I have never played Arcanum before; picked it up during the $3 sale.

I would like to try a relatively non-combative approach.

1) Is it a bad idea to start out this way?
2) If not, can someone suggest a good character build for a relatively non-combative play through?

Or, is there a good site or Faq with specific character build ideas?

Thanks.

When you say con-combative, do you mean non-melee? Or diplomatic? Or having a group of followers deal the bulk of damage?

Hmmm. Good question. This game clearly has lots of possibilities.

How about diplomatic?

I haven't tried a diplomatic character myself yet, but I am interested to do so. But one thing I can say is that there will be some situations where you won't be able to use diplomacy. Wolves and the undead will not talk to you, so in those cases you will have to fight, or have followers to fight for you. However, the same skills that make you a good diplomat will also enable you to have lots of followers to fight for you in those situations.

In terms of the build, charisma is probably the most important stat. This will affect how much you can get people to like you when you talk to them, and how many followers you can recruit. Also, intelligence is a good idea, because it makes you smart enough to pick more favorable conversation options. Persuasion is a good skill to pick; that should be fairly self-evident. Beauty could be a good idea... that will make people like you right off the bat, even if you haven't talked to them yet. But, if you have high charisma and intelligence you won't really need beauty. Depends on how you want to roleplay it.

Again, though, I haven't tried such a build myself, so others may have better advice. Anyone?

1. No. It's a bit unusual, and if your main character isn't combat focused in some respect, he will have to rely on companions to do his fighting for him. Avoiding combat cannot be done. It's not a bad idea though. Companions are essential, even to the combat focused, so relying on them for your first playthrough could provide you with a some good experience.

2. Here's an outline of what I would do, if I were to create a non-combat character:
Stats:

Strength: Avoiding combat entirely is impossible, and just standing there looking at your friends take hits for you seems a bit dumb, so you'll probably want to have some minor combat ability. If you want this to be in the area of swinging a sword or a staff somewhat proficiently, you need some Strength. If you're gonna use guns or magick, just neglect Strength completely.

Constitution: You'll want some. Enough to survive in-combat. It's a pretty simple stat. If you start to die alot, put a few extra points in here.

Dexterity: If your chosen minor combat ability is melee, bow or firearms, you want a good number of points in Dexterity. Otherwise, leave it alone.

Beauty: Beauty determines people's initial reaction towards you. If you're planning on talking your way through the game, it would probably be a good idea to invest some points here. It's not as important as Charisma though.

Intelligence: If you want your minor combat usefulness to be magick or technology related, put a few points in here. Additional high-Intelligence options may also be available in conversations, so if you want the most options in terms of dialogue, a few points here will be well-spent.

Willpower: If you want to use magick to support your companions in combat, I suggest investing heavily in Willpower. 18 points will get you to the top of the magick schools.

Perception: If you want to shoot stuff, get Perception. Otherwise leave it alone.

Charisma: This is your stat. If you don't want your main character to fight, you need companions to do it for you. Your maximum amount of followers is governed by your Charisma. You will likely need a fuckton of points in Charisma to make a good non-combat character.

Skills:

Your essential skill (yes, there's only one):
Persuasion - I assume you want to talk your way through the game

Skills you may want:
Haggle - If you avoid combat where possible, you may get less loot, and in turn have less money. Haggle could help to offset that.
Gambling - Same as above.
Repair - Get it if you want to repair your companions' stuff.
Pick Locks - Might lead to further riches/loot, and as such help offset the lack of loot from combat
Pick Pocket - Can get you a little cash as well, and helps with a good amount of quests. If you're being asked to get something from someone, you can almost always pickpocket the item.
Spot Trap - no explanation needed
Arm/Disarm Traps - no explanation needed

Skills related to combat, which you'll want if you go into that type of combat:
Bow, Dodge, Melee, Throwing, Backstab, Prowling, Heal, Firearms

Some of these skills are governed by stats you may not naturally want to spend points on, so you should have that in mind when creating your character.

Magick vs. Technology
Unless you've decided that your (minor) role in combat will be to just swing a weapon as best you can, I would strongly suggest going into either Magick or Technology at least a little bit.
The benefits of Magick is that it's really powerful. Simple as that. You get a lot of bang for your buck. A few spells will go a long way, and you'll feel like you're still useful in combat, even though your focus is on Beauty/Charisma/Persuasion.
The benefits to picking a technological path are more subtle, but they're there. You'll be able to create things for your party - weapons, potions, grenades and such. Explosives and such can really turn the tide of a battle in your favor. You won't be able to do as much in combat though.

My personal opinion is that you should go for a caster type, but limit the amount of magickal schools you use. Perhaps just go for a simple Necromantic Black/Necromantic White caster, and then put everything else into Charisma, Beauty, Charisma, Persuasion, Charisma and Charisma.

Additional Notes:
You can find a character planner here .

