so I've played arcanum as a gunslinger but I haven't been enjoying the combat part of game at all and accidently found out that all the followers can do the dirty work for me much more effectively

I'm thinking about playing a max charismatic healer to get as many followers as possible, completly avoiding the combat on my part, have you tried playthrough with such character, will I even be able to finish the game as completly non-combat person ? any suggestions for character skill/magic points distribution or general advice ? thanks in advance

Should be very possible. Charisma and persuasion skill will be key to the build. These will allow you to bypass many combat segments, and recruit a large number of followers for when fights do break out. Then just grab healing magic, with whatever willpower you need to get the spells you want. You may also want to branch out into other spell colleges since it's easy to do and can provide some nice utility.

Beauty only affects people's initial reaction, and you can easily make up for an average beauty with high charisma. but if you want high beauty for roleplaying reasons, go for it.

Keep in mind that in the very early stages of the game you won't have many followers yet, so you may want some very basic survivability skills. If you're going the magical route, the Harm spell will work nicely. A single point in melee will also give you basic combat effectiveness. After that, feel free to focus on your healing magic and social skills. Should be fun!

Without an exploit, the most followers you can have at once is six:* one for every 4 points of Charisma (up to five, at 20 CH) and one more for Persuasion expertise.

Another benefit (as recently discussed in another thread) is that Persuasion mastery means you can recruit any follower regardless of alignment, and 20 CH means they won't leave on their own, no matter how much they dislike your actions (or another follower; some combos, such as Raven and Z'an Al'urin, are like oil and water).

And as Waltorious pointed out, such a charismatic build means you'll also open up dialog options to avoid a number of situations that would otherwise have to be solved through violence.

The downside to letting others do your dirty work, however, is that you'll level up more slowly; you don't receive as much experience from followers fighting as when you get your own hands dirty. Not a big deal, especially since the game caps you at level 50 anyway (unless you use the level cap remover mod).

And as pointed out in another recent thread, there are options to increase your Beauty and Charisma through finding or stealing items, rather than by spending points, if you know where to look.

*Not counting "free" followers, such as Dog (the "worthless mutt" found in Ashbury), temporary hangers-on like Doc Roberts or Thorvald, and any summoned creatures (including the familiar you can conjure from the spell of the same name). It's a good idea; and if you're already investing in Intelligence for tech disciplines, then the Healing skill is another viable alternative. (It does require stocking up on bandages, though; and at low skill levels, is about as useful as low-level firearms.)

The more tech you or any given follower is, the greater the likelihood of spell failure — even beneficial spells such as Minor Healing. Virgil and potions will still work on non-tech followers. (One notable exception: Essence of Intellect seems to work for you, no matter how tech you are. Good thing, too, when trying to craft high-level schematics with the minimum number of additional tech manuals.)

thanks for reply, I'm not sure how does the Healing skill work... is that a passive skill that controlls how effective is use of my bandages ?
i think i'm going to try max charisma build with magic healing / herbology / summoning and see how that works out

I would put some points in dexterity, if I were you. You don't want the enemies aiming your neck.

I'd just like to point out that, if your followers kill an enemy, you only get around 10% of the experience. Technically your followers are getting the exp but, since they only level up when you do, it's basically pointless.

This is mostly based on the fact that enemies have "pooled" experience tied to their HP. If you take out 60% of their HP with Harm, you get 60% of their experience. If your followers take out 100% of their HP, you get barely anything.

I'm not sure what you mean by passive. The higher your Healing skill, the fewer bandages you need and the more effective they are. Expertise and mastery reduce critical failures and increase critical successes. But mastery requires five ranks, which requires an IN of at least 18: only worth it if you're maxing out at least one tech college anyway.

I would pick either tech or magic, not both. You can buy a bunch of tech healing items to heal tech-inclined followers, or even recruit someone to make them for you.

Anyone playing a healer should just throw 1 point into minor healing, regardless of whether you are going tech or magic, because it is just 10x faster and easier than crafting a bunch of things and gathering ingredients or even straight buying healing items over and over and over again.

Plus healing spells from yourself work on yourself 100%, without failure, regardless of your own magic resist or tech aptitude.

But you have to be at least somewhat tech (or of course, a Persuasion master) to recruit her into your party.


Is this really true? I never knew this. Thanks!

Ah, did not know this. Thanks for pointing it out.

Not a problem. It's part of her background: apparently Dernholm's distrust of technology extends to discrimination against techies, and she's simply returning tit for tat.