Knocking out opponants

saladinsmith

I was just googling to see if monks could knock people out (Can they?), and I found an old topic here about how useless knocking people out is. The topic is archived now, so I couldn't comment, but I thought I should point out that knocking people out does have actual in-game uses.

There are some gnolls southwest of Nashkel in BG1 who take offense to you trespassing in their territory. They ask you to pay them for passage, but if you say you don't have money, they'll suggest your champion fights theirs instead, and if yours wins, they'll let you go. Beating their champion is easy by this point in the game -- in fact, slaughtering all of them is easy. But if you knock out the champion instead, then wait for him to regain consciousness, he admits that you beat him, and you get a nice experience bonus for resolving the encounter without killing anyone.

So far, that's the only place I've seen the knockout rewarded by the game. Does anyone know others?

Silverstar

Giving Lord Binky the Buffoon 3-4 beatings is very rewarding. It may not give any xp, gold or loot, but it gives an immense amount of satisfaction without any reputation loss.

Also it's a good way to handle guards if you get caught stealing because again, no rep loss.

Mitchfork

I think that encounter you mentioned isn't just for KO's- if you do enough damage without killing him you'll trigger the dialog as well. This mechanic pops up a few times in the game... Mulahey will try to catch you off guard by surrendering, and the priestess of Umberlee at Wyrm's Crossing will try to get you to stop attacking as well.

It would be nice if some encounters could be resolved peacefully by knocking people out... for example, I always thought that you should be able to beat Marl up in a bar brawl without killing him. But I don't think there are any encounters like that.

Calmar

Also, it would be really cool if unarmed combat counted as two-weapon fighting. I'd like to see my fighter use both fists in a brawl.

bbear

Sometimes when you steal at somebody's house, they will turn hostile. (Preemptively) Knocking them down will prevent them from leaving the house and the reputation loss.

Permidion_Stark

When the Flaming Fist start chasing me around Baldur's Gate and accusing me of crimes I didn't commit my paladin just sheathes her sword and punches them unconscious. I might be Lawful Good but I hate those Falming Fist guys ...