Underrail - Serbian pillow talk, turning Tricks, taking tips

[rusty_shackleford]

The game wasn't designed to be played on Dominating. Styg has said so,

pretty strange to add content that is only accessible if you play on dominating then

 

[Sheepherder]

The game wasn't designed to be played on Dominating. Styg has said so,

pretty strange to add content that is only accessible if you play on dominating then

Not really. There's not that much content that's dom exclusive - Sewer Masters, Utlity Tower Boss and I think that's it. Also, styg has mentioned that probably none of the developers play on dom or at least haven't completed the game on dom. Normal really is the intended way to play the game. Dom balancing is basically this:

 

[Whisper]

You seem angry, Blaine. Why? Chill.

Yoy can beat game on Dominating one day, Interloper is good feat, just chill, bro.

 

[Sykar]

There is a list of people from whom you should never take build advice, and on this list you'll find absolutely everyone who's ever recommended dropping Interloper.

Tested Interloper and than never used it in 10+ full runs on Dominating.
You really do not need it, you have enough stealth to pass all encounters you want (even cloaking device is not really needed though you can use it for extra 70+ stealt).

For someone who played on hard once and did not master game mechanics, you have loud mouth and you are not in position to tell others from whom someone should take advise or not.

Not having to creep around at a snail's pace isn't merely a convenience, though it is also that—importantly, it allows you to sneak by and through areas much more safely and easily in spite of patrolling enemies, bump-inducing critters/minions, lurking crawlers, etc.

Why would you always move in stealth? Only use when enemies nearby.

I don't think I'd recommend specializing Interloper on a close-in build, however. I chose to do so with my sniper because it leaves me with 35 MP + Sprint after using Snipe.

If you invested in shooting spree and +crit damage fear you would not need those extra 15 mp from interloper at all. You can reliably kill 5 enemies in first turn as sniper user. And if someone survives and want those mp, you get +30 mp from Contraction and even extra +10 mp from jumping bean. Together with sprint they give 60 mp.

There are few feats you absolutely HAVE to have even on Dom, like Premed on psions or Aimed Shot/Shooting Spree on Snipers. Most builds get their core feats together around 14-16 and after that you have some freedom/flexibility even on Dom. Tin Cans need even less. Hell I have used Snooping on occasion on Per 3/4 chars because I like finding most secrets asap though I do consider it to be one of the weakest feats and in dire need of a buff considering its competition.
Furthermore I rarely if ever take Pickpocketing and often use lockpicking, despite so many claiming that pickpocketing is "superior" but I find being able to slip into any space very satisfying and useful quite often, wheras even on Dom unless I play SMG I could not care less about stealing ammo and stuff. You get some exclusive oddities so there is that I guess but you can still max your level quite a bit before the game ends. Also I find SI to be overrated as hell. One misstep and your character blows up, SI who runs around under the threshold 24/7 is even more fragile than any con 3 psion yet people make fun of them for some reason.
Yeah theoretically you can reach super high perception for secret finding without it but you absolutely have to go Expedition early which is no small feat and it takes a while until you come back. If you are PSI, you potentially won't even have your best abilities yet going into expedition.
Interloper with Paranoia and Nimble make even mediocre Per/Agi characters, combined 10 points or so, into respectable stealthers that can bypass quite some combat even while wearing gear with around 30%-35% armor penalty which is quite nice especially on Oddity where later fights are often nothing but a resource drain because most loot is garbage, not even worth picking up.
As to killing 5 enemies reliably, what does that even mean? At best you still have a 5% miss chance which can ruin your shooting spree leaving you stranded. Does it happen often? Considering the amount of combat you have if you engage into every enemy group, that is actually a lot in the long run. Meanwhile there is no missed chance when you evade enemies via stealth.

