Namely in that I'm honestly not sure what sort of technologist I want to become in the first place.

I'm downloading and installing the Essentials stuff (minus the official patch of course), and I already know *some* things about this game thanks to some, er, research* I did. Basically, you don't *really* have to worry about spoilers here.

I don't actually know which branch of technology I'd want to specialize in, though. Most of them sound interesting to some degree. I wish I could indulge in all of them, but that might be a bit foolish?

Of course, I also don't know which fighting style I'd want to do - melee or ranged? A difficult decision to make there, too.

I do think I want to be a dwarf just to maximize my synergy with technology. At another time, I'll do an elf mage playthrough or several.

Eventually I'll probably explore the other fields of technology on other characters but for now, I just want a good starting point for a decent dwarf technologist.

*I read through the LPArchive playthrough of this game to get hyped up - it followed the exploits of a female human thief technologist with a custom background, but naturally, I plan on making different decisions. Sometimes I have to have a game spoiled for me before I can really get hyped up to play it. -shrug-

If you've done your homework, then you already know that technology is seriously nerfed compared to magic.

Protip 1: Stay away from Firearms, especially in the early game. Bullets are expensive to buy and/or a grind to craft, and they weigh your PC down, affecting their encumbrance. It takes quite a few points in the skill (which has as its prereq Perception) before you hit more often than you miss. On the plus side, later on there are guns that don't use bullets, and that do hella damage.

Protip 2: Your best bet early on is a point in Herbology (for the healing salves) and one in Explosives (for the very effective, and relatively easy to produce, Molotov cocktail). Invest one point in Throwing, so that the cocktail goes where you toss it. Best part is, you and your followers are immune to friendly fire, so you can just drop the damn thing at your feet if you really need to.

Protip 3: Spend two points in Electrical early on, to craft rings of Dexterity. DX is the number one attribute used in this game: it determines how many attacks you get per turn, and is the prereq to the most skills.

Protip 4: Also spend two points in Melee, and buy a fine dagger from the shopkeeper. It's the best value early on; and you always want to be able to defend yourself even when you're out of Molotov cocktails, bullets, or any other ranged ammo. Alternately, put a second point in Throwing, buy the boomerang, and then upgrade to a chakram later on. Non-magical thrown weapons are weak, but they have the huge advantage of attacking from a distance, saving on the need for extensive repairs (see Protip 6, below). Chakrams, being metal, are also flameproof.

Protip 5: Be aware that a high TA will make certain shops unavailable to you. You'll have trouble selling the magic items you find, for example, unless you've invested in Haggle to the point of expertise (which allows any shopkeeper to buy anything). The same is true of a high MA, except of course in the other direction: hard to get armor repaired, for example, when all the blacksmiths tell you to GTHO. (You may want to stock up on scrolls of Exiting before you get magic-banned; they're very handy for leaving dungeons, rather than having to retrace your footsteps.)

Protip 6: When you can, get Repair up to level 3 (2, if you're a Dwarf) so that you can purchase expertise and repair your own stuff. This will come in VERY handy as soon as you start facing monsters that produce fire or acid. Expertise allows you to keep repairing items up to 100 HP (enough for 10 hits or so) while mastery lets you repair anything not completely broken all the way back to its maximum HP.

Protip 7: The best melee weapons early on are the fastest ones: more hits equals more damage. You can buy a katana once you reach Tarant. Two points in Smithy (or Magnus, once you level him up enough) can get you a Balanced Sword; three points (or Magnus again) can get you a Dwarven axe. There are schematics that can turn that sword electrical, or that axe flaming; I won't ruin the fun by spoiling where and how. Be aware that Magnus is a goody two-shoes, so don't expect to get along with him if you plan to be evil.

Protip 8: Believe it or not, you may also want to look into Arcane melee weapons (available at random from the gypsies in certain towns). At full TA, you'll get zero points for magic damage; but all Arcane weapons are 100% fireproof.

Protip 9: Intelligence is key to tech colleges; only you (not your followers) can ever go past level four in a college. Even as a full techie, you can always down a potion of Intelligence (available from the gypsies) for a real-time one minute +10 IN boost (up to your maximum, probably 20). If you ever need to buy tech manuals to craft items outside of your areas of expertise, quaff a potion before buying, and then buy all you can before time runs out. Drink another potion before crafting (assuming your IN is less than 20) and you'll need the fewest tech manuals to achieve your goal.

