Starting to play arcanum again

Taco Magus · Post by **Taco Magus** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:00 am

im gonna try playing this forsaken game again

got annoying the 1st time i played. i wanna try a mage. any suggestions what starts/skills/party members i should pick up?

IHateUsernames · Post by **IHateUsernames** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 3:01 pm

Half elf is good.

I would suggest putting points in either charisma or dexterity (cha for more followers, dex for extra speed = faster spells)

Remember haggle. And persuasion if you put points in cha or pick pocket if you put points in dex.

Virgil is good, has good dialouge and heals you.

Dog is the best fighter and does not count towards your follower total.

You can get Sogg, a good fighter early if you have persuasion.

Magnus is pretty good to. But he is bad in combat, never hits. Bring him along for the items and an extra quest.

Dont take offensive mages. They very rarely use their spells and fireflash hurts you to.

TINY spoiler:

My mage is:

Half elf.

Stats (w/o items):
20 Charisma
20 Willpower
7 Strenght
9 Beauty
9 Dexterirty
8 in all others

Spells:
All Necromatic(dark and white)
All Convoyance
All Divination
All Time

Haggle Master
Soon to be Persuasion Master (has 5 points in the skill)

Followers:
Virgil
Magnus
Dog
Sogg Mead Mug
The Bedokan (cant remember name)
A Halfling thief (cant remember name)
Chukka

This guy can kill anything i have encountered so far. My biggest problem is that i cant cast more than three spells each round (playing turnbased)

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 5:31 pm

Consider a full elf or half elf. Remember, mages need Willpower to learn better spells, so try to start with as much WP as you can without reducing your STR or CON to nothing.

Decide whether you want to be a pure mage, or a battlemage. If the former, be sure to develop Charisma. For every 4 CHA, you gain an extra follower slot. It's important that pure mages keep enemies at a distance, and rely upon good followers to do the melee work. I like to have at least 3 followers. (Note that an Expert in Persuasion gains an additional follower slot.)

Also build up Intelligence. Every 4 INT gives you the ability to run one additional spell in the background (until you move on the overland map, or rest, or lose all your mana, and faint). Typically, I try to have 8 or 12 INT by midgame.

First spell you should learn is Harm. It packs good, solid power, and gets better the more spells you learn. I then recommend taking Elemental Fire three levels, and learning Fireflash. It's a great area spell. Finally, run up all the way in Temporal (Tempus Fugit is fantastic) and Conveyence (Teleport saves a lot of time).

When possible, run Agility of Fire in the background, to speed up travel. If you expect a battle, run Tempus Fugit. Keep plenty of fatigue potions handy.

Hope that helps.

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 6:22 pm

All the above, of course, assumes you want to be a mage. Eh. Mages are boring. Science is the future, you know.

The main thing with any character is to have good int and good charisma and persuasion, as this will open up a ton of quests, quest solutions and dialogue choices.

Science has a number of advantages. The pyrotechnic axe is the best weapon in the game, even better IMO then azram's star (the ultimate magic throwing weapon). You can make your own armor fairly easily without having to hope you get lucky and find suits of arcane plate in the right size.

The main disadvantage to science is trying to master everything it entails. Short of using a custom background .mes this isn't possible.

For entertainment, try playing an intelligence 1 half ogre. More then half the quests in the game will not be available, which will make for a short game.... but the dialogue for dumb-as-a-brick characters is so priceless it's worth doing once.

Taco Magus · Post by **Taco Magus** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 9:12 pm

this helps indeed

thx much fable and user

btw fable. is there any plan for this game in the banshee guides??

this mage is gonna be pure mage. is there any other tid bits of knowledge either of you wanna share?

EDIT: what kinda armor, weapons, ect can a mage use? are they only limited by their str or class?

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:02 pm

No guide in GB, no.

As for armor: remember, armor is techie, which means it won't deliver the goods for a mage. Who needs stinkin' armor? Well, unless, of course, it's magical armor. Thing is, magical armor works essentially for battlemages, who have the strength to wear all that heavy stuff. Besides, if you're running a pure mage, you don't want to let anything approach you close enough to test out any armor.

So go with robes, if you're a pure mage. You'll find a variety of 'em, some with magical abilities that might help a bit. Travel light if you're running a pure mage: use your followers as pack mules, especially Sogg.

IHateUsernames · Post by **IHateUsernames** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 11:39 am

Get some ashen robes or mystic robes.

The dark arts shop in tarant is wearing ashen robes. If you are a haggle master you can buy it. It is the second best robe i have seen so far.

The mystic robes gives [+something] to all resistances and is the best robe i have found. The resistance increases with magical aptitude.

