Ridonculous Builds

Well, it is do-able. A build I didn't post in this thread but mentioned elsewhere on here was an Educator with a gun party - Vollinger, Franklyn Payne, Magnus, Loghaire and Sebastian (all guns, Flamethrower, Tesla, Grenade Launcher, Bronwyc's Gun, an Acid Gun and ). For that playthough I rushed most of the game just to get to Caladon, trigger the quest and get the mastery (I think for once not relying on Velorien's Blessing entirely as that really is right at the end of the game - wasting one point in Persuasion and using Kaitan's blessing along the cycle for a little cost break), then did most of the side quests when I assembled my gang - all with a sense of smug satisfaction.

The Super-Living One does have a 5 character point leeway, so you can do similarly. If you leave a load of side quests and just focus on the main quest, there's really plenty to do after the Persuasion mastery quest when you can get your gang together - really depends on how patient you want to be and what floats your boat.

 

So, has anyone found other weird builds? I didn't play Arcanum in the last ~1 year and half.

 

I remember there was a mod/module where there was a custom background where you receive tons and tons of stuff. But that's as far as I can remember....

 

I recall long ago I played my own variant of the puppetmaster build, very successfully. It avoids dealing any damage and relies on charming enemies and buffing allies. With a max party size, all equipped with their endgame weapon, the final level was quite easy.

 

By popular (or at least Ravidel's) demand, here's my Dwarf gang leader build (there's pics of it somewhere in the Good Morning Thread, IIRC). Fortunately I keep pen and paper builds from years ago when it comes to games!

Red Dead Arcanum (or the Outlaw and his Sadistic Six)

Idea behind build: I wanted to make a band of outlaws to rival the Willenbecker Gang, with my own gang having some of the best firearms the game has to offer. (the ones with big, pretty effects - Flamethrower, Tesla Gun, Grenade Launcher and Bronwyck's Gun - with a couple of Looking Glass Rifles for followers with atrocious Firearms skill). As Firearms training (i.e. Apprentice, Expert...) on followers is nonexistent, I wanted to go with the Educator background - and as Dwarves have access to some of the biggest DX boosts in the game (thereby allowing you to dump your physical attributes with Brain Builders and save a lot on PE, IN and CH) they were a natural fit (EDIT: plus from the below, they have a natural Firearms boost, so you can get to Expert with only 2 hard character points invested). A big hurdle for this build was the fact that Vollinger is evil, whereas Sebastian, Franklyn, Magnus and Loghaire are good, so you need to rush Persuasion mastery to recruit all these guys into the same team (I think I managed it in the mid 20ish character levels, which isn't too bad with Vollinger being level 15). I believe with Drog's most recent patch you can level up followers as you like (or maybe it's a mod, IDK) but at least when I was playing this wasn't an option - so I actually used both Magnus and Loghaire because of their innate mini-Firearms skill which Dwarves have. I wanted my character so also be able to make all the guns they were giving followers (both the components and the weapons themselves), you could save more character points if this isn't a concern (e.g. getting a Fire Obstruction off the Willenbecker Gang for the Flamethrower).

Race: Dwarf

Background: Educator

Backstory: You're a big pimpin' thug who wants to set up his own gang. Maybe the Willenbecker Gang crossed you like they did Willy Thorndup and you're out for revenge - something like that!

Initial Stats From Background:

ST 9 IN 8
CN 9 WP 8
DX 7 PE 8
BE 8 CH 7

Required Stat, Skill and Aptitude Boosts: Velorien's Blessing (+4 DX, +12 firearms/dodge, +4 persuasion*), Vivifier (+1 all), Brain Builder x3 (-3 ST/DX, +3 IN/PE/CH), Eye Gear (+2 PE), 2 x Charged Rings (+4 DX), Mysterious Dwarven Gauntlets (+2 DX, +1 ST), Liquid of Awareness (+2 PE), Tonic of Increased Reflexes (+2 DX), Elixir of Physical Prowess (+2 ST), Gypsy Blessing (+1 CH), Jewel of Hebe (+1 CH). [Mind Marvels can be used for more character point savings, but after the thief build I realised it's a ball ache to have a good supply of these].
* Only +4 persuasion used, as mentioned you need to rush persuasion mastery so you do need to put a few hard points in before Vendigroth. Kerlin's Blessling will save you a point in the meatime...

