I got to the mines and... Jesus fishbiscuits. Everything was fine and dandy until that level 20-something Rock Sprite popped out of the ground and proceeded to wreck everyone's shit. The melee fighters had their weapons take damage with each hit they landed on it, the Sprite dished out enough pain to kill in a single round when it hit, and even with a maxed out Firearms skill and the Hand Cannon, I had only slightly more than a 20% chance of hitting with a ranged attack. We finally killed it. Somehow. The next one I only killed only by making sure everyone stayed back while I lured it into the path of two sticks of dynamite I had been hauling around from the Bessie Toone Mine. I've been avoiding any others, and am now stumped trying to fight Kites that summon in a similar type of large fuck off monstrosity that, again, can kill in one or two hits and always hits at least once a round.

I appreciate the extra firepower, but it doesn't seem to be making that much of a difference, is my point. The party is only level 12, and we are routinely expected to take on enemies that are massively over-leveled.

Welcome to one of the most annoying dungeons of Arcanum. Prepare for more of them later on.

First of all, level 12 is a bit too low for the BMC. 15-20 is more suitable, the more, the better. I wonder how many sidequests you did?

So, yes, those stone-golem things are tough for a gunslinger. Personally, I would suggest building a gun that does additional fire or electrical damage. The reason is because critters in Arcanum have separate resistances to different types of damage, and some of them might be weaker than their general damage resistance, so the damage adds up.

Firearms will usually have a lowered to-hit chance when used against magickal critters (because they're highly technological weapons, so you get the magick/tech conflict), and most of those monsters are magickal. You would need to have pretty high tech aptitude to counter that. Having a neutral backup weapon like a boomerang could help.

For your melee fighters you want weapons that don't suffer damage. Tech axes (Charged and especially Pyrotechnic) are very good. On the magickal side, you want weapons with Arcane enchantment - those can bash anything, no matter the weapon type. (I usually equip Virgil with an Arcane Sword, since staves are rather inefficient against those golems.)

That doesn't happen too much, actually, but the Black Mountain Mines with their Rock Sprites and Ore Golems are notorious. It's a nasty surprise when your weapons start degrading. Don't be afraid to retreat and come back later if you have to.

There are lots of ways to fight those monsters without losing your weapons. All missile weapons are good for this, obviously. Throwing weapons are particularly good because they don't use ammo and you can use them at melee ranges if you have to. Bombs, grenades, and traps are also useful. Finally, offensive magick is also a good choice if you have access to any of that.

The Black Mountain Mines are quite large, but you don't need to clear the whole thing in one go. Try to stick to your mission. You can come back later and clean the whole thing out when you have more experience and firepower.

You'll also want to make sure to keep your finger on the "r" key. That will switch to combat mode. If you enter combat mode as soon as you see a Rock Sprite or an Ore Golem (or the worst of the lot, the Seething Mass), you should have a turn or two to attack it before it can reach you.

I do hope you stick it out through those mines... they're the worst part of the game. It gets so much better afterwards.

As others have said, you may want to gain more levels. Look around Tarant and the other towns for more sidequests to do. Try to do all the quests you can find before going back to the mines.

For followers who are using melee, you do want to try to get them some axes which will not get damaged so badly. I didn't know that the first time I did the mines so I ended up traveling back to Tarant to repair equipment MANY times before I made it through. But then the game got way better. There are more dungeons later but I didn't find any of them to be nearly so bad.

And yes, guns are not so good on those magical enemies. Maybe try to have your followers handle them, or engage them in melee if you have a decent tech weapon.

I helped the guy at the start get his artifact back, foiled a robbery, collected some back taxes, closed a magical portal, and messed around some with the Bessie Toone subplot. If I have forgotten anything, I can't recall it.

Well, that's not much, there's more quests available, especially in Tarant; you just need to talk to people a lot (outside of bars ;)).

Or, if you prefer more action-based level grinding, there are sewers. You've probably been to the open part of Tarant sewers, but have you found the closed part? It can be entered from the small house near the docks, not far from where the local wise woman is (if that's not clear, look at the map here, it's marked "C"). Beware exploring too far, there are some really high-level monsters there.

Okay.

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SPOILER ALERT. LAST CHANCE TO TURN BACK.

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First, head to the Garringsburg residence (#8 on the map YnK so thoughtfully linked to). After agreeing to find the painting, head down the the fortune teller south of the whorehouse (#43).

She will offer to give you a clue to the robbers, if only you'll deliver a (cursed) crystal ball to her rival across town (#25). Accept the quest and bring the ball to her rival, but DO NOT RETURN TO GET THE CLUE.

Instead (if you're male) head to the gentleman's club on the north side of town (#13). [If you're female, they'll tell you you can't go in; make a side trip to the owner's house near the train station (#29) and persuade him to issue you a pass, using either your charm, your sword or your body. You may even be able to pick his pocket for it.]

Once inside, accept a quest from the shady-looking gentlemen in the corner to deliver a note across town. The note will tell you where to head next, so you can either 1) read it and forego the delivery, 2) save the game, read and memorize it, reload the game, and deliver it as if nothing happened, or [my favorite] 3) deliver it and get paid, then kill everyone and take back the note.

Go to the address on the note; persuade, subdue or kill the half-ogre guard and recover the painting. Deliver it to Mrs. Garringsburg and receive your reward.

Then and only then, go back to the first fortune teller. Since she can't provide you useful information anymore, she "makes up for it" by giving you a gypsy blessing instead: the blessing is a permanent +1 to your CH score.

And now you know.

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^ Notes on the Garringsburg robbery quests (obligatory SPOILER WARNING):

With the unofficial patch, it is possible to achieve a completely non-violent (albeit slightly longer) solution for this quest without metagaming or messing with the note delivery quest (which you can still accept and complete the normal way, since you won't need the note). Here's how.

1. Accept the painting quest like TwoHandedSword described, and immediately ask Mrs. Garringsburg for details so she points you towards the gentleman's club.

2. Talk to the club doorman about the robbery and pay him 50 coins for the information (if you don't have that much, sell some garbage). Read the note he gives you, then immediately ask him about the odd person on the list, so he directs you to the Hall of Records (#35, downstairs).

3. Head to the Hall of Records and request information from the clerk to receive the location of the correct warehouse.

4. Now that you know the owner of that warehouse, it is possible to convince the half-ogre inside to let you take the painting. Again, I'm sure that this only works with the UAP, though I'll admit I haven't tried to do this in vanilla Arcanum.

Also, it doesn't matter at what point you start the fortune teller quest or in which order you talk to the two of them. The important thing is that you must find and return the painting before Madame Toussaude rewards you. So you can finish that quest first, and then deal with the fortune tellers; as long as you side with Toussaude, you get her blessing as a result.

You can get another Charisma point from a certain piece of equipment, if you're really low on character points to spend.

There are some really good quests in Arcanum. It's amazing how many different ways there are to solve them sometimes.

Here's another hint for you: if you're looking for helpful information and things to do in Tarant, a thorough exploration of the University area is a good idea.