Is there an Arcanum tabletop? Or anything similar?

Sounds pretty much true to world if you ask me. That or very Indiana Jones-like.

As a Pole I can say it is at least good for a laugh

Victoriana is Arcanum in all but name

It was translated and it's trash bonfire material. The game is shit, the setting is horrible and the "fun" it has with itself is bunch of nonsense.

As a non-Pole I get grand total of 2 jokes from the book. Supposedly it's super funny game. And like the other user said, the setting is so over-the-top racist, it goes first into funny racism, and then reverts back to "Jesus Christ, what they were smoking?" level of cringe

Any examples?

There's Clockwork & Chivalry, but I haven't played it.

Oh don't get me wrong I get the laugh out of the book exactly due to how stereotypical everything in it is

Ogres are niggers as written by 19 century KKK member

Elves are all foppish gays that are all French, because it's soooo funny to make entire France populated by foppish effemate elves, ha ha ha.
Dorfs have literally no souls, because they are Germans and everyone knows Germans are soulless automatons, har har har.
Yellow Peril orcs! Because we had to cram orcs somewhere, get it! So funny! [more canned laugh]
Scandinavia is all trolls that have alcohol issues, because that's all we know about Scandis. this is gonna be the biggest joke ever!
Wait a minute, you expected from us to actually bother with rest of the world? Good one, we only had a handful of ideas! Hur hur hur!

And so on and forth. If handled by someone with at least a semblance of common sense or finess, this could somewhat work as a setting, akin to tongue-in-cheek version of Arcanum. Instead, it's pure, unfiltered cringe what is so unfunny it spoils the entire "fantasy steampunk" setting.
When you read for the n-th time all dorfs are nazis, because all Germans are nazis, which gets mentioned outside any context also for the n-th time, you start to wonder if creators don't have some mental issues.

There are stereotypes, then spoofs and then there are caricatures. Then there is fifty feet of crap. And then there is Wolsung and its approach to pretty much anything it touches.

Also Jewish gnomes and as I mentioned above Ogres as black caricatures from der strumer or something.

Anyway stereotypical tongue in cheek setting based on real world was already done in 7th Sea and it was done much better

>you start to wonder if creators don't have some mental issues.
The main guy behind the game is a declared (and vocal) monarchist and right-winger, so you are not that far away with him being mental

I was wondering if he might be something of sort. Should have expect with amount of nutjobs in polish fantasy community.

I don't care for the racism per se but that sounds just plain boring and one dimensional, I guess I'll skip this one. I thought it was more like funny bits here and there.
Dunno why it was even pointed out at this point, it seems so far from the sense of bleakness that permeates Arcanum and I'm sure OP didn't just want a random steampunk setting.

Iron Kingdoms are quite serious and dark steampunk setting but with a more "epic" feel to it than arcanum

Nothing stopping you from dropping the setting in lieu of the Arcanum setting and just using the system. Never read it myself so I dunno if it's any good though.

Thanks I guess.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

It's fucking Poland. Poland grew up on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and from it derived only the grimdark edge for it, 2 cool 2 play anything heroic fantasy. John Wick's shitty booklets were fully translated over here because Poles think that edge makes everything great. Wolsung is basically a setting written by your typical Viking-looking metal dude with a ton of bad in-jokes that he was tossing around with his friends and tabletopping over a bottle of Perła. The most popular fantasy series involve a one-dimensional author self-insert about an inquisitor in a world where Jesus decided to get off the cross and murder all heretics; said inquisitor basically walks into town, rapes women, kills everyone and says "Hell yeah, mystery solved", then tosses a 16 year old girl to his loyal thugs to rape as well.

The other wonderful Polish tabletop games that you should all stay away from are Dzikie Pola, which could be a well executed game about being a Polish nobleman, but the system is trash and the game always devolves into nationalist wankfest, and the Neuroshima RPG, which is a Polish love letter to Fallout and yet the only good thing that came out of the setting is the tactical hex game, the game itself is trash that uses a wonky 3d20 system and it's written from the second person perspective, as if a real person from the setting was talking to you. But it's executed so badly that the fluff blurbs tell you that everyone talks in this weird, white trash/gangsta-style mutliclass accent, and it sounds cringeworthy in Polish. No matter if you're from Texas or New York.

And they also revived Crystals of Time, which was not a good idea at all.

