Hi, I just installed Arcanum again after playing it the first time when it came out.
I want to minmax my character, so I'm looking at every possible way to get everything I want with as little points as possible.
I ran a few tests to see what happens if you temporarily raise a stat to meet the minimum requirements to rise a skill, learn a tech skill or a spell and then lose the minimum requirement.
Here are the conclusions:
- if you rise a stat to rise a skill which it governs (i.e. I have 15 in Dex, I want to take Dodge to 5, so I temporarily rise Dex to 18 to rise Dodge to 5) and the stat goes back to normal, your skill level reverts to the maximum possible level at your current stat level (in the example above, my Dex goes back to 15 so my Dodge goes back to 4), but if you temporarily rise your stat again, the skill goes back to its proper value (so if I get my Dex of 18 back somehow, my Dodge goes back to 5).
This is important because you can use items or other pieces of equipment that you assume you'll be using fairly often to meet the requirements for certain skill levels without fear that if you unequip that item, the points are lost forever. For example, I might want to put 5 points in spot trap and taking my Perception to just 16 instead of 18 and just equip the Trapmaker Spectacles every time I have to navigate a trapped area.

- if you temporarily rise a stat to learn a new schematic, if your stat goes back to normal you won't be able to build the item anymore, until you bring your stat back to the buffed value, or you use some tech manuals to compensate the loss in expertise. You still know how to make the item, you don't lose points, you don't lose the schematic.


Now comes the question: what happens to spells?
I made a quick character and took him to level 3. I used a potion of intellect to make him take 5 schematics in the Therapeutics tree to get Mind Marvel.
I used the Mind Marvel to learn how to cast Orcish Guardian from the Summoning tree.
As long as I was under the effect of the Mind Marvel, I could cast the spell no problem.
As soon as the effects of Mind Marvel vanished, I couldn't cast the spell anymore.
The message I got was "You lose your concentration", or something like that.

Now my question is, does this apply to Teleport? I'm asking because I want to make a tech-based character and the only spell I'm interested in is Teleport, because... well, duh, it's the best spell in the game by far. I know that Teleport never fails because of high tech aptitude, but does it make this Willpower check as (I assume) all other spells do? Or does it always work regardless? Because if that is the case, getting Teleport would be just 5 points for me, considering my starting race and background (miracle operation gnome), which sounds pretty good.
However, to rise my Willpower to a sufficiently high level to learn the spell, I will be using a Revitalizer, a Mind Marvel, Halcyon's blessing, a Brain Builder and the finger of Mannox (no need for the Vivifier); after I lose Halcyon's blessing and get the Vivifier, I'd still need to equip the finger of Mannox and use a Mind Mirvel and a Revitalizer to use Teleport, if it makes the Willpower check. If it doesn't, I just need to temporarily rise my Willpower to learn it, and then I'm set.

If it doesn't work, shooting a Mind Marvel and a Revitalizer every time just to use teleport is a waste of time and resources, so I'll be going for the Staff of K'an T'au instead, which used to have unlimited charges of Teleport in vanilla Arcanum. However, as I understand, GOG's version is the patched one, so I do not know if the Staff of K'an T'Au has unlimited charges of Teleport or if it has a limited number of uses. I'm asking because I always assumed that the unlimited Teleport thing was a bug.

So, the options are (from best to worst):
A) Spend no character points and use the Staff of K'an T'au, if it has unlimited charges
B) Spend 5 points and learn Teleport, if it works even below the minimum required level of Willpower
C) Spend 9 points to be able to use Teleport at will (which sucks, frankly. 9 points for just one spell is terrible, considering that otherwise Willpower is a dump stat for me).

So, does anybody here know the answer to this complex question? Can anybody test it in any way? I could, but I'd have to start a new character from scratch and get to the end of the Castle of S'nel N'fa, which is HELL, just to test A... and I'd have to take a character to level 15 just to be able to test B.
So, if anybody has the answer, it would be very nice to know without testing. :D
Thanks for your time and attention.

Man 9 points is a lot of points to sink into magic for a tech character. This game is pretty short and it only takes me a few sittings to go from 0 to 50 playing casually. I think it would just be better to go pure tech if your going to go tech at all because alot of things like the weight on the feather weight mail, the dex bonus on the charged rings, the str bonus on the machined plate, ect. Diminish with lower tech aptitude and every point in spells lowers your tech. You can probably still get 100 percent anyway but it will make it take longer.

And honesty does it take that much effort to walk across the map or use a boat or a train? If teleport is that much of a must have for you just play a mage.

Update: I found a program to enable a sort of cheat mode in Arcanum.
With this, I was able to make some tests.
First: if your Willpower goes below 18, you cannot cast Teleport.
So, option B is out.
Now, I'll have to use this program to tailor a character strong enough to go through the Castle of S'nel N'fa to test the Staff of K'an T'au, to see if option A is out too.

Update: I was able to test scenario A by getting the Staff of K'an T'au. Indeed, it works. The item starts with 3 charges of Divine Magic, See Contents and Teleport. However, Teleport doesn't waste any charges. However, if the staff has 0 charges, it stops working, so if you do not finish your charges by using the other two spells, you can use Teleport from the staff indefinitely.

That's good to know! I wonder why it is still a bug, with all of the patches I would have thought something like that would have been fixed.

I did some further testing and I noticed that you cannot use the staff to teleport anymore if your tech aptitude is 95 or above.
Which sucks.

Also, another unrelated note to min-maxers: don't plan your character with the Statue of Geshtianna in mind. The statue is part of a quest in Stillwater and it gives +2 Beauty, +1 Cha and -3 Dex. The thing is that if you don't give it back, you won't be able to make offerings to Geshtianna, so you won't be able to do the ancient gods quest and get the final blessing. If you do give it back, there's no way to steal it again or to reacquire it.
So be warned.

You get +1 charisma for giving the statue back though right? Or is that just a temporary thing?

Nope, you get +1 Beauty.
Unless I'm direly mistaken.

That's the one! I haven't played Arcanum in a while, I forgot which one it was.

While holding on to the statue is not practical nontech characters can spend a fate point and pick pocket the haggle master in tarant to get a ring that gives +3 beauty and charisma. There is also an item part of the thieves underground tarant quest that gives +2 beauty +1 charisma at the panarri temple. You can do the crystal ball quest in tarant to get +1 charisma but only if you first did the painting quest otherwise you will be rewarded with the location of the painting. So there are still a few ways to buff charisma.

Yep I was taking all of that in account; except for the ring 'cause I am a techie.
Anyway, I rerolled and now I'm playing a human woman with the Beat with an Ugly Stick background... going to hit 12 str (20 with spells), 20 dex, 20 cha, 14 will (18 with temporary therapeutics), 12 per (18 with temporary therapeutics), master in dodge, melee, persuasion, firearms, pick pocket, pick locks, all disciplines in herbs, therapeutics, smithy and mechanics, plus the Strength of Earth and Teleport spells by level 60... and I still have 5 points which I haven't decided how to spend yet; possibly getting master backstab.
I'm quite happy with the final build.