Arcanum Most overpowered builds in Arcanum?

[wishbonetail]

the game is totally playable as a sheep. The dialogues change accordingly

Wait, what? I imagine special lines at the Tarant's brothel are in order.

This could be the least cringeworthy romance in the history of rpgs.

 

[Old One]

Troll Offspring Halfling with Stun and Backstab can easily kill almost any creature in the game at level 1 using nothing but a dagger. After murdering Virgil and slaughtering all the wolves outside the crash site I usually make a beeline for the Ancient Maze to look for an Arcane Dagger.

With this build there is no need to manage Stamina or anything else, and no need for any extra party members. It's just murder, murder, murder.

The only thing that poses the slightest difficulty is stun-immune monsters, but there are very, very few of those. Even undead can be stunned in Arcanum.

 

[Maverick Beyond]

How about a charismatic build, focused on tech and ranged combat?. Any suggestion?.

Also, turn based combat or real time? Which one is better and why?.

 

[Cael]

How about a charismatic build, focused on tech and ranged combat?. Any suggestion?.

Also, turn based combat or real time? Which one is better and why?.

Your best bet is still magic because there is a ring in Tarrant that gives +3 to both Cha and Bea. There is also an amulet there that gives bonuses to both.

And if you going with an army because of your high Cha, then the Good path gives a better party. There are a couple of bugs in the game where certain party members do not count towards your total. One of them is the Good only mage in one of the early towns (can't remember the name, but up the coast from Dernholm). The rest are Good or Neutral trending towards Good. An outright Evil guy won't get most of them.

 

[Old One]

How about a charismatic build, focused on tech and ranged combat?. Any suggestion?.

Also, turn based combat or real time? Which one is better and why?.

Tech and ranged usually means firearms, which are fun but kind of suck when compared to other weapons in the game. The best one is the Telsa rifle, but you need Electricity to craft that one. It's a perfectly viable way to do firearms though. The tech bows should not be overlooked - some of them are quite good. Tech Throwing is not as good as Magick Throwing, but it's still quite workable, especially with a big party. With a big party the PC rarely has to fight much anyway.

HOWEVER, the single most overpowered tech/ranged/charisma strategy is this: take all ranged companions and give them Tranquilizer Guns. Why is this so good? Because they will almost instantly knock out every enemy you run into without doing any HP damage. Then you can stroll casually along and murder them. Since you'll be doing all the HP damage, you'll get all the XP.

BTW, if you have 20 charisma any companions you recruit will never leave regardless of alignment differences.

The RT combat in Arcanum is an abomination. TB is okay, but be sure to find the button to switch to combat mode and keep your finger on it at all times. The game is too dumb to start combat when you first see an enemy, so you have to do it yourself. Otherwise combat will only start once your enemies have already closed to melee range.

 

[wishbonetail]

Tech and ranged usually means firearms, which are fun but kind of suck when compared to other weapons in the game. The best one is the Telsa rifle, but you need Electricity to craft that one. It's a perfectly viable way to do firearms though. The tech bows should not be overlooked - some of them are quite good. Tech Throwing is not as good as Magick Throwing, but it's still quite workable, especially with a big party. With a big party the PC rarely has to fight much anyway.

The RT combat in Arcanum is an abomination. TB is okay, but be sure to find the button to switch to combat mode and keep your finger on it at all times. The game is too dumb to start combat when you first see an enemy, so you have to do it yourself. Otherwise combat will only start once your enemies have already closed to melee range.

Gun's don't suck but everybody will when you have Machine Gun, 2K ammo and switch to RT combat.

 

[Old One]

True.

Actually it's bullets that suck because they're expensive to buy, and as the game progresses your enemies get higher and higher physical resistance, which includes bullets. Also Firearm projectiles are for some reason dodgable. Try shooting the orc muggers in Tarant and watch as they dodge half your bullets.

Tesla weapons at least do electrical damage.

Grenades are way better than Firearms though.

 

[Darth Canoli]

True.

Actually it's bullets that suck because they're expensive to buy, and as the game progresses your enemies get higher and higher physical resistance, which includes bullets. Also Firearm projectiles are for some reason dodgable. Try shooting the orc muggers in Tarant and watch as they dodge half your bullets.

Tesla weapons at least do electrical damage.

Grenades are way better than Firearms though.

Grenades are way more expensive though and even if you could make enough for a sustainable grenadier's build, it's a god mode, not really fun.
Well, the combat isn't really fun anyway, in Arcanum, aside from looking at the xp bar growing.

Still, about the money, gunslinger goes hand to hand with engineer's build, there's so many ways to make money buying ammo isn't an issue and you can make some as well.

 

[Black]

For your basic grenadier needs you just need to recruit Sebastian, just for long enough that he'll make you fat stacks of stun grenades.

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.

 

[Haplo]

Pyro axe was one-shooting everything.
But a Temporal gish felt even more broken. With over 40 AP I think and some weapon attacks costing 1 or 2 AP at max aptitude. Having 40 attacks per round is frankly ridiculous.

 

[Cael]

Pyro axe was one-shooting everything.
But a Temporal gish felt even more broken. With over 40 AP I think and some weapon attacks costing 1 or 2 AP at max aptitude. Having 40 attacks per round is frankly ridiculous.

40 is LOW for a mage. You can get up to 90+ without too many shenannigans.

