Ridonculous Builds

Wow, impressive. Without the final Blessing that character would be relatively useless without much for skills though. Still quite interesting though, nice work on the post.

 

Cheers! You hit a lot of mid range skills with various blessings anyway, and if you didn't want to get Velorien's Blessing (opting for blessings equating to +6 attribute points instead) then that provides enough to master any one skill you liked with one point extra left (or two, if you decide to master a skill that's in line with a blessing, like melee for Mordinal). If you decided to invest those two points in persuasion then that allows you to do all the persuasion orientated quests barring the mastery quest anyway as long as you pick up Kerlin's blessing, so you can achieve a lot without going completely crazy on the blessings.

I liked going the persuasion mastery route this time though, I used it to make a mixed good-evil party which I don't tend to. I normally solo when I'm evil, so I got to see some of the interesting interactions Z'an and Torian Kel have at the end of the game which I haven't seen before, like:

Spoiler

Z'an properly chewing out Arronax about how his arrogance lead generations of dark elves to commit terrible things in his name which she feels guilty for, and Torian Kel being happy to get his sword back from the Bane of Kree as well as saying he will fight against you should you fight Kerghan as only Kerghan can set his Grey Legion buddies free.

 

Haven't had Z'an with you before? Hope you didn't miss the verbal smack down she gave the dwarf king.

 

Even though I had both on my party, it didn't occur. Maybe I'll boot him and see if she gets arsey with him when I visit. I think I've rarely played evil mages who've picked up Z'an before, so I've likely missed a lot of what she has to offer in terms of dialogue.

 

I believe it occurs when you return to him with news of the BMC. The dialogue with between him and Raven takes precedence so you can't have both in your party. Which is annoying as a CH 20 character (whose presence "outshines that of Z'an Al'urin" as they so delicately put it) was really hoping for something special in that scene. Oh well.

 

As I recall, the only requirement for convincing Loghaire to return is an IN>10 when you talk to his son "I think my mental powers are up to the task", which can be achieved by essence of intellect. Persuasion is immaterial.

As to Zan's smackdown of the dwarf king, it only triggers when you do not also have Magnus there, as he speaks in her defense.

Token Ridicunculous Build: Punchmaster. Escaped lunatic + war gauntlets + fuck-you attitude.

 

So before I get to sucked into Fallout 4, I thought I'd post up this build before I lose the bit of paper I wrote it on and forget about it entirely. I think I got to about level 32 with this build before work got busy before Christmas, so if I finish it at any point soon I'll post pictures up for it. Otherwise, use your imagination.

The Definitive Tech Thief

Build updated, see a few posts down for a better version.

Idea behind build: I wanted a build that was as good at backstabbing as a magickal thief using stun/stasis by use of throwing and paralysis grenades (though you can use prowling for backstabs, I find it unreliable to use in every battle). Unlike previous dickery I also wanted this build 100% tech, so no Strength of Stone to skimp on a few points. Additionally I wanted the character to be able to make plastique to be a sweet-ass saboteur, and have all the thief skills you could ever want to produce an ultimate tech thief package. I wasn't bothered about be able to produce all the items in the build so long as I could source a regular supply of any of the non-unique items (e.g. the best weapon for the build is a pyrotechnic axe, and this build lacks the ability to make the requisite featherweight axes - however they can be bought from the Wheel Clan or from Caladon so that was a regular enough supply for me).

Race: Dwarf

Background: Sickly

Backstory: As a child while mining with your father there was a cave-in, killing him in the process and leaving you physically feeble. From that point on you were raised by your brother, who blamed you for your father's death and detested your new found frailty. Lacking the strength to keep up with the rest of your race, you began developing your knowledge of technology - only adding to your brother's disdain given your dependance on gadgets rather than your own prowess. You also developed your skills as a thief, finding it a valuable source of income that you couldn't earn through hard labour in the mines. As the years rolled by your contempt for your clan grew, laughing at the ridiculous concept of dwarven Stone when you were obviously no kin of theirs.