>and just using the system
Not him, but why would you want to use this shit for anything at all? The crunch is barely mediocre and can't even handle own shit.
Arcanum-tier magic? It would fucking implode

Crystals of Time are a laughing riot and probably most old school thing since MERP

Also don't forget wankery that was going on over Vampire/OWOD and Call of Chtulhu

>The other wonderful Polish tabletop games that you should all stay away from are Dzikie Pola, which could be a well executed game about being a Polish nobleman, but the system is trash and the game always devolves into nationalist wankfest
First of all: first edition is good.
Second: depends greatly on GM. I by default don't play with edgy cunts and my long-time Dzikie Pola GM flat out said that either we run it a la Pasek diaries, with all of us being Pasek expies, or he's not running the game. It was pretty much Zagłoba: The Game and I had tons of fun with it. No wankfest involved, since we had better things to do. Like telling people tall stories about our exploits from past campaigns.

But yeah, everything else you've said is true, especially the stuff about 2edgy4everyone bullshit.
And you forgot to mention Monastyr, another 3d20 edgy shit.

Also Polish fandom outedging the authors of Kult.

Those at least don't suck and were there only for the duration of goth/metal craze in late 90s. Go and try to find players for those nowdays. Either you will find nobody, or you are going to find a pretty regular group of people who want to try something "oldschool".

God, I wish MAG didn't went out of tabletop business in early 00s, focusing entirely on literature and printing. So many things would look different nowdays in the scene.

Arkona! Arkona mate. A heroic grimderp fantasy with mechanics taken from a horror game. Where mighty Slavic Pagan Poland beats the living crap out of those Evil Teutonic Knights Germans all day all night...
... unless of course you have a crappy roll. Which is 95% of time.

>So many things would look different nowdays in the scene.
They would look different if they dind't wirte an article about WFRP in Fantastyka in late 80s. That single article created an utterly retarded cult following around WFRP, without people even knowing what the game is about or how it looks like, just reading a 2-page long snipped about it and tabletops in general.
Literally ANY game picked for that snipped would have equal effect, given the fact it was illegal to have tabletops in commie Poland (no, really) and thus there was no publishing, translation or any official circulation, only further building the legend.

Read the rest of the post.

t a lot of people who only sing praise about old wfrp and way it was presented in Magia I Miecz and Portal while crying "ruined forever" when the new edition that was more in line with WFB fluff was released

>magic is single stat godmode
>magic-assisted melee builds own in combat
>ranged sucks except for that one build that breaks the game
>anything 'tech' is massively overpriced and not worth the effort
D&D 3e.

I wish Czech RPGs were at least edgy, not just bland and boring out of fear that original idea might shoo the customer away

>Talking shit about technology
>Talking shit about ranged attacks
Do you even know throwing weapons, especially technological grenades, are the most powerful shit in the game? And that the best weapon in it is literally called "Sword", being 100% sword? Or that you can save a FUCKLOAD of points on technologist, since you don't have to rise your stats?
Don't get me wrong, magic is good, but the thing is - so are any other builds. And technologist is in fact more cost-efficient than magic user, since all you need is 9 Int. Mages need both levels (and you shouldn't be rushing with those due to NPCs) and Wil.

But wasn't it from a Czech game the concept of barbarian to be a race rather than class or job? In my book, that's a great idea.

*100% generic sword

I don't know where you got Opposite Arcanum but I'd like a download link.

It's also interesting in that while 3e makes mages powerful only with a certain degree of system mastery and maybe certain metagaming, Arcanum makes it so that the best spell for the vast majority of the game is Harm that you can pick up right off the bat and just eviscerate things with.

I'm so sad Arcanum isn't a better *game* than it is, because the best thing about it is the character creation screen. It lets you wreck shit with a fucking Charismancer of all things

Our WoD players are final edge incarnates.

Crystals of Time was supposed to be conanesque and AD&D like, but it's fucking huge and complicated mechanic made it dead on arrival.

Problem was with Ignacy Trzewiczek, our own Wick wannabe. He was the one who started over-the-top edge stuff and made it dominant. It wasn't that bad before, look on WHFRP adventures in early MiM.

Dzikie Pola is a great game and I have never seen a patriotic wankfest there. But it's co-author (who was left to his fucked up devices in too many second edition's parts) is another cringy hist-fantasy writter that is still rememberd on my university as that shitty drunkyard who threw bottles against the wall because ,,empty bottles anger him".

