I never argue that magic melee is the only build which can do ridiculously well, and my faq specifically notes what is good for mages, fighters, and gunslingers, among others.

Not to mention, the most important part of the faq:

Note that the most important part of Arcanum is that you can get through the game with ANY PLAYSTYLE, and a hero of almost every type can do extremely well in battle using the right tactics, items, and so on. SO DON'T BE AFRAID TO PLAY A CRAZY HERO! You will be so pleasantly surprised. This faq is not for placing fun limitations on heroes however, but rather is intended for optimization.


I'm always sad that when these discussions come up, no one else points out that a chemist can make the elixir of hypnotic suggestion. It acts as mind control of the target and I believe cannot be resisted.

Thanks for all your answers! I thought that was a bit fishy advice to not pick girls, that's good to hear then.

In that case you're wording it very badly because this ("Exactamundo. The best character ever is not female, it only makes it slightly harder on yourself. The game is still fine as a female, just a little harder to be ridiculously good at melee.") implies the exact opposite.
But the way you worded your guide makes probably everyone think that you shouldn't pick the female gender for any class, whether it is STR-based or not. If you don't want people to have that impression, don't leave the advice "not to be a female" in your basic character creation and if you really want it there, include it after the race tips, saying why you shouldn't pick it for which classes. It just makes most people discouraged to play such a character, as you make people think it will give them a big disadvantage rather than a very small advantage for a male character in some builds. Only UniversalWolf and TwoHandedSword here actually stated that for many classes it doesn't matter all, as your most important part of the faq just stresses the playstyle, so coupled with the former being in basic char creation many won't actually realize that you're referring to other gender as well, if that's what you're saying (and you can easily rectify that just by adding a 'a hero of any playstyle or gender').

It just implies at its very core that having a female character is on all accounts a bad idea, it never says that it doesn't really matter at all unless you wish to munchkin the most powerful STR and even then it's just to be as much as OP as possible, so it's perfectly okay not to have it.

Yeah, after all this, I started back over as a female, like I wanted to be in the first place. Your words weren't even just discouraging, they were extremely prohibitive entirely towards being a female. Which is why I asked the question about not even being able to finish the game properly with being a female because of how vehement you were about it. I decided to be a throwing mage though, I love that boomerang in the beginning and had never tried it before. My only issue with it is that when I initiate an attack on someone from a distance, I run all the way up to them before the turn-based initiates and I attack, right next to them, whereas I wanted to make throw at them and then make them come to me and waste APs.

Protip: As the battle begins, hit R to enter attack mode; everyone on both sides will freeze until it's their turn to move, and then you can target any opponent from a distance. If they're not in your line-of-sight, however, your character will move closer to them, wasting some of their APs to do so. (This same trick applies to any ranged weapon, or even if you feel the need to bust down a door with an axe.)

Isn't there a force-attack command? CTRL+click or something? This is especially useful for smashing doors, or any time you want to attack instead of use/talk/other default action.

Every single character benefits from being male, and no character benefits from being female. That is why I didn't recommend it, and that is why I could not ever in good conscience. -1 ST for +1 CN, that is what being female gets you. It is very easy to say you will never, ever benefit from +1 CN, the only exception being some miraculous twist of fate. 1 ST helps everyone. Not just melee, whom it helps most, it helps absolutely everyone.

The only possible benefits are essentially roleplay related, and if that's what you're going for, you do whatever you want anyway.

This is not debatable. You would have to change the laws of logic or the code of Arcanum for me to recommend someone be female in a faq for how to make a character.

Not to mention, that section was changed to this on gamefaqs over two years ago:
Do not be female on your first playthrough. +1 CON is rather worthless and -
1 STR is rather important.

Here's the thing: Arcanum is one of the better RPGs for actual roleplaying. In fact, building a mechanically sound (or even a mechanically overpowered) character isn't too difficult: a melee character or Harm mage or even a grenadier are all pretty easy in terms of combat mechanics and whatnot. But what's really great about the game is the way it reacts to and accomodates different styles of play and different choices.

This assumes that an faq for how to make a character should only be concerned with mechanics (i.e. making characters that excel at combat or other challenges). But there are a lot of players who are excited about the roleplaying possibilities of the game but still want a little help with designing a character. Maybe they have an idea for a grumpy dwarven gunslinger, but aren't quite sure how to make that character, for example.

