[Spoilers] [ToB] Why can't we be friends ?

Sampiero

So, i just finished SoA and i'm now playing ToB. I kill boromir (whatever his name is) and melissan come and say "aaaah no i'm too late blah blah" so i reload, and dominate him using staff of command.
He's now friendly, enough to let me take everything he has, but melissan never come. I guessed that killing him was part of the plot, but still; there is no other way ?

Lord_Tansheron

There is no other way, no. Him dying is sort of important to the plot.

Sampiero

too bad, thank you anyway

DreadKhan

Welcome to the Melissan Express, foremost railroad in all Faerun!

Yeah, ToB could have benefited from some hearty revisions, but contracts are contracts.

Awong124

Thanks to your thread title, I have that song stuck in my head now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJTBPdVpdMc

Sampiero

there should be the possibility to make a hippie walkthrough - without killing anybody, and the game ends with everibody atround a banquet, and reggae songs

any modder around ?

Sampiero

Btw, there are plenty of cases where i feel "bad" for killing my opponents; like in saradush's prison, where the vampire say that "you would kill her anyway"; i have 20 reputation, i give money to everybody but she thinks this ? too bad

Sampiero

wouldn't that be better ?

Nimran

Yeh, but forget Mel. She can go cry in a corner.

Francois

Sampiero said:

Btw, there are plenty of cases where i feel "bad" for killing my opponents; like in saradush's prison, where the vampire say that "you would kill her anyway"; i have 20 reputation, i give money to everybody but she thinks this ? too bad

It's a tough unlife being a vampire. Evil people will fight you just for fun and good guys will kill you because you're a blood sucking abomination. But in that case, you could say that killing their vampire form is the compassionate thing to do as it will release their spirit (like the vampire in the Asylum that thanks you when you defeat him). And they are killing innocent people so you can't really let them live if you're good.

I liked the Undead Nations in Planescape Torment and I could never betray them, but the undead village in BG2, I could never let them ''live'' even when I felt that it would be the right thing to do. It's the drawback of this kind of game, where fighting takes precedence over true role-playing. That's why I like to play CN characters in BG, as anything I do can be explained by a whim. I also feel bad for always getting Korax killed just to score some cheap XP, that's no way to treat a friend.

You could say that since you are a child of murder, destiny always puts you in a situation where you end up killing, even if that's not what you wish.

semiticgoddess

@Sampiero: That can be done without mods, more or less. @joluv actually managed to beat BG2 without dealing any damage, the RP justification being that Charname wanted to avoid doing any harm to his or her enemies. We believe it's also possible to beat BG1 without dealing any damage, though you'd have to use confusion effects (the Jester kit would be most convenient) to turn enemies against each other.

Lord_Tansheron

"I... I don't want to hurt anyone! But... but it's okay if I make them hurt each other, or if I turn them to stone, or imprison them under the earth, or..."

To be fair, it does seem appropriately psychotic for a Child of Bhaal :P

Sampiero

"i will use my demonic powers to make you slaughter your own friends and comrades instead, because every peoples who are not like me (good) deserve to suffer eternally"

semiticgoddess

@joluv never actually used Imprisonment, and the confusion thing was a hypothetical for BG1. STR drain was a big part of it, as was Disintegrate. Harm also was used for plot enemies who needed to be reduced to 1 HP, since the spell description doesn't indicate it causes pain, whereas the spell description for Contagion implied pain, and therefore was unacceptable to @joluv, despite not causing damage.

I don't think the mocking is fair or necessary, considering how difficult the run was. @joluv worked hard and did something nobody's ever done before. If you guys know of a more painless way to kill enemies, and therefore beat BG2 under the restrictions @joluv used, I'd like to hear it.

Lord_Tansheron

@semiticgod I think the mockery is VERY necessary. Mockery is the highest form of flattery.

Shhh... no pain now... just sleep....

joluv

@Lord_Tansheron @Sampiero @semiticgod: Coming to this late, but I thought I'd chime in about my no-damage SoA run, mostly to agree with what was said above.

It was primarily an experiment in alternative methods for killing enemies, since I almost always use damage. My idea was that "snuffing out life force" is inevitable for a Bhaalspawn, but that it could somehow be separated from the brutality of causing injury, and that my character might have come to this conclusion in Irenicus's torture chambers. I also didn't confuse or charm enemies into injuring each other. "Shhh... no pain now... just sleep" is a fairly accurate reflection of what I had in mind. But yeah, it was really just a thin RP excuse to try something out, and it did require some pretty absurd/psychotic moral reasoning. It was indeed a difficult run, to the point of being tedious (reloading until someone failed a save, etc.). My earlier runs where I just tried to kill as few enemies as possible were much more fun (though also difficult), and I recommend trying that out if you have hippie RP inclinations.