Mr first time ... (several spoilers)
hummer010
Member Posts: 95
I just finished my first game of BG playing evil! To be fair, my CHARNAME was chaotic neutral, but my party was evil. My party was CHARNAME (gnome illusionist / cleric), Dorn, Kaigan, Imoen & Tiax. My plan was only four party members to level up CHARNAME faster, but once I hit the city, I decided to add Tiax to the mix. It was actually pretty fun. I've played ton's of BG over the years, but I've always played good. Generally, I hate losing reputation, so I was pretty surprised that my problem was keeping my rep high enough that the guards weren't always attacking me. There were lots of people that just had to die.
A few observations:
- Being evil is Expensive! Really expensive. The escalated price of the basic items aren't a big deal, but when you're paying $15,000 extra for a robe of the arch-magi, that's a lot of dough! This was the first time I've ever struggled with affording things.
- Imoen's loyalty knows no bounds. Regardless of how low my rep was, Imoen hung on there with me. She wasn't always happy, sometimes she was downright cranky. She even resorted to nasty name calling. I'm not sure what "mongering" is, but I am NOT doing it to sheep. I may be Riff Raff though.
- There's a lot of Kaigan love in the forums. Everyone always says "that guy can take a hit!" And it's a good thing he can take a hit, because until you get him some dexterity, he stands there like a pylon and gets pounded on. I could always just imagine cursing at him "You know, you can try and dodge right?" At least you don't have to use as much healing on him. Oh, and he has priorities right. I need an ale!
- Some of the rep stuff is just weird. I go to High Hedge, and slaughter Thalantyr's golems. Thalantyr get's pissy about that, so I have to kill him too. No reputation penalties yet. Then I figure, I've got Melicamp standing there watching everything, so I better off the only witness to my slaughter, and bam! -2 reputation. So, leaving a witness = no reputation loss while killing the only witness = reputation loss.
- I didn't know that there were different Bhaalspawn abilities depending on alignment. That was kind of cool, although I did miss the healing abilities.
A few observations:
- Being evil is Expensive! Really expensive. The escalated price of the basic items aren't a big deal, but when you're paying $15,000 extra for a robe of the arch-magi, that's a lot of dough! This was the first time I've ever struggled with affording things.
- Imoen's loyalty knows no bounds. Regardless of how low my rep was, Imoen hung on there with me. She wasn't always happy, sometimes she was downright cranky. She even resorted to nasty name calling. I'm not sure what "mongering" is, but I am NOT doing it to sheep. I may be Riff Raff though.
- There's a lot of Kaigan love in the forums. Everyone always says "that guy can take a hit!" And it's a good thing he can take a hit, because until you get him some dexterity, he stands there like a pylon and gets pounded on. I could always just imagine cursing at him "You know, you can try and dodge right?" At least you don't have to use as much healing on him. Oh, and he has priorities right. I need an ale!
- Some of the rep stuff is just weird. I go to High Hedge, and slaughter Thalantyr's golems. Thalantyr get's pissy about that, so I have to kill him too. No reputation penalties yet. Then I figure, I've got Melicamp standing there watching everything, so I better off the only witness to my slaughter, and bam! -2 reputation. So, leaving a witness = no reputation loss while killing the only witness = reputation loss.
- I didn't know that there were different Bhaalspawn abilities depending on alignment. That was kind of cool, although I did miss the healing abilities.
10
Comments
As for the cost of things, I do agree. It is a real pain to be paying through the nose early on for stuff. BUT... Towards the end of the game, you end up with more money than you can throw at a monkey. So, it almost balances out. Almost!
I too am playing through as an Evil party. I have Vi and Eddie and Shar-Teel (My new favorite) and Xzar and Monty and I plan on picking up Tiax when I get there (Bye, Xzar and Monty). I am finding that there are a number of opportunities to keep your rep low. But it is a knife edge balancing act. And you have to be prepared to accept that you have to bypass otherwise good XP simply to play the alignment. Granted, you get most of the best NPCs in the game, but the difficulty is absolutely ramped up because of the additional micro-management you have to do. It is tough.
BTW, you can apparently kill a certain annoying person in Nashkal without taking a rep hit at all. Apparently nobody likes him.
One thing that I always thought should give at least a small rep drop is keeping Joseph's ring as payment. But nope, the widow just kicks you out. Assuming you let her live, she'd certainly tell people about that jerk who did that.
I can see how it would be TOO complex to have a different reputation in different places, but the amount of good/bad rep should reflect how important and likely to be talked about an event really was. Killing a random mob (Bjornin) gives you +1, yet saving the slaves from the Cloakwood Mines and eliminating the bandit problem gives +2. Bjornin is one single paladin, who can only tell so many people in Beregost. Chances the tale of your deed travels far outside the Jovial Juggler are rather low; it's a generic tale that is likely told about many, many other adventurers in many, many other taverns. The freed slaves are a big group of people who will likely go home now and tell their friends and families about the group that saved them. Since there isn't a single village where all men suspiciously disappeared, it can be assumed they are all from different places. Hence your tale will travel much further. And the rep difference is ONE point...?
But yeah. Also, it seems to me that some events would be a positive to some groups and a negative to others. If your rep were particularly high, the bandits would cower in fear. But if it were low, they would herald your approach. Again, I get that would have been to much to expect out of the game then. But we can dream.
And who really is listening to what the people of Nashkal are saying? According to everyone you meet in Baldur's Gate, Amn is going to war with us. And the iron crisis is still going on. Yet the fact that some no name commoner got done for by who knows who, but is attributed to you gets listened too?
But if you do evil things, or turn into that monster form in BG II (what's it called, Reaper? Ravager?) then your 'reputation' decreases and you become more depraved and people start to despise you (and charge you moar gold).
Also, in BG1, I do not walk around in bhaalform. And even if store owners could somehow smell how evil I am, they'd more likely give me things a lot cheaper, to not make me angry or burn their store down.
I got thinking about it, and if Dorn's door swings that way, I'm not sure a gnome is the right way to go. It seems there may be some ... issues ... between a half-orc and a gnome.
I figure there is a better match for Dorn in the game. He is a half-elf, and he happens to be married to a hot druid, but I think if he's honest with himself, he is better suited to be the Yin to Dorns Yang.