Character creation tips?

[NineHostages]

I'm looking forward to finally trying this out tomorrow. At the moment, any detailed explanation of the character creation mechanics is probably going to fly over my head, but I was wondering if anyone had an tips for creating my character. I wanted to make a Castoff that is basically similar to my Nameless One in Planescape: Torment: a mage who is very insightful and persuasive in conversation. From what little I've read, Numenera seems a bit more nuanced than the old game's system, but would it be possible to make a Nano that also persuades? Or would a Jack make more sense? Basically, what kind of character build will let me get the most out of conversation, and also do some freaky techno-magical stuff? Thanks for any help.

[Procrastinating Gamer]

Nanos can do the talky stuff perfectly well (they get a bonus to their Intellect Pool and most dialogue-related tests are Intellect Tests) and there's a Focus (which you get from a quest involving a bit of elaborate clock repair) that makes the Last Castoff even better at convincing people.

Only other thing is the Descriptor, which is actually the first thing you pick, and looking through a list of them you'd probably want to go with either Charming, Clever or Slick. So the end result's going to look something like "The Last Castoff is a Charming/Clever/Slick Nano who Brandishes a Silver Tongue".

And that's literally the full extent of character build complexity in Numenera. Beyond that, just pick whatever abilities and skills look like they fit the character you want to play.

[NineHostages]

Thanks! If this game is anything like Planescape: Torment I'm probably going to play through it a hundred times anyway.