Reputation Caps for Character Recruitment
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- Reputation Caps for Character Recruitment71 votes
- Yes. Reputation cap would be better74.65%
- No. Keep the current reputation penalty.15.49%
- Just passing by...9.86%
4
Comments
This is an interesting idea that would make me play evil more often. I don't know if it would be better, just different.
That said, for me, the preferable way to play evil in the series is to be more or less neutral until the 'choices' and then act for self-preservation. ToB does give enough freedom to be a true anti-hero, at least, if still probably the 'least-evil' of the options (aside from a certain suicide waiting to commit).
That said -- if we must keep the reputation system as-is, implementing a reputation cap would be a kind of minimally-invasive way to remove one annoying play element in a way that can be headcanon'd easily.
I do think there's something to be said for evil players leaving because they're upset by stuff the player has done, though....
It is however, very hard to lower your reputation, other then what some people mentioned, like slaughtering innocents. Not my kind of Evil (tho perfectly plausible for chaotic evil dudes).
So for BG:EE, it would certainly be an improvement (even if you put it as an option, so people can still enjoy the 'classic' version).
If anyone's read "Servant of the Shard", Jarlaxle at one point tries to impersonate Drizzt as a way to increase his "reputation" among the surface-dwellers. Being evil doesn't mean you can't strive to be liked, being liked is beneficial to anybody. Sarevok's reputation in BG1 is probably really, really high.
By the way, a point which I think has often been overlooked in discussions about rep management is that Viconia will still join even if your rep is 20, and when she joins she automatically lowers a 20 rep to 18, so then other the Evil characters will also be willing to join. This detail can be pretty useful in managing a mixed-alignment party. (For example, let your Evil members except Viconia go, then let Viconia go, then claim a quest reward which boosts rep too high for the Evil guys, but then rejoin Viconia to take rep back down, and then your other Evil members will also rejoin.)
This is fine. It's a bad mechanic, and it should go away.
I can see what they were trying to accomplish with it, but it didn't work very well, and now we should just get rid of it.
Actualy reputation mechanic can be easily fixed.
We just need made three merchant types:
25 % will be good merchants = hight reputation discount
50 % will be neutral merchants = neutral reputation discount
25 % will be evil merchants = low reputation discount
Simple, reasonable and easy.
If you want to do this then I think you should mod the game. I don't think it should be part of the default game.
Also, it's not like Evil Party members are much better than their good counterparts (altho they may have slightly overdone it with Dorn). Many people say Dynaheir sucks compared to Edwin, but I finished the game with her all the same. And Edwin doesn't have Identify. It bugs me
As it is now you have more benefit with a good party than with an evil party. No leaving issues, good merchant prices. There are only downsides to being evil. That is why many people strive to have 18 rep, and if they will do a quest that brings them to 19, most of the time they have to disband evil members, hand in the quest, and take them back (The 'Viconia trick'), pretty boring. Instead having Viconia in the party capping you at 18 would make much more sense, and would be more manageable. If you also have Dorn, you would be capped at 16 and then you would start to feel the downside since you lose some merchant advantage (but I wouldn't be too bothered if I was playing Evil, since ending the game with more than 300k gold is not uncommon for me).
In BG2 however, there are much more choices (iirc) that will result in losing reputation, without having to slaughter innocents, or do the Viconia trick.
They face prejudice based on their race, or in Dorn's case, being known as a mass murderer. It should not apply to ALL evil NPCs, as the others can't be recognized as evil from just looking at them. Xzar, Tiax and Edwin are probably regarded as nutjobs, but not as dangerous and evil as a blackguard (which characters with high INT can recognize, i.e. charname can know Dorn is one before Dorn explains it - so smarter commoners and scholars in the cities will likely know, too). Eldoth might even be popular because he's charming and a perfect example for a "villain with good PR".
But this could-should effect the main character as well!
My only objection is, it would make NPCS management overly easy...
Since NPCs already tend to hate each other (to the point of violence) when they're from opposed alignments, maybe enhance that, and just drop the Evil NPCs leaving due to Reputation.
The effect of the cap will be that these NPCs are easy-mode:
- Dorn, Viconia, *SPOILER*
... and the other Evil NPCs are hard-mode, unless you take one of the easy-mode NPCs with you.
For every rep-penalty party member, take a max rep penalty of -2 (so 16 with Dorn & Viconia)
No effect on regular evil characters.
This basically will prevent metagaming of firing and hiring these two for the rep increase, which will be inevitable with those using them (and most pure-evil parties would have one of either, if not both).
However, those without metagame knowledge who happened to pick up Kagain and Edwin, both being strong characters, would still have to deal with keeping their rep under 18. While this is inconvenient, and metagaming may be resorted to in order to drop reputation by those who know how to do it effectively, it is still quite a bit more balanced for potential newbies or those who refuse to slaughter innocents.
"Damn my party full of demons, drows and another pure evil creatures have again heroic reputation 20. Why world love us so much ?"
If there was a mod to do this, I would gladly use it on 11/10 playthroughs.
I'm heroic party, so I had to loose Rep to recruit Dorn, what I do was killing Quenash, because I had lost the Scroll and I my PickPockets is not very good, and all my party were Mages and Warrior, and Yeslick!
Example:
Rep=17
Recruit NPC --> Rep=15 (17-2)
Gain +3 rep --> Rep=18 (20-2)
Gain +1 rep --> Rep=18 (capped)
Kick NPC from party --> penalty removed --> Rep= 20
Being the penalty temporary would enable you to leave the NPC for a while and get them back later. Otherwise you would get the penalty twice (or more).
Virtue mod offers a low-labor solution.