Which attributes do influence conversations?

Nalim

Hi,

less than a month to go and I even got some days of vacation around release day . Now, to the topic. It's been some time since I last played the BG series which means I forgot some things that could be important. So does anyone still know which attributes influence conversations? Well, Charisma for sure - but I'm not sure whether there were conversation options made available by high INT or WIS. Can anyone help me? Let's hope it's not INT and wis - I would need to roll a lot of times during character creation then ^^.

Thanks,
Nalim

LadyRhian

Mostly Charisma. Not only during the reward phase of quests, but in helping keep your party from fleeing in battle if the battle is hard (Khalid being the best example of this- he runs a lot, unless your CHARNAME has a high CHA. But no other stat influences conversations in BG, AFAIK.

drawnacrol

I taught INT gave you some more options during dialogue.

lansounet

In BG1 most dialogue stat checks are STR, likely an intimidation-like feature.

Nalim

LadyRhian said:

Mostly Charisma. Not only during the reward phase of quests, but in helping keep your party from fleeing in battle if the battle is hard (Khalid being the best example of this- he runs a lot, unless your CHARNAME has a high CHA. But no other stat influences conversations in BG, AFAIK.

Well, I'll ask Khalid to follow me around some dark corner anyway. Then he'll most likely stumble into my sword.

Thanks for all the answers, though - seems I'll spend some time rolling for nice fighting AND conversation stats.

Dee

Charisma and Reputation are the two stats that affect Reaction, which is what determines how NPCs react to you during dialogue. There are specific instances where a high ability score will unlock an option that wouldn't otherwise be available, but I don't know that these instances have been specifically noted anywhere.

Bubbleboy

I know that there are some checks in BG2 that are influenced by WIS and INT
2 examples that come in mind atm are the Beholder in the fish city after the ship sinks, where your wisdom will determine whether you get an option to convince him in to you taking the items out of the chest while he looks away.
And the second one is the INT check when you are discussing with Solaufein on Phaere's rescue. If your INT is high enough you will refer to her captors as Illithid where Solaufein will then praise your intellect.
If your int is lower you will refer to them as mind flayers.

As far as i know these checks are made by the character talking to them so you can use someone from your party to talk to them instead, when you can.

Humanoid_Taifun

Rather than ask which attributes influence conversations, it might be better to ask which conversations check your attributes.
While it is true that in BG2 there are a few checks for wisdom or intelligence (and even charisma), they are few and far between, and you can get along just fine even if you don't get the conversation "right".
For BG1, I'm not entirely sure anymore, but yes, charisma and strength are definitely useful there.

ajwz

Lots at the start of bg1 as well as the ones mentioned above. Off the top of my head:
Silke changes her reward based off cha
Hulls reaction and reward is better at very high cha
Gnome with spider infested house gives free antidotes for high cha
Cant get the golden pantaloons with very low cha
Bluff that you are greyhawk to recieve a reward with high cha

BG2
You only get the kill antipaladin quest at the radient heart if your cha and rep are high enough
Maevars document merchant can be dealt with numerous ways based of str, cha, dex
Wis affects wish and lesser wish options

Xzar

LadyRhian said:

Mostly Charisma. Not only during the reward phase of quests, but in helping keep your party from fleeing in battle if the battle is hard (Khalid being the best example of this- he runs a lot, unless your CHARNAME has a high CHA. But no other stat influences conversations in BG, AFAIK.

Are you sure its CHARNAME's CHA thats taken into account, and not the party leader's? Will he run even if NPC with high CHA is a leader?

Also, there is STR check in Peldvale, that, if succesful, can get you enlisted into bandits, so you can hang around the bandit camp in peace. Before you enter the building with bosses.

GrandeC

If you have 0 hp you can't start a conversation at all

Nalim

Wow, lots of answers, thanks. I suppose I'll point my remaining points in INT and dump WIS completely.

Humanoid_Taifun

You will need intelligence anyway. Many min-maxing newcomers are instantly destroyed by the mindflayers who can reduce your intelligence by 5 points with every hit. If your intelligence drops below 1, you're dead.

Xzar

Humanoid_Taifun said:

If your intelligence drops below 1, you're dead.

Not in BGEE for sure, and most likely not in BG2EE as well. This issue was deemed as a bug and was fixed, as you can read in "fixed" subforum.

Schneidend

Xzar said:

Humanoid_Taifun said:

If your intelligence drops below 1, you're dead.

Not in BGEE for sure, and most likely not in BG2EE as well. This issue was deemed as a bug and was fixed, as you can read in "fixed" subforum.

I don't really see how that's a bug. The mind flayers are eating your brain. When you have 0 brains, you should die.

Humanoid_Taifun

If you don't die from int drain, then mindflayers are going to be trivial. The only thing posing half a threat anymore in those encounters will be Umber Hulks, who can't survive a single Death Spell. (+ you need some form of protection against Domination, but even that comes cheap when you compare it to 9000XP per kill)

lansounet

You need at least WIS 7 for Ragefast to willingly let the dryad go.

Most of the rest is about reaction checks (rep and CHA)

Ulfgar_Torunn

If anyone knows approximately how many instances in each of the BG games your stats/reputation affect conversation options I will award them with an "Insightful" tag.

As I remember it however, your stats have incredibly little impact on conversations, which relegates mental ability scores solely to spellcasters and the occassional roleplayer, whereas physical ability scores are always significant.

Dee

It usually has more of an effect on how NPCs react to you, when the system rolls the Reaction check. It happens outside of the player's sight, but the results are usually beneficial.

The specific instances where you get to use your Intelligence or Wisdom are few and far between. But there are more mechanical benefits to a high Intelligence than there are for a high Charisma.