In Dragon Age Origins, there is a child who is possessed by a demon. A demon which is raising the dead and doing other assorted unpleasant things. You can reach the point where the child's mother is begging you not to kill her son, who comes across as a good person. I'm pretty sure that there are ways to save the boy...which require quite a bit more questing. Or you can just punch the mother out and slit the boy's throat.
You can save the boy in DA:O in two possible ways: free the mage in the jail and keep him around, and he will show up to use blood magic to save the boy, sacrificing the mother. The other possible way is to do the mage quest line first and save the mages. You can then go back to the Circle to request their aid in saving the boy. This option will save both the boy and his mother, and will gain you some approval from Alistair instead of disapproval. Both of these options will bring one of your mages, the apostate, or the first enchanter into the Fade to fight the demon. If you send Morrigan, she will disapprove slightly. The two non-party mages will require a persuade check to convince them to enter the Fade.
I actually kinda like those kinds of choices, too.
You can save the boy in DA:O in two possible ways: free the mage in the jail and keep him around, and he will show up to use blood magic to save the boy, sacrificing the mother. The other possible way is to do the mage quest line first and save the mages. You can then go back to the Circle to request their aid in saving the boy. This option will save both the boy and his mother, and will gain you some approval from Alistair instead of disapproval. Both of these options will bring one of your mages, the apostate, or the first enchanter into the Fade to fight the demon. If you send Morrigan, she will disapprove slightly. The two non-party mages will require a persuade check to convince them to enter the Fade.
I actually kinda like those kinds of choices, too.
Thanks for that!
I completely missed that way. I'm doing a (surprise, surprise) dwarf warrior run. He killed the mage in the cell, so that shut down that path. I guessed that the mages there could help, but it seemed to be irresponsible to allow the demon to recover and keep killing innocents just to allow one child to live.
And does that mean your mage has to solo the demon? It was quite a handful for my entire party.
You can save the boy in DA:O in two possible ways: free the mage in the jail and keep him around, and he will show up to use blood magic to save the boy, sacrificing the mother. The other possible way is to do the mage quest line first and save the mages. You can then go back to the Circle to request their aid in saving the boy. This option will save both the boy and his mother, and will gain you some approval from Alistair instead of disapproval. Both of these options will bring one of your mages, the apostate, or the first enchanter into the Fade to fight the demon. If you send Morrigan, she will disapprove slightly. The two non-party mages will require a persuade check to convince them to enter the Fade.
I actually kinda like those kinds of choices, too.
My personal favorite, sleep with every desire demon I come across.
I managed to solo the fight with Wynne (admittedly, Wynne is also quite overpowered). I think the most ridiculous part of that quest was how if you kill Connor, Alistair says you should have sacrificed his mother, but if you do that, he still gets mad at you.
This is what happened in my first run of the game in that situation. [Spoiler] SOOOOOO my mage was friends with the Blood Mage guy because he's in the mage origin story and I tried to help him do a thing. Anyway, so I broke him out and got to the kid and his mom was like AMG SAVE MY SON QQQQQ so I went and got the mage circle, entered the fade myself and confronted the demon! Because I had maxed out the persuasion skill I was able to convince the demon to grant me BLOOD MAGIC and leave the boy's body! I did the good thing and gained blood magic. Psshtt, and they say blood mages are evil. My Blood Mage was a straight up good character, no evil in him at all. [/spoiler]
You can save the boy in DA:O in two possible ways: free the mage in the jail and keep him around, and he will show up to use blood magic to save the boy, sacrificing the mother. The other possible way is to do the mage quest line first and save the mages. You can then go back to the Circle to request their aid in saving the boy. This option will save both the boy and his mother, and will gain you some approval from Alistair instead of disapproval. Both of these options will bring one of your mages, the apostate, or the first enchanter into the Fade to fight the demon. If you send Morrigan, she will disapprove slightly. The two non-party mages will require a persuade check to convince them to enter the Fade.
I actually kinda like those kinds of choices, too.
Thanks for that!
I completely missed that way. I'm doing a (surprise, surprise) dwarf warrior run. He killed the mage in the cell, so that shut down that path. I guessed that the mages there could help, but it seemed to be irresponsible to allow the demon to recover and keep killing innocents just to allow one child to live.
And does that mean your mage has to solo the demon? It was quite a handful for my entire party.
Yes, but the demon is also alone in the Fade, meaning no swarm of undead, just the demon. The fight in the Fade was designed for a solo character, whereas the fight in the castle was designed for a party.
