Best Charmed Creatures / Characters
Fiendish_Warrior
Member Posts: 309
I sometimes use Charm as a fighting strategy. Once I take command of an enemy, I'll fire off all of their spells and equip them to bare-handed. For example, against Bassilus, you leave him chasing you down with his fists. It's kind of comical really. It's like they don't remember that they have a weapon on them but know that they want to hurt you.
Anyway... I've been running a playthrough with a Wild Mage for experience, often completing side quests for maximum exp and then killing the characters afterwards when possible for even more. I just want my mage to toughen up a little so that I can wreak some unprejudiced havoc.
When I returned Mad Arcand's ring, I decided to kill him for the extra exp via the charmed strategy. It kind of caught me by surprise seeing "Animate Dead" under his spells and so, out of curiosity, I burned those off, wondering whether a summoned creature from someone charmed would remain loyal to me after the summoner turned hostile or whether they too would turn hostile, go neutral, or go away. Them turning hostile is what I expected, but once Arcand lost his charm, so to speak, I retained full control over his summoned creatures (they in fact destroyed him).
What kind of deadites did Arcand animate? Skeleton Warriors. Yup. The two of them singlehandedly crushed every enemy on that map, including the band of ogres and the sirine sisters. It was pretty glorious. I kind of want to kill them for the exp, but I'm pretty sure they could handle my lvl 5 wild mage and his trusty sidekick, Imoen... :-(
What have been the most surprising or interesting creatures / characters you've charmed? Any funny stories? Have any charmed targets come across as borderline overpowered?
Anyway... I've been running a playthrough with a Wild Mage for experience, often completing side quests for maximum exp and then killing the characters afterwards when possible for even more. I just want my mage to toughen up a little so that I can wreak some unprejudiced havoc.
When I returned Mad Arcand's ring, I decided to kill him for the extra exp via the charmed strategy. It kind of caught me by surprise seeing "Animate Dead" under his spells and so, out of curiosity, I burned those off, wondering whether a summoned creature from someone charmed would remain loyal to me after the summoner turned hostile or whether they too would turn hostile, go neutral, or go away. Them turning hostile is what I expected, but once Arcand lost his charm, so to speak, I retained full control over his summoned creatures (they in fact destroyed him).
What kind of deadites did Arcand animate? Skeleton Warriors. Yup. The two of them singlehandedly crushed every enemy on that map, including the band of ogres and the sirine sisters. It was pretty glorious. I kind of want to kill them for the exp, but I'm pretty sure they could handle my lvl 5 wild mage and his trusty sidekick, Imoen... :-(
What have been the most surprising or interesting creatures / characters you've charmed? Any funny stories? Have any charmed targets come across as borderline overpowered?
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Comments
http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/16681/gifts-you-can-get-from-charmed-npcs-spoilers
http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/307951/#Comment_307951
Basically, I use the Charm spell in order to read additional lines, not because I want to use this or that person's spells and tricks, so thank you, @Fiendish_Warrior , for an insightful story. Maybe I'll try something similar on the next run.
On a side note, why are nobles such weak gamblers? I mean, 10 gp to go gamble? Really?!?? Do you have any idea how much a Robe of the Archmagi costs? Either items are overpriced (and by extension, you're obscenely wealthy at 20,000 gold) or nobles are cheap scrooges.
On another side note, I would love to be able to fix up the submerged house and use it as a home. I'd pay good money to do that. I've got 27,000 gold at the moment.
Once charmed (and it wasn't difficult for my lvl 6 mage), I was curious to see whether he had any spells or abilities, and surprisingly, he didn't. Knowing who he is, my next move was to force him to attack me, thinking that might initiate his transformation. I learned two things from doing this: (1) it did *not* cause him to transform and (2) he is ridiculously strong for being a little boy. He punched my CHARNAME for over 30 points of damage and killed him, obviously a perfectly targeted strike to the nether regions...
When I reloaded, I charmed him again, believing this time that if I attack him, he will certainly proceed as expected and unleash the beast. Unexpectedly, he turned hostile but remained in child mode. No matter how many times I attacked him and no matter how much damage I dealt, he remained in his child form.
Now, I can't say whether he had fewer hit points like this or was more susceptible to damage, but it was a fast fight with +1 arrows and magic missles (nothing like his true form at all). He has no spells or special attacks as a child. He just walks toward the nearest party member and tries to punch them. Avoid those strikes and easy peasy.
The game does some funny things with fiends.
So was Viconia really a mass murderer, or was this a case of mistaken identity?
My neighbor was Roran Midfallow, a stout, sunburned farmer. We spoke often, and I allowed the male to bring me supplies that I needed but could not acquire. Over time, we formed an awkward friendship. He did not ask why I wore my hood, and I slowly began to trust him. He wondered, though... that was obvious.
