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1* AntiClimaxBoss:
2** [[spoiler:Because of a bug, Kerghan in his OneWingedAngel form isn't as strong as you would expect from the final boss, as he deals very small damage in melee. In fact, [[FlunkyBoss blue zombies summoned by him]] are arguably a bigger threat than him, since they can [[ThatOneAttack damage your armor with their fire attack]]]].
3** The Schuylers talk a big game about their prowess in necromancy, but will bum rush you with their fists the moment combat starts. Perhaps due to a programming bug they will at most cast a single low-level necromancy spell, but the player is unlikely to even see that.
4* AssPull: [[spoiler: The Living One can become a God by the end of the game by choosing a very specific set of dialogue options with Kerghan, but it comes without any sort of foreshadowing or narrative build-up that could suggest that such thing should be even possible. It doesn't even seem to derive from completing the Ancient Gods' quest, as any player character can claim godhood without interacting with divine beings of Arcanum at all.]]
5* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Fate Points are given for completing certain quests and can be used for things like guaranteed crits, good reactions, or instant full-heals. About the only thing a savvy player will use them for is taking the high-end gear from [=NPCs=] without them noticing.
6* DemonicSpiders:
7** Fire Elementals, and to a lesser extent their smaller cousins. They're insanely tough (because they're made of fire), damage both your armor and weapons (again, fire), and have a nasty habit of appearing in packs. One quest actually forces you to trek through a cave full of these things.
8** Golems are this to a lesser extent, especially since you're forced to fight them a lot earlier than you'd normally be ready unless you abuse the mechanics to jump ahead 30 levels. Like Fire Elementals, attacking them damages your weapons since they're made of rock. Some of them also come superheated for fire damage, making them almost as bad as Fire Elementals.
9** Finally, at the bottom of the barrel but still no less annoying, are the blue zombies. Not only are they at least twice as tough as any other zombie, they cause fire damage when they strike (did we mention that damages your armor?). Sensing a pattern here?
10** In an example that surprisingly ''doesn't'' involve fire, the barbarians at Kree are some of the toughest human enemies in the game, easily equal to a late-game melee character. To make it worse, it's extremely difficult to attack them without getting mobbed by several at once. A resurrect spell or tech-based alternative is highly recommended, and they are prime zombification targets for the same reason.
11* DifficultySpike: The Black Mountain Mines can catch unprepared players off guard, introducing a lot of very tough enemies. Enjoy the rock sprites, seething masses, and ore golems which do damage to any melee weapons you try to hit them with (and damage to ''that attacker'' if not using a weapon). Also, there's tons of traps all over the place that will damage you if you're not careful and a huge maze-like dungeon that will certainly get you lost if you don't know where you're going.
12* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: It's often considered as having an excellent story, dialogue choices and level-up options but with mediocre combat gameplay. The combat can get in the way of the story, as there are plenty of unskippable fights, some of which can be quite hard, [[EarlyGameHell especially at the beginning when the player character can die in a few unlucky hits]].
13* EvilIsCool: [[{{Necromancer}} Geoffrey Tarellond-Ashe]], [[DemBones Torian Kel]] and [[MysticalWaif Z'an Al'urin]] are some of the most popular followers among fans, despite being considered evil in the game (and thus not being available for recruiting in most of proper playthroughs). It helps that, compared to many other followers, they have very distinctive personalities, intriguing backstories and great voice acting.
14* FridgeBrilliance:
15** Torian Kel is remarkable for being one of few potential followers who can join the Living One with low intelligence and also being a rare character in the game who talks to the dumb protagonist as if he was talking to the one with normal intelligence, without commenting on or mocking their weird way of speech. While it can be easily dismissed as developer's oversight, there is a possible in-universe explanation for this. Being an undead warrior [[FishOutOfTemporalWater who was resurrected a millenium after his death]], Torian observed how civilization, way of life and habits of Arcanum drastically changed during his absence and it is likely that he had noticed how [[LanguageDrift language evolved in thousand years]]. It is entirely possible that he doesn't consider the dumb player's speech as a deviation from the norm, but simply takes it as granted that it's how people talk in the modern day, and thus doesn't see it necessary to correct the Living One's manner of speaking.