TLDR: Our fandom sucked, consisted of stinking monarchic libtards, neopagan facists, cringy left wingers that now run our shitty Podemos ripoff... And now it's nearly dead. Normal people turned to their own devices long ago. Nothing of value was lost.

If you want to play an efficient tech character, don't make a gunslinger, at least not from the start. A bow/throw character that makes his own grenades is a top tier build, on the other hand. Generally it's better to go hybrid with tech, I find.

Yes. But they were implied to have kroll (basicaly ogre, IDK why thery used a made up word for it) ancestry, not that they were just different race of humans.

I don't think the fandom is dead. The best tabletop game I've ever played was on Falkon 2016 with the son of Mirosław Baka, who turns out to have his dad's acting flair. That was some top tier storytelling and playing with the "medium" that is roleplaying games.

RPGs are mostly dead in that new releases are virtually not picked up, save for Savage Worlds / Dogs in the Vineyard once in a blue moon, and people preferring board games.

Board games are always good.

>Magic is single stat godmode
So is fighting, all under Dex.
And for technology, you don't even NEED stats, as long as you have 9 Intelligence.

Magic spells are also super-lacking, with good early game, average mid and mostly subpar end game, where short from desintegration, you have shit.
Technology has exactly reverse dynamics (aside explosives, those are great regardless) and is not level-sensitive, so you can unlock entire tech tree while still in first town.
And neutral alignment laughs at this bullshit, because they have the best point-by-point skill and stat benefits, with no penalties and best gear possible.

There is no efficient tech character. Having grenades on the side is nice, but you need to pump INT (a lot) and buy blueprints to unlock crafting, and THEN you have to make exactly the same stat investments everyone else does in order to use the stuff you built. The post I replied to was basically lies from start to finish.

You received multiple in-depth responses that show way more expertise and gaming knowledge than your "tech is shit because it's shit" without any parameters as to whether you've tried to do anything with it.

As says, you don't even need to pump IN. You can have a well-balanced character, pick up that amazing CH9 to get Sogg in the tavern, etc., and still make a ton of cool trinkets with tech skill.

You'd be probably surprised that my successful Ironman Fallout character considers Agility a dump stat because hurrdurr all the walkthroughs and my single playthrough of the game say that AG10 is a must.

>le Savage Worlds argument
Are you that blog-runner who claimed Poland has generic systems and nobody can complain about lack of those, because it had AD&D and CoC in the 90s and Savage printes in 200 copies in 2006 without any advertising, thus still being available in shops over a decade later?

Anyway, I also disagree with the death of scene as such, but compared with how things looked when MAG backed out from tabletop business, it's a fucking barren wasteland. Almost no new publications, absolutely no support or supplements, the homeground games are just shit (they always were, but now they are also home-published or using printing cooperatives for disabled to get publication in some laughable amount), with zero imports. Most importantly, there is NO desire from the handful of "big" publishers to provide game transaltions, which translates (no pun intended) on really low player base, because it's ALWAYS harded to convince pople to play a game in English, even if supposedly everyone is fluent with it.
In fact, the lack of translation is what I see as the real bottleneck here. There are still people who want to play, most importantly a new generation of them, untained by WFRP legacy, but it's super hard to find a game to play with them, unless you want to grab some old shit that will either scare them away (since it's edgy and aged badly crunch-wise) or, which is far worse, they will turn into "tró fans", being pure cancer to the scene.

>but you need to pump INT (a lot) and buy blueprints to unlock crafting
Ever heard about Essence of Intellect, you idiot?
That's why everyone points out you only need 9 Int.
Meanwhile, it is magic users who MUST invest all the points up to get high Will.

Seriously, the game is what? 15 years old? 16? And that was part of the mechanics and known way of character making ever since premiere.

I wasn't raising a Savage Worlds argument, I was just saying that SW is the most recent Polish-translated game that I ever see on conventions and shelves. I wasn't saying that the publishers aren't retarded / the demand is dogshit. Aside from that you can buy something like Dark Heresy 2nd Edition for Way Too Much Polish Monopoly Money.

Sorry then. There is a guy that keeps wanking around Savage, because he's like one of 50 people who bough it and it was his first tabletop, so he acts like it has any real effect on Polish scene. For better or worse (mostly worse) it's almost unheard.

