After years of tech oriented play

... I finally did it, I made a mage. But, not a pure magic mage. A Mechromancer. Sure, he has 100% magic aptitude. But also can make mechanized arachnids, poison ones too are having Vollinger in the party for a bit to supply the poison. Basically, its all Tempus Fugit, Fire Flash, and a few other odds and ends to get 100% magic aptitude. Went human with the "sold your soul" background and went mechanical first. Master of Haggle next. Tempus Fugit kicks the speed of arachnids up towards 30 depending on their level. Regardless, 20 + poison arachnids all hopped up on tempus fugit and a few with Body of Fire really make up for having no dodge or melee but alot of cash and potions. I don't think I could ever tolerate pure mage for the whole game though... walking in Tarant is for the peasantry!

 

I like your name

 

DE, i've tried that, but it just doesn't work as well. If you are going tech with supplemental magic, its really watered down magic at less than 1/2 power at 100% TA... if it even succedes in casting. The Mechcromancer was my idea around this. Even though the little buggers are at 99% TA, you can cast buffs on them at near full effect. That gave me the idea for the technomage/mechromancer. Going full mechanical, then haggle, gave me the means and the money to make an army of 'em and all the back up parts to replace dead ones after I got up to 100% MA and could no longer interact with TA shopkeepers. Its basically full support magic for my arachnid army. Other followers are simply well geared pack mules. The only thing that bothers me is seeing lvl 50 arachnids with like 39 unspent character points... while the mut has maxed out str and dx.. and now seems to be putting points into int?

I don't think I'll waste points on going past expert haggler again... I can't think of any wielded item by an NPC that'd warrant going to Master Haggler.

 

Yeah, but talking some poor idiot into selling the shirt off his back to you never gets old.

"Hey, nice pants. I'll give you 1000 gold for them."

"Okay!!!" *zip*

 

Wait so what are you doing? First your maxing out at 100% tech to build the Arachnids then flipping your character and going 100% Magick to buff them? How long/hard is it to go from one extreme apptitude to the other to do this?

This looks fun to do, but I'm guessing it's only for a tactical run through. I don't see any role play benefit from working your character this way.

 

Roleplaying is easy... he's an evil mage. Everything he does is for his benefit. Everything in the world is there for him. Why not use it if there is a huge benefit and little cost? That, and as shown in the various math above, he strays not far from his true calling. Further, it allows for him to be evil AND low charisma... usually those two go together... instead of a large pack of evil people hanging out together. Evil just tolerates evil, and loves only itself. Further, he is human, no real tech or magic affinity. As humans are inclined to do everything from motivation of their own fear of mortality given in the storyline anyway, the Mechromancer is the fastest way to a vast army of buffed enemy crunching metal with no shopping requirements. That leaves my money for buying Bates's mansion and my own boat. Why would I bother helping Teach or stringy Pete? It's all about me, my money, and my metal homies. Now get outta the docks before I flash a Victorian era gang sign on ya's and my boyz get all Age of Legends on yer butt.

 

ha, what about your experience?

come to think of it now, I have never made a tech. i end up rolling halfling human rogue with some magick. and i always abuse ritztizee for his gold and i always use my first fate point to steal that sword from the woman down in dernholm. man... i really should try something new...

 

I'm not questioning your character's influence on the game world.
I was approaching what you had planned for your character from a player/game-mechanics point of view, saying that it was a premeditated, tactical consideration because you wanted the best of both worlds from a player's perspective. But if you meant it to be the motivation of your character's personality to achieve this, then by all intents and purposes do it. Don't take offense just because of the misunderstanding I made, thinking that you wanted to power game instead of role play. I couldn't tell what your intentions were just from the description you gave. Even when you listed the background you gave him, you made it sound like part of the equation DE was talking about, and not like it was an actual part of your characters history.

 

No offense was taken, I assumed you wanted some RP, albeit anachronistic. I had no idea it would have worked as well as it did.

 

Looks like an awesome character to me. I never really considered doing it that way, and I only had plans to create a tech character with spells that don't rely on MA. Such as all the temporal spells and Stun, and Agility of Fire and such. Maybe I would've come up with more ideas if I played faster, but I'm only on my second playthrough after all these years, so I haven't really experimented much at all.

Felt very rewarding to be able to buy Fawn's +4 CN amulet though. That made the Haggle Master happy. Ok, sure, he's evil and could've killed her for it. And he's stinkin' rich too, so he doesn't need her to buy all his loot. But he wants her to, because she pays so well.

 

The scavenger and improviser feel of being a technologist, and the fact my playthrough with a mage was just too easy are the reasons why I'll stick with it unless there is a way(besides cheating) to make a permanent and playable 0 MA/TA tech/spellcaster hybrid(AKA: Alchemist) which is not overly reliant on melee combat and can cast offensive or defensive spells while using tech for the opposite(something like tech healing and magick attack or vice-versa).