Necessary Character Point Allocation: 3 DX, 8 IN, 7 CH, Persuasion 16 (4), Dodge 8 (2), Firearms 8 (2), Therapeutics 5, Explosives 6, Electric 7, Gun Smithy 7, Mechanical 7, Herbology 6†
† I have no idea now why I put 6 hard points into Herbology - I'm sure there was a reason for it though...!

Final therapeutics boosted stats (if I added this all correctly...):

ST 10 IN 19
CN 8 WP 12
DX 17 PE 16
BE 8 CH 20

Equipment: Bronwyck's Gun, Eye Gear, Flow Disruptor, Charged Rings, Jewel of Hebe, Mysterious Dwarven Gauntlets, possibly the Healing Jacket (I forget the other bits...). For weapons on followers, Vollinger had the Flamethrower, Franklyn had the Tesla Gun, Sebestien had the Grenade Launcher and both Magnus/Loghaire had Looking Glass Rifles (Dog had teeth). I believe I would have been using Muscle Makers with Eye Gear on followers where needed so they could meet minimum ST requirements on weapons (and so attack at good speed) but also maintain the PE needed for Firearms (and I think they all also had Healing Jackets, probably Iron Clan armor on Magnus... - EDIT: confirmed on both counts, see lower down in the post!).

Followers: Vollinger, Sebastian, Franklyn Payne, Magnus, Loghaire, Dog.

Skills mastered: Persuasion, Firearms, Dodge.

Possible alternatives: You can save more points with Mind Marvels as mentioned above, but getting a good supply of these is a chore.

Notes: To keep Vollinger from betraying you then you need to uncover the past of the Molochean Hand so that Gideon calls off his men (I think it's from getting Kerghan's Journal and going to the Ancient Temple IIRC). For rushing Persuasion Mastery I think I may have accessed Caladon early through going through one of the mountain passes (you still need to progress the main quest to the point where Edward Willoughsby shows up, but if you keep side quests to a minimum you should still be able to do this at a relatively low level - ensuring that you're not too over-levelled when you recruit Vollinger). Kerlin's Blessing can ensure you have the necessary persuasion for the Mastery quest early alongside investing 4 hard points (I believe that's why I favoured this over the bigger boost from Kai'tan's blessing - because you can get it earlier. Whether this was due to practically or necessity I'm not well enough versed in the game any more to remember).

That's all I remember - if anything looks amiss then likely I won't be able to help (useful, I know!). This really, really is my last ever build - I think it was also the most technically challenging build I ever put together as well given the hoops you have to jump through to get a mixed good/bad party (EDIT: and IIRC it took research - I Virgil debugged it to see which followers got what Firearms + other attribute boosts at lvl 50. I'm sure which follower got what gun was based on this due to minimum strength requirements IIRC). Hope you enjoy it, have fun!

As a Brucey Bonus, I found my post about this in the Good Morning Thread:

What happens when your Arcanum party uses Bronwyk's Gun, a Flamethrower, a Tesla Gun and a Grenade Launcher all at once? Turns out, it's a lot of fun...

​

And I know what you might be thinking...

"But Jojobobo, aren't Sebastian, Vollinger and Franklin Payne's strength scores capped at 9, 9 and 7 respectively - even at level 50 - making them too weak to use big guns effectively?"

Well, with a little bit of Muscle Maker, you can permanently alter their stats, and offset the drops in perception needed for the firearms skill with Eye Gear (or Goggled Helmets, if you can make them). It helps they all level their perception to 20, meaning that you can have a 4 point shift to strength while maintaining 18 perception.

