Decreasing Reputation in a non-lethal way

Ammar_87

One issue I have with BG1 is that in order to raise or lower your rep you have to commit either an act of "good" (save the cat) or an act of "evil" (kill the cat). The good guys however also have the more pragmatic option of donating money to a church. Evil PCs, or even neutral ones wishing to decrease their rep, don't have this option.

Sure, there are also quest-related ways to decrease your rep which doesn't involve killing, like scamming the bounty collector in Nashkel. But the point is that evil/neutral PCs still don't have the ability to lower their reputation at will the same way good PCs can raise their reputation by donating gold to a church.

As far as I know, the only other way to decrease your rep other than murdering innocents and finishing quests "the evil way" in BG1 is to invite Drows into your party. This, however, amounts only to a total of -4 rep in BG1:EE.

I propose something very simple: just add a rouge cleric of Talos who runs a little chapel in one of the towns, and whenever you donate the equivalent sum of gold required to raise your rep in another church, your rep decreases for donating to an "evil" church.

If somebody knows an alternative way to decrease your rep that I have missed that does not include console muckery/modding please tell me as I'm looking for ways to keep Edwin in my party

Jalily

Get caught stealing (shoplifting or opening a container owned by someone else, NOT pickpocketing) in either Baldur's Gate or Beregost. When the Flaming Fist patrol arrives, say anything you want and your reputation will be lowered by 1. This works as long as your reputation is 9 or above.

Mortianna

Ammar_87 said:

I propose something very simple: just add a rouge cleric of Talos who runs a little chapel in one of the towns, and whenever you donate the equivalent sum of gold required to raise your rep in another church, your rep decreases for donating to an "evil" church.

That's an interesting idea. That way, you could donate to "Bitch Queen" (love that title, lol), aka the Temple of Umberlee, in Baldur's Gate if your reputation got a little high for your party's liking. Although it would bring up some conceptual issues, such as why an essentially LG city (according to Volo's map) would allow a CE temple to operate openly if supporting it would harm one's reputation.

Ammar_87

Jalily said:

Get caught stealing (shoplifting or opening a container owned by someone else, NOT pickpocketing) in either Baldur's Gate or Beregost. When the Flaming Fist patrol arrives, say anything you want and your reputation will be lowered by 1. This works as long as your reputation is 9 or above.

I tried in Beregost, and what happened was that I would only get a -1 rep decrease whenever the guard wouldn't accept my bribe, but then he proceeded to attack me.

Ammar_87

Mortianna said:

Ammar_87 said:

I propose something very simple: just add a rouge cleric of Talos who runs a little chapel in one of the towns, and whenever you donate the equivalent sum of gold required to raise your rep in another church, your rep decreases for donating to an "evil" church.

That's an interesting idea. That way, you could donate to "Bitch Queen" (love that title, lol), aka the Temple of Umberlee, in Baldur's Gate if your reputation got a little high for your party's liking. Although it would bring up some conceptual issues, such as why an essentially LG city (according to Volo's map) would allow a CE temple to operate openly if supporting it would harm one's reputation.

That's assuming the authorities know of its existence

On the front it might be a bordello or the likes, hence the public thinks you are spending money on *ahem* "services".

I also read that in one of the mods, there are bards who can go around and spread rumours about you which decrease your reputation. That could also be a better alternative for neutral-aligned characters.

Mortianna

@Ammar_87 Since the Undercellars already have a monopoly on those "services," which are supposedly out of the public eye, I'm not sure a LG city would take kindly to a brothel openly operating within the city either. Maybe they could pass their temple off as a bathhouse or something with all those pools inside (as if people don't know what goes on inside bathhouses).

I remember playing the mod you mentioned. I found it was more economical to "cull" the occasional wanderer (the drunkard behind the Beregost Temple and the Priest of Illmater at Firewine come to mind) to lower my party's reputation. It takes a little more effort to find non-lethal ways, admittedly. Part of role-playing evil characters is the lack of categorical respect for innocent life, so it doesn't seem inappropriate to kill those who get in one's way. The alignment ethos (lawful/neutral/chaotic) just determines how they go about it.

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Urd1en

cats killing!.. and, perhaps, cooking them??

I'd definitely lower a party reputation on any cat killing event
save cats!