Beggars

Permidion_Stark

I don't want to come across as a right-wing, neo-con, Thatcherite, reactionary bigot but the beggars in Baldur's Gate have really only got themselves to blame. I mean there is money in practically every barrel and box and they are just too damn lazy to rummage for it. They'd rather stand on street corners with their hands out making the place look untidy. And what do the Flaming Fist do about it? Nothing, that's what. You can't even discuss the matter with Scar and Angelo is no better. Honestly, I don't know why I pay my taxes.

Space_hamster

I heard the Flaming Fist extort protection money from the local beggars, one of the more profitable rackets in BG I believe. I usually throw the beggars a coin or two, I'm good for it, and they have useful rumors.

Drugar

You don't pay taxes.

Permidion_Stark

Drugar said:

You don't pay taxes.

Only because I've got an excellent accountant.

Shadow

Nothing wrong with being a Conservative. But we really should check if they have a license or a agreement with the council to beg on the street.

Re-read your post : Using being a Conservative as a derogatory term is just pathetic, there is no place for it on this forums.

Drugar

Permidion_Stark said:

Drugar said:

You don't pay taxes.

Only because I've got an excellent accountant.

NOW you sound like a right-wing conservative.

Permidion_Stark

Drugar said:

Permidion_Stark said:

Drugar said:

You don't pay taxes.

Only because I've got an excellent accountant.

NOW you sound like a right-wing conservative.

Damn, my cover is blown!

Bjjorick

@Permidion_Stark ever watch the movie slumdog millionaire? A blind beggar makes triple. I know what you say about no one to blame but themselves, but not every beggar is some lazy, good for nothing on the streets because it's easier then working. In fact, i've talked to a few. One of them told me he used to have a good job (not like 6 digits, but he was making about 60k a year in the 90's). He said he focused alot of his time and energy on his job, and one day, his wife got tired of it and left him for another man. Apparently she's been with the other guy when he would go to work and wanted someone to be there for him. She got the house and the kids, and he said that he'd been working for his family.

Losing them was losing everything, and he just sorta gave up. Now, he could have been lying to me, but i'm a good judge of char. I know an old lady who used to live on the streets, and she was a little off in the head, but apparently her kids had died in a house fire. Alot of beggars just give up because there's no one there to help them when they have a tragic loss. So i always give them a little when i pass by them. IRL and in game. You never know what drove them down, but love is the greatest thing you can give to another.

Permidion_Stark

@Bjjorick

I was making a joke about beggars in the game and the fact that there is an extraordinary amount of money lying round in the street in Baldur's Gate. I'm aware that the plight of the homeless is somewhat different in real life.

Djimmy

Bjjorick is right. They are earning enough, at least most of them. Maube working(or killing evil dragons) in not as confortable as begging.

Space_hamster

To be fair, I don't think you can actually kill the beggars in BG without taking a rep hit and guards being summoned. This tells me that the Flaming Fist are in on the scam.

At least in BGII we're able to strike a decisive blow to the slavers early in the game, perhaps a bit of redemption for the harsh realities of the feudal world BG exists in? In RPG terms, it makes this chaotic good character sleep better at night!

Delvarian

Why don't they get jobs killing Gibberlings? I'll donate staffs. Plenty of NPCs around offering fetch quests as well. I have no sympathy for BG beggars, I have more for Xvarts.

Khamill

I think I know who owns this always-empty mansions now.....mhm, beggars my ass:)

Bjjorick

well, you know, they're naked except for a pair of verrrrry dirty tighty whiteys (tighty brownies)

and they look like they only have 3 hp max, so maybe combat isn't what they're called to do?

Space_hamster

They may in fact be unemployed miners....once self-sufficient good upstanding citizens cast to the abyss when a foolhardy and riotous adventurer happened to flood their place of work . Without medical benefits, the miners health quickly deteriorated due to continuous exposure to iron dust, leaving the only way to support themselves being migrating to the cities and become beggars.

Bjjorick

damn foreigners

elminster

Beggars? Ohh you mean the street meat for the sewers Carrion Crawlers.

Let's be honest. We know when you get to Baldur's Gate that the Flaming Fist is well aware of the deaths and their relationship with the cities sewer system. What if the Fist was simply both too undermanned and cowardly to send their own to deal with the crawlers (and the ogre mage that they are unaware of). The more beggars there are, the better the likelihood its one of the beggars getting killed over say someone important.

KraytKnight

Well, beggars need money, and within the first 2 hours of the game(Baldur's Gate) I have 10,000+, they should go and do something.