 

[Blaine]

The game wasn't designed to be played on Dominating. Styg has said so,

pretty strange to add content that is only accessible if you play on dominating then

I knew someone would produce this argument. Styg has had fun adding a bit of content for the true diehards, yes. That's because Dominating is its own special place, a sort of playground separate from the intended game experience; he can do crazy shit there without fucking up the default game. It's a challenge for his team, too, as indicated by Sheepherder's excerpt: How blatantly unfair can we make Dominating without actually rendering the game impossible to complete?

Dominating is not the baseline experience. The way Dominating is played is fundamentally different than the way the game is meant to be played, and that is on purpose. It's one thing to have fun with Dominating, but quite another to treat it as the only correct difficulty mode, the one to which everyone should aspire and for which Normal and Hard are merely training programs. Whisper, this serves as my reply your above post as well.

"Oh, I'VE beaten Dominating TEN TIMES! Who are you to contradict me?". I'm someone who's seen the phrase "drop Interloper" posted way too many fucking times over the years, that's who I am. Too often, almost inevitably, "drop Interloper" comes from Dominating-addicted, 18/3'ing, SI- and Ambush-abusing, bear trap- and molotov-spamming Contraction-Orientators.

 

[Sykar]

In principle I like Dom. I just do not like HOW the increase in difficulty was reached. It is immersion breaking at times like those 6 Goliathuses in front of the Hanged Rat that would murder every god damn patreon if they come into sniffing distance, and yeah, when I play RPGs I value "muh immärsun!" quite a bit.
The amount of cheesy shit like liberal use of molotovs is also annoying.

 

[Sheepherder]

Blaine I agree with your argument that dom isn't and shouldn't be the default difficulty. But dude, you picked the weirdest hill to die on, Interloper of all things! MP is ezpz to get for a char that can get interloper, it's 7 agi and sprint is 6 agi, so I'd just pick that instead. Is movement speed in stealth reaaaly worth a feat point? Most of the time, if I wanna get to somewhere without being seen, I use TNT for noise. Or grenades. Much easier to just get the enemies outta the way instead of trying to stealth past them. There are exceptions, like some of the beast and NPCs don't react to noise, but that's uncommon.
I think Interlopers would be marginally useful when trying to grab the cargo in the silent isle, it'd make the AI pathfinding RNG less annoying. Oh and also anywhere where there are hoppers and enemies. So mushroom cove and that area in DC with before labyrinth. Meh. I guess it can be picked as a tertiary luxury feat at level 20+ or something.

 

[Whisper]

The game wasn't designed to be played on Dominating. Styg has said so,

pretty strange to add content that is only accessible if you play on dominating then

I knew someone would produce this argument. Styg has had fun adding a bit of content for the true diehards, yes. That's because Dominating is its own special place, a sort of playground separate from the intended game experience; he can do crazy shit there without fucking up the default game. It's a challenge for his team, too, as indicated by Sheepherder's excerpt: How blatantly unfair can we make Dominating without actually rendering the game impossible to complete?

Dominating is not the baseline experience. The way Dominating is played is fundamentally different than the way the game is meant to be played, and that is on purpose. It's one thing to have fun with Dominating, but quite another to treat it as the only correct difficulty mode, the one to which everyone should aspire and for which Normal and Hard are merely training programs. Whisper, this serves as my reply your above post as well.

"Oh, I'VE beaten Dominating TEN TIMES! Who are you to contradict me?". I'm someone who's seen the phrase "drop Interloper" posted way too many fucking times over the years, that's who I am. Too often, almost inevitably, "drop Interloper" comes from Dominating-addicted, 18/3'ing, SI- and Ambush-abusing, bear trap- and molotov-spamming Contraction-Orientators.

You forgot to take your meds, or something, dude?
Interloper is great feat! Here, i said it. Feel better now?

Dominating is for no-lifers, true players like you play on Normal. You are ok, now?

