bg2 spoilers ahead.... ring of gaxx
jesterdesu
Member Posts: 373
Hopefully the topic title is not considered spoilery.
Does it bother anybody else that the ring of gaxx is such an evil item? I can't imagine I'm the only one who eschews it because of this but I also imagine plenty of other "good" players still use it, overlooking the fact that its empowered by death and sacrifice (presumably not willing sacrifice).
I really believe it ought to be an evil only item, like human flesh armour.
Does it bother anybody else that the ring of gaxx is such an evil item? I can't imagine I'm the only one who eschews it because of this but I also imagine plenty of other "good" players still use it, overlooking the fact that its empowered by death and sacrifice (presumably not willing sacrifice).
I really believe it ought to be an evil only item, like human flesh armour.
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Comments
My idea, how about adding a curse to it - anyone can equip BUT any good aligned characters have a % to be destroyed/petrified by wearing the ring, even if they survive they permanently lose 1 point of CON, WIS and INT for being an idiot and trying to wear a ring that belongs to an archlich and even if you don't mind the loss of stats - any good aligned will randomly suffer x3 damage in battle or random poisoning and the % of being forced to changed alignment each day that the good PC wears it; paladin type classes (holy warriors) also have a % to fall from grace for wearing it - this save is done for each day that the PC wears the ring and the save get harder each time with the percentage for falling increasing);
The curse does not show up on a regular identify spell - you actually have to wear for the curse to be felt plus the ring makes you forget that you have it so you can't remove it via remove curse unless the priest/mage is at least 5 levels higher than the PC wearing it with a 18WIS and 18INT to recognize that there is even a curse);
For neutral aligned PCs the ring will have a % each time a neutral PC goes into battle of not working as advertised and also suffer x2 damage from all attacks and spells for X rounds of the PC (level of PC divided by 3 to determine how many rounds- at the very least 1 round).
While evil aligned PC especially those that are CE have a % chance of automatically being possessed by Kangaxx and thereby returning him to "life" and even if you make the save there is a % every 10 days or so that Kangaxx's spirit (in the ring) will force you to attack your own party members at the least convenient time besides this there is no other side effect for evil aligned PCs for wearing the ring.
All alignments PCs that die while wearing the ring automatically returns Kangaxx to the living (undead state) while the PC suffers a permanent death no resurrection is possible.
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In general, I found the ring helpful at times if a bit too powerful but its nice now that in order to get it you actually have to defeat Kangaxx - no cheesy pick pocketing it and then running away or getting 2 rings using this cheesy method.
Along these same thoughts of item restrictions, there are also a few other items that should also be restricted and have consequences for non-users for using it - specifically thieves that use UAI - like the holy avenger sword and the staff of the magi (ie artifact items that are powerful) - there should be a % that the thief that tries to use it ( with UAI) will be destroyed (with a save but also suffer a backlash of 75% damage to HP (from his total) no save and a temporary lost of 1 point of DEX, CON and INT) and also have something horribly done to him (no save) for having the audacity of using something that he should in no way be able to use.
It's all about what you do NOW, not how you started.
I'd destroy that ring if I could.
Well I did kill the lich and my pally wants sweet gear as well. I can't see why the good aligned should not be allowed to use the ring of gaxx. When my party has just cleansed Athkatla from evil the deserve a price. And congrats you just won a cursed ring that will either kill you or stat drain you permanently is not what you long to hear after a tough battle.
Then there should be restrictions on the staff of the magi as well and then only lawful stupid would take on the fights. Others would just skip it knowing there is nothing good to gain.
Surely your paladin would be happy to rid the world of evil without material reward?
The penalty I'd put on the ring would be one where anybody could wear it but it would lead to a permanent alignment shift to evil.
A little side quest of taking it to Cromwell and having him destroy it might also be fun... It could award a lot of xp plus say a ring of protection plus 2.
That or I imagine some of the paladin halls would have a storage/safe with these kinks of things. Think museum of things we don't use lol. Doubt some of them can be purified so maybe that's an option for others. Especially before if the item wasn't tainted with evil and manage to get corrupted. Can rp that the paly needed to use the items against evil, and due to the godlike nature/bhaal essence it wasn't technically restricted or maybe it fuels the murder part/turns them evil, hence why fallen paly can happen.
If you want to RP that your good charname won't use evil relics, just don't! If you can justify it to yourself or just don't care, feel free to use them. Use any item complicated matters somewhat imho, I feel it's another example that BG2 maybe shouldn't have reached HLA levels.
Unless, of course, the item is somehow cursed to continue to bring evil to the world as it's used. Which I think the Ring of Gaxx is canonically supposed to me.
A cool mod would be that the Ring is Kangaxx phylactery and you can either do a quest to destroy it or you know he is regenerating somewhere and will come for you eventually (which would happen in ToB, with many allies and such).
You could put it on Boo as a belt? But then he would be too OP