Playing through the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games many times, one of my favorite characters was a fighter/mage multiclass. I was wondering if this was a reasonably playable character class in Arcanum (I just got this game yesterday). It seems like it could be a very interesting character due to the spell and combat ability selection system. I would like to play the character as a melee fighter who uses spells to enhance his/her (haven't quite decided that part yet) combat ability.
With that in mind, I was thinking about playing an elf and distributing my starting points as follows: 1 into dex, 1 into wp, one into melee, and one to get shield. The last point I am torn between selecting another spell or increasing int or str.
As for character development, it seems like temporal, meta, and force are the most logical magical schools, with some white necromancy for healing thrown in. However, my fear is that with this character, a poor allocation of points at each level will nerf it tremendously, and make it very difficult and not very entertaining to play.
If anyone can offer advice on allocation of points, stats, race, and starting traits, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
A fighter/mage...is it possible?
Fighter/mages are more than possible; they're among the most powerful character builds possible.
The only race you should really steer clear of for a fighter/mage is dwarf (for the obvious reasons). Any other race can work just fine.
For stats, you should aim for 20 str, 20 dex, 18 wp. Intelligence comes down to preference, but you need at least 8 and will probably want at least 12. Keep in mind that there are ways to increase your dexterity without using character points. There's a spell which will raise it by 4, gloves that will raise it by 2, and a quest (late in the game, however) that will raise it by 4.
As for spells:
The temporal college is your bread and butter. You can have hasten and tempus fugit both running at the same time, and that, of course, does wonders for your number of attacks per turn.
For a fighter/mage, colleges like fire and force are one point wonders. They offer a great first spell for a fighter/mage, but that's about it. The only reason to go further in those schools is if you want to get away from melee and start nuking.
Personally, I love Conveyance. Unlocking cantrip and teleport are very nice to have. Teleport saves so much time.
How you play it early on is, again, a matter of preference. I don't put points into intelligence until I needed it to have that next spell up and running though.
The only race you should really steer clear of for a fighter/mage is dwarf (for the obvious reasons). Any other race can work just fine.
For stats, you should aim for 20 str, 20 dex, 18 wp. Intelligence comes down to preference, but you need at least 8 and will probably want at least 12. Keep in mind that there are ways to increase your dexterity without using character points. There's a spell which will raise it by 4, gloves that will raise it by 2, and a quest (late in the game, however) that will raise it by 4.
As for spells:
The temporal college is your bread and butter. You can have hasten and tempus fugit both running at the same time, and that, of course, does wonders for your number of attacks per turn.
For a fighter/mage, colleges like fire and force are one point wonders. They offer a great first spell for a fighter/mage, but that's about it. The only reason to go further in those schools is if you want to get away from melee and start nuking.
Personally, I love Conveyance. Unlocking cantrip and teleport are very nice to have. Teleport saves so much time.
How you play it early on is, again, a matter of preference. I don't put points into intelligence until I needed it to have that next spell up and running though.
Thanks a lot! It is refreshing to know that one of my favorite classes from other RPGs is still quite playable. I am not sure how magic resist and the like works in this game. Is the meta school worthwhile or is it relatively useless? I remember playing a demo for this game when it first came out and it has been on the back burner of games I wanted to buy forever...
Follow Nxla's advice. Everything (s )he said is true about Fighter/Mages. You might just want to increase your CON to 11, to get more Fatigue and faster regeneration of it.
Force Screen & Haste are the winners, coupled with Fireflash vs groups & Desintegrate vs pesky elementals/golems.
Maybe Heal & Greater Heal, if you don't keep Virgil around, or want to keep him alive.
Magic Resistance is explained pretty clearly in the manual. Read up on it, and feel free to ask any questions about it if it isn't clear. (I say this because I'm not sure about the details myself, and I'm not at home to reference my own manual.
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Force Screen & Haste are the winners, coupled with Fireflash vs groups & Desintegrate vs pesky elementals/golems.
Maybe Heal & Greater Heal, if you don't keep Virgil around, or want to keep him alive.
Magic Resistance is explained pretty clearly in the manual. Read up on it, and feel free to ask any questions about it if it isn't clear. (I say this because I'm not sure about the details myself, and I'm not at home to reference my own manual.
)
f/m in bg are plain op :S
Anyway... maybe the real question in Arcanum is if you can utilize both magic and technology in this game. Well... possible but not worth it so to speak.
Moving to your real question...
