Will partymembers leave me if I make wrong choices?

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:12 pm

Hi everybody.

I was wondering if certain party members will leave me if I make decisions that they do not like. My party consists of:

Me, neutral evil.
Korgan, chaotic evil.
Minsc, chaotic good.
Imoen, neutral good.
Edwin, lawful evil.
Viconia, neutral evil.

So as you can see my party is mostly evil. But I also have Minsc. Sometimes when for example a little boy walks up to me and asks me to help and I say no, Minsc gets angry. And if I say yes, Edwin might say that he thinks we are wasting time etc.

Will Minsc leave me if I make evil decisions, and will my evil characters leave me if I dont? I want to have a good reputation but everytime I get a new reputation point my evil characters complain. Korgan even said that his axe was beginning to get an itch and he would not be able to stop it.

In that moment it doesnt seem as if they are too hot on leaving my party but maybe it will be enough some day. Maybe they will walk up to me and say: I cant stand you anymore, good bye.

Will this happen? Do I have to be evil to keep my evil friends and do I have to ditch Imoen and Minsc?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:05 pm

Reputation is usually the deciding factor, once it gets above 18 it's likely that the evil guys will abandon you, or maybe even fight with the good guys (not sure about that as it's never happened to me). If your rep hits 20 (max) then it's just a matter of time before all the evil dudes leg it.

On the other hand if your rep falls below 4, then it'll be the goodies that leave.

There is a cheat mod that prevents desertions from happening, not sure where you'd find it though.

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:42 pm

Ok so having a high reputation just means that I have a good reputation? Not that many people know of me?

And having a low reputation just means that people know that I am evil? I thought that if I had a high reputation shop-keepers and such might say: oh your that famous adventurer hello!

But low reputation does no mean unknown?

In that case I'll get myself a low reputation, or is there anything bad with that? Because if there isn't, I can become the slayer!

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:13 pm

Reputation uses a good/bad slider, not a well-known/unknown one. With a mixed party of good and evil members, you'll have to prevent your reputation from getting below 3 or above 18.

You might also want to consider loading the G3 BG2 Tweak Pack, which includes as one of many dozen options you can safely apply (or not) to the game something called "The Happy Patch." This lets your party remain with you regardless of how low or high your rep goes.

CFM · Post by **CFM** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:35 am

fable wrote:Reputation uses a good/bad slider, not a well-known/unknown one. With a mixed party of good and evil members, you'll have to prevent your reputation from getting below 3 or above 18.

That really sums it all up, regarding the Reputation system. I always thought BG should have 2 scores, a Reputation score (with a famous/unknown/infamous slider), and a Virtue score (with a good/neutral/evil slider). This might open up some cool quest scenarios:

If your Ranger PC is framed for a murder he didn't commit, your Virtue stays the same, your Reputation plummets (but Keldorn doesn't get medieval), and quest completion entails solving the murder and clearing your name i.e. restoring your Rep. And your Ranger status is determined by your Virtue, not Rep.

Etabeeta, I've read that certain NPCs don't like each other, and if their random banters reach a certain point, then it turns into fisticuffs, regardless of Rep. According to this "NPC Interaction Guide" that I downloaded long ago (a fun read, btw), you DO in fact have a pair in your party that may come to blows via random banter interaction.

I'll refrain from spoiling anything unless you ask. It may be rather entertaining to watch them rumble.

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:01 pm

Im guessing Minsc and Edwin, since Edwin killed Minsc's beloved witch

.

But if I have a low reputation, will anything happen except that my good party members may leave me? Like will guards randomly attack me because they can smell my evil or something like that?

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:11 pm

Etabeeta wrote:Im guessing Minsc and Edwin, since Edwin killed Minsc's beloved witch .

Among others, yes.

But if I have a low reputation, will anything happen except that my good party members may leave me? Like will guards randomly attack me because they can smell my evil or something like that?

Yes, and yes.

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:25 am

Oh no so its best to keep it stable? Around 10 or so?

What do you think? Should I get a bad or good reputation?

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:56 am

You can go as high as 17, safely. If you reach that point, I would suggest finding an isolated NPC, somewhere out in a wilderness area--the Umar Hills is a likely one--and pickpocket them unsuccessfully. You want to lower your rep a bit. Eventually, another method of doing show will present itself, but I don't want to spoil that for you.