When you turned 70 you put a dagger in your brother's heart and fled your clan to ply your trade as a killer and thief. You travelled across the land, eventually settling in Caladon for a few years where your reputation as "the man you see to get things done" grew well established. After a run-in with the law, you decided it would be best to get out of town. Learning of the Zephyr bound for Tarant, you did not hesitate to sneak onboard as a stowaway - eagerly awaiting the new opportunities the city would bring.

Initial Stats From Background:

ST 7 IN 14
CN 5 WP 8
DX 6 PE 8
BE 8 CH 7

Required Stat, Skill and Aptitude Boosts: Velorien's Blessing (+4 DX, +12 melee/dodge/pickpocket), Vivifier (+1 all), Muscle Maker (+1 ST/DX, -1 IN/PE), Trapmaker's Spectacles (+2 DX/PE), Mind Marvel + Revitalizer + Energizer (+4 all), Mysterious Dwarven Gauntlets (+1 ST, +2 DX), aptitude neutral Ring of Silence (+2 prowling, there's also a magickal version which is why I specified), Ring of Concealment (+2 prowling), Finger of Mannox if using (+1 WP, normally I wouldn't mention it as it's not required, but I didn't want to make the final boosted stats any more confusing).


Necessary Character Point Allocation: 7 ST, 1 IN, 4 PE, 8 (2) Melee, 8 (2) Dodge, 8 (2) Pickpocket, 20 (5) Disarm Traps, 20 (5) Backstab, 20 (5) Pick Locks, Throwing 20 (5), 16 (4) Prowling, Explosives 7, Herbology 1, Electricity 3, Mechanical 3, Therapeutics 7, Chemistry 1.

Final therapeutics boosted stats:

ST 21 IN 19
CN 12 WP 13
DX 20 PE 18
BE 14 CH 11

Equipment: Trapmaker's Spectacles, Mysterious Dwarven Gauntlets, Ring of Silence, Ring of Concealment, Finger of Mannox (or Pelojian's Amulet, but I like the bonus critical chance), Oiled Thieves Leathers, Fine Stout Boots (no noise penalty), Flow Disruptor, Flow Spektrometer, Pyrotechnic Axe, Paralysis Grenades, Aerial Decapitator.

Possible alternatives: Strength of Stone/Agility of Fire can save on character points (possibly allowing for a different race for the build instead), but seeing as this build was meant to be purely tech I didn't want them. You could also use more therapeutics to save on more points, but for me three separate ones was already enough.

Notes: Brain Builder/Muscle Maker can be used to dial your intelligence up and down so you can make a revitalizer without touching a Essence of Intellect. Charged Rings help early game to let you reach higher DX levels that you'll get later with Velorien's Blessing, I found being an expert in Throwing was more than enough to land grenade hits and secure backstabs. Paralysis also assists in being able to hit enemies pre-Velorien's blessing with your melee attacks as the To Hit percentage goes way up. The technology discipline spread lets you make Paralysis Grenades (and the requisite Strong Poison), an Auto Skeleton Key, a Flow Spektrometer for trap spotting, Plastique and a Detonator as well as Time Bombs as long as you have the right tech manuals - catering to all your thief/saboteur needs. You can also make Healing Salves, which I found through trying a very similar build without them are vital. Paralysis Grenades can take a bit of time to produce en masse (about 10 minutes for a serious dungeon's worth), which is a little tedious but on the whole not too bad.

Another interesting tidbit: Mysterious Dwarven Gauntlets don't produce a penalty to pickpocketing like the vast majority of tech gauntlets do - pretty nifty for a thief.

Hope you enjoyed the build, it's probably the last build I'll post here for a good long while as there's not much that hasn't been done already.

