Synopsis, or backstory:
It all started with a single guide, which I recommend reading to pay tribute to the author. And with his encouragement, I came up with the idea of following his advice and accomplishing the previously impossible – observing the sixth commandment [ru.wikipedia.org], which says "Thou shalt not kill," in the world of Arcanum.
For the game, I recommend the latest version of the Arcanum Multiverse Edition build.
An overview of our magical capabilities
A mage's playthrough, unlike that of a technologist or neutral thief, is simpler to implement and allows you to cover most of Arcanum's quests. Let's look at the mage's arsenal of spells:
School of Reason
Our argument in disputes with orcs, kites, and rat-clops! Stun , a second-level spell, will help with this. Most opponents will be confused just enough for our hero to escape. Bonus: the first-level spell Charm. If you can successfully use it against a merchant, he'll give you a good discount (don't try to charm gypsies!). The Nightmare spell is good... and of little use. It's more reliable to stun the enemy and run away, while it's better to permanently charm beasts. Subjugation of Will is a kosher spell, but the player doesn't need extra pack donkeys. Therefore, I recommend investing only two points in this school at the start.
School of Natural Magic
Random encounters with bears, wolves, spiders, rat-infested warehouses and sewers, giant gorilla-like monsters guarding passages to important places—against these, this school is incredibly useful. The very first spell of the school, Charm Beast, will help avoid the problems described above. Unfortunately, high-level rats, dragon-like monsters, and demons are immune to this spell, but it is the choice of the Living One, who has stepped onto earth from the ruins of an airship and is surrounded by wolves. The second-level spell, Entanglement, could be used as an alternative to Stun (the immobilized enemy tries in vain to escape the cage while we run away), but it won't protect against archers and mages. It's worth leveling up, but later.
The School of Summoning
is absolutely not our school. All it can do is summon creatures for further combat, which our protagonist will avoid.
The School of Divination
Everyone wants to live, especially our protagonist. The spell Sense the Hidden will help him find the traps that are so numerous in some dungeons. But it's fourth in the school's hierarchy, so it would be more useful to spend training points on something else, occasionally using scrolls with this spell. Another useful spell in this school is Identification. - It's useful to keep a couple of scrolls for identifying objects, as fortune tellers aren't available everywhere. Spending points on this level five spell isn't worth it.
School of Movement
One of the most useful schools for the protagonist, but it's worth holding off on leveling it until you have some free points. Unlocking Charm is the best spell in this school, has a level two skill, and is best learned in Taranto. It's essential for completing thieves' quests and simply finding good loot. Disarmament : Learned as a bonus to Unlocking Charm , but there are very few situations in the game where it'll be useful. The coolest spell is Teleportation : very useful for late-game travel between cities (saving time!), but you can get by without it. The level four spell, Space Distortion, isn't worth it. You can't travel behind walls; you can only travel to places visible to the protagonist. But most likely, they can just run there.
School of Air
At first glance, this school has good potential. Toxic Fumes lets you kill an enemy with poison, but their death won't count towards your kill statistics! Unfortunately, a poisoned rabbit will devour the player faster than it can die from the poison. A body made of air might offer good protection, but the character will die from lack of energy faster than from lack of health if they start taking damage. So, we'll avoid this school.
School of Earth
The only useful spell is Strength of Earth . It increases the strength of a puny hero (or helps a struggling Virgil ). It helps you haul tons of magical artifacts out of dungeons, which you can then sell to a friend's junk dealer or a respected mage. If you have any spare points, put one in.
School of Fire
If any thug in Arcanum asks, "Got a light?" we'll politely answer with a cigarette (or run away), rather than throw a fireball. Tolerance, human rights, and all that, so we'll leave that school alone.
School of Water
The biggest benefit you can get from this school is the spell Purity of Water . It'll make you look a little prettier and lower your prices at merchants. You can only invest a very small point in it; it's better to skip it.
School of Strength
Shield of Defense: Not needed. There won't be a situation where you can't escape under a hail of blows. We'll leave that school out.
