What's the best background for 1)An elven fighter/mage (sort of a "monk" type of character) 2)An half-ogre? I have ideas of choosing "ran away with circus" and then spend my 5 starting points (and possibly a few more) at intelligence so I don't have to use dumb conversation options. 3) A dwarf technologist? Hope someone answers... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Well I dunno bout the first 2, but whatever you do, DO NOT, DO NOT, use Magick Allergy as a background. You will see why once you get to Tulla
1. If you not planning on collecting an army of followers Only Child and Dark Elf give boost WP at the expense of Charisma. 2. Try playing the idiot at least for a little, while the dialogue and journal entries are pretty funny. 3. I prefer Sickly myself for the big Intelligence boost. Mad Doctor and Miracle Operation can work out pretty well for gunfighters but there a trade off. And of course you cant go wrong with No Background.
"Beat With an Ugly Stick" and "Troll Offspring" are the best if you don't want followers. I'm changing my name to "Mr. State-the-Obvious".
Better yet, spend those extra five points on Strength. The quicker you get to 20+ in strength, the better. Especially when playing the dumb character. Alternately, you can boost your intelligence some and grab the Strength of Fire spell. What I did was spend all my available points on Strength and a little Melee. Once my Strength was 20 (and I got the double damage bonus), I worked on getting my Dexterity maxed out, spending CPs in Melee as I went. Then I took a little time out to add some Intelligence and Backstab. It isn't so bad to have a low intelligence early in the game anyway. As long as this isn't your first time through the game, I think it's more fun to be extremely stupid. Some of the reactions you get are pretty funny. You'll miss out on some quests, but you'll more than make up for it by beating ass on anything you fight. The way experience is figured in this game, you'll probably level up faster by just fighting anyway.
Half-Ogres If I choose "ran away with circus" as my background I'll have 18 in strenght to begin with. So "ran away with circus" might be the best background alternative for any melee fighter due to the substantial strenght bonus (+6 is a pretty heavy boost man) Of course, the drawbacks in intelligence, willpower and perception are rather hurting, but a half-ogre can live with that. Would work good with any race. The "circus" alternative must be better than "troll offspring" in any aspect. Troll offspring DO increase your constitution and dexterity a bit but in my opinion this isn't really much better than high damage bonus and much hit points. Anyone agree with that?
so far I tried "debutante" - usefull for followers, persuasion and charisma in general. "Sold your soul" - became a pretty evil mage :smile: "gunslinging bandit" - managed to leave shrouded hills as an expert firearms, shame though that bullets are very expensive at that stage. "supermodel" - dunno how good this one is, the lack of intelligence seems a drawback :sad:.
Well, I play as a mage/diplomat, so Debutante is pretty good for me - I get 4 free statistics points (+3 to CHA and BE, -1 to STR and CON, I dont only magic in fights, so the penalties to fighting skills do not matter.) Also Raised by Monks is good just for any character - you get one free point at the expense of -300 money, and money certainly is not a problem in Arcanum (just as it isnt in any RPG).
3. I first played with no background and this time I chose Miracle Operation which is great (for a gunslinger at least). Even though it lowers your DX it's not a serious drawback as you can wear two Charged Rings (+2DX each) and Magnus' gloves (but I think they work only if you're a dwarf too).
