ways to maintain rep at the right level to hold onto a mixed alignment party (SPOILERS)

Lemernis

In my first BG:EE game, now just one week from today , I intend to play the following mixed alignment party:

CG Half-elf Fighter-Mage (maybe TN but not sure I want a rabbit familiar)
Imoen
Viconia
Rasaad
Dorn
Neera

From a RP standpoint, since CHARNAME will not be evil the PC won't be doing bad things. So no worries about Good aligned party members leaving.

By the same token the character won't necessarily be going out of his way to perform good deeds either. His main motivation is to find and kill whoever is trying to kill him, and to avenge Gorion's death. He will also be strongly motivated to help his comrades complete their quests. He will lead the party on many side quests for basically all the reasons we do it as players, i.e., to improve everyone's skills, and to earn gold in order to buy the best gear available. He grasps that this is necessary to defeat any foe powerful enough to kill Gorion.

But anyway, as we know, most of the game's quests are geared toward a traditional hero. So lest I lose Dorn and Viconia, I can't let rep get above... what is it?... 18, IIRC.

Imoen can get caught burgling or pickpocketing, I know that. But if I am to RP this type of game in character for the evil characters in the party, I should be able to have Dorn and Viconia do stuff that decreases rep...

I guess we'll wait and see if Dorn is an unbridled psychopath versus a smart and calculating fiend. But short of having him wantonly kill innocents (which would not sit well with the PC), maybe I can have Dorn quaff a few drinks in a tavern every so often and he'll punch out commoners? Not sure if that will reduce rep, though...

Viconia, I'm not sure how to achieve the same type of results with. Something involving her spellcasting, I guess? Ideally, it should be in keeping with her Wisdom score.

Just looking for creative RP ways to accomplish keeping rep from getting too high.

As always, your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Mortianna

Sounds like you'll be doing some interesting RP balancing with that party. If you need to lower your rep a bit, you could have Imoen botch a pickpocket attempt and then have Viconia or Dorn step in to "clean up" the mess, making sure they don't run to the guard.

I tend to do this with Unshey at the Friendly Arm after I complete the Belt of Piercing quest. Since there's only one other NPC that witnesses it (some pompous noble in the adjacent room), you can get away with it without turning a crowd of NPCs hostile.

As I'm sure you know, there are plenty of lone NPCs you encounter throughout the Sword Coast that make suitable "candidates."

Lemernis

Isn't there a way to start mayhem in Nashkel at the cemetery? I've never done it, but I recall reading once that it can cause friendly fire casualties.

Also, perhaps Viconia can hold a grudge against the Flaming Fist and every so often get into it with them... Not that I want to have to constantly fight Flaming Fist wizards at every turn.

Oxford_Guy

Lemernis said:

Isn't there a way to start mayhem in Nashkel at the cemetery? I've never done it, but I recall reading once that it can cause friendly fire casualties.

Yes, if you want to know how to do it (its not obvious) head over to the excellent Dudleyville walkthrough (the relevant Nashkel bit is under "Daer'Ragh's phoenix guards" here: http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/ar4800.htm ), though I would *strongly* advise not looking at any areas you've not done before!

Lemernis said:

Also, perhaps Viconia can hold a grudge against the Flaming Fist and every so often get into it with them... Not that I want to have to constantly fight Flaming Fist wizards at every turn.

Someone one here played an evil party where he/she collected Flaming Fist helmets as trophies, like Bandit Scalps, LOL! They're not worth much, but their plate armour is...

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Lemernis

I'm wondering if there are any conversations with questgivers that if you refuse to help your rep drops -1, but I don't recall any...

DJKajuru

I simply don't do the +1 reputation quests, with good reason (my character is true neutral and doesn't doesn't really care for espiritual rewards ;D)

Lemernis

For my party the side-quests will be mostly for mercenary reasons (i.e., improve skills, earn gold, upgrade gear), versus going around doing good deeds.

SharGuidesMyHand

I used to almost always play BG1 as a paladin, but I would routinely kill innocents either to temporarily appease the evil members of my party and/or to obtain some unique gear (i.e: Drizzt's scimitars) - thus, I completely wrecked the RPG aspect of BG.

Since you intend to have wild mage Neera in your party, there's a good chance some of her spells will backfire and kill a few innocents here and there - so that may take care of this problem for you. ;-)

Lemernis

@SharGuidesMyHand You must have fallen as a paladin for that, lol. I guess even if innocents are killed away from public sight I guess the paladin's deity knows?

Yeah, that's true about Neera. Although I calculated a couple months back that the probability is actually pretty low of a bad spell outcome. A wild surge only happens 1 in 20 to begin with. Of the wild surges about only a third are decidedly bad. And the physically destructive collateral damage spells are fewer still. The odds of an unintended fireball, lightning bolt, summoning a demon, etc., is really rather low.

Bercon

Does Charisma help in keeping the party members despite the reputation?

Oxford_Guy

Bercon said:

Does Charisma help in keeping the party members despite the reputation?

I've wondered about that too, have read people referring to this, but no actual details about or reference to how this actually works, if indeed it actually does. I know that charisma *does* make a difference when trying to get someone to join your party and have tested this, but am not sure if something similar applies when trying to maintain your party and keep it happy. Can anyone clarify/confirm this area? Thanks

Oxford_Guy

BTW when trying to get an NPC to *join* your party, its the party leader's (i.e. whoever is in front) Charisma that matters, which may or may not be CHARNAME. *If* there is a Charisma affect for maintaining a party, is this from CHARNAME or the current party leader, which may not be the same?

SharGuidesMyHand

Lemernis said:

@SharGuidesMyHand You must have fallen as a paladin for that, lol.

Actually, no. As long as you keep your rep above 6 or 7 (I forget which), you hold on to your paladin status regardless of what you actually do. In my case, once my rep got too close to 18, I would kill an innocent which would lower my rep to around 10 or so, but would still allow me to remain a paladin.