 

So I was thinking about playing Arcanum again, and naturally wanted to do another zany build. Something that's always bothered me about Arcanum is that Half Orcs have no mechanistic niche in the game, Half Ogres are stronger and Dwarves are pretty much the same stats-wise but better due to the stat bonuses of the Mysterious Dwarven Gauntlets. So rather than go with an advantage I thought I'd play up one of their disadvantages instead, achieving something that no other race can. And so, I present...

The Hideous Beast

Idea behind build: I wanted a build that achieved the maximum level of hatred possible. From what I remember of the missing Race Reaction Table Drog posted up, the race that naturally does that the best is the Half Orcs. The next thing to do was to pick a background with the largest reaction penalty, with Sold Your Soul being pretty ideal (arguably Escaped Lunatic Humans have a worse reaction penalty, but if memory serves the universal hatred of Half Orcs from that race reaction table means that a Half Orc is still a better pick). Lastly, as I haven't picked a background that makes my Beauty 1, I need a way to drop it reliably (which in my mind means no reliance on scarring, as it might be so difficult to achieve 6 scars that it's practically impossible - plus a character who chooses to become ugly rather than have it happen to them by chance is more interesting story-wise). The only way I know to do this is the Brain Builder, lowering all physical attributes by 1 while increasing all mental attributes by 1. By throwing in some reaction penalty equipment, the build was set.

Race: Half Orc

Background: Sold Your Soul

Backstory: Life as a Half Orc is short and miserable. From the day you were born, all you received from people was hatred, revulsion and disgust as people spat on you in the street. As a child you hoped to fit in with humans and civilised society, but eventually it dawned that no matter what you did or how hard you tried you would never be one of them. What else was there left to do, other than embrace the thing that they already thought you were?

You sold you soul to a demon, gaining both arcane power and a black stain upon your spirit. You learnt Therapeutics, mixing compounds with acid to wither and shape yourself into a twisted nightmare while increasing mental acuity. You sport the armour of savages and heathens, wearing your rejection of humanity for all to see. You have dealings with the dead, preferring to gut others and force their souls screaming to confess rather than speak with the living. Sure enough, when you bring your bloody reckoning to the cities of man, yours is a face they won't forget. Boarding a Zephyr bound for Tarant, you feel your retribution is near at hand...

Initial Stats From Background:

ST 9 IN 8
CN 9 WP 8
DX 8 PE 8
BE 6 CH 6

Required Stat, Skill and Aptitude Boosts: Velorien's Blessing (+4 DX, +12 melee/dodge), Vivifier (+1 all), Brain Builder (-7 ST/CN/DX/BE, +7 IN/WP/PE/CH), Blessing of Geshtianna (+1 BE), Gloves of Dexterity (+2 DX), Strength of Stone (+4 ST), Agility of Fire (+4 DX).

Necessary Character Point Allocation: 13 ST, 6 DX, 4 IN, 2 WP, 8 (2) Melee, 8 (2) Dodge, 20 (5) Backstab, Therapeutics 5, Temporal 5, Conveyance 5, Necro Black 5, Necro White 5, Mental 2, Fire 1, Earth 1, Force 1

Final boosted stats:

ST 20 IN 20
CN 2 WP 18
DX 20 PE 16
BE 1 CH 14

Equipment: Red Barbarian Clothes (or Dread Armor if the reaction penalty is worse), Gloves of Dexterity, Ring of Poison Resistance, Arcane Ring, Arcane Helm, Screaming Shield, Enchanted War Boots, Serpentine Necklace, Bangellian Scourge.

Reaction penalties: -20 (Sold Your Soul), -20 (Bangellian Scourge), -5 (Serpentine Necklace), -5 (Red Barbarian Clothes, penalty might be worse than this I tested with the base armour), -65 (Beauty 1) = minimum -115. Top this off with negative reputations and being a Half Orc, and it's likely a whole lot worse.

