BG2, A problem of game rules with the new companion hexxat....
red_codec
Member Posts: 44
Winced and closed one eye as Anomen casted cure light wounds on a dying hexxat. To both my surprise and disappointment, hexxat was healed instead of damaged from a cure wound spell....
2
Comments
Had to drop her though. Im good and shes evil, and party members didn't like her. Forced to let her go when aeerie said she goes off killing people, some innocents at night for feeding. Nuh uh for goodie parties.
Aerie: Do you think w-we don't know what you do at night, when we're sleeping?
Hexxat: Should I care?
Aerie: I've seen you, I've seen the stains. You... you kill people. Innocent people.
Hexxat: Occasionally. If I have to.
Aerie: You don't deserve to travel with us. You... you don't deserve anything at all.
Hexxat: I'm sorry you feel that way.
Aerie: I...what?
Hexxat: I would like to be your friend, Aerie. But I am what I am. When you are ready to accept that, please, come speak to me again. For now, I bid you good .
That said, I agree she doesn't fit in most good parties. I think her final quest is not redemption as such, but she does want to die as a human and effectively offers her human soul up for judgement by the Faerunian gods, as opposed to dying as an undead and withholding the soul from them. It takes a long time to get there with her in the party and as a good party you need to let her do it.
In a PnP game I would reward a lot of quest points to a party that helped her accomplish that, even if the means were less than savory as long as no outright evil was done. That is why this is tough to me, it would be nice to shortcut a lot of her crypt crawl quests and jump right to the end. I know this kinds of defeats the purpose of an NPC to keep through the end game, but it would feel more right to me to include her for a short time, help her find L and then end it more quickly.
On an "oops" note - I accidentally killed Hexxat permanently - she doesn't come back from petrifcation - unfortunately she walked over a trap that she didn't see in time.
For me at least, the story line for Hexxat could have been done so much better, sadly it wasn't. I personally don't need for her to be redeemed as there is no going back from being a vampire but the story line and ending could have been done much better.
So sad Hexxat is a vampire that is barely a vampire.
Hexxat's last quest reward (unless charname talks her out of it) is for L to turn her back to a human. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it he can't change her age so she dies immediately afterwards. I don't look at it as redemption as such but there is a possibility of it at that point as she dies as human and not undead. After all, if Hexxat is part of a good aligned party then shouldn't she get some credit?
Also, you can turn charname's love interest back from Bodhi's vampirism by bringing their body to the ruined temple.
That's one thing I really hate about Lawful Good interpretations in this game (and many other games). Is it really beyond the scope of a Lawful Good person to understand that you don't just kill someone for being "evil"?
Hexxat isn't exactly the cliché of the bloodthirsty vampire that'd kill anyone. She does not enjoy killing, but she wants to survive
Idem for Viccy. She will do what it takes to survive, but won't take pleasure in slaughtering everyone she meets.
I might be wrong, but I feel that somehow these are less evil than those so-called lawful good character and their manichean vision of the world.
Reminds me of Star Wars 3 (sorry prelogy haters). Anakin says "If you are not my ally, you are my enemy" or something along those lines, and Obi-Wan answers "Only a Sith thinks this way". Think on it, Lawful Stupid Paladins
Edit: to avoid any confusion this last sentence was not aimed at anyone in the forum or anywhere.
You as the PC character will obviously know the difference between what real evil and what is not that evil you also in general will not be so prejudice because of race but the NPC did not grow up in the same world as you did.
Paladins fight evil - they face the indoctrination of battling evil - and unfortunately that means the evil races are evil there are almost no exceptions to this. From Viconia story when you meet she is evil like and it certainly does not help that she is a drow as well. The fact that the lawful good NPC are unable to overcome their own ingrained prejudice should not be a surprise. What is annoying is that it takes a while for the conflict to reach a point of fighting - which should happen a lot sooner - if having Viconia, Dorn, Hexxat, Korgan and Edwin in the group plus a lawful good NPC then they should tell me sooner rather than later. Also the fact that if it takes time the lawful good should see that Viconia and the others (that are more neutral) are not evil - really Hexxat is not evil if you compare her to Dorn or Korgan - the lawful good NPC just don't like her because she is a vampire.
What is funny about some of the party combinations is that although Mazzy gets into conflict with Hexxat she doesn't mind Korgann - who is quite insane and rather obviously evil - can you say prejudice on the part of Mazzy who is fine with Korgan but not Hexxat.
Viconia's haughty demeanor combined with the fact that she's a cleric of Shar (one of Faerun's most cruel deities - Shar's clergy are also notorious for their lies/manipulation) and an EXTREMELY proud person who'd never back down after being insulted by what she considers a lesser being doesn't help things.
It doesn't matter if neither of them are truly right/wrong, that fight is inevitable. The reasoning can be pretty confusing if your Keldorn/Viconia hasn't interacted much with your party mates (ie, not enough context because you don't know enough about them yet) but metagame-wise the fight makes sense.
As for Hexxat, more than a few serial killers kill not because they revel in death and murder, but because it's just business for them. They lie, study their prey, project a false sense of security and even act all friendly and casual even as they murder their victims.
Sound like someone you know?
I suppose if you're immortal or someone who'll never be on the receiving end of the killing act then such a person could be considered less evil than someone like Dorn. Though I'm pretty sure more than a few potential victims who have only one life to live and who have to deal with the possibility of losing their essence (ie. levels = memories, experiences, etc) entirely in a universe where an afterlife actually exists (ie, death can actually be a good thing) or being damned for eternity would very much disagree.
Anyway I am not sure we'll reach an agreement, but my point is that in my mind, Hexxat is somewhat less Evil than Dorn, and not irredeemably Evil.
As for Keldorn's reaction to Viccy, it is not that I cannot understand it, it's more that I, admitting I'm leaning towards good alignment, would give her a chance to prove herself. Everyone is presumed innoncent until proven guilty. That's how justice works nowadays, and that's also my philosophy concerning relationships with people. I try not to judge someone from rumors or hearsays, I try to get the measure of them myself, with no prejudice towards their culture or origin or whatever. And I won't be the one landing the first blow, though I'll answer if need be. But it is true that I judge that with modern standards that may not fit the Forgotten Realms
She is a vampire and that makes her evil because she is undead (no choice in the matter), her psyche through out the game does not prove that she is evil.
As for killing, she doesn't have to kill in order to feed. Yes, she killed that one time when we meet her in the crypt besides that there are has no other killings or conflicts that is started by her.
Even undead as she is - she continues to complete the contract assigned to her when she was alive - that is a sense of honor even if its thieves honor in completing a contract.
Dorn in BG2 begins with his first assignment as an assassination inside a temple of all places and it only gets worse - add to that he is a blackguard (his chosen profession) which required him to create a contract with a demon - is a clear sign that he is evil. Even his dialogue is blood thirsty and evil.
I'm pretty sure Hexxat's background was meant to be open to interpretation, it's up to the player to decide how sincere she is. I prefer my interpretation simply because I've known a lot of manipulative people in my lifetime, whose words speak very differently from their actions. It seems someone actually took pains to model Hexxat after those kinds of people, down to the undermining/damaging the credibility of fellow NPCs who see through her lies-part.