Anyway, that's another issue - almost all games come untranslated and vast majority of them also costs so much money nobody bothers to even touch them. When you have that kind of money as spare income, you usually don't have time to play, and if you have enough time to play regularly, you are a jobless student at best, schoolkid at worst. And dumping few hundreds on a game you minght not even play more than once, when you can simply pirate it and print it for a pocket change (or even don't bother with printing)... and you end up with a vicious circle of hurting, where no games are published, because there is no demand and there is no demand, because prices are from space, and prices are from space, because no games are published.

>that hatred and hur hur hur all is WHFRP fault
>taint

WHFRP haters is what I find even more cringy than 1st ed grogs.

No one is publishing anything because it won't sell anyway - rulebooks get downloaded and publications are mocked.

user, I'm playing tabletops since '96. Were you even born back then?
If you are going to pretend WFRP didn't fuck things over and that we FINALLY reached the point where we can have OTHER games than grimderp heroic fantasy bullshit (took only 30 years, but hey, who needs other flavours when you have grimderp, right?), then just fucking leave.
I'm sick and tired of Perła-drinking lanky metal Viking-aboos "teaching" new batch of players the one and only, true and forever good way of handling games, aka Trzewiczek bullshit. I had to deal with those cunts for past 20 years, so call me bitter.
At least now I can play something ELSE. And it might shock you especially given the typical political leaning of average RPG player in Poland, but variety is the spice of life.

Also, fuck the market. Muh powerfull hobby fetish. You won't make it mainstream- no more than in early '00- and most folks are fluent
in britbong. Most players never bothers to read the book anyway, so only GMs will have to read anyway.

Puszon and likes are cancer. I bought what I might have needed from the CoCorp because I like those guys personally and for nostalgias sake.

Second-hand market of eng rulebooks/gamelord is protip.

Publications are mocked, because they usually are shit. Not due to content of publication, but the way how the publishers promote and behave. I mean have you heard about Armies of Apocalypse publishing campaign? They've printed 100 copies and then started a massive celebration after selling all of them in three months, as if they've sold millionth booklet.

This is what gets mocked.
And of course shit-tier translations, but those happen much less than retarded "Let's print 20 books and try to sell them with zero coverage or marketing, giving away for free e-books of it during some small-ass convent in Nowhere, Podkarpacie"

>Most players never bothers to read the book anyway, so only GMs will have to read anyway.

A friend of mine bought Vampire the Requiem book to run it. Now 6 months later I'm the one running the game and he still didn't read the fuckin book

Please explain me how you are going to find new players, those outside existing playerbase, with your attitude.
I'm curious, go ahead, talk.

Not him, but I basically said to my group of friends in various stages of advancement (total normie/GoT fan/played Heroes of Might & Magic a lot at some point/people with a few games in their belt), "Hey, let's have some fun with D&D 4e, M&M 3rd and, yes, even WFRP2" and it all worked peachy without a Viking autist going like "THE ALMIGHTY HROTHGAR WANTS WENCHES AND BEEEEEEEEER, HANKER UPON MY KUTAS, FEMALE PLAYER" and thinking it's good roleplaying.

Well, you are right. But I have said Trzewiczek and his neophytes were cancer, not the WHFRP.

I started gaming about 2002 (with homemade stuff based on balduroids). I gmed WHRP and pulp CoC for most of that time and never went for that dark railroad bullshit. Problems were with fandom and I never stuck with them- they were shit, edgy people anyway. The Warhammer haters were self-righteous autistic nerds as well.

If you got cucked by either of them because of your need of their accpetation/steady group, it's a pity. Bomb the fando- Oh, it's fucking dead already.

Yup. Nowadays everyone played something. Normal folks are protip. If you can't befriend any in real life, you are the problem.

>You received multiple in-depth responses that show way more expertise
Expertise is not the word I'd use.

>Ever heard about Essence of Intellect, you idiot?
Man, using therapeutics to patch ass is so clever. Now I'll become semi-competent at level 28 instead of 35. Now I also have to metagame about when I'll need high INT for dialog options.
>Meanwhile, it is magic users who MUST invest all the points up to get high Will.
And beside giving him access to spells, which are by and large more useful than tech schematics, Will is the only stat a mage needs, and also increases fatigue, which is the only resource a mage needs. And no, stocking up on fuel, batteries, bombs or bullets is not easier than stocking up on spare magic staves, which all slowly recharge on their own.