Notes: You can use an Essence of Intellect to reach the Intelligence required to make Brain Builders and learn 5 Therapeutics, as this is another magick/tech hybrid it doesn't feel so cheap to do. You make very well need to wear smoking jackets and the like to talk with people early on (the build hinges on getting some tech manuals at the very least), however you can also not bother and see what's possible to keep true to the concept.

So there we have it, a role for Half Orcs at last that makes them mechanically distinct - that of being horribly ugly! If I get round to playing and/or completing this character any time soon (or I learn a better way to up the reaction penalty, or find out penalties don't stack, etc.) I'll update the post, but otherwise I thought it made for an interesting concept.

 

I was going to ask how you survive the violent reactions that that much ugly can inspire. Then I saw therapeutics and fire&earth. nice build. It is enuf to pull me back out of Fallout 4 and DF.

 

Well as there seems to be one character point that's pretty much free, you can always put that in Water and then stack Beauty spells, but I thought it kind of defeated the build. I guess I'll start playing it and see what is necessary in order for the build to be fun.

EDIT: Just given it a quick play now, the combo of Beauty 6 and Sold Your Soul plus Half Orc doesn't make everyone try and kill you. As such, you can uglify yourself when you choose and do quests up until that point.

I also remembered in order to get Velorien's Blessing you have to get the Beauty blessing from Geshtianna, so that's another Beauty you have to remove. As such, 13 points need to be put into Strength - which I'm not entirely sure is possible (with backgrounds that reduce strength but still keep Strength above 8 - i.e. Rare Half Ogre Birth - you definitely can spend in excess of 12 to hit max, however as the Strength drop wasn't brought about by a background here it might not work). If it's not possible, the Amulet of N'Tala could be substituted for the Serpentine Neckless, or Therapeutics could be used more conventionally for the boost.

The combo of Stun and Harm is pretty fun, with enemies being entirely powerless to stop your Harm spam. I also lured Ristezze out of town, killed him and used Conjure Spirit on him - good times.

 

Hello, i really like Jojobobo's builds and i'm trying a couple of them. I think, in order to make them more complete, that you should also write about followers. For example, for the Hideous Beast character i'd go solo for more role play, but that's just an idea.

 

I normally play solo if I'm not putting anything into Persuasion, however for the current builds I'd go for:

Melee Monkey Half-Ogre: Either no follower (you're pretty evil and bitter) or someone like Torian Kel or Virgil.

The Fastest Gun in Arcanum: Again works fine solo as the character is quite bitter and anti-social, but another gunslinger like Franklin Payne or Sebastian (I think the latter has points in Firearms, even though he's primarily throwing and melee) if you want. I'm not too sure how fluctuating CH affects followers, from what I remember I think the stay in the group but if you tell them to wait they won't come back.

Your Elven Overlord: Probably mostly the bad guys, e.g. Dog, evil Virgil, Torian Kel, Z'an, Geoffrey, Tollo and then whoever else you want - probably someone magickal.

The Perfect Pacifist: As mentioned you need to make use of Sogg and Virgil early on, but other than that it's a solo build.

The Puppet Master: As it's again an invisibility/prowling build, solo is the best for it.

The Super Living One: Arcanum's best and brightest are probably what you want - or just whoever you think is most interesting. I think I went for Dog, Virgil, Magnus, Raven, Loghaire, Z'an and Torian Kel.

The Definitive Tech Thief: Thieves work better on solo unless you like telling followers to wait a huge deal, so I'd go solo.

The Hideous Beast: You can play solo, or gather some humans and stick them all in barbarian armour (e.g. Virgil, Torian Kel, etc.).

I stopped playing the Hideous Beast and am currently playing through as the tech thief as my previous save was wiped with my old hard drive. I just did the Dredge, which with 45 paralysis grenades and 55 Healing Salves I managed to clear up to Loghaire. However, when I came to fight him as I had no means of healing he kept on murdering me, meaning I had to backtrack all the way out to make some stun grenades and get some healing salves from the dwarven merchants and then go all the way back through the Dredge to go back to him - it sucked. However, as that's the last and main super tedious dungeon you have to deal with now it should be plain sailing.

