How do you play a Neutral party?

rdarken

I am on my first ever playthrough NOT being a goody-goody. Seriously, in pretty much any game. I am trying not to be a 20 reputation party, not just because I have mixed alignments in my group, but also for something new.

Problem is, it seems like the only way to lower my reputation is to do something vile like kill civilians. I'm at 16 rep right now, but I am worried it will creep closer and closer to 20. Whenever I take a path that I KNOW is not the "good" one, I don't lose any rep; I just don't gain the +1.

Is there a way to lower it without being a total butthole? Or am I just going to have to go into a house with one person and kill them for the rep loss?

sleeperhold

Avoid unnecessary quests with little exp and + rep. There are also a number of characters worth killing in terms of exp, items and reputation hit such as Drizzt, Shandalar etc.

ZanathKariashi

Neutral and evil don't do anything special to play, since YOUR motivations for why you did the quest the way you did are way more important then what other people THINK your motivations are. Good is the only playthrough where you have to change how you play to fit your alignment, since you generally won't kill or steal from someone unless they're obviously evil or a MASSIVE prick (exact specifications depending on your Law/chaos leanings).

Justarius

The true neutral playthrough it to not do anything. Leave Candlekeep & become farmer

The game reality is that there are no neutral outcomes that will adjust your reputation towards a midpoint. You have to be both good and bad to progress with a neutral reputation.

Of course reputation is only public perception and from a roleplaying perspective doesn't have to equal alignment exactly.

As for keeping that reputation down, try stealing. It's a little fudgy but that's just the reputation system.

rdarken

Ah, stealing is a good suggestion, thank you! I could just bribe the guard, too.

EDIT: Well, I couldn't be bothered finding a place where the Flaming Fist wasn't summoned, so I just had to kill someone. Finishing Cloakwood got me up to 18 (+2 eeeegh) and then finishing the bandits with Officer Vai got me up to 19, which made Viconia and Dorn leave. So, I had to drop 9 rep points, unfortunately. Bit more than I wanted, but at least I have a buffer now.

davidthegnome

@rdarken This is a great question and I have been wondering the same thing recently. The problem with BG's reputation system is that it often doesn't take intent into account. There are quite a few quests that will raise your reputation even if you may have done it for the gold or other purely selfish motives.

In BG2 Jaheira whines if your reputation gets too high, but even a lot of the sidequests that she seems to approve of (such as the Slavers quest) will raise your party's reputation.

And doing a bunch of good deeds and then killing innocent bystanders is definitely not how a true neutral person would behave... that might work for a chaotic neutral party, though. According to the in-game description, a true neutral person will tend to support the underdog... So I guess you could try to always take the side of whomever is weakest, but that is of course very often what a good aligned party would do anyway.

IIRC, there is a Flaming Fist Mercernary on the roads south of Beregost who will pick fight with you, accusing your party of being bandits. If you kill him, you get a -8 reputation. Since that guy is basically asking for it, that is one instance where you can reduce your rep. but still not resort to random acts of brutality.

Myth

I love to play with a neutral alignment. Being a goody two-shoes is tiresome, and RPGs rarely have well written options for evil roleplaying. "Evil" is generally synonymous with violent psychopath...there's rarely any subtlety available to you. I like to roleplay my characters as being out for revenge and survival and nothing else matters. The reputation thing is always a problem (and an example of the poor roleplaying I mentioned), but in BG1 I just steal something a bribe the guards to handle it. In BG2 I'll just use shadowkeeper to lower my rep, or else just avoid the low-reward quests that I know to give rep.

Laniarty

I have the opposite problem, I find it hard to keep my rep high enough. I have to do goody too shoes quests to facilitate my pillaging and burning the sword coast to the ground.

Gorion was able to keep my personality in check while his ward, but I'm free of that overbearing oaf now and I can do what I please!

Chaotic Neutral is the most fun to play.

colonel_burger

Here's some pro evil tips to get your rep down without drinking civvy blood:

Help the boneheads cut down the dryad's tree in the wilderness zone near the gnoll stronghold.
Flood the mines with the slave scum trapped inside.
Recruit Viconia.
Recruit Dorn.
Tell the flaming fist mercenary north of Nashkel that you like to eat children, then kill him when he attacks.
Gank the potion carriers for Silke in Beregost.
Help the druids kill Aldeth Sashensar in Cloakwood area 1, as you need that sweet sweet aloe vera cream (I think this drops rep).
Pickpocket fail on the merchants in the Nashkel circus, and run when they turn hostile (lamo IMO).

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Wilbur

I'm in need of these tips too. I'm playing my first neutral protagonist in BG, true neutral to be more specific. I'm planning on playing with both good and evil NPCs and trying to find a way to play more or less neutrally (more good than evil though).

rdarken

Having Garrick in your party makes the evil deeds even harder to swallow. Most good NPCs will judge you, but Garrick says "WHY did we just do that?" Makes you feel all bad.

SirK8

@colonel_burger - thanks for the tips, some of those are too late in my current play through If I recruit Viconia and then immediately drop her, do I get the rep back or can I take the rep hit and drop her and keep it? Also, if I drop her does she wait around like some NPCs or rage quit like a certain female cleric? I always hate to have NPCs inaccessible to me if I would like to use them in the future. Thanks.

colonel_burger

@sirk8 recruitment rep always gets restored when the offender leaves your party. She will wait around, but only if your rep is low enough for her (she's give a positive goodbye along the lines of "oh you've helped me you're a good friend etc", rather than a blatant "get stuffed" goodbye).

In your instance I suggest you go to the crossroads between Beregost and the Friendly Arm Inn and stab one of the messengers there with your most evil-aligned NPC, whilst CHARNAME takes a piss behind a tree ;-)

O_Bruce

Virtue Mod (or anything like it), why aren't you implemented? That would be so helpfull in roleplaying characters...

Gallowglass

colonel_burger said:

@sirk8 recruitment rep always gets restored when the offender leaves your party.

True for Viconia in BG:EE and in the original BG1/2. However, this appears not to be true for the new character Dorn: -2 rep on initial recruitment, not recovered when you drop him, nor repeated when you recruit him again.

SirK8

@colonel_burger I was hoping to avoid outright murder, but it may come down to it. Maybe Dorn can take some frustration out on the messenger cause CHARNAME is romancing Neera and not him.