Trying to build the ultimate lore master, any advice?

[GenericNickname]

Hey everyone, I've played this game countless times, but never as one who's sole focus is exploring and tinkering. I'm trying to create the character that can do and learn as much as he/she can. That means both figuring out background lore and exploring new places (like, for instance, the abyss). I need some help doing it, so a few questions.
1) Best starting stats to accomplish it? I'm sure I'll need a few in con/strength/perception to explore the abyss.
2) Best Vignette (I figure lore master, unless someone else can make a point)
3) What's the best way to playthrough (that is to say, what groups should I work with and when)

Thanks!



Also, completely unrelated but something I've been wondering for a while. Should a loyal merchant's guild member kill or escort cassius? What loremaster would they want Antidas to have?

[Philippe_at_bay]

Loremasters need a lot of Intelligence. Good Perception helps, and interesting things start to happen when you have a lot of Charisma. You probably don't need much (any?) strength, but you'll need some (not a lot) of Constitution for the slums in Maadoran. Loremasters are first cousins to Grifters and charlatans, so they need a lot of social skills.

The Cassius question is intriguing. My current thinking is that non-combat loremasters should kill him, but non-loremasters shouldn't. You can learn some fascinating things from Cassius (he really is the better loremaster), but if your Charisma is high enough there is a crucial clue that you can only learn from Feng that you'll need in Maadoran. It might be possible to get this clue later on, but I wouldn't know because I haven't talked to Feng in exile yet. If you're planning on killing Cassius, you can put all of your combat points into Critical Strike unless you want to build a hybrid.

Leaving aside what a loremaster should do about Cassius, I would think a Commercium merchant's attitude towards getting rid of Cassius would have a lot to do with how they felt about killing people and whether or not it was of any utility to them. On one level I would think that a merchant would not get involved in the first place. Feng is a charlatan, albeit a very well educated one. Charlatans are potential competition, so if you had to side with one or the other, you would probably prefer to side with Cassius. A loremaster who had worked for Feng, on the other hand, would be weighing his moral qualms about homicide against any residual loyalty.

[GenericNickname]

Thanks, I'm thinking for gameplay it would go something like

Loremaster Vignette-> Commercium first quest-> fix smelter-> HA praetor-> however I want in act three. That should give nearly all the locations, correct? Or am I missing something?

[artofwar]

For maximum content + killing stuff, I recommend the route in my guide (which is currently out of date with the most recent SP changes, but the general route is still very solid):

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=848799554

For Role Play purposes, I don't really know. I never want to the fix smelter because it loses out on content and/or SP versus other routes, but I can see how it makes sense for a pure loremaster RP run.

I do have an opinion on the Cassius vs. Feng debate from the Commercium perspective, however. IMO, Cassius is a 'stick in the mud' who will consistently adhere to the best evidence in drawing conclusions (which I admire in real life). Feng, on the other hand, is a wheeler-dealer who is more than willing to negotiate a good deal and do his part in spinning whatever "lore" supports that deal. For those reasons, I think the merchant guild would probalby prefer to have Feng over Cassius.

[GenericNickname]

Originally posted by artofwar:

For maximum content + killing stuff, I recommend the route in my guide (which is currently out of date with the most recent SP changes, but the general route is still very solid):

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=848799554

For Role Play purposes, I don't really know. I never want to the fix smelter because it loses out on content and/or SP versus other routes, but I can see how it makes sense for a pure loremaster RP run.

I do have an opinion on the Cassius vs. Feng debate from the Commercium perspective, however. IMO, Cassius is a 'stick in the mud' who will consistently adhere to the best evidence in drawing conclusions (which I admire in real life). Feng, on the other hand, is a wheeler-dealer who is more than willing to negotiate a good deal and do his part in spinning whatever "lore" supports that deal. For those reasons, I think the merchant guild would probalby prefer to have Feng over Cassius.

This is great! Thank you!