Evil teammate while playing good. How do you do it?
Jeivar
Member Posts: 53
I've never really done it for any length of time, but I'd like to give Hexxat a try in BG2:EE. Don't they leave when your Reputation starts to climb? That seems pretty restrictive, given the number of good quests that come with a Reputation boost.
0
Comments
There are mods that prevent npcs from fighting against eachother or leaving your party thou, i like those since you can make your perfect groups, or it allows you to see more of the inter-npc banter without breaking your group.
In fact I usually try to stay between 16 and 18 even with an evil aligned party. Lower reputation games simply aren't scaled correctly IMO. In my current game I managed to roll a 98 as a Blackguard so I figured it would be fun to try a 1 reputation game. Basically I can't buy anything because everything is about 100k gold or more in some cases and every time I enter a city I'm fighting guards and having bounty hunters approach me. It is a bit of a challenge though.
What would be interesting is if you could set up aliases with different reputation levels to handle different aspects of your business, ala the Grey Fox from Oblivion.
Given the assumption that most merchants are out for themselves, it seems more likely they'd offer discounts to the person likely to do some hurt over the goody-two-shoes protector of orphans.
as far as the argument about low rep being harder to play (higher prices, less rewards) the original system was implemented when D&D was still suffering the low rep anyway. The creators wanted an 'Evil' path, but also didn't want to be seen as promoting that or in any way making it look like theft and murder were positive life style choices. Hence we got the broken system we did.
For me, if some REP 3 party of adventurers came in my shop, blood still dripping off of their various implements of death, they would immediately get the highest discount in the house, just so they wouldn't kill me and take it for free. Think frontier west style where the sheriff only has so many bullets and isn't likely to stand up against the James Gang unless he gets a Whole lot more help.
On the other hand, If I had my way, there would be other types of benefits (and penalties) for playing bad. I am not sure 'Separate but equal' would be quite the way to go, but if your rep were too high, I think there would be people who wouldn't talk to you at all. And there should be a black market that sells stuff only to those of like mind. And there should be more quests of the evilly aligned type. If I had my way.
Apart from negating the issue of coming up with contrived actions to control your reputation, I also feel this is a very RP-friendly (perhaps the friendliest even) option, especially when it comes to evil NPC:s joining up with a good PC.
Consider someone like Edwin who desires power above pretty much everything else: left to his own devices he ends up as a middle man under Mae'var in Athkatla ordering minor assassinations and thefts. Following the PC on the other hand he'll defeat demi-liches and dragons, go to the Nine Hells and back, raid Watcher's Keep, obtain items of incredible power and become one of the most powerful mages in existence. I'm pretty sure he can stomach some goodness in order to achieve his destiny.
Once the guards are called, and your bribe attempt fails, your evil party member can kill one of the guards while the rest of you are fleeing. It was for the good of the group, they'll say. The guard was attacking us, they'll say. I was just trying to slow them down enough for us to escape, they'll say - while actually relishing the fact that they were able to commit murder with "just cause".
It's fun to hear them voice their "happy" line for a change.
Now your rep is down to 9, and you can keep questing. This is my "RP" way to keep rep in the middle. Way too many quests in BG that raise rep, almost none that lower it without someone innocent dying. Just make sure you don't kill BOTH summoned guards or you'll end up with a rep of 3 or 4.
In BG2 it gets much easier - as others have noted, there are far fewer quests that give Rep boosts, if you pick up Viconia (and keep her) you can get through basically all the Chapter 2 quests before you have to worry about hitting 19.
Then go shopping, buy everything you'll ever need. Then find a secluded spot and quickly slayer-change once or twice. Et Viola - instant rep loss.
Either set the aligment of the partymembers to whatever-neutral, or lower your reputation to15 everytime it climbs too high.
It completely ignores characters like Villains with Good Publicity who are outwardly good to allow their demonic masterplan to continue unnoticed or Affably Evil characters who *do* like rescuing kittens, but will kill you and all your family with a smile on their face if you cross them.
The only way to really avoid getting high rep is either being a materialistic mercenary and demanding the largest possible payment to avoid rep gains or a murdering psychopath.