Alright, I just bought this game and am pretty excited by it. I've flipped through the book and am particularly intrigued by the half-ogre. I think I just like the juxtapositions -- a huge hulk likely born of violence yet incredibly gentle while at the same time fiercly loyal as a body guard to a gaggle of small children etc. My question though is with the penalties to intelligence would you miss out on a lot in the game like you would miss out on a lot with a low intelligence in Torment? I was also considering a gunslinger type if the half-ogre might not be such a good idea, using some race that could use a gun as I believe I read a half-ogre can't. TIA
oh yeah, I did search the other Arcanum topics first.

You will miss out a bit this time through if your intelligence is too low- I'm glad you've played PS:T because that's exactly what it's like. On the other hand, this is a highly replayable game, so it probably doesn't matter if your quests are somewhat more limited this time. There are other tremendous benefits to the half-ogre, not least that you can actually carry everything!

If you are afraid of losing out, so want to up the int a bit, keep in mind you don't have to be *brilliant*. You could use some buy-points to get an intelligence of say, 6. That wouldn't be too bad, it's only the intelligences of 3 or so that make a noticeable impact (my character periodically gets drunk and int drops, giving me a good perspective on this!).

Another option: you can always periodically take an intelligence potion before talking to people. I've tried this to finish some quests my character was otherwise not bright enough for.