 

[Haplo]

Pyro axe was one-shooting everything.
But a Temporal gish felt even more broken. With over 40 AP I think and some weapon attacks costing 1 or 2 AP at max aptitude. Having 40 attacks per round is frankly ridiculous.

40 is LOW for a mage. You can get up to 90+ without too many shenannigans.

Could be. I have played it many years ago. Maybe it was 40 attacks with a 2AP sword?

 

[Cael]

Pyro axe was one-shooting everything.
But a Temporal gish felt even more broken. With over 40 AP I think and some weapon attacks costing 1 or 2 AP at max aptitude. Having 40 attacks per round is frankly ridiculous.

40 is LOW for a mage. You can get up to 90+ without too many shenannigans.

Could be. I have played it many years ago. Maybe it was 40 attacks with a 2AP sword?

The problem with magic melee combat in Arcanum is that 20 Str adds 20 damage to each strike. And Backstab can add up to another 20. That makes the base damage of the weapon obsolete. Speed and AP/strike becomes king. And that is why the Dagger of Speed is so broken. 1 AP a 1d6+40 strike is insane.

No ranged weapon or tech melee weapon even comes close.

 

[Mauman]

If you're married to the idea of being a gunslinger, a good way to overcome the suckiness of early guns is to bank an early fate point (you get one if you kill or persuade the muggers blocking the Shrouded Hills bridge, I think). Then you beeline for Ashbury, find the firearms master trainer in his hut around the farmland area, wait for him to fall asleep, then pickpocket him with the fate point for a looking glass rifle. That thing will carry you through most of the game and it's not too bullet-hungry.

As an alternative if you don't want to go too far off the beaten path early on, you can also steal a hand cannon from that asshat halfling that insults people passing by in Tarant.

 

[Cael]

If you're married to the idea of being a gunslinger, a good way to overcome the suckiness of early guns is to bank an early fate point (you get one if you kill or persuade the muggers blocking the Shrouded Hills bridge, I think). Then you beeline for Ashbury, find the firearms master trainer in his hut around the farmland area, wait for him to fall asleep, then pickpocket him with the fate point for a looking glass rifle. That thing will carry you through most of the game and it's not too bullet-hungry.

As an alternative if you don't want to go too far off the beaten path early on, you can also steal a hand cannon from that asshat halfling that insults people passing by in Tarant.

The range on that is pretty low, IIRC.

 

[Mauman]

The range on that is pretty low, IIRC.

True yes, but you can use a shield with it. And some fights you don't get the luxury to start at a distance.

And besides, Sammy White is such an asshole I feel better about fleecing him than Mr. Pacifist in Ashbury.

 

[Cael]

The range on that is pretty low, IIRC.

True yes, but you can use a shield with it. And some fights you don't get the luxury to start at a distance.

And besides, Sammy White is such an asshole I feel better about fleecing him than Mr. Pacifist in Ashbury.

You... haven't played Arcanum through, have you?

 

[Mauman]

You... haven't played Arcanum through, have you?

....?

I've beaten it six times.

 

[Cael]

You... haven't played Arcanum through, have you?

....?

I've beaten it six times.

Then, how do you not know about Sammy White?

 

[Mauman]

You... haven't played Arcanum through, have you?

....?

I've beaten it six times.

Then, how do you not know about Sammy White?

And besides, Sammy White.....

I....do? What are you asking? I must admit I'm a little confused here.

 

[Cael]

You... haven't played Arcanum through, have you?

....?

I've beaten it six times.

Then, how do you not know about Sammy White?

And besides, Sammy White.....

I....do? What are you asking? I must admit I'm a little confused here.

SPOILER ALERT!

Spoiler

Sammy White's asshole-ness is an act. He does it to troll. In other words, he is part Codexian.

He is actually a nice guy under there, and he is also the pickpocket Master, IIRC.

 

[Mauman]

SPOILER ALERT!

Spoiler

Sammy White's asshole-ness is an act. He does it to troll. He is actually a nice guy under there, and he is also the pickpocket Master, IIRC.

I'm aware of all of that, other than the nice guy bit. I disagree. We have different definitions of what a "nice guy" is considering if you

Spoiler

do his quest you will be humiliated and mocked for the rest of the game in Tarant

Fuck that guy with a rusty railroad spike.

 

[Cael]

SPOILER ALERT!

Spoiler

Sammy White's asshole-ness is an act. He does it to troll. He is actually a nice guy under there, and he is also the pickpocket Master, IIRC.

I'm aware of all of that, other than the nice guy bit. I disagree. We have different definitions of what a "nice guy" is considering if you

Spoiler

do his quest you will be humiliated and mocked for the rest of the game in Tarant

Fuck that guy with a rusty railroad spike.

He does it to show you not to care what others think. He is right. It is because people are scared of what others think that we get the wokeshit nonsense going viral today.

 

[Old One]

Grenades are way more expensive though and even if you could make enough for a sustainable grenadier's build...

Except for Black Powder, which is very inexpensive, you can get all the ingredients for Explosive Grenades for free by rummaging through waste bins, and then sell the crafted grenades to gun shops for huge profits. A grenadier should be rolling in Gilbert Bates-like wealth almost as soon as he hits Tarant. After that it's just a matter of figuring out which kinds of grenades you want to use in combat.

Before that, just use molotov cocktails.