I loved that quest in DA:O, but nothing beats Orgrimmmar and the choices one have to make there. My dwarf noble rogue was quite resentful of his brother for a long, long time. Doing what he could to stop him from gaining power up to the very end when he realized that his brother's more progressive view on the dwarves position in the world and the sanctity of the family name forced him into, in the end, supporting his brothers claim for the throne. I loved how one could still keep that choice open all the way through the story progression up until the very last moment. Truly well-written and intruiging.
I played Dragon Age before I got bored and went back to BG2.
I loved Dragon Age: Origins but cannot stand Inquisition. Actually.
Unpopular Opinion: Bioware has been going downhill in terms of quality with their games. All of my friends praise Inquisition as the best game ever and I'm like, "Neverwinter Night's OC was more interesting- WATERDHAVIAN CREATURES ARE MORE INTERESTING THAN CORYPHEUS!" Poor PC controls and a super easy Nightmare mode made me cry for the days of old. I can barely beat Baldur's Gate on the normal! XD
I do love Sera though. She's adorable. Even if she did reject my elfy elf mage 'cause he was male QQ.
Also, @bengoshi , thanks for the link! That was an interesting listen. @58:50 the question about more modern RPGs being "action-y" made me realize that I actually heavily dislike modern RPGs despite growing up on them (I do feel as though I'm pretty young on these forums being only 21). I love getting in deep with rulesets and number-crunching as well as more slow combat that allows full control of a party as opposed to LEFT CLICK HARDER AND SPAM MY 1-9 KEYS FOR SPELLS!
Inspired by some thread topics I've been peeking in on...
-High stat rolls are overrated. You literally just sit there in front of your computer for hours trying to hit anything above a 90, and for what? A thrill? When you could have already started a new wonderful game of Baldur's Gate? Nowadays I leave happy with anything above an 85, and it doesn't hinder my experience in the slightest. Half the time I feel as though I don't even need a lot of 18s anyway.
-Chaotic Evil is a great alignment to run, and no, you don't have to be Stupid Evil to do it. Psychopathic bloodthirsty killers can be just as charming and intelligent as the Neutral Evil "What's in it for me?"-types. (Not...Not that I would know, or anything. *shifty eyes*)
-Munchkin is a stupid game. Yeah, I said it. It's long and boring and--sometimes--needlessly complicated. There's a pattern to Munchkin that I always see every time I play, without fail:
1. There's always that person who pulls nothing but level-up cards. So while everyone else is slugging it at level 1 + modifiers, that same person is already leagues ahead of everyone else simply by the luck of the draw.
2. There's always that person who can't seem to draw an appropriately-leveled monster to save her life, so she's stuck at level 1 for gods know how long while everyone else cruises ahead. This person usually also pulls a ton of cool classes, races, and gear, of which she just can't use because she can't pull any stupid monsters. (In case you can't tell by the anger of my typing, this person is usually me.)
3. There's always that person who pulls a bunch of Wandering Monster and monster-boosting cards in their hand, which they can't use except right at the end of the game--when we're all wearing down and just want the stupid thing to be over with. Then that person throws everything they have on the person who's trying to win--or sometimes the person who's been dead-last the whole game--and inevitably make the game go on even longer, much to everyone's dismay.
4. There's always that person who brought the game in the first place, a Munchkin enthusiast, and this person always insists on reading the cards in a funny voice. It's cute the first few times, because the writing of the cards is actually pretty clever. But after an hour and too much junk food later, we're all restraining ourselves from throwing something at this person.
5. There's always that person who doesn't understand the rules. They have a weird card in their hand that they don't know how to use, and we have to check the rules half a dozen times for them to learn what it does. To be fair, half the time the rules aren't even remotely helpful, because the writing just boils down to "Do what it says on the card. What, you mean there's a weird ruling on said card? I dunno, house rule it, I don't give a poop." Which just makes the confused person more confused and the person trying to help said confused person feel incredibly stupid.
-Carsomyr is so overpowered that I choose to sell it for gold rather than have my Paladin or Thief take over the game. -Watcher's Keep should only be entered in in ToB, with the exception of grabbing the Potion Case because inventory management sucks and possibly Firetooth if anyone has crossbow proficiencies. -Mage/Clerics are actually quite powerful defensively, possibly the most defensive things in the game. -Coffee tastes awful. -I wish kidnapping Imoen wasn't the main plot in BG2, just because of the urgency of the situation. There doesn't ever seem to be time to do side quests if you're roleplaying it out as a Good character, or even one that has, y'know, SOME sort of empathy for a childhood friend. (Oh! I have 15k gold already! I need to go save the only child I knew growing up in Candlekeep. What, you want me to go clear monsters in your lands, Firkraag? Sorry, time to save Immy. Chapter 6 is even worse about side quests, since the options are to hurry as quickly as you can to recover your bloody soul, without which you don't actually know if you'll live or not or... do side quests for other people. Yeah.)