I have one more build that I'll post when I finish of the thief and then I'll probably be out of ideas for a while. The next build will get over 400 health, while maxing AC, DR and MR and passively healing health as well, as a teaser...

 

Thanks for answering. Your next build is something I was thinking about yesterday...i bet we got very similar ideas.

 

Probably, it involves putting a lot of points straight into health (I managed to delegate 44 out of the 64 for this, while getting my aptitude to where I wanted it).

I'd say getting better defences is easier going pure magick, however that involves sinking more points into WP to get to Regeneration (and so, less into health), and from what I saw Regeneration was a pretty sucky method of passively healing (I was getting 2 HP every 6 seconds, plus the fact it's a massive drain on your fatigue). I worked out a way to do it mostly tech, using Sebastian's healing jacket for the passive heal (4 HP every 6 seconds - much better) - get his a follower and take it off him, or steal it/kill him.

I'm sure you can sink fewer 20 points into things to max ST and DX plus Melee and Dodge - but then you don't hit 95 AC/DR/MR if using the healing jacket as you need some tech aptitude to get adequate MR off the flow disruptor to hit 95 MR. If you're fine using healing items or spells, then hitting higher defences becomes dramatically easier - but I wanted a tank who wouldn't really ever have to heal using items.

I got them to just before the Wheel Clan, and at level 25 they already have 138 HP as well as very high defences - comparing that to the level 32 dwarf who only has 96. The only trouble is sticking points straight into health isn't tremendously exciting in terms of character progression - but I guess having Gorgoth levels of health end game will make up for it.

 

Mmm, i thought of something different, a Human Escaped Lunatic using spells and equipment in order to increase every resistance to the max.
Too bad I have very little time to play and I'm not gonna test anything soon.

 

My build is still an Escaped Lunatic, but I didn't see too much of a point in maxing FR and ER as they don't occur often and they're practically impossible to max going a tech route. As mentioned magick also requires quite a bit of investment as to even access the higher spells you need to invest more in WP and also likely IN, with tech on the other hand you can keep split investment between low level disciplines or tech skills and still reach appreciable tech aptitude. As tech is about the loot and magick is more about the spells, and you can find a lot of decent craftable tech loot in the game, it's much easier to keep you character point investment minimal going tech with one or two of the elemental spells thrown in.

In terms of going magick and getting full resistances, Muro covered it quite well a while back here. As his guide mentions a free ring slot, I always preferred a Ring of Protection/Ring of Poison Resistance over the Sword of Defence - that way you can still hit 95 AC (I think, I need to double check), but also get to use a decent weapon. In addition to Arcane Robes, you can also use Red Barbarian Clothes for some pretty decent benefits too.

 

Personally I alwase prefer glass cannons. Usually packing cannons.

 

I usually try and make all sorts of builds to be honest, for example the tech thief above is definitely glass cannon-y due to his crappy armour. Arcanum is such a hot mess in terms of a combat system that realistically specific combat builds (glass cannon, tank, etc.) aren't near as enticing as a game with a better combat system - at the same point when you've played through the game countless times builds with a specific combat niche become interesting as most people will have played through a lot of the interesting social options in one of their earlier characters.

In some ways I think Arcanum's weak combat system is a bit of a benefit, as once you know what the combat is about you tend to focus on specifying your character to have more interesting skills. It encourages making divergent characters, as the combat isn't exciting enough on a repeat playthrough to warrant another same-y combat heavy build.

 

So I played the Dwarf Tech Thief up until Qintarra, and learnt one thing - it's damn tedious. I've realised now tech characters are quite tedious in general as they can't teleport anywhere (why Trokia couldn't have just had a unique tech "quantum teleporter" placed somewhere I don't know) and world map travel in Arcanum is pretty slow. I don't mind the random encounters, but it's the fact the red dot moves anything but zippily fast over the world map which is a bit of a killer.