The time to reveal myself as drow came one late afternoon. A warm day; the sun was dappling along the south quarter of his farmland, and I pulled down my hood. Then he smiled a warm inviting smile. He mentioned that his younger son, Jiscanan, was busy making a feast to burst the first button, and that I was invited. We walked to his farmhouse, where his other son, a surly oaf named Funnard, was sickling quackgrass in the front yard.
When I reached his farmhouse, I learned his true intentions. Somebody hit me in the back of my skull, and the ground rushed up to meet me. I had grown weak in my trust. They chortled as I lost consciousness, saying how easy it had been and congratulating each other on a fine... a fine catch.
I woke up to searing pain. While unconscious, they had abused and tortured me... then tried to bury their sins. I could see nothing except for the lid of a coffin. They had buried me alive... a mistake not to kill me outright. The fools knew the name "drow," but were ignorant of my true spirit. Pain is the handmaiden of my people; their tortures were amateurish in comparison.
I split the coffin lid and let the earth in. I clawed to the surface, and pain did not slow me... I would not let weakness deter me from vengeance.
I took my revenge, <CHARNAME>. I watched their house, listening to them celebrate their victory in the midst of drunkenness. I watched and I waited.
Jiscanan, the younger son, left to use the outhouse. I jammed a stake in the door, trapping him inside. Then I set the building aflame.
Roran came running, yelling to Funnard. As he stood helpless before the flames, I wrapped a garrote around his neck... I whispered to him of his mistake, and mine; he had underestimated a drow, and I had trusted foolishly. I tightened the wire until he breathed no more.
By this time, the elder son, Funnard, returned with a bucket from the well to find his father's corpse and his brother a smoldering ember. He dropped to his knees in shock, which afforded me a height advantage as I caved his head with a miner's mallet.
I am drow. And I let myself be lulled, foolishly. The vengeance was bitter, <CHARNAME>, because my own stupidity had made it necessary.
Later, she says she lied, but not specifically about killing the farmer and his sons:
It was his wife and townsfolk that drove me out. Like a succubus, I have whored my way to Amn, taking what favors I could gather through sweat and passion.
Viconia doesn't say she killed the wife, but if she was home while Viconia was killing the rest of her family, she probably didn't survive that. Of course, Viconia could have lied about the murders too.
Thats a seperate murdering spree I think. IE why she left the region of Baldur's Gate, the Fist wanted her for killing people before she met you (Which could be a false accusation, or a defensible one). Do we get this clarified ever? I can't remember for sure.
Having said that, there's clearly a chronology problem. Even if you go in order, it takes approximately, what, two weeks at most to work your way from post-Nashkel to Peldvale? That's of course assuming that getting side-tracked isn't canon. You can easily burn off a good 6-8 months in the wilderness before finishing Bandit Camp, in which case Viconia's story seems a little more reasonable.
In light of the chronology problem, the seduction story makes more sense. It's more likely that she never dropped your name but simply seduced her way to what she wanted. The problem with that story, however, is that drow aren't exactly the most socially acceptable humanoids even though they're known to be physically appealing, using their beauty to intimidate.
Unless the farmer had a fetish for something taboo, it's quite possible that that's a lie as well. And obviously, if she's simply lying, none of the details matter. The most important parts of the two accounts as well as the Flaming Fist charge are the invariant details. We can know with a high degree of probability that she did in fact kill a farmer and his family even if the details are obscured. And personally, the seduction story seems the most likely although I'm betting that it still isn't 100% accurate. I wouldn't be surprised if a little of both stories are true, that she did seduce the farmer but the farmer eventually enslaved her for his own perverted desires. Clearly, that's empty speculation though as I have no proof to offer in defense of it.
Not saying its strictly impossible, but seems like she's either lying all the time in BG2, or she has killed surfaces before meeting you, OR was somehow framed, which seems unlikely, as who had heard of her to frame her?
Personally, I think her story was never fully decided and thus ambiguously implemented into the game. Or maybe it was partially written by different ppl who had different opinions on whether or not she should be truly evil or just a little evíl and still very likable, hehe..
However, this isn't usually possible in games. In 2nd Ed, only Thieves can backstab for example. Its hard to balance realism sometimes; it shouldn't be that much harder to knock out even a high level opponent if you can set up well enough, but that tends to mess up balance. Books are much better for this realism at times, but not always.
@DreadKhan: I agree. The standard of using "HP" does weird things with many situations where the logical outcome can't really be reproduced in the RPG setting. Like a char fighting equally good at 1 HP as with full HP, which of course, is completely ridiculous.