If you have 8 int cast Tempus Fugit followed by haste. It costs n extreme amount of fatiuge but increases speed icredibly much. If your speed is 8 it should be 36. Thats 9 spells a turn. Or EXTREMELY fast spells.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 9:50 am

I disagree, but with respect, from my colleague, IHateUserNames. While Hasten is a great spell, it only improves speed, and it takes quite a bit of fatigue on its own. By contrast, Agility of Fire improves speed by improving dexterity, which makes you harder to hit. It's also a 1st level spell, rather than a 3rd level spell, so it costs less both initially, and to maintain. If you cast AoF and Tempus Fugit, you still get 6 casts, I think, even if your starting dexterity, unspelled, is only 9. Anything more is overkill, IMO, particularly when the rest of your party also benefits from the hasted effects of Tempus Fugit. Remember, it's important not merely to have the spells, but also to have the power to maintain 'em. Tempus Fugit = 5th level spell, Hasten = 3rd level, and AoF = 1st. It's easier keeping TF and AoF going, with fewer boosts from Fatigue potions.

It's only fair to note that the combination of Hasten and Tempus Fugit is a natural, since they're both part of the Temporal spell college. You don't need to learn anything outside it to cast those three spells. (Well, other than boosting your WP sufficiently to learn any higher spells.) But I typically keep AoF running all the time: it's such a cheap spell, and it makes scurrying all over towns a lot quicker. Each to their own, I guess.

Taco Magus · Post by **Taco Magus** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 11:39 am

thx for the spell guide

i was doing pretty good...but then i saved the game while talking to virgil and it got stuck in a loop so i couldnt exit the dialog menu...yick.

something else i thought of..what kind of stuff shuold i equip my followers with? virgil seems pretty attached to his stave ^^

IHateUsernames · Post by **IHateUsernames** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 1:42 pm

I just put good items in their inventory and let them choose for themselves. Just give him a sword and hell dump his staf imideatly. Unless i want them to wear something. For example all followers prefer worn boots to boots. Boots is better. So I never give them worn boots to hold. Some items are regarded higer by followers, even if their AC goes down. Virgil prefered an armor to a robe, but the robe gave him 10 better AC. Just look out.

Taco Magus · Post by **Taco Magus** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 11:00 pm

are u sure about the robe thing? i was messing with his stuff and his ac was like 6i think with robes. 13 with some other stuff i got from some random encounter

btw, is there a way to get the info from the guys that make the going nuts? i ended up just killing them. so im not gonna redo it. just wanting to know

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 12:12 am

Depends on the level of magic vs tech Virgil has, the kind of armor and the kind of robe. I've found that he rejects standard armor for magical robes later in the game, when he benefits best from the magical quality of the garments.

Taco Magus · Post by **Taco Magus** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 10:15 am

alrighty :-D thx fable

i realized i have a strat guide for this game

its helping a bunch. im still getting a few questions though. the schematics that i find. can my folowers use them? like magus? and is the lock pick spell (forgotwhat its called) its the second spell on the conveyance worth getting?

btw i had to start over. i accidently got magus killed, saved over the file that he was alive in so blah. i think im gonna get my haggle skills up sooner then i did in my last game. then start workin on my magic skills

IHateUsernames · Post by **IHateUsernames** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 12:20 pm

Your followers cant use schematics.

You should either take Pick Locks or Unlock Cantrip. So if you are mage, take it. Many things cant be done without it.

The Pick Locks skill is "better" mening it dont atract all the guards in the city when you use it for "Object Liberation"

Taco Magus · Post by **Taco Magus** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 7:20 pm

thats kinda screwy followers cant use schematics. *shrug* istill dunno what to do for locks. i think im gonna use the cantrip since its easy to get

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 7:34 pm

I disagree about getting picklocks. That cantrip spell is all you'll need, really. Sure, it's loud--but as long as you're playing the game as a "good" guy, you won't need to be quiet while opening chests, so the cantrip is fine.

Note that the more you move towards magic (by learning new spells), the more powerful that unlocking cantrip will be. I've yet to have it fail on me. I would suggest instead investing in the non-magical skills of haggle and persuasion. With 5 ranks of haggle, you won't ever need to worry about sneaking into somebody's private coffers: haggle is very overpowered. Basically, over time, the rate of markup drops from more than 50% literally to 1%! (You can tell that, because when you get apprenticeship in haggle, you can see how much of a markup there is.) And when you acquire haggle mastery, which is again very easy to do, any merchant will accept any item from you. You won't need to bring a suit of armor, say, to a blacksmith. A mage will do just as well.

Just my POV.

Taco Magus · Post by **Taco Magus** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 7:39 pm

i noticed the haggle thing. when i was an aprentice prices were 110% then the same item as a expert it was at 54%

Taco Magus · Post by **Taco Magus** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 8:31 am

hehe

after clearing out the sewers in tarat(exept the theives down there) i got my will power up to 18 and my haggle all the way up then went to become a master...some how i lost a really neat staff that did like 24+ fatigue dmg that virgil was used. *sigh*

i tyhink im gonna work on my charisma next.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 5:14 pm

You might want to create a few more threads to ask specific questions, too.

tom the terribl · Post by **tom the terribl** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 1:08 pm

Magic

Use Harm for tough situation.
Get mag/tech as high on magic as possible. There is a helm that provides 20 points magic on mag/tech meter. You can buy it or get a dropped one by killing the eval mag in the haunted castle north of Ashbuty. This helm adds the 20 poiints every time you put it on. This allows you to do tech without reducing your magic damage. Note that most schamatics will not worik with high magic so limit tech to repair, lockpick, seeing traps is good too, etc.