When you stack any other tedium on top of this, particularly crafting tedium, it makes the character a real grind. What I've found was, Paralysis Grenades and low level Therapeutics aren't too bad (you can craft 48 Paralysis Grenades in about a 15 minute round trip, 48 just so happens to also be divisible by 3 and 4 which are the quantities the requisite Strong Poison and Stun Grenades are produced in to make them. Gathering the necessary components just about fills all your inventory space, so you can do this and then head back to you Blackroot room for some serious crafting), but Mind Marvels, Energizers and Revitalizers suck. Whereas low level Therapeutics require very common items to craft and give you 3 apiece allowing you to rack them up in no time, Energizers and Mind Marvels require a previous craftable Therapeutic and are only produced one at a time - and the extra ingredients you need to buy on top of the thing you already crafted aren't as common as they should be (they seem to be only stocked around 60% of the time). Then Revitalzers require one Energizer and Mind Marvel each, making this all even worse.

I think the difference is when I used these with the guns character, guns still feel pretty badass when you use them to without max stats so you can save the awkward Therapeutics for crucial dungeons or bosses. With the thief however, it's a lot better to still have that 21 ST damage multiplier - and so it's a bit crap to be dependent on difficult to craft items to re-create this bonus.

So what to do about this? The easiest thing is to rely on the low level Therapeutics for your boosts, used Charged Rings to better improve your Dexterity and save more character points, use more Muscle Makers and Brain Builders to shift points into and out of the mental and physical attributes at will, pick a background with a harsher Dex penalty so you have more room to improve into (e.g. a base 4 background can improve by 16 points to cap at 20, whereas a base 6 background can only improve by 14) and also not care about having max Prowling - just enough for mastery. The option to hit max prowling and have DX 20 and ST 21 is retained by being able to make an Energizer, primarily so the build can still be considered the best tech thief, but practically (because as mentioned Energizers are a ball-ache) you only need to use this option to feel additionally badass - with 19/20 Prowling sufficing for ordinary play.

So without further ado, here's:

The Definitive Tech Thief, pt. II:

In retrospect, I kind of wish I hadn't used the word "definitive" seeing as there's now a part II. I'll skip most of the flavour sections I normally write and just get to the nitty-gritty. I'll put some of the more important changes in red.

Race: Dwarf

Background: Miracle Operation

Initial Stats From Background:

ST 6 IN 11
CN 4 WP 8
DX 4 PE 13
BE 8 CH 10

Required Stat, Skill and Aptitude Boosts: Velorien's Blessing (+4 DX, +12 melee/dodge/pickpocket), Vivifier (+1 all), Muscle Maker (+3 ST/DX, -3 IN/PE), Trapmaker's Spectacles (+2 DX/PE), Charged Ring (+2 DX), Mysterious Dwarven Gauntlets (+1 ST, +1, CN, +2 DX), Ring of Concealment/Silence (+2 prowling), Elixir of Physical Prowess (+2 ST), Liquid of Awareness (+2 PE), Tonic of Increased Reflexes (+2 DX), Finger of Mannox if using (+1 WP, normally I wouldn't mention it as it's not required, but I didn't want to make the final boosted stats any more confusing). Also, as the benefit wasn't listed before but is now important, Small Oiled Thieves Leathers (+1 Prowling).

Stat and Skill Boosters Removed: The Mind Marvel, Energizer and Revitalizers are no longer needed, and only one +prowling ring needs to be worn.

Necessary Character Point Allocation: 8 ST, 4 IN, 1 PE, 8 (2) Melee, 8 (2) Dodge, 8 (2) Pickpocket, 20 (5) Disarm Traps, 20 (5) Backstab, 20 (5) Pick Locks, Throwing 20 (5), 16 (4) Prowling, Explosives 7, Herbology 1, Electricity 3, Mechanical 3, Therapeutics 6, Chemistry 1.

