Im looking to have general tips on class pros/cons. What is OP or what just isnt viable. What playstyle is hard/ez mode. Which stats are useful early?

About good/bad karma if theres any, how does it affect your playthrough?

The character system is classless, so you're free to build almost any style of character. In fact, coming up with interesting builds is one of the attractions of the game.

The single most important concept to understand is the interaction between Magick and Technology. In Arcanum they are like oil and water, so you don't want to mix them at all. Choose one or the other, and stick with it.

Your character's Magickalness and Technologicalness are measured on a single scale called Aptitude, which you can see on the character screen. A third possibility to to avoid both Magick and Technology - that probably works best for big dumb warrior types.

Basically, learning spells makes your Magickal Aptitude grow, while learning Technological skills and degrees makes the scale go the other way.

For your first game I usually recommend Magick. It's pretty easy to understand, and there are some minor advantages in the beginning if you go with Magick.

No matter what kind of character you make, you'll need an effective combat skill to start off with. That means putting a couple of points into one kind of weapon, or an offensive spell. Don't try to start with no combat skills; it will be frustrating.

A good, easy weapon skill to start with - especially for a non-warrior character like a wizard or a diplomat - is Throwing.

The one weapon skill to avoid is Firearms. Everyone seems to want to pick that, but it's probably the hardest combat skill to use effectively. It can be done, but it's a lot less frustrating when you understand the game a little better.

What UW said.

Magic is way easier than tech... but if you do go magic, avoid tech altogether; it can blow up in your face. Humans, half-elves and gnomes give you the best balance for a magic-based playthrough; whether you choose a background is up to you, but I would avoid the more complicated ones: if you take a deliberate penalty to a stat you plan to invest in, you lose the ability to max it out (and the additional stat-based perk for raising it to 20).

Pick either Melee or Throwing: guns and bows require ammo. To avoid critical failures, invest at least 2 points in that skill right at the start; which means making sure your DX (dexterity) is at least 9. Buy an appropriate weapon from the starting shopkeeper.

DX is required for most skills, and a high DX gives you more attacks. ST (strength) helps with carrying — less important if you use your followers like pack mules — and gives a bonus to Melee, but not to Throwing.

Always play in turn-based, or fast turn-based. Real time has too many bugs.

If you plan to attack with spells, stock up on Fatigue potions. Fatigue regenerates as you go, but if you throw a ton of spells it won't be fast enough. Upping your CN (constitution) will also help with this, by boosting your Fatigue recovery rate.

You need to raise your WP (willpower) to unlock the best spells. A higher IN (intelligence) lets you maintain more spells at once, and unlocks higher tech builds. Charisma and Beauty help when buying, selling, and if you want to invest in Persuasion; most beginners choose to spend their points elsewhere. PE (perception) is pretty much a dump stat if you're not investing in Firearms.

Some potential followers will only join you if you're good; others, if you're evil. Some want you to be magical; others prefer the technological.

You can also buy perks in skills, above and beyond investing in them: certain NPCs will offer to apprentice you, and can tell you where an expert trainer can be found. The expert, in turn, can direct you to the master, who usually has a quest for you to complete.

And that's all for now. Have fun; you can always start over if you decide you don't like your build.

And does your magick/tech affiliation affect available quests/content? Do I need some stats in CHA to unlock dialogue options and stuff?

For the most part, no. Putting points into a tech skill (such as Firearms, Repair or Disarm Traps) will bias you toward tech, and there are quests at the end of each skill to achieve mastery. But most quests don't care how you do them. You need points in Persuasion, and you may need to raise your CH in order to do so. But I've yet to find a quest (other than, of course, the one for Persuasion mastery) that requires more than 3 points in Persuasion; most require only one or two.

Good read, and bookmarked. A couple of suggestions for edits, based on my own gameplay experiences:

Beauty affects purchase costs, and Charisma affects selling prices. Neither is all that important, granted, but neither is mentioned either.