 

[Sykar]

Blaine I agree with your argument that dom isn't and shouldn't be the default difficulty. But dude, you picked the weirdest hill to die on, Interloper of all things! MP is ezpz to get for a char that can get interloper, it's 7 agi and sprint is 6 agi, so I'd just pick that instead. Is movement speed in stealth reaaaly worth a feat point? Most of the time, if I wanna get to somewhere without being seen, I use TNT for noise. Or grenades. Much easier to just get the enemies outta the way instead of trying to stealth past them. There are exceptions, like some of the beast and NPCs don't react to noise, but that's uncommon.
I think Interlopers would be marginally useful when trying to grab the cargo in the silent isle, it'd make the AI pathfinding RNG less annoying. Oh and also anywhere where there are hoppers and enemies. So mushroom cove and that area in DC with before labyrinth. Meh. I guess it can be picked as a tertiary luxury feat at level 20+ or something.

Interloper's first and foremost useage is to get through areas avoiding combat which is a nice thing. 1 point more or less in agi is irrelevant and will never make or break a character. Nothing is stopping you from using both Sprint and Interloper either, Sprint even serving to speed you up outside of combat. For Crossbow and Sniper users more agi means more Snipe damage so it is never a waste. Interloper's MP allows for example to initiate at a corner, blow all your AP and still let you go around it to break LOS without wasting Sprint, just one example where it is useful. It can also be useful of you want to blow Blitz right away after exiting stealth, popping Sprint for it. Not everyone wants to go TM which is a very cheese school anyway thanks to the moronic no scaling shenaningans.
TNT is heavy. A lot of stealth builds have low str and therefore low carrying capacity even with food+belt, doubly so if you carry a lot of traps and grenades with you. Also arming TNT costs time. By the time you arm the TNT I am half way to where I wanted to go already. Nevermind that for that to work you need to know where and if there are enemies and where you can avoid them.
Is Interloper a top tier feat and must have on stealth characters? No, but very few feats can make that claim anyway. It is a good feat for stealthers especially on Oddity where a lot of fights are just a waste of time.
Blaine might be a bit crass but he has a point. Just blanketing stating "lol Interloper useless lol" is utterly retarded, period. Only like 2-3 feats are nigh useless outside of very niche or flavor reasons, like Burglar and Snooping. Interloper is far better than those 2 and requires little investment for stealther anyway.

 

[Blaine]

Blaine I agree with your argument that dom isn't and shouldn't be the default difficulty. But dude, you picked the weirdest hill to die on, Interloper of all things!

Interloper makes perfect sense as a hill to die on when you consider that feats like Burglar and Ninja Looter also exist.

I'm not blind to that feeling of "I'd like to have this feat, but I can live without it. This other feat will produce more alpha damage!" I usually have to make sacrifices to include Interloper, such as taking a whole string of subsequent feats two levels later than I otherwise could have, even if I don't ultimately have to give up a key "more power" feat entirely. In the case of the sniper build I'm currently playing, also consider that I eschew psi, which means that I have a couple of extra feat slots available to me that many power builders these days typically spend on TM feats.

I realize that Interloper exists partly in the land of convenience feats, but only partly, and far less so than, say, Pack Rathound.

MP is ezpz to get for a char that can get interloper, it's 7 agi and sprint is 6 agi, so I'd just pick that instead.

I picked both in this case. Sprint is very nearly a must-have feat for most every build that isn't a ranged tin can build.

Is movement speed in stealth reaaaly worth a feat point? Most of the time, if I wanna get to somewhere without being seen, I use TNT for noise. Or grenades. Much easier to just get the enemies outta the way instead of trying to stealth past them.

I'm not going to carry a pallet of TNT around with me everywhere to distract enemies. I certainly do use noise to distract enemies sometimes, especially when there's no other way, but like most things in this game (bear trap spam, etc.), I prefer not to take it to extremes.

