Pacifism!
HexHammer
Member Posts: 288
When playing MMO, I've sometimes RP'ed as a pacifistic druid, mandatorily hugging trees and talking about it to come to a mutual understanding, lecturing and scolding my fellow mates when they greedily wants to slay innocent beings for their own selfish gain.
It would be cool if it was possible to play a pacifistic style, trying to reason with mobs and maybe bribe ones way through the game, talk about it, maybe even intimidate, etc, but at the end of the day never shed blood.
As a thief instigate fights, and let others do the dirty work, approach some guards and fast talk ones way through a guard post.
Use disguises to solve quests, etc.
All this killing and murdering is bad! OK!!!!
It would be cool if it was possible to play a pacifistic style, trying to reason with mobs and maybe bribe ones way through the game, talk about it, maybe even intimidate, etc, but at the end of the day never shed blood.
As a thief instigate fights, and let others do the dirty work, approach some guards and fast talk ones way through a guard post.
Use disguises to solve quests, etc.
All this killing and murdering is bad! OK!!!!
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Comments
Casting Entangle or Web would be pacifistic, polymorph and run!
Maybe a quest could turn out that you just need to sway the marauding villians that there are better loot "that way", saving a village from being plunderd and killed. No blood shedded, no harm caused, massive XP!
Being able to play 'Pacifist' in general, irregardless of class, would be a pretty nice. It'd be great if you could avoid more combat through diplomacy or manipulation.
But it sounds nice that there's a game out there we can get inspiration from.
An existing workaround is that you can cast imprisonment on people. It can be a fitting alternative if you're against capital punishment. They're just sent to a magical dungeon for the rest of time, no harm done.
How would you feel being trapped forever far beneath the earth? ......FOREVER!!!
The part where I said "no harm done" was intended as a sarcastic reference to the fact that casting imprisonment is the only non-cheating way to resolve many in-game situations without violence.
Also it might be tough to do pacifist options in a computer game where so much time was spent coding the combat system. I guess I haven't played Planescape: Torment, so I don't know if they succeeded in having enough nonviolent options there. When's PT:EE coming out? 2025?
Think of it as this Bhaal Spawn that tries soo hard to stay Good, but can't help him/her-self to shed a little blood now and then when the urge gets too great, thus fighting the inner demon.
If they balanced the xp for non violent players there will be less blood and gore in my playtrough
1. Mulahey
2. Raemon, Venkt, Hakt and Britik
3. Daveorn
4. Slythe (don't need to kill krysten)
5. Sarevok
Note that it is also essentail to kill 6 greater dopplegangers at the meeting with sarevok, but technically the guards can do this for you, although it might be hard to accomplish
In BG2 there are a number of different routes to take but I count this one as the one with the least kills (42 total).
1. Jaylos, Caehan, Guild contact
2. Gellal, Durst and Lassal
3. Sanik's assassin
4. Perth the Adept
5. 16 assorted kobolds underneath spellhold (guarding the crystal)
6. Dace
7. 5 goblins and 3 trolls in the asylum tests
8. Lonk the sane
9. Bodhi
10. 6 elemental parasites in tree of life
11. Irenicus
Note that these npc kills are absolutely essential. However, spells such as imprisonment may possibly be able to bypass some, I haven't tested. If anyone can reduce this number further, I'd be happy to hear it.
It might also be possible to cajole an enemy mage to summon a demon, and keep that demon alive long enough to kill one or more of the targets too, so that they wouldn't be attributed as your kills, although this could obviously be very difficult
Wouldn't be much idea in having a barbarian to be a pacifist, sure he can intimidate and what not, but imo it just doesn't go with the class not to have the urge to crack some skulls now and then.
C) using violence only in selfdefense would be partially remedied with healing the agressor afterwards being pacifyed, and then talk about it ..and hug!
If you talk to the pirate king, Desharik, you can get to Spellhold without needing to ever encounter Perth the Adept, thus, you do not need to kill him.
You can read more about how to do this at Gamebanshee:
http://www.gamebanshee.com/baldursgateii/walkthrough/brynnlaw.php
You also don't have to kill Lonk the sane. Talk to him and convince him that by helping you he will be free of Irenicus. He will then bring you to the other prisoners and go his separate way.
I haven't tried casting imprisonment on the specific people you mentioned, but I have used it on characters in other plots and had the game count them as dying when they did not. For example, in Ust Natha you can cast imprisonment on Quilue and then bring her brain to the aboleth, even though she is really still alive. If your timing is perfect, you can also save Xzar, by casting imprisonment on him just before that Harper assassin can kill him. If you time it right, she will still show up and the dialogue and plot will continue as though she killed him, but he will, in fact be merely imprisoned and can be released later with a freedom spell.
Also, I can't remember what spell I used, but several years ago I charmed Sarevok and used him to kill his allies. It's been so long that I only vaguely remember what happened, but I think the game eventually ended with him still alive, but under my control. I'm not sure what I used but it was probably either dire charm or Algernon's cloak. I know I used to use them quite a lot and would often times repeatedly try to charm someone until it eventually worked, even if it took dozens of attempts.
It may be possible to skip the guild contact too, if you question him succesfully, potentially putting the kill count at 39
Regarding the bg1 route, it may be possible to avoid killing mulahey, and Raemon, Venkt, Hakt and Britik by just running past them and opening thier chests too. Will look into this. It would leave the bg kill count at 3.