There doesn't ever seem to be time to do side quests if you're roleplaying it out as a Good character, or even one that has, y'know, SOME sort of empathy for a childhood friend. (Oh! I have 15k gold already! I need to go save the only child I knew growing up in Candlekeep.)
I think there is a way to role-play skipping going for Imoen "right off", even if your character is Good. I would use this logic: look, we've been seriously beaten by the Mencar's band of thugs, how on Earth can we go for Imoen? We would hardly survive dealing with Cowled Wizards and/or somebody similar. If we go there now, we would simply fail and instead of helping Imoen, we would only worsen the situation.
With this logic, my Good character would go and get experience first.
There doesn't ever seem to be time to do side quests if you're roleplaying it out as a Good character, or even one that has, y'know, SOME sort of empathy for a childhood friend. (Oh! I have 15k gold already! I need to go save the only child I knew growing up in Candlekeep.)
I think there is a way to role-play skipping going for Imoen "right off", even if your character is Good. I would use this logic: look, we've been seriously beaten by the Mencar's band of thugs, how on Earth can we go for Imoen? We would hardly survive dealing with Cowled Wizards and/or somebody similar. If we go there now, we would simply fail and instead of helping Imoen, we would only worsen the situation.
With this logic, my Good character would go and get experience first.
Yeah, this is the one possibility. The thing I don't like about this one is that there seems to be the meta(?) knowledge that killing things = EXP = levels. I mean, the concepts might be known within a D&D world. Or perhaps the idea is to get more gold for better equipment and spells; that's also feasible, I suppose. Thanks!
I started a second run of BG2:EE. I'm in Ch 2 and bored as Hell. The suspense is all gone, I know everything that's going to happen, and even playing a totally different character class doesn't pique my interest.
I think ahead to the endless Chapters lying in wait, think to myself "I CAN'T go through all that again", and start playing Torchlight II with the "all females nude" mod. BG2 isn't worth a second run-through ... although if they came through with a mod like that, maybe it would be.
I started a second run of BG2:EE. I'm in Ch 2 and bored as Hell. The suspense is all gone, I know everything that's going to happen, and even playing a totally different character class doesn't pique my interest.
I think ahead to the endless Chapters lying in wait, think to myself "I CAN'T go through all that again", and start playing Torchlight II with the "all females nude" mod. BG2 isn't worth a second run-through ... although if they came through with a mod like that, maybe it would be.
Unpopular Opinion: Anomen is adorable as hell. I blame my new-found thoughts on this on @deltago 's version of him over on the RP thread. I want to take him in my next BG2:EE run after SoD.
Comments
Example:
In Dragon Age Origins, there is a child who is possessed by a demon. A demon which is raising the dead and doing other assorted unpleasant things. You can reach the point where the child's mother is begging you not to kill her son, who comes across as a good person. I'm pretty sure that there are ways to save the boy...which require quite a bit more questing. Or you can just punch the mother out and slit the boy's throat.
Baldur's Gate could use more of that.
I actually kinda like those kinds of choices, too.
And does that mean your mage has to solo the demon? It was quite a handful for my entire party.
[Spoiler] SOOOOOO my mage was friends with the Blood Mage guy because he's in the mage origin story and I tried to help him do a thing. Anyway, so I broke him out and got to the kid and his mom was like AMG SAVE MY SON QQQQQ so I went and got the mage circle, entered the fade myself and confronted the demon! Because I had maxed out the persuasion skill I was able to convince the demon to grant me BLOOD MAGIC and leave the boy's body! I did the good thing and gained blood magic. Psshtt, and they say blood mages are evil. My Blood Mage was a straight up good character, no evil in him at all. [/spoiler]
Annie Mitsoda (DoubleBear): Waking up in jail.
Swen Vinke (Larian Studios): Collect-a-thons.
Adam Heine (inXile): Fighting rats, bats, snakes, spiders.
Mitch Gitelman (Harebrained Schemes): Breaking barrels, and bikini armor.
Judging by other games, these seem to be unpopular opinions.