I think Interlopers would be marginally useful when trying to grab the cargo in the silent isle, it'd make the AI pathfinding RNG less annoying. Oh and also anywhere where there are hoppers and enemies. So mushroom cove and that area in DC with before labyrinth. Meh. I guess it can be picked as a tertiary luxury feat at level 20+ or something.

It's useful anywhere you do need to remain in stealth continually while moving, such as burrower, crawler, and spider lairs, the Under-passages, the Rig, crab sands in Expedition with small crabs wandering around, the vast majority of Expedition dungeons and their Suddenly Not Statues (being further away when they start bumbling around is safer), etc. It allowed me to take the Reaching Man statuette from the Lunatics without ever firing a shot.

It's useful for getting inside enemy lines to a different vantage point for starting combat before their suspicion meters fill too much; it allows you to burgle containers, reach doors, and such like in controlled zones that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do in time; and alongside Trap Expert, which I also have on my current build, it allows you to move around at close to normal speed setting traps quickly and easily. That particular usage may be pure convenience, but give it a try sometime. It FEELS powerful to me.

The thing is, yes, Interloper is in fact a clasically marginal feat. It eats away at a margin, at the edges of the gradient of what it's possible to accomplish while stealthed. It's difficult to read its on-paper description and foresee a huge benefit, other than saving you a bit of time. I'm telling you, though: In practice, it offers much more than you see on paper when comparing it to a "more power" feat while planning a build.

Could I just blow up TNT and slowly drop a carpet of twenty bear traps everywhere? Yeah, probably. You've got me there. But you're the crazy bastard who used five hundred pounds of throwing nets and knives to kill Carnifex on Dominating. You aren't sane!

 

[Tygrende]

I have picked Interloper on my pacifist build on DOM, together with Burglar and Ninja Looter. Specced it, even. I also have Neurovisual Disruption memorized at all times. All are great. I go fast, I open stuff fast, I steal fast and I can even be invisible without being in stealth.

 

[Sykar]

Burglar and Ninja Looter are not great, not even close. Outside of your niche build, who wants it? 99% of people would forgoe it basically every single time. The benefits are too marginal and circumstancial to matter often enough. People already complain about skills like Persuasion, Dodge and Evasion from similar problems, either effectiveness over the course of the game or investment vs reward balance being heavily out of balance.

 

[Tygrende]

Who wants anything outside of their niche? No one wants Special Tactics outside of crossbow builds, doesn't make it bad. Things are not balanced strictly by how many builds can benefit from them. Interloper lets you stealth through things faster even though you can stealth through everything without it. Burglar and Ninja Looter do the same thing, just for opening things and stealing. Interloper has the added benefit of having some MP in stealth, which is nice enough in combat, especially for snipers which will almost always open with Snipe and could use some mobility on the 1st turn. I would even go as far as to say Burglar and Ninja Looter are better in the sense that there are some things which are extremly hard if not impossible to do without them - Burglar allows you to get into and rob a few places without triggering hostilities that you otherwise couldn't most likely, like the lockers behind the ticket vendors next to the Arena. Trying to pickpocket enemies without Ninja Looter is a pain ad requires pretty long incaps to pull off. Not like any of this is necessary, but neither is being fast in stealth.

Edit: I will admit though, the "10 bonus stealth in controlled areas" part of Burglar makes me laugh everytime. The spec that adds another +5 had me hospitalized once.

 

[Whisper]

Burglar and Ninja Looter are not great, not even close. Outside of your niche build, who wants it? 99% of people would forgoe it basically every single time.

Why are you arguing with people who think that Interloper is feat worth taking.

Just move on, they are beyond salvation.

