Magic or Technology Storyline

[Daigoji Gai]

So I haven't played this in 20 years since graduating from college, and debating doing two playthrus to experience magic and technology. Problem I am having starting at the character creation screen is which storyline to do first.

To be frank, my first and only playthrough I did it all wrong. I tried to mix magic and tech, which made the game extremely difficult but I wanted my spiders robots and ability to speak to the dead... also guns.

Now realize I made the experience far crazier than it needed to be.

I barely remember the story, so if you were to put aside min-max malarkey, which is never fun, what storyline was more compelling to you? The magic user storyline or the tech nerd?

[fauxpas]

I prefer magic personally.

[Crawling Chaos]

Storyline does not depend on what character build you choose. The only way to change the storyline is to ally with bad guys at the certain moment of the game. The choise between magic and technology has effect only at fights and some quests.
Technology is much deeper and fun than magic. You can gather materials, craft stuff, find blueprints of unique inventions in dungeons, many mechanisms are really interesting and fun.
As for magic - some spells are fun, some are really lame. Also magic is unbalanced and way too powerful. For example you can complete the whole game by literally clicking all enemies to death with the first spell of Necromancy. Also wizards can use teleport to any location of the game and technologists must walk on their own feet.
I would recommend playing as tech guy to get the best experience and dive into the game. Also you can always to the second playthrough as wizard because the game has great replayability.

[SouP]

Wizard is easiest. Magick is overpowered, tech is suffering unless you know exactly what you're doing, and even then, only for certain stuff.

[Daigoji Gai]

Originally posted by Crawling Chaos:

Storyline does not depend on what character build you choose. The only way to change the storyline is to ally with bad guys at the certain moment of the game. The choise between magic and technology has effect only at fights and some quests.
Technology is much deeper and fun than magic. You can gather materials, craft stuff, find blueprints of unique inventions in dungeons, many mechanisms are really interesting and fun.
As for magic - some spells are fun, some are really lame. Also magic is unbalanced and way too powerful. For example you can complete the whole game by literally clicking all enemies to death with the first spell of Necromancy. Also wizards can use teleport to any location of the game and technologists must walk on their own feet.
I would recommend playing as tech guy to get the best experience and dive into the game. Also you can always to the second playthrough as wizard because the game has great replayability.

This would be technically my second playthrough since launch of the game back in the day, but I barely remember it except the opening Zepp crash and me having difficulty because I tried to do both magic and tech with my build back then. So technically it is a semi-first playthrough again. Hmm. Ok, I'll trudge through as a tech to re-experience then breeze through with magic.

How does this impact some NPCs like Virgil - am I going to have to avoid magic based users because if I get too close magic will short circuit and do zany things?

Originally posted by SouP:

Wizard is easiest. Magick is overpowered, tech is suffering unless you know exactly what you're doing, and even then, only for certain stuff.

Welp this should be interesting.

[Crawling Chaos]

Originally posted by Daigoji Gai:

How does this impact some NPCs like Virgil - am I going to have to avoid magic based users because if I get too close magic will short circuit and do zany things?

The higher your aptitude to technology is, the less magic affects you - you get less damage from magic attacks but magic artifacts do not give you any benefit, healing magic does not work on you and so on. For example Virgil's healing spells won't heal you at all so you have to craft healing salve to heal yourself or your non-magic allies. Same thing with high magic aptitude - you often miss with guns (you may even hurt yourself), healing salve does not work on you and so on, also your magical aura disrupts techology so traders from techology shops won't let you in, you can't use subway in Tarant. Also there is a companion in Dernholm that won't join you if you are a magic user.

[SouP]

Originally posted by Daigoji Gai:

Welp this should be interesting.

For what it's worth, the charged ring from electrical discipline is an easy +4 DEX worn on both slots, which contributes to combat neatly.

[Salutations]

Tech runs are also the most fun. Magic is overpowered as others have said, and a solid melee build will destroy, and the perfect mix of the two is utterly overpowered, more-so than just a magic user. Tech however, is still the most enjoyable. My favorite tech is a bow using, grenade tossing half-elf female thats uglier than the ugly stick that she was beaten with. Its just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great. Getting companions kinda sucked, but Virgil and the dog dont give a ♥♥♥♥, so screw the other 99.99% of the NPCs.