Example: If you need 80 points in Therapeutics and your IN is 12, this trick means you'll only need to buy four such manuals, since each will give you +20 (if your intelligence was maxed out both upon purchase and use). Otherwise, you would need to buy, and carry, seven manuals for the same benefit (12 x 7 = 84). The formula the game uses is that a manual boosts your skill by the Intelligence you have upon purchase or use, whichever is LOWER.

Protip 10: MILD SPOILER If you keep both Magnus and Loghaire as followers, plus you follow a specific Dwarven quest to its very end with both of them in your party, they will have a very specific and interesting (and fully voiced) conversation in your presence. This is the best reason IMO to play as a technologist.

Now go forth and have fun.

TwoHandedSword gave some great advice. I will speak in more general terms:

As TwoHandedSword said, going for guns will actually be a hard time. Many new players get excited about guns and are then disillusioned quickly. A grenadier with a boomerang or chakram for backup is much easier and a ton of fun; you can make molotov cocktails out of garbage, and higher level grenades let you stun enemiies or impart other useful effects.

If you like melee combat, then consider smithing and electrical to make yourself (and your followers) some nice equipment.

Another fun path can be mechanical, where you create your own robots to fight for you.

The most important thing, however, is not to worry too much about how effective your character will be. Some builds are extremely easy, and some are harder, but almost all are viable, and roleplaying your character is the best part of Arcanum. So if you want to try a specific style of play, go for it! Don't worry too much about whether you'll be able to handle the challenge. A few character points in melee combat, as TwoHandedSword suggested, is enough to get buy in most cases, letting you focus on other things.

Also, while character creation can seem complicated, with so many things to spend points on, there are lots of prerequisites so you'll often find your choices are easiier since you know you need e.g. more Intelligence so you can get the next level of a tech college later.

Anyway, I hope some of this is helpful. Let us know what you decide!

Okay, gotcha. As far as tech being weaker than magic, that's kinda the reason I wanna run tech before magic - that way I'm not spoiled by how easy magic is.

Honestly, I wasn't really planning on going for guns anyways, mostly 'cause I feel like by the time you can get anything interesting, you've got party members that are likely better fits?

Regardless, thanks for all the advice :) I'll definitely go fo the Magnus and Loghaire questline which is actually something that wasn't covered in the LP I read - mostly because the player character was kind of a scoundrel and Magnus left early.

I think I'll, at the very least, have some points in melee combat. That will at least give me some wiggle room to explore other areas.

Thanks! I think I'll be ready to start my playthrough soon.

Ok some help since i just did a tech run.

There are plenty of points to spread about to do multiple things as a tech player. I went as a Tech party leader. Maxed charisma and persuade early to get 6 followers (and dog). Since you can easily get a couple followers (magnus, etc) to make some tech, You really don't need to take a lot of tech in your build. Electrical to make everyone charged rings, explosives up to explosive grenade (molotovs, explosive grenades, and schemiatic electrical grenades will be your staple early in the game). One into guns so you can make early money making cheap flintlock pistols to sell. Most other things are useless so just get enough tech to get your tech level up to 100 if you want. Or lower if you want to keep using magic merchants.

Your main points won't actually be into tech tree. But early into charisma/persuade, then lockpicking if you want. Tech manuals from the library so you can use all those schematics you find/buy easy. By level 35ish you'll have pretty much what you want in the tech department. Magnus will be making good swords for everyone, others making healing items, you'll be working on outfitting everyone except magic party members with charged rings (+4 dex, why not), and as many grenades that you can. Some want smithing to make featherweight chain, elite plate, etc. I find that useless, Magnus will have some there, and plenty of armor out there that is perfectly fine. Plus you'll make electrical plate if you want, buy bronze plate from the store, find tons and tons of other good armor. Once you change to a throwing master, defense means nothing, just like every other offensive build.

Since you'll hit your peak pretty easy, you'll then want to turn your tech into a throwing master. Picking up a nice tech throwing weapon, boosting dex. At this point you'll leave grenades behind some since your throwing will chop up stuff easier, except in a few cases when stuff groups up. At this point you'll level up super fast like any other offensive character hasted running about does.

Overall the game is rather easy to allow any kind of builds. There's only early game when you've no expertise in no skills that ennemies are hard to kill (around 31% ToHit max).

TwoHandedSword nailed down all the most important points, nothing much to add after this. Maybe a few details.
The aptitude cap for shops is at 70, i.e. : if you've over 70+ TA then magick shops will refuse to sell to you.

- careful with Repair : while it's useful early game, later you'll meet Maxim Hieronymous and not need to repair yourself. Whatever you choose, I would not recommend to max Repair.
- between lvl 1 and 50, you've a total of 64 CP (character points) to improve both your stats and skills. It may help to plan where you want to put them and check that you'll have enough CP to do so.
- since you depend much more on skills than a mage, it can be worth to consider to have IN 20 (+10% to all skills).

Now about the disciplines :
- Herbology : everything to keep you and your companions alive and healthy, always useful
- Chemistry : works better with Explosives (Knock Out Gas, Paralysis Grenade)
- Electricity : lots of useful tools such as Charged Ring, Flow Spectrometer, Chapeau of Magnetic Inversion
- Explosives : the Stun Grenade is so useful
- GunSmithy : only if you plan to have 3 gunslingers or more in your team
- Mechanical : if only it wasn't about to craft 300-1000 weight items...
- Smithy : useful for a melee team.
- Therapeutics : temporary buffs but you can combine them with other items to craft permanent buffs (Brain Builder and Muscle Maker).

As a tech, your best companions are Jayna (healing salves, poison cure), Magnus (Balanced Sword and Feather-weight Axe) and Sebastian (stun grenade). But the problem with Sebastian is that you can recruit him rather late (lvl 30). Vollinger is also a good choice : evil gunslinger who'll never get mad at you if you kill people or if you save the world. You can equip him with a hand cannon for free until you craft him a Droch's Warbringer.
I would not suggest to get the dog as it'll prevent you to use trains and you've no tp spell as a tech.

Virgil and Magnus are the 2 most important followers in Arcanum as they represent both one side of the story (Magick/Virgil, Tech/Magnus). You might miss some of the main storyline if you kick Virgil (and vice versa with Magnus) however you can still follow it with just Magnus.

Yea i thought it would be fun as a tech party leader having 6 people as followers, but like you said only Virgil and Magnus really are part of the story, the rest just turned into pack mules.

Also a good thing to remember, which newer players don't know. Often its more useful to put your points into areas you don't think about than into the areas you think they should go for your build. For example like i said, putting points into charisma on a tech character instead of intelligence/tech.

You are a tech guy. You think .. oh ill put 4 points into smithing so i can make this and that. But you have a follower who will have tech skills (Magnus). As he levels up, he will have 8 tech areas, equal to 8 points. If you instead spend your 4 points NOT into smithing, but into charisma instead, this lets you get an extra follower, you can pick up Magnus, and let him handle those 8 tech areas. Same with Jayna. Unless you plan on using the 5th and 6th levels of those tech skills, its muich much better to raise charisma and persuasion and gain those extra followers and use THEIR tech levels instead of putting it on your character. So just with Jayna and Magnus, thats 16 points of tech skills they willl have, in 4 different tech areas. They can cover a lot of stuff. That saves you 16 points which you can max out your charisma and persuade and benefit a lot more. Most level 5 and 6 tech aren't really useful anyway.

So focus your tech areas into areas that other companions don't have, use those companions to cover THEIR areas. Since just Jayna and Magnus cover 4 tech skills, that leaves 4 other tech areas that you can handle, and the maxed charisma and persuade will benefit you much much more.

Some thoughts, having played enough technologists, including one that ditched Virgil at the telegram office

(1) Learn heal. If you're the tech type with high intelligence, Get. Heal. Sure, you won't be able to resurrect yourself, but bandages will save your live, and are cheap. As a techie, Virgil and other healing mages won't be able to heal you, and unless you're educator, Virgil will fumble with bandages. Get heal. Alternatively, you can get Jayna to tag along to make salves for you, but I find learning heal a safer bet.

(2) Firearms aren't a problem, if you're the thief type. I managed to get enough ammo by simply sneaking in at night to get my bullets. But that is one option. Another is to play a diplomatic technologist and have people cover you in melee while you selectively use your gun.

Firearms is a weird thing for me because, it has some advantages over bow. Like, a good gunman is able to hit his target directly, and bullets won't do friendly fire unlike arrows. Also, there's more variety of guns, and the games best ranged weapons are guns, but the ammo is a real problem. Unless you master haggle. In addition,a nd while its costly, the most fun I had playing a gunman was as a dwarf educator. Having Payne, Vollinger and Smythe, all with Expert in guns, meant that most encounters ended before both Magnus and Loghaire could reach the target. But yes, the bullets and the batteries cost a tonne of money, since I wasnt playing thief. Keep those limitations in mind whenever you play a gunman, and you can get the most out of it.

(3) Best tech melee weapon in game is the Pyro axe. A schematic for it is in the basement of willoughsby house, and you can also buy it

Lastly

(4) I heavily recommend exploring therapeutics, unless you're playing a strict build based on an RP idea (like say, you're character only focuses on two specific disciplines). With full therapeutics, you can +6 in Strength, Dexterity and Perception, and +4 in all other stats, as well as two persuasion skill points, working out to a lofty 38 points, which you can get with a mere 7 in therapeutics and at most 11 in intelligence at a base level (18 points to get a potential 38 points is impressive, and combine that with two charged rings, a melee technologist will not need to invest points in dexterity to master melee and dodge). Of course, its a temporary boost but, unlike magical potions, which end after a minute, therapeutics potions last for about 4 hours in actual time, making them extremely handy. And the real clincher - the ingredients are incredibly cheap, considering their advantage. Only real problem is space, so be sure to have a good pack mule to carry all your potions.

Also, full therapeutics, plus three in electricity and 5 in chemistry, will allow you to make a character that can change his stats so much that he or she can, instead, focus on maximizing skills (or colleges, if you're the technomage type). WIth my first therapeutics build, I managed to max out and master 6 skills, something I had thought impossible previously. Given that I spent a few more points in schematics after that, theoretically, I could have mastered another skill or two. And this was with educator -a character with a background boosting intelligence could perhaps learn even more skills with just therapeutics mastery.

Oh yeah, and related to above, since I was playing educator, I manage to turn Jayna and Virgil into two muscleheads using the Muscle maker. A little bit devious, but it felt kinda cool.

Never found heal useful at all. Healing and bandages = worst way to heal in the game. Virgil and others can heal the non-full tech people, you'll want to worry about yourself really. Easiest way is just having Jayna making healing items, very easy to keep yourself stocked up, and save points in sucky healing skill that you can use in other areas.

let virgil and jayna even with their basic healing abilities stocked up with bandages. Spend those 5 points instead into boosting haggle a bit more if you want, over the course of the game you'll make tons of money to just buy healing items for yourself. Healing and bandages = ick, wasteful, slow, and weak.

The better way is to not take damage that much. Get your grenades up, have plenty of them, (why are you taking damage dragging 6 followers around big melee targets), use bombs when you want, stay safe when not, and use those 5 points to boost dex or something to boost speed up to max asap. There are many useless skills that i consider not useful on any character. Heal is one. Same with points into traps, pickpocket, gambling, repair.. all good for roleplaying but useless on characters. Fate points are really only useful for picking pockets for items that you really want (or just kill the npc instead). Or opening locks until your lockpicking is maxed enough to do it with skills/spells.

Some people like repair, tried it, found it lacking. Go to town and have a npc do it, especially if you can teleport. Carrying a backup weapon for your party negates worrying about anything just breaking when your not paying attention. Magnus should be pumping out swords all the time anyway for endless great melee weapons.

I used the Brain Builder on Vollinger to get him to IN 20, and equipped him with the Ring of Virility and a Charged Ring to counterbalance the penalties.

I guess its a mixed opinion kind of thing. Yes Jayna can make the salves for you, but I'm not fond of having to keep making salves for healing. Also I found that with Heal mastery and at 5 points, a single bandage heal can do a pretty good job and repair injuries. I will admit that I usually keep healing to after a battle (and I usually play in real-time) While haggle is incredible useful, one thing I'll point out is that Haggle is reliant on willpower, which is not as critical a state for technologists as it is for mages. I remember one player mentioned using gamble early in the game over haggle, and I can see why - while luck-based and very finicky, I think it was intended for technologists to take gamble while mages take haggle. Some of the skills you mentioned are mainly for thief characters. I can agree on spot trap and disarm trap (namely because a spot trap scroll will give you an instant full spot trap that you can master) but, and while picklocking works best when its maxed out, the potential to be able to gain an unlimited supply of money and items by picklocking makes it a worthwhile investment for any budding thief. I think pickpocket is mildly useful if you want to nick simple stuff like keys, a piece of paper, or an amulet without using a fate point. And of course, the real most important skill for a thief is Prowl, which also has benefits for a meee character if taken with backstab

Speaking of dexterity, I find that its that, instead of spending points in dexterity, to learn full therapeutics (+6 Dex) and learn 3 electrical schematics (+4 Dex in charged rings) Alternatively, and if you're a technomage character, one spot in the fire college provides a +4 dex. There's also gloves of dexterity for technomages and, if you master disarmt rap, you get a special eye gear that grants +2 dex. Its why I have been preferring therapeutics over manually boosting dex, unless I play an RP character who would actually put points in dex. Repair makes sense if you're making a self-sufficient character. Its like why I prefer heal over herbology (mainly because I don't make mechanized arachnids, and the healing jacket costs batteries) The one master repairman in Arcanum, Maxim, can only be found in Caladon, and assuming you don't have teleport, I can see why some would pefer to be able to repair on the fly as opposed to returning to Maxim for the perfect repair

I also don't like breaking stuff. Personal preference I guess. I'll also admit that my wapon of choice is the pyro axe, though I'm playing vanilla - has the UAP nerfed the pyro axe?

Probably why most tech followers are leveling their Gamble skill.

From my own experience, you need Pickpocket 3 [Expert] just to steal safely a ring.
I can confirm that even at high level, Pickpocket remains useful for a mage-thief just to get some saltpeter (for bullets).

I'm starting to wonder how many people are geting their repairs done by the junk dealer on Tarant's docks in front of Madam Lil's?
The dwarven blacksmith in Tarant Armor Shop is an Apprentice Repair.
The junk dealer on Tarant's docks is an Expert Repair.

on the UAP, the pyro axe has the same damages but works as a tech weapon, i.e. : 0% ToHit on highly magic creatures (elementals, golems, etc...).

well tarant usually is the hub of your play, and the Junk dealer on the docks a major merchant that you should be visiting all the time. Not only does he buy most anything you want to sell, he can repair, and he works no matter your magic or tech level where other merchants will snub you.

A good tech character will do fine with just what ever haggle they can fit in their build, since you can make tons of items, and many of them can resell very nicely to merchants. Easy to make money with a tech character without any gambling, beauty, or haggling needed much. Tons of reselling of junk found in baskets and bought cheaply from stores.

what mage-thief can't afford to buy some bullets from the shop lol. Any good tech character will probably get shunned by every magic shop, so just go ahead and rob them and have all the money you want. Use that old thief/junk guys in tarant to sell stuff. You dont' need haggling, gambling, etc on a tech guy. Waste of points. If your a pure non-combat build raise your beauty some if you really want a little benefit. Use fate points or just kill npcs if you want their stuff really badly. Really not a whole lot useful for a tech anyway that you can't make yourself. influence ring in tarant only for mages really, a few nice guns if your a gunner/tech.

If your a tech guy you should be using explosives as your damage. Not a pyro axe. You probably have low strength and physical abilities. Throwing much more useful, light weapons, stay at a distance, helps with your grenades also. Let the melee tanks handle up front.

The Gunshop will not sell bullets to a mage, nor the Engineershop will sell saltpelter to a mage. And I need bullets for Vollinger.

Edit : I see why you posted that, I typed "I can confirm that even at high level, Pickpocket remains useful" while I was speaking of Picklock (not Pickpocket).

Depends on the build, I'd say. Played sickly half-ogre and, while there was a strength nerf, his base strength was still 10. Complemented with 10 intelligence and he made for a pretty lethal warrior as I leveled him up. Tech warrior builds are always interesting - one of my alltime favourites is the Barbarian Dwarf - used a potion of intelligence to boost his intel to make a pyro axe, which was his main weapon.

I am planning for an explosives run and I'm curious to see how it goes.

Agreed, though one thing I'd point out is that the junk dealer charges certain rates. I noticed I got more money for magic items from the mage shops, an likewise for guns and explosives from the gunshop. I'll have to explore this a bit more.