 

[agris]

I started a 3/8/9/3/7/3/7 on Hard, first playthrough since alpha. I generally know what I'm trying to build, but I can always adapt depending on how gameplay feels. This is my rough gameplan though: link

smg build

 

[Sykar]

Who wants anything outside of their niche? No one wants Special Tactics outside of crossbow builds, doesn't make it bad. Things are not balanced strictly by how many builds can benefit from them. Interloper lets you stealth through things faster even though you can stealth through everything without it. Burglar and Ninja Looter do the same thing, just for opening things and stealing. Interloper has the added benefit of having some MP in stealth, which is nice enough in combat, especially for snipers which will almost always open with Snipe and could use some mobility on the 1st turn. I would even go as far as to say Burglar and Ninja Looter are better in the sense that there are some things which are extremly hard if not impossible to do without them - Burglar allows you to get into and rob a few places without triggering hostilities that you otherwise couldn't most likely, like the lockers behind the ticket vendors next to the Arena. Trying to pickpocket enemies without Ninja Looter is a pain ad requires pretty long incaps to pull off. Not like any of this is necessary, but neither is being fast in stealth.

Edit: I will admit though, the "10 bonus stealth in controlled areas" part of Burglar makes me laugh everytime. The spec that adds another +5 had me hospitalized once.

Your pacifist build is literally the only build which I have seen taking Burglar and Ninja Looter. Yeah plenty of feats are "niche" but not all niche feats are created equal. Feats like Snipe, Aimed Shot, Premed, etc are indeed niche but unlike the likes of Snooping, Burglar and Ninja Looter they are exceptionally strong though. You take them because there is hardly anything else worthwhile taking left or because you want a thematic build, that is it. Playing pacifists is something someone would do if they are bored out of their mind by conventional builds or just for the lulz. It is not even a meme build like Sheepherders max Evasion/Dodge Mono TM cave wizard build.
I actually wonder why you are even arguing this. Both of those feats are level 1 with LOADS of options that for the majority of the game will give you more benefits. There is absolutely NO argument to not give them a buff, none whatsever.

 

[Parabalus]

Blaine I agree with your argument that dom isn't and shouldn't be the default difficulty. But dude, you picked the weirdest hill to die on, Interloper of all things!

Interloper makes perfect sense as a hill to die on when you consider that feats like Burglar and Ninja Looter also exist.

I'm not blind to that feeling of "I'd like to have this feat, but I can live without it. This other feat will produce more alpha damage!" I usually have to make sacrifices to include Interloper, such as taking a whole string of subsequent feats two levels later than I otherwise could have, even if I don't ultimately have to give up a key "more power" feat entirely. In the case of the sniper build I'm currently playing, also consider that I eschew psi, which means that I have a couple of extra feat slots available to me that many power builders these days typically spend on TM feats.

I realize that Interloper exists partly in the land of convenience feats, but only partly, and far less so than, say, Pack Rathound.

MP is ezpz to get for a char that can get interloper, it's 7 agi and sprint is 6 agi, so I'd just pick that instead.

I picked both in this case. Sprint is very nearly a must-have feat for most every build that isn't a ranged tin can build.

Is movement speed in stealth reaaaly worth a feat point? Most of the time, if I wanna get to somewhere without being seen, I use TNT for noise. Or grenades. Much easier to just get the enemies outta the way instead of trying to stealth past them.

I'm not going to carry a pallet of TNT around with me everywhere to distract enemies. I certainly do use noise to distract enemies sometimes, especially when there's no other way, but like most things in this game (bear trap spam, etc.), I prefer not to take it to extremes.

I think Interlopers would be marginally useful when trying to grab the cargo in the silent isle, it'd make the AI pathfinding RNG less annoying. Oh and also anywhere where there are hoppers and enemies. So mushroom cove and that area in DC with before labyrinth. Meh. I guess it can be picked as a tertiary luxury feat at level 20+ or something.

It's useful anywhere you do need to remain in stealth continually while moving, such as burrower, crawler, and spider lairs, the Under-passages, the Rig, crab sands in Expedition with small crabs wandering around, the vast majority of Expedition dungeons and their Suddenly Not Statues (being further away when they start bumbling around is safer), etc. It allowed me to take the Reaching Man statuette from the Lunatics without ever firing a shot.

