What Do You Do About Sarevok (And Why?) SPOILERS!
Heindrich
Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
I've been curious about this ever since I came across him in ToB, and was forced to resurrect him. I haven't asked earlier cos I didn't want to be spoiler'd encase he had a further role to play in ToB.
Now that I know he doesn't and confirmed that you indeed had no choice but to resurrect him, I wonder what other players did regarding Sarevok...
Now that I know he doesn't and confirmed that you indeed had no choice but to resurrect him, I wonder what other players did regarding Sarevok...
- What Do You Do About Sarevok (And Why?) SPOILERS!72 votes
- I accept him because his stats are amazing! (Powergaming reason)1.39%
- I accept him because Charname is a forgiving fellow. (RP reason)30.56%
- I accept him because Charname pragmatically feels that his knowledge might be crucial. (RP reason)33.33%
- I reject him because I already have an optimised 6-man party with more xp. (Powergaming reason)9.72%
- I reject him because he's an evil bastard who killed Charname's father! (RP reason)12.50%
- Other (Please explain)12.50%
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Roleplaying a Good character, or good-intentioned one, I cannot justify accepting Sarevok.
From the moment he struck down Gorion as a terrified Charname fled into the night, he became Charname's sworn enemy, who vowed to exact righteous vengeance upon the giant armoured man, and that's before he discovered Sarevok would pay a string of assassins to target him, and the heinous plans he had for the Sword Coast, all the suffering he caused, and all the further suffering he would have caused if Charname did not stop him.
Yes I know he can be reformed. But when you meet him in ToB, he certainly isn't reformed, and offers only pragmatic realist-interest reasons to save him. Charname could not possibly know that Sarevok would be redeemable, and thus could not trust him. He might hold some great insight about the challenges to come, but he might just as well be trying to lure Charname into a trap for whatever infernal powers he might now serve.
Thus, after trying pretty damned hard for an alternative solution, Charname agreed to resurrect him, but only with the intention of killing him immediately afterwards.
Unlike @Silverstar, I did not accept his company and then attack him by surprise. I rejected him (didn't know that meant he'd leave immediately) and then launched as many Magic Missiles as I could at him, hopeing to provoke a battle. But alas, Sarevok got away
I imagine that after the defeat of Melissan, Charname and company will hunt down Sarevok and bring him to justice once more.
When he comes to you at ToB he is a powerful character, knows a lot about the prophesies that are currently an issue, and is something of a blank slate. My characters aren't killing him for a crime he committed before he went to the Abyss: he already was brought to justice for that crime. So better to take him with you so you know where he is and can influence him or stop him if he's going to retread familiar paths.
My Paladin that I first played through the entire game with accepted him, because she thought that without Bhaal's essence he may be redeemable.
My chaotic good ranger took him in but made him swore an oath, since he hated him and thought it would be a fitting punishment to make him his bitch, lol.
The evil play-through that I've been trying to get done may take him for his knowledge about Bhaal.
It would be interesting to change his class for role-playing reasons after the redemption path.
not as good as the Sarevok Viconia ones though!
I highly recommend installing the Angelo NPC mod. He and Sarevok have some good interactions!
My reasoning on the RP side is a lot like @Heindrich1988 suggests, that I'm going into a bhaalspawn-centered confrontation, where Sarevok's knowledge and experience might be important - and as Minsc himself points out, he isn't sure how much help he could be at this stage. My charname would never doubt his loyalty or prowess, but also sees no shame in letting him rest awhile after all the adventuring.
On top of this, I usually RP it as my charname being curious about Sarevok, wondering if there's more to him than the brutish and single-minded character he encountered in Baldur's Gate, and if he could possibly be swayed in his conviction (since my charnames are pretty much always good-aligned). And after all the hassle he gave me in BG1, I kind of do enjoy the idea of turning him to my will and having him serve as my bodyguard, Code Geass style.
Powergaming wise though it's not really a trade-up. Minsc or Dorn will by this point usually be bolstered by both strength and constitution tomes and more, so if anything Sarevok will be weaker and have much less experience than them.. I tend to boost him a bit just to bring him up to par.
I also agree with @GamingFreak that Minsc's and several other NPCs' stories are all but played out by ToB, whereas Sarevok was designed exclusively for it and so obviously has a fair amount of relevant content.
Malcolm can be a bit naive, really.
If (in the future) I have a party with only 5 members (including PC), I would accept him for his knowledge, and perhaps to try to redeem him.
Also, eventually you can 'redeem' Sarevok, depending on your dialogue choices. If your PC is good, Sarevok converts to 'Chaotic Good' later in ToB.
Imoen: So... Sarevok. You've had an itty-bitty piece of my soul in there for quite a while now. What's it been like?
Sarevok: Well, other than a slight obsession with my weight and the resurgence of a few pimples, it's been simply grand.
There is the other banter though, that Imoen teases Sarevok in what it's like to be resurrected and Sarevok retorts that he's sure Imoen has been taken to a temple *plenty* of times to be resurrected.
My other favorite banters involving Sarevok are generally what he has to say to other party members, such as Jaheira, where Jaheira denies his existence as an affront to nature, and Sarevok merely laughs it off... that and Sarevok wondering how Charname was able to tolerate Anomen, let alone let him tag along.