I made a dwarven grenadier, and he was very powerful. Molotov cocktails are cheap, don't hurt you or your allies, push enemies away from you, and do decent damage. And that's the first level in explosives. Other explosives are more contextual, like the stun grenade which you can throw at the end of your turn to cause enemies to lose their turns, and then resume the attack. Grab a boomerang for when you don't want to use up your grenades and you're all set. I actually didn't finish playing that character, but I'd guess that there would be room to branch out into other tech disciplines too to make it more interesting, especially if you didn't need the high-level grenades.

I would add, by the way, that I think Arcanum is less fun when one looks for the "best" build. Pure melee builds are really easy, but also really boring. What makes Arcanum great is how many different builds are viable, and how many opportunities there are for roleplaying those builds and making different choices. I'd advise just trying a build that sounds cool, and if it doesn't work out, start over with something else.

Yeah, I totally agree. One of the strongest aspects of Arcanum is that you can really start with a character "concept", instead of a build, without feeling like you're nerfing yourself. Helps that it's so easy to add custom backgrounds. :3

Don't forget about the super secret, super insane Aerial Decapitator if you aren't going magic as a thrower.