ok, this is the 1st time i have played arcanum (i dont have manual - i bought it for $10 from a guy who lost it, but i got the map and both disks are a-ok), and this fatigue thingy is shitting me 100 ways from left. what the heck is it? what is it used for? so far i've worked out that u fall over and dont get back up when it runs out, and it runs out when u get hit upsides the head. i worked out for myslef what nearly everything else does, but this fatigue thingy is really pissing me off. (BTW - i used search function like that mod said and alls i got where topics that had as many uses as tits on a bull)
It relates to magic. Each spell requires a set amount of fatigue that is determined by the difficulty, power and duration of the spell.
Also to every character. If someone hits you with a weapon which does fatigue damage, beware that you don't run out of fatigue, or you'll get unconscious (you fall down) and then they beat the hell out of you.
Any PC should carry a few fatigue potions. Any spellcaster should carry a good stock of 'em. Although spells will grow more and more powerful as a character's techno-magic alignment continues to shift towards magic, the fatigue cost of higher level spells is correspondingly greater.
To hell with fatigue potions. Mages need staves for that, potions simply won't be enough. For a tech there's no need at all in fatigue restoring- unless you're using some really idiotic weapon like a Hunting Rifle, against a bunch of overpowered opponents.
Actually, any character who's not a mage could more or less drop his/her Constitution score. Save being the source of power from which spellpower is drawn, it's usefulness is severy limited. Poison Resistance may be nice, but that's dealt with easily enough by keeping a few antidotes (or Virgil/Dante/Jayna) available. As for enemy encounters, you rarely experience being knocked unconcious by fatigue loss, primarily since most enemies deal out far more health-damage than fatigue-damage. There are generally better places to stuff those points - at higher levels, your amount of fatigue will be satisfyingly high anyway. So let's just keep in character with having all techies being soft, weak nerds shall we? :lol: Don't let this advice get in the way of building the character you want though. If you've got points to spare, they're not entirely wasted. Sometimes you run out of antidotes, in which case it can be nice having some resistance backing you up.
Actually willpower is the power drawn on by magic. Constitution does give you more fatigue though, and if you are a tech melee, for example a smithy dwarf who uses swords, fatigue is pretty important. You want to be able to run up to the enemy and not pass out midway don't you?
ok. thx for all that. helps a great deal in my understanding of the game, but it still pisses me off, just not as much. and why run away? i use a nice shiny revolver i made and anything that wants me dead gets its cummupance before it gets within spitting distance.
running away sometimes to recover with health/fatigue items in peace is a good idea and if you use a gun or bow which require ammo you might run out of ammo meaning that if its early in the game not many followers to fight for you its a good idea to run away and come back with some ammo or your stuff might be broken or might need to sell stuff. if you need any help send me a email with your questions at nathan27@webmask.com.