Magic/Technology Mixed Characters

Discussion in 'Arcanum Discussion' started by Jojobobo, May 29, 2011.

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  1. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

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    I was curious to see what sort of interesting magical/technological mixed characters people have made. They're all I've played recently, so I wanted to know if anyone else had any good ideas I could steal for my next playthrough!

    My last character was a social elf, pictured below:

    [​IMG]

    My party consisted of:
    Virgil
    Waromom
    Raven
    Magnus
    Loghaire
    Franklin Payne
    Dog
    7 Automatons
    7 Poison Arachnids
    1 Medical Arachnid (courtesy of Maxim)
    2 Hellgates
    1 Familiar
    1 Fire Elemental
    1 Vorpal Bunny

    That's 30 including my character, all boosted with Tempus Fugit! I didn't use any exploits, I just relied on blessings and rigorously planned my character from the start, which allowed me also to get all the good social endings. At the end of the game I was a persuasion master, Master of Summoning, and I had 100 MA (which I only achieved at level 50 with the elf starting bonus and a dark helm, 14 points of tech from maxing the Smithy and Mechanical disciplines are hard to counter balance)! I sourced poison and charged rings from Vollinger and Sebastian, other than that I could make all the other cool items with manuals or from Smithy and Mechanical (machined platemail, pyro axes, goggled helmets, flow disruptors and Droch's warbringer). I spammed the wise women to get all the best arcane gear for Waromon, Virgil and Raven.

    If I was to change one thing about the character I would go for a man rather than a woman, the extra point of strength would have helped a lot at times, particularly in building the vivifier and finding a way to hold all the manuals (my female character only had a strength of 4 through most of the game due to the Charlatan’s Protégé background).

    And so that's that! Anyone else got any fun builds? I've also played a dwarf with Droch's warbringer and Temporal which is pretty sweet.
     
  2. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

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    Actually, that's 28.
     
  3. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

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    So it is! Maybe I was originally planning to build 8 automatons and poison arachnids and that's why I had 30 in my head. I have the parts for more but until one of them dies I think 7 of each is enough. In any case, characters anyone?
     
  4. ytzk

    ytzk Well-Known Member

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    Mixing Mental magick with Therapeutics and Chemistry to build the Mental Inhibitor, thereby hypnotising even the most willful opponent.
     
  5. Drog Alt

    Drog Alt Member

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    I wonder what the performance was like.
     
  6. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

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    That sounds pretty cool, I might give that a try! I imagine making them an evil scheming social character, bending everyone to their will. Maxing Therapeutics and Chemistry would also allow you to build the Elixir of Hypnotic Suggestion to give you another avenue for mind control, and the Muscle Maker or Brain Builder to beef up your followers - or you could just use the Muscle Maker to turn those you control into mindless raging hulk-like slaves! Great stuff!

    It's actually not too bad, the only time when the game starts to lag significantly is when you're in confined spaces as then your followers all try to occupy the same spaces. I think the issue is that they want to move to a neighboring space but that too is already occupied by another follower, and so sometimes you'll get four or five followers in one space with a very dense shadow beneath them! Other than that when you're actually running around there's no lag whatsoever.

    So I just thought of another fun build which I thought I'd call Fists of Fury. Play a Half-Ogre with the Only Child background; use Valorien's blessing, charged rings, the vivifier and the Finger of Mannox to give +9 DX, +1 ST, +1 IN, +2 WP and 3 (or 12, however you think about it) into melee and dodge (and of course more than this, but I'm only highlighting what's relevant). For your point allocation go for +11 ST, +3 DX, +2 WP, +3 (or more, your choice) IN, +1 Morph, +5 Temporal, +2 Dodge, +2 Melee and then whatever tech you please to counteract the magic. In the end use the Vendigrothian War Gauntlets and unleash havoc! You could - if you like to use IN potions - build mech platemail and save yourself 3 points in ST, allowing you to also put 5 into Conveyance so you can get around easy (you'd have 32 points for tech left to counteract the 11 magic spells; you'll need to put an extra 1 into IN), but I don't like using IN potions to build things so I wouldn't. Hope you like it!

    Also a thing which I didn't realise with my elf character which applies to this Ogre character too is that the Halcyon blessing which you'll have active till Vendigroth gives you 18 WP so you can cast the high level spells around the time you get to Quintarra, which I think is quite reasonable really. After Vendigroth the vivifier and Finger of Mannox give you the rest you need.

    Okay I'm feeling inspired, and rather than double posting I thought I would edit this post with another fun build. I looked at the dwarf with Temporal and figured he'd be much better as a gnome due to dwarvern magic penalty. I think he should be called The Fastest Gunslinger In All of Arcanum. And so here it is:

    Starting with the Only Child background use Valorein's Blessing, Agility of Fire, Strength of Stone, charged rings, the Finger of Mannox, Iron Clan Armour and the vivifier to give + 13 DX, + 8 ST, + 1 PE, + 2 WP, + 3 Firearms and + 3 Dodge. Put points into +4 ST, + 10 IN, + 9 PE, +2 Firearms, + 2 Dodge, + 5 Temporal, + 1 Fire, + 1 Earth, +7 Chemistry, + 2 Smithy, + 7 Electrical, + 6 Explosives, + 7 Gunsmithy and finally + 1 Herbology (or your choice). To save on character points you could use found eye gear (+2 PE), but I prefer the Chapeau of Magnetic Inversion. Furthermore again you could use IN potions to skimp out on 3 points of IN (16 gives enough to let you have Agility of Fire, Haste, Strength of Stone and Tempus Fugit active all at once). Strength isn't mandatory, but it makes carrying around a shed load of bullets easier, though a character with different lighter armour and a lower Strength would be able to carry around just as many as this character - I just like the Iron Clan Armour! Without manuals to my knowledge this character would be able to make any gun, which I think is a pretty cool without the extra coolness of Temporal. Anyway I'll stop posting up anymore metagaming character builds for the time being!

    Keep the ideas coming!
     
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