Your post offers some excellent information right at the top, letting players know which general areas to focus on in order to make a fighter or a gunslinger or a mage. But it then immediately jumps to the advice not to be female. That makes it sound more important than it is; I had no trouble playing a female character for my first playthrough. Yes, it's probably harder than playing as a male character, but it's not nearly as important as knowing which stats to boost or that half-ogres can use rifles but not pistols. Some readers are going to think that its placement so high in the post means it is critical, even for those interested in roleplaying a character. Which is a shame because the NPCs in the game actually respond differently to a female character, making gender a meaningful choice from a roleplaying perspective.

The distinction between roleplayers and min-maxers is not absolute. Many players want to roleplay in a certain way but also build a powerful character within that framework. Your post contains useful information for such players, but a more detailed discussion of how important each aspect of character creation is, mechanically speaking, would help a lot. For example, explaining why being female a disadvantage, and how much of a disadvantatge it is. That way readers can decide whether it's worth making things more difficult mechanically for the sake of roleplaying.

And so those players only need to read info to learn how to do what influences their character, and will disregard everything else. What does this have to do with anything at all?

No my faq assumes exactly what it states, that aside from useful general information it is a resource for making a character better in combat. That's all I assume. That people read the faq. I didn't write a series of different faqs for each type of Arcanum player, but I still included a bunch of useful general information for most types of characters, even though I could've just made a min max faq. And that's wrong? What?

I'm not going to argue about things which are simply false or with people who can't read.

If you all misinterpret the English language, I'm sorry, that's the language I speak. I can't do everything for you.

You know, you can defend your stance in an argument without insulting the person or persons with whom you are arguing. After all, there is a big difference between not being able to read something and misunderstanding/misinterpreting what was read. And that last sentence is just patronizing.

I didn't mean any offense, and there's nothing wrong with writing an faq for making a character better in combat. But your actual instructions for making a character that's better in combat (and indeed your statement that this is the purpose of the faq) are farther down. The topic simply says "basic character creation" and the "do not be female" instruction is near the top, among the general info. I think many readers (myself included) may be confused at that point, thinking that not being female is so important that it's considered critical for any character, not just a character hoping to dominate in combat. It might be better if listed below instead, or at least clarified.

As it is, the "do not be female" instruction comes much earlier than the statement that any character can do well in the game. It might be clearer if the two were swapped.

Yes there is. It's <ALT>-click, and while IIRC it works even without entering combat mode, I still recommend doing so first.

1) It "freezes" everyone, including followers and bystanders, so that some poor sap doesn't walk into your attack area.

2) It gives you the chance to tell your followers to back off, so that if they don't have suitable weapons, they won't start damaging theirs in a futile and misguided attempt to help you.

I have always disagreed with your premise. To you, CN is a dump stat because (among other things) FT can be replenished indefinitely by potions, and poison by Halt Poison or Poison Cure.

To me, high CN frees me from having to lug around (and constantly replenish) FT potions, freeing me to: 1) carry fewer things, thereby needing less ST anyway; 2) maintain more and better spells for longer, without having to turn FT potions into the equivalent of a "food" mechanic; and 3) invest only in Minor Healing, since poison will work itself out of my PC's system that much sooner anyway.

And I will continue to tout the benefits of Throwing over Melee. Metal and magic throwing weapons don't use ammo, and don't take damage from rock and fire monsters, or even metal arachnids. And in turn-based mode, they keep you (and your armor) safely away from those types of creatures as well. This means NOT having to invest in the MA-busting Repair skill if I don't want to.

(And you want OP? Throwing mastery + 20 DX + Azram's Star + Hasten and/or Tempus Fugit. I took out the final boss in under three rounds — with a half-elf female, no less. Anything less powerful than that was toast.)

Further, the only benefit of ST to a non-Melee character is in reduced encumbrance. Which I only care about if I'm loaded down with too much booty. And which I can deal with in a heartbeat by passing some of the treasure off to my followers (if any) or with the Strength of Earth spell, which stacks if so desired.

TL;DR: I disagree with one of your assumptions, and have therefore never accepted your conclusion. To me, your insistence on ST over CN is like being an unwavering supporter of Euclidean geometry: you aren't exactly wrong, but I'm pretty sure you're not seeing the bigger picture.

But not everyone plays to be the strongest/most powerful character possible, yes? Being female also gets you: a different playthrough than you had before. If you're going to start the slippery slope of what to recommend in that degree, then you might as well only ever recommend the 1 build you think is THE BEST and say 'everything else is inferior and therefor not worth playing." Follow that logic?

I agree. I was just pointing out that using ALT+click might also be useful when trying to attack from afar. But maybe it's no different than simply clicking, provided one is already in turn-based combat mode?

I tend to recommend turn-based combat to everyone anyway, as I think real-time is too frenzied.