Arcanum Most overpowered builds in Arcanum?

[JohnSmith24601]

Hey guys! I've just started playing Arcanum again! I'm using the Multiverse Edition for the first time.

O'great lords of the Codex!! I beseech thee! Enlighten me with dishonorable builds so I may slay mine enemies with stale cheese!!

 

[DraQ]

Harm.

 

[Egosphere]

They all become over-powered somewhere around mid-game. The mage that can spam harm ( and then disintegrate ) is op right off the bat, but high str + dex character will be a killing machine by level ~15 or so as well, especially with a good sword.

Edit: forgot the most op character in the game - max charisma

 

[Erebus]

Harm.

This.

Also, get Summon Ogre as soon as possible. Summoned ogres are extremely strong (more than the demon you get with the 4th level Conjuration spell, weirdly enough).

Even in the late game, you'll seldom need more than those two spells (though you should of course make your character as magical as possible, to make Harm more powerful).

 

[JohnSmith24601]

Oh yeah, I forgot about these two spells! I knew of them from way back. Any other builds?

 

[JohnSmith24601]

I just got one. Any race. Pump strength to 12 and intelligence to at least 8 (2 spell slots). This way you can maintain two strength spells to boost your strength to 20 right off the bat. Pretty op early game.

 

[luj1]

Anything with Harm
Summons
High CHA builds (companions)
Minmaxed Ogre battlemage

 

[Sykar]

Get max followers. Get time magic school. Cast Tempus Fugit. Watch your companions murderize everything.

 

[luj1]

The most OP shit I played is just taking Dogmeat and buffing him to the eyeballs with Haste, Timestop, Agility of Fire, Hands of Stone etc. then just pounding enemies with Harm while Dog wrecks everything. I think he took 90% of last boss HP in one turn

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[JohnSmith24601]

Woah! That dog is op? I didn't know that. Any non-magic builds? Does tech suck?

 

[luj1]

That dog is a weapon of mass destruction. Tech is the way to play Arcanum imo, hard and rewarding

 

[JohnSmith24601]

That dog is a weapon of mass destruction. Tech is the way to play Arcanum imo, hard and rewarding

How do you start with Tech?

 

[luj1]

if you play alone

1-2 in therapeutics (heals), 1 in explosives (molotov), 4 in electric (charged rings for everyone) and then focus on 2 trees max (look up schematics to see good combos)

If you plan on using companions then you need to plan differently because some of them can make charged rings/grenades/therapeutics

EDIT: here, the legendary page: http://www.bigorrin.org/arc5.htm

EDIT 2: and keep rerolling the merchant stock in tarant to get different schematics

 

[Egosphere]

That dog is a weapon of mass destruction. Tech is the way to play Arcanum imo, hard and rewarding

Use fate point to steal the hand cannon from the halfling in Tarant. Not so hard after that.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Arcanum has so many ways to dominate that it's completely unnecessary to ask for advice. If you are not retarded, you will come up with your own way of total destruction.

 

[JohnSmith24601]

if you play alone

1-2 in therapeutics (heals), 1 in explosives (molotov), 4 in electric (charged rings for everyone) and then focus on 2 trees max (look up schematics to see good combos)

If you plan on using companions then you need to plan differently because some of them can make charged rings/grenades/therapeutics

EDIT: here, the legendary page: http://www.bigorrin.org/arc5.htm

EDIT 2: and keep rerolling the merchant stock in tarant to get different schematics

Woah I never even knew any of this. I thought therapeutics was shit lol...but will definitely give it a try now.

Arcanum has so many ways to dominate that it's completely unnecessary to ask for advice. If you are not retarded, you will come up with your own way of total destruction.

I am pretty retarded, sir. Thank you very much.

That dog is a weapon of mass destruction. Tech is the way to play Arcanum imo, hard and rewarding

Use fate point to steal the hand cannon from the halfling in Tarant. Not so hard after that.

Wait, which halfing???

 

[new fucking guy]

I like the spell and weapon that chains on enemies and does like 50 electrical damage and can't miss, there's a few ways to get the effect but either way you can't bring followers or you'll kill them too lol

Wait, which halfing???

the one that keeps calling you a nigger, he's also the master pickpocket trainer

 

[Erebus]

Unrelated to combat : unless you enjoy spending time on boring things, try to get Teleportation (for long-distance journeys) and Invisibility (for dungeons) as soon as you can.

 

[luj1]

You also get mega bonuses upon reaching 20 in an attribute, for example double damage (STR)

 

[JohnSmith24601]

I like the spell and weapon that chains on enemies and does like 50 electrical damage and can't miss, there's a few ways to get the effect but either way you can't bring followers or you'll kill them too lol

Wait, which halfing???

the one that keeps calling you a nigger, he's also the master pickpocket trainer

Hey I can't, in good conscious, steal from someone who tells it like it is.

 

[Rafidur]

20 charisma and either maxed out temporal magic, or solid crafting.

 

[Egosphere]

Wait, which halfing???

Sammie White. He's somwhere around Tarant's centre, on a bridge of sorts, I think

 

[Cael]

One of the most OP combat builds, I've found, is a melee mage.

Get the +Str and +Dex spells. Get your magic aptitude high enough to have 100% on the Warboots of Speed (which you can buy in Tarant) and the Dagger of Speed (any mage shop, IIRC). Getting backstab up is icing on the cake.

At max aptitude for the dagger, your attacks cost 1 AP. With 20 Str, you get +20 damage. With 20 Dex, you get 20 AP. With max aptitude Warboots, you get +5 AP. Remember that the buffs stack, so if you have enough sustain slots, you can get +8 Str/Dex or even higher. Use that to shore up your weak stat.

You are basically looking at 25 attacks/round at 1d6+20 damage per hit by about level 8, IIRC. Anything else, including Haste and other AP boosting shenannigans available to mages, is just pure icing. Just carry a second weapon in case of golems...

With this build, I don't usually even bother with armour. You will usually kill everything before they even move and any retaliation would be pretty neutered (due to large number of dead enemies).

 

[jackofshadows]

How do you start with Tech?

2 points into ranged>craft fine revolver>max out ranged/max dex>craft/steal/find decent gun. The rest is up to you (tesla gun is a neat goal tho).

My favorite OP build is a solo backstabber rogue but it's not that easy to actually build because it's start to shine only after ~23+lvl and require getting master in all three main skills: melee/backstab/stealth. First you have to max melee (at least 4/5 to have ~75% thc on hard) and get some gear, it's the hardest part. Then with max backstab you can reliably kill ordinary foes in turn-based mode but it still meh. Then you either go by the plot route which requires beeline through BMC mines or use Gorgoth Pass to reach Caladon. But after that.... oh boy, your gear becomes pretty much irrelevant since foes cannot see you while you're mostly one-shot them with any weapon (+100 dmg to any successful attack or simply insta-kill crits) and always can re-stealth. Love it.

Guys, keep in mind that multiverse edition probably have weird-ass balance in comparison to vanilla and IIRC straight "fixed" shit like nerfed Pyro Axe damage let alone gimmicks like baneful gauntlets with maxed CON. I played it once and it did feel quite differentely.