16** Z'an Al'urin [[DesignatedVillain doesn't appear as evil as her character sheet indicates]] and she's [[OnlySaneMan questioning the philosophy and morality of her peers]]. Yet you can't recruit her if you're good (unless you're Master in Persuation, that is). That's because she's in the ''beginning'' of her HeelFaceTurn, haven't had time to atone for her past misdeeds and is therefore uncomfortable around good aligned people.
17* GameBreaker: There are enough to give them [[GameBreaker/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura their own page]].
18* GeniusBonus:
19** You shouldn't be surprised that the ''Zephyr'' is doomed once you see its interior: the staircase and lounge look just like those on board the ''Titanic''.
20** The name of priest Arbalah, a central character of one of the first side quests in the game, consists of two parts: arba (a Hebrew word for "four") and alah (an Arabic word for "god"). This makes a perfect name for a priest in a universe where there are ''four'' Greater Gods.
21* GoddamnBats: Orc bandits and the Molochean Hand can be a threat early in the game, but they're quickly reduced to an annoyance that pops up any time you're wandering the eastern half of the map. Their loot isn't even worth that much if you sell it. The only legitimately good loot from them, are the rare giant-sized plate mails, worn by Ogre Destroyers in high-level orc groups, but they're so rare that you can play through the game several times without even meeting them.
22* GoodBadBugs:
23** The Reflective Shield spell has a certain unorthodox application. Normally it reflects any spell cast at the character with the shield on them back at the caster, this goes for both beneficial and damaging spells. However, the shield treats canceling sustained spells as a spell in and of itself. Meaning if you cast, for instance, Polymorph on someone, then cast Reflective Shield on them and ''then'' cancel the Polymorph, then the ''cancellation'' will be reflected back at you, the Polymorph effect will be removed from your sustained effects bar but will ''not'' be removed from the target, meaning they are now permanently a sheep. This works for any spell that needs to be sustained, including Mind Control and summoning creatures.
24** Certain followers do not count toward the total party size, allowing to amass a small army. Some are simply bugged. Others are temporary party members that can be kept around indefinitely via different bugs and loopholes. In total, it's possible to have a party of 12, while "legally" it is capped at 7 members (one of those being the dog).
25** In a unpatched game, the effects of The Dark Helmet (+ Magic Affinity and + Evil Points) were permanent for everytime you put it on. A great way to make your spell more powerful and/or make better use of your magical gear, as long as you don't mind being the most evil being in the game.
26** If you are playing as a gunslinger, there is no point in applying the final official patch. Without it, the Looking Glass Rifle deals a "range" of 40-40 damage due to a kerfuffle in damage tables, making gun-totting characters viable all the way until the tail-end of the game. Apply the patch, and it goes down to the intended and disappointing 10-30 damage range (which at its low speed is pretty bad). Or, as people found out, just play the Polish release, where for whatever reason the final patch shipped with the game doesn't cover this bug.
27* HilariousInHindsight: Gilbert Bates, the presumed inventor of the steam engine, who holds the monopoly on making steam engines, is a reference to Bill Gates of Microsoft. His competitor, Cedric Appleby (probably an {{Expy}} of Steve Jobs), is a reference to the Apple corporation, who competes with Microsoft. Today, Apple has already surpassed Microsoft as the bigger tech company made famous by their I-Products such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. With a market value of about $460 billion, Apple is worth more than Google, Goldman Sachs, General Motors, Ford, Starbucks and Boeing combined. Apple is now worth almost twice as much as Microsoft (about $258 billion) and more than twice as much as Google ($198 billion). On the personal wealth side, though, Jobs was never even close to being as rich as Gates.
28* ItWasHisSled: Nowdays, most people know the game as the one where [[spoiler: you are TheUnchosenOne and the BigBad is [[TheManBehindTheMan a completely different character]]]], even before the fact it has an unique setting mixing high fantasy and steampunk. Upon premiere, those things were a colossal twist.
29* JerkassWoobie: Gilbert Bates. Mother died in childbirth, father committed suicide in his youth, denied the approval he desperately wanted from the dwarves, learned he was somehow responsible for the exile of said dwarves, chased by the Molochean hand... the jerkass part comes from the way he treats his orcish employees and low-Int player characters.
30* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler: [[EnlightenedAntagonist Kerghan the Terrible]] is a pre-eminent human mage from the Age of Legends whose tireless pursuits led to the discovery of an entirely new yet twisted college of Magick - the Black Necromancy. Banished to the Void by Nasrudin for his immoral expermients, Kerghan found himself able to travel to the afterlife and from where he drew conclusions that life is a distortion which condemns disturbed souls to pain and suffering and needs to be [[OmnicidalManiac destroyed entirely to bring the eternal peace]]. Pretending to be their master Arronax, his old rival who he had defeated and imprisoned long before, Kerghan guided the Dark Elves to infiltrate the Panarii Church and instructed them to orchestate the banishment of the Black Mountain Clan in order to pave his way back to Arcanum. Upon meeting [[PlayerCharacter the Living One]], Kerghan [[MotiveRant explains his motives in great detail]], invoking the arguments that even [[VillainHasAPoint several of the hero's followers find to be legitimate]]. Kerghan then tries [[WeCanRuleTogether to win over the protagonist]] and allows them to examine and challenge his beliefs, [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath succumbing to their reasoning if he finds it especially convincing]]. Manipulating the world events beyond the mortal plane and solidifying himself as the real BigBad of the story, Kerghan manifests himself as not only the most dangerous threat Arcanum has ever faced, but also as the Living One's greatest intellectual foe.]]
31* MoralEventHorizon:
32** Enforced with the [[DealWithTheDevil "Sold you Soul"]] background trait, with the PC having made a pact with a demon for extra magic affinity, at the cost of your Alignment never getting above -20.
33** [[spoiler: Garrick Stout became captain of the guard purely so he could stalk a noblewoman, and when he found out she was already engaged, he rendered the fiancee blind in what was promised to be a fair duel, then arranged for the fiancee to become trapped in a cave full of monsters solely so he could save her (or have the player save her on his behalf).]]
34** [[spoiler: Charles Bregho and his friend Simon Farcus murdered the wife and son of elven priest Arbalah after the latter took them to their house and fed them, and stole his sacred artefact.]]
35** [[spoiler: Murdering the population of Stillwater is one for you, if you join Dark Elves.]]
36** [[spoiler: Gnomes of Tarantian Industrial Council crossed this with their vile experiments on breeding half-ogres, using human women and queen of Tarant as breeders, murdering the king and his family with many nobles, after king's clerks uncovered their plan.]]
37* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The menacing sound that plays every time you equip the Aerial Decapitator, directly taken from the weapon's [[Film/MasterOfTheFlyingGuillotine cinematic source inspiration]], which, in its turn, took the sound exempt from the ''[[https://youtu.be/MP-RRubj9fU?t=40 Super 16]]'' song by Music/{{Neu}}.
38* NightmareFuel:
39** The game over screen depicts a crude grave accompanied with a ScareChord.
40** The Greater Liches lets out a loud, terrifying howl as they die.
41** [[AndIMustScream The fate of the Gray Legionnaires]]. Sentinent undead that eventually crumbled into dust and are still conscious. There's nothing you can do to them. Their only survivor is Torian Kel, at that point a crumbling skeleton, begging you to revive him. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential You can just leave him if you wish]]. Should you recruit him and he's present to your encounter with [[spoiler: Kerghan, he will realize that Kerghan's goal of exterminating all life on Arcanum has the side effect of releasing his comrades, so he'll side with him.]] Can you blame him?
