Playing Arcanum without a violent approach (when possible)

You should go to Tarant.

There are a bunch of quests in Tarant that don't require any fighting. Just keep asking people if they have any work for you. If you're still at level two by that point, you will go up at least two levels just by delivering things for people or doing other simple errands.

As far as joining the Thieves' Underground goes, you seem to have gotten to the heart of the dilemma already. On the one hand, there are all sorts of non-violent ways to gain experience. And you'll definitely level up faster. But on the other hand, you'll need to spend two or three character points on Pick Pocket that you might be better off using for spells or more points in Persuasion or something.

Also, the Unlocking Cantrip spell isn't as useful for a thief as the Pick Locks skill. But if you put points into Pick Locks, that will lower your Magical Aptitude.

The other problem is that at least three of the thief jobs in Tarant can result in you getting into a fight with a person who stands right by the container you need to open. You might be able to just use Stun on them in turn-based combat mode, but I've never tried that so I don't know how well it works.

I'd say go ahead and be a thief, but don't worry too much about any thief skills other than Pick Pocket. You can do a lot of stealing without Prowl. And Spot Traps is more about you getting hurt less often than being stealthy. I've seen guards stay asleep even though an explosive trap just went off when I stepped on it.

You can fake your way through several of the thief jobs just by wearing Oiled Thieves Leather and taking advantage of the small bonuses to your thief skills it provides. Light-fingered gauntlets might also be useful if your MA is high enough.

 

While we're at that, you could train yourself at all four thieving skills while wearing the Oiled Thieves Leather Armor. When you take it off, the skill will be gone, but the apprentice training bonuses will stay. It's not that much of a cheat because you were trained, you did pay for it, and even though you lose the skill, you do remember your training tips, right?

 

You may also want to avoid giving your story to the Tarant times if you plan to talk your way through the random encounters the Molochean Hand throws your way(assuming you have enough persuasion). You may also want to avoid betraying bates so you can avoid bounty hunters.

 

My attempt of No Kills playthrough is going pretty well for now. Actually i'm on Tarant and completed some quests, and actually I'm on Level 7 and still 0 kills reported on Logbook. I'm still waiting to spend my CP, because I want to be sure to gain the best skills or spells for my goal.

By playing, I discovered some interesting tricks. While trying to complete the Mr Plough's quests (rats and wharehouse) I discovered that if i use the Control Beast spell on a rat and I order it to attack his "buddies", if I deactivate the spell just before it begin to attack, the creatures will begin to fight each others, and then I can just waiting and watch the fight, and still no kills will added on the logbook. Pretty interesting. I think this should work even with Dominate Will spell, because is basically similar to Control Beast, but works only on NPC. I just be ready to deactivate the spell just before my "slave" begin to attack. Maybe I can complete even some quests that require a forced fight and still keep my number of kills to zero. 8)

Also: using Entangle and Stun spells I can obtain enough time to pickpocket a NPC and escape without been attacked. The entagle must be used even on other NPC (guards and others) for avoiding to been attacked while "working". It seems that no much skill on pickpocket is required using this tecnique.

As you can see reading my post, both Nature and Mental are indispensable for my No Kills Playthrough, but I still fell it lack something else: also, I'm still worried when I must begin the P. Schuyler & Sons quest, because these magical discliplines are very limited against zombie and ghouls. :/

I didn't know the Thieves's Armor bring those bonuses. I used it one time on a halfling, but my character was inclined on technology.
Usually, armor like this are magical, I'm wrong?

Those are exactly my doubts about the thief's approach of my character.
And I have still doubt if prowling will be really useful for my purpose. I know that on high levels i can run while prowling, but I'm not sure I have enough points to spend even on dextery or further perception for gaining the thieve's ability.

Maybe I'll defintly left the idea of becoming a not-so-silent thief, but I still trying.

 

I tried that approach for a while. My character was some kind of peaceful monk, or as peaceful as he could be. I'd stun people and charm animals. It was a bother getting away from the stunned people before they woke, though.

 

Entangling them, running away and dispersing the spell when you're far away for them not to bother to follow you can help when there are few of them, but there will be situations in which there will be simply too much of the zombies. You may consider "borrowing" a wererat from one of the warehouses in Tarant and using it with the "kill, yet 0 kill" technique you described, or you can just run through the place.

Well this one is neutral. We can say that it's so professionally created towards thieves that even an embodiment of fail will be able to success at least a bit in the role of a thief because of how the armor makes your every move silent and fluent.

 

If you're going with magic, gloves of dexterity will free up 1 (or 2 if high enough aptitude) cp. You could also use a fate point to pickpocket the haggle master's ring so that you don't have to spend as many cps on persuasion. They're not a massive help, but they can help you with the shortage of points. There's other items that could also be useful for you as well, if only to save you from putting points into attributes.

