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Will a pacifist play through be possible?

The scenario does not sound promising, but worth asking. One of my most fun playthroughs of BGEE was a pacifist run, where the PC was opposed to any act of violence, even before she learned of her true heritage which reinvigorated her purpose.

AFAICT, you can beat BGEE with just 3 murders, Mulahey, Daevorn and Sarevok, and avoid even instigating a fight in most other cases. This became a lot more viable in EE thanks to the xp from thief skills. It would have been really nice if we could bluff Mulahey into running from the messengers of Tazok, and perhaps pick Daevorns pocket and evacuate before flooding the mine (assuming Daevorn would teleport himself to safety), leaving only the Big S as a necessary target to eliminate, lest his spree of murder continue unabated.

(hardest part of this play through is the doppleganger ambush at the coronation, still not worked my way through, although it seems viable to support the city guards without direct violence against the dopplegangers.)

Will it be possible to play the Siege of Dragonspear in a similar manner, or are we doomed to succumb to the Lord of Murder within?

Comments

  • billbiscobillbisco Member Posts: 361
    I like this. Requiring few or no deaths would be nice.
  • Permidion_StarkPermidion_Stark Member Posts: 4,861
    I thought you could avoid killing Mullahey by . . .

    Ignoring him and taking the documents from the chest behind him. I thought this was the trigger for the next chapter but maybe I'm misremembering or perhaps it is something that was fixed in EE?
  • GreenWarlockGreenWarlock Member Posts: 1,354
    @Permidion_Stark, the grab-the-documents works for the bandit camp, but you need to present Mulahey's symbol to the mayor of Beregost, and it cannot be pick-pocketed. From the story perspective, you also need to kick the kobolds out of the camp, which is why I thought it would be nice to go with the bluff that 'Tazok sent us' to actually scare him into leaving.

    I found the pacifist run works most easily as a cleric/thief, abusing sanctuary heavily at the start of the game while working on the lock/trap skills. Ultimately, stealth should be the long term substitute, but you get Sanctuary from the start of the game, and plenty of bonus cleric spell slots.

    There is more xp as a mage/thief, available through memorizing spells. Unfortunately, the slog of finding 5k of easy pacifist xp to get Invisibility is more of a challenge than I fancied.
  • joluvjoluv Member Posts: 2,137
    I love pacifist runs too, although I'm glad it's impossible to finish the game being 100% pacifist. If you're interested, here's a few early quests to get to 5000 without killing anyone:
    2500 from Tenya (requires non-lethal violence), 1000 from Brage, 1000 from Albert, 900 from Marl


  • GreenWarlockGreenWarlock Member Posts: 1,354
    Thanks for the tips, I certainly do make an early run for Marl (and Firebead), but Tenya goes beyond my threshold for a pacifist run. It is all about the means (violence) for me, rather than the ends (something dies). I don't even allow my cleric to exploderate undead, not that I get to a high enough level to worry about such things.
  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,079

    @Permidion_Stark, the grab-the-documents works for the bandit camp, but you need to present Mulahey's symbol to the mayor of Beregost, and it cannot be pick-pocketed.

    No, as far as I know you do not need to give Mulahey's symbol to Berrun Ghastkill in order to complete the game. It's a rewarding quest, but it's optional.
  • GreenWarlockGreenWarlock Member Posts: 1,354
    What is the trigger for Act 3 then? I'm pretty sure that the one game that I lost the symbol, I could not progress beyond Act 2, although that save is long gone and memory may be playing funny tricks on me.
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    The narration goes something like "with Mulahey's death..." and the dream sequences also refer to Mulahey being dead. So if you can procceed without killing him, it's a bug.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    IIRC, the trigger for Chapter 3 is taking Mulahey's documents from the chest in his room.

    However, since (as @Fardragon points out) the story assumes that Mulahey must be dead, perhaps the trigger for Chapter 3 ought to be taking Mulahey's Holy Symbol from the chest of his corpse.
  • SchneidendSchneidend Member Posts: 3,190
    *Reads through this thread, grimace growing more and more disgusted with each sentence.*

    Pacifists...
  • VakarianVakarian Member Posts: 94
    @Gallowglass Except that Mulahey's documents aren't actually in the chest. He's carrying them. I don't think you can pickpocket them, so he has to die for Ch3 to start.
  • GreenWarlockGreenWarlock Member Posts: 1,354
    @Gallowglass - See above - the "documents in the chest" is how you get past the Bandit camp at the end of the next chapter, not Mulahey
  • ArcanisArcanis Member Posts: 377
    IIRC they fixed the charm problems, so you *should* be able to charm Mulahey and you can end that
    chapter this way.. (also, can't you just steal his Symbol and the letters? oO)
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,758
    I vote for a pacifist playthrough to be possible if it's like the Adventure of Halizurex, the Pacifist Mass Murderer!
  • SixheadeddogSixheadeddog Member Posts: 197
    Um. ... I don't understand anything that's going on in this thread. You, on purpose, AVOID killing things?... Did you take a sharp blow to the head or something?...

    I mean, it's called SIEGE of Dragonspear. I don't know how you intend to resolve a situation like a SIEGE with pacifism... what, are you going to try and fast-talk the catapults?
  • NimranNimran Member Posts: 4,875

    Um. ... I don't understand anything that's going on in this thread. You, on purpose, AVOID killing things?... Did you take a sharp blow to the head or something?...

    I mean, it's called SIEGE of Dragonspear. I don't know how you intend to resolve a situation like a SIEGE with pacifism... what, are you going to try and fast-talk the catapults?

    Agreed, it should be renamed DoD: Debate of Dragonspear.
  • ObjulenObjulen Member Posts: 93
    Thematically, an actual pacifist run can make sense for the earlier areas of the story, when the character is still relatively innocent (in a sense that they have few painful experiences and haven't been confronted by two bad choices) but as the game progresses it is more appropriate that you're required to kill or be killed at some point. The PC is caught up in events that were set in motion before their birth and ensnared in the web of fate, which isn't something a mere mortal can simply escape.

    The series builds up to the fact that you can't escape your heritage -- whether it drags you down or you are able to rise above it. Not having to face the questions of killing, especially in context of a world and a fate outside of the character's control, while it might be personally satisfying in a way, cheapens the narrative and the essential essence of what the series builds up to.
  • Avenger_teambgAvenger_teambg Member, Developer Posts: 5,862
    In SoD's case, there are multiple ways of solving some hindrances. Some are more peaceful than the other. Still, doing a siege is not a peaceful endeavor.
  • madmaximusmadmaximus Member Posts: 140
    Vhailor does not approve.
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