It's the Subtle Things
Lateralus
Member Posts: 903
The designers do clever things and they do them while wondering if the players will ever pick up on them! If you have played through the game a few times, and have picked up on something subtle, discuss it here!
SPOILERS!
I played through the game dozens of times and just recently I noticed that Perdue, the cowardly halfling (I say he's chicken!) never paid me the 50 gold!! He said, "Enjoy your 50 gold". And that's it. I get the XP, but he never forks over the loot for recovering his sword! I laughed at how many times I overlooked this. And I laughed again after I killed him for the 50g.
At the Nashkel Fair, there is a thief named Viltaire that walks up and robs you as soon as you enter the gambling tent! Just outside that tent there is ALWAYS a little boy staring at that tent. One time I figured I wanted to know what he had to say, and I got the usual generic response, "Momma says, 'Never talk to strangers.'". Well okay, I get the hint, kill the thief before he talks to you and gets away with your loot! Subtle hint, but since that kid is static, it's a deliberate hint.
SPOILERS!
I played through the game dozens of times and just recently I noticed that Perdue, the cowardly halfling (I say he's chicken!) never paid me the 50 gold!! He said, "Enjoy your 50 gold". And that's it. I get the XP, but he never forks over the loot for recovering his sword! I laughed at how many times I overlooked this. And I laughed again after I killed him for the 50g.
At the Nashkel Fair, there is a thief named Viltaire that walks up and robs you as soon as you enter the gambling tent! Just outside that tent there is ALWAYS a little boy staring at that tent. One time I figured I wanted to know what he had to say, and I got the usual generic response, "Momma says, 'Never talk to strangers.'". Well okay, I get the hint, kill the thief before he talks to you and gets away with your loot! Subtle hint, but since that kid is static, it's a deliberate hint.
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Comments
A subtle thing I like is the special dialogues of many charmed characters (most of them dug up during the old days of unlimited cloak of Algernon usage), including:
- Woman in Beregost who would like to run away with you but can't because of her husband - but gives you a ring "so that you'll always remember her".
- Peasant in Beregost who goes on about how stupid he is and what a waste it was to use a charm spell on him.
- Perdue himself, talks about psychological problems and a traumatic upbringing.
- Borland of Beregost, laughs and says you cannot charm him because he's utterly unimportant.
- Duke Entar, gives you a good recap of the Iron Throne plot and the situation between Baldur's Gate and Amn - and rounds it off by saying he feels he has to tell you he has a beautiful daughter of marriable age - "since you are his very best friend."
She talks about wanting to grow up so she can join the hunting, you can reply as a true cloth vegeterian or peta fan and say 'animals are to be respected and cherished, killing innocent animals is wrong!' And she asks what they would eat then, and you can answer 'there's an enchanted bush in Shaar that grows a magical food named Tofufruit. There is also the mystic Couscous and Holy Bean Sprouts! These and other wonderfully bland foods await those who renounce the flesh of the innocent living animals.' You can actually hillariously RP a snobby vegetarian in this game! :-) as a RL lacto-ovo vegetarian myself I found that highly amusing ^^ Don't know if this was in the original or added with bg:ee though, never seen it before.
I must have walked by this thing a hundred times without ever realizing its meaning. Only once I revisited BG2 after playing BG:EE did I finally get it 9_9.
Duke Entar setting the protagonist up with his daughter, that's funny. I want to charm everybody and see if there are more untold treasures to behold!
I'll tell you who is an epic ally, the Great Gazib at the Nashkel fair! He's got a pretty epic spell selection. I watched him lay waste to his exploding ogre but I couldn't help but wonder what a great fight it would be: the crazy witch abducting tent mage vs the great gazib. Grab your popcorn.
Anyways, Safara became Ted's best buddy and he said that it would be cool if we went to the Firewine ruins because there is mad loot up im dat mudder!!
Or something to that effect. Very fun, another game within the game.
@tresset I dont get it ._.
The Moose and Squirrel in Adoy's Enclave are also a reference to the show. There they actually are doing a skit from the show.
1959 - 1964
That even pre-dates me, although it was still in re-runs on Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid.
There are a lot of fans of that show, and there is a not so subtle hint dropped in Adoy's enclave.
That's a great encounter, and it's probably the most ideal use for detect evil and know alignment spells. In my most recent run, my 1/2 orc F/T backstabbed Eddie for 49 points and then 2 traps went off, and he still ran after me! The next round Quayle and Safana cast scorcher and crossed the streams. (Ghost Busters reference).
I was actually surprised that fire damaged it!
Talking about a moose and a squirrel in a cartoon, my knowledge was limited to the Happy Tree Friends.