>Man, using therapeutics to patch ass is so clever
So you are a cretine, thanks for confirming.
Essence of Intellect is a cheap-ass potion adding 10 to your Intelligence, REGARDLESS of alignment, that is sold for pocket change by pretty much anyone, anywhere. So you can be a super-competent by Shrouded Hills.
And you don't know such basic game trivia, while playing as a mage, thus being a regular guest to magic shops.

Congrats, your argument is invalid and you don't know basic game mechanics. Way to oust yourself as someone who played the game once or twice, a decade ago.

Also, you don't need more than 9 Int for dialogues TOO, making your complain a moot point. Dialogue options are unlocked by Persuasion, which is Charisma-based skill with training required to make it also effective and not just waste of points. It has no relation to tech-magic alignment.
Did I mention you are a moron, unfamiliar with the game mechanics?

>because of your need of their accpetation/steady group
Yes, because you simply can't be annoyed by never ending wank around WFRP, unless you are insecure gimbus looking for acceptance or trying to be cool. That's most definitely the only reason people can be tired of this decade-spawning shit and not the fact it's simply boring trite.

Honestly I just don't give a fuck anymore, people like you have drained my ability to care about stupid shit in a game. And so its better than bland fantasy races.

But I don't want you to stop, no keep going, drain all of the fucks people give out of this world. To we all don't give a shit and can get on playing games and not give two fucks about "problematic" elements.

Meh, so you are just like those resident tg guys that can't stand D&D and are oh-so-vocal about it because it takes most of the market, just like WHRP did in it's prime.

It's as nauseous and sperging out anytime someone mentions something you don't like is autistic. I hope you are not one of those types, you seem an ok guy as the community goes.

Good luck with your future gaming, I gota be back to work.

Do you know that kinda guy that you meet out on a beer and you're having fun and telling jokes and then he is like "EY GUYS YOU KNOW THIS ONE?", tells a joke about the Holocaust or dead babies that everyone already heard quintuple times and it outstayed its welcome a long time ago, and roars with laughter?

It's about as funny as Wolsung.

...Okay, I didn't know that. It's so stupid that I didn't think something like that would be put in a game like a regular item. I mostly relied on temporary buffs to deal with game's bullshit.

Your attempts to broadly dismiss everything else I say are still cute, though.
Off the top of my head, you need 14 int to get the good ending when talking to the dwarf king, and 18 to get the best options when holding that speech at Ashbury town hall.

Hitting Tarant, you are going to be level 6-8. At this point, your best spell is going to be tier 3. Only after hitting level 10 you are going to unlock tier 4. AT BEST, your Magick Aptitude is going to be around 40, assuming you would spend all your points into spells or start with background adding Magick Aptitude. Plus, you need at least 15 Will to unlock tier 4 spells, itself costly endevour.

Meanwhile, rolling the very same Tarant as technologist allows you to either unlock stun grenades and shit out so many of them the shop-keepers will run out of money and high-end items to barter with you.
OR invest into gunsmithy, unlock Looking Glass Rifle, a 40-40 damage weapon (killing almost everything in single shot) that has the furthest range in entire game, which also comes with +20 to hit bonus, so you only need 1 point in Firearms to get the Apprentice training for +5 Speed to all guns. Congratulatons, you won't switch weapon until about T'sen-Ang.
OR just steal the gun used by the gunsmith in Tarant, since it's a pocket version of LGR.

And as a neutral you can simply use Magnus to craft you entire fuckload of Balanced Swords, aka the best non-unique melee weapon in the entire fucking game. In short notice he will be able to craft Featherweight Axes, for which you have a FREE supply of materials should you clean a warehouse from bunch of rats. This means you have access to two best generic melee weapons from the very start.

Should I continue with throwing weapons, which are infamous for the fact they DO NOT take damage when fighting "hard" targets?
How about all the OP bows that you can access even before crossing the mountains for Quintarra?

You aren't too good at selling your "superior magic" rap. In fact, you are pretty bad at it.

Not him, but all you have to say is "Magic is good, everything else is bad, and that's because I say so".
A wild claim with no backing doesn't need to be dismissed. It dismisses itself.

