Attribute damage in Arcanum

[suibhne]

I'm finally giving Arcanum a try, and I'm flummoxed by attribute damage. My character has several times ended up with damage to her Beauty, but I can't figure out how it's happened or how to fix it. I literally just started the game, so I'm only as far as the first town, but the doctor there is unable to fix the attribute damage and I don't see any other options. The manual, while getting high marks for style, is piss-poor when it comes to usability; there's neither an index nor even a table of contents. I spent 15 minutes looking through it for the answer before giving up in disgust. Uh, help?

 

[Psilon]

This should arrive in Game Help any second now, so here goes...

Since it's BE, you're probably suffering from scarring. Have you gotten into any painful combats yet? If so, check your logbook.

 

[Vault Dweller]

We have arrived to the station Game Help. The train is going back to the General RPG now, so if anyone here wants to talk about RPGs, hop in.

As for your question, yes, like Psilon said, if you ain't as pretty as you used to be, that's because you got a scar or two. Check your log.

 

[leombruno]

I only ever recieved beauty damage from a scar inflicted in combat(usually on my self by critically failing) so it should be in your journal.

I was only able to get rid of this by buying non magical heal services from herbalist women in each town, usually taking 2-4 attempts since it seems to be chancy based on the healer's skill.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, Critical Failures and Critical Hits on your person result in scarring. You can heal this from having magical heals casted on you (takes a few tries), I think. I remember Virgil healing my scarring, and also the herbalist woman helps too.

 

[suibhne]

Thx all. I assume it was one of my own critical failures, but I reloaded to an earlier save on both occasions because I was unable to find documentation in the manual and Virgil wasn't having any effect on the attribute damage. It does seem ridiculously easy to get critical failures in this game - I get one during almost every combat that lasts longer than two rounds, yet I've only scored a few critical hits the entire time. I assume they aren't calculated as a natural 1 and a natural 20, respectively. Anybody know?

 

[Seven]

Thx all. I assume it was one of my own critical failures, but I reloaded to an earlier save on both occasions because I was unable to find documentation in the manual and Virgil wasn't having any effect on the attribute damage. It does seem ridiculously easy to get critical failures in this game - I get one during almost every combat that lasts longer than two rounds, yet I've only scored a few critical hits the entire time. I assume they aren't calculated as a natural 1 and a natural 20, respectively. Anybody know?

If your character's not combat oriented you can expect to miss a few times, especially at lower levels.

 

[Dark Elf]

You can heal this from having magical heals casted on you (takes a few tries)

That would be one cast of Major Healing. Minor Healing won't do squat to treat ability damage.