I already know how you feel about the uselessness of the Fatigue recovery rate, but it is a benefit of raising Constitution, especially for those of us who like to travel light (so as to have room to collect more loot). It caps at a maximum of 6/10 sec. at a CN of 17.

I disagree about Haggle. The convenience of expertise (being able to sell anything to anyone) is worth the points spent; it saves a tremendous amount of time in the early game, and having a lot of money opens up more options in the later game.

You also downplay Throwing. It has the advantage of range, without the disadvantage of ammo, and can be used at Melee range as well. Metal throwing weapons (chakrams, etc.) cannot be damaged by rock or fire monsters, and therefore don't need constant repair. And finally, it allows grenadiers to place their grenades with better accuracy.

Because of this, Professional Knife Tosser is an awesome background choice. It gives you almost a full rank in Throwing, at a cost of 1 point in Perception. The PE hit won't hurt you, since Throwing is a line-of-sight skill anyway; and you can achieve expertise with only 9 DX very close to the beginning of the game. (And if you are planning to do the hidden quest, capping your DX at 15 while still being able to achieve mastery allows you to allocate your points without any waste.)

Repair is crucial for techies trying to get through any one of the longer dungeons in the game. Rather than carrying three axes and an extra suit of armor, you can repair items on the fly. Expertise, in particular, allows you to infinitely repair anything with less than 100 HP, no matter how badly damaged. (Gauntlets aren't always the answer; since rather than damaging themselves, they can damage you instead. Sometimes that's the difference between surviving a battle and having to reload.)

Just my two cents; a penny after taxes.

A gentleman and a scholar as always, THS. You're doing god's work here my friend.

In a sentence: With high dexterity you'll destroy-as long as you're trained enough to hit with your weapon.

or: Don't go gunslinger your first time, but magic is kind of easy.

I'll offer some general tips if you don't mind...

What you choose during character creation and your magick/tech aptitude will affect the way people treat you throughout the game. I still remember having to use a potion[?] in order to get a guy to not shoot me in the face so I could complete a quest. My character was a Half-Orc female spellsword with a strong personality.

Read the newspapers, journal entries, and books. By Velorien, read the books.
I hear the most entertaining journal entries are from evil and "dumb" character builds. I was neither, so I cannot confirm.

There's a warehouse full of barrels that hold items indefinitely. To my knowledge, it (and corpses?) is the only perma-storage in Arcanum.

If you don't mind breaking/exploiting the combat (and thus part of the challenge), take advantage of real-time and turn-based systems back-to-back (e.g.: shoot off arrows in TB and then switch to RT once they're either close enough or you're out of turns). I usually reserved that tactic for the initial encounter and finished the rest of the battle in a single system. In my opinion, RT is for easy encounters and TB is for challenging ones.
I cannot vouch for TwoHandedSword's TB-only suggestion as I do not recall any bugs other than one: Having an absolutely full party means saving regularly and keeping an eye on whether or not one of them has perma-disappeared. Prepare to reload. I only tolerated this hassle for the below reason.

It matters who is in your party during certain moments. I was going to compose a guide for this but never got around to it. Sadly, my memory is too faded by this point.

Think outside the box (e.g.: A certain spell pays off tremendously at times).

Much later in the game, you get a choice between purchasing a ship or questing for one. I'm telling you this because you can miss the later option easily. The quest itself was its own reward.

You will be thoroughly told the consequences of your decisions at the end of the game. That is all.

Happy gaming.

Chests in inns, such as the ones in Shrouded Hills and Black Root, also offer perma-storage. I personally prefer the one in Black Root (to be on the safe side, do the innkeeper's quest first) because it's right there whenever you teleport into town. If you're tech-inclined, or otherwise don't know Teleportation, the Tarant warehouse is probably more convenient, simply for the number of times you'll return there anyway.

IIRC, there's also a mod available that turns any ship you own into perma-storage. Try googling for it, or browse around on Terra-Arcanum.

If you expect to enter melee, make sure to have your damage resistance (DR) as high as possible. High DR is much better than high AC