It's useful for getting inside enemy lines to a different vantage point for starting combat before their suspicion meters fill too much; it allows you to burgle containers, reach doors, and such like in controlled zones that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do in time; and alongside Trap Expert, which I also have on my current build, it allows you to move around at close to normal speed setting traps quickly and easily. That particular usage may be pure convenience, but give it a try sometime. It FEELS powerful to me.

The thing is, yes, Interloper is in fact a clasically marginal feat. It eats away at a margin, at the edges of the gradient of what it's possible to accomplish while stealthed. It's difficult to read its on-paper description and foresee a huge benefit, other than saving you a bit of time. I'm telling you, though: In practice, it offers much more than you see on paper when comparing it to a "more power" feat while planning a build.

Could I just blow up TNT and slowly drop a carpet of twenty bear traps everywhere? Yeah, probably. You've got me there. But you're the crazy bastard who used five hundred pounds of throwing nets and knives to kill Carnifex on Dominating. You aren't sane!

Interloper is pretty good for stealth melee, not as a QoL feat, but as a combat one, even on DOM.

Starting combat from stealth in melee with 50 AP without interloper is much harder, meaning you don't have to blow haste/sprint.

 

[Blaine]

Interloper is pretty good for stealth melee, not as a QoL feat, but as a combat one, even on DOM.

It's good as a combat feat for a sniper, too. I specced it to the maximum, and don't regret it a bit.

My build includes Blitz. If I choose to, on my first turn out of Stealth after using Shooting Spree and Snipe, I can use Blitz to consume only the MP from Interloper +10, which yields 11-12 AP, or optionally also consume a Jumping Bean and Blitz it all for 14-15 AP. This allows me to (ideally) fire a RR Spearhead three or four times, possibly fitting a grenade and/or several medications into the available AP (I use a Doctor's Pouch), with the added possibility of a RR +10-20 AP proc.

I can then activate Sprint (and possibly eat the Jumping Bean at this juncture instead, if desired) and still, after having done all of that, move a fair distance toward cover or around a corner. I may also, of course, choose to use Sprint immediately in order to receive the full 20 AP from Blitz, if I need the AP but don't anticipate needing much MP. I can of course further choose to use an Adrenaline Shot or Vitality Power, or one and then the other. Vanishing Powder grenades are also sometimes a factor.

The ability to fine-tune MP and AP juggling in this way is quite powerful, versatile, and very agile, fitting into a wide range of situations like a puzzle piece that I can customize on the fly. It would not be possible without specced Interloper. It allows me to, among other things, do entirely without a barrel retractor on my RR Spearhead, and fit a Smart Module instead. I rely on a powerful Tactical Short Tyranny or Refurbished Steyr-Auch for those now very rare situations when I'm cornered and unable move out of melee range.

All of this is completely apart from the (in my opinion) non-convenience advantage of being able to slip through and around enemy lines much more safely. The mere fact that you can sneak faster than a tin can can squeak-walk when wearing infused hopper leathers and tabi is just the icing on the cake. To be sure, I remain out of stealth whenever possible, because non-stealthed movement with the same gear is still significantly faster.

Starting combat from stealth in melee with 50 AP without interloper is much harder, meaning you don't have to blow haste/sprint.

That's an excellent point, yes.

 

[razvedchiki]

I started a 3/8/9/3/7/3/7 on Hard, first playthrough since alpha. I generally know what I'm trying to build, but I can always adapt depending on how gameplay feels. This is my rough gameplan though: link

smg build

View attachment 23735

you can save one point of dex by eating an eel sandwich, its cheap and lasts 20 mins real time. since you went for 15 dex i guess you know which specific smg fits that number the best?

 

[agris]

I started a 3/8/9/3/7/3/7 on Hard, first playthrough since alpha. I generally know what I'm trying to build, but I can always adapt depending on how gameplay feels. This is my rough gameplan though: link

smg build

View attachment 23735

you can save one point of dex by eating an eel sandwich, its cheap and lasts 20 mins real time. since you went for 15 dex i guess you know which specific smg fits that number the best?

