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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick ObscuraCan women reach STR 20?(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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Posted December 14, 2019
Can a human, half-elf or elf woman reach strength 20? Or are they capped at 19 due to their gender penalty?

From what I've been reading there seems to be differing opinions on this, so ideally I hope for a reply from someone who has tried it out for themselves.

Just to clarify, I know you can pick a background - Tomboy for example - that will offset the gender penalty. But can you take a "no significant background"" character all the way up to 20?
This question / problem has been solved by Linksimage
Posted December 14, 2019
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Karsten99: Can a human, half-elf or elf woman reach strength 20?
Answering curtly: No.
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Karsten99: Or are they capped at 19 due to their gender penalty?
Female humans and half-elves are capped at 19. Female elves are capped at 18. Elves of both sexes have an extra point taken down from the start and to their cap, when compared to the "standard" (humans).
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Karsten99: From what I've been reading there seems to be differing opinions
There is no place for opinion in this matter. Someone is either right or wrong when answering the questions you asked here.
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Karsten99: (...) can you take a "no significant background"" character all the way up to 20?
No character that starts with a stat at less than 8 (before assigning the initial 5 points) can reach 20 in that particular stat. It does not matter if it is because of race, sex, or background.

And as many points less that they have below 8, the same points below 20 will be their cap.

--

Knowing all of the above, a more important question would then be: can all characters that start with more than 8 in a stat reach over 20 for that stat?

The answer is "No, only some can".

For example: Elves with "No significant background" can reach 21 DX, BE and WP; but a male human with the "Apprenticed to a blacksmith" background cannot reach ST 21 (only 20).

In the particular case of your concerns (female humans, elves and half-elves, with "No significant background") all work as expected from the starting stats that they have, with the exception of the humans' CN, which can only reach 20, instead of the expected 21.

In my opinion all these "not being able to reach N stat, despite the starting bonus" was not intended by the devs, and I find it strange that it has not been addressed by the UAP in any of its iterations. But I have not kept up with the discussions of the modding scene, and maybe there is a reason for that to have been left as it was in the original game.

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Sources: My own previous experience with both the original release and the previous UAPs; and also by trying out characters now with both an unmodified GOG game and with UAP 1.5.1, adding the Virgil Debug mod to speed up the tests.

There are plenty of people more experienced at Arcanum than I am that visit this forum regularly. To them: if I made any mistakes or omitted anything of importance, please let me know.
Posted December 14, 2019
Thanks for the reply. In the meanwhile I decided to test it out for myself, and you are indeed correct. STR is capped at 19.

If you want to play as a strong melee character, you really should think twice about picking a female character (Half-orcs excluded).
Posted December 14, 2019
Glad to be of assistance
Posted December 14, 2019
Just to make sure: a female character with the "Tomboy" background is able to reach STR 20, right?
Posted December 14, 2019
Human or half-elf: Yes, absolutely. Elf: only to 19, of course
Posted December 14, 2019
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Links: In my opinion all these "not being able to reach N stat, despite the starting bonus" was not intended by the devs, and I find it strange that it has not been addressed by the UAP in any of its iterations. But I have not kept up with the discussions of the modding scene, and maybe there is a reason for that to have been left as it was in the original game.
It wasn't addressed by the UAP, because it requires editing the main executable.
Posted December 14, 2019
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Links: There are plenty of people more experienced at Arcanum than I am that visit this forum regularly. To them: if I made any mistakes or omitted anything of importance, please let me know.
Time for me to eat some crow, since I made a few unwarranted assumptions of my own.

Ways that a female can achieve ST of 20 in Arcanum:

1) Be a half-orc. (I realize that the OP already knew this, but I'm including it for completeness.)

2) [It turns out that I'm the one who was wrong here. Looks like Kerebron is right about it being a hard-coded restriction.]

3) Cast the Strength of Earth spell. Using this method, even a halfling can achieve 20 ST. (Note that the spell only adds +4 to ST, but it can be stacked if needed.)

I believe, but have yet to verify, that a female PC can also reach 20 Strength by consuming an Elixir of Physical Prowess, which permanently adds +1 to all physical stats (ST, CN, DX and BE) at the cost of -1 to all mental stats (IN, WP, PE and CH).

Also note that the only real advantage to 20 ST is the melee damage bonus; if your PC is using any other type of attack (bow, firearm, thrown weapon, or spell) this bonus won't apply.
Post edited December 14, 2019 by TwoHandedSword
Posted December 14, 2019
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TwoHandedSword: I believe, but have yet to verify, that a female PC can also reach 20 Strength by consuming an Elixir of Physical Prowess, which permanently adds +1 to all physical stats (ST, CN, DX and BE) at the cost of -1 to all mental stats (IN, WP, PE and CH).
Please do when you can, since this is the only one of the options you mention that apply to the matter in full as asked by the OP.

(1) only applies to the title question, and (2) to the first part of the OP text, but it is obvious that it is not what they want to do/know when reading the post in full. You could argue for (3), but I am quite sure it is also implicitly ruled out, and that the OP is talking about the natural 20 ST without temporary modifiers.
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TwoHandedSword: Also note that the only real advantage to 20 ST is the melee damage bonus; if your PC is using any other type of attack (bow, firearm, thrown weapon, or spell) this bonus won't apply.
The OP seems aware of it, since they only mentioned "strong melee character" in their second poat. Thanks for clarifying it for others running into the question though, didn't occur to me to do it.
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Kerebron: It wasn't addressed by the UAP, because it requires editing the main executable.
Oh. See? That's why I said I wasn't aware of the modding scene discussions. The executable has been modified for so many other things, outside of game mechanics apparently, that it didn't occur to me it would still be a limitation in that aspect.
Post edited December 14, 2019 by Links
Posted December 14, 2019
@ TwoHandedSword

I believe, but have yet to verify, that a female PC can also reach 20 Strength by consuming an Elixir of Physical Prowess, which permanently adds +1 to all physical stats (ST, CN, DX and BE) at the cost of -1 to all mental stats (IN, WP, PE and CH).

That is the Muscle Maker, I believe.

AFAIK, the effects of the Elixir of Physical Prowess is a temporary +2 boost to your STR.

I tried the Elixir out on my STR 19 female half-elf test dummy and it took her to STR 20 - although as mentioned only temporarily.
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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick ObscuraCan women reach STR 20?(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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