>you need 14 int to get the good ending when talking to the dwarf king, and 18 to get the best options when holding that speech at Ashbury town hall.
Or just 12 Charisma and 3 Persuasion, with expert training.
Which you are going to get anyway, since Pesuasion is a must-have skill regardless of build, not to mention Charisma being the only way to get more NPCs and 12 being optimal number without being too specific.
Besides, you can use the very same Essence of Intellect for those speeches, with no points involved, so we are going to square one - you DON'T need to invest points into Intelligence at all.

And adding to above - you are going to aim for that Expert training even because it provides you with another NPC slot. Not to mention it unlocks 3/4 of talk-based solutions in all quests in the game.
Still can't see a reason to waste points in Intellect, thou.

In fact, thinking about it, there is grand total of THREE situations, where you need more than 12 Charisma and Expert training. So scratch that 3/4 - it's much higher.

Best mage spell is tier 1. After I unlock Harm I'm basically free to go for social utility or something that will make me money. Magic aptitude will cap on its own long before I start running into tough enemies. And I will have disintegrate before facing my first golem/elemental/fuckoff armor breaking zombie.

>Meanwhile, rolling the very same Tarant as technologist allows you to either unlock stun grenades
Early money pump is nice but unless you all out spec into throwing molotov cocktails now you rely on stupid, stupid minions for all your killing.
>OR invest into gunsmithy, unlock Looking Glass Rifle
Which you can't use all that well with your stats, and don't have a follower to give to.
>Congratulatons, you won't switch weapon
until Droch's warbringer, which I don't remember being available that early.

For Magnus, he's literally there as a crutch to build you good tech weapons that you can easily replace as they break or get lost. If he also made charged rings and trap detectors early he'd be the most obvious follower choice in the game.

>Should I continue with throwing weapons
>How about all the OP bows
Should I just stand there and kill everything with harm, and how about I cast a STR buff on the dog and heal him up once in a while. No need to slowly plink things with a magic chakram, carry 999 arrows in my bag or run around trying to craft the pyrotechnic bow.
No, I said pure tech is worse than magic and neutral. It somehow turned into me having to defend myself from two people who keep ignoring everything I say while calling me a moron.

Does persuasion training substitute for intelligence? I know both give you more dialog options but I didn't know they were interchangeable. I remember regularly being locked out of certain endings on low INT characters.
>the very same Essence of Intellect
Yeah I got that, if I knew an outright cheat item like that was sold in stores I would have taken it into account.

>Harm
>Best spell
So a spell that with maxed out everything deals 40 damage and not a single point more is your "best", while it literally takes entire game to hit that mark?
You are literally digging yourself deeper as an ignorant with each following post

>Which you can't use all that well with your stats, and don't have a follower to give to.
It was explained why you don't need any stats aside SINGLE point into Fire Arms (itself only to get the Apprentice training for the Speed bonus). Find me any weapon that can reliably drop dead vast majority of enemies in game after having only single point invested into related skill. I'll wait.
>until Droch's warbringer
It has absolutely nothing to do with the subject and is in fact inferior to few other guns. But since you are riding the "in Fallout 10 Agility is a must" pony mentioned by other user, I'm not surprised you don't know that.
>No need to slowly plink things with a magic chakram, carry 999 arrows in my bag or run around trying to craft the pyrotechnic bow.
None of those apply to things mentioned, but again, how could you know?
>No, I said pure tech is worse than magic and neutral
Worse how? Aside you saying so. Because so far this thread very much pointed out how this is a ridiculous claim. Even the lowest effort tech build (Molotov thrower, a 6 point "build", perfectly affordable from the very start of the game for almost all races and backgrounds) is more efficient than high-end magic user, solely due to 0 AP cost and AoE damage with knock-back capacities, no matter how hard you are going to ignore numbers and substitute them with unbacked claims. You can take out the wolfpack in the end of Crash Site (a fucking beef gate) with it. Try to take them with anything else.

You are literally asking about Persuasion mechanics, but try to play smartass when it comes to the game mechanics. Are you insane or simply can't see how this discredits further all your (still unbacked) claims?

I'll just quit this argument on the assumption that we're not talking about the same game.

