Tips for playing a neutral character?

RedGuard

I'm just wondering if anyone has any tips for keeping your reputation from getting too high or too low? I rolled a priest of Helm and I'm not really looking to kill people in a dark alleyway just to keep my rep in check. Any ideas that wouldn't compromise the character I've rolled would be appreciated.

The_New_Romance

I would be grateful for suggestions as well.

RedGuard

Bumping so more people may see this.

Elendar

Reputation doesn't really affect your own character other than lower store prices and such at high reputation... but if you have evil NPCs, they'll leave the party if you get up to 19 or 20 reputation.... Good NPCs will leave at 2 or 1 reputation and neutral NPCs will leave at 1 reputation.

Elendar

Oh, with the exception that if you go down to 6 reputation as a Paladin, you lose your Paladin abilities and at 4 reputation you lose your Ranger abilities if you're a ranger.... For a neutral cleric type, reputation wont have any effect.

RedGuard

@Elendar Yes, I know. I'm asking for tips in managing my rep, not for what happens when it falls too low or goes too high.

Elendar

If it gets too low, donate to a temple.... if it gets too high, steal something in front of witnesses.

But avoid stealing from/near shopkeepers you still want to buy from :P just go into a house that has someone awake and have your thief steal from a chest right in front of them or something.

ST4TICStriker

Kill peasant, save a peasant; repeat until balance has been restored

RedGuard

Like I already said in my original post, I'm not looking to compromise my character to manage rep. I'm looking for advice on managing the rep of a neutral character without committing random pointless crimes for the sake of it.

Are there any legitimate non-criminal ways of keeping rep in check?

ajwz

Live high up in the mountains. Specialise in banking and craft cuckoo clocks.

Elendar

a thief wandering around and stealing is random and pointless? Seems pretty typical to me and worthwhile for the gold they'd get.

If you want to do it for some silly roleplay reason, then you'll just have to wait until the mod to add a bard that you can pay gold to lower your rep is compatible.

Wanderon

You could have the party thief sneak off and do the dirty work needed to drop your rep a point or two while the PC and the rest of the party are hanging someplace instead of the priest doing it himself.

Just make sure they pick out of the way spots and don't kill any guards (stealth away when caught) - I never figured out how long the gaurds stick around in an area when they get summoned I think it varies quite a bit (or it did in the original).

FrozenCells

Kill the Flaming Fist guard on the road south of Beregost. He sees you walking and baselessly accuses you of banditry and then attempts to kill you when you get a bit snarky with him for being an overzealous loon. Defend yourself and take the rep hit. You did nothing wrong (right?).

Have evil joinable NPCs do your dirty work. Just because you don't want to kill people, doesn't mean e.g. Montaron doesn't. I'm sure he'd love to stick a knife into a gut or two when you're not looking. In the BG1npc project mod, he overrides your conversation with the threatening man in the Feldepost Inn to smack him one, inducing rep loss. You can play the game similarly to this if you have imagination.

Pick up Viconia. -2 rep. Probably the more moral thing to do as well.

Asking for rewards often avoids reputation gain, if not losing any. People often ask you to risk your life for them for little to no reward. As a neutral character, you may have other motivations to help people rather than just rewards but maybe you just feel like there's an unspoken contract; you give something, you get something back in return. So insist on some kind of payment. Sometimes they offer you money and then give you less because they lied to you to get you to do it. This happens in Baldur's Gate City. Screw them, they manipulated you, turn the table on them and extort them or rob them of what you are owed. Renegading on a deal would be particularly distasteful to Priests of Helm I would surmise.

You're a badass Bhaalspawn and shit happens. Maybe you accidentally or purposefully kill someone and regret it immediately or later. Live with it. Regret is a part of life. I cast Aganazzor's Scorcher in the Helm and Cloak and it accidentally hit the Band of Merry Fools, who proceeded to attack me. Well, man's got to defend himself. A sad misunderstanding, loss of rep, life goes on. Garrick composes a ballad of the tragedy of the merry fools.

