condescending dialogue

Cilicis

Started playing BG2EE and was wondering when is that annoying tone from the NPC's going to stop. Greetings like: "Get away from me, peasant! I'll not be chummied by the likes of you!" or "Bah! I'll not lower myself to deal with one who is so obviously base!" or "*sigh* Why do I always get the poor ones tugging at my pantaloons?"
Constantly being made out to be the lowest of the lowest is bloody annoying, is that ever going to end. Have reputation of 19, am lord of Nalia's Keep, Charisma is maxed and still character is treated as the most foul beggar.

ThacoBell

Its the nobles. It won't change.

tbone1

Cilicis said:

Started playing BG2EE and was wondering when is that annoying tone from the NPC's going to stop. Greetings like: "Get away from me, peasant! I'll not be chummied by the likes of you!" or "Bah! I'll not lower myself to deal with one who is so obviously base!" or "*sigh* Why do I always get the poor ones tugging at my pantaloons?"
Constantly being made out to be the lowest of the lowest is bloody annoying, is that ever going to end. Have reputation of 19, am lord of Nalia's Keep, Charisma is maxed and still character is treated as the most foul beggar.

Yeah, I had to deal with the same thing in my career with Ivy Leaguers.

lunar

That's the nobles of Athkathla for you. You must have met Nalia's charming aunt, too. Yeah, she is the epitome of nobles in around Amn. And if any noble shows you a tiny bit of respect they likely have an ulterior move. (Luraxol and Alibakkar houses of Trademeet come into mind)

There are a few dialogues that check for charisma, though. In the Trademeet bar, a sitting noblewoman shoos you away telling she already has a date if your pc is ugly. If your pc is handsome (high cha) she will say she can sit with you instead, dismissing her former date. It also depends on the outcome of druids quest, too. (quest not done but high cha she says you are nice enough but she is still afraid) Nothing really comes out of this dialogue, but it is there.

The dryad queen in Windspear hills first dialogue also changes a bit: she welcomes pretty people to spend eternity with her if your pc is handsome, if not she will be colder. You can do dryad acorn quests in either scenario, though. So most changes are superficial dialogue changes. Whereas in bg1, for example, Fuller gives you +1 dagger right at the start of the game if you are charming enough. Some other quests give better rewards too, you can get magical boots from a nobleman you save from a bear if your cha is high enough. If not he only gives a paltry amount of coins.

Note that most of these instances check not only for charisma, but also the reaction modifier, which is based on both your charisma and reputation modifier combined. So a middling 15 charisma and 20 reputation may be equal of 18 charisma, or 18 charisma and terrible reputation may fare worse. There really is no cure for ugly pcs, though, save ring of human influence and/or friends spell.

CamDawg

My favorites are Lord and Lady Ophal, who will either dismiss you outright on a poor reaction roll or (on a positive roll) whisper about you and then snub you anyway.

lunar said:

That's the nobles of Athkathla for you. You must have met Nalia's charming aunt, too.

And she's getting another insult restored in the latest patch, too.

Cilicis

They should have programmed in a few extra factors, Being lord/lady of a keep is automatic nobility. Cash check/quality of the gear they are wearing before dismissing someone as being a beggar. Knights/Paladins are always of noble blood.
Thx for the replies

Borek

I consider it an incentive by the developers to help players unleash their inner Murder-God. My characters grin and bear it until i'm well into HLA levels, then the evil ones will chunk anyone who gives them cheek. Nalia's Aunt hasn't survived the siege in quite a few play-throughs haha.

Cowlies, Nobles, factional leaders, Drow, Harpers, Shadow thieves, all must fall to the Spawn of Murder!

Cilicis

My darkside characters will go on a total rampage don't worry

Until than, no dialog mods to help keep the good guys good?

Pantalion

It's worth bearing in mind that your character spends days at a time traversing wilderness, caves, dungeons, and the sewers, approximately zero days traversing a bathtub, and never changes their clothes.

tbone1

Pantalion said:

It's worth bearing in mind that your character spends days at a time traversing wilderness, caves, dungeons, and the sewers, approximately zero days traversing a bathtub, and never changes their clothes.

In other words, acts like a college sophomore.

recklessheart

Cilicis said:

They should have programmed in a few extra factors, Being lord/lady of a keep is automatic nobility. Cash check/quality of the gear they are wearing before dismissing someone as being a beggar. Knights/Paladins are always of noble blood.
Thx for the replies

Probably. But it is an old game that lacked the resources and the current trend for narrative variables when these things were being decided, so you gotta forgive 'em. They did an awesome job regardless, right?

If it helps, you can always be looked down upon because you were given the keep through hard work. Yuck. Nobility is all about the bloodlines. You're just a peasant playing dress up as far as these folk are concerned.

And sure, you may not have nobility in your blood, but just wait until they hear what you do have...

tbone1

Also, they probably had to fit everything onto a particular number of CDs. That makes you trim things, said the old C/FORTRAN programmer.

scriver

As a real, irl noble, I can tell you with authority that the only thing worse than peasants is upstart newblood thinking they are on equal terms with actual nobility.

Ardanis

recklessheart said:

And sure, you may not have nobility in your blood, but just wait until they hear what you do have...

Bhaal was just a vagrant I mean, an adventurer, was he not? So what if he's been allowed to play a god for a short while :rolleyes:

Dragonspear

recklessheart said:

Cilicis said:

They should have programmed in a few extra factors, Being lord/lady of a keep is automatic nobility. Cash check/quality of the gear they are wearing before dismissing someone as being a beggar. Knights/Paladins are always of noble blood.
Thx for the replies

Probably. But it is an old game that lacked the resources and the current trend for narrative variables when these things were being decided, so you gotta forgive 'em. They did an awesome job regardless, right?

If it helps, you can always be looked down upon because you were given the keep through hard work. Yuck. Nobility is all about the bloodlines. You're just a peasant playing dress up as far as these folk are concerned.

And sure, you may not have nobility in your blood, but just wait until they hear what you do have...

I think this is the big thing. You're not old blood Noble.

Regarding paladins in forgotten realms, you do not necessarily need to be nobility to become a paladin. Paladins are chosen by their deity to be paladins (and then they need to accept).

I do believe you're right that recognized paladins are considered to be nobility though. But still, not "old blood".

erasure

I've rather liked the dialogue with nobles for this reason. Amn seems to be quite stratified as far as class so any condescension feels fitting (and of course frustrating as far as the roleplay).

Most importantly, as someone above said, it's almost as if they're goading the Bhaalspawn.