>le Harm meme
Best mage spell is Tempus Fugit (your Speed is virtually multiplied by 4), shortly followed by Agility of Fire (+4 Dex for 1 Char Point, stacks). In fact, until you hit requirements for Tempus Fugit, AoF is THE best spell in the game and never gets obsolete. The fact those two stack together is even better.
Agility of Fire is so powerful, you can even use it with 100% technologist, since it will stick as long as it's a self cast (not that NPCs cast buffs, but it's about the aptitude, not NPC mechanics). It makes even Electric Ring obsolete, by the sheer virtue of costing 1 Char Point instead of 2. And then of course comes the fact you can use BOTH, for even more absurd gains, allowing to even overcome your racial barrier. For lousy 3 Points you gain +12 Dex. And if you are going to get Sebastian even for a second in your party, then for 1 Point.
If you play your cards right, your party will rank up Dex-based skills twice as fast due to that spell, making them even faster and better.

Do you even game mechanics, bro? I mean magic can be potent, but not with laughable Harm shit-tier spell that only works late game if you enjoy spamming a shortcut for it and taking breaks to regenerate Stamina.

Not him, but maybe that's simply because you know shit about the game in question and don't want to embarrass yourself any further?

People played Arcanum to maximize their efficiency/builds? That wasn't ever the point. Its not hard to 'win' the game, the combat isn't difficult, resources aren't scarce, etc. Its more interesting to go through from different angles and see what they made/how it interacts/read the stories and explore the world.

I know all that, I played a hasted sniper. It's kind of wasted on a mage, though, especially with constant fatigue drain. A mage will burn his fatigue much faster than his action points.
>breaks to regenerate Stamina
Fatigue slower and magic staves.

You're also permitted to use other spells when necessary. Killing five smurfs with fireball is better than casting harm five times, and stunning a whole gang of boss monsters so your followers can safely kill them is better than disintegrating two of them.

>Not him
Yes, that was also believable the first time around.

Certain parts of the game were utterly insufferable unless you and your party are prepared for mayhem. Also, before Drog's patch you got very little xp from anything you didn't kill yourself, so not playing a combat monster was tantamount to deciding that time of your life is worthless.

No, people play Arcanum to don't bother with the absolutely dogshit awful combat system. Which means maxing out either their own killing potential or drag an army of OP NPCs with maxed out killing potential to do the job. Preferably both. Standard combat or any non-minmaxed mass murder technique will just lead to boring slog of a game and boredom. In fact, vast majority of players drop the game after hitting Caladon or so. There is just too much fighting in a game that doesn't exactly come with a best or even good combat system, so anything that speeds the combat up is welcomed.

>There is just one person in this thread other than me
Neither of them. What now?

Well, there was more than one person replying to me, and you're not a very good liar.

Played it through 3 times when it came out, no patch. There was combat, never really stumped me. Sometimes it was more difficult, but you just load a save, figure out what happened, go back to town and prepare for it. Combat was usually an important part of black isles/trokia games, but it wasn't a thing you had to optimize.

Try to go through Black Clan Mines without half-decent combat build and combat-oriented party. Bonus points if you don't have the dog with you.
And that's not even half of early game. By late game you are basically going through one massive combat after another, constantly facing damage sponges. So either you can one-hit kill things, or it will take ages to power through.

Yes, because everyone have time to try to "figure out" way through this or that encounter, instead just come in, murder everything and be done with it.
Let's be blunt: Arcanum had great idea for setting, some truly stellar quests, but by late game, it's just bunch of combat and the combat mechanics aren't even mediocre. The faster you are done with them, the better and it's not very hard to find this or that way of getting through fights with zero effort, rather than "learning" best approach.
The best approach is to kill things before your good memories of early and mid game get replaced with extremely boring experience of late game non-stop combat.

There were the black mountain mines, the wheel clan mines if you couldn't get Randver to open the shortcut, random enemies able to kill party members in one turn, the fire elemental rape dungeon, and the gorilla gauntlet before talking to Nasrudin. Even if we disagree about difficulty, you can't argue it wasn't tiresome as hell.

If you don't have time to load a saved game, or figure things out in an rpg, you must have a very high paced rock and roll jet set life style champ.

It didn't bother me as much as it seems to have gotten you two. Don't really know what to tell you after that.

>It's your fault the game has flat-out bad combat mechanics

How about not everyone being a dirty, plebean save-scummer, instead thinking and planning ahead?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