Again, consider the G3 BG2 Tweak Pack with the Happy Patch. That would resolve any issues among party NPCs, and get rid of the necessity of watching your reputation. But it's up to you.

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:26 am

Is it the Slayer you are referring to? I thought about using that too. Anyway thank you all for all the help it has been very useful. I will not ditch Minsc because I love him and his head injury but I will keep a closer look on my reputation.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:57 am

The Slayer option, yes. It's cheesy as hell to use it just to lower your reputation, but that's what some folks do. On the other hand, it doesn't exactly make much sense to cause "evil" NPCs to desert your party when your reputation climbs. If anything, you'd Viconia wouldn't care, Korgan would laugh out loud, and Edwin would snicker cynically about all the poor fools who know little of his true purposes.

Etabeeta · Post by **Etabeeta** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:11 am

Yes, speaking of Viconia, isnt she suppose to be good? She is a cleric and all but she is a drow, yet she is neutral evil?

TheAmazingOopah · Post by **TheAmazingOopah** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 2:14 pm

Etabeeta wrote:Yes, speaking of Viconia, isnt she suppose to be good? She is a cleric and all but she is a drow, yet she is neutral evil?

It seems that you have a misconception about drows, being that drows are in general a "good race" (possibly influenced by Drizzt Do'Urden, who is a heroic drow

). In this game, the drow are an elven race which consists in general of evil, sadistic, and cruel individuals. If you've read The Lord of the Rings, you could compare them loosely to the orcs in that book: though drows are more human and more civilised than orcs, they are non-human, and seem to just have the tendency for "evil" in their blood. Call it the "instinct" of an otherwise intelligent being. It's a fantasy thing. Thinking among those lines, it would only be normal for Viconia being evil, since most drow are. There are of course exceptions to this case, like the already mentioned Drizzt Do'Urden, who said up yours to his people and his natural instinct, and chose the side of buttkicking for goodness. Also in games like Icewind Dale 2, you can create a drow character with a good aligment as a PC. Apart from having a weakness for sunlight, you also get discriminated by people for being a "filthy, black drow". As far as I've heard, it's possible to change the general opinion of drows for the better if you do good deeds during the game - or so I've heard

Also in Baldur's Gate 2, you'll encounter drow discrimination. If you have Viconia in your party with a certain other NPC, the other NPC will not tolerate Viconia out of sheer prejuidices. I won't spoil you however which other NPC I'm talking about, very possible that you find that out on your own.

About the cleric thing: not all clerics are of the good alignment. It's understandable that the idea of a holy man (or woman) who acts according to his gods and believes gives the impression of a good person. However, it is of course very possible that a person can be a strong believer, and still is selfis and evil through his deeds, thinking that the god in question approves of his or her actions. Also in the world of Baldur's Gate there are gods who are categorized as being evil deities, like Cyric or Shar, the spider goddess that Viconia worships, so that by simply following the way of that god, you are as the authori-tays describe as "being evil":mischief:
So a cleric in this game is at the basics a priest of some sort of religion who follows in the way of his god and receives priest spells through it - with his alignment possibly influence by the god in question (who is in Viconia's case, evil). I hope I'm correct here, and I hope that that clears things up a little bit.

RPG Guy (sorta) · Post by **RPG Guy (sorta)** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:38 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong but I recall reading somewhere in the BG2 manual that the party receives an initiative bonus if their reputation climbs above a certain number. 14 was it???

It might be worth investigating because initiative is a pretty big deal, especially during round one of each combat encounter, especially when your party is still hovering below LVL 14.

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:21 am

[quote="CFM"]That really sums it all up, regarding the Reputation system. I always thought BG should have 2 scores, a Reputation score (with a famous/unknown/infamous slider), and a Virtue score (with a good/neutral/evil slider). This might open up some cool quest scenarios:

If your Ranger PC is framed for a murder he didn't commit, your Virtue stays the same, your Reputation plummets (but Keldorn doesn't get medieval), and quest completion entails solving the murder and clearing your name i.e. restoring your Rep. And your Ranger status is determined by your Virtue, not Rep.

You might be interested in this link to a mod that does have both reputation and virtue sliders.
Pocket Plane Group - Bending Baldur's Gate 2 and the Infinity Engine