School of Illusion
This school requires the fifth-level spell Invisibility .Since the player isn't interested in killing, the only option left is stealing! With this spell, you can clear dungeons, steal golden trinkets from barbarians, rummage through the belongings of wealthy citizens, and much, much more. A pleasant bonus is the ability to complete most quests without disturbing the fauna and necroflora of the locations. In short, this is a spell the player must learn before delving into abandoned dwarven mines. A small (two to three meter) bonus is the ability to summon a Phantom Demon (a fifth-level spell). It will happily break down the iron doors in the warehouse in Tarant for us, but it's unsuitable for anything more.
School of Black Necromancy
For aesthetic pleasure, you can learn the second-level spell, Summon Spirit . However, there aren't many talkative corpses in Arcanum (thanks to our hero's exceptional restraint and angelic patience). It's worth throwing in extra points only.
School of Meta
We have no one to counterspell. We're ignoring this.
School of White Necromancy
If Virgil had done better at school (or wherever the Panarii are trained?), this school would have been very useful due to the Sanctuary spell . It allows you to run under the noses of the undead, but the Invisibility spell is more versatile. Therefore, we're skipping this school.
School of Time
It would seem that the only alternative to invisibility is to run fast and slow enemies. Alas, getting through a dungeon teeming with zombies will be very difficult. You can throw yourself a challenge and try, but it's better to invest in something else.
School of Transmutation
Transforming a large crowd of rams into sheep... Or rather, enemies into rams... In short, enemies into sheep - won't work for long. Therefore, we're not even trying to cultivate this school.
Overview of our technological capabilities
Overview of characteristics
What is important for a hero who strives not to offend even the last rat in the basement?
A bunch of spells, especially Invisibility at level 5, require 18 Will . Intelligence isn't particularly necessary at first, but at least 8 is needed to maintain a couple of spells and complete quests. I recommend raising it to at least 12 later. Perception ... isn't necessary.
Charisma should be maxed out by the end of the game, so... Beauty is only needed so that respectable townspeople don't shy away from our appearance (at least not right away). Dexterity - don't lower it to the minimum values, otherwise you risk simply not being able to escape from the enemy. Constitution - only traps will poison the player, and Virgil will heal, so it's unimportant.
Strength - also useless, unnecessary items can be thrown to Virgil, and the current weight can only be carried for 2 strength points (equivalent to 150 local kilograms).
When choosing a race, immediately reject dwarves (they are terrible sorcerers), oppressed half-orcs , and half-ogres (otherwise there will be problems with finances and communication with the locals). Of the remaining races, you can try an elf , but it's better to take a dwarf - they will have bonuses to their stats. The rest ( half-elf , human , halfling ) are suitable if you want a challenging start.
From the main character's backstory, I recommend paying attention to the Overprotected Childhood . This will reduce the player's strength to that of a rabbit (although the rabbit will have one more), but will raise other useful stats. The first points should be spent on the spells Stun ( Charm included), Charm Beast , and one point in Persuasion . The remaining point is for spare.
This is what character selection looks like:
Equipment
In Tarant, it's worth buying a Small Tuxedo , which gives +20 to the reaction of law-abiding members of society. You can go without a hat, but mid-game it's worth buying a Dark Helmet from the Gypsies to increase your magical affinity. In Ashbury, buy Gloves of Dexterity , and at the Magic Blacksmith's shop, get Enchanted War Boots.
Virgil will carry a change of clothes for us— Small Oiled Thief Armor or Small Shadow Robe —to reach Apprentice rank in thief skills without fully leveling them. It's also worth buying Gauntlets of Light Hands to make pickpocketing easier. Find or buy a staff with +40 or +50 mana, which we will occasionally take from Virgil for our own use.
In our inventory (or, again, in Virgil's bag), we should also have:
- Potion of Intelligence
- A bottle of wine (until we discover Earth Power )
- A couple of speed potions
- A couple of healing potions (just in case)
- Something that restores mana (don't give this to Virgil - he'll gobble it up!)
