So you went with Day Mage background? It makes sense as most players tend to avoid combat during the night (so do I). I choose "Raised by Monks" for +1 PE (price of 300gp of initial gold for that was low considering how much gold you will find later and how much level up points are worth).

Yeah, playing with technologist and playing with mage are two different things - I heard it's easier to play with the magic user due to some powerful spells later on - my first unfinished run through Arcanum was with gunslinger too and I've to say it was quite tough sometimes so probably melee or mage characters are in overall more powerful.

Haven't tried to dress my male character as a lady :D Generally speaking, I'd like to play another game with female magic user but I'm not sure if I'll have enough time (which is a shame because I easily sunk into it's melancholic theme and music). I'm afraid that I'll overstretch my character build atm because I want to be able to have 3 companions in my team instead of 2 (Virgill, Magnus and last spot reserved for romanceable NPC - Raven) but it will require putting some points in Charisma I think.

I'm also interested if anybody could describe how different is Arcanum when playing as an evil character (this game is so big that it's hard to imagine finding a time for replaying it even a few times)

"Good" and "evil" intentions are not really defining categories where playthroughs are concerned. What does make an impact is your PC's chosen skills and NPC hostility.

Quests can be generally solved:
by persuasion (requires persuasion);
by running errands as normal (default);
by stealth (requires thievery skills - instead of talking, you steal quest items);
by murder (instead of talking, you take quest items from people's corpses).

There's substantially less difference between Good persuasion and Evil persuasion playthroughs than between Good persuasion and Good errand-boy runs. And of course, a killmaimburn strategy is different from those (and is evil), but evil does not automatically mean killmaimburn.

Now, certain quest options can make everyone in Tarant and/or Caladon hostile if you take them. It is debatable how evil the actions are by themselves, but even if there are no witnesses, you are pretty much permanently locked into stealth/murder and consequently evil, even though you might have been good up to that point.

(I did a stealthy/silent run once, only talking to skill trainers and a couple of plot NPCs. I lifted a name for my halfling from Bored of the Rings (soooo very mature) and got Pervert of Tarant.)

Day Mage here...
Just accepted the quest to investigate the mines from bates after a long time in tarant (found the painting by mistake)
the best thing mage has offered so far is "harm"
its overpowered :)
i chose day mage as i figured the 20% day boost would be very handy
and i like the idea of night being more dangerous for a bit of added drama.

got alignment 19, generally being good but trying anything i think i can safely get away with. bit of a gentleman rogue i guess.

have had enough of tarant for now, just need to find some destinations.. i cant ride the train as they detect my magic

My experience with arcanum has been endlessly amazing. 8 Playthroughs so far and only the pure melee one was boring.

One of them I played a dwarf who steadily became more evil throughout the game, and only accepted short allies except virgil. When the elves in Qintarra insulted me during my request to see their leader, I refused to tolerate it. They would not apologize or even stop their insults, so it ended in my dwarf party defending our honor through battle. The whole of Qintarra suffered for their intolerance.

My gunslinger bandit party playthrough was a blast too. There aren't a lot of great gun using allies in the game, so its just you and vollinger until later on when you can pick up sebastian and payne. The firing squad is really fun though.

On my mage thief psychopath playthrough it felt really fulfilling to murder Bates for his crimes, as well as kill Nasrudin and be banished to the Void.

8 playthroughs! respect :) i love the idea that you can take different paths in these games. reminds me of a table top game and goes against the disposable/DLC nature of many games these days. your on to a good thing being able to get so much fun out of an RPG.
As for my game.. i think im going down the path of turning a bit evil. im definately a chancer despite playing the popularity game.

8 playthroughs?! Incredible :)

I'm still in the early game I think - just finished most of the quests available in Tarant

My character is level 11 Half-Elf technologist/gunslinger and I can already drop in some cool tips for technology&firearms users:

- throughoutly search the ZFS Zephyr crashsite area and kill all enemy creatures and pick all useful items
- get 1 level of herbalism for healing salves (it's superior to early magic healingl and you can find at least 2 Ginka roots in the Zephyr crash site location - kadura stems are everywhere, ginka roots are harder to find but still present in most of the early locations - for example in Tarant there are 2 alongside the railroad)
- get 1 level of explosives skill later on as it allows you to create yourself a bullets for your weapons out of cheap ingredients that are present everywhere which is great because shooting is quite expensive considering 4 gold pieces per bullet
- put lantern in your hand if you don't see well in the night as it raises your CTH
- wear nice suit when speaking with townsfolk as it provides large reaction bonus
- you need at least 1 point in persuade to exit Shrouded Hills smoothly (gang that operates near the bridge is probably too tough to beat for you)
- if you are firearms technologist, Gun Smithy Assistant (2nd level of gun smithy) allows you to lay your hands on easy money by creating a Fine Revolvers out of cheap and omnipresent revolver parts and revolver chambers - you can sell each one for about 250 gold pieces
- don't sell the ruby that you will find early in the game as it can be used to obtain Torg's blessing in the Torg's Altar area that is discovered after you will decide to go to Tarant from Shrouded Hills
- put some serious money into your henchmen melee weapons (both Magnus and Virgil do well with quick swords, you can equip Virgil with some nice stuff later on)
- remember to fight with no encumberance as it gives you more action points in turn based combat mode
- notice that magic armour sets and other magic items give small or no bonus to tech characters, thus they can be selled freely, as tech-characters should use their own armour tree
- melee combat is dominant in the early game

Some other quest related hints:
- you can destroy steam engine in the Shrouded Hills just to get another quest to repair it
- you should enter Schuylers lair with Magnus and try to convince him to accept Schuylers "peace terms" just to reconsider in the last moment and team up again for additional Fate point
- Fate point can be obtained from entering the Bates manor from the underground entrance

I am on my 4th play-through. Since the first 3 were way back when the game launched this time I just wanted to immerse myself into the Arcanum universe and enjoy the story line and side quests. For this I am building a character that would breeze through any encounter from the start. So here are the ingredients for the overpowered melee newbie:

Char creation
- choose human or half elf and Hyperactive background
- Put 2 points in ST and DX and one in melee
- Buy the Rapier from the start shop

Early on:
- Get ST and DEX up to 12, if not there already
- Train Apprentice in Melee
- Invest in Strength of the Earth Spell, apply twice on self at the beginning of each battle

Now my Rapier takes only 2AP to use, I can use it 7 times/turn and my ST is at 20 netting a whopping 20 dmg bonus for each hit.

Later:
- upgrade Melee and Dodge, become expert in Blackroot
- get the Dagger of Speed in Tarant magical weapon shop. At 1AP/hit this is the fastest weapon possible almost doubling your damage

This build is cheap and straightforward and allows me to put many extra points early on in Persuasion/Haggle/Pick Locks to really enjoy all conversation options and get anywhere I want.

You can further augment it by increasing ST/DEX or by increasing INT to put more buff spells on it (Agility of Fire for instance or damage res). If your magical aptitude is still low enough you can even use a pair of charged rings to further improve DEX.

As a bonus, you'll deal over 95% of the damage so you'll level up much faster and companion accidents (and subsequent reloads) will be kept at a minimum.

Enjoy!

Or just make a half-ogre, put points into str,dex,melee,dodge and never worry about combat again.

Well.. i just got to the isle of despair...
I had to end my game after 20 minutes because my mind was reeling from the conversations that took place....
Going to play soon.. ill try to report back with whats going on... so strange!
This game is brilliant!

My character is a day mage.. been focusing on gaining more mana power.. and fighting from afar by means of summoning and magical attacks..
looking to investing 5 points to get teleport.. is it a good choice?

don't throw points into teleport early on.

get your MA to 100 and your dex to 20 first

I was pretty annoyed by the isle of despair, because I made the mistake of leaving after finishing the main quest there. Apparently you can never go back. :(

Make sure you do all the side quests so you aren't stuck with three or four unfinished ones like me.

MINOR SPOILERS

Oh, and go to the main settlement before exploring the island...I screwed up one of the side quests by exploring the island and killing some people I wasn't supposed to...ah, well.