"But what about training in firearms Jojobobo? I've heard that followers in Arcanum don't even train to apprentice in firearms, so they'll be awful slow."

Well not if you take the Educator background, which I obviously did.

"Jojobobo, this fake quote style is really annoying, and makes you come across like a complete douchebag."

I know.

I think when I get round to fighting the Willenbecker gang, I might get slightly aroused.

------

That's really it - the end!

 

Thank you for being again so diligent and patient.
Anyways, i've always wanted to find a use for the tech bows, especially the pyro and/or the venom one, so i decided to try my own "weird" build (not really weird but yeah, you get the point).
So, copied and pasted from my post on Discord, here it is:

Race: Dwarf

Background: Beat with an ugly stick

Initial stats: ST 11 - CN 9 - DX 9 - BE 2 - IN 8 - WP 8 - PE 8 - CH 7

Equipment: Goggled Helmet, Pyrotechnic Bow (Envenomed as 2nd weapon), Mysterious Dwarven Gloves, Small Oiled Thieves Leather, Stout Boots (no NP), 2x Charged Ring, Finger of Mannox.

Stats bonuses: +1 ST, +1 CN, +2 DX (Dwarven Gloves), +3 PE (Goggled Helmet), +4 DX (Charged Rings), +1 Bow, +1 Dodge, +1 Melee, +1 Throwing (Background), +1 All (Vivifier), +1 WP (Necklace), +1 Prowling, +1 Pickpocket, +1 Spot Traps (Oiled Leather Armor), +3 Melee, +3 Dodge, +3 Pickpocket (Velorien).

Pts. allocation: 1 Dodge, 6 (or 7) Explosives, 4 Prowling, 4 Bow, 4 Throwing, 5 Therapeutics, 2 DX, 11 IN, 4 PE, 7 Chemistry, 2 Electrical, 3 Herbology, 1 Pickpocket, 4 Spot Traps.
That should be 59 pts. in total.
Using 2 Brainbuilders to raise non-physical stats, the final ones should result in:
ST 13 - CN 11 - DX 20 - BE 1 - IN 20 - WP 10 - PE 18 - CH 9

Probably i could play a bit more with Therapeutics and get a few better stats, but right now i'm too lazy to do maths again. I wanted to make an archer/thief/saboteur style character, and this is my take on it. Feel free to correct me if i did something wrong. Edit: I forgot to mention this character is meant to be played solo since the concept is a Robin Hood - ish style character.

 

No problem at all and nice build! I always thought the tech bows never got as much love as they should.

 

Oh....something I was thinking some time ago is that followers only get apprentice firearms for a looong time since the big boost is from Velorien near endgame.

 

This is true - but not a problem. Expert in Firearms only reduces the penalty for called shots, which as far as I'm aware followers never make anyway (so it makes your followers looks cool but doesn't do anything functional in the game). The big substantial boost is Apprentice level, because it adds so much speed - making all of your ranged followers faster than they could be through any other means (which is what sets this build apart from other big party firearms builds). If you play real time (and not turn-based) this is massively noticeable - and I would say it would be in turn-based as well.

That is also another reason why this build has to be Dwarf, because Dwarves get the +2 boosts (0.5 skill point) to Firearms, and so they can hit Expert with only two hard character points invested - allowing you to train your boyz up to Apprentice without hitting Velorien first. Obviously as with all these builds you can ignore Velorien's blessing, but it does give a huge character point saving so you need to compromise in other areas (in this case making far fewer guns available for example).

I would say this is the rare build of mine where going for Velorien's blessing late in the game really isn't too punishing (I mean I never found it punishing anyway - but I'm a bit of a masochist!), as your party is dealing out most of the damage, and they are already hitting that all-important Apprentice training very early. You can also use Mind Marvels on a temporary basis until you get the Vivifier, allowing you to hit IN 19 without an Essence of Intellect (perish the thought!).