With your rep too low, you regret something you did and make a commitment to do "nice things" for a while to relieve your guilt.

Reputation never has to be an issue.

RedGuard

Elendar said:

a thief wandering around and stealing is random and pointless? Seems pretty typical to me and worthwhile for the gold they'd get.

If you want to do it for some silly roleplay reason, then you'll just have to wait until the mod to add a bard that you can pay gold to lower your rep is compatible.

You're right. Roleplaying options in a D&D game, I must be out of my mind.

Elendar

I gave you a roleplaying option... you dismissed it as a "random pointless crime", when it seems likely a thief would wander off by themselves to steal something. Reputation really is a rather lousy feature anyways..

RedGuard

Wanderon said:

You could have the party thief sneak off and do the dirty work needed to drop your rep a point or two while the PC and the rest of the party are hanging someplace instead of the priest doing it himself.

Just make sure they pick out of the way spots and don't kill any guards (stealth away when caught) - I never figured out how long the gaurds stick around in an area when they get summoned I think it varies quite a bit (or it did in the original).

Thanks for the try @Wanderon, but I'm not that precious about roleplay. I'm just wondering if there were any appropriate options for the character I chose to play the game as rather than some exploits of oversights in the game mechanics. I'm interested in more legitimate gameplay options rather than pretend roleplaying that it's my thief companion doing it or something. Though by the looks of it, I may be stuck for a legitimate option. In which case I'll just move on and change my play style accordingly.

@FrozenCells Thanks for the suggestion about Viconia and the rewards, I'll keep them in mind.

DJKajuru

@RedGuard , I've played true neutral characters a couple of times , and what keeps your reputation under control is always doing stuff for the money . Reputation boosters are usually quests that give spiritual rewards heheh.

Malta

Just RP your character as Bipolar. Or Chivalrous to women and stabby to men or vice versa or to dwarves or Amnish or etc.

wissenschaft

Play Chaotic Neutral, RP being Bipolar as Malta suggested, and switch your party members as you progress through the story.

Metal_Hurlant

RedGuard said:

Are there any legitimate non-criminal ways of keeping rep in check?

There are some quests that give you a negative rep, but most of the time your rep will be going through the roof due to the overwhelming 'good quests' in the game. So no, you can't manage your rep to keep it at a certain level eg. 10 with legitimate quests. The only way to keep it down is to resort to senseless crimes like robbing a house and getting caught.

Boston1112

RedGuard said:

Like I already said in my original post, I'm not looking to compromise my character to manage rep. I'm looking for advice on managing the rep of a neutral character without committing random pointless crimes for the sake of it.

Are there any legitimate non-criminal ways of keeping rep in check?

Well... I'd say ish. I won't call them "non-criminal," but I would call them relatively grey. For instance, when you're first heading down to Nashkel you can play dumb/mock with a Flaming Fist patrol that's overly eager to get into a fight (generally speaking, if you even get on the wrong side of the law, fighting the "Man" is a good way of staying there).

Similarly, recruiting either Dorn or Viconia can damage your reputation. You can also pick a fight with a farmer in Beregost. Sometimes, random byproducts of violence can succeed in damaging your reputation. In some of my old games a wild mage of mine's chromatic orb got away from her and ended up turning a fireball which incinerated half-a-dozen civilians on an open street; additionally, I once had an incident in BG1 where I was fighting some assassins in the underceller and accidently fried some innocent civilians with a lightening bolt.

In other words, you can be a neutral character and still roleplay. You just need to be a character that a) allows the party's less savory members to get into bad situations b) gets themselves involved in fights which occasionally endanger civilians c) refuses to take any crap from the law d) has a problem with sticky fingers or e) is prone to making poor life choices.

IronThroneOfBhaal

My true neutral char's rep was hanging around 16, I chose to kill a certain archeologist because it was honestly the reasonable thing to do, lost 9 rep from it. Seemed a bit drastic, for a crime no one will ever know I committed, but hey, at least now I'll never have to worry about my rep getting too high again.