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As some of you may have picked up on, I am starting to run through BG2 with an EVIL party now, where as my former party was primarily Good, with the exception of Jaheira, who was neutral.. Oh, and Yoshi until I got Imoen. (bleh, I wish I coulda kept Yoshi.)

Anyhow.. After playing through the first dungeon in BG2 with the evil party I'm already becoming absorbed by the "evil" role-play style and really doing it the "WRONG" way.

Now, it should be rather obvious that the entire dynamic of the game changes when you make a decision like playing an evil party. While it is just as, if not more entertaining than playing a good party there are obvious draw backs and very little incentive.

My question is directed to those of you who have played evil parties successfully..

Do you find yourself "Cheating" the evil ways and pretending to be good, because you know there is a powerful item or a little extra experience in it for you? Do you ever take lip from some punk ass NPC JUST BECAUSE you know there is a quest involved?Are you a fair weather evil person?

OR! Do you randomly slaughter innocent people once you have enough power to kill the gaurds and/or the cowled wizards? Do you say "HEY! Who needs reputation anyway? Do you find yourself pick pocketing passer-by-ers just to FAIL so one of them will go hostile and you have to magic missile their ass? Do you ever backstab innkeepers just for "practice"? How about targetting fireballs to the nearest weapons shop? Did you kill Cromwell because his prices were too high and he "expected too much of you"..? Did you feeblemind the Silver Dragon because she looked at you funny? Do you ever say to yourself, "Hey! Why the hell did they make red, blue, and green circles in the first place? They only really need red!"?


Seriously though.. If you run your party TRULY evil, do you miss out on alot of items, experience, and plotlines? Feel free to share your experiences, stories, etc.

Most of the evil NPCs in BG II arent malicious evil in the sense that they go out and cause terror for fun, they are merely a "selfish" evil, looking out for numero uno and wanting to do things only for money.

So thats how I play an "evil" NPC. Trying to sack a town isnt smart nor is it profitable. Therefore I wont try and do that. This is very much in keeping with the game. The game obviously "wants" you to be good. So the profitable quests are generally "good" quests. Being evil, if you take a more selfish instead of malicious outlook, you can still complete these quests without breaking personna. Whats more important is the "tone" you do these quests in.

For example the slaver quest, dont give the child 100 gold, what does it profit you? In Valgyars quest, instead of taking him to open the door just kill him and take his body. In the Trademeet, when the nobles tell you to raid the crypt and find which of them was first, instead of taking it to the mayor to avoid a fight go ahead and take it to a noble to get a reward.

There are many more. Even as evil I dont normally do the truly evil quests like killing the Silver Dragon or joining Bodhi, because I find it more profitable to take the other routes. Playing evil is almost a good excuse to play the game without constraints, but I rarely take it as an excuse to be absurd.

I had lotsa fun with roleplaying chaotic neutral once. That character was extremely easy pissed if he thought someone offended him, but on the other hand could not resist a good offer, or a job for someone he expects would be grateful.
I recall I brought that trademeet thingy to one of the nobles cuz they just offered a lot of money, sided with Bodhi as by the time she offered I (my PC) had not heard of the cheaper shadow thieves, but I think he would have found her more interesting anyway.
Most of the other things I did the good way, also because of the NPCs who wanted me to do so (I had Minsc and later Imoen, but also Korgan), so I didnt miss much in terms of items and XP, but the dialogue options made it a lot of fun.

Being Evil is about being smart, underhand, sneaky, treachery etc etc,

So do the goody two shoes quests and then betray or kill them, win win situation- get the goodies, have some fun and slaughter all who get in your way.

Although having a rep of 0 is just plain annoying -having to kill everyone and all.

If your going to be Evil child of Bhaal, go all out

**Kill the silver dragon**

You NEED the human flesh +5 to satisfy your hunger for murder.

Evil spoilers...







IIRC, taking the evil path in Trademeet (poisoning the font to allow the construction of the Trademeet bypass) earns you TWO shields of harmony -- assuming you ousted the genies too.

And as for Bodhi and the Shadow thieves, siding with the vamps still gets you all the usual nice stuff, plus a few bits more.

Being evil does pay off.

But jeez, the silver dragon puts up a fight...

I enjoy playing evil as well, but I think it's very hard to play neutral.
I think you'll always bend over to one side more than the other.

If i TRY to play evil, I do it the first way, this way: Do you find yourself "Cheating" the evil ways and pretending to be good, because you know there is a powerful item or a little extra experience in it for you? Do you ever take lip from some punk ass NPC JUST BECAUSE you know there is a quest involved?Are you a fair weather evil person?

LOL..

I might try to play the game purely EVIL and kill EVERYTHING I possibly can once I achieve enough power, just for the fun of doing so..