Final therapeutics boosted stats:

ST 21 IN 13
CN 9 WP 6
DX 20 PE 16
BE 12 CH 8

Equipment: Trapmaker's Spectacles, Mysterious Dwarven Gauntlets, Ring of Silence/Concealment, Charged Ring, Finger of Mannox (or Pelojian's Amulet, but I like the bonus critical chance), Oiled Thieves Leathers, Fine Stout Boots (no noise penalty), Flow Disruptor, Flow Spektrometer, Pyrotechnic Axe, Paralysis Grenades, Aerial Decapitator.

Notes: Though most of the changes were explained up top, I'll go into a little more detail here. From playing the previous version of the build, I really like shuffling points to and from the mental and physical side using Muscle Makers and Brain Builders. This version build does just that, hitting 15 IN early, then dialing IN up and down as needed to save on physical attribute spending. 13 IN still allows you to make Paralysis Grenades (with tech manuals) and all the important low end Therapeutics without needing to alter it, so it's a good base to have. Something important to note is, you will always need to keep one Mind Marvel in reserve so you can get back to 15 IN and make more plus Brain Builders when the time arises. Though it's a bit of a pain to up your IN just to make Plastique, realistically if you make quite a lot at once you really only need to do this once per game - drastically better than the crafting situation with the previous build.

In terms of how to hit max Prowling, 18 PE, 20 DX and 21 ST all at the same time, I've still left in the option to create Energizers. By using an Energizer with the Mind Marvel and the Tonic of Increased Reflexes plus the Liquid of Awareness, you can remove your Charged Ring and swap it for a Ring of Silence/Concealment (which ever of the two you aren't currently wearing). Then, you have max skills in all things thievey (apart from Spot Traps, negated by the Flow Spektrometer) as well as max combat skills and attributes, making you what I believe is called a supreme dudemeister.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

So there we have it. It was actually a lot harder to work out how to change the build to make it better to play with that existing framework in place.

What I will say is, the build was (apart from all the onerous crafting nonsense that I've now minimised) a lot of fun to play. As there's so many skills the build needs to invest in, levelling tends to be pretty interesting in terms of deciding where to allocate these points. By Tarant, if you've invested in thievery skills, you can start to do a lot of quests like a thief as opposed to killing everyone or talking your way around options (e.g. stealing the key to get into P. Schuyler & Sons, sneaking into and out of Bates' Factory to do Appleby's sabotage, etc.).

Paralysis Grenades are also great, and I'd say more powerful than the paralysis options you get playing a magick character as the paralyse whole groups - which works extremely well as crowd control. This makes for an interesting dynamic if you play in real time, as then you have to really try to get round the back of enemies quickly to get your backstabs in (and as mentioned previously they make your to hit % shoot way up, making holding out for Velorien's Blessing to max Melee much more palatable). The armour setup also makes you quite frail, but that only serves to fit the thief archetype better and make the combat more of a challenge.

Later on with the build, I'd imagine it's a lot of fun taking out light sources silently with your throwing weapons and planting explosive traps on the route of guards as well as doing other dastdardly deeds. Overall the build does work as a thief extremely well and is consistently interesting to play, giving you a lot more to do than your standard combat focused builds.

I've got my healing over time tank build mostly written up now, so I think after re-starting with the Dwarf and finishing the game I'll post it up. I'm sure everyone is waiting with baited breath.

 

Oh my god, I just found the most ridiculous build ever.
Nothing special I guess, but I never tried it before:



Raised in the Pits, Half-Ogre, you name it: 1 Int!

Quote Virgil: "Even fate seems to have a sense of humour"

Sure, others tried it before, but I didn't, and its hilarious!

Edit: Oh my goodness, Alex Jones (that's his name) is even worse than just dumb.
Half-Ogre base IN 4 minus 6 by background. There you go, negative intellect!

It's a miracle he can keep up his body functions with that brain.