[spoiler=a recording from that panel]
[/spoiler]
Unpopular Opinion: Bioware has been going downhill in terms of quality with their games. All of my friends praise Inquisition as the best game ever and I'm like, "Neverwinter Night's OC was more interesting- WATERDHAVIAN CREATURES ARE MORE INTERESTING THAN CORYPHEUS!"
Poor PC controls and a super easy Nightmare mode made me cry for the days of old. I can barely beat Baldur's Gate on the normal! XD
I do love Sera though. She's adorable. Even if she did reject my elfy elf mage 'cause he was male QQ.
Also, @bengoshi , thanks for the link! That was an interesting listen. @58:50 the question about more modern RPGs being "action-y" made me realize that I actually heavily dislike modern RPGs despite growing up on them (I do feel as though I'm pretty young on these forums being only 21). I love getting in deep with rulesets and number-crunching as well as more slow combat that allows full control of a party as opposed to LEFT CLICK HARDER AND SPAM MY 1-9 KEYS FOR SPELLS!
Back to the topic.
On those playthroughs I don't change NPCs' starting proficiencies I prefer to give Minsc a mace and not a two-handed sword.
Wait...
I think I'm doing this wrong again.
-High stat rolls are overrated. You literally just sit there in front of your computer for hours trying to hit anything above a 90, and for what? A thrill? When you could have already started a new wonderful game of Baldur's Gate? Nowadays I leave happy with anything above an 85, and it doesn't hinder my experience in the slightest. Half the time I feel as though I don't even need a lot of 18s anyway.
-Chaotic Evil is a great alignment to run, and no, you don't have to be Stupid Evil to do it. Psychopathic bloodthirsty killers can be just as charming and intelligent as the Neutral Evil "What's in it for me?"-types. (Not...Not that I would know, or anything. *shifty eyes*)
-Munchkin is a stupid game. Yeah, I said it. It's long and boring and--sometimes--needlessly complicated. There's a pattern to Munchkin that I always see every time I play, without fail:
2. There's always that person who can't seem to draw an appropriately-leveled monster to save her life, so she's stuck at level 1 for gods know how long while everyone else cruises ahead. This person usually also pulls a ton of cool classes, races, and gear, of which she just can't use because she can't pull any stupid monsters. (In case you can't tell by the anger of my typing, this person is usually me.)
3. There's always that person who pulls a bunch of Wandering Monster and monster-boosting cards in their hand, which they can't use except right at the end of the game--when we're all wearing down and just want the stupid thing to be over with. Then that person throws everything they have on the person who's trying to win--or sometimes the person who's been dead-last the whole game--and inevitably make the game go on even longer, much to everyone's dismay.
4. There's always that person who brought the game in the first place, a Munchkin enthusiast, and this person always insists on reading the cards in a funny voice. It's cute the first few times, because the writing of the cards is actually pretty clever. But after an hour and too much junk food later, we're all restraining ourselves from throwing something at this person.
5. There's always that person who doesn't understand the rules. They have a weird card in their hand that they don't know how to use, and we have to check the rules half a dozen times for them to learn what it does. To be fair, half the time the rules aren't even remotely helpful, because the writing just boils down to "Do what it says on the card. What, you mean there's a weird ruling on said card? I dunno, house rule it, I don't give a poop." Which just makes the confused person more confused and the person trying to help said confused person feel incredibly stupid.
So, now that that can of worms was opened...
-Watcher's Keep should only be entered in in ToB, with the exception of grabbing the Potion Case because inventory management sucks and possibly Firetooth if anyone has crossbow proficiencies.
-Mage/Clerics are actually quite powerful defensively, possibly the most defensive things in the game.
-Coffee tastes awful.
-I wish kidnapping Imoen wasn't the main plot in BG2, just because of the urgency of the situation. There doesn't ever seem to be time to do side quests if you're roleplaying it out as a Good character, or even one that has, y'know, SOME sort of empathy for a childhood friend. (Oh! I have 15k gold already! I need to go save the only child I knew growing up in Candlekeep. What, you want me to go clear monsters in your lands, Firkraag? Sorry, time to save Immy. Chapter 6 is even worse about side quests, since the options are to hurry as quickly as you can to recover your bloody soul, without which you don't actually know if you'll live or not or... do side quests for other people. Yeah.)
With this logic, my Good character would go and get experience first.
I think ahead to the endless Chapters lying in wait, think to myself "I CAN'T go through all that again", and start playing Torchlight II with the "all females nude" mod. BG2 isn't worth a second run-through ...
although if they came through with a mod like that, maybe it would be.