Well, I finished Arcanum, finally. Although it was satisfying to get done, the end felt, well, a little anticlimactic. By the end my character (who I ran as a diplomat mage, Master of Persuasion) was almost cheesily overpowered...I could literally kill anything in the game with one hit (Disintegrate). It was fun, but it took all element of tactics out; every single battle, from about level 30 onward, consisted of me killing everything with Disintegrate, while my party just stood there and rarely got a single shot off, so to speak. The Void was a cakewalk and it took me maybe half an hour to run through the whole thing.

So, in the end, I talked Kerghan out of his plans, and he died, and the ending was somewhat disappointing; seems that the world was *not* a better place because of me. Dernholm and Vendigroth (rebuilt by Arronax) were the only places that came out well. Tarant was overrun by a crime wave (which is weird because I could have sworn I wiped out all the gangs), Caladon faded beause I got Tarant the most awesome treaty ever, Shrouded Hills faded, etc. Oh well. I have a save from just before I entered the void, so I might go back and see if I can change anything.

The ending was anticlimactic....but I really liked how the story wrapped up....definitely a tale of self determination and perhaps it has something to say about religion and predestination as well....

I also played a smooth talking mage...in fact, I maxed out Speechcraft before touching any other skill, and then moved onto magic. Disintegrate really does dominate in Arcanum, but I felt that the world and the plot were more important than mechanics...though I did enjoy them as well.

I thought Arcanum was a great RPG....and it definitely lived up to the expectations I have developed over the course of a decade of meaning to get around to playing it. I'm playing Baldur's Gate II right now....and as of Chapter 5, I am feeling somewhat disappointed, though I recognize it is a really good game. Definitely enjoyed Baldur's Gate more than BG2 so far.

You'd want to be the one doing all the killing because any hits or kills that your NPC did will not count towards your XP and you won't advance as fast.

Well done.

I'll avoid spoilers, but you definitely missed a few things if you got bad endings for Shrouded Hills, Tarant and Caladon. The problem with Caladon wasn't necessarily to do with getting Tarant too good a treaty, but rather failing to do something else to help keep Tarant honest. As long as your character is clever and persuasive enough, you should be able to secure good endings across the board. But a few of the ending slides hinge on relatively small things.

If you replay the game, try a technologist. It's not as easy.