While many people seem to consider the technomage ineffective (or impossible) my recent testing has come to very different conclusions. In my first run through, I created a character based around some of the more useful spells (Teleport, Bolt of Lightning, Disintegrate) and magickal equipment (Ring of Influence, Arcane Ring, etc). At the same time, I bought all the schematics it is possible to buy (this takes a few hundred times refreshing the shopkeepers...) and invested heavily the mech and smithy tech trees, enabling me to make, among other things, the Medical Arachnid and several other useful items quite early on. Regulating magickal alignment is easy with the Dark Helm. This has the drawback of causing negative alignment (I keep this character at 100% good), which I counter by giving repeatedly to the beggar in Dernholm. Production of technological items seems to be unaffected by magickal alignment, especially taking into account the use of the Tech. Manuals available from the University of Tarant. The only thing to watch for is the timing of Magickal regulation. When attempting characters of a similar nature a player will find himself barred from certain useful shopkeepers unless they are very careful in their alignment. After completing all desired technological creations it is fine to put oneself towards 100 MA, to best make use of the various Magickal items (unless of course the player finds himself inclined to be a wearer of items of a technological nature). Really I believe there to be many viable combinations of characters utilizing both the Techological Sciences and the Magickal Arts. *For the record, the aforementioned Technomage of this post did utilize a few game glitches, including the infinite fate point glitch, and an infinite money glitch (obviously...). Said character did not, however, find himself the beneficiary of any changes to Arcanum files or other methods of "hacke" or "cheat". The DAT file was unchanged except for the addition of "patch 1.074" and "the max level 127 patch". HOWEVER, this character would have been possible without use of said glitches (although the player would find himself expending innumerably more hours within the game to aid the goals more easily accomplished with some loopholes ^_^)
My ogre mage has full access to the technological shops. He simply walks inside and rifle through the inventory while keeping the angry shopkeepers at bay with either Stasis or Dominate Will. So you don't have to watch your T/M aptitude if you don't want to. Just make sure that those shopkeepers are alive and well when you leave, so that they may order replacement goods.
Nice, a well thought out and delivered post! Welcome to Terra-Arcanum. I like your idea, but I'm not sure you could have done this without the Dark helm glitch. How else would you get your magikal affinity higher after investing so heavily into the technological sciences? Simply learning a bunch of useless spells perhaps, but you might not have the character points available to do so either. I guess it depends on how "legit" one considers the 127th level patch to be. I find that keeping one's point selection limited creates a more challenging environment since you have to place each point with care.
Aww. Kinda figured someone woulda beaten me to it XD Currently I'm trying out a mage/gunman... its a bit more complex to pull off.
Not too difficult really. What you want to avoid is basically a magick aptitude and direct damage/healing spells. Other than that you should be fine.
