And some that die deserve life
Mantis37
Member Posts: 1,177
In infinity engine games we wade through a lot of blood. Sometimes however we are given the opportunity to spare opponents. In my install it is possible to spare Cythandria for example, and SCS lets you spare Kaishas (and makes natural wildlife less aggressive!). Are there any opponents who you wish you had a chance to parley with or spare? Any creatures you always regret having to fight?
6
Comments
Seems like in the old 'Pool of Radiance' type games the option to parley was given more often IIRC.
Heck, it cost me a day's trek back to the Beregost temple and several hundred GP to have her raised!
But I've always wanted to save the Minatour/group who you see fighting the Mushrooms.
Now for something I truly enjoy killing; dopplegangers. I hate them with a passion.
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/41699-the-minotaur-and-lilacor/
A long time ago, in a galaxy...I mean once upon a time in the east I was playing Improved Anvil and I was walking walking walking in Umar Hills with noble and humble ranger in my party named Valygar Corthala (who hated magic but strangely was able to cast some pretty neat spells himself...but that's a different story).
So we were like walking walking walking walking walking...... when suddenly we heard a loud ROAARRRR and was attacked by the most terryfying mountain lion we have ever seen. I started casting aclarity-timestop-3xADHW when someone patted gently on my shoulder "Stop it, friend" I heard the calm and tranquil voice. Who and why have/has/had disrupted my overhelmingly powergaming magical combo? I turned around and I saw very noble, very serious but somewhat horny (you know what I mean) face value of my ranger friend Valygar. "Leave him to me" he whispered gently like a subtle touch of velvet on my almost hard as bone from years of practising necromancy cheek his oh so manly yet delicate like a new born kitten voice was. Then he just almost like unintentionally and totally effortlessly weaved his antimagic mighty from years of wood chopping yet delicate almost like Nalia's social justice's his ranger's muscular and veiny hands and casted his innate charm animal on the lion, calming the beast instantly and immediately feeding him with goodberries like his aura was cleansed already or something. Then he send the lion to the opposite corner of the map just to be sure. And that was THE GREATEST VALYGAR"S VICORY IN IMPROVED ANVIL. and ever.
He later sliced the Mighty One in Underdark, grinded down countless numbers of powerfull golems of all genders and sizes, he even landed a finishing blow to Orcus, Princess of Undead and many others to many to even count not to mention post but all this was like not that much really, compared to the one and only VICTORY, masterfully (seriously, GGR Martin has nothing on me) described in perfect english above.
InKal, "Autistic Sermons, sermon 777"
Asking for a friend. Considering that the city is on the bottom of the ocean, I've come to the new conclusion that the moral option is to disenchant whatever magic is keeping the water out and drown the entire underdark.
As you say, this would probably lead to an explosion in the aboleth population or something, but eh, sea dragons can eat them something something circle of life.
I know you can just bypass the area but you'll also be killing his source of food soon, it's probably better to put him out of his misery. Always feel bad though.
Long answer;
*Ignoring, of course, that the smartest course of action is to man-cuddle up together under the blanket, as the shared body heat increase both mans chances of surviving. Such an answer is cheating, in a way, in another way it is a failure to understand what philosophy is all about.
As the greatest philosopher that ever lived, I of course have the answer; the struggle is divine. For instance, lets say you and a fellow student of origami are competing for the same position as head pillow case folder in a prestigious hotel, and as far as you can tell, your fellow student is every bit as skilled origamist as you are. So, who deserves the job? You both do** - you must both send your CV:s and present yourselves, and whomever gets it gets it. This why the struggle is divine; because the world is limited in resources, it is not possible to say that justice is served when either of equally deserving parties gets a resource of interest.
**Excluding, of course, secondary considerations. Say you live in a box under a bridge and your friend lives in a mansion: probably you need the job more.
Now, obviously, you do not need to bludgeon each others to death, like the men in the ice cave must, and taking such a harsh course of action when there is comparatively relatively little at stake is... unbalanced. But a little bit of constructive persuasion of the hotel is maybe not so bad? I mean, there is a line somewhere between acting faultlessly and murdering your rival that crosses from OK to not OK, but exactly where this line is drawn is not an interesting question, the knowledge that the line exists is.
Now, lets complicate things a bit. Say you watch the two men in the ice cave beat each other in a desperate struggle over the blanket, and you are in the possession of a hunting rifle. Thus, you could affect who wins the blanket. Should you? If both men, as far as you can tell, then why would you? However, let's say that you happen to know that one of the men have stage IV cancer or something. That could motivate you to help the other guy win, correct? He has so much more life to live, should he only survive the night. But now lets say that you know that the other guy murdered his wife. Yeah, it was a dick thing to do, but you somehow (see * above) also know that he will never ever kill or even harm anyone else. Now, it is not so easy anymore, is it? One guy does not have much life left, but the other guy is a swine. How are these things quantified? Which is the worst; shooting the nice but soon dead anyway cancer dude or shooting the murder but much life left dude, or not pulling the trigger at all? The answer is, you can't really be judged, whatever you chose. All option had good and evil in them.
This situation is very similar to genocide of evil shark monsters. Yeah, genocide is a dick move, but on the other hand, they have and will kill lots of people otherwise but on the other hand 1000 more factors but on the first hand again 1000 other factors...
Thus, good and evil is best applied to very basic, very simple scenarios. I mean, they can be really really complex because they involve many elements, such as WWII, but if one side is fairly clearly assholes and one side is fairly clearly nice guys, like the Nazis vs the British, then the choice is easy and good*** and evil applies.
***Of course, war is always dirty business, and one would be fairly naive to assume all British soldiers will act like angels at all given times during the war. Hint: They did not. But overall, it is still easy to pick the more humane side.
To genocide or not to genocide bloodthirsty raiders that yet fill an important ecological niche is NOT an easy scenario, and good and evil is thus equally difficult to discern.
In fact, all attempts at justifying gruesome deeds is to the opposite a slippery slope. You thus create precedents, and precedents can be used and misused to argue for the necessity of other gruesome deeds, even capsizing good and evil on their heads, by virtue of logic derived from said precedents that when applied in simple scenarios favors what would otherwise be the obvious evil.
For instance, nuking civilians is an act of good, in US logic.
The most moral cause of action in non-simple scenarios is thus to act out your whim, whatever that so happens to be, but to NEVER attempt to justify those actions. Just roll with your decision and make no conclusion other than the conclusion that since the scenario was non-simple, thus good and evil does not apply.
Ergo; genocide of evil shark monsters neither an act of good, nor of evil.
In any case you always have more options than two.
(actually, it really would be nice to talk your way out of that encounter outside the cloakwood mine. Drasus seems like such a friendly psychopath.)