Hi,
I recently started playing Arcanum for the first time, and after a long time thinking about wht character I wanted to play I decided to be a tech gunslinger dwarf. Now that I've reached Tarant I'm starting to regret my decision. I'm constatly low on bullets, I have to spend every coin I earn on them and, even then I haven't enough to shoot my way in every combat: I have to save the bullets for tougher encounters. I feel that my character is useless even with his stats right and decent equipment.

So, my questions are: should I keep playing this character? Is there any point, no too late, in the game where bullets are common and I don't have to count them? What character that is fun to play would you recommend?

Thanks.

A lot of people pick firearms, but it's not a good idea for a first playthrough. You're already encountering some of the problems common to guns, and those problems get worse as the game progresses.

This is not to say it's impossible to finish Arcanum with a gunslinger, but if you're already frustrated with it, you're probably going to be even more frustrated when you start encountering enemies who can dodge your expensive bullets, and enemies who are highly magickal and thus largely immune to tech attacks like bullets.

What UniversalWolf said. And from that, it gets both worse and better.

It gets worse in that some of the higher-tech guns actually use multiple bullets per attack, ranging from two to as many as six(!) at a time.

It gets better in that there are firearms that avoid using bullets at all: the pyrotechnic gun, tranquilizer gun, acid gun, blade launcher, grenade launcher, tesla gun (and tesla rod), flame thrower, and one late-game find that I'm not going to name because of potential spoilers. Most of these use either charges or fuel instead of bullets, which also need to be stockpiled but are easier to make and/or purchase in bulk.

The game is naturally unbalanced: magic is far more powerful and tech is much weaker than either of them ought to be. You can embrace going tech as the challenge it is, or you can choose to avoid it until you have a better grasp of the game mechanics. The decision is yours, and is one of the things that gives this game such a high replay value.

Thanks, people. I really like my character so I think I'll try to play a bit more with him, and if I see it doesn't really get any better, I'll switch to, probably, magic. Thanks again for your detailed replies.

There are tech builds that are more viable than gunslingers, if you still want to try tech. Here are some options:

1) Grenadier: Learn explosives discipline and throwing skill, make grenades out of garbage, and blow things up. Grenades don't hurt you or your allies so blast away! Grab a boomerang or chakram as a backup weapon.

2) Tech figher: Learn smithing and make your own cool tech weapons and armor. Melee and dodge skills for fighting things. You can build equipment for your allies too!

3) Roboticist: Lean mechanical and start building robots! They can heal you, fight things, and more. Branch out into other skills as you like. You can learn to fight alongside your robots, or you can be a smooth-talker and let robots fight for you, etc.

I like tech since it's different than most RPGs. Magic is easier, but honestly the game isn't that hard so even these "non-optimal" builds are still viable and fun. Also, Arcanum responds really well to different choices you make, whether you are a kind person or a cruel person, etc., so remember to try role-playing different things with different characters!

My favorite tech build is a gunslinger with a revolver and an electric light in the offhand who also uses molotovs and spiketraps

I know it's been 5 months from the last post, but I just can't agree with the opinion, that there is a problem with bullets.

My first playthrough was with a tech character and my weapons of choice were firearms. Yes, the very beginning is tougher that with mages or melee fighters, but once I learned the schematics for bullets, I never ran out and I was very trigger happy, shooting everything hostile 100% of the time. I honestly thought the guns were OP, most of my enemies fell before they could even close on me and I was almost impervious to magic (again, tech dude).

I made a full, frontal assault on Tulla, shredding everything on my path, laughing at all the fireballs and disintegrates launched my way. The game was a breeze with firearms.

I think the real issue with gunslinger builds is finding a reliable source of income, while the bullets schematic cheapens their cost it takes time to make them en masse so it's way easier to buy them alongside producing some cheaply with the schematic.

In terms of making money with a gunslinger/tech character, certain tech items sell for way more than the parts needed to assemble them. For example, with Eye Gear for the Mechanical discipline you can sell them for a lot to junk traders (and with the Perception boost it's not a stupid thing to put your points into for a gunslinger) or also Explosive Grenades for the Explosives discipline sell for dramatically more to firearms sellers than the cost of the parts (and again, Explosive Grenades are unlocked on the way to getting Fire Obstructions which are needed to assemble a flamethrower, one of the cooler firearms in the game).

One of the best early firearms is equipped by the firearms seller in Tarant (the Sharpshooter's Pistol), if you sneak into his room when he's sleeping you can pickpocket all his bullets while he's sleeping causing him to un-equip the weapon and then take the weapon too with zero points in Pickpocket. The gun fires reasonably fast, does good damage (better than the Fine Revolver which it appears to be based on), has a bonus to-hit modifier and only uses one bullet at a time - I have used it until end game on characters more socially focused. It's definitely a good way to conserve bullets in any case.

In my experience, if you want to be a ranged character (archer or gunslinger) you still have to have at least 1 or 2 points in melee skill to save ammo on trivial encounters. Possibly throwing weapons when you're a gunslinger, as others here mentioned, although I've never tried it.
Having companions that are competent melee fighters also helps.

The game seems to favor melee and magic, but most character builds can work. A pure gunslinger with no other combat skills and no companions (or only Virgil; he's terrible at combat) is probably the hardest thing you can do.

If you want to have an easier time with a gunslinger, you can use one fate point to pickpocket a Handcannon from a halfling standing outside in the middle of Tarant.