 

Some updates required there:
During my tries, i discovered that the Conveyage Discipline is quite usesful too for my purpose. It's useful especially agasint Zombies and Ghoul (because my character is limited against them) and also the teleport could help me to avoid the random encounters as well.
Haggle is useful for purchasing useful items on magical shoppers, especially the Scroll of Exit, that are damn useful if i need to exit form a dungeoun infested by ghouls, that I leaved without kill no one (see on the Schyler's basements).
I'm pretty sure i can reach until BMC mountains with 0 kills, but my doubt is still to spend at better possible the few CP that I'll earn playing this playthrough (I'm absolute sure I'll never reach to Level 50). I need to try again using maybe a different background.

 

I'm just finishing up a pacifist run myself. I'm in the Void at level 30 with no kills. However, after this point, it is impossible to continue without receiving kills.

The two dark champion's at the door to Kergan's castle cannot be negotiated with or persuaded to let you in. You either have to kill them both to get in, or you have to be working for Kergan (for which you have to have murdered a number of people).

After them, you have to kill Kergan, or kill the other Void inmates. You can't debate him down to killing himself with Master Persuasion what with that not working to begin with, and the fact that you need to have Arronax with you in order to debate with Kergan (not a major issue, but you have to be fast getting to Kergan to keep him from killing guys or getting killed).

So ultimately, the minimum number of kills is 3. And those 3 are only because of really weird bits of scripting or oversights in design. It's not as good as Fallout in the possibility for pacifism, but it's still a good challenge. Also, prowling all the way through the BMC is good fun.

(For reference, I played a Miracle Operation Halfling with Master Prowling, Master Persuasion, Expert Pick Locks, Expert Pick Pockets, a boomerang, Charm Animal and Charm)

 

You have to use the Ring of Shadows (found in Strange Pond) to liquidate one of the guards (plant it on them). It does normal damage over time, unlike the Baneful Gauntlets (from the IoD) which do poison damage to which the undead are immune.

The unofficial patch fixes all Kerghan's hostility checks, so he no longer attacks you or your followers if you manage to persuade him to surrender.

This way it's possible to finish the game with 0 kills registered.

 

Really? Hmm, I'd never encountered the Ring of Shadows before, much less thought of doing something like that. Jolly good to hear about that then, and a fortunate thing that I took Pick Pockets as one of my primary skills.

There is still the issue for me of trying to get Arronax past the guards without him killing anyone or vice versa. I'll probably just have to bring a few Arcane Rings with me and give him Harrow or something. Can you cast Invisibility on followers?

 

Yes, you can.

 

There's the already mentioned Invisibility spell, as well as the Sanctuary spell. Oh and by the way, something tells me you are not aware of the power of F5.

 

Ring of Shadows only helps against a single guard. Both need to be eliminated, however. Is there any way to get a second Ring of Shadows? As far as survivability, Sanctuary's a nice idea. I'll have a look around for a scroll of it.

 

There is only one Ring of Shadows. With PE 20 or the Sense Invisible spell you would be able to retrieve it after killing a foe and use it again.

 

I didn't haved enough free time in this last month, but now I've returned to playing Arcanum again.

I see Elzaban has maybe already complete this challenge. Good work.

About my playthorugh, I'm still looking to my personal way to complete Arcanum without any fighting.
Actually, the most useful spells for my purpose are Charm Beast and Entagle, plus Unlock Cantrip and a bit of Charm. I'm pretty well decided to spend more on the Conveyance disclipline, and I guess Temporal would be useful too. However, my only doubt, for now, is to figure a strategy that let me survive on dangeouns filled by ghouls, scheletons and other Not-dead creatures.
I guess Sanctuary would be a great idea, but I should spend CPs on other spells of the White Necromacy discipline that maybe I would never use it.

Actually, I'm on level 10, and I spared 9 CPs. I would try to go on the P. Schyler & Sons basements, but I'm not sure I have enough skills to beat the dungeoun without fighting.

Have you some suggetsions? Keep in mind that I'll not spend any CP on Prowling for this playthrough, I want to make it with the magical spells.

 

How about using some kind of disabling spell on undead, paralyze, stone flesh, shrink (not sure if that one slows down), tempus fugit (+turn-based escape)?

 

Haste or Tempus Fugit are definitely your friends in P. Schuyler & Sons. It took me several attempts to successfully prowl through that one room with all those zombies in it right before you get to the final basement, and getting out was even worse. You basically want to be running from there as fast as possible. Or have Sanctuary, but I think it's probably easier to get a potion of haste than get a 4th level spell at level 9-10.

 

Very well. I think I'll definetly spend some CP on the Temporal's discipline. Pretty sure about this.

So, My magical discipline of choise would be: Nature (Charm Beast+Entagle), Conveyance (all), Temporal (all) and Charm (from Mental discipline).
I also consider to spend some point on Haggle for have some nice prices on the magical shops, especially for aquiring Intellet essences and fatigue limitators.

Also, I'm not worried about exiting from dungeouns: Exit scrolls are quite cheap to buy fortunaly. :thumbup:

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EDIT (after playing Arcanum)

Good, I've beaten just now the P.Schyler's dungeouns, and temporal was essential for this. I guess now I'm ready to take again this challenghe, and trying to beat it. :thumbup:

Then, i confirm Conveyance and Temporal (plus the essentiasl Charm beast and Entagle) as my "weapons of choise".

 

You should consider Phantasm - the Invisibility spell.