Entar Silvershield and the question of his death
UncleSporky
Member Posts: 100
I'm just now getting into Siege of Dragonspear for the first time. In the Ducal Palace I'm having a meeting with the dukes and Entar Silvershield is here.
I think I've heard enough about the general outline of SoD from reviews and retrospectives that I know why he is needed to be alive by the plot of the game (I really don't care about spoilers).
But my question is why there needed to be a big question about why he's alive, and why the answer is kind of lame.
Here's the dialogue:
Charname: Grand Dike Silvershield. Weren't you--forgive me if this is indelicate---weren't you killed?
Entar Silvershield: It took all of Fenster's skills to restore me to life. But we are not here to discuss my health.
Here's the thing...my character probably isn't stupid, and should be aware of how death tends to be a minor setback in the world he lives in. It's very likely that he paid Gellana Mirrorshade to have his own party members brought back from the dead multiple times. So why would he be surprised that a rich, important man has been revived?
And why would it require any particular skill at all to bring him back? It's stated as if it takes a healer's touch, herbs, remedies, bandages and whatnot. It's just a 5th level spell. I think rules as written it's supposed to cost 5000 GP worth of diamonds but in the game it's 750 GP at the Friendly Arm Inn.
I dunno, it just seems weird and a little willfully ignorant of what the world is like. Or you could at least call it a plot point at odds with game mechanics. Other games sometimes have little moments like these, like Final Fantasy having characters revived with Phoenix Downs but slain forever in cutscenes...however in those cases you could handwave those battle deaths and rezzes as some more minor injuries, unconsciousness, etc. Forgotten Realms is very explicit about what death means and how to circumvent it.
It'd be really easy to provide a quick plausible explanation. In fact it would've been a fun opportunity to show that Sarevok is even more incompetent than already proven; maybe Entar Silvershield was never killed and was just laying low, and poised to claim his seat back from Sarevok at a moment's notice, before Charname foiled him.
I think I've heard enough about the general outline of SoD from reviews and retrospectives that I know why he is needed to be alive by the plot of the game (I really don't care about spoilers).
But my question is why there needed to be a big question about why he's alive, and why the answer is kind of lame.
Here's the dialogue:
Charname: Grand Dike Silvershield. Weren't you--forgive me if this is indelicate---weren't you killed?
Entar Silvershield: It took all of Fenster's skills to restore me to life. But we are not here to discuss my health.
Here's the thing...my character probably isn't stupid, and should be aware of how death tends to be a minor setback in the world he lives in. It's very likely that he paid Gellana Mirrorshade to have his own party members brought back from the dead multiple times. So why would he be surprised that a rich, important man has been revived?
And why would it require any particular skill at all to bring him back? It's stated as if it takes a healer's touch, herbs, remedies, bandages and whatnot. It's just a 5th level spell. I think rules as written it's supposed to cost 5000 GP worth of diamonds but in the game it's 750 GP at the Friendly Arm Inn.
I dunno, it just seems weird and a little willfully ignorant of what the world is like. Or you could at least call it a plot point at odds with game mechanics. Other games sometimes have little moments like these, like Final Fantasy having characters revived with Phoenix Downs but slain forever in cutscenes...however in those cases you could handwave those battle deaths and rezzes as some more minor injuries, unconsciousness, etc. Forgotten Realms is very explicit about what death means and how to circumvent it.
It'd be really easy to provide a quick plausible explanation. In fact it would've been a fun opportunity to show that Sarevok is even more incompetent than already proven; maybe Entar Silvershield was never killed and was just laying low, and poised to claim his seat back from Sarevok at a moment's notice, before Charname foiled him.
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Comments
Charname can ask the same of Xzar, Edwin and others.
Secondly, while this is not properly implemented, death comes in varying degrees of revivability. You may have noticed that when your party members receive a lot of damage, then their images do not become grayed out but instead completely disappear, removing every chance of bringing them back.
In DnD, the better the condition of the corpse, the easier it is to restore them to life. Once your cleric has reached 8M XP, it should be impossible for party members to be beyond their powers to revive. But Baldur's Gate II is a bit more simplistic than that, and so you get the more nuanced rules in the story, but not in the mechanics that you have access to.
Edit: I see that I just called it "more nuanced", but I guess that what I should call it is "convenient". People are dead when it creates suspense, and they come back whenever the writers want them to.
"Oh Anomen, great and powerful cleric. Your sister is dead"
"Vita, Mortis, Careo."
"Yay, I'm alive!"
"By the way, who killed you?"
In PnP AD&D a city with a population of 30.000 people is not likely to have more than two or three cleric citizens who can cast 5th level spells, my bet is that Gellana, Fenster, Keldath and a just couple of others are the few select priests who have such power around the region.
Temple priests:
Agnasia (Tymora, Baldur's Gate) 9.
Alvanhendar (Yondalla, Gullykin) 9.
Gellana Mirrorshade (Garl Glittergold, Friendly Arm) 10.
Jalantha Mistmyr (Umberlee, Baldur's Gate) 9.
Kelddath Ormlyr (Lathander, Beregost) 16.
Enemies:
Bassilus (wilderness) 12.
Wudei (Undercity) 12.
Diyab (Iron Throne HQ) 9.
Neutrals:
Cadderly (Candlekeep) 20.
Dushai (Ulgoth's Beard) 9.
Mad Arcand (wilderness) 11.
Tamoko (multiple sites) 14.
Tremain Belde'ar (Baldur's Gate) 9.
Five temple priests, three definite enemies, and five other neutrals you can talk to. Agnasia and Tremain are the easiest ones to work with starting in BG city. Then there are the various temples that offer Raise Dead services despite not having any priests of the appropriate level; presumably, there's some way to use temple rituals to access spells beyond the priest's normal casting ability.
Fenster doesn't appear at all in-game, so you can't screw up this story point by killing him before SoD.
Incidentally, I'm currently playing with Kelddath cheated into the party, and he doesn't have Raise Dead in his spellbook normally - the game doesn't bother filling out NPC priest spellbooks with anything they don't have memorized, and the fighting AI wouldn't know what to do with a Raise Dead anyway.
One of these things is not like the others...
Cadderly is one of R.A. Salvatore's creations, a hero on the same level as Drizzt. He has his own posse of high-level companions too, a Monk, a Fighter and a Druid.
I'd say he's way past Drizzt in terms of level/power. But yeah, I'm a big fan of the Cleric Quintet. Its Salvatore's best work imho. I just found the level disparity to be funny.
For those who are curious, that druid is a dwarf during the time that dwarves couldn't be druids. Kinda like Mazzy and being a paladin. But played for laughs a lot of the time.