It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
I was just about to start playing Arcanum, but I was overwhelmed by the character creation screen and the many options which it offers. I'm not new to the D&D system, I've played D&D games before like Baldur's gate, The Bard's Tale, Icewind Dale and so on, so I'm familiar with most of the stuff on the screen like "AC", histories, "saving throws" etc. I just don't know how to build my first character, so I need some help around that. By the way, if you need to know what character I'd like the most, then I'd like a good melee warrior with adequate magical capabilities. If that seems too hard or doesn't work in Arcanum, then suggest me something from the top of your head. Also, I hope you don't mind me asking too many questions, but what are the advantages and disadvantages of engineering(that's what I think it's called) and magic. Please anybody, reply as soon as you can! I really can't wait to play this game.
This question / problem has been solved by Gazoinksimage
In general, Melee and Magic are both pretty easy to play in Arcanum. Firearms are tricky, don't know much about bows. For a good Melee Magic build you'll want Str, Dex, and Wis, with good Con and decent Int (Int allows you to maintain more spells, so if you plan on casting buffs you'll want ti high, otherwise leave it alone). Early on, I'd recommend getting your Wis high enough to learn Harm ASAP. Harm is a very powerful spell and will make your life a lot easier. After that, focus primarily on raising Melee and Dex. After you've got Melee maxed or close to maxed, decide whether you want to continue going Melee or do more magic. If you want Magic raise Will and pick out some spells (Teleportation and Disintegration should be good end goals), is you want more Melee raise your Strength.

As far as tech skills, don't take them if you're using Magic. Learning spells increases Magick Aptitude, learning tech increases Tech Aptitude. It's a sliding scale, so you can't have high aptitude in magick and tech (in fact, you can't have any in the opposite).
Post edited August 27, 2012 by Gazoinks
The character creation is quite daunting, but once you actually start playing a character you'll find it's not as complicated as it looks. A melee character with magic will work just fine. To be effective at melee, all you really need is high Dex, high melee skill, and high dodge skill. High strength will also give you a damage boost, but Dex is the most important as it will give you more attacks per turn (I highly recommend using turn-based or fast turn-based combat instead of real-time) and will help you hit things. You will have more than enough character points for all of this as you level.

For using magic, the main stat is Willpower, and certain levels of WIllpower will be required for learning higher-level spells. I've actually not yet played a magical character so I'm not super-familiar with the spells, but I've played a pure melee character and that worked really well so you can probably view magic as just something to augment your melee skills (by the way, my pure melee character was kind of boring... I definitely recommend adding in either magic or tech to make it more interesting). Pick whatever spells sound interesting. If you want to have several spells "active" as the same time (like, say, several different stat-boosting spells) then you may want to spend some points on Intelligence as well, as that controls how many spells you can maintain at any one time.

Keep in mind that as a magical character, tech items won't work well for you. So if you find any tech weapons or armor, you will probably not want to use them. You will, however, be better at using magical weapons and armor.

As for magic vs. tech, magic is generally considered to be easier to play. Certain spells (like Harm) can make the game very easy, and there's usually a spell for any given thing you might want to do. Some spells aren't very useful unless you have high magical aptitude, which you can raise simply by spending character points learning spells, and by not spending points on tech abilities. Tech is harder to play, with early equipment and skills often being rather weak, and healing harder to come by. But, I find tech to be a lot of fun. Characters actually build their own equipment out of parts which is cool. A tech-aligned melee fighter can be a lot of fun as you can build cool armor and weapons for yourself, like an electrified axe.

The absolute most important thing about Arcanum is that you should just have fun. The game is designed to be played many times with many different character builds, and to be played through in many different ways. You can be good or evil or in between and things will be very different. So just try out a character, and if you find you aren't enjoying it that much, just start over with a new one. Sometimes it helps to play a bit and learn the game, and then you might realize you really want to try a different character. Or maybe you'll have a blast with your first one. Just don't worry too much up front; build a character that sounds cool and try it out.

EDIT: Looks like Gazoinks beat me to it, and said basically the same stuff but more succinctly. I should stress that his last point is really important: don't mix magic and tech, unless you want to have a hard time. Pick one and stick with it.
Post edited August 27, 2012 by Waltorious
All of your answers are really good. Thanks Gazoinks and Waltorious for using your own time to give me answer, I assure you that your help is very appreciated. But, I 'd really like it if you could give me some info on tech and other class options. Don't get me wrong, both of you answered my questions with fulfilling answers, but with a game so big with many options, I just really want to know what options I have available other than a cheesy melee/mage character.
avatar
Zorgfin: All of your answers are really good. Thanks Gazoinks and Waltorious for using your own time to give me answer, I assure you that your help is very appreciated. But, I 'd really like it if you could give me some info on tech and other class options. Don't get me wrong, both of you answered my questions with fulfilling answers, but with a game so big with many options, I just really want to know what options I have available other than a cheesy melee/mage character.
You can pretty much do what you want, but here are ideas for a couple of "base" builds:
-Tech Melee: This is basically what Dwarves are built for. Basically build like a Mage/Melee character but replace Wis and Spells with Int and Crafting. Str may be helpful to carry more stuff, but you can also just bring along Sogg Mead Mug or Chukka. This is probably the easiest tech character
-Firearms: Really fun, but tricky, especially early on. You'll want high Dex and Perception. Int is also helpful for crafting. I recommend Electric, Gunsmithing, one point in Explosives (so you can make bullets once you buy the recipe) and one point in Herbalism (for healing salves. Early on this character will seem pretty bad, but it gets better.
-Diplomage: Wis and Cha are all you need. This was my first build and it's very easy. Max out Persuasion, Charisma, and Wis and learn a bunch of spells. Maxed Cha will let you bring an army with you so you can just sit in the back and cast spells.