- Exit Scroll
- Scroll of Identification
- Scroll of Detect Invisibility
I also recommend acquiring the following artifacts:
Most of the magical junk will be sold (and for a good price, too!). Virgil can be dressed to your liking, but don't give him a fast weapon, or he'll kill someone!
Random Encounter Tactics
Avoiding them until you get the teleportation spell won't work. Make sure turn-based mode is enabled, that your companions don't attack before you, and use the hotkeys:
- F5 companions retreat and run after the protagonist.
- W open the world map window.
- R quickly enters or exits combat mode.
- Space combat mode changes from turn-based to real-time.
- 1-0 hotkey slots.
Meetings come in different forms:
- Small animals—spiders, wolves, bears, and others—are guaranteed to work with Charm Animal , although for a large pack you'll need to use it multiple times (magic may not work).
- Orcs. You can buy them off, but you can't talk your way out of it (you didn't take an orc protagonist, did you?). The only thing left to do is quickly Stun them, then open the map window and escape. Don't forget to recall your companions, otherwise they won't let you escape! If there are too many orcs or the stun doesn't last long, switch to real-time mode and run away. You can try entangling them with Entangle , scaring them with Nightmare , or buffing your speed if you have these skills trained.
- Large beasts and large rats with magic resistance. How are they different from orcs?
- Agents of Moloch. Choose the right dialogue options and avoid combat. If that doesn't work, perhaps level up Charm and Persuasion , or perhaps the protagonist has a loose tongue and is recognized everywhere. Escape will be difficult, especially if a mage is in their party.
Tactics for completing dungeons
It's all simple:
- First, we need to decide whether our companions will accompany us or wait at the entrance. This depends on our Intelligence (how many spells we can maintain), the number of companions, and the type of undead in the dungeon.
- Equip a magic staff to boost your mana. Add a couple of potions to your inventory (in case of damage from traps).
- We cast Invisibility (on ourselves and on those who dared to come with us) and clear out the chests until we have enough mana. We replenish it with whatever we have at hand or run outside for some fresh air and wait an hour.
- Don't enter combat mode near monsters! They'll somehow find out, and invisibility won't help.
- Don't cast spells ( like Unlocking Charms ) near the enemy! It's best to time your position so they're far away from the main character and the treasure chest.
- You can escape from a difficult dungeon (or if the player has been discovered) using a scroll, the main thing is to hide it in your inventory beforehand.
- If you don't have the strength to carry off your honest loot, drink wine. Be careful! Your Intelligence may drop, and spell buffs will stop working. It's not recommended to drink both an Intelligence-boosting potion and wine at the same time—it will cause glitches.
The Pacifist Strategy:
Experience... will be sorely lacking at the beginning of the game. Therefore, take on all available quests. You can set the difficulty level to EASY for a higher return.
The main spell (besides the starting Stun and Charm Animal ) is Invisibility . The main skill is Persuasion.
Conclusion? Reach Expert in Persuasion , then invest in Willpower and level up Invisibility , after which you can relax a bit and finally reach Master in Persuasion and 20 in Charisma.
If money is sorely lacking or completing thieves' quests is very difficult, unlock the Unlocking Charm spell and loot every barrel for profit.
If you lack experience, you can cheat a little and open quest locations by reaching them before the plot clue.
Below are some recommendations for specific quests, so if you don't want spoilers (), you should stop here.
A note from a wolf in sheep's clothing.
A little about tracking deaths in the log:
- A kill committed by your companion will be recorded in the log, even if they are currently waiting outside the party.
- Killing by poison does not count.
- Suicide as a result of a critical miss does not count.
- Death from a cursed thing doesn't count.
- Killing a target by someone outside the player's party doesn't count. All that's left is to set them on it.
- Dynamite is an accident. If no one saw it.
Peaceful Mage Walkthrough (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)
Author: dimamatik