Arcanum Arcanum, a blast from the past

[Cael]

OK. I haven't played Arcanum before. I remember seeing it in the computer stores, but never picked it up. Probably because I was playing XCom at the time.

Anyway, I came across a free download for Arcanum recently on an old games website and decided to give it a go.

Any tips for character creation? I was thinking of a bow and magic type character simply to cut down on the multiple attribute dependency (MAD) and basically max out Dex, Will and Cha. Max out on Persuasion, Bow, healing magic and area damage magic, maybe?

How important is the +15 Magic Aptitude of elves for a hybrid type character like this?

 

[thesheeep]

Bow and magic synergize well, imo.
Better than any kind of tech + magic, obviously.

You should just focus on one of them at first (maybe bow), as magic takes a while to really take off.

 

[Cael]

Bow and magic synergize well, imo.
Better than any kind of tech + magic, obviously.

You should just focus on one of them at first (maybe bow), as magic takes a while to really take off.

Thanks.

What sort of magic should I be focusing on? I was thinking of taking up some healing magic early, or should I skip that?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Roll a barbarian.

 

[Cael]

Roll a barbarian.

I was tempted to go melee with a side of healing. A barbarian shaman or a paladin, take your pick. The max strength bonus is bloody good. But 4 stats to max out is a bit daunting.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Roll a barbarian.

I was tempted to go melee with a side of healing. A barbarian shaman or a paladin, take your pick. The max strength bonus is bloody good. But 4 stats to max out is a bit daunting.

Can max about 5 stats by end game.

 

[Cael]

Roll a barbarian.

I was tempted to go melee with a side of healing. A barbarian shaman or a paladin, take your pick. The max strength bonus is bloody good. But 4 stats to max out is a bit daunting.

Can max about 5 stats by end game.

No skills. 64 points at level 5, 60 to max 5 stats. You are basically stuffed for skills :D

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Melee and Dodge are the only two skills a barbarian needs anyway.

 

[Cael]

Melee and Dodge are the only two skills a barbarian needs anyway.

Lol! As a first playthrough, I would like to be able to do as many sidequests and open up as many dialogues as possible. Maybe a subsequent run I can play the grunting Half-Ogre Frankenstein facepuncher :D

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Fair enough, carry on.

 

[Xeon]

For first playthough, I can't recommend melee, The Black Mountain Mines are pretty hard on melee characters unless you are perfectly prepared.

For mage, you only need Harm at first, it kills things pretty fast and you don't need to worry about healing since Virgil will heal you.

Sorry, if this is a spoiler, but if your attribute in either Magic or Tech gets too high, stores of the opposite attribute will no longer sell things to you iirc, so if you want something for your companions, probably buy them before it gets too high or something.

Hope you enjoy the game.

 

[Ninefingers]

If you do go melee probably worth having at least one ranged option so you can kite when you get to the Black Mountain, otherwise ore golems will rip you a new anus.

First play through I had a few points in bows and was able to kite easily in real time mode when I ran into things that one shot me in melee range. Doesn’t seem to work so well in turn based mode.

 

[Cael]

If you do go melee probably worth having at least one ranged option so you can kite when you get to the Black Mountain, otherwise ore golems will rip you a new anus.

First play through I had a few points in bows and was able to kite easily in real time mode when I ran into things that one shot me in melee range. Doesn’t seem to work so well in turn based mode.

Uh-oh. I was really hoping to play it TB. I never liked RT for RP or squad tactics games...

 

[Ninefingers]

TB is fine for most stuff, it’s just easier to cheese things by kiting with a bow in real time if you have no other way of killing them. At least it was the only way I could kill some enemies with no companions or magic or tech. My fault for having a shitty character I guess :D

 

[bataille]

Read that recent Fluent's thread. A lot of nice people have written like a hundred spoiler-free posts there for him (he's a first time player as well).

 

[Cael]

Read that recent Fluent's thread. A lot of nice people have written like a hundred spoiler-free posts there for him (he's a first time player as well).

I did a forum search before I started this thread on the offchance that there is a thread like that. It didn't show up. I will go manually scan the RPG Discussion area now. Thanks for the tip.

EDIT: Lol! That Nikola Tesla suggestion :D Now, I am tempted to go technozapper.

 

[Doktor Best]

Read that recent Fluent's thread. A lot of nice people have written like a hundred spoiler-free posts there for him (he's a first time player as well).

Where is that thread?

 

[bataille]

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/arcanum-builds-possibilities-wanted.125051/

 

[Egosphere]

For first playthough, I can't recommend melee, The Black Mountain Mines are pretty hard on melee characters unless you are perfectly prepared.

For mage, you only need Harm at first, it kills things pretty fast and you don't need to worry about healing since Virgil will heal you.

Sorry, if this is a spoiler, but if your attribute in either Magic or Tech gets too high, stores of the opposite attribute will no longer sell things to you iirc, so if you want something for your companions, probably buy them before it gets too high or something.

Hope you enjoy the game.

If you have good armour and the Dwarven Axe, with high melee and strength those mines are a breeze.

 

[Egosphere]

Melee and Dodge are the only two skills a barbarian needs anyway.

Lol! As a first playthrough, I would like to be able to do as many sidequests and open up as many dialogues as possible. Maybe a subsequent run I can play the grunting Half-Ogre Frankenstein facepuncher :D

Then you'll probably need high charisma to get a proper party together. There are a lot of recruitable companions, but only the 'best' ones are voiced.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

If you have high melee, strength and health those mines are a breeze.

Really all you need.

 

[Egosphere]

If you have high melee, strength and health those mines are a breeze.

Really all you need.

Your weapon will break fighting the ore golems, unless its that axe

 

[ERYFKRAD]

If you have high melee, strength and health those mines are a breeze.

Really all you need.

Your weapon will break fighting the ore golems, unless its that axe

Fist.

 

[luj1]

Any tips for character creation?

BE is a dump stat

PE is a dump stats unless you are playing a gunslinger

CN of 8 is sufficient

Follower limit = CH/4, rounded down

Training your skills adds bonuses

20 in ST/DX adds devastating bonuses

When choosing a race have in mind that finding small/large armor is a chore

 

[aweigh]

if your playing vanilla Arcanum then you can break the game simply by investing in the Harm spell. It's the biggest i-win-button I've ever seen in any RPG.

If you don't want to cheese every encounter then avoid the Harm spell.