42** The Siamese Twins Skulls quest chain is one of the most horrific sidequests ever written for a CRPG. The plot follows the party trying to figure out the meaning of an anthropological curiosity found in the Tarant's warehouses. After searching for some items, deducing some evidence and talking to a number of well-informed individuals, they reach a mysterious laboratory off the coast of the main continent and stumble across the AwfulTruth: [[spoiler: members of the Gnomish Council have been kidnapping women en-masse to use as breeding slaves for their own personal bodyguard caste of half-ogres. Not only have numerous women been essentially ''bred to death'' by these experiments (as half-ogres usually only reproduce with other half-ogres, meaning a human female/half-ogre male coupling will kill the mother at birth), the royal family was also disposed of this way. A chilling diary entry reveals the queen gave birth to several half-ogres before she died.]] The worst part of it all? ''You can't do a damn thing about it.'' In a chilling instance of TheBadGuyWins, there's nothing you can do to punish any of the people responsible for this, [[RetiredMonster since it happened decades ago.]] Everyone who could be avenged is long dead, [[spoiler: breeding camps of half-ogres have been set up to continually produce more bodyguards]], and all of your contacts [[spoiler: are [[KillAndReplace killed or replaced]] by agents of the council after presenting evidence of these crimes]]. The questline ends with [[spoiler: all the evidence back at the laboratory going missing]], meaning there is no hope of ever getting justice for what was done. All of this comes right the hell out of nowhere, and has gone on to be one of the more infamous parts of the game, not helped by it being highly reminiscent of many antisemitic conspiracy theories. The only way to get a slight amount of vengeance is by setting up a series of events for the ending wherein [[spoiler: the Gnomes are ousted from power in the Unified Kingdom and their financial ambitions crumble as a result]], but even then the game doesn't acknowledge it.
43* ScrappyMechanic:
44** Auto-scheme (allowing the game to automatically spend skill points at level-up). While it grants some gameplay challenge, it wastes many skill-points on [[DumpStat Dump Stats]] like Health and Fatigue boosts. Pre-made characters use this by default, but fortunately, you can turn this off anytime.
45** Followers may negatively react to whom you choose to attack, based on their alignment and that of the target, as well as its prior hostility. While it's not a bad idea in principle, this mechanic unfortunately doesn't account for certain situations in which attacking someone or something is at worst morally neutral, and at best outright positive. Examples include:
46*** Choosing to attack an ''already hostile creature'' before they had a chance to see you.
47*** Attacking a prostitute murderer who's fulfilling the whims of a sadistic demon and actually wants to die.
48*** Attacking a man who literally just asked you to assassinate the king of Caladon.[[note]]Though you can simply report him to the guards, i.e. the "good" option, you can't help.[[/note]]
49*** Trying to break into [[TheDon Pollock]]'s residence by assaulting his door, even though they won't complain about other forms of larceny.
50** [=NPCs=] pick up almost any item that lays on the ground near them. Now, this behavior can potentially be abused by a savvy player - [=NPCs=] can be tricked into wearing poisoned amulets, or Lukan's half-ogres forced into using railroad spikes as weapons so they can't deal proper damage with their fists. However, it gets annoying very quickly when followers start to pick up any trash that slows down their movement (to the point where they can casually pick up 5000 stone boulders that take up almost the entire inventory space). And because of weird AI priorities, it often makes them automatically equip inferior weapons and armor, instead of the ones you assigned to them.
51** Module campaigns like Vormantown were originally intended to be multiplayer, meaning there's no world map and the time-passing/sleep mechanic is disabled. Disabling free healing is already bad enough, but this also means that shopkeepers can't refresh their inventory (so they run out of the healing items you keep buying) and also money (so you can't keep selling to them, meaning you can't buy the higher-end gear) all combining for a lot of FakeDifficulty.
52* SelfImposedChallenge: A PacifistRun is possible if you have a high Persuasion skill and one of the following: [[StealthRun High prowling skill]], [[NonLethalWarfare technological non-lethal explosives]], or the {{Invisibility}} spell. Unless you side with the dark elves (where you need to go OmnicidalManiac on a town) and/or count [[spoiler:Kerghan's letting you kill him]] nothing must be killed to beat the game, or at least nothing sapient. TechnicalPacifist Runs are a bit easier: just build up your Charisma until you can sign up a bunch of henchmen to do your fighting for you.
53* TheScrappy: Before patches, [[HaveIMentionedIAmADwarfToday Magnus]] was considered more of a liability than an useful companion, because a bug allowed him to remain in the party without fulfilling his condition (killing the Schyler family instead of bargaining with them), but as a result made him prone to random mood swings and leaving the Living One half-way through the game for no explicable reason. Even then, after patches made him crystal clear about his reasons for leaving right where you recruit him, some players still can't stand his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold arrogant and self-important behavior]].
