to be facing a charging Giant Rat and blow a hole in your foot. Pour initial points into Perception and Firearms. Seek training as sood as you are competant enough.

As for mechanical, it's sort of useful (Mechanical Arachnids are nice and Automatons are handy) but you should wait until you are a competant gunner before investing in it. Also, puts some points into Repair and hold on to the camera so you can become a master thereof. Your equiptment will inevitable be broken or wear out, so its best to have the means to fix it, right?

I hope you find this useful for your bandit. Good hunting!

:wink:

 

You said you wanted to become an expert in melee and dodge. If you do that, I wouldn't put points into gunsmithing. If you are going to be a more melee fighter, smithy and mechanics are VERY good, particularly when used together later on. I would recommend either specializing in melee or firearms instead of both, just because it could be a pain in the butt to have to switch weapons when the enemy gets close to you. Also, if you go the melee route, get the Pyro Axe schematic. It takes some points in explosives but you can just get the tech manuals from the guy in Tarant to get those. Of course, the game would be more of a challenge if you didn't use the pyro axe.

 

sam, the route you are planning to take will make it difficut for you to have enough strength in the end game to use the best weapons and armor. I suggest carrying an axe in lieu of investing points into lockpicking; your character sounds more brutish than finesse-driven and an axe doesn't take damage from hacking into wooden chests or doors. You don't even have to use axes as your primary weapon, just strap one to your backpack in case of stubborn locks.

As was mentioned above, avoid gun smithy unless you plan on beefing perception and firearms. You might want to consider explosives and thowing. Not only are explosives good for burning away some of your excessive half-orc brow hair, they work wonders on ore golems and rock rats. I wouldn't pursue most tech disciplines all the way to the doctorate level, though; tech manuals can be purchased from Tarant University which immediately boost your expertise and many found schematics are better than the known ones -- you can build all the found schematics in the game without ever investing in a degree. Inversely, you cannot build known schematics without the proper degree and level of intelligence.

 

Thank you all for your help!
I guess my character will be as follows, a half-orc bandit with a barbarian background, expert both in melee and dodge. I guess that i'm going to spend some points in smithy and explosives, or perhaps mechanics.
Thanx again

 

I'm assuming you mean he slaughters the party and himself quite frequently, since his MA gets too high to use those swords without critically failing most of the time and lopping his own hands off. :lol:

 

I think I'm gonna do that with Virgil and Geoffrey and Jormund.