u/RSnoomak

One of the hardest runs because some rough choices have to be made, we start strong:

Race: Elf

Background: Only child (Sold your soul is not needed andwe need just 8 Charisma which is easy achievable with Ring of Influence + Jewel of Hebe)

Skill points allocation at the start: 1 point Harm , 1 point Agility of fire , 1 point Disarm , 1 point unlocking Cantrip and I go for Divination school just for the trap spotting and having a way to identify my loot. Next step will be Conveyance School , Fireflash (for this annoying groups of small critters ) and cap Dexterity after that is personal pref the idea is to reach 100% Magick aptitude with Dark helm on

Basic strategy is to take every evil quest and most evil dialogue options , even 1 rank of Prowl + good distance + Unlocking Cantrip (with 90+ magick aptitude) can net you access to almost every shop , especially during the sleep time of NPCs. Everything that is unlocked by Unlocking Cantrip stays open forever so you can restock potions and magic items for free (just be sure you safe before attempt unlocking. I think every player should unlock Evil Virgil at least once just for the role play purposes . Good way to keep your alignment evil is to insult beggars until you reach the cap. Main downside evil path requires some in game knowledge because without Bates help , you have to investigate on your own . My third and last member for this trio Evil Mages will be Geofrey Tallerond - Ashe (I like his lines and he fits perfectly)

Good and bad thing about persuasion runs you achieve your goals pretty quick and you miss a lot of action. I manage to persuade Caladon to accept Tarant terms of joining the Unifed Kingdom , peak in my persuasion journey was to collect the reward for my own bounty and accommodate Min' Gorad if you know what I mean . Magnus become king of the Iron clan and I bring Tseng Ang mage so I get unique dialogue between her and Arronax. Diplomat ending is quite interesting , so I highly recommend it if you never try it. My second run over so its time to think on a next one. Thanks again to this great community for reminds me about this masterpiece of a game

&gt;!My favourite part about mastering Haggle is buying stuff from NPC that they actually wear so I really like this magic armor in Stillwater shop. I finally get my second Half-Ogre bodyguard so RP dream is achieved. I forgot very important detail I cant buy Bates mansion because this way I will loose Chukka , so our home will be Tarant's Warehouse for this run . Having high rank persuasion allows you to skip some very annoying areas like the Dredge and skip Myrth annoying dialogue. You can earn a lot of fate points as well if you are after them. I keep the playthrough on the good side so I avoid most quests that requires evil deeds for role play reason. I joined one of the gangs in the Boil since I like this questline , didnt affect my alignment so much anyways. I managed to escort few dwarves thanks to my charisma and persuasion , so I hope I will change some of the Arcanum history at the end and prevent the war of clans. Peacefully solved potential war between cold bloods and warm bloods , also manage to get rid of some lumber enthusiasts that camping and survey on holy ground!<

For the start I pick Harm so I can clear the starting area and 1 point Persuasion so I can convince Bregho's partner to hand the artifact. I always come back to Fahrkus before the final conflict , just as a memento from where my journey starts. Idea for this run is max Persuasion so I can do all of the diplomatic quests , 2 Ogres as bodyguards and a holy man to support our diplomatic missions. Thankfully most of the Tarrant quests can be done by the power of talking and as you can see Laura likes her new employment at Madam Lil's. I managed to free Gar and help Magnus' revenge so that's total of 3 fate points together with the bandits at Shrouded Hills. I immediately steal "Ring of Influence" with my first fate point (huge boost to charisma and beauty) , during my first visit to Black root I found Arcane staff at the vendor - huge boost to my support character. Ogres for me should use their fists so Machined Gauntlets are kinda top notch for this role play idea early on. Next very important item is Jewel of Hebe this way I max out charisma without spending points and get high Beaty values so with smoking jacket on and max out Haggle , I spend less gold than I earn from quests and loot selling ( Haggle pairs very well on Magic heavy Diplomats since you go for Willpower anyways ). I bring back mine to Sarah so Shrouded hills is saved. I decide to work with Gilbert Bates (for now) but his mansion looks very tempting... You can pick whatever spells you like , I prefer to support my bodyguards rather than steal the spotlight , so my picks are mostly utility spells. I used my second fate point to steal Black Root taxes , this quest seems bugged , I picked up the newspaper and still can't force the Persuasion dialogue option somehow . I spend few points in INT so I can have access to all dialogues (by memory I need 12 for almost all dialogues and this is good milestone cause gives one more temporary effect slot ). I am ready to move towards Wheel clan and convince their king to end up his exile , so I can change dwarves fate