54* ThatOneAttack:
55** As noted in DemonicSpiders above, anything with the potential for fire damage is immediately at least twice as dangerous as any other form of enemy. Fire damages equipment, most things are not resistant to it, and the enemies that tend to use it are also usually much tougher than other enemies. Fortunately, if you get your hands on something with fire damage, like the pyrotechnic axe, it's just as broken in your hands.
56** If you somehow provoke [[spoiler:K'an Hua]] into fighting during an evil playthrough, you may notice that while he isn't the most challenging opponent overall, he knows [[OneHitKill the Disintegration spell]] and uses it well.
57* ThatOneBoss:
58** While it isn't necessary to kill [[{{Superboss}} Stringy Pete]] in order to advance the plot (though it's a possible option if you screw up the peaceful ones), if you dare to challenge him, prepare to fight with perhaps the toughest enemy in the game, as Stringy Pete is not only one of the best NPC melee fighters and has the strongest magickal equipment in the game, but he also summons five pirate skeletons to his aid, who are as strong as Pete is.
59** In a similar case, the Old Blind Master ([[GuideDangIt in case if you can find him with a guide]], since his location won't show on your map). He has [[MadeOfIron an absurdly large amount of HP]] and has the best throwing weapon in the entire game. Thankfully, sometimes he just runs away from you and doesn't fight back.
60* ThatOneLevel:
61** The Black Mountain Clan Mines. It's the only part of the game you can't talk your way around. Moreover, it's filled with rock golems which break most weapons when you attack them and do insane damage compared to what you've been fighting thus far. While there are other difficult combat-heavy areas, the Black Mountain Clan Mines are more notorious because they are a relatively early part of the main quest and because you can't get around doing them.
62** The Pit of Fires, for similar reasons. It's full of Seething Masses and Fire Elementals who'll ruin your day. Hope that you've got enough persuasion.
63** Getting out of the first town can be this for the violence-inclined and/or those without the right build. In order to leave, you have to get past the guys guarding the bridge. Unfortunately, the leader has two half-ogres who will beat your party to death in short order. You get stun grenades early on, but without throwing skill you have to save scum for a solid hit. To get past charitably, you either need a ton of money (more than you're likely to have or want to spend), to sabotage the new bridge being built (which will make the town hate you), or a single skill point in persuasion (which requires you to successfully bluff them in to leaving via a lengthy series of dialogue choices, make as little as two incorrect choices and you'll fail to convince them). You can also cheese the encounter by dropping some railroad spikes next to them, which are found with the grenades. Because they're all using their fists (which do a crapload of damage), the game considers them to be unarmed. That means they will automatically pick up and equip ''any'' weapon on the ground nearby, even if that weapon does far less damage than they'd normally do unarmed. Railroad spikes have a maximum damage of 1, which will render them mostly harmless.
64** T'sen Ang if you choose to free the half-ogre slaves. Everybody will turn hostile and they can be quite difficult, even with the ogres helping out.
65** At least Kree is optional, but the [[DemonicSpiders barbarians]] there are [[LightningBruiser very fast, hit hard]] and are often in groups. You'd better bring along a necromizer or two.
66* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Jayna Stiles, whose status as the sole tech-based healer makes her a very useful follower for tech-based [=PCs=]. Despite a sympathetic backstory that ties into the general state of affairs in Dernholm and Cumbria, she has no bearing on the actual quests centered on that kingdom, or the main plot. And to top it off, she doesn't even have voice acting.
67* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Although [[spoiler: the Half-Ogre Island quest chain]] is usually one of the most praised parts of the game for its shocking twist, many players were disappointed that it doesn't have a satisfying conclusion beyond TheReveal, nor does it affect any other quest or interaction in the game afterwards.
68* TheWoobie:
69** Randver Thunder Stone loses his father to exile long before he's ready to inherit the throne, and [[spoiler: he gets ''no'' endings that aren't at least somewhat [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]]: either his father returns to the throne and he isn't even mentioned in the ending, his father [[DyingMomentOfAwesome dies heroically]] and allows him to become a good ruler, or his failures as a king lead to a civil war that either causes him to lose the throne to a stronger candidate, or drives the dwarven race to near-extinction]].
70** One book mentions a loving human-orc couple, whose half-orc children both ended up in gangs due to mistreatment by other humans.

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