There's also Throwing/Explosives and Thieving, but I haven't experimented much with either. Throwing seems potentially powerful though, and Backstab is strong.

ALL CHARACTERS SHOULD START WITH A POINT IN MELEE. It doesn't matter what you're playing, you'll probably be fighting in melee early on, and you'll miss like crazy with nothing in melee.

Also, I'd recommend being good the first time through. Arcanum is one of few games where the campaign actually changes when you play an evil character, but you got to a couple additional locations as a good guy (though they're both kind of annoying, I'd still recommend it for the complete experience).
Post edited August 27, 2012 by Gazoinks
avatar
Zorgfin: All of your answers are really good. Thanks Gazoinks and Waltorious for using your own time to give me answer, I assure you that your help is very appreciated. But, I 'd really like it if you could give me some info on tech and other class options. Don't get me wrong, both of you answered my questions with fulfilling answers, but with a game so big with many options, I just really want to know what options I have available other than a cheesy melee/mage character.
avatar
Gazoinks: You can pretty much do what you want, but here are ideas for a couple of "base" builds:
-Tech Melee: This is basically what Dwarves are built for. Basically build like a Mage/Melee character but replace Wis and Spells with Int and Crafting. Str may be helpful to carry more stuff, but you can also just bring along Sogg Mead Mug or Chukka. This is probably the easiest tech character
-Firearms: Really fun, but tricky, especially early on. You'll want high Dex and Perception. Int is also helpful for crafting. I recommend Electric, Gunsmithing, one point in Explosives (so you can make bullets once you buy the recipe) and one point in Herbalism (for healing salves. Early on this character will seem pretty bad, but it gets better.
-Diplomage: Wis and Cha are all you need. This was my first build and it's very easy. Max out Persuasion, Charisma, and Wis and learn a bunch of spells. Maxed Cha will let you bring an army with you so you can just sit in the back and cast spells.

There's also Throwing/Explosives and Thieving, but I haven't experimented much with either. Throwing seems potentially powerful though, and Backstab is strong.

ALL CHARACTERS SHOULD START WITH A POINT IN MELEE. It doesn't matter what you're playing, you'll probably be fighting in melee early on, and you'll miss like crazy with nothing in melee.

Also, I'd recommend being good the first time through. Arcanum is one of few games where the campaign actually changes when you play an evil character, but you got to a couple additional locations as a good guy (though they're both kind of annoying, I'd still recommend it for the complete experience).
I guess a melee/mage character sounds good for me. Just one last question though, is it possible to be a bit of a diplomat with a melee/mage character. Because you see, I don't to be too focused on dialogue options, so I don't want to play a diplomage, bu I still don't want my character to completely neglect dialogue. It's okay if it's hard, you can just tell me so, but is it possible to create a melee/mage character with a small focus to dialogue?
avatar
Zorgfin: *Snip*
Sure. Get a point into Persuasion early, and then level up Cha/Persuasion as you go (in place of Str, perhaps). It'll be a little trickier to manage what you want to level up first, but it should be fine.
avatar
Zorgfin: *Snip*
avatar
Gazoinks: Sure. Get a point into Persuasion early, and then level up Cha/Persuasion as you go (in place of Str, perhaps). It'll be a little trickier to manage what you want to level up first, but it should be fine.
Thanks a lot for all your help. Cheers!
I'd just to add to Gazoinks' breakdown of possible character builds: a grenadier is also pretty easy to play. Grenadier's do NOT need melee because they will use Throwing weapons, and you can start off with a boomerang which will return to you every attack and you just use it instead of a melee weapon. Then, you build grenades out of stuff you find in the garbage to augment your relatively weak boomerangs. Grenades don't hurt you or your allies so you can even use them at close range, and they push back enemies in addition to damaging them. Plus you can use more advanced grenades like stun grenades to skip enemies' turns. In the late game a grenadier can be ridiculously powerful.

You build one just like a tech/melee character but replace the melee skill with throwing and take the Explosives tech discipline to make grenades. I don't think you need much Strength, but it might increase your throwing range, not sure. You'll need to buff Intelligence in order to make the higher-level grenades, but the standard molotov cocktails are the lowest-level and were the ones I used most often.

Just something to keep in mind as a possible future character.

EDIT: I forgot, grenadiers will want Perception also for better accuracy with their thrown weapons.
Post edited August 27, 2012 by Waltorious
i chose the Bandit background so i would start with the Quality Revolver, put 1 point each into dexterity and perception, 2 points into melee, and the rest into firearms.


im level 6 right now, and ive been able to handle everything ive run up against with the Quality Revolver and molotov cocktails (EXTREMELY useful. i stole a bucket of fuel in Shrouded Hills, and ive been finding rags in almost every single trashcan that i can use for molotovs)

ive got a sword, but i only use it for finishing off people who have been incapacitated by my shooting but not killed