Morale? What is it? How's it work?

WoodMan

Hey guys, in the manual it says that the higher the Charisma of your leading party member (the one in the top spot on the sidebar) the higher the party morale is.

Then it says, it only effects party members that joined your party and not the one you created... um, is that ripped from a BG manual or something?

Anyway, how does it work, is the manual talking bull? Because my main tank has a low charisma so I haven't been putting him at the front, which is annoying because a more squishy character with high charisma is at the front and the enemies keep attacking him!

Edit: On a sidenote, does that mean in the BG games your leading character needs high Cha to prevent teamates from fleeing?

Lord_Tansheron

Don't worry about morale, it happens sooooo rarely. Like, I literally cannot remember the last time someone in my party failed a morale check, in both IWD and BG2. And if it really is a problem, Remove Fear will stop that.

lunar

I don't think player created characters suffer morale failure. They just don't. Npc companions in bg games, do suffer morale failure, though. When they take massive damage quickly, and/or see other party members gruesomely slaughtered, they will panic and run away. Some npcs are particularly suspectible, like Khalid or 'brave, brave Sir Garrick'

Your pc in bg games, never suffer morale failure, you are in complete control of him/her all the time. Well, unless you succumb to an enemy spell that causes confusion, fear, etc. Magical fear effects still will wreck your day unless you make your saving throw. You can't choose to roleplay 'brave' and attack the dragon anyway in pnp, you need to pass a saving throw:because the fear aura is not just dragon being scary, it is also part of its magic. Those who see a ghastly ghost in pnp age 10 years and their hair turns white from the fear:not because they are cowards. Even the bravest soul will succumb to the ghost's unnatural fear because it is a magical effect, pure and simple.

So, long story short, since you create all your characters in IWD I don't think they will suffer from morale failure. I never experienced this in IWD games as far as I can tell. There are voiced lines for morale failure in voice sets we get to choose for our characters, though, so I wonder if it is at all possible. Again, barring magical fear effects. (and magical fear effects do not prompt a morale failure voiced line)

JuliusBorisov

According to the game manuals, each creature has a base morale level that affects whether it fights or runs during a battle. The only character unaffected by morale is the one you create—other characters joining your party have morale dialogue and scripts. Every creature is scripted to react differently when morale breaks. They often break at different morale levels or choose different types of attack depending on the current morale. For example, some creatures may choose melee combat if morale is high but ranged attacks if it is low. Each creature has a recovery time dictating how long it takes for its morale to return to its base level. If characters in your party fail a morale check, their selection circle turns yellow.

Morale is positively influenced by having a leader (the topmost character in the portraits) with high Charisma, by the environment in which the character is located (for example, kobolds and drow like being underground more than outside spaces), by some spells (for example, Remove Fear), and by the type of enemies that are visible (easy enemies will raise morale). Morale is negatively influenced by factors such as being attacked by powerful magic, seeing someone in the party killed or knocked unconscious, losing a substantial quantity of Hit Points, or spotting a difficult foe."

In order to confirm this really works in IWDEE, I have to tag @Jalily‌

Jarrakul

I have literally never had one of my party members have a morale failure. Ever. Dumped hundreds of hours into every IE game, been hit by lightning in BG more than a few times, but never had a morale failure. In spite of what other people say, I'm seriously wondering if it really exists.

Queegon

If you repeatedly kill and resurrect a party member in BG (ctrl+y, ctrl+r), the remaining living members are going to fail the check and run.

Jarrakul

Hm. I may have to try that later.

elminster

I wouldn't really think much of it when it comes to IWDEE. Your own party members (unless you are using an NPC mod) won't get it. You may see it from time to time with weaker enemies (orcs in the cave near Easthaven) but undead will be immune to it so a lot of the enemies are going to be outright immune.

Its possible to get it in BG1/BGEE but its a lot more likely to happen if you have someone in your group with a high morale break point (Garrick or Kagain). If you see it its probably because (like in the case of enemies having it) one of your party members died (or perhaps more than one). Basically its going to be the result of a pretty bleak battle on your end

old_jolly2

Lord_Tansheron said:

Don't worry about morale, it happens sooooo rarely. Like, I literally cannot remember the last time someone in my party failed a morale check, in both IWD and BG2. And if it really is a problem, Remove Fear will stop that.

pretty accurate actually. I wouldn't expect some lunatics waving katanas like kitchen blades and drinking unknown bottles like Irish do , running around blood stained dungeons , to drop their morale ever.

WoodMan

So it sounds like the Morale section of the manual could possibly just have been copy/pasted from the BG:EE manual then and doesn't directly refer to IWD:EE. The only instance I can think of where you have party members that you didn't create yourself (with the exception of mods) is summons. Perhaps it effects summons? But that's not nearly half as worrisome :-p

elminster

WoodMan said:

So it sounds like the Morale section of the manual could possibly just have been copy/pasted from the BG:EE manual then and doesn't directly refer to IWD:EE. The only instance I can think of where you have party members that you didn't create yourself (with the exception of mods) is summons. Perhaps it effects summons? But that's not nearly half as worrisome :-p

The people at Overhaul and any other volunteers that worked to correct the manual did the best they could, but inevitably some things are going to get missed.

Its still like miles ahead of the original IWD's manual, which from a text standpoint would have been close to a carbon copy of the BG1 manual (apart from the Heart of Winter manual and spell and table differences, as well as setting details, it would have had much the same writing).

WoodMan

Oh yes, I totally agree Elminster, good job all around with the game and the manual. I just never even knew this mechanic existed and was trying to get to the bottom of it is all :-)

Oriens

If you are interested this theme you can test my script, and you'll see clearly how it works

http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/41783/the-new-script-which-will-allow-you-to-see-as-well-as-change-the-morals-of-the-members-of-your-team#latest

Genryu

I'm going a little off topic but:

WoodMan said:

Because my main tank has a low charisma so I haven't been putting him at the front, which is annoying because a more squishy character with high charisma is at the front and the enemies keep attacking him!

The tank doesnt necessarily have to be in the top slot of your party roster to be your frontmost character in combat. Try playing around with different party formations, I like these two when I find my self in situations like yours:



The first formation puts your leader right in the middle of your party, meaning squishy leaders are well protected. If you have a tank, then put them in the second slot on your party roster, as this is the frontmost position of the formation.

The second formation puts your leader to the very back, giving your squishy leader a 5 character meat shield!The character at the point of the triangle will again be whoever you have in the second slot on your party roster, so ideally your tank would go here.

I currently have a Dwarven Defender and a Bard in my party, obviously I want the Dwarf at the forefront of my party at all times. But having a bard as my party leader is wonderfully convienient as the leader picks up all the loot (And her high lore means I can easily identify most of it, without the need of transferring it to other party members), she has a high chr making her a great face character for interactions. Those two formations allow me the best of both worlds.

Balrog99

I know for a fact that morale affects summons. I've been playing in HOF mode lately so summons are a necessity to stay alive (meaning I use them a lot more than I would normally). What I've noticed so far is that undead are indeed immune to morale break but giant insects are not. I also remember fire elementals failing morale checks. I haven't noticed the monster summoning spell creatures breaking but that may be more due to the short duration of those spells than them not being affected. I also haven't noticed the woodland being failing morale but the nymph doesn't usually last long in combat anyway so I'm not sure if the nymphs are immune or not. I haven't gotten any characters up to the higher level summons yet (invisible stalkers, demons, wyverns, etc...) so I don't have any knowledge of those yet. I am bringing a sorcerer concentrating on summons along for my latest journey so hopefully I'll know more soon.