I'm familiar with the AP cost reduction table as a function of DEX, and the general AP cost of SMGs. I figure my final DEX value will evolve based on what SMGs I'm enjoying the most. The +2 DEX feat in my build is just an idea, practically speaking I may not need it. Not sure what I would put my extra points into then, but I'll figure it out as a go.

My build is really just the formalization of an idea, I expect I'll be tweaking the later level feats/abilities based on how the character is playing.

edit: similar to final DEX value is Uncanny Dodge. Am I getting gRapeOceaned by melee? Then I probably want it. Not an issue? Pivot. Build is a general map, I can always adjust the route.

 

[razvedchiki]

i used a rapid 7,62 steel cat and with 12 dex, if i remember correctly i could burst 5 times after commando+spec ops (and a dose of adrenaline). that was before styg added random ap to rapid reloaders so you can get 6 bursts some times.
with the 2 bullets added from a muzzle breaker it has decent dmg so you could delete 5 mobs per turn.

 

[Blaine]

agris You don't need that much DEX. Get more PER instead. You'll be more accurate, individual bullets will deal more damage due to skill scaling (not a marginal benefit for an Expertise build), and your Detection will be better. Getting an extra burst isn't that helpful if they're all lower-accuracy, lower-damage bursts.

I played a Spec Ops/Expertise/Interloper SMG guy on Hard for my last playthrough, and I had 8 DEX, Sandwich'd to 9 at all times. To be fair though, I didn't dump CON to 3. You can if you wish. I'd recommend getting at least 10 PER regardless.

I can almost guarantee, by the way, that you won't need Quick Tinkering later on. Traps don't synergize terribly well with face-spraying with SMGs, a fact I discovered because I too invested in traps on my SMG guy, then barely used them.

You know what does synergize well with face-spraying SMGs? Caltrops. If you take no other advice from me, get Sure Step instead of Quick Tinkering, then shit caltrops out right under your feet, sprint over them at will, etc. I had Sure Step, and it is a game-changer. Caltrops are only a shadow of themselves without it, unless of course you're playing a tin can.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Hey gang, give me the skinny on the viability of a pure chemical or energy pistoliers. Armor will be either Chemical Assault armor or Lemurian Tesla armor.

Edit: Should I have a focus on intelligence or something else? Con & Dex are givens.

 

[Tigranes]

Major_Blackhart chempisboy / energypisboy are among the two smoothest Dom rides, they are excellent. You could also fairly easily go main on one and use the other as secondary.

Chemboy - Pump chem/mech early and you can get a pistol by Level 6 or so (Oddity) and enable Cooked Shot. Acid is the go-to and I've rarely found a use for the others. Equipment is obvious as chempis has specialised gear. Fatal throw if you like.

Energy - best served as crit build: SI, Relentless, High Technicalities, Crit Power, amplified pistols, then whatever you like - e.g. Grenadier. Haste is essential as you're pewing as many as possible per turn.

There's a version where you can dump PER and max DEX, get 9 CON (SI) / 9 INT, Versatility - tons of skill points to craft everything, I tend to go up to 55 Pickpocket at least for all pickpocket oddities in the early game.

You could try going XAL Chemboy by grabbing Escape Artist, then wearing CAU Armour and others to get 95+% acid resistance.

 

[Blaine]

I'm strongly considering a CAU War Crimes Enthusiast myself, particularly given that I've never done the Protectorate storyline.

I dream of YELLing joyously as gas grenades gaily hiss forth their cloudy payloads over carpets of cave ear caltrops, as globs of acid are warmly lit from within by napalm burning merrily in the near distance, and as slimy, steaming bodies pile up to form a sort of shrine honoring my victory over the latest pack of degenerates to have gotten in my way.