Usually I play 8 hours per week due to real life stuff but coming back to this forever game I spend 50 h last week bringing my little hero to the Void. I play the game mostly by memory ,so I screw few quests like forgetting the fact I cant go back to Isle of Despair after I leave it so one of the side quests left unfinished , for some reason Pit quest was bugged even with the unofficial patch on , after the first fight nothing happens when I go down there and I have to reset ( I was a bit sad cause I love the Champion of the Pit title ). I throw few explosives in some shops by mistake cause clicking on my cast bar with my cursor this way I lost the gunsmith in Tarant which was a bit bad but my save was so far behind and then I discovered the quicksave ( something that I forgot as well) . Tulla puzzle was real pain until a muscle memory kicks in and I did it using the map and doing routes with the red dots , before that I look manually for all the signs when I have bird view was a cakewalk I wish this discovery kicks in earlier :D. I did the mistake to give Virgil a machine gun but he is like a mad man and run out of ammo pretty quick , so after few quests my gold reserve reach the point in which I have to stand next to the beggars in Tarant ( I don't use exploits , glitches or stealing vendors keys and refreshing the day to loot their gold when I get low , I prefer the good old school hardcore play when selling my crafts or my loot ). I forgot the lycanthropy cure in Tulla as well and this was the main reason I go there ... I don't remember actual requirements for the Boil final quest when I have to get rid of the gang that I am part of , for some reason pressing Edward Willoughsby end up in dead end in our dialogue without getting the quest. Thankfully I take a secondary rifle that use only one bullet per shot because I run low on ammo in the last stage before the final conflict and me being low on ammo actually leading to losing Arronax , I try few reloads one of them was really close to save him but unfortunate I decide to count this as his redemption arc and move to the final scenes. I really enjoy the run , I learn a lot from my mistakes and my second run, which I plan to be Human Diplomat role play run, to be more successful in terms of side quests and areas. Huge thanks to the community to inspire me to come back to this masterpiece

Finally discover who is after me , build is almost finished at this point I start bump points into STR so I can carry all of my crafts and the machined plate ( I use my second fate point to steal this from Dwarf Vendor in Caladon) so Virgil and me we finally match the outfits ( he is a lot taller though) . Solve few mysteries and few murders , pretty happy so for , I even managed to buy some magic beans . I regret my decision to go after Therapeutic discipline this boosts are with short duration and not very effective at this point . I have serious book collection and I read very often some of them when I go for a rest in my hideout . I have a lot of places to discover so I decide to chill and stop rushing the story , I find out partially what happened to Virgil but he still refuse to talk so its still a mystery on its own. I discover big conspiration behind skulls of the siamese twins ( I was too young when did this quest for the first time so was huge plot twist for me). Story is amazing , hours turn into minutes

Finally discover what happens to Black mountain clan , next step was to upgrade my weapon from Elephant gun to Blade Launcher , stock piles of bullets (both vendor and crafted by me) cause this gun cost 6 bullets per shot. Virgil max out his Firearms and Heal so I finally decide to craft Goggled Helms for both of us . Everything you need to throw explosives effectively is 3 ranks in Throwing and Expert rank ( Master rank is not very important cause usually I throw explosies when monsters are grouped either close to me or mid range , so chances for miss is very low ) . I start crafting some bombs for more tactical combats rather than just " shooty bang bang " ( a bit action never hurts , otherwise run becomes too monotonic and boring ) . Wolf cave is my base of choice usually in Arcanum , I know Tarant warehouse is more convenient since junk dealer is close and the potion vendor also , but is personal preference I guess. Virgil becomes heavy combat medic and he rocks with his Platemail , next discipline probably that I would pick will be Therapeutics layman for some cool utility buffs and more stuff to craft. Stillwater is my next destination after I restock and craft more gadgets for our wee party.

Finishing Tarant at this point , catch up some experience in Tarant closed sewers (really good spot for EXP ) be sure you have Scroll of Exit cause navigating this place the way back is nightmare. I spend 1 point intelligence and preserve 7 skill points so I can use Intelligence pot and grab last rank in Gunsmith so I can craft Elephant gun without spending another 10 point Intelligence. This little tip works for every tech discipline and this way you can have multiple disciplines because you dont waste point in intellect just before you craft you have to pop up potion as well , but they are pretty cheap, if you don't have enough proficiency in certain discipline and you want to craft a schematic just buy manuals from the University they give proficiency equal to intelligence level (keep in mind manuals work for your current rank so if you pop up INT potion after you buy them you have to drop them on ground and pick them up so potion can count in the calculation). Virgil is a licensed doctor now ( he doesn't waste 60 bandages for single heal ) , also his accuracy with the Hand Cannon is much better since I craft Eye Gear for both of us and plan to upgrade this to Goggled Helm soon enough. I have some penalty cause Elephant gun requires 12 strength , so I have to fix this next probably , but is so fun to be a halfling with a big gun. I keep the playthrough as a mix of good and evil (not robbing the bank as a gunslinger is a missed RP opportunity ). Role play opportunity is one of the best aspects of Arcanum something that I miss in modern games , because giving my toon actual life is peak gaming

This sub inspires me to go back to Arcanum after more than 15 years from last playthrough. I missed Virgil's voice for sure , nostalgia kicks in at the moment I create my dwarf , I can't wait to explore this amazing world once more