Your companions will be all-important to you, so do your research on them. You can find a list of them here . Try to pick up each companion as soon as you can. They level whenever you do, so obviously the sooner your pick them up, the higher level they will get.

A bare minimum to get started will be to get Virgil (you have no choice in the matter), Sogg Mead Mug at level 2 (you need 9 Charisma at this point) and at least one more. This can be Jayna Stiles at level 6, but she's a technologist and doesn't play well with magickal characters (she is a healer for tech characters though). It can also be Magnus at level 8 - he's a fairly straight forward fighter type, and will fit into most parties. Finally you can pick up Gar at level 10, who is also a fighter. I have a feeling Gar is a good bit stronger than Magnus, but he doesn't have the smithing skill that Magnus has. Both of them are really cool guys, although my personal favourite is definately Gar.
You may be able to pick up both, or even all three of them if you have enough Charisma at the right levels (6,8,10 respectively), but this will require a massive investment in the stat. It might still be worth it though.

I hope this helps you. Feel free to ask if there's anything else you're unsure about.

Wow. Thanks so much for taking the time to write this out, its exactly what I was looking for. I will take some time to digest it and give it a go.

No problem. That's what a community is for, isn't it?
Anyway, I just noticed that I didn't give a lot of information about the Magickal schools, so if you need that, let me know.
You'll generally be alright if you stick with stuff that sounds simple though. If it deals damage or heals damage, it's probably useful.

iirc persuasion (rank 3) + training from an NPC will give an extra slot for a follower.
Every 4 points in charisma will let an additional person join you as well.

I'm (relatively) new to Arcanum but don't you get more XP for damaging an enemy than you do for killing it, and more to the point don't you get NO XP if a follower damages/kills the enemy.

As it's a Troika game it's entirely possible to play the way you are suggesting but I think it's going to be a very slow crawl up the skills/magics etc.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm playing under that assumption.

You do get experience for succesful hits on an enemy, yes. So not hitting an enemy will naturally give less experience than an all out combat approach.
I'm fairly sure you get experience for kills, no matter who makes them though.

Yep you get exp for allied kills.


Tried using a mage with Harm, gained fast levels. Some utility spells also come in handy (unlock spell is stupid better than picking locks). Hmm.

Perhaps a diplomat mage: they shall see the light one way or another.

Late, but I'll add my 2c.

tl;dr version:
Max out persuasion and CHA, then pickpocket, then pick lock, prowling if you want, spend the rest however; you might not even need 'em. (I think got one point in all of the thief skills early on, got 3 pickpocket right after 3 persuasion, then maxed them in the order above. I always keep 5-10 skill points unspent so I can gain a new skill on the spot if I need it.) You'll have everything you need by mid-20s level.


I'm playing an essentially non-combat character (my combat skills are so poor that trying to hit results in more damage to me or my allies than to my targeted enemy, thanks to fumbles). I pushed for max charisma as quickly as possible, and persuasion master (I now have incompatible party members that I can't tell to wait because they refuse to re-group with each other - my CHA is high enough to convince them anyway, but it crashes my game for some reason so I don't . . .

Aignur is correct, the only XP difference is that you get XP every time you hit an enemy, more for more damage. If you don't hit, you don't get any of that, but you do get kill XP. I'm leveling at a tremendous pace anyway despite playing Hard, which reduces XP even for quests, (too fast, in fact - I'm having to temporarily skip a lot in order to reach later NPCs before I level past them too much).

I disagree with several previous posters on one point: putting a *little* into a combat skill isn't much use - either go all the way or avoid it, because you're not going to make a meaningful contribution compared to your companions. A bit of strength is good because it lets you wear heavy armor (~1000wgt) while still carrying some goods. In particular, you want ample healing goods. I really like salves because they work on everyone, tech or magic, and they don't cost fatigue. Also, fatigue restorer is v. useful for stocking up any party mages.

One reason you need to carry healing goods yourself is that your allies will waste them recklessly. As a diplomat, your combat role is support. Virgil is pretty good about preventing people from dying, but can be overwhelmed (and he won't heal heavy-tech characters). Fortunately, you can carry efficiently if you get just two levels of Herbology (even if you're a mage) -- that lets you make healing salve and fatigue restorer. If you can make them (or have Jayna in your party - once she levels up to 30ish she's OK in combat even), you can carry just the ingredients - 4 spaces and 3 weight becomes 5 healing salve (25 wgt), 2 spaces and 2 weight becomes 4 fatigue restorer (20wgt). Much cheaper than buying too.

A few items you definitely want: J.M. Morat's Ring of Influence (+Beauty and +CHA, magic aligned but will give you at least +1/+1 until you get very tech-y), Jewel of Hebe (+2B/+1C, neutral), and a smoking jacket / elegant dress (the latter is a LOT harder to find in stores, but if you refresh a store enough [walk a screen away, wait a day], you'll see one), which is +20 Reaction. Among other things, that gets you better prices. I carry all three and swap them on when I'm in town. Oiled Thieves Leather gives unlisted bonuses (iirc) to a couple thief skills, so I carry that too.

