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Arcanum Again: Grond
I've been awfully short of time lately, which sucks. Because I'm also very addicted to Arcanum right now. The result: I'm staying up way too late most nights, playing. And I'm so %@$ing tired you wouldn't believe it. On Sunday, I almost literally crashed; I had to take a four-hour nap in the late afternoon, and I mean I HAD to take that nap.
Grond, my half-ogre, is doing extremely well. He's up to level 32 or 33 now, and has just finished cleaning out the haunted castle and killing the Lord of the Damned. Oddly enough these are relatively minor quests, and they were remarkably easy. But this is probably because Grond is higher level than he's supposed to be at this point.
I've been taking my time, travelling on foot overland rather than by train, and consequently picking up a lot of experience via random encounters. What's more, Grond is a combat machine; his Strength is 24 (the maximum possible), and his Dexterity is 20 (also the maximum for a half-ogre). He uses a very fast weapon (usually a Sword of Air), and in combat he literally races around the field. This helps him in an odd way.
Right now, he has three NPC followers: Virgil the healer, Sog Mead Mugg the half-ogre grunt, and Dog, the most powerful fighting NPC in the game. They're quite useful, but each blow they strike against an enemy deprives Grond of the experience he could get for that blow. If they kill an enemy Grond gets the experience for the kill, but not for the individual blows that were struck.
So by being insanely fast, and racing around the field to kill every enemy before his followers can touch them, Grond gains a huge bonus in experience points. And since followers go up a level when he does, they don't lose anything in the process either. Everybody wins!
The only thing is, I'm not sure what to do with Grond now, in terms of development. His primary stats are at maximum, after all. Likewise his Melee and Dodge skills are maxed out, though he still needs to do the Mastery quests for both. But those quests don't take character points. So I went online to an Arcanum chatroom, and got the suggestion to learn some Temporal spells, with an eye towards picking up a spell of Haste Self. Apparently that doubles speed, and with a doubled speed I suspect Grond will be absolutely unbeatable.
I'm also tempted to put points into his Persuasion skill, but we'll see. They say it's possible to simply persuade the Big Boss at the end of the game to commit suicide rather than fighting him to the death, but it's supposed to be really hard and require a very high Intelligence.
Another thing I may learn is Explosives skill. Grond's weakest point is his lack of ranged weapons, and the thought of a Molotov-cocktail-making (and throwing) half-ogre amuses me.
If I start another character (and I probably will) I think I'll specialize in technology for a change. Could be fun.
Grond, my half-ogre, is doing extremely well. He's up to level 32 or 33 now, and has just finished cleaning out the haunted castle and killing the Lord of the Damned. Oddly enough these are relatively minor quests, and they were remarkably easy. But this is probably because Grond is higher level than he's supposed to be at this point.
I've been taking my time, travelling on foot overland rather than by train, and consequently picking up a lot of experience via random encounters. What's more, Grond is a combat machine; his Strength is 24 (the maximum possible), and his Dexterity is 20 (also the maximum for a half-ogre). He uses a very fast weapon (usually a Sword of Air), and in combat he literally races around the field. This helps him in an odd way.
Right now, he has three NPC followers: Virgil the healer, Sog Mead Mugg the half-ogre grunt, and Dog, the most powerful fighting NPC in the game. They're quite useful, but each blow they strike against an enemy deprives Grond of the experience he could get for that blow. If they kill an enemy Grond gets the experience for the kill, but not for the individual blows that were struck.
So by being insanely fast, and racing around the field to kill every enemy before his followers can touch them, Grond gains a huge bonus in experience points. And since followers go up a level when he does, they don't lose anything in the process either. Everybody wins!
The only thing is, I'm not sure what to do with Grond now, in terms of development. His primary stats are at maximum, after all. Likewise his Melee and Dodge skills are maxed out, though he still needs to do the Mastery quests for both. But those quests don't take character points. So I went online to an Arcanum chatroom, and got the suggestion to learn some Temporal spells, with an eye towards picking up a spell of Haste Self. Apparently that doubles speed, and with a doubled speed I suspect Grond will be absolutely unbeatable.
I'm also tempted to put points into his Persuasion skill, but we'll see. They say it's possible to simply persuade the Big Boss at the end of the game to commit suicide rather than fighting him to the death, but it's supposed to be really hard and require a very high Intelligence.
Another thing I may learn is Explosives skill. Grond's weakest point is his lack of ranged weapons, and the thought of a Molotov-cocktail-making (and throwing) half-ogre amuses me.
If I start another character (and I probably will) I think I'll specialize in technology for a change. Could be fun.
no subject
I was very tired yesterday too. I fell asleep shortly after coming home, which is kind of weird for me.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2004-01-14 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)"Virgil the Healer"?
Well, Grond is presumably prepared if he should happen
to go into the Inferno. :)