Bandit Camp infiltration?
Taylan
Member Posts: 76
I know there's at least three ways to reach the Bandit Camp in Chapter 3:
From memory, I thought there was a hefty XP bonus when you successfully infiltrate, but I got a mere 400 by convincing Teven and then Tazok, all without a fight. Dunno if they patched it or if my memory was just wrong. Doing the same with Raiken also gave the same amount of XP.
When you use either of the two to infiltrate the camp, the other one disappears and can't be fought. (The one you used will be in the camp so you can still fight him.)
Teven gives 900 XP and Raiken 650 XP. This means that by taking the 400 XP by infiltrating, you're making a net loss of 500 or 250. Given that, is there any incentive to infiltrate the camp instead of just killing Teven and Raiken and doing a full frontal assault?
I simply don't see any reason other than RP purposes to infiltrate. It allows you to talk to some NPCs and get extra journal entries but none of it seems to give any XP or such. You can't avoid fighting the whole camp either; you need to enter the big/main tent to progress the story, which initiates a fight, and when you go back outside you also get attacked.
OK, there's one marginal benefit I can see: you can open all kinds of chests beforehand so the potions and scrolls you find within may help you with the battle. But that's a really minor thing.
Am I missing anything?
- Make Teven in Larswood recruit you
- Make Raiken in Peldvale recruit you
- Kill 'em all and just march in like a champ
From memory, I thought there was a hefty XP bonus when you successfully infiltrate, but I got a mere 400 by convincing Teven and then Tazok, all without a fight. Dunno if they patched it or if my memory was just wrong. Doing the same with Raiken also gave the same amount of XP.
When you use either of the two to infiltrate the camp, the other one disappears and can't be fought. (The one you used will be in the camp so you can still fight him.)
Teven gives 900 XP and Raiken 650 XP. This means that by taking the 400 XP by infiltrating, you're making a net loss of 500 or 250. Given that, is there any incentive to infiltrate the camp instead of just killing Teven and Raiken and doing a full frontal assault?
I simply don't see any reason other than RP purposes to infiltrate. It allows you to talk to some NPCs and get extra journal entries but none of it seems to give any XP or such. You can't avoid fighting the whole camp either; you need to enter the big/main tent to progress the story, which initiates a fight, and when you go back outside you also get attacked.
OK, there's one marginal benefit I can see: you can open all kinds of chests beforehand so the potions and scrolls you find within may help you with the battle. But that's a really minor thing.
Am I missing anything?
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Comments
Aren't those bandits introduced by the BG1 NPC project though? I don't think they are present in the unmodded game. Or am I thinking of the wrong bunch of bandits?
They're vanilla. The bandit is named Deke and only appears after chapter2 is done with
Wow. I've been playing since the game came out and I have never once bumped into the guy. I guess I have never returned to the Coast Way after clearing the Nashkel Mines.
He's always my go-to for the bandit camp. You don't need to waddle through Tranzig's inn, Raiken is too far and he's better off dead to get his hammer, and you don't have to suffer the Tazok sequence with Teven. Plus you're free to visit the camp when you feel like it.
Anyway, I've tried it the other three ways. It is substantially easier to infiltrate and then take on the camp piece-wise, as a full-frontal assault pulls the whole camp out and they follow you around the map. This includes the bandits that are ordinarily in the main tent.
That said, a full frontal assault is vastly more satisfying once you finally tilt the battle in your party's favor. You can really open up with those area effect spells that you always want to use, but never seem to find the right place for.
Wait, this isn't my experience with the game at all - when I go back outside, everyone is passive and I just quietly slip away.
Is this possibly something that was altered by different versions of the game, or perhaps by mods that one of us has installed?
The battle royale against all the camp at once is from SCS. With it, once any bandit is alerted, the whole camp converges on you including the group from the main tent. If you do infiltrate, Taurgosz greets you upon exiting the main tent and alerts the whole camp against you.
Interesting, I didn't realize that was an SCS mod. I normally infiltrate, so the first game where I tried the frontal assault was also an SCS run.
That is an epic fight, though. Tough as nuts, but wow, you really feel a sense of accomplishment when that battle is over.
Regardless, it is one of the best - if not the best - group melee fights in BG!
Invisibility, it seems
I was just curious of seeing how the peaceful path played out; it definitely works here. But in the end, I still wanted them dead so I went to pick up Kivan, came back and killed everyone anyways.
This being said I figured I'd share for future interested parties that you can technically avoid detection in the main tent.
The key here is that the group inside the tent only goes hostile once they talk to you. Which requires a particular bandit to see you. He has eyes on the tent entrance, but not the objective chest. So you need to be invisible when entering the tent, and again when leaving it. Normal infiltration can handle everything else.
The tent is a party-required area; everyone in the party needs to be invisible if you're doing this. As such, it's easiest when playing solo.
Stupid question, not necessarily only addressed at you:
If you go into the next chapter like this - just looting the chect, not killing any bandits - wouldn't that leave a plothole with regard to the bandit activity? Everyone assumes the main bandit activity is finished after the player has that letter. It's the reason BG lowers the draw bridge.
Not that it's CHARNAME's problem, mind. They just want to find their father's killer, so this makes perfect sense from that POV.
Sarevok went down in the early morning of day 13, failing to even fight back against a wand-wielding ferret. And leaving a whole lot of messes for the dukes and their forces to clean up, now that they know what was going on.