Thieving skills are quite useful in town quests and in taking side-paths around combat. I actually am a vicious jerk and I tend to find the sneaky way and slaughter every enemy just for kicks [well, that and XP and lewt] . . . but some items are on friendlies (some of whom may even be important for quests later). They also let you play the fun trick of completing Theives' Underground quests then stealing the items back from the fence.

[If you want a *true* pacifist, you can max CHA+persuasion to solve some quests diplomatically and thief skills to sneak past enemies / steal quest items from baddies you'd otherwise have to kill.]

Even as a tech character, some magic items are useful - I have my entire party outfitted with Enchanted War boots. Tech characters get none of the magic armor boosts, but they give everyone a speed boost not listed in the item stats. There are a few unique neutral items that mimic magic items useless to a techie - Cassie's necklace is +40MR like a Dorian Amulet, but it's neutral (works at full strength for everyone).

Dexterity is important not only to learn thief skills, but also because it controls your speed (and therefore # of actions in combat). If you're tech (and for all tech / mildly magical NPCs including Virgil), you can get +4 Dex with two Charged Rings, which take 2 electrick skill or waiting until you pick up Sebastian. Once you hit 20 (including your blessings and bonuses), you get an extra boost of speed, which lets you do a lot of healing or grenade tossing in combat.

On grenades, Molotovs are dirt cheap to build and hit a wide area (haven't needed 'em though), but your biggie is stun grenades (still not v. expensive, but you usually only get enough components to build one batch of 4 per day) - stunning + a full party with heavy weapons == one-sided combat. [I also have no throwing skill, but I just toss at my feet and toss again if that fails].

Magnus can build you balanced swords immediately, which deal decent damage and are ridiculously fast. If you keep him around, he'll learn to build featherweight axes (or you can buy them from dwarven smiths), letting you build Pyrotechnic axes for your tech party members. The Vendigrothian ruins contain schematics and ingredients for two ridiculous pistols. You can build endgame-suitable Electro Armor from buyable components (although I sneakily murdered two of the door guards in the Stone Clan for their small basic plate so I could outfit Magnus and Vollinger). Likewise flow disruptor shields. Manuals let you build any schematic you find with a one-time cash investment. [I'm not sure if mage characters eventually have a problem crafting from found schematics, but I don't think so.] Dread Armor is decent for mages until you find some of the many Magick and then Mystic platemails. Your combat NPCs will have enough strength for the weight, and slowing the weaker ones won't hurt your party's combat strength too much.

With Expert persuasion, you can leave most characters in town and have them wait indefinitely, so you can stack up your crafters (Sebastian for grenades, Jayna for drugs, etc) once your party gets full. Sogg (and possibly a couple others) will return home after a bit.

You definitely want Dog (if you feel stressed in combat, charge up to Ashbury ASAP), and as many have said, Sogg rocks (or any other half-ogre: they carry a ton without slowing, and their damage bonus gets pretty insane quickly. As a bonus, they can punch down doors / smash containers without taking too much damage, for when lockpicking fails. The boosts from the Ancient Gods quest will help a lot. I like Jormund too because he seems not to count towards the party size limit, and while useless in combat, he's a pack-horse for my grenade collection. :-)

As you might have guessed, I'm playing a tech character, although I don't have any tech skills (well, 1 Herbology I used before I got Jayna). The thief skills have given me tech aptitude, so I use tech items on my char [which I have in abundance anyway]. I actually am finding combats pretty easy even with my dumb AI party, my non-participation, and the fact that I'm sitting on 10 unspent skill points. If and when combat gets hard, I'll start actually using my grenades. I haven't picked up the one available medical arachnid (I have a schematic, but it requires a standard arachnid, which is a learned schematic), and I recently dumped my best fighter Sogg so I can fill the party with more storyline-interesting characters.

If I wanted to go mage, I'd have to learn a few spells just to get to positive magick alignment, and magic isn't going to do much I can't already do with salves, grenades, etc - and those things take no fatigue. Haste potions are occasionally really useful, and they still work for me as a techie, so . . .

Still, I can use and build tech consumables regardless of the direction I choose, and I'll have a load of points to do it by level 40 or 50.

If you're looking for every edge, pay attention to hexed items - many have good stats and a downside that may not matter (eg. the helmet that entangles you on a critical hit - if you're not attacking, you'll never see the downside!).

It might be interesting to play the entire game without ever attacking, but I don't think it'd be much of a challenge unless you tried to do that solo.

Curunauth, just noticed this amazingly detailed reply. Haven't digested it yet. I intend to print it out and have it near me as I wade into Arcanum. Thanks so much.

I'm not good at short . . . >.>
Hope it helps!