Favored spells for a mage would be:
Disarm, Unlocking Cantrip, Teleport = Conveyance
Tempus Fugit = Temporal
Shielf of Protection, Disintegration = Force
Weaken = Morph
Disarm can help you with most opponents wielding weapons. Once they drop them they are easy prey. With Unlocking Cantrip you can open containers and stuff. Teleport saves an ass load of time. Tempus Fugit boosts your speed and slows enemies. While Agility of Fire will only raise your DX if NOT maxed, your speed value can reach astronomical values. Very imba indeed. Shield of Protection is your main protective spell. Use it at all time when going into melee fights, you can even run through traps with this to reduce the damage taken to mere scratches! Disintegrate is your main tough-creep killing spell. It disintegrates the equipment as well, but works fine against golems which helps a lot. If you don't like this spell you could settle for a point in Harm. You can kill almost everything with Harm. When in need of more damage to your melee you can use Weaken - it helps a lot.
A short note on the mage part. Keep in mind your character needs some IN to handle upkeep spells. So don't choose any backgrounds that will lower your initial IN score. IIRC you need at least 5 IN to learn spells at all.
Fighters need mainly ST,DX and Dodge and Melee skills. While you aim to create a hybrid character I can tell you it'd be easier to fulfill the mage part and then patch the fighter up.
A short note here. Once you reach ST 20 you will gain x2 bonus on your bonus damage. Different races start with different ST scores which means you can take ST above 20. Half-Ogres seem to have the most potential in that part.
Anyway... maybe the real question in Arcanum is if you can utilize both magic and technology in this game. Well... possible but not worth it so to speak.
Moving to your real question...
Favored spells for a mage would be:
Disarm, Unlocking Cantrip, Teleport = Conveyance
Tempus Fugit = Temporal
Shielf of Protection, Disintegration = Force
Weaken = Morph
Disarm can help you with most opponents wielding weapons. Once they drop them they are easy prey. With Unlocking Cantrip you can open containers and stuff. Teleport saves an ass load of time. Tempus Fugit boosts your speed and slows enemies. While Agility of Fire will only raise your DX if NOT maxed, your speed value can reach astronomical values. Very imba indeed. Shield of Protection is your main protective spell. Use it at all time when going into melee fights, you can even run through traps with this to reduce the damage taken to mere scratches! Disintegrate is your main tough-creep killing spell. It disintegrates the equipment as well, but works fine against golems which helps a lot. If you don't like this spell you could settle for a point in Harm. You can kill almost everything with Harm. When in need of more damage to your melee you can use Weaken - it helps a lot.
A short note on the mage part. Keep in mind your character needs some IN to handle upkeep spells. So don't choose any backgrounds that will lower your initial IN score. IIRC you need at least 5 IN to learn spells at all.
Fighters need mainly ST,DX and Dodge and Melee skills. While you aim to create a hybrid character I can tell you it'd be easier to fulfill the mage part and then patch the fighter up.
A short note here. Once you reach ST 20 you will gain x2 bonus on your bonus damage. Different races start with different ST scores which means you can take ST above 20. Half-Ogres seem to have the most potential in that part.
When i used to play Arcanum, my best character was fighter/mage. I can't remember how my character was developed, but i will try to remember. At lavel 50 he was:
Human/Male
Background: Only Child (+6 Will, -4 Cha, -Persuasion & Haggle)
STR: 14 INT: 12
CON: 16 WILL: 18
DEX: 20 PER: 8
BEA: 8 CHA: 4 (5 With the Gypsy blessing)
Skills:
Melee: 5
Dodge: 5
Spell Colleges:
Conveyance 5
Force 5
Necromantic Black 5
Temporal 5
Followers:
Virgil (For healing)
Dog (Great damage dealer)
I think this was how i made my character. I didn't really care for equipment. He was evil. So far the best weapon in the game is the spell: Disintegrate. The only flaw is that you can't search the creature for it's items.
Human/Male
Background: Only Child (+6 Will, -4 Cha, -Persuasion & Haggle)
STR: 14 INT: 12
CON: 16 WILL: 18
DEX: 20 PER: 8
BEA: 8 CHA: 4 (5 With the Gypsy blessing)
Skills:
Melee: 5
Dodge: 5
Spell Colleges:
Conveyance 5
Force 5
Necromantic Black 5
Temporal 5
Followers:
Virgil (For healing)
Dog (Great damage dealer)
I think this was how i made my character. I didn't really care for equipment. He was evil. So far the best weapon in the game is the spell: Disintegrate. The only flaw is that you can't search the creature for it's items.