Greetings.

I completed Arcanum many years ago and I plan to replay it. But this time I want to make very specific character and I plant to min-max a lot in this regard.

WHen I first played Arcanum, I didn't bother with blessings from gods at all. FAQs are not clear about the blessings.

As I understand, blessings from lesser gods and greater gods mutually exclusive?

Can you get blessings of all lesser gods active at same time?

Can you get blessings of all greater gods active at same time?

How does it apply to stat caps? E.g., your character is human with DEX already at max value (20). Will it become 24 when you get Belorien's blessings? If you already maxed melee and dodge, will melee and dodge get bonuses from this blessing over the cap? Also one FAQ has very obscure statement:

"Note: Some skills might not appear as if they received the full benefit of the blessing. This happens when the associated attribute value is lower than it should be for the skill level."

Does it mean that if, for example, your melee skill is at 0, you won't get bonus from blessing altogether?

These questions are important in long-term character planning to avoid wasting character points.

The walk through on Game Banshee has everything you need to understand the god offerings.


https://www.gamebanshee.com/arcanum/walkthrough.php

Great walkthrough indeed. And there is page about gods:
https://www.gamebanshee.com/arcanum/walkthrough/ancientgods.php

However, it doesn't answer the questions I asked here (or I didn't find it there).

Yes, blessings from lesser gods are mutually exclusive with greater gods.

No, you cannot have the blessings of lesser gods active at the same time; as you complete each circle, activating the blessing of a greater god, the blessings of the lesser gods are removed.

Again, no. You can have all the greater gods' blessings except Velorien active (and in fact you need to, in order to unlock the final blessing) but as soon as you receive that one, you lose the others... and there's no going back, or going around again, to try and reacquire the other ones.

Blessings will not increase stats beyond their cap, nor will it increase a skill past full. (Fwiw, neither will the Vivifier... which if you're planning to min-max, you should also account for: it gives a permanent +1 to all skills, but only once)

What the last part means is, that if the bonus to a skill is tied to a stat which isn't high enough, you won't see the full benefit unless you invest the necessary points directly into that stat. For example, Perception and Firearms, or Charisma and Persuasion.

I hope this helps; let me know if there's anything else.