Stats and Character Building

I've come back to play Arcanum after a long time, its one of my personal fav games ever since it came out.
However, I've come up against a problem I've always had with it and am glad to find a forum/community about Arcanum thats actually active

Anyway my questions are; how important is it to build stats as opposed to first getting skills and magic/tech abilities?

How balanced should I build stats, pump one after another, or gradually build em all at a similar rate?

And is it ever worth putting points directly into HP/fatigue or are they fine just being derived?

For reference, the character I want to build is a mage with great conversation ability (with a couple of points tossed into melee and pick pocket for convenience), so the stats I would need are Dex, Will, Cha, Int and Con... but I'm at a loss as how/when I should build em, as I've pretty much just stated

Suggestions/comments?

(Also do I need to worry about the Dodge skill or can I leave it?)

 

Well lookie here, a new one. Welcome aboard, Riden!

You'll need stats to get magic/tech abilities and skills anyway anyway. You can for example raise a skill to a level giving you access to skill upgrades, buy all skills which are available, then boost the skills again, etc.

It's good to have a plan for your character. if you just bump every single stat, it won't take you far. Specialisation is the key.
When it comes to "What to I wan't, be super quick but weak at the beginning and then become stronger and stronger, or be average in speed and power and boost both of them at the same rate", I guess it's up to you, since there is no "best" way to play through Arcanum. Also, you can keep in mind that every stat boost up to 20 give a little nifty bonus.

Please don't do that. You'll regret every single character point put in health or fatigue when you will be drowning in health/fatigue at the end game.

Just use common sence. Invest in magic/melee if you feel weak in battle, when battle is no problem, invest in other skills. Then again, you can have followers do the dirty work for you (especially with high charisma and persuation, when you can have more of them), but then you get less experience from battles. It's up to you.

Since you are already investing in melee and pickpocket, meaning you have the dexterity requirements, it's a nice idea to put points in dodge. That skill is quite a powerful "shield", it is.

 

Thanks for the reply, thats helped me some

 

As far as combat skills go, the game is designed so that you don't really need to get them beyond Expert level unless you feel like trying some of the Master quests.

Take melee, for example. You need two points and Apprentice training if you want to do much beside accidentally injuring yourself. But you really don't need more than that unless you want to complete the melee and/or dodge Master quests.

Dodge is a nice skill to have, but it's not really necessary if you have party members who can heal you, or if you take the Minor Heal spell or if you keep a stock of potions and bandages on hand.

Still... A point in Dodge can make a big difference. You get better at dodging the more points you invest in the skill, but once again anything beyond Expert-level training is more about completing a neat side quest than improving your character. Five points in the skill actually makes most fights more boring (especially in turn-based mode).

 

Anyway...

I have played a lot of persuasive mage characters in my time, so here are a few thoughts that might be more useful than my last post:

1. You'll want a point in persuasion by the time you get to the town of Shrouded Hills. There are several early quests that can be completed more easily by talking people into doing what you want.

In at least two cases, you'll get the best results by being a smooth talker and then going ahead and acting like an action hero anyway. If you want more details, I'm sure one of us can provide them.

2. If you want a lot of followers, getting up to Expert in persuasion is totally worth it. It also makes a few tricky quests much easier.

3. There are a ton of items and potions in the game that help offset the fatigue damage caused by spells. You're better off just equipping a weapon that stores mana and keeping a supply of blue potions in your inventory.

4. In one of the towns you go to later, you can buy Gloves of Dexterity that boost your Dex by two as long as you have them equipped. That frees up two character points for something else you want.

5. At the beginning of the game, you're probably better off concentrating more on the spells you want to use. Spending a point on Harm, just for example, will cause you to kick a lot more butt at the crash site than you would by investing it in a combat skill. You'll also level up faster.

6. I generally find that I don't need to worry much about any stats other than Charisma toward the beginning of the game. Unless I'm playing as an elf with the Miracle Operation background.

That background is cool for a mage (nice bonuses to Intelligence, Charisma and Perception), but the low Con and Dex are inconvenient.

7. You'll have more fun if you stay away from backgrounds that have penalties to Beauty.

8. Getting your Intelligence up to 12 is handy because you can maintain more spells and there are a couple of quests where you have to meet an Int requirement in order to get the right dialogue options. Any more than that isn't really necessary unless you're playing as a technologist.

You don't really need your Int to be higher than 9 until a side quest you can accept somewhere around level 25 to 30.

 

Good point.

I've never used those spells, so I tend to be more concerned about Willpower.

I like being lazy and using Teleport. Otherwise, I probably could get by with just enough to use level three spells.

There are probably a lot of useful things you could do with support spells if you have maxed out Int...

If you're going to do something like that, don't use the Raised in the Pits background. The Int penalty makes you max out that stat at something like 15.

 

My favourite usage for Intelligence as a mage:
In turn based, when enemies choose their position for combat, set walls of fire on enemies here and there. Up to five walls at Int 20, in one place at once or a few different. With luck and good planing, a single wall can be torching two or three enemies. Unspeakable damage can be dealed every turn while your foes just stand there and burn to ashes (and attack, naturally).

 

Walls of Force in cramped tunnels are a life saver.

 

Are they now? From what I've experienced, the magical wall object nearly never appears on the spot touching the walls of a cave/building, giving enough space for enemies to just pass between.

 

Odd. I don't recall having much problems. The biggest problem I usually face is that I don't get it right, and the Wall of Force goes diagonal. Or do you mean when you cast the spell too close to the wall and only 3 of the 5 force pillars appear? I've had that a few times. The force wall overlaps with the tunnel wall. That's annoying, but a second wall typically fixes it, unless it goes diagonal on you. Another tactic if you're in an open area is to cast 4 walls of force around you, then summon a demon outside it (or do the classic blasting). It's a drain on the fatigue tho', and you likely won't be able to cast all those spells without using a few fatigue restores or staves.

 

That's the thing, I believe. For some reason the game often wants to leave some space between a cave/building wall and a stone/fire/force wall. I'm sure it's game technical and all, but it takes away one very good possible use of those spells. What bugs me most that often while an enemy is just next to a wall and I cast wall of fire on him, the flames appear everywhere but just not on him, and if I cast the spell on him along the wall, no flames appear at all. It doesn't work on all walls, I believe it depends on angle or some such nonsense, I usually just don't risk and allow enemies to move away from the wall before torching them, but if I forter about it, 10